I'm doing really good tonight. I'm doing good tonight. S call the meeting to order of Trenton Board of Education, October 13, 2025. Call to order and pledge of allegiance. Pledge of 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. Roll call, please. Gerald Truhart, present. Denise Johnson, present. Jean Buouie, present.
Addie Daniels Lane, present. Austin Edwards, present. Yolanda Lopez, present. Larry Trailer, present. Jeannie Week, present. Kamaya Long present. Kevin Zuniga.
We have a quarum. New Jersey Sunshine Law. New Jersey public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right to the public to have advanced notice of and to attend. The public meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted on.
On the ruse of this act, the Trenton Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting by publicizing the date, time, and place. Therefore posted on the website, the times and the star ledger. For more action will take place at this meeting. All students will graduate with
the vision for their future, motivated to learn continually and prepared to succeed in their choice of college or career. We will now have the swearing in of our new board member. God bless you, Denelli Deleó. God bless. Amen. Come on. So everybody can hear us. All
right. Yep. Put your hand on the Bible. Right hand here. I state your name. I, Daniel, do solemnly swear or affirm do solemnly swear or affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of
the United States in the Constitution of the State of New Jersey. And the Constitution of the State of New Jersey and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same. And I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same. And to the governments established in the United States and to the government's establishment of the United States.
And under the authority of people and under the authority of people. So help me God. So help me God. I I state your name. Danelli de Leon do solemnly swear or affirm do solemnly swear affirm I possess the qualifications prescribed by law I possess the qualifications prescribed by law
for the office of board member for the office of board member and that I am not disqualified as a voter and that I'm not disqualified as a voter nor disqualified due to convict due to conviction of a crime nor disqualified due to conviction of crime and that I will faithfully and impartially and I will faithfully and partially
and justly and justly perform all the duties of that office perform all the duties of that office according to the best of my ability. according to the best of my ability. So help me God. So help me God. Congratulations. Thank you.
[Applause] Well, thank you so much. Welcome, welcome, welcome. Good to have you on the board and we're so thankful to have you. So, God bless you and look forward
to your service. Amen. We'll now have the adoption of the agenda. We have a motion to adopt the agenda. So moved. Second. Probably booten second. Roll call. Gerald Truhart. Yes. Denise Johnson. Yes. Jean Buouie. Yes. Addie Daniels Lane.
Yes. Austin Edwards. Yes. Yolanda Lopez. Yes. Larry Trailer. Yes. Jeannie Weak. Yes. Denali D. Leon. Yes. Motion passed. Superintendent's remarks.
Good evening on this rainy uh raw and cold night. Uh just want to start out by recognizing that we recently lost a staff member here. Uh I've been given permission to share the name as Glattis Valdez Cologne. Worked in registration
and uh in the bilingual office for the past three years. Uh and we just wanted to uh ask you to join us in a moment of silence um in honor of Miss the life of Miss Cologne. Uh so if you will bow your heads or sit still wherever you are in a
moment of silence. Thank you. So, we are excited to share that the face committee and um uh the Latino Institute will be partnering to present this year's parent connect conference.
So, if you have a chance to share the information, which I will this evening, it's always it's also out on um uh social media and on the website. Uh it's called shaping tomorrow, building bridges between home and the school. Uh
to prepare students for a better future. It's it's a parent workshop all about parents. Um all workshops will be available in English and Spanish to ensure that families can fully participate. Uh and we know that
invitations go a long way. So you come and invite someone to come with you. Uh so we would appreciate uh the date of the event is Saturday. This Saturday, October 18th, time from 9:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Uh registration from 8:30 to
9:30. Breakfast and lunch will be served. We will also have raffles and giveaways. uh the interact and uh the the workshops are interactive. You'll be able to listen and participate with the the uh workshop uh speakers. Uh and the topics
are unlocking potential early identification matters creating study ready students practical ways to support your child. Empower to improve self-esteem and education and career. Financial foundations for a better
tomorrow. how to reduce school violence starting at home, stronger families through better communication. There is also child care for students or children ages 3 through 12 and a special gift for registered parents. So, please pass that
along. Information is out on our website. Uh that concludes the first part of my remarks and I'd like to turn it over to our student uh board representatives this evening.
Hello, my name is Kamaya Long. I am a junior at Tren Central High School and president of TCHS student government. I am pleased to be here before you today as student representative of Trent Public Schools grades K through 12. I am excited to collaborate with board members as well as students to ensure a
happy and successful school year. I would like to start off by mentioning the amazing student council conference I attended last week. Um, it showed a lot of student collaboration and many student council members coming together and making a difference within their
communities. I believe we can start the year off strong by possibly implementing science fairs into schools to show student achievements and promote parent involvement. I would also like to congratulate Jefferson Intermediate School for becoming an Apple distinguished school. Apple
certification initiatives within school have also been suggested. Apple certification initiatives within schools have also been suggested as a way to familiarize students with technology to help them academically. I can't wait to see what more becomes of this academic year.
Oh my god. Beautiful. Hello, my name is Kevin. I'm a junior at Trenton Central High School. Um, and I'm excited to serve as a student representative um, with you all. Um, we also already had some amazing opportunity to do some professional
development with Mr. Superintendent Earl um, actually in this room. I look forward to working closely with the board members on topics like increasing school security, adding smoke detectors or other measures to prevent vaping in bathrooms and other areas of the school,
as well as having parent teacher conferences conducted virtually as we previously also mentioned to Superintendent Mr. Earl. [Applause]
Well, I'm just so thankful to have Kamaya as well as Kevin, our student representatives here um for the first time and look forward to your continued longevity um here the rest of this year as your juniors and perhaps even into
your senior year. Um, we look forward to your work with us on the board. uh as you as you begin to develop your understanding of how the ward works through our board secretary, our superintendent and board members, uh we look forward to your fruitful
discussions and innovations and ideas about how we can improve our district and also really giving us a student perspective on how the policies that we set and implementation of those policies in our district are impacting students and families in our district. So, we
look forward to to your work in the district and I will also leave it open to any other board members at this time who want to make a comment during my time. None. All right. Thank you so much. God bless you. Genie. Genie. Yes. I just want to welcome you both to the
board and I'm excited to have you here. I think you really should be part of your education because you're the one that benefits from it. So, it's nice to see you involved. You did a very good job on your presentations. I was very impressed. Welcome
Austin. Yeah, I just want to Okay, this thing is kind of echoing. All right, cool. Yeah, I just wanted to say how excited I am uh just to have uh uh some fresh young faces join us as well. Um I can't
echo how much uh it means to have uh participation from the high school right from the district as well. Um because you guys are the lifeblood um that feeds into the city itself. uh from my understanding from our uh uh teacher
leader and you know councilwoman uh she put you guys through the ringer right you know going through uh the whole process of getting petitions right and elections and x y and z uh and I think that's especially important because you see exactly uh the process of civic
participation right so it's not just you know I have a fancy title or x y and z but you know it shows your dedication and your commitment to the position and to the rest of your student body. So, uh, thank you for being here. Thank you for your dedication. Um, excited, uh,
uh, to work with you. All right, that concludes my time. Superintendent presentations. All right. Thank you. Uh, and I've had the distinct pleasure of working with both young people. They're amazing. They push us. They have, uh, you know, they push themselves. they extend their
growing edge and we're looking forward to great things from both of them. Um so a long good relationship to come. Tonight we have our um mandatory fall achievement data presentation. Uh you will hear from Miss Joanne Sun, assistant superintendent for teaching
and learning who will share the analysis of the 2425 New Jersey student learning assessments data NJSLA for English language arts, math, and science. And then you will hear from Mr. Abdell Gutierrez, director of
specialized services, who will provide an analysis of dynamic learning maps data, DLM, the alternative assessment for students with special needs in ELA, math, and science. Also, thank you, Mrs.
Sun. Good evening, everyone. Good evening. I did move the podium today to make sure that I could see the screens in my peripheral. So, I'm going to be looking at you. Third month, second month in a row so far coming up
to present to you. So, um as Mr. Earl um spoke about or introduced, we are going to be talking about our mandated reports for our spring assessment um in the form of language arts, math, and science. Okay.
No. Did it go? It went. Okay. So, it went magically. Um, so as you know, every district in the state of New Jersey have to participate in the state assessment that happens in several forms. Um, if you have semester blocks, it happens in
the fall blocks and the spring block. for the for the most comprehensive schools which is K to2 high schools um or K to2 comprehensive high schools um they are to participate in the spring um sessions. So that takes place usually between April and May of every year and
then the reports get generated over the summer. the districts look at them, analyze them, and we have within 60 days of its report um to p um to basically publicly present to you the mandated fields. Okay. So, we're going to start with
language arts. Um ELA is English language arts, um short for we use a lot of acronyms in education. So, I'll do my best to explain those to you. Um looking at the student summary performance data, you're going to see basically um a historical data from 201819 school year
all the way to 2425 school year. What you'll see is in the buckets of the red not meeting orange partially meeting yellow approaching light green meeting dark green exceeding. So needless to say, you want most of our students to go
into the trajectory towards the green, not the red. Right? I have a 20 two-month-old at home and he's learning red, red means stop, green means go. So we're going going to the green, right? So looking at the reports themselves right now, we're starting to see a
little bit of an upward trajectory. It doesn't seem like it's a lot um in terms of looking at the data itself because you see a 0%. But if you take into account of where our students were between 18/19 school year to 2122 school year, that was between the pandemic
shutdown and the waved um year and then we tested we were at um we were at minus 8% of our students decreasing the number of students from that meeting and exceeding. Right? So we've been kind of moving up and trying to work our way back into where we were. Um right now
we're not seeing any changes in terms of meeting and exceeding but we are seeing a decline of students who were not meeting. So that means that more students are moving towards the green. Okay. What you see in front of you is the student performance data. This is a
little bit prettier to look at or easier to look at because it's graphics, right? What I always like to um kind of guide audience to look at is the the red, the orange, the yellow, the light green, and the dark green. Just like we talked about, right? When you look at each
grade levels that have tested, that's grade levels 3 to 9 for the most part for language arts. Um you're looking at um the two-year trajectory or historical data, 23 24 school year to 24 25 school year. What we want to see is a little
bit of that downward if not more, right? Downward trajectory from the 23 24 to 2425 in the red. And then you want the expansion or growing um kind of like that picture or the colors of the greens, the yellows, and the dark greens. Okay, for the most part in the
language arts, we are seeing that there is a little bit of movement that's starting to take place. And I'll tell you about um what I'm looking at. So, for example, if you're looking at grade three, you see that we move from 64% of our students not meeting to 61%. What
that meant was instead of 6% and 1% at the very tippy top, you're now at 7% to 1%. That doesn't necessarily mean the students who were in the red the previous year went straight to the green, but they are moving moving upwards in terms of the orange and the
yellow, right? And we have to look at more of the in-depth analysis looking at individual student reports that's generated per school where the school is going to dive deeper into this data. Um so overall in the grade levels we're kind of staying st um still in terms of
the summary of the big district in the meeting and not meeting. However, we are de decreasing in the number of students in the yellow. We are staying similar to the yellow I'm sorry orange and then yellow and green and green. So,
what does that mean? There's there's a lot of colors. It means that even though we're not seeing a tremendous movement in the numbers themselves, our students are not decreasing. They're not getting worse. They're moving forward. And I'll show you what that mean, what I mean by
that. Okay. So, what I want to break down for you today is the cohort summary. So what that means is that students who have been with Trenton public schools for two consecutive years or more, right? So those are students who have really benefited from that
insistence of us insisting on that consistency of programming and curriculum and resources. I've highlighted in the red and the bottom for you what that looks like. So again, you have the two-year historical data, right? So what that means is that students
who've been with us are increasing by 3%. Right? Whereas students who have not been with us, those are students who are coming in and out or perhaps new registrants coming into the districts are actually declining in the meeting and exceeding. We want that green numbers to continue to go up. Right?
When you look at um the not meeting and not uh partially meeting, we want that numbers to go down. Meaning like in we want them bigger minus numbers. So when students are co to the cohort of students you look at they're going down
by 4% and comparative to their non-cohort of students they have decreased in that bucket by 12%. Okay deeper d or taking a deeper dive into the cohort performance summary. So you
see each grade level being um broken down grades three four five six six seven eight and n 8 n so you see majority of the time cohorted students are outperforming the non-cohorted students right yet at the same time I
think it's really important for us to recognize and acknowledge that all of our students are um are uh calculated into the overall summary of our district. Okay. So looking at the core of students, we've moved up in language
arts from last year to this year or the previous years to last school year by 3% 7 to 10 in the meeting and exceeding whereas non-cohered students have gone down from 9 to 5 that's 4% decrease.
Looking at the not meeting and partially meeting in a similar fashion. You'll look at the light purple that's 23 24 school year to dark purple 2425 school year. Our students are actually going down meaning more students are moving upwards towards that green um uh rather
the cohort of students excuse me and the non-quarter students are actually going up meaning going towards the red. Moving into math, very similar summary of what you see. Um very similar um historical data. What you're seeing is a
little bit of an upward trajectory for the students overall. 2% increase in the meeting and um exceeding and then we're dropping by 3% in the students who were not meeting or partially meeting. So again, positive trajectory
student performance level. This one's a little bit wonkier because you have middle schoolers taking the same assessment in in cases of algebra 1 as high school students. But overall, if you take a look at between 23 24 school year and 2425 school year, majority of
our students are improving and progressing regardless of their, you know, cohorted or non-cohorted um status. Okay. So what does that mean for the cohorted status um and non-cohorted status performance rating right um
performance results so in the math the cohorted students are in comparative to the non-cohorted students they are getting better by 2% meaning they are moving towards that green of meeting and exceeding and remember between the green and the yellow there is that orange and
the yellow piece right and we call those students the bubble students so depending on the quality and the consistency of instruction and intervention and programming, those students are either going to go down or go up. We want all of our students to go up. And in the not meeting and partially
meeting, you have um the um trajectory of going down, meaning like we are declining or decreasing the number of students who are not meeting or partially meeting in the cohorted versus the non-cohorted students are at 4% increase. So comparatively speaking they
are um cohort of students are moving um in the right direction by 5%. Okay so the meeting and exceeding data once again you have the little circle to kind of draw your attention to the overall summary but you do have the grade level breakdown in terms of our
student performance for the cohort of students. Um what that tells us is between 23 24 school year and 25 20 uh 2425 school year majority of our students are improving and progressing
not meeting and partially meeting. You should see the darker blue kind of lower right than the the lighter blue because that means that our students are coming out of the status of not meeting and partially meeting and moving upwards towards the green. So in that regard,
our cohort of students um are outperforming again the non-cohorttered students. And again, the cohort of students are students who've been with us for two or more consecutive years. So I'm going to present to you the science data and I'm I'm going to kind
of take a pause for a second because science information is a little bit different than what I've just shared with you. Although it follows the same trajectory and trends and patterns, um it is important to note that ELA and math you have at least a continuity of assessment that's taking place every
year, right? Science you have very specific grade levels, grade levels five, 8, 11 only, right? And this actually came about as a new form of assessment. Oh, about like good 10 years ago, I want to say when NGSS, the next
generation science standards came about. And I've got to be honest um and say that all across the state students are struggling. So what you see in front of you is not very much different than what we have seen in terms of science data. Our
students along with the state of New Jersey, the rest of the students in state of New Jersey are struggling in science. And we'll talk a little bit about the intervention and programming plans that we have put in place to ensure that we are moving towards the right direction.
The next set of slides is talking about mobility um comparison. What that really means is because we now have this historical data with the linkit which is the vendor or the the um the company that kind of uses our data to be able to analyze and outputs it for us to further
analyze. We now have like four or five years of data that we can use and we can compare. So what that looks like is um in the last two years specifically we are looking at majority of our students who have stayed the same or
moved up right so that's good because we have less students who are moving backwards right and if you look back at uh it was like one of the first slides that I shared you look at the 1819 to 2122
school year after the pandemic mic right our student scores dropped significantly so and and thereafter the scores were kind of going up and down and back up and down so what this is telling us is the mobility is saying hey we're
stabilized now which is tremendous tremendous that we are stabilized we're not going downwards we're moving up or we're staying in both language arts and math and you can also see the number of students who have also taken the test as
well in language arts and math. So, it looks like we've increased by 8% in language arts and 4% in math. You're always going to have a different number from language arts and math because remember math stops in eighth grade and it's algebra 1, two, and geometry
whereas language arts just goes upwards. Right? Okay. So, achievement mobility comparison that I'm about to share with you is a year-over-year mobility um kind of results that we see. So, it's
basically what you saw in the previous slide but more simplified, right? So, majority of our students are in that yellow or the green. Again, really good sign because for years now I've stood before you and had a lot of reds in our
graphs. Okay, math achievement mobility. It's a little bit more active than what you saw in language arts. You sort of saw language arts kind of even out and there was more quietness in the data, meaning they were all kind of similar. Math is a little bit different and one of the things that we're working on in teaching
and learning department along with schools and principles is really thinking about so what's happening in those kind of like pockets where we see like a huge dip of the red or huge rise of the red, right? and and there may never be an answer because we're talking
about like a holistic data, right? That is, you know, 11,000 students who've taken the assessment. But what we can look at is look at the areas that we continue to like struggle in as a a district and grade level and then look
at the curriculum to see how much we've put in place of instructional resource, the content, the support and then visit the classroom to see what it looks like in action to make sure that we're in line with the recommendations and the supports that we put into um to place.
The next set of sides are talking about the demographic data. So this is really a mandate by the state of New Jersey where we have to um disagregate the data by race, gender and programming for language arts and math and science.
There's a math proficiency, science proficiency, and those are all by race. And the next set are for gender for ELA, math and science. Okay. And next set are um of slides are really
contingent upon programs. What that means is free and reduced lunch. um uh we have I'm sorry multilingual right so ESL students or who are in that um that trajectory or um progression section 504 special education and general education
now this is a data that we do take a look at quite um in detail because it tells us about how we're doing in terms of our programming that is really meant for intervening right so when we're looking at data we already see even though our district does house a large
number of um MLS which is multilingual learners right and we can sort of posit that those students data will be probably more glaring right but we don't necessarily have that in special education per se right so we are looking
at that to say huh how are we supporting our students who are MLS and special ed for example how are we supporting students who are MLS and special ed we call them dy identified students right are there supports in place what resources are we putting in place.
And what you see in the next slide is sim um the same programmatic um deviation for math and math. You see a little bit more of like you know um a difference between the programming than you have in the language arts
and by science. Yeah. So like what what does this all mean? Right? because there's a lot of data and um really this year has been challenging to be honest because we are the state is transitioning I don't know if you've heard from Pearson um NJSLA to
now Cambium um the district team and I have been going into these mandatory meetings at the state um along with the rest of the districts across New Jersey and there's a lot of questions and there was a lot of significant delay in terms of getting the datas and making sure
that they were accurate and all the back and forths, right? So, what does this all mean? So, every year when we have this information given to us and I'm looking and working with vendors and uh and the team of supervisors, we're thinking about like what does this mean
in terms of the teaching and learning, right? Because the data tells us a story, right? But we have to fill in the details of what's going on in the classrooms, right? And one of the things that I do require and mandate for all the supervisors and myself as well is we
got to get into the classrooms. We got to go into the classrooms and look and see and feel and hear and talk and and engage in the conversations around teaching and learning and what's actually happening, right? Because oftentimes we could be having we could devise the most beautiful and perfect
plan, but if we're not really looking at how it's really being implemented and being delivered and how it's being received by our really our clients, right, our students, then we're we could be very much in this kind of like a bubble thinking that we're doing the
right thing, but we're actually not meeting the needs of our children. So we do a lot of that and like the output of that thinking and analysis is really the goals and the priorities that we submit for the board.
Right? So the job is interpreting goal number one student achievement every year and looking at where we are and looking at the rigor that the state demands understanding the reality and the conditions that our students and our teachers are facing every single day and our administrators and then looking at
like the trajectory where do we start identifying the starting point and then kind of looking at the phases of where we need to go year after year after year and that phase or the performance is evaluating ated and re-evaluated throughout the entire school year. And
it starts with the testing data. So, as you can see, the first slide that I showed you was last year's goals. I always think it's really important for everyone to see where we were and where we're going as a result of this new information. Right? So, where we were
was we really thought about how we assess our students. You've heard me say this, the project- based learning is not just a project, right? Project-based learning is about how we assess and evaluate students understanding of the content that we've given them, right? By
giving them hands-on realworld tasks. So, we really focused our energy and I I by we I mean the teaching and learning team in terms of we have to set the groundwork. We can't just say okay PBL's cool go. Right? There's trainings
involved. There's grounding involved. There's making sure that everybody has the same definition in Treton public schools because if you Google project based learning, you might have problem based learning, project based learning. There's different definitions, you know, that you can look up. So, we had to
really ground and solidify what we mean by project based learning in um Trenton public schools. The second goal is really showing that fidelity and commitment to the core and supplemental resources. Um, I don't know if you recall, but four or five years ago, I stood here and I gave that huge
presentation of like there are some inconsistencies here. We really have to like bring it back to like the basics to say here are the basics. We're going to help you, but you got to use this, right? We're still on that because every
year we look at new resources. We vet them. The curriculum committee, the teaching and learning committee usually gets the pilot um information where you can ask questions and probe and look at the plans and then we vet them in in the schools while the students are in
session and we compare the information to what we already have and we have some serious thinking to do. Is this better or is it the same? Right? And whose expense at whose expense are we going to embed this new resource? Is it because I want to be out there in the state saying, "Hey, we have a new resource,
too." Or is it because our children need it? Right? So, those are the hard conversations that we often have when we talk about the core and supplemental. It's also very important that we stay true to the idea of being consistent, right? When we talk about, for example, the reading and writing workshop, it's
not just that workshop model. It's about the routines and procedures that we instill in those classes. So students brains can be focused on the ideas of writing and empowerment of their voices, right? And understanding what the text is telling them to be able to related to
their lives. Those are really important, but they're also very complex skills. In order for us to get there, we have to work at making sure that everybody, all the students are coming into class being ready to be the readers and writers that we want them to be, right? And that's
where I believe and um I don't have the hard data on this, but I do believe that's where the cohort of student success is really starting to show. I know that because when I go into schools and I interview teachers, let's say in middle school, how are they doing this year? Oh my goodness, they're coming in.
They already know what to do. This is great. So this is kind of like a testament to our teachers and their hard work and and believing in us and making sure that you know we're able to provide them with the support and allowing us for that support. And the last but not
least is exposure of formative assessment which we know happens throughout the school day by the teacher so that they can determine the next step for intervention. So when we talk about getting better we talk a lot about intervention, right? But we don't often
talk about like what is intervention in education, right? And the way we define intervention in Trenton public schools is it's not a program. There's no one thing and I've said this before, there's no magic like, you know, wand that I can wave to say everyone become a reader by
second grade. Now go right. There's some real hard work that goes into play. And large part of that is the teacher intervening and being the bridge between the core, the standard and where the students may be wherever they are.
Right? And our job is to make sure they not only have consistent solidified resources but also to support a demo demonstration, a modeling, a debriefing, coaching, all of those set um sets of kind of supports are readily available
and provided to the teachers. Um I think at some point like we were at coaching days almost every month I think each school was getting at least four or five coaching days and every department was getting coaches right and at some point the principles were like well there are a lot of coaches here but at the same
time these coaches were going into the classroom and working alongside the teachers right that's what I require of any coaches or consultants coming into the classrooms you must be able to demonstrate and I actually asked that of my supervisors and myself do. We must be
able to model what we're asking teachers to do, right? Um so this year we're prioritizing the same buckets, but now we're really thinking about in like you know um uh delivering the project-based learning as form of an assessment. So
every curriculum has at least one PBLO. This is lovely because we're also working on gifted and talented program and enrichment opportunities and theformational literacy specialists in each building that is readily kind of positioned there with their beautiful maker spaces. Now we can take advantage
of these multi multi-disciplinary opportunities through PBLO. We're still sticking with the core and supplemental because we believe that it is what is going to drive like the what of teaching. And then the third piece is really now since we've gotten the
foundational and we've gotten the grounded work and the researchbased PDS or professional development, we have to start intervening. We have to meet with students in small groups and we have to be able to give them what they need individualized instruction.
So what does that mean in terms of the testing and the teaching and learning and trajectory? So what I've just shared with you is what we've done so far. I listed 2425 school year but really we've been doing this for the past five years which is setting like that um I just
learned like cornerstone is very important um rock like a stone because without it it you know the entire building crumbles. It seems very simple but I I just it clicked in my mind like a month ago. I was like, "Oh, right." Like, but really thinking about like
what are those like the cornerstones that we're putting and making sure that they stay no matter how much we may, you know, kind of like, you know, budget it, kick at it, do what we need to, it doesn't move, right? And that's really
being insistent like us being insistent on the curriculum, the teaching, the resources, the feedback, and the delivery. Right? So those are all very important components. And I kind of bucketed all of that under
the rigor, the relevance, the accountability. Right? We're going to we've been really committed to providing the high quality real-time professional development. Right? Um, what that means is it's not a oneanddone situation. We're trying to make sure that if we had
this message, we're going back and going back and going back and going back, right? If it's not us at the podium talking, we're out on the ground working with the teachers and showing them. If we're not doing that, we're behind the scenes in the office working with principles and showing them and going
into classrooms. So, those are very important components that I believe will continue to be a priority for teaching and learning as we move forward. And really the idea of committing to instructional structure. So what does that mean when we have adult to children, children to children and
children back to adult conversation? What does that engagement look like in every single grade levels with different content and the resources? Where are we going? We're going to continue all of that. Plus, we're going to continue to commit to um giving students voices. The
way we're doing that is through what we call unifi series this year. starting we're partnering with Franklin CVY group and K to6 and K to8 um really 7 to 8 I'm sorry 7 to 10 with AVID um in terms of like setting goals and helping students
set individual goals and helping teachers facilitate those conversations through culturally relevant classroom practices or teaching practices. We're really promoting the small group instruction however that might look. I have my science supervisors who often say, "Well, Joanne, science classes, a
small group instruction may not just work because it's like labs and things like that." I get it. So, what does that look like in terms of individualizing student lessons, right? And student interactions. Um, we're also looking at special education support, making sure that we are defining what co-eing model
looks like in general education inclusion settings, but also in self-contained and resource room settings and helping students again get their voices right, have voices and um be empowered through their ideas uh by giving them voices. Um we're also
working with technology innovation department and Apple education to make sure that we provide not only the interventions that we've been talking about but students who are so fully able and are ready to be enriched right they also need to be pushed as well and I
call that intervention as well right intervention chart goes in both ways we've only seen the triangle right there is a chart that goes two triangles on the side because it really is the two ends of the spectrum right and the Other piece is really innovating um using the
innovative resources that we put in place and maker spaces and um uh innovation labs. And last but not least um really sustaining and creating, streamlining, insisting, committing to the structure of instruction and
structure of communication with one another. In a district this large, it's really easy to kind of like drive by and not think about the things that like I should have told you. So the idea is like how are we making sure the important priorities stay uh important and in teaching and learning alongside
the um administrators in the cabinet and other across the district we participate in the four discipline of execution which talks about really the wildly important goal. What is my wildly important goal in the midst of all the whirlwinds that I can't take my eyes off of, right? Because they're coming. But
what is that one thing that is going to need my special attention that I need to make sure that I'm true to to ensure that there is um progress and results to the work that we've done. So that's kind of what I have for you. Um do you want
to continue with DM and take questions or I think this is it. Hang on. Yes, that's it for me. Yeah, I because I sure enough will forget and I chicken scratched some of my notes kind of kind of crazy. So, thank you for the uh I think we've been
talking since the superintendent arrived um about growth, right? And so, it's good to see to see such such significant growth when you think about where we were. So, I don't know if
that's me. Is that me? I I'm gonna turn this off because it seems like it goes away. Okay, great. Okay, when you turn. All right. And so, can you go back to slide number six for me? Yes, ma'am.
That's okay. Yeah. Oh, don't look. Oh, yeah. All right, let's go. I think it was six, right? No, that that one. Yeah, that one. Oh, ours didn't change. Oh, did Yes, it did. Okay.
This is five. Yeah, we one more. Yes, this is the one. Okay. So, so um and I guess I guess so when you think about the challenges that we face, I'm looking here at a cohort, which I think you
mentioned is students that have been with us for two consecutive years or more. Is that right? Yes. And so, um, the non-co non-cohort student and this, um, this slide, it
looks like that number is gone down. What's driven it so far down because it's almost like 50%. Right? It's close. So in the case of this right remember we're looking at the median meeting and
ex exceeding um levels in terms of NJSLA. Um what we're seeing is that our students who've been with us for two or more years are going up. So meaning more students are meeting and exceeding versus students who have not that are actually dropping let's say by 50%.
Right? One of the things that we've identified is um the need for spiral curriculum. I don't know if you've ever heard of that. Uh spiral if you rem if if you see a spiral binder for example, right? It kind of coils around, right?
So I don't know about 20 years ago that was like a thing in education. Everybody had to buy resources that had spiral curriculum, right? And somewhere along the way that kind of dissipated and what we realized is that we needed to have a
way to capture the students who come into our district at various point with various needs. Right? So for the last two years the department of teaching and learning have been creating our own spiral curriculum to capture the students. What you may see is still the
result of our students coming in mid year. Think about it. You are in now grade six. some of your classmates have been doing this curriculum since kindergarten up and now you're coming in from maybe New York or maybe Ohio somewhere else and you're having to
catch up. So, how are our teachers or how are we equipping our teachers to be able to embrace that child into the classroom to say, "Okay, we're still going to go on to this trajectory, but I'm going to spiral you into where we are, right? Like meet you where you
are." And that's where the small group instruction really really plays an important part because you can't possibly look at 29 26 25 students in front of you and know that you have two kids who are not with you and continue on and hope that that child or children
are going to catch up. Right? So that's one thing that we really instilled especially in language arts and now math curriculum making sure that the spiral curriculum is there. The next step to this is to train our teachers and really kind of promoting and encouraging them
in that small group instruction capacity. Okay. So, there's a part two to that one and I can't help it. Um, and so, so thank you for that answer. When you think about because now you're talking
about differentiated learning, you always keep going back to that, right? So what is the trigger or the signal um that alerts teachers that that those two children aren't with us beside behavioral stuff, right? So does link it
help with that and how were we using that to uncover those two children because it matters, right? Okay. Yes, it's it's it's really important. So differentiated instruction is like I don't know it's been around forever and
and I even ask in some PDS like how many of us are tired of hearing about differentiated instruction and everyone's like me right and myself included but it really is the key right so how do we do that linkit is really positioned as an assessment tool as a
benchmark assessment which means it happens at least twice a year most districts and us included we choose to run it three times a year that's fall winter and spring and that's a mandate by the state of New Jersey department of education right in between that we need
to have formative assessment strategies to be able to decipher okay so this child was at let's say level B but I see them like growing tremendously I don't know growth spurts happen and things are starting to click and came January like
he's he's moving we have um we have different assessments that are in place that are almost like what we call quick and dirty So, um, running record is one of them that we're training and retraining our teachers to use, which means instead of going through the whole cumbersome DRA, which usually takes like
at least 20 30 minutes of testing each child, right? It's about like giving a passage and looking at how well are they um decoding, what's their fluency look like, can they understand what they read out loud and also um by themselves and be able to kind of move. And we call
oftentimes some educators will refer small grouping with flexible grouping as well because it is a student may start in one group but move up to another group because of their growth. But that really is contingent upon um formative assessment and we also have that
equivalent partner kind of like sim similar things in math curriculum. We call them checkpoints. I might be getting the rivage wrong but it's it's it's got a big red check mark on the Yeah. So I I'll address it kind of quickly. So
intervention can happen in multiple ways, right? There's no right way. There's no like you know there's no like one way to intervene with a child's needs, right? So when we talk about for example at the secondary level, we as you know have adopted a new curriculum
in language arts. It's called Hudin Mifflin in lit right what we realized is the inlit did not capture enough strategies for our multilingual support but we knew that at the secondary level we had a lot of students who are coming in not so much this year but in the past
years or um in the SLE status and if you recall slife is standing for um students with limited or significant interruption to formal education. So students who've gone to school until second grade and now they're here as a ninth grader. Right? So what we did was we decided to
adopt intervention strategies by adopting a complement of inolid of four MLS. It's called three English 3D and with the English 3D there are foundational language specific workbook that kind of builds the students up. So
if they are in Slife, they would get get the language support building up to let's say the complement 3D. If they're in um ESL 3es or twos, four is the exiting um status. They're building up to into lit, right? So those are two
different buckets of intervention, but you're using the same set of resources, right? in the elementary and middle school it looks quite different because you're you're seeing students who come in and out and you know even as fourth grade fifth grade we're seeing students
who may be pre-ereaders we call them pre-ereaders who are not yet reading independently yet. So what do you do when you have 20 students who are kind of on the similar path but you got two or three students and that's where we really encourage and support the teachers to meet with them in small
groups and then there are other formative assessments that we put in place like I for one go into those classes observe I've assessed students myself and just kind of give my second opinion on things to say like do we need to like pursue INDRS for example do we need other professional support to just
have an observation to if we're doing the best we can. So intervention can take in different modes with different resources. That's why I always say it's not like a one thing that can solve the problem. Um, brother Jean actually asked a few of
the questions that I had written down. Um but I did just to piggyback on the um the uh interventions that you use in the district. Um besides the small group
small work group like the the learning that you um what are what other interventions do you employ? And and I know that you you just mentioned assessments as well, like the ongoing assessments, but so is is there
a way to like even track whether or not these interventions are working? I'm not sure if you do that if Okay. Yes. And and that's the work that's before us. Really, honestly, like four or five years, we've been thinking, we've been really grounding like use
this resource and only this resource. We're going to train you. We're going to give you all the resources. And we've been really focusing on the environment of instruction. So like when reading and writing, it's about environment that's conducive to reading and writing, right? And we have moved into formative
assessment. These are how this these are the strategies that you use to formatively assess whether students need intervention and what capacity. And then we also have resources. So one of the more typical resources that we guide teachers to use is LLI. It's the um level literacy intervention kits that is
complemental FMP font uh fontis and panel leveling which is the reading assessment that we used LLI is not new to the district in fact when I walked in the hallways my first week here I found them in the schools so we're just repurposing that right um we have
different components of schoolwide which is our main curriculum readers workshop and we have small groupoup instruction and um strategy grouping we also have been bringing in decodable books to help students decode. And that's an intense kind of back and forth of decoding um
decoding words and phonics and making sure phmic awareness is there. We have embedded foundations. Again, that is not new to the district. It's been here. It was here before I got here. We're just reinstituting it, making sure that we're putting more support in there. And
that's in K to2. But honestly, we're at a point where we're like re-evaluating whether we need to bring in additional or we need to consolidate or if it's working or it's not. So that's part of the work. If you recall the the 24 25 year goals and 25 26 year goals. The
difference between the third bucket of last year was introduce the idea of formative assessment and small groupoup instruction. this year is making sure that small groupoup instruction takes place through formative assessment. So,
we're kind of in our taking our baby steps and supporting teachers and kind of listening where we may need to pick it up a little bit more and that's where we are. Um um I have a question. You know, you have a
limited day from 8 am to 2:30 and it sounds like we are cramming stuff in and testing the hell out of our kids. Are those kids given time to absorb the information and let it sink in? They're
not going to be able to continue on if they're not understanding what they're taught. And every child moves at a different pace, you know, and I understand they want balanced classrooms, but it's really disingenuous to have those kids that
need that extra time to absorb what they're being taught. And it just seems like we keep piling stuff on them and piling stuff on them, including the teachers. What have you taken away from the teachers to free up their time in order to really get the kids to absorb
the material that you're trying to get them to learn? Okay. So, I'm glad that you brought that up. So, I will say to you that the state of New Jersey overall, we are we voice the same concern as administrative groups. So, what I'm telling you about
the assessments, they're not because Joan Song wants it or Mr. O wants it. This is a mandate from the state of New Jersey. We were all hit with the mandate and the memo back in July of literacy bill that impacted K3 students. Now, kindergarten for the first time ever, we're mandated to report on their DRRA
score or universal screener. We've actually gone out of our way to say kindergarten babies do not get tested until December. And you can see that in our internal testing calendar that we published in the previous years. But I mean the state is scoring us in terms of
when we are submitting our data and I think our data is due in October at the end of October. So we have the obligation to push right so that's one thing that we're hit with. The other piece to this is we're also mandated if you recall me talking about at least twice a year we need a benchmark
assessment that is state approved or endorsed right or not endorsed but they they recommend. So that's our link. So we have the universal screener that's DRRA. We have the KA that was mandated last year for kindergarteners before the end of the first month and now we have
link that we need to administer before November. So I agree with you. You don't have time to teach. I agree with you. I don't know if it's to the point that we get other districts on board and go back again push back against the state and say what what good is this doing our
kids this amount of testing? Yeah, I don't think we disagree and I'm in superintendent circles. So, this has been a conversation since I walked in the door and I think it's been a conversation. I'm on state committees. We have always advocated for less of
this and each year there's a new addition or a tweak to it. Now, those this is about choices. We can not test and we bring no data and then we have nothing to share. They're telling us that's not optional. So, I agree with
you if you want to join me because I'm on that fight already to reduce testing. I'm I'm we're all we believe it's way too much. Right. Right. But and and we do that with interventions. We do it we have one kid and we try to cut him 15 weights
and it's almost impossible to get good heavy uh one component of something in because we're having to pivot to the next thing. So, that's not always on us. We have to answer what we're being told. Answer and then pull back where we can. We We would.
And I get that. And you know, every kid learns a different way. And you know, there's certain teachers that are their style of teaching is good for certain kids. We can't, you know, they're not cookie cutters. And we can't make them all teach the same way every day because
you're not reaching everybody that way. You got to get creative. I I think we need to go back against state with this. I'm happy to go other boards to get other school boards. Yeah. Who's next? Um Larry. Larry Trell.
Thank you for the presentation. I had a question around I know you was talking about all across the state schools are dealing with issues around science test scores and I know that our science test scores are some of the ones where we see the biggest struggles of our students. I wanted to hear some of the intervention
strategies that we're trying to do around science because that's going to be very crucial. Yeah. So, so science is an interesting subject and I start with that not because I'm trying to talk forever, but like really science is an interesting subject along
with social studies, especially when you're looking at K to6 education, right? Because they don't get compartmentalized and they don't get um specified in terms of content specific until they get into like fifth, sixth grade and traditional schools, right? Or sixth grade. So having said that that
means that science and social studies but in this case science because it is a tested subject now it's solely contingent upon the whole day schedule right and oftentimes what we see is sometimes you run out of time like to
Miss Weekian's um um point like we run out of time being taught like I taught language arts, math, science, social studies, everything in one classrooms and and I remember getting a master's schedule and going I only have like 40 minutes to teach this. How am I going to do this and keep up with pacing? Right?
That's a real struggle. So, sometimes it bleeds into the science time and I'm trying to make up for it, right? And that's one of the priorities that we've set with the STEM supervisor uh Miss Alex Lori who is present today in the K to3 and also Mr. David Phillips who who
is here with four to six intermediate school is really trying to promote and um encourage our teachers to teach science from beginning to the end. Right? Because even though students are testing at 5,8 and grade 11, right?
Think about it. Grade five students their scores are dependent on the work that was had kindergarten first, second, third, fourth. And then if every grade was sort of like we ran out of time because we're not tested here. Now we're
sitting with fifth grade students who may not have gotten the full gamut of what they should have. Right? Not to mention that NGSS next generation science standard is a bear. It's a lot. As an educator of an elementary education myself, I will say that I felt
the weakest and most insecure was science education. Right? So what interventions do we have in place? Science education in K to6 by design is based on what we call phenomenon-driven instruction which means we encourage we have topics in mind but we encourage our
students to get curious which is consistent to early childhood preschool education because research said research says if students are curious about and and Miss Art Lari uses this all the time you'll be proud of me. Um, so I went outside today and all of a sudden there
there there's ice on the rooftop. Like what is that? Right? That gets me more interested. But educators have to be ready to take that to to investigate, to ask questions, to to intervene, right? And that's kind of like the work that we're in the midst of right now. Amplify
Science came about two three years ago and we're still at the point of that second bucket of like use the core, make sure we're consistently using and we're getting professional developments in interventions will come. It may already be happening in pockets or in the classrooms every day because students
have great ideas that they bring to the table and the lessons kind of shape themselves around that. But it is something that all across the state, I know in my circle of uh assistant superintendents of teaching and learning or curriculum instruction, directors of we're all like, well, we going to do a
science like how do we how do we do this? Like what they're testing for is not what we're teaching and what the product offers is not what we're what we're being tested on. So it's it's one of those like song and dance that we have to kind of figure out the right rhythm and put it in. But we do believe
in the amplify science program that we've embedded that allows for facilitation. What we lack is the time to be able to kind of really sink our teeth into because we are always focused on language arts for example and math. Right? So
I don't know if I answered your question but that's the best I can do for that over science. Yeah. Thank you. I don't have a question. I I guess the majority of the questions Jean asked for
us, which is a good thing. But I do want to appreciate the way that you, your assistants, and the teachers have gotten together as a team. And although we're I'm still disappointed that we're not where I would love to see us be with our
students, I am very grateful that there has been some growth. It may be small, but we'll take it. And I appreciate also the fact that some of our teachers are seeing the difference
of the students that are coming into their grades. So, thank you for that. And also, I'm really glad that you did the cohort group with the regular group because many people do not understand and it helps at least board members,
stakeholders, and parents understand that while the state may present certain um statistics about our students, they're not they're not emphasizing they're not including the fact that we have a lot new students come in that
kind of bring down a little bit the growth that our students really are having. So, thank you for that. And and I and I have to say that we we work and we will continue running for
our teachers and our students. It's hard work. It's it's really hard work. I see Gregory School here. They work really, really hard every single day to raise our students up, not just academically, but socially, emotionally, confidence-wise, so that our students
come back each day with a big smile on their face. And that's that's huge for us. And I think that that should be noted. And the other piece to this as a teach at the teaching and learning department, we're really trying to find ways that are outside the box to provide
more time for teachers to prepare. One example is small groupoup instructional support. All throughout the summer and into the school year, we are running workshops where teachers can just come listen to music, get their centers ready, and they get they walk away with
activities that they can run the next day. So like within the limitations that we're bound by that um that were mandated unfortunately we're trying our best to be as innovative and creative as much as possible because we too were all
teachers and we know what it's like and and and the stakes are even higher than when I was a teacher 13 years ago. So, you know, I I won't ever pretend to know the actual experience and the hardship that every teacher faces, but our
teachers are making a difference, and we thank them for coming along the journey with us. Seeing no additional questions, superintendent, next presentation, right? Oh, yes, Mr. Gutierrez. Thank you, Miss Sun.
Thank you, Missing. Good evening. Good evening. So I'm here to talk about an alternative assessment for our special education students uh called dynamic learning maps and also to present the scores for the
2425 school year. So the office of special education um around dynamic learning maps is an alternative assessment that the teachers also get additional training in. And because this this testing is very individualized for our students in our
self-contained classrooms. It's based off dynamic learning maps assessments and in the state of New Jersey is part of the consortium about using essential elements of the New Jersey learning standards. So we're when we talking about differentiation, we're
differentiating to the nth degree in regards to addressing the students with the most cognitive impairments in our district. If I break it down with all these acronyms that we live with and day in day out, uh, dynamic learning maps is a
national consortium of alternative assessments for our most significant disabilities students in our district. It's based off New Jersey learning standards. However, those New Jersey learning standards are modified which they are called essential
elements. And these are the skills that are really truly assessed at the essential level of the core curriculum that we use in the in the in the state of New Jersey. Uh the purpose of dynamic learning maps is just basically assessing the students where they are. It's an it's a true
alternative assessment. You'll we're going to get a taste of it this year with with the rest of our population where it's now going to be adaptive and it's dynamic learning maps is exactly that. It's adapted to the students level and we're going to talk about more about that as we go through the slides. It's
again it covers English language arts, math, and science. It connects directly to our New Jersey learning standards and it's flexible and adaptable for our students in our self-contained classrooms. You're going to hear this a lot. U we
probably started talking about it a couple years ago about this 1% waiver. I'm going to talk about the 1% in a minute. Uh, but in the federal eyes, this is even goes back a couple administrations. We're talking about dynamic learning maps being really truly identified to the students that are are
the most significantly delayed students. The ones that we used to call the life skills track that might have some more assisted living after graduation, post school. uh this assessment uh is going to be more and more discussed because the state of New Jersey is actually on the correction act action plan from the
federal oversight that we have to look at why are we over 1% and these are our students truly eligible for the dynamic learning mats the alternative assessment and I like to put out always like to start off with the shall not be determined because there was a misconceived notion that you know if a
student can't sit too long for a test we have all these accommodations for statewide assessments and these are the reasons not to make it that student eligible for alternative assessments like DLM. So whether they're performing
poor in a state assessment u the impact of the the attendance, their multilingual uh status, all these are not factors that go into the determination whether a student is eligible for dynamic learning maps.
And we also in the same conversation, we just can't group students all together, right? So when we're talking about students in the autism programs, we expanded our programs tremendously over the last three to four years where our self-contained classrooms, we probably went up at least 20 classrooms over the
last three years in autism and our self-contained. And now we even have hubs at the middle school to really truly address the pockets and pool of students that are coming up and staying longer in our district because of our special education programs.
I'm going to pay particular note on this criteria uh in regards to dynamic learning maps when it comes to our special education students. First, they have to have an IEP in order to receive the services. So, that's the first uh step in regards being eligible. Uh the
second step is really being defined by this and this year there was a a bulletin uh not only from the uh federal government but also for the state of New Jersey that talked about now the first column they're starting to be very specific to classifications that are no
longer eligible for this dynamic learning maps because they're really trying to stray away from the alternative assessments. really trying to keep this with a pool of kids that are really cognitively delayed the one when the ones that are more severe and like something like speech language
disabilities SLD where it used to be eligible and is no longer eligible. What I wanted to point out that's in the gold and the green the gold in the next 12 to 18 months may be in the red column and what's in the green column is the conversation that needs to take place.
So though a student may be autistic, classified autistic in an autism classroom, they may be nonverbal, but non-verbal doesn't mean that they're not proficient in math. So then they're not eligible for DM. So there's different criterias that are discussed and this is
a flowchart that we use in the district in regards to determine eligibility because every year since I've been here we had to kind of advocate for the students that truly need it but we also needed to address why we keep in the two to 3% threshold which the threshold is
supposed to be at 1% per federal man mandates. Again this is part of the flowchart. So, a student in in an autism classroom or a multiple disabilities program, they may be verbal, they they might have some delays, but if they're good at math,
they're not eligible for dynamic learning maps. So this is just a flowchart just an example of the the level of dis discuss discussions that is happening with the teachers the child study teams our parents and our advocates at these meetings to see whether or not our students are eligible
for dynamic learning maps this alternate assessment for special education students. Again here's another example of the flowchart. So usually there's there's four parts to it. We go methodically through the four parts. If yes, you keep going. If no, then you stop and you stop. you don't go past go in regards to
our students being eligible for special education alternative assessment. Again, here's the the other questions so you can see it at your leisure. Uh the reason why I went through those slides to begin with, it was in regards to the justification because we're
getting ready to probably fill out another waiver. Uh so what we do is we take the numerator the number of special education students that are eligible eligible for dynamic learning maps divide that over the number of students that are being tested in the fall and the spring and then that comes up with
our percentage. And I was currently going over this because I'm getting ready to do this final calculation to see whether or not we have to apply for another waiver because anything over 1% is a waiver that we have to fill it out. Where is our sweet spot? We're almost there. We don't know yet. maybe around
2%, maybe one and a half. Our autism population, for example, uh for a district this size in the state of New Jersey, they're saying that, you know, students with diagnoses or classifications of autism is about 1%. We're way over that. We're over two and a half% with autism. So, just to think
about in regards to numbers, these are kids are coming in with diagnoses. These are students classified autistic and already we're already exceeding the thresholds that are like federal or statemandated. Same thing with dynamic learning maps. They're saying 1% and we have to do that calculation every year
to apply for a waiver so our students could participate in this alternate assessment. Overall results just to give you some examples and Joanne and the team talked about how you know we talked about New Jersey learning standards and all the things that are being assessed.
Essential elements just takes a steps back. they take one step back and look at well in grade three math we're looking for our students to achieve 40 40 skills and eight essential elements. So it's really we're differentiating and
we're looking at the New Jersey learning standards and using the essential elements to test our students and meet them where they are. Just to give you an example, I like to use informationational text in a grade three level. Uh, everybody could look at this and say, "Hey, at a third grade, at
a fifth grade, at eighth grade, how does a student discern and look at text forformational purposes and how do they dissect it in order for it to participate in a group project to do a multimedia presentation and to get the basic elements of what they're reading
and how do you translate that into a third grade, fifth grade, eighth grade, or 11th grade assessment?" In a nutshell, this is what it is. On the right hand side is the New Jersey learning standard. On the left hand side is the essential element, the DLM.
And down below, it's the spectrum. It's the the target is where it's proficient and advanced. Every the first three are where the students may range in where you're making progress. Example offormational text is also
accessible through dynamic learning maps. Uh the teachers have access to essential elements and other materials and our schoolwide u series. There's also have adaptive text a variable text also uh level readers and then there's
additional readers for the students that are eligible for dynamic learning maps on this website where they talk about you know what is the students reading for and what's the type of information that they're trying to discern from reading in language arts.
I also wanted to alert you with math. Math gets harder and harder. Geometry at the middle school level it's real. And I just wanted to put this as an example up there because if you look at it, it's like, wow, this is what they have to do. Yes, this is what our students have to do at the middle school level. And our
special ed students, our special education students, even the ones that are eligible for dynamic learning maps have to do this as well, but at a modified level. Again, here's the middle school geometry on the right
as the standard is written for New Jersey and the essential element for our students to be weighed on in regards to if they recognize the angles. Again, our goal is to hit the target and to make sure that our students are
being rated as such because we really want to look at this not as just test results that we present to the board, but as well as opportunities for us to differentiate instruction in our self-contained classrooms. Wanted to give you a third grade math example when it comes to m
multiplication and then what does it look like for a DM student. So a student that's eligible for DLM. So they're doing multiplication with more visuals and different opportunities to get with the same result. So sure,
let's read that. Maya has eight boxes of crayons. Each box contains six crayons. She gives 10 crayons to her friend. How many crayons Maya have left? Right. That is a
third grade. Huh? You you want me to score? You want me to score? Yes. So, it's a combination of math. Mhm. It's a combination of math. Math is multiplication. Yep. Exactly. And subtraction. And subtraction. So, they have to discern this in third
grade in regards to doing the multiplication. How many steps to get to the answer? Where in dynamic learning maps, they have the same opportunity but a couple of different ways. So, now they're doing subtracting. They're doing addition. So that's how they're differentiating
and they have visuals to on top of that and it's drag and drop. So students could count that as groups of twos, two 46. They could look at it counting as you know 2 * three or they could just count one two three four five six in order to get to the same answer or to
get to the correct answer I should say. So that's why I threw in the math one instead of the geometry one because I knew that one. geometry. You You're welcome. Uh we give a different examples as well. If you go through the presentation in regards to what does language arts look
like in grade three for DLM, they're looking at opportunities for the students to identify the source, what is the subject, and what is the takeaway from that. So what are we looking for in regards to our DM results for the 2425 school year
is really is when we show the next information is to share it with the teachers or talk about it during our IEP meetings uh during our PLC's or professional learning communities with our teachers we have opportunities to talk have a classroom level discussion in regards to the interventions you guys
were all discussing before talking about how does this go go back to the IEP because everything's is individualized and is also documented on an annual basis. And then what is our district level responses because we have to review the results as part of our board
actions or reporting. But it's also talking about mandates like the 1% reporting and whether or not we need a uh how we're going to address that corrective action plan for that the state's on as well. So let's go deep do a little dive into
our data. Again, data is represented a couple different ways. We did it in regards to the line going across. I don't want to turn it off accidentally. All right. So, if you look at in the middle of the screen, you see where the
proficiency level is. Um, we're looking at that solid black line and anything above is advanced or at target. Anything below is approaching or emerging. in respect to our 23 24 and our 24-25
school year. If you compare the columns for English language arts in the in the first set of graphs in the middle is mathematics and the third one is science. All the way to the right we're looking at a plus two gain uh 39% to 41%
in overall in English language arts. We're looking at a minus3 from 38% to 35% in mathematics and then we're looking at a plus 7% overall in science from 32 to 39%
as a district. When you disagregate the data by grade level, it paints a different picture because now we're targeting what our how our students are doing as a cohort as they they progress up. when you're looking at
the first two bars is a plus one for grade three because these is grade three through 8 and grade 11. You're looking at grade three four had a plus. Now I got to put on my glasses.
They went from 9% to 25% which is a 16% gain. Grade five, a 9% gain going from one year to the next, going from 38 to 47% in regards to students at the at the at
target or advance. Grade 6 a minus 11. Grade 7 + 4.
Grade 8 minus 4. Similar in math, you're looking at students going from 43 to 38% in grade three with a minus five, a plus three gain in grade four, plus three in grade five.
Something that we definitely need to look at is a minus 24 points, 94 to I mean 44 versus 20%. This is this year's seventh graders that we're going to take a look at and do a deeper dive in regards to why such a dive in math at
that grade level which was last year's sixth graders but this year seventh graders where we had then the opposite. We had a plus 7% gain in our seventh graders and plus one in our eighth grade band. When in regards to science, science is
only tested fifth eighth grade and 11th. We had no students eligible for 11th grade. But for in regards to fifth and fifth grade and eighth grade, which is elementary and middle school, we had a plus 12 going from the 24 25 which 24%
to 36% plus 12% gain. And then we had the opposite in regards to our eighth grade testing grade span with a minus 13. So things to look at, things to explore, but overall this is an opportunity for our students to
participate in statewide assessments. I know we test like we we were just talking about testing and special ed is no different in regards to the amount of assessments that are taking place. Uh but we also there is no I always argue at the state level and in regards to there is no mathematical formula for
staying stagnant. We stopped the bleeding so we could start gaining some points. But what is the mathematical formula if if I just maintain my levels, right? There's no extra points for that. But in regards to our eyes, there is growth. That's
growth. Not re not not regressing is growth. And hence with with the programs that you always approve every year in regards to extended school year, even though there was a mandated program, these are programs that we make sure that we take advantage of, make sure that our families are take advantage of it because these are opportunities for
us to have less of a summer slide so they could go in stronger into September so we can make sure that we could start off on the right foot in regards to where they are. So annually when we're looking at their IEPs and adjusting their goals and objectives for the next year is exactly looking at where we are
with the student. so we know where we could go the following year. And I hope with all of that I want to say thank you but open for questions and comments. Sure. Yeah. Absolutely.
Oh yes. Right. because now we're talking about cohort. So our students in special education, I have to do a a deeper analysis, but when you saw in the previous slides in regards to that, it's about the same. What's great for us is that now you're seeing in our state report cards over the last five years,
you've been seeing an incremental gain that our students and families are staying longer in special education. So our students in special education are participating at three or more years of data that we're looking at as part of a cohort of students. Yes. Yeah. Because
now only the students are being found eligible for special education, that's on the gened side, they also been with us for two years. And then once it be once they become eligible for special education, now we're at like 88 89% uh hovering right be under that 90 where
we're the the majority of our students 80 87% or 80 80% of our students are three or more years in special education are within our school district. So these are the same pool students and now they're staying longer because now they see from preK through 12th grade now
they see the trajectory of programs and services that we're offering in the district over the last 5 years. Yes. So I have I have two questions and the first one is just because I've been preaching about this for so long so I'm going to preach some more.
this 1% that seems so arbitrary and and I'm and the reason I'm gonna say that they try to mandate that 1% is autism has been on the rise. Yeah. How could you have been at 1% before and
now autism is so so I just need to do my soapbox thing. Now the next thing is um I was looking at the science numbers and when you go back is that the one yeah that's the one science. Mhm.
Yeah. Do you think look at that diverse columns right? Do you think that's because of the projects that these babies are doing in the summer? Because every summer it's leaves and you know all of that kind of stuff. What's driving that behavior? Is there any
information to what's driving that? Because that's like and what what's nice about in special education, especially during opportunities like ESY and throughout the school year, our teachers go way out of the way in regards to having that thematic approach because there is so
much to cover and then the students are eligible for essential elements. You're really looking at what is essentially the core to the New Jersey learning standards and how do you take a thematic approach so you could cover math and science at the same time while you're doing a language arts activity. And this
is what our special ed teachers do day in and day out in regards to modifying and adapting what's being presented to them so they can make the connections. Yeah, I would like to take credit for that. I love the teachers to take credit for that. But in regards to looking at the subgroups in regards to the fifth
grades versus the eighth grade, they're different students and they're testing over, you know, they they're testing in fifth grade, eighth grade, and the next time they're tested is 11th grade. Yeah. So, it's going to be different group pools of students. Yeah. Right.
Yes. I I have a question. Thank you. Oh. Oh, sorry. Go ahead. Okay. I appreciate these results, but my thing is again, it's about the kids. And comparing last year's fifth graders
to this year's fifth graders doesn't really tell you anything. What I would be more interested in seeing is how last year's fourth graders did to la this year's fifth graders because you're testing the same students and it's the individualized student growth that's
that's really important. Not great. Great. You got different classes with, you know, year-to-year classes can be completely different. So, you know, to see how they do for themselves gradually, it'd be better to see this
way. But, you know, it's impressive with some of the uh growth that's been shown here, especially with the special ed. And my other thing is um with the autistic population, how much ABA therapy are we
doing in the schools? Um we're we're we're we're blessed because we have uh board certified behavior analysts that push in day in and day out. Uh they do job embedded coaching. Uh they analy you know
classroom and behavior assessments of the of the student. So there are opportunity not only to help coach the the staff that's in the classroom, but also fine-tune what's needed at the student level. And are they going throughout district life? Are they going into the homes?
Are they going into the homes? No. Not. No. Because that's kind of crucial for the ABA therapy to work is it's got to be consistent throughout the entire day. Yeah. We do partner with our outside agencies for the students that are eligible for ABA therapy at the at their
home level or outpatient as some of our students do as well. Uh we do partner with them so we could do the hometoschool connection. Okay. But as a district we don't provide that at the home services. All right. Thanks. Okay.
I apologize. I may have missed it. So, uh, you mentioned that there's a, um, we have to submit a waiver because we're over the 1%. Can you explain what that means? Yeah. So, in the state of New Jersey, when we're going through the criteria
for students to be eligible for this alternate assessment, over the last 5 to seven years, they're really looking at from a federal standpoint, what they're looking at is to offer this alternate assessment for the most significant cognitively
impaired students in any particular district. They're saying that it's the average of for in New Jersey, it's 1%. That's what they set our standard for. Okay. And any number that's above that, we have to apply for a waiver
and and that is to ask that you test more beyond the 1%. For me and Mr. Earl, right, got to speak on my behalf. I really It's not an ask. It's just to state to let them know this is what we're doing. The requirement is the requirements to inform them. Can they come back and say
you got to take a look at the numbers? They're doing that across the state of New Jersey. We're part of a targeted uh review where we're looking at the DM data and we're going to meet with the DOE to talk about exactly that. You know, where is that sweet spot? Can we get it to 1% and what how many years
would it take for us to get to 1%. Okay. Any additional questions from board members? And just just one one thing I want to ask you about. In the beginning of your presentation, you you talked about the
state becoming more stringent on the various categories of students that were eligible. Yeah. Or the the types of classifications so forth and so on that were eligible for the DM. how much how and that's going to impact
the 1% probably rule as well because if you limited the number of students they're trying to reduce those number of students in DLM. So that's not only is it 1% but it's less than 1% because they're reducing the qualifications for DM.
What's the significance of that for our district? A couple it's uh it's twofold. you're looking at, you know, where is what's our real what's our true number in regards to students that are the most cognitively impaired students
in regards to being eligible. But it also means that with and maybe that's what one of the conversations that we're having because we we meet at the state level as well, directors and assistant superintendents about where are we going with this, you know, the what are the 4% mean? What does that mean for large
urban districts? What does it mean for the state of New Jersey who has the highest autism rates? What it means for the state of New Jersey that has the most we we have the most restrictive, the most self-contained classrooms in the in the United States as a state. What does that mean for us in regards to
now the state of New Jersey moving into the um the the testing that's going to be adaptive? So that means there going to be more students being pushed to the adaptive testing that we're talking about for statewide assessments and less in dynamic learning maps because this is
1% and they want to squeeze the 1%. And still again they got they want you be at 1% but then they want to squeeze the 1%. We'll see. We'll see what that looks like in a couple years for us based on what you said. That's what it seems like to me. Absolutely. Make it more more difficult for the districts to have students go into DM.
Yeah. which is probably the wrong direction to go in. Board members. Yeah, I think I think I think so too. Doesn't make sense. You know, you think about what they're doing
in this Yes. Think about it. And also, what does this all get the kids in the long run? Yeah. You know, what's it doing? The race to nowhere. Yeah. So, anyway, we just we do our
[Laughter] I was I was hearing for the question, listening for the question. I I do have a question also, but I I wanted to note that um out of the 50 states, New Jersey is the third highest with autism
in the state of New Jersey. Tom's River and Newark have a higher rate than we do. And having said that, I've also learned that the higher the larger the district, the higher the prevalence of having autistic students. So in a way,
you know, that kind of softens the 1% for us a little, right? But having said that that was sad is that in Mercer County, Trenton and Hamilton are the ones that have the highest amount of students with autism.
Now my question is in what ways in what other ways can we serve our autistic students besides their education and their therapies? You know what other things can we do that we are
not doing right now? I I think there's there's always opportunity to do more. I I think what you see with our group of folks is that they're always advocating at the individual student level. So just
because they have a classification or a diagnosis of autism, it's not it's a it might be a life sentence for the for the child, but the IEP is temporary because their programs sh change from one year to the next. And depending where they are with their abilities, with their
communication, uh we have students with autism in general general education classrooms. We have them in inclusion classrooms. They're they're they're participating in sports. They're they're participating in new music and clubs. Uh so they're everywhere. So, so for for me
it's um it's that proud moment of the the staff is always advocating for that child to be in a less lesser restricted classroom because of their abilities, not because of their classifications. Okay. I have one more question. Um
this population as it relates to absenteeism, is there a correlation? I will have to look at that data a little deeper. That would be interesting to see if there's a Yeah. Yeah. But we I think she was just
asking, do we see high absences with students with autism? And I'm not not autism, special ed. With special ed students in general, you mean the large swap? I mean, we can probably easily get that data, but we don't I mean, Hope's shaking her head.
No. We probably see uh in some cases I would higher attendance. Um Oh yeah. But we can actually do an analysis for you and get that for you and share. We can share it at the next meeting.
Yep. And is that doortodoor uh transportation paid for by the state doortodoor transportation paid for by the state? Special the IEPs those kids that get
by the district from the state. Yes, that's what I mean. No, you don't get additional funding transportation. Okay. And lastly, at least for from me,
thank you to all those special ed teachers. We appreciate them a lot. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you, Mr. Gutier. Thank you. Thank you. All right. So So board um
just want to just want to make one small change to the agenda if we can. We have have students who are here with um our great Gregory Gregory School uh who are here with the cheer to get their off uh jackets on and everything and students
are here. I wanted to know we could move to public participation up one and do our comments after. Is that okay with everyone? Yes. Okay. Okay. Good. And then uh All right. So moved.
I make that motion. Second. You gonna let me I have it through it officially. So, who wants to make the motion? Won't we allow Mr. Austin Edwards to make the one one moment, please? General counsel has a comment.
Is there a motion on the floor? I move that we allow the uh public participation at this moment. Okay. In the agenda. All right. I have a first. Second. Probably moved. F. Moved and seconded. Roll call.
Gerald Truhan. Yes. Denise Johnson, yes. Jean Buoie, yes. Addie Daniels Lane, yes. Austin Edwards, yes. Yolanda Lopez, yes. Barry Trailer, yes. Jeannie Week, yes.
Danella Dion, yes. Motion passed. Okay. All right. So, we have we have public public participation at this time. Um just real quick before we go there, I know that that um Miss
Joannne's team was here and they left. Just a thank you to them uh for coming out. I mean, you had your whole I believe her whole team was here. Um and one is two were Oh, Joan, I see Joan are here and one of our team members is still here. They were here. They were all there. Uh thank you for them. And of
course, Mr. Gutis, thank you so much. and of course your team and your all the administrators who are who are here supporting the work of superintendent. So, thank you so much. And then one more shout out to Jefferson. I see both the principal and the vice principal here. Thank you so much. You guys are doing
great work. Look forward to seeing you on Wednesday. All right, let's go. D. Oh, Mr. Boo, we changed we changed that to part of the sign up process versus reading it. That's one of the changes we
made. All right. Darren Freedom Green, Mr. Green, Amanda Short, each participant will have five minutes. Thank you so much. Good evening. My name is Miss Amanda Short. I am a teacher at Gregory Elementary School. Before I go any
further, if you're here from Gregory tonight, um would you just wave? I was going to make them all stand up, but we're kind of the only people left in the room at this point. So, I think that's sufficient. As we go forward with our comments, please know everyone who is here in this room tonight was ready and prepared to sign up and speak. But we all want to go home. We are sure all
of you want to want to go home. In the interest of that, we've elected just a number of people to speak on our behalf, but we don't want you to feel like it was just a few people here. We really want you to see we are all here because this is an issue that's important to us. The issue we are here to speak to you about tonight is the lack of air conditioning and the extreme heat in our
building. Um, my question is, is there a big picture solution for all of the different pieces of this process that is going on? As some of you know, as some of you may not know yet, um we have a central air conditioning system that does not
function properly. And we have now non-functioning window units installed in practically, I think, every single classroom. They are full window units framed out in the windows. They cannot be plugged in. Um and my question is, we've now been told we're getting new windows, which typically is a great
thing, but now we have these window units and we're getting new windows. Um, we would like some asurances that someone somewhere has a whole picture plan of this big picture that puts the new windows in, taking the air conditioner out, and then actually putting back in in a way that it can be
plugged in. Because honestly, I cannot believe that we got to the point where they were installed in 20 classrooms and not a single one can actually be plugged into the wall or used. So, I I know that sensily, but I am actually asking in seriousness if you guys could help us out with that and just make sure that we
are on track, guys, because this is really important to us. I want you to think about how awful it feels as a teacher when a kid looks at you and says, "But why won't you just turn the air conditioner on? It's so hot." I tell you, I'm telling you, they don't believe me. They just think we're not turning it on. Um, or how it feels very
condescending when someone comes in and is checking on the status of the building and they just take the elevator to the third floor. They don't have to deal with the hot staircase three floors up and they stand in the doorway and they point a temperature gun kind of generally into your room and go, "Oh, come on, guys. It's not that bad. What are you complaining about?" These are things that actually have happened a
number of times. Um, and when you think about a parent, what do they do with their kids getting them ready for school on a day where it's 50° outside but the kids classroom is 85 but the lunchroom is 62. Right? These are real things that we are dealing with. Um, and I'd like to
and I'm talking a little fast because I'm trying to do two things today which you'll see in a So, I apologize for that. But I would like to ask you all for a favor. When we are done here tonight, when we are done speaking and you are in executive session or hopefully home with your families or you have the next committee meeting, I'd like to ask you to be a little bit
skeptical when you ask the question, what's going on? And someone says to you, don't worry, it's fixed. Because we have been told that time and time again. Yes, there are people in the building currently working. They were there today. Yes, there are people that appear to be running some kind of cable. No, we
don't actually know what's going on because when we ask for an update, when we ask for a timeline, most often we are ignored. When we saw those wind units coming in, it was like Christmas. We were very excited. That was a year ago and they are still not functional. And we were very wrong when we thought that
problem was solved. So, please forgive us, but we are a little bit doubting in this moment because we've been given assurance and assurance and there hasn't been the follow through. And that's what we're here asking you for tonight is to be that oversight, be that voice, and be that group that really kind of takes ownership of this and make sure all of
those pieces are there so we don't find ourselves back in this situation again. Please be an advocate for our staff. Please be an advocate for our students and everyone who has been dealing with this. Okay, I know the weather outside is changing
and cooling off, but um don't forget about us. April will be here before we know it. We would like to welcome spring from a comfortable climate controlled environment and there are two truly great things happening at Gregory School. I just want you to imagine one minute short. One more minute.
I just want you to imagine how much more we could achieve if our kids could learn in a comfortable classroom. In my last moment, I'd like to share the comments of a parent who spent all of her time here tonight with us who was not able to sign up. Good evening, members of the board. Thank you for taking the time today to let parents and teachers speak
on behalf of the young growing minds of the future. our children. I would like to highlight and advocate for the total well-being of the students and staff to urgent concerns. I would like to address the lack of air conditioning and the continued reliance on unhealthy processed lunches. As high temperatures become more common, rooms with inadequate temperature adjustment become
a concern for concentration. It's a major health risk. Liability, dehydration, fatigue. Health risks are great for students with asthma, obesity, or respiratory issues. Her son's classroom last week, temperatures over 85 degrees. They were still expected to thrive, learn, and keep a positive attitude throughout the day. Why are we
expecting this of our children when we know as adults these conditions are unacceptable and our well-being is a negotiable? The second point of concern is the lack of healthy food options which I understand I'm running out of time for. However, if we could please look at examples from other countries, we do a better job with
nonbiioengineered foods, microplastics, not things. When we know better, we must do better. At the end of the day, we are all on the same side here. We want kids who are happy and healthy and focused to learn from those who are so eager to teach for a better world. Thank you for listening to her comments and for
advocating for our children and voices. Thank you for your comments. Appreciate it. [Applause] Dominica. Did I pronounce that correctly? Dominica. Oh, wow. I got it right the first time. All right.
Don't don't don't even teach at Gregory for 15 years for longer teacher substitute before mere feel free to Wait,
let take a look at this first. Yeah, I'm give it to every [Music] suffocating We've been given that taken away and returned again more than once. Once we were handed a single case of water for a
building over 30 employees, let alone the young students. Last fall we were promised windows. We waited patiently. They came. No one mentioned there would be no outlets to plug them into. No air, just a useless ornament in every
classroom. What a waste of resources and manpower. Summer came. is now here and still we sweat, we struggle, we suffer alongside students who suffer rather than learn. Now once again workers are
back in the building wiring outlets for those units that arrived nearly a year ago. When I asked how long it would take, one replow, even when it's cold out, it's still humid and hot in the building. The toilets are hot. I know you must be thinking, "What is she even talking
about?" But you use my restroom that my students are subjected to on the third floor. You know, sadly, the Gregory community knows about hot toilets, but I'm sure you can use your imagination or maybe not. Also, in the winter, are while others are. The whole building
does not operate correctly. No matter what season brings a new promise, a new solution, another expensive band that never fixes anything. How many budgets have been passed? How much money has been wasted on temporary answers while our students try to learn inside classroom
environments not to learn? Someone just asked what more we could do for our autistic students. Give them our special needs classrooms have students that become agitated and they're nonverbal. They can't even complain properly. Other students come in from gym and never recover. We just watched a presentation
on data and testing. We talked about the pressures that come with learning and teaching with constant testing. Our standardized testing windows in the hotter months. Perhaps their performance would improve if they weren't exhausted and delirious in 90°.
Students with asthma and a health issues also have to visit the nurse in these conditions. Imagine being to about 9, having a fever, an asthma attack or headache, and your only recruit is yet another walk through these pages, read the
email, see the desperation, the words of educators begging for something simple as we beg for anyone from central office to come sit in a classroom for one full day and see what our students feel. We're told new children to replace the one that broke six principles and
several superintendent ago. How long before it breaks again? How many more years do we have to be patient for? How many more promises must be broken before it truly is fixed? We're not asking for luxury. We're asking for humanity. Our students deserve to learn and comfort.
Our teachers deserve to teach without discussing districts. We visit all the other buildings. Gregory has never once been chosen as a building to visit. We visit the beautiful new high school Kilmer MLK all the time. How is not suitable for a
PD for adults but suitable for an entire student body every single day. Students attend school in buildings that sparkle temperatures as we deal with this. One minute. We are begging one last time on behalf of young children. Please just put an
end to this. school. Every school in this district already has a safe and comfortable learning environment where they can find Thank you. Oh, okay. Go ahead. All right. Have a good Thank you.
All right. Thank you so much. We're going to move on to our commas on board committee chairs. We'll I'll jump right to facility. Bean, please speak to the meeting to the committee meeting specifically. Thank you.
We just just two that signed up. Did you sign up? You have to sign up either online or No, we don't have You can show it to the board secretary with your sign up your signup sheet if you have it because we don't we don't
have it or you can sign in person prior to 4:30 prior to the board meeting as you as you as you find that document. We'll go right to uh you have to find the report. Okay. M miss Mr. It's Miss Addie Dames Lane, teaching and learning.
We'll start there. I don't think she has um operations and finance also uh met on Tuesday. Um and the work from op the work from our our um our committee actually um looks at uh board goal
number five. We reviewed staff travels, uh the list of bills, um and also the acceptance of donations. As we think about bills for September 30th, uh we paid $19,715
uh $715,499. Um and then make this quick. The best part of uh of my report is always the donations for the people and organizations that sacrifice for our
children. Uh C CWA local 1040 school supplies, backpacks valued at $2,000 to family and community engagement. Shine and inspire food, toiletry items, and non-p perishable food. $500 for
family and community engagement. Women who move Mercer food, toiletries, and other miscellaneous items valued at $300 to family and community engagement. Sigma Lamba Gamma National Sarity 25
classroom kits valued at $1,000 for family and community engagement and MSF pads and diapers valued at $400 uh to family and community engagement. We thank those folks for the sacrifices
that they made for our children. Here you go, Genie. Here you go. Okay. The facility meetings uh was held last Tuesday. Um, it was very brief because there wasn't a lot of change between September
meeting and October because there were only two weeks in between. But I will give an update on um what's going on at Gregory School. There were two chillers ordered. They're replacing everything. Um, and those
chillers are currently being installed. Uh we had also issued a a purchase order for electrical contractors to install the outlets for the air conditioning Gregory and that is currently in the works. The other obstacle that we're up
against is PSEG doing the electrical upgrade. Um and that's going to be the final thing that really ties this all together is how that they respond. And if history shows everything, it's very slow and we really, you know, we end up
having to get the city to get them in here to upgrade these schools because they just take their sweet time doing it. So, we're on board to get everything done, but you know, can't guarantee that PSACG is going to be with us in the long
run because we have to get the proper amperage to the buildings in order to support those all those air conditioners once they're running. So, it is being addressed. Um, other than that really they're um ongoing project at Tinga with
the upgrades to the adding the classrooms and stuff, but that's all for now. But uh yes, Miss Johnson. Thank you, Superintendent. Okay. So, the
policy committee uh met this month and um we have um for first reading um policy number 5516 and regulation 5516 uh the use of electronic communication
devices. Yeah, we we we understand that um uh our students um having access to um technology during a school day um can present a challenge for
um our teachers. So um the committee um as we approached the draft um policy, we kept that in mind. we when we decided like when we looked at the policy and looked at the um what needed to be revised,
we just didn't want the policy to be like punitive. We just we we want our students to understand that um you know it's it's a great thing to uh interact and to be present you know and not
always be on the phone because it can really uh that you know being on social media thing it can really suck you into a rabbit hole. So um so we have those policies available for first reading. We also plan to
um review policies that require an annual review and we also plan to look at we we are still planning to look at the student code of conduct. So we just know that more policies are coming on my no updates on Maya from the fix
committee. So, just want to remind everyone about the conference next week. Um, we have our schoolboard conference, New Jersey School Board Association conference next week. Everyone is uh registered and accommodations are taken care of. Our board secretary will make sure that um
we receive an email this week for next week. Uh next week in Atlantic City will be a festive time of mandatory training and PD. So, that's we'll be in all day long. And so we look we look forward to the training and look forward to
interacting with other school board members around the state as well as interacting with ourselves and communicating collaborating um across the state and within our own district. So I want to just alert um board members that they'll receive that information in the email to them from a board
secretar's office. Number two, we will try to meet with Mary Anne Freeman uh next week as well as a governance committee to talk about our strategic plan for uh 2631, our next 5-year plan
and what agreement want to broker with New Jersey School Board Association to conduct our logistics for how we go about accomplishing that end. And so we hope to have that. She's been very busy with getting ready for conference. That's one of the reasons why we haven't
been able to connect, but we'll try to meet with her uh next week if if we can. If not, it'll be the following week, but we hope to meet with her next week to nail that down. So, we'll have that for approval before the end of the year. Um hope for end of December. We're going to
need it before end of December, uh December's board meeting. Um so, give us two more meetings to get that done, to present to the board, get it approved, and then begin that process. And then thirdly, we do have our district goals on the agenda for approval.
I want to make sure everyone has an opportunity to read those district goals. Superintendent I and I have had conversations about enhancing, not changing the language, but enhancing um the district goals into goals, strategies. They're already indicators
of success uh in the document in the language. So he and I have had conversations around enhancing to make it a little more user friendly throughout to the public. Um so we'll superintendent will begin to work on that process and those those those
enhancements uh during the week. And then finally there's one other thing I wanted to share with the board as well. Um if not I'll do it in comments. I can't think about it right now what exactly it is but I'll do it in bal comments when it comes to to my mind.
So, we're going to move on to board discussion action on consent agenda unless there's any questions at this time. Mr. Buouie. So, I guess let's look at the agenda. The district goals are on this agenda, right?
Yes. For approval in the in the in the consent. Yeah. Goals right underneath the Y. Yep. There. Yep. Any other questions? Board discussion and action on consent agenda. Motion to approve.
So moved. Second. Properly moved and seconded. Roll call. Joe Truhart. Yes. Denise Johnson. Yes. Jean Buouie. Yes. Addy Daniels Lane. Yes. Austin Edwards. Yes. Yolanda Lopez. Yes. Larry Trailer. Yes.
We Delli De Leon. Abstain. Motion passed. Board member comments. We do have our standard comments. Um if we have Do you have a comment? Just a comment. Comment.
Yes. Yeah. I just wanted to say to the superintendent and his team, thank you for the presentations. Um you know, it's important. We have to do this by law, right? And so to be able to present all
of that data, which we can never digest in a chunk, but but um I want to commend uh Joanne specifically for calling out those points where go where you could really see the growth um because it
really drives um success. And then I am just so upset that I can't get over to to our Apple school my doesn't allow me to do that. But, superintendent, I'll be getting back with you to kind of make some time. And I also want to go back to
done because it should be finished now. I saw it, right? So, I'm looking forward I'm looking forward to that experience. Yeah, it's all done. So, we'll get you back over there. Well, I just want to say that I am very, very disappointed because we didn't have
a school participating today. Student participation. Student participation. Student participation. We didn't have a school participating today. Who? A school at one of our school. Oh, one of our school presentations. Oh, okay. You meant Yeah. Okay. All right.
So, Addie um Addy Lane or Miss Johnson or Larry Trailer or Lopez have any updates? Okay. So, then I'll go right to Miss Deion after that. Okay. So um and actually you gave a piece of mind already in terms of the New Jersey school boards association. Uh
the uh convent statewide convention is scheduled to meet next week in Atlantic City. Um there are numerous workshops on various topics um offered as well as a mandated uh training that's being offered and it's from uh Monday to Thursday. Uh so that was the biggest piece of information regarding well one
of the bigger pieces regarding the new New Jersey school boards association. But there was another piece in in that um this year there was a a new president chosen for the New Jersey school boards and that new president um Tamisha Smith was in fact uh removed from um office um
as of uh last uh Friday by the board of directors and currently um the immediate past president uh Karen Cordelino is assuming the role of president and uh the particular person that was removed supposedly there were some uh concerns
about um potential ethical um ethical violations of the officer's code of conduct doesn't reflect on her school board membership, but certainly as a president of the um New Jersey school boards association, these were some things that were considered by the board of directors and they voted to uh remove
her from office. So that's uh something to note from New Jersey school boards. Thanks. Okay. So, uh, I just want to thank Addie for providing some information at our last board meeting with regards to the,
um, AI presentation, um, that was presented to us at the Merc school board meeting last month at that was held at Lawrence uh, Lawrence High School. Uh, so I just wanted to add a couple of notes to that. Um
uh so I I actually have been attending a number of county meetings. um this the the use of gener generative AI um seems to be on everyone's radar
throughout the state and a lot of the districts are presenting uh like similar um like remedies to the use of AI because apparently uh our students um are using our students use
AI um as a way to like complete assignments and they didn't have like authorization to do so. Uh so school districts are encouraging um
the I'm sorry at the county meetings presenters are encouraging school districts to embrace the use of AI in classrooms. Um AI is here. It's it's not going away. we have
really AI built into a lot of the technology that we as adults use. So it it only makes sense that our students who are well-versed in technology that they have access to it as well. Um
during that presentation um these presenters uh talked about using AI to enhance engagement and collabor collaboration in the classroom. Um AI can be used to help support students with special needs. Um support
teachers um by um encouraging can use encouraging them to use AI for administrative tasks. AI can produce data that can help support student learning. Um, one of the presenters said something
that was really interesting. She said that um, when teachers are reviewing assignments submitted by the students, they should already know that student's voice, right? So if they submit
uh a work assignment and they already they are already aware of how that student presents information, you know, they should be aware of how their students present their knowledge, how they express uh their knowledge in the
classroom. So um AI is reshaping education and careers and districts need to find a way to empower students to support their learning and think deeply about how AI can be helpful instead of a hindrance. So I just had a few notes
here. I wanted to I have I have many more notes but that was really the gist of of the the information that I um uh received during that training. So, thank you. Uh, thank you. I just wanted to make two
quick announcements. Um, first one is October 11th was National Coming Out Day and I think that was a very very important thing to highlight especially this year. Um, as we know, um, there's a lot of political conversations around
LGBTQ youth, and what we find is close to 40% of young people who identify as LGBTQ has considered attempting suicide in the past year. And that number rises to about 46 to 47% when you think about transgender and non-binary youth. And
more than half of those transgender non-binary youth have found that their schools, if their schools are gender affirming, they have reported lower rates of attempted suicide. And I think that that's really important when we talk about coming out in safety. And what we seeing across even the state of
New Jersey and a national conversation is around um how we police, you know, identity in schools. And I think that is is really important for us to constantly reaffirm in the work that we do here protecting the whole child, creating um safe
communities, um the diversity and the free expression that we provide students because many of these students are coming going back home to families that may not be as tolerant um maybe more religiously or socially conservative and the way that
they express themselves in the school might be the only outlet that they have. So I think it's really important to highlight that today um around a holiday that or their recognition where many of our young people uh you know feel feel a struggle of be of being um and the
second thing that I thought was really important that I've been seeing people send me videos in the last couple days and weeks around ICE presence in Trenton, city of Trenton and Mercer County. Um, I've heard about some rates that has happened and and although we as
a board voted um to uh strengthen our resolutions around ICE in our schools and supporting and protecting our students and families, you know, what students are dealing with outside the schools impact how they should show up. And as we see in the community, people are afraid. People are afraid to open up
the doors. There's a lot of stress and trauma that our students are coming into the schools with. So, I think it would be um just right for us to acknowledge um what what's happening in our community outside of our schools and how that is impacting teachers and students
alike um and how how we show up. So, those are my updates. I do not have an update from the four C's. However, I would like to make a comment on what Denise was speaking about. I I believe superintendent that
maybe this is a good time to have Ketta present to us again and I remember you telling me that it it you know it added some work for the teachers to do. I was wondering if maybe we can ask them if they could just upload their their
lesson plans and not just, you know, input it in and somehow work with them to to personalize their program for the needs of our district. So, we
I didn't catch some of I just want to explain a little bit more what what you were talking about. You're asking teachers to upload their lesson plan. No, no, no, no. I'm not asking them. And no, not you. I'm not asking for that. Not saying no. Is it Ka is a program
that uh Jean Buouie first um spoke to us about Ketta? Do you remember? Yes. Okay. Um then um it came on, you know, I the guy explained to me how key metal
works. He reached out to me a couple of years ago. I spoke to superintendent and superintendent let me know that he was working he worked with a a few of our students um and also that the only negative thing about the program at that
time is that the teachers would have to input their information in order for the program to work. Is that correct superintendent? So it was um so he teachers would have to send it to the
vent vendor to input and so our conversation around Chimea was that uh it would be we need a straight line to uh work with that platform which he uh we met with him multiple times and we
also did our homework too uh just to make sure that we didn't have the same resources in district. So, you know, when you're buying resources like book resources nowadays and you get the electronic version,
they come with AI that's um um comparable. And so, uh he believes I just spoke with him at the 4C that uh that they do something different. And so, we wouldn't move forward with someone until we know it provides a
service that we don't already have. And so in our meeting with him because the way it was explained to us and we spent some time Mr. Sun and I meeting with him is that um they would take what they wanted to read, send it to him, he would
process it and send it back. That's a gap in work. Uh and so until that gap's closed, it's almost a no until we get because a teacher needs to be able to pivot now if they need support in a
classroom and not move outside that space and wait for any length of time because a bell may ring when you need to support a student academically or intervene at a certain time. So, uh, he, you know, we shared that with him and I
brought, uh, academic people with me, could speak the language because we needed to connect to what we do. So, we're still in that conversation right now, but we did tell him where we stood, uh, for now. And he said to me he wanted an opportunity to go back and
then come back. So, I'm waiting on an opportunity to meet with him again. Okay. Now the one thing that I did like from the program and I don't know if we have this too is that um the way they have the way he
explained it to me when I spoke to him is that the student will not be able to just get the answers that they want because they don't know it but rather it would help the student to find the answer with prompts that the program
would give them. So, I just wanted to say that that's the part that I really liked because as you were saying uh or was it Denise, we have to understand and know how our children speak. And so as they are asking the questions and
they're being answered, we'll realize, we should be able to realize if they're just getting the answer straight from AI or they are being prompt to find the answer and that's what they're giving as their final product. What we asked them to do when we met is
we had an opportunity to play with the system. So we actually know and saw some of the data according to uh Chimea representatives uh it's supposed to increase reading fluency. So we wanted to see data on
that which we don't have because we want to know that if we implement this that it's actually going to be value added because there are tons of AI programs out there and so our a AI program is comparable and more than I'm more than
happy to share with you theirs and take you through how to sign on how to submit your document and select the criteria for what you wanted to uh explore. So the students don't do that and so a teacher would have to know that's what
they need. I think it would be hugely beneficial if we didn't have a resource like that. And so what we're doing now is making sure so do we have the resource do we use it? Because if we already pay for it through the resources that we receive then why pay for it
again? Now it's about use. We need to see does that work? does does the way he says or or the representative say uh it should be implemented actually improves reading fluency and we don't have that
data. So uh and if we thought it would we absolutely would go in there. So we're we're in the middle of it. I talked to him at the 4C's last Thursday or Thursday before last whatever it was. The weeks go by fast and we had a good conversation. So, uh, I'm happy to meet
with him until we find either common ground or that we already have them in service. I just want to say that I trust your judgment completely. I was, you know, if we do have the program, it would be great to um to see how it works also.
Yeah. Um, so that we would also have peace of mind and we can also advocate for the use uh the frequent use of it for our students. Yeah. I think our team can demonstrate that for us and then select the best product. I'm not saying we wouldn't use
it. Just right now we haven't seen the difference in what we have since I actually initiated some of this discussion because I had the same feeling that you did that if it's going to increase and make make children or students desire to read more then it's
good. and it actually um made them go and seek out information. So I thought I but but what what the challenge for me was is that it was a heavy lift between teachers and there was it and it was so new that there was no data to
substantiate the claim that they were making. And so until they get to the point where there is data to say, you know, some data to inform your decision- making and that was one of the challenges. So there was this two challenges I had and I was an advocate
because I talked about that stuff all around the state because I thought and I actually thought it was an excellent tool, but it was just a heavy lift for teachers. Teachers got enough. Yeah. To do and then you you so the teacher doesn't do it. you have to send it to
them and then it just it got to be over overwhelming with the handoffs where it would be a one thing if the teacher could just upload it what they wanted into the system and it would annotate it. You know what I mean? So it was challenging. So that's one of the
Yeah, I do do want to share too that uh we've done pretty hefty homework on this because we believe in a product also. So, I went over to um I think it's Capitol Health uh over at St. Francis. They had a program for college students,
watched them use it and talk to all of them uh during the process and learn more about it because you need to see it in use because um bringing any tool into a space as big as ours means we need to know every part of it. And so, that's
how I know so much about it. Not only have I seen it, I've talked to people who've used it and I've watched them use it and it's usually the instructor. So, does it benefit the students? I think for non-readers, we're always wondering, can non-readers benefit? Because if you
can't read, then does this help you? And we won't substitute, and you'll hear Mrs. Sun say this all the time, you don't substitute the teacher, right, for any reason. So while AI sounds flowery, we want to make sure the instructor in
the classroom is um has a gift to use the product so that um they can continue to teach. They're still number one in our opinion. So AI can be a great tool. We just see this
right now having that extra send it to someone. So that's and anytime there's a gap we're trying to eliminate gaps in education so in our classrooms. So uh this group of people know it's about now
now and yesterday. So we need to move move and u uh take gaps away in so anything that uh creates more time for learning we want to eliminate or reduce if we can. Yeah I think I really know the real
sweet spot for that. Y it'll do it'll do that. Yeah, it's powerful. And we may find the right tool. We were looking at it for uh our gifted and talented program that we're growing and so we looked at it there. So, um, so
we're going to continue to work at it, but I appreciate your support and your support. Yep. Right. Right. Right. Thank you. I just wanted to say thank you for um
having a seat at the table. Um, as I was hearing, I know they already left, but as I heard um, Gregory School presenting about the facility issue that they had, felt really good to be on this end and to hear the report that that's an issue that's being worked on cuz I remember myself growing up in the trans school
system. I was a third grader and a fourth grader in a very hot room. And um I think to emphasize a point that um the presenter made was that it does influence and affect um testing especially hearing for the past a little
hour or so about how many tests our students are taking. Um, I think something like the temperature of the AC unit is minimal and it feels so good to be on this end to know it's been addressed and I look forward to working along with all of you to see for the
other school like the other schools to have the same issue solved, you know. So, just thank you for having me here. Yeah. Any new any more comments? All right. real quick. I see I see I don't know. I
see a mic on. Real quick, real quick. Real quick. All right, so uh three quick points. Uh and building off of um my brother trailer over here. Uh I did want to recognize uh um we're coming towards the end of uh Hispanic Heritage Month. Uh, so I
specifically want to recognize the uh many contributions um especially of Trenton's uh Hisp uh uh Hispanic uh ongoing history um that have contributed to where we are today. Um and I know
that also October is uh breast cancer awareness month. So I want to recognize those uh who are uh either suffering through it or you know those survivors of breast cancer um and their ongoing struggles. And then finally uh it
doesn't fall short on me. Today is specifically indigenous people's day. So I did want to recognize um you know the Lenny uh Lape people of whose land we stand on today and recognize all the indigenous people uh throughout the
world. Thank you. Wait, we got birthdays now. All right. Want to make also you guys are something. ROC performed at the NAACP statewide conference this past weekend um and did an awesome job. I want to thank uh Larry for presenting it
to us and board for for approving it and then our superintendent, our business ministry, their team. It's a hustle to get things done so our students could participate uh and be a part of that state conference NAACP. So thanks that was great great opportunity for our
students. They did a great job I understand and thank you so much for the for the opportunity and for us be able to actually allow them to go and provide the resources for them to to participate. So thank you. Any new business?
Move to adjurnn. Motion to adjurnn. move. We did already. Oh, one moment, please. One moment, please. We move on consent agenda. Don't you have a vote? There's a vote on the consent agenda.
There is a vote. There's a vote on the consent agenda. We didn't change. Wait, we wait. Hold up. One moment. One moment. One moment. One moment. The only Hold up. Time out. Only thing that we changed on the agenda was a
movement from for public participation. We did not change. We voted on that. We did not change the vote on the consent agenda. We voted on the consent agenda. Mhm. Yeah. We did. Because the board secretary has a vote.
She has a tally. Yeah. She has right in front. I'm looking right at it. So, we still got to get out of here, right? I'm trying. I'm trying. I'm trying, y'all. I'm trying. Y'all y'all holding Y'all holding us up. Good questions, though.
The resolution to go into No executive session. That's why you didn't find it. Okay. No, not there. No executive session. Motion to adjurnn. So, moved. Probably moved and second it. All is