--------- And for the public, this is the NJPPA and WA test scores. We've always turned off. Yeah, there we go. I don't want cameras. >> They can see that. >> They need to see that. >> Yeah.
>> Perfect. >> All right. Well, thank you everyone. Uh tonight we'll be presenting our spring 2025 NJPA, which is the New Jersey Graduation Proficiency Assessment. uh and our New Jersey access results which are for our
ML learners uh for English proficiency. Okay. So, starting with NJGPA, uh just a quick overview. Um the same as uh in past years, this is a new test that was administered to all grade 11
students. Uh the statute came out and uh changed us from a different model to having this as the main graduation pathway for students. So, it's designed to measure uh which students are graduation ready in English and in math.
Uh the graduation readiness report is separately reported for each content component. Um English is primarily aligned with grade 10 standards and then math is aligned with algebra 1 and geometry standards.
Uh May 3rd, 2023, uh the state board of education adopted the cut score of 725 for English language arts and mathematics components of the NJGPA. Um as well as a menu of various assessments uh that have differing cut
scores based on the assessment the students take. So students who take the NJGPA but do not meet the requirement have alternate pathways they can take to meet their graduation requirements. So, a student who doesn't pass in the spring
would then retake the NJGPA in the fall. So, this coming fall, we'll offer it again. Um, and if they still are not successful with that retake of the test, we have an alternate subcompetency test. There's several tests that they can use
between the SAT, PSAT, uh the ASVAB is back, and the ACUPPLACER. uh and if those assessments still are not successful, there is a portfolio review uh appeal that they can do and uh we have teachers dedicated to
helping students with that at the high school level. All right. So, just to start for our uh percent graduation ready, uh for English, we had 211 students. Uh for the
percentage that were not yet ready for graduation were 10.9% and our percent that were graduation ready were 89.1%. That's in comparison to the state having 19.3% not graduation ready and 80.7%
graduation ready. And we have something very similar you're going to see in math. We had 210 students take that exam where the district had 34.8% of our students not yet graduated ready. The state was right around 42%.
As far as graduation ready, we had 65.2% whereas the state had 58.0. We're also going to show you one trends as well. So this is just the overview of the actual data table themselves. Okay, this is the same information just
in chart form for our visual learners. Okay, just a comparison from district to state. And here we have our uh analysis for uh the number of students who are graduation ready by achievement level.
Um, this is the exact same data. >> Yeah, the state likes to make sure that sometimes when you put out a percent there, it doesn't really identify with how many students were actually talking about. So, one thing you I think you started to notice with our presentation about the NGSLA and now with this, we
want to make sure not only do we give you that actual data itself, but we provide illustrations so that you can actually understand what the data means. So often we talk data data and some of us love the data but some of us need a little more visual to understand. So
this gives you an idea about well how many students are we talking about when we're talking about a percent. >> Okay. So for English out of that 211 that 10.9% that did not yet meet graduation readiness according to this
assessment is 23 students. Uh and then it ended up being 188 who were graduation ready for English language arts. >> And likewise we have 73% of students were not um sorry 73 students were not graduation ready for math whereas 137
were >> and again the bottom is just all of those together. Okay. So here's our comparative analysis across the years. So you'll see on the left here for not graduation ready 2023 with the number of students and the
percentages 2024 with number of students and percentages and 2025 with number of students and percentages. So you can see the change over the course of years. Uh you know in the next slide we have a a chart for you that helps you visualize
it better. Um, but overall, um, positive stuff here. >> And you know, I like to make things gold when they're good, right? Gold's great. So, we like to put the gold there on the right where that gold can show you over the past three years, you know, what are our scores doing, right? How is the
trend leading and you can see just even from this past year from the um 2024 to 2025, the math scores increased um by 10%. Okay. Uh here's the comparative analysis
to state graduation ready. So 2023 uh the left column is VTSD percentage and then state percentage on the right. And that's mirrored for 24 and 25 as well. And again you can see a positive trend there.
And here are the charts we were talking about where you can actually really see the the change there. So you can see on the left the ELA comparison uh Vernon to state Vernon is the blue line, state is the green line. Uh you can see in 2023
we're slightly below state average. Uh in 2024 we went above and in 2025 we have maintained above at that 89%. And you could see a similar trend with with that, right? We are trending definitely upwards where we are now above the state
average. >> All right, so this super fun chart that uh is very difficult to see from this angle is the same information but broken down by subgroup of race. Uh so you'll see on the left there's the subject areas and then each race and then how
many students were tested and the percent of students that were tested out of the whole. So uh anywhere where the students were less than 10 uh we have to suppress that data because of the risk of identifying students. So you'll see
if it has a less than 10 uh indicator there. We did not put the percent because we can't do that. So unfortunately there are a lot of areas here where you will see NAS uh just because we were not able to report that data out. Okay. But in some
areas uh we were able to and on the next chart that you'll see you'll actually see a chart of the areas we could report on. But again, I'm going to post all of this on our district website so that you can actually look through it and take some time to see it. Um, but this is just the same information broken down by
race. >> Uh, Mr. Gagastro and I were talking about this today. If you would look at this right now, it looks like in 2025, we just had two basic divisions which were Hispanic and white. And we know if you walk through the school, we have more than that. However, we're talking
about just 11th grade. And as Mr. was explaining to me because I question this myself. If they mark Hispanic at all, it doesn't matter if there's other cultures invested in that family, they automatically default to Hispanic.
>> Right. >> Okay. So, here you can see the the two areas where we were able to report as a column chart. So the green means that percentage um was graduation ready. So we can see a comparison from um our subgroup that is
white versus Hispanic. Okay. And the same thing across uh this year again uh only Hispanic and white were able to be reported on. Last year we had several areas that were able to be reported on and here is a line chart just showing
from 2023 to 2024 and 2025 of those two subgroups and their uh percent graduation ready >> and we can see that everything is trending upward which is really a good thing. We would want to not see something trending down. We don't want to see a separation. We want to see
those getting much much closer and that would be our ultimate goal, right? Is for everybody to be having the same success. And this is the same thing but uh broken down by English and math. Okay, this is uh subgroups divided by
gender. Um on the left you'll see English and math and again the same thing then gender and then total number of students tested and the percent of the population that that is uh in this area we had slightly more information we were able to report on. Again we went
across three years so 2023 2024 and 2025 uh with the percentages and the bottom row is all of our results all together. And here's that information for all subjects uh by gender as well, female
and male, not passing being red and passing being green. >> So that combines the math, that combines the ELA. They have to pass both of them to be graduation ready. So if you combine it, you see how many students overall are graduation ready
>> according to this pathway. Okay. And here it is again. This is showing last year's 2024 and then this year's 2025 uh for the year-over-year percentages, all subjects. >> And you see that grow.
>> All right. And here's the line depiction of it. Uh again, an upward trend, which is what we want to see. And they are getting closer together, which is also what we want to see. And then broken down by English and math separately. this to me and people that know me know
this is a little near and dear to my heart with you know the women in STEM and that that piece of the puzzle. Um when you see females we we were discussing throughout the year tend to be more successful on standardized tests as of late. You can see that they're pretty close with the
ELA which is a which is a good thing. And I'm really excited that they're just as close with the map as far as the the success rate. So we don't see any one lopsided. And you're going to see in a couple slides, you're going to see this
growth of females in the STEM fields with math particularly that I'm particularly happy about. >> Okay. Here are the line depictions of that. >> The growth is mirrored in the LA perfectly. Yeah.
>> And then you can see in math where the the males tend to be I mean we only have three years of comparison here, right? So we have to be very careful what we make judgments on but it's nice to see that we have a steady increase with um female.
>> Okay, this subgroup is by program. Uh for program we have our ML students, our free and reduced lunch, our section 504, special ed, and then gened. Uh again, any areas that were less than 10, we could not report out on. So that's where
you'll see the less than 10 indicator and NA. Uh but there are many areas in this chart where we able to report out on uh for the various programs. You'll see again it's across three years 23, 24, and 25 for not yet graduation ready
and then graduation ready on the far right. And here it is in a column chart form. Uh again, you can see the not passing and passing. This is for all subjects. So this is math and English together.
So when we look at this, the first thing that we're going to look at as administrators, we're going to look at the things that are going well and we're going to look at the things that we want to really sort of hone in on, get more detailed information. Obviously, we can see the ELLL is something we're going to want to take a deeper dive into as well
as our special ed population. And that's when we're going to bring in some longitudinal data over time to see is our our programs trending upward and the things we're doing working. And we just time to get there or is there some more immediate things that we have to
>> put supports in place for? >> And here it is uh broken across two years uh next to each other again for all subjects. So this you can at least see the comparison from the prior year. Again, generally an upward trend which we're happy with.
>> Yeah. And we could we didn't have enough students last year with our ELLL population to have a comparison. So, this is pretty new with the growth of our ELELLL population in our district and this is something we've been working on curricularly and this is something we're going to definitely take a deep
dive at. And here's the same information in line chart form. Uh, blue being our ELELLL point of uh reference, green lunch being red, section 504 yellow, uh, special ed being green, and then uh the orangey
color being gened. And most everything is trending upward. >> Yes, >> everything is definitely >> and again the same information by pro uh by subject area though. Uh so on the left is ELA, right is math. Uh and you
again I'm sorry it's so hard it's hard to see but I will have it shared with everyone and it'll be on the website for close review. For me, what I'm particularly interested in when you look at the program together, you don't see where or what point we need to really address. For me, I'm looking at ELA. I
see a lot of green, right? We know that, you know, this is this is an area like, okay, that's great. All subgroups are doing pretty doing better, right? With the green part, when you look at the map on the right, we're not seeing exactly the same results. We do see most have
the green higher with the exception of our special ed. So what that tells me is that that is the area that we really have to focus on when we're looking for getting their graduation ready. But as we're going to talk about later, that's also why the
portfolio is in place, right? The portfolios are there to support those students who might not be great test takers who struggle taking tests. It's it's an avenue to show their competency. Special ed students have a distinct
challenge with that type of test. Hence, the state has put things in place for them to succeed in graduating. >> And the same information again in line chart form. Uh you'll see as Dr. Shep was saying, it reflects the increases
over in the uh English area. Uh for 504, you'll see a slight dip there. And in math, uh you'll see the progress upward. Uh and special ed had that slight decline there. Okay, so achievements and interventions for NJDPA. So those areas where we did
see red, what are we doing to support that? And also what are things that we have been doing that have been going well for us. So in English, our graduation ready increase of 15.2% since the NJGPA cut scores came out in 2023,
which is 8.4% higher than state average. and we've been higher than state average for two consecutive years in a row. >> With math, we can specifically look to this past year, an increase of over 10% and 11.4% since 2023. That's 7.2 higher
than the state average two consecutive years of increased growth. >> And overall, with all subjects combined, uh again, this is where these students would be considered graduation ready through this pathway just taking this assessment. Uh we've had a 5% increase
since 2024 and a graduation rating increase of 13.3% since 2023. So intervention strategies uh we have a multi-tered system of supports up at the high school. Uh we have our instructional coaches uh from
kindergarten through 12th grade who act as tier one supports. Uh we have dedicated content specific intervention which are tier two and three supports. That's where students may be pulled or have one-on- ones with teachers to uh help. And we also have math labs uh as
well at the high school. Uh and then like I said before, we have uh dedicated teachers for the portfolio supports where they will work with the students in those areas in which they're they need extra support. So a math teacher for math, English teacher for English.
Uh a lot of times we are able to have a certified special ed teacher in those areas as well. All right, NJ access. Uh, this will be fairly quick. As much as our population is growing, uh, when you break up our 66
students by 12 grade levels, as you can imagine, uh, it's under 10 pretty frequently. Uh, so just a quick review, NJ access is uh, an annual assessment that our MLS take in New Jersey. It evaluates their
proficiency in English across four domains which is listening, speaking, reading and writing. Uh the main goal of this is to measure students progress in their English acquirement uh of language skills. So this assessment provides data
to help us drive our instruction and support our services for our students needs. Uh so some key features, we give this every year in the spring to our students uh in grades K to 12. Um it aligns with
WEDA, the worldclass instructional design and assessment standards and it includes a combination of multiple choice and performance-based tasks. Uh, as you can imagine, in the lower grades, the uh, ESL teachers are sitting one-on-one with the students and having
them talk through various things and they're marking it down on paper and those get sent in where at the higher grades, they're doing it all on their Chromebook and they can record the speaking portions on the Chromebooks. Uh, so the benefits of this, uh, it helps educators identify areas of
strength and areas that need more support for each student. Um, it helps support the development of IEPs and targeted interventions and it really does provide a lot of valuable data for us uh to make sure we're supporting our students the way we need to and look at
our programs to see where areas that are shining and where areas that we need to re-evaluate. That went twice. Okay. So uh there are six levels uh that the students can uh achieve on the NJ access. Uh level one
being the lowest, level six being the highest. For a student to graduate from the program, uh they have to get an overall composite score of 4.5 along with some other indicators like feedback from the teachers making sure that the student is actually ready to exit. Uh
because again this is just one assessment, right? It's one snapshot in time. So this along with some other data determine whether or not the student can graduate from the program. If they do graduate from the program, uh they're monitored for two years just to make sure that they aren't struggling and
need extra supports. Okay, so here you can see pretty much everywhere uh it has less than 10 except for in the composite grade level scores. So in grade five or grade K through grade 5 we have 36
students total and 20 of them scored expanding which was level four. So that was 56% of our population. Um in grades six through eight we did not have enough that I can share. Um but in uh all grades generally across the uh district
uh 13 students were uh scored emerging which was 20% of our population. 14 students uh were developing which was level three at 21% and 29 students uh which was 44% of our population scored
expanding level four. And that uh data down below is just the clusters so it's easier to break down. Okay, this is that same information broken down by subgroup of race. Um again the same rules apply. So you'll
see a lot of less than tens here that we were not able to share, but there are certain areas that we can report out on. Uh in grades K through 5, we had 26 Hispanic Latino students, which is 72% of the population. Um and 15 of them
scored expanding level four, which was 58% of that cohort's population. Additionally, all of the students in that great that grade cohort band were 36 total. Um, and 20 of them total
scored uh, level four, which was 56% of that population as well. Um, and then we'll go all the way down to grades 9 through 12. Uh, we had 17 students take the assessment, which was 81% of the population for grades 9 through 12. Um,
but we can't report out on it because they scored across all the uh the grade levels there. So, we can't it ended up less than 12 when broken down. Uh for our uh all grades here generally we have
that uh Hispanic students were 11 of them which was 22% of our population scored level two 12 uh students scored uh level three which was 24% of the population and 20 students uh scored
level four which was 40% of the population. Um and then overall on the bottom you can see the all student scores which is all the cohorts together. Um 13 students overall were in level two which was 20%, 14 at level
three which is 21% and 29 students at level four which is 44%. Here's our subgroup by gender. Again uh a lot of areas that we had to suppress but there are certain areas we can report. All students K to five uh 13
students were in the developing level at 36.1% and 13 students were at the expanding level level four at 36.1%. And then all the way at the bottom for uh our male students we had a 15 score
uh level three which is 48.39%. And overall you can see we had 12 in the level two area, 25 in level three and 18 in level four. And here uh same thing but this is by program. So free and reduced lunch
section 504 special ed. Uh we went through there's certain areas. So grades K through five all students 12 scored developing level three which is 39% of that population. Uh if you head down to the bottom again for all grades we had
35% score level three which is 13 of the students for free and reduced lunch and overall uh all of our students this percentages will break down the same as the previous slide and that is it for the um data just
because I couldn't make charts due to the lack of data that I could share. Okay. So, here are just some FAQs generally about uh NJGPA and the WEDA. >> One of the things we wanted to do is for like we've been talking a lot about
communication because this will be posted on the website and it doesn't really have as much interaction with the public, but we were looking to see what questions might people have based on the data that they're seeing. What might they wonder? So, this was just something we added for the first time to this presentation to just provide a little
more information to the public about what some of this data mean? Well, what led to the large gains in math? Like 10% increase over every year seems quite large, relatively speaking. Didn't do a statistical analysis, but I'm thinking that's pretty large. We did a lot of
work last summer with developing our college math program. We developed the curriculum. We really worked hard with our second and the uh tier two and tier three supports with our guides with our guidance counselors. We really dug into
that because we've known that math is a sequential thing and by the time we get to the high school they've already developed certain competencies or decided their math identity. So by the time we get to the graduation this is something we've known that in math as a
whole is something we really wanted to work with. So we really work on the curriculum with that. We work with our instructional coaches. we work with. If you've ever seen any math type questions, I don't know many of you have recently, they're also reading questions. If you can't read and understand what's being asked of you,
there's a literacy component that we're really focusing on as well. So, we did a lot of emphasis in just that curricular alignment and um timeline in and of itself this past year. >> So, how are we supporting students who
did not meet the NJ GPA score? So, uh, again, we touched on this a little bit earlier in the presentation, but this fall, the students who did not meet their graduation readiness, uh, cut score will retake the NJGPA. Uh, then after we get the NJ GPA scores back, uh,
we offer substitute assessments for those students who did not pass. So, the SAT, the ACT, ACUPPLACER, ASVAB, uh, and also PSAT does count and all of our 10th and 11th graders take the PSAT. Uh so after those assessments if we still have
a student struggling uh we'll go through the portfolio appeal process. Um so they are supported by our MTSS and guidance teams. Uh the teachers will meet with the students and help them through the process. It'll be submitted to the state. We also have early warning
systems in place to flag students for support for senior year. Um a lot of it having to do with our data warehousing. as we're going through, we have thresholds that show cut scores and we can say, "All right, so this percentage of the students are going to need this
extra support." Um, and the other part is them taking the NJGPA early on uh before their senior year, we're able to see, okay, these these students are we're going to have at least this many students that we need to go to the second pathway with. So, we can actually
start targeting supports that way. Okay. So, what's the status of our multilingual multilingual language learners? Uh, so right now we had 66 students tested, which that number has already gone up uh this year. We're up to 72 right now. Um, and uh the majority
are in developing to bridging levels. Right now in elementary, 75% of our elementary MLS are in higher proficiency bands than they were previously. Uh this is namely due to a curriculum restructuring that we did. The ESL teachers all got together during
inservice days and really really worked on targeting data and seeing where the students needed extra support and where our programs could be improved. Uh they did that over the course of last year and it really paid off. Uh and now the
uh the students are doing much better and as always their instruction is guided by the WTA align strategies and individualized supports based on each student. >> There's something that we wanted to do because we've talked about it sort of off the cuff, but we're in New Jersey
and New Jersey is one of the strongest states now, the strongest state as far as uh public education, K12. So, we wanted to say, well, where are we comparing nationally across the, you know, across the nation
with how our test scores are doing? There's been a lot of public concern and a lot of public news out there about the recent performance scores. There is no test given across every single state that can
really be used for comparison. You can't really use SATs because people choose to take them if they're college, you know, collegebound or things like that. So, it's very hard to find something. The only real way that you can try to have a comparison, it has to do with some legisl that was federal with the NATE
test and that is given to an assortment of schools across the nation. Not every district takes it and it's a snapshot. It's required well it currently is. That probably is up for debate at the moment. It's required for fourth grade and
eighth grade every other year and for 12th grade approximately every four years. That's known as the nation's report card. So I was curious just so we can throw it out there to you. So we know not only how do we compare with the state but how are we comparing
nationally? If you look at the national benchmark most recent was 2019 for 12th graders ELA proficiency and this is considered a strong benchmark for the precoid right it was before all the shutdowns and things like that was 37% for ELA and
math proficiency was 24%. So this just gives you just a context of where not only Vernon stands within the state but where Vernon and the state stand to the country because I think sometimes we you know we realize we're
in a global economy when we look at you know applying for colleges when we look for where our students are going what's the next steps and that's what we're talking about we're talking about graduation ready how are our students comparing relative to the only thing that we can really use to compare at the
moment which is Um the name >> any questions? >> Um okay. So okay, John first and then Carl and then >> a couple questions. First of all, what I want to know is how many students pass it on the second try that failed it the
first time? You have some any data on that kind of information? >> It varies, you know, as you can imagine by cohort of kids, but we'll have you know somewhere around 20 to 30 on the second try pass. You know those are the kids who are on the cusp that first time
maybe within points you know we have some kids are within a point of the cut score uh and they'll get over the the threshold. >> My my other question is with that test what if they pass the ELA but they didn't pass the math can they split the test or they have to take them both are they okay >> that's a great question. Yes so they can
definitely get one area be graduation ready in that area and then they'll only have to tested in math or English. >> And that's one of the reasons we focus right now on math labs. You didn't see ELA labs and math labs. We're really focusing in on the area that we we see
the greatest needs. >> I have one more question for you and it has to do with the subgroup breakdowns. So you have Hispanic and then white and black. That white and black I'm just very curious. Is that something other than Hispanic?
>> Yes. So if it's if a student is demographically categorized white or black that means they do not have spanning as one of their >> Okay. I just was curious that >> y
>> I'm NJ Smart this year but we're switching to a new >> next year. So >> we are going to see where what the requirements are for that. So we'll give you an update on that though. >> If you could go back to the slide on um Vernon's comparison to the state
average. >> I have a few questions more so our math NJGPA math Vernon versus the state because I noticed something pretty awesome there and I just want to make sure I understand it
correctly. So when we look at one sec lot of numbers >> yes >> that's why I like the pictures. Yeah, I I saw the graph that I noticed before. Um percent of each >> or the one that was broken by subgroup >> or the line
>> the line. Let's do because the line seemed to be okay. Math comparison Vernon to state. So it looks like there we pulled ahead of the state average by a decent amount. That's what I'm wondering is when you look at our math
scores that seem to be directly because of that intervention we've been doing, they went up 10%. That's not something that was seen throughout the whole state. That's something unique to our district because of what we're doing. Right. >> Right. >> That's awesome. That's so awesome. Like
I want to clap for that. >> So cool. >> Tell you about >> there's a lot more clapping to come. >> There's a lot of clapping that's going to happen later in October. Can you just uh before we start, can you just ELLL and section 504 just so
everybody knows what they are? >> So uh ELLL, it was formerly ELLL, now it's ML. It's multilingual learners. So students where English is not their first language. Uh so they are in courses within the district to learn English and acquire it to become
proficient. Uh and then section 504 is a student who has accommodations to school. Uh, so they're not special ed, but they may get accomodations to something that they have going on. >> And you said you said that this test was taken at the beginning of the year,
right? Not the end. >> This was taken in, uh, the spring. So, uh, for NJGPA, it was this spring >> early. >> And then, uh, for access, it's it's a very long window. It's anywhere between
I think end of January and Marchish. >> The the time frame was >> it's before the NPSLA testing before AP testing before testing. >> Okay. But not brand new 11.
>> Correct. So, uh, well, f first I I just want to say because I'm we've been through this before and I do always point out when we're below the average state and I I just want to point out again, you guys deserve, you know, credit for bringing that above the state
average for everything. You know, great job. I I think it's it's fantastic. We're moving in the right direction. Shows the dedication of the administration and the teaching staff here. So, very good. And I and I just because I am sometimes critical on you guys. So I
just want to make sure I I I I give it back, you know. So great for that. Um my concerns are are actually my questions have more to do with the math. So do we have do we does it break it down by
actual math questions versus open-ended word problems >> where >> Okay. truth. Well, I guess I mean I I I think I know your answer. So now I guess it's it's probably not going to be relevant. But I was wondering, can we see if the ch children are failing
English? Are they the ones also failing the the word problem open-ended? >> Interesting. >> And now they're losing out on math because maybe they have a disability with English or something. >> Right. Right. So So is the question type barrier as opposed to content that I
mean logically would make sense. We don't get that kind of break down NJSLA we get much more of a breakdown where it will give us more data like that but not >> but the greatest indicator of success on these math exams is reading level come
coming into high school. >> Yes. >> So that's exactly what I was going to say. The NGS delay will get what's called an evidence statement and it'll break it down into question types. It'll give us a much better idea about the areas. We go through those with each grade band that's tested. In the fall we
do a data carousel. We'll break those type of data questions down because we have that information. We don't get any type of information for the NJTPA that is similar to that. So I would based on how the NGSLA questions are are
situated, I would assume I would assume they're pretty much aligned. So when we look at that data for the ninth graders and we try to figure out who will be going into math labs and we we take all these data points and look at 11th graders and think about math labs. These are things we do look at is the evidence
statements are where our students are the weakest so that we can really standards align targeted intervention >> I just that question so you don't know if it's geometry based or algebra based.
>> I'm sorry. No, that's fine. >> Um, so okay. Um, then then also do we know are all the students educated in algebra and geometry before taking this class?
>> Are they >> are they taking one of those? You know, geometry second, right? No, algebra. Yeah, geometry second. Algebra. We do algebra, then we do geometry and then so in theory the average student is taking algebra freshman year, geometry
sophomore year and then you would take this test junior year. So in theory, yes, there are of course extenses for certain students. Um but also so now you have to take into account that the students haven't done algebra for two
years. You know, granted, math is building on itself, but you know, geometry and algebra, you know, are quite different animals. You're either like an algebra person or a geometry person. You know, I proofs almost killed me in high school. But, uh, you know,
uh, so that's also something to take into consideration, but generally, yes, they all have it. And then the last question I have and then I'll stop is up. >> Do you know how many are I don't know homegrown students? So
they've been in maybe even started in 8th grade to 11th grade versus how many are new to maybe new to the district who came in 11th grade. And >> not not to say that but help us see if
we're learning in our district and you know hopefully the kids are learn assuming the kids are going to graduate. So we're right they're learning afterwards but >> so I mean we normally don't break down by that. Um I would say homeschooled students who come in um it might be a
handful that we get uh each year. Um but >> I don't mean just home school. I mean >> you mean coming from moving into >> uh it's it could be a lot of students that transfer. We do have quite a few that transfer in over the year or you
know, if they come from another public school district, uh they generally we accept credits, you know, where uh you know, we do assess when they come in. So, they're coming in, they're taking our diagnostic assessment. So, for placement purposes, right? So, okay, they finished algebra, they're going to
take geometry, but what level, you know, so we'll give them an assessment benchmark and say, all right, you should be ACP or you should be honors or, you know, >> they will drill down based on the students. Um, for instance, you might have uh students that haven't been here very long. So, we want to measure growth
and not necessarily achievement as well. So, especially in the ML population, you might want to see how many years have they been in Vernon and even though they might not have passed by 11th grade, have they been making growth and will we have an opportunity to make that growth in in their senior year as well to meet
the meet the graduation requirement? >> Question. So, there was a gap. Can you know the the one that showed the Hispanic and the the various I know you didn't >> MJ GPS? >> Yes. >> Okay. Um
>> did you want the graph or the >> Yeah, I guess I was looking to I can't even remember. >> Okay. Yeah. So, there's a pretty significant gap, right, with with Hispanic versus white. Do you have any
um any reason for that? I mean, >> so I couldn't get that. >> Oh, do you have any any reason for the gap there between how the performance of the the Hispanic population is kind of behind and then one of them was flat whereas everybody else went up,
>> right? So, so this is for all subjects. So, this includes English. So, um and math. So, um you know, this is an area where they're they're trying to acquire the language, especially if they're new to uh the country. So generally if
they're they're new to the country they have a year when they don't have to take the assessment. Um if they uh have been in country though for enough time they had to take it but it doesn't mean where they were previously >> okay >> they were getting support.
>> So do do we have state numbers for that cohort because that way you could see are we are they performing >> how they compare to state. >> Yeah. How they compare to state. I I can look at the gem of that and I
might be able to break it down. I can see >> if I can find that break that >> get out of those. >> Yes. >> Yeah. More science. >> Okay. Thank you. Um anybody else?
>> Yes. You attributed a lot of the growth to instructional support from the instructional what did you call them the coaches. >> Coaches >> I thought they were coaching the teachers.
>> Yes. So, but some of them do pull out students at higher level. So, for instance, uh students who need Wilson support at the high school. I see. One of our coaches does pull at the high school for that. Um you know, so they there are some areas where they're
pulling and working with students one-on-one or twoonone, threeon one, but then they're also coaching teachers which you know, if your pedagogical practice is getting stronger, it's impacting the whole class or classes that they're teaching. >> And we've talked about areas of
opportunity, and I've had discussion with the coaches as well. And one of them was to provide review materials, especially because they haven't had algebra or geometry in their in their third year, which most of the time they're either in college math or algebra 2. and that the uh the
instructional coach worked closely with some with the teachers teaching those classes to develop review materials to make sure they spiral back to some of those concepts before they took the test. So they work with they work with the teachers in that way to help their kids in those classes increase their
scores. Thank you. >> Um I have a question but also the coaches probably help the teachers do more data driven instruction too, right? So that that's that usually helps the test scores. >> My question was the assessment level
groups for the access scores uh is that just heavily influenced by when they entered the program like are they developing if they've only been in the program for like a year or do they control for that kind of do you know what I'm saying? >> It dep it's that's what their scores
come out to. So those are what they actually get. So I mean we have some students who come in and they they are pretty proficient at English. But you know if you also think our stu our students are taking English right because they are trying to become proficient at English >> right
>> some of our high school students who have lived through their whole lives are not graduation ready for English >> right >> these are students who are now acquiring this language for the first time uh some of them at home English spoken so that helps others it's not at all um so it
really and it depends what countries they came from too that has a huge impact on it so >> it's kind of a mixum but Our ESL teachers are wonderful. They really families they're constantly, you know,
having conversations with them. So, they're really on the pulse of what their individual needs and what their previous educational experiences were because a lot of times they'll come here and have little to no educational
foundation due to their their country's educational system or they could be right where our students are. It really is just the language barrier getting that. >> Yeah. Like I'm having trouble understanding if the buckets are or the levels are just sort of a snapshot of
our population like some of their progression toward learning English or whether it's showing something about our programs. Do you know what I mean? Like if you don't know English then and you're just learning it for the first time then you're going to be in developing sort of no matter what the
strength of our program is. >> Right. Right. versus that it's somehow controlling for that and it's like looking at the growth over time of our students. Yeah, >> that makes sense. >> Test won't do that though, right? Because it's only the one year. You can't see how the students progressing,
>> right? No, I can see them progress. So, we give it every year. >> So, we can see a student over the course, you know, from third grade, fourth grade, fifth grade, we can see them across. Um, so generally they they are always growing, but it's
4.5 to even evaluate if they're going to graduate. >> Yeah. >> And a lot of it is remember this is across four domains. >> So a lot of times the listening and speaking are great. >> Okay. >> When it comes to writing and reading, >> right? >> There's a struggle there, you know.
>> Interesting. Thank you. >> Anyone else? >> Okay. Thank you so much. That was really >> Thank you. And congratulations to get a chance to get some light. Although
this is nice. I like it. >> Item L, board reports summary. >> Carl, you're up. >> Oh, >> item L for comm. >> Oh, board. Oh, yes. Okay. So, I don't have too too much to report for
community relations because we did not have a meeting for July, but I can say that I met with the administration of the high school about a week ago and we discussed the upcoming preparations for celebrating uh Vernon Township High
School's 50th anniversary and ways that the community relations committee can contribute to that and the discussion. But other than that, we haven't had a meeting, so I can't really report too too much else. >> Okay, great. Thank you. Um, does anyone
have any questions about that? >> Ask that after. Okay, I'm up curriculum report. Um, we did have a meeting July 8th. In attendance were myself, John Krauss, Felic Shep, Dr. Felicep, uh, and Vinnie Gagglastro. Um we discussed an
update on academic programs and um the need to address staffing gaps in world language and science programs and to look at the district's policy of covering instructional needs through sixth period stipens. Um we're going to Mr. Gagglostra is going to ask districts
in the county about their policies and processes in the sixth period stipend area and report back to the committee. Um we discussed wellness days uh prior discussions on um work levels cited during the student input session um raised the possibility of reintroducing
two wellness days weekends a year. Uh we decided to discuss that with the new district leadership in August. Um, we discussed some federal funding concerns which I think are going to be covered elsewhere, but there was um some concern about the uh federal funding for certain
programs that it um our grandfunded after school programming at Glen Meadow was in jeopardy and it does appear we're going to um need to not move forward with that this year due to the funding issue. Um a letter was going to be sent out. I think it did go out to staff and
parents um this week. uh New Jersey school. Oh, okay. We discussed the uh test results that were going to be presented tonight. And then we also discussed high school scheduling and uh club management. We'll leave it there for now to send you down any questions.
Okay. Um finance, building, and grounds, Mr. Pass. >> Okay. Uh the finance, building, and grounds committee met on July 14th. Um it was conducted online through Google meet in attendance were Ray Slam, Joe Van Kirk, myself and Mr. Ray Zimmer. All
right. So we couple of things. Massios had to have a labor adjustment. So Massios our food services had to hire an additional staff member due to changes that happened between the date of the bid specs and the beginning of the school year. That coupled with an increase in the minimum wage caused them
to charge more for the additional staff member. last shows was asking for over $90,000, but Mr. Slam negotiated and got them down. Now, I think I saw it's like 66, was it? Yeah. All right. Was it in 60 right? Okay. Uh, number two, we sold
our bonds and got a pretty good rate for the EIP of 4.008%. Mr. Slam is having the contract with Honeywell reviewed by our bonds council. It may have already done that from when we had the meeting. We are getting the bond funds. We got them July 16th. And
Mr. Slam is opening a new account with Provident Bank to keep the EIP money separate. He connected to a sweep account which has slightly better interest rates and make sure that the money is insured by the FDIC since each bank will have less than $250,000 involved. Um we explored a lease
purchase agreement for a vehicle replacement. We are using a lease purchase contract through a co-op to replace three trucks and two vans. The benefit being that we will own the vehicles at the end of the lease and we can spread the payments out. And next application for additional tax
levy. That was such a a big deal for us. The application had to be redone to comply with the state language that says it's for a thorough and efficient education. We were told that once it is approved that we can apply to transfer the funds to our projects and it will be approved. And then a couple of things
from buildings and grounds. Uh, Walnut Ridge entryway steel painting. The rails and the steel on top of the canopy were painted to match the canopy. Thank you, Carl, for noticing all of that. Um, our BTHS auditorium, the high school
auditorium air conditioner, uh, the rooftop unit had to have a repair. Mr. Vancirk was able to get the air conditioning repaired inhouse for about a third of the cost of what a contractor would have charged, which was really good. Um, the Rolling Hills playground is going
forward. the PO was issued and we're working with the vendor to schedule time to install that. Um the Walnut Ridge playground as well. The PO was issued from the PEA budget and we're looking to have it installed by September for the beginning of school. And last thing is
uh the PO is issued for the softball dugouts uh dugouts rather and we're working with the vendor to get them installed. They are a chain link type and we're looking to replace the baseball fields dugouts with the same type going forward. And one last thing, during the kitchen renovation project,
it was discovered that mold was all over the drywall behind the freezer. Mr. Van Kirk is working with the remediation company to resolve that. And that's it. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Krauss. Uh, Mr. Zimmerman, negotiations.
>> Did we meet for our first time? >> You have no mic. >> No, you need a mic. >> I'm trying to be really far from Joe. M. So we met for the first time. In attendance was myself, John Krauss,
Charles Smaglia, and Jennifer Pellet. And for obvious reasons, I'm not really going to discuss much that was discussed there. Thank you. >> Okay. >> Thank you, Mr. Pres. >> Oh, you did have a meeting. I'm sorry. Okay. Um, yeah, we can't cover that.
>> Thank you. I don't really have much to say. Uh we had a policy meeting. We actually missed our meeting and we we didn't have a meeting this month, but we did have one after the last meeting uh board meeting last month on Jul uh June 16th. Um
Russ, Vinnie, John, myself, Matt, we talked about the uh AI policy. Um I don't I just want to give a brief overview of it because we it's not finalized yet or we're not presenting it yet. Uh we are going to pass it on to
the technology committee. Um we >> right >> no technology. Yeah. >> I thought it was going to curriculum. >> Yeah. He told me it was going to curriculum. >> Okay. >> Okay. Yeah. Either way. Um so curriculum
and then um so a couple things I just want to highlight. We we we're not talking about generative AI. We're embracing the whole thing uh artificial intelligence. Um because we thought it was to focus on one area. It I don't
think it would help us. There's so much emerging technologies right now that we should encompass everything. Um part of our we we and we went through um use a template from Strauss and uh so we went through and deleted a bunch of stuff,
right? uh put it up to the way we want it for us. Um, another thing is uh as far as it's there's portions of it we want to allow the the the
uh code of conduct and and and and stuff for curriculum for like we have policies for uh plagiarism. We don't want to mention that in here because that's addressed somewhere else. We also um as far as staffing goes, we have other
technology um uh policies that that focus on on how staff should use technology and what what there there are. So that's also removed from here and the um
the and then um so um well we're we're we're looking to make it the plan of this is to make it very useful for for the administration and the school district to use a general. So we're not
specifically mentioning technologies here. It's going to we're we we're referencing where they can find it. So, if there's a list that's going to be presented that the district approves, this has to be something that
um the technology department or the administration as a whole or the curriculum um go over and they say, "All right, we need this. We need this AI unit uh pro program. If we put it in a policy, it would take two months before
we can use it. And it may be a need for it to use it further. So, it's flexible enough so that the uh administration has a lot of room so they can keep not business going, but keep the school district going with uh without having to make a new policy every single month.
So, that's where we are. Um it's it's it's looking good. I think we had it we spent about an hour um going over that just that policy. Um, so we're pretty hop h open h open h open h open h open h open h open h open h open h open hop to have this out the for the next meeting and then uh approved approved sometime
uh the end of the year. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Anybody have any questions? >> Great. So moving on to item M public comment. This public comment session is for items on the agenda only or student related matters. Uh do we have
>> public comment? Yeah, this is the one for agenda items only though. Ma'am, >> can you give me five minutes? I have somebody. >> I understand. I understand. Just let me check with my board secretary. >> Can we make a special Yeah, I have to check. I'm sorry. Can we make a special
circumstance due to the fact that this gentleman or is that going to open us up to >> problems? We're going to make a special of your sit because your what you say your situation is. We will let you. Thank you very much. Yeah, we just I just don't feel comfortable make having
>> My name's Robert Candy. >> Read the um >> Oh, I'm sorry. I do have to >> I just have a thing I have to read before. >> Oh, I'm sorry. >> Yeah. And you do have every meeting. You can stay up there. Yeah. >> Yeah, you can stand up. >> You can sign. You can sign in at the podium. >> Yeah, use that time to sign in. >> Sorry.
>> Uh letter M, public comment agenda items only students. Um during the course of the public meeting of the Burning Board of Education, the public is offered the opportunity to address the board on agenda items and any issues regarding the school district. The board reminds us individuals who take this opportunity that they must identify themselves by name and section of town and limit their
comments to agenda items and or issues that directly relate to the operation of the school district. Issues that are raised by the members of the public may or may not be responded to by the board or administration at the time of the meeting or at any time. All comments will be considered and response will be forthcoming if and when appropriate. The board requests that members of the
public keep their comments a limit of five minutes. Be courteous, respectful, and mindful of the rights of other individuals when speaking. Specifically, comments regarding students and employees of the board of teaching should be thoroughly considered by the speaker and may or may not be responded to by the board or administration. Be advised that students and employees have
rights of confidentiality and other protections under the law. Students name should never be used. The board bears no responsibility and will be liable for any comments made by the public during the public portion of the board meeting. Members of the public should consider their comments in light of the legal rights of those affected or identified
in their comments and be aware that they are personally legally responsible with potential liability for the comments that they made to the board. >> Would you mind stating your name? >> Uh yes, my name is Robert Kennedy. Uh I'm a Vernon Township resident of 21 years. Uh my wife uh I'm here on behalf
of my wife because she cannot be here to speak before you. She's also a taxpayer of 21 years. She's also a Vernon Township uh uh school district employee. Uh she dictated a letter to me to speak
to you. So, if I may, I'm just going to read her letter. Okay? And what's in it? If you got to tell me to stop, I'll stop. Whatever it is. Okay. My name is Debbie Kennedy. I've been employed by the Vernon Township School District for
over nine years as a special needs aid. Uh during the nine years, it's been a blessing and a pleasure working with the students and teachers alike. Unfortunately, in February 2025, I was diagnosed with stage three cancer. The board was
gracious enough to grant her family leave. Thank you very much. While in February, I applied for the state for temporary disability. I was denied in March by the human resources department for not having enough hours
worked within a 12-month period, which is 1,250 hours. It's a state law. Debbie sat and said, "How could I be denied? I worked here for nine years straight to include summer hours, okay?
Uh summer program." So, she would work the entire year, take two weeks off, go back to work, take three weeks off, and then go back in September. So she questioned, "How am I not eligible?" All right. So she calls the state. Uh I
called the state and uh the state told me to contact HR to get a better accounting of the hours. I made contact with count. Can I use her name or no? >> Uh no, let's not. >> I made contact with human resources on Monday, April 18th, and was told to
call back due to Easter break. Okay. We called back on the 28th. We left a message. No return call. We waited a few days. Called back on the 5th. Left a message. Nothing.
On May 6th, mind you, you guys gave her leave in February. Now we're in May. On May 6th, human resources department employee called our home at 8:30 in the morning saying that we needed to give her the
hours. How how how whatever. This is my wife's letter, but um excuse me. Uh they called at 8:30 in the morning asking for us to give the hours because she was busy doing some type of audit. She was doing
an audit for the state, for the county, whatever it was. But she made it clear that she was busy. Um I had to, you know, the phone was on the uh you know, everybody can hear it. So I I said, "Listen, lady, this woman
is still your employee. You have to give her her hours." So her, you know, her tone was not pleasant. But anyway, after a week of contacting human resources, she my wife received a call saying that it's good news. They found 80 more
hours. But mind you, she was already denied. How do How do you do that? How do you find 80 hours? Somebody's not doing their job. Okay. 1.2 hours. 2.5 hours. Okay. 80. You're not doing your job. I'm
sorry. That's tech. That's taxpayer Rob talking. It's not my wife. All right. So, the math is way off. She asked to see in person. I will come in person. We'll go line by line, hour by
hour. We were stonewalled. uh there I can't say the woman's name but she said there's nothing we can do if I had an issue we were to talk to somebody with the NJA so we contacted an NJA rep I guess that's here in Vernon
can't use her name but my wife wanted to speak to the head of HR she again before she spoke to the NJA she was stonewalled okay she then contacted the NJA lady, can't use names, who explained to me
that she'll be getting in contact with another NJA rep down in Newark uh to get and would get back to me. So during the month of June and July again, >> just giving you a 30 second morning 30. >> Really?
>> Is that what you said? Yes. >> Then then my son can come up here and take five minutes then he'll read the rest. >> Okay. >> Unbelievable. I >> I have to >> Unbelievable. I have to run the meeting by the way. >> The woman worked here for 10 years. >> I'm I I have to run.
>> I don't care about the rules. >> Okay. >> Unbelievable. Why am I standing in front of you asking for the Okay. Um, do we have anyone else in the queue for public comments?
>> Okay. Uh, item N, superintendent report. Mr. Rogers. Um when I first started uh we're coming out of virtual learning and but we our main focus had always been on uh growth
mindset and uh and we've always been talking about as a board about achievement as well and uh it was just nice to I think you're going to hear about achievement and the presentations we had tonight and the presentations you're going to have in the future when you hear about QAC as well. Um, but I
just want to uh thank the uh the staff, the teachers and administrations for their support through these difficult times to get us there. And I'm very ex excited about the future of Vernon as well with uh with Mrs. Deendez and and
the board's support as well. And I'm excited to see uh continued uh continued growth in the district. And uh even though I'm not going to be the superintendent, I'm going to be very proud of Vernon and and and what what you'll be accomplishing in the future. And uh I wanted to thank you for the the
plaque of appreciation tonight. Umformational matters. Uh we we have a lot of programs running this summer that a lot of people aren't aware of. Uh summer programs. We have Cedar Mountain Primary School July 7th to 31st Monday through Friday 8:30 to
12:30. It's our extended year program for students who are at risk as significant regression over the summer. Uh we have one more week of that. They'll be ending the same time I'll be ending the 31st. Uh same with Glenn Meadows Middle School. Uh they have a CCLC program that runs July 7th through
the 31st, Monday through Thursday, 8 through 1:00. Um again, it's it's it's a great program for students. Unfortunately, it is federal federally funded and I did send a letter out to parents because we're still unaware of uh whether we'll be giving that funding
for the 202526 school year, but I wanted parents to be informed as soon as possible about the possible implications of that of of federal funding in that program. Vernon Township High School Jul J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J June 23rd to July 11th, they ran their summer credit
retrieval program where 121 students took 176 courses with a with a great deal of success. I'm really uh happy about that. It's students putting the time in the summer to get back on track and uh to get their credits that they need so that they can have a successful
graduation uh their their senior year or to maintain the diploma uh that over the summer as well. Special thanks to amazing staff for making the programming happen for our students. We've teamed up with the Vernon PAL to bring a summer camp to Lansbury Hollow. Uh I thought we had a lot of participants at the board meeting tonight when all the cars are
outside. It was the summer camp, but I do appreciate everyone in the crowd as well. Um Walnut Ridge School preschool program is expanding. We're adding three new classrooms to the school building this summer, plus the two additional classes in partnership with local daycarees. And I think that provides an excellent
service for all of our uh all of our community members with three and four year olds in community for pretty much a free preschool education. There is a wait list, however, and we're we're working on that uh uh as as the year progresses to see uh any possibilities
of of openings. I think we have over 300 students involved in that program. We've teamed uh this summer Vernon Township High School is buzzing with activity, holding a variety of youth sports camps, high school sports summer workouts, and band camp. you go up to the high school, you'll see kids outside uh and various
activities. Congratulations to Samantha Janice who was invited to compete in the New Balance Outdoor Nationals in the freshman division. She ran the third fastest time of the year in the 100 meters and also performed well in the 200. We're also pleased to announce the district's artist of the month for July.
The Vernon Township High School students artwork is being displayed at the board office and municipal building. B a harassment, intimidation, and bullying report for the month of June is in attachment A. And we have our enrollment report in attachment B as well. Recommendations.
This is where it all happens since there's one meeting in July. Hopefully we get all this done so there's not much in in uh in August as well. There's also an addendum as well. Make sure you see that uh line 46 and a couple other appointments CD as well. So, it's quite
a long list of appointments and corrections and hours adjustments. Um, in your time, I'm sure you look to look that over already. Usually, those are the questions I have in our agenda review. Uh, it is recommended that the board approved the following appointments for
the 2025 ESY extended school year program. We run Mondays through Fridays and that was from 7:7 to 7:31 for a total of 19 days. And a lot of that is finding the right um right matches for for aids and support for students during that program.
Letter C, it is recommended that the board approve the following 202526 stipen appointments as listed below. Uh, letter D, it is recommended the board approve the following staff for summer 2025 curriculum work. Letter E, it is recommended that the
board approve the following positions for the Vernon Township High School summer acceleration program which runs Monday through Friday and commences on June 23rd. We talked about those dates as well. Um, there were RPO positions. Um, letter F, it is recommended that the
board approve the following staff for freshman academy orientation and planning at the rate of 125 a day, not exceed 25 total days. Letter G, it is recommended that the board approve the substitute teacher secretaries to be inactivated, no longer accepting or DM assignments for the
202526 school year. Letter H is recommended that the board approve the revision of resolution 2J1 from certified staff member approved for nights back attendance beyond stipen amount of $50. According it accordingly is recommended that uh Leo Chance be
approved for the same number of nights 43 and the same 2425 amount uh noted in the original resolution in place of the prior staff member. Letter I. It is recommended that the board approve professional development in table below.
Uh notice that it doesn't have reference to title two title funding. We're still uh waiting uh results on what type of that funding was held as well. We have title one funding. That's about it right now for
>> not sure if the title one allocations came out yet, but >> they haven't title one hasn't come out either. >> I'm not sure if they've heard anything about empowerment. Title one. two, three, four, >> but these are necessary trainings for our staff. It is recommended that the board approve the random drug testing
safety school reports for 2025. Attachment C, it's recommended that the board approve the uh mentoring plan. Attachment B. Letter L, it is recommended the board approve the harassment, intimidation, and bullying reports reviewed at the June 12th, 2025 meeting. Letter M, it is recommended the
board approve adopting the Vernon Township School District policy manual for 202526 school year. policy committee spent a lot of time that has recommended the board approve all certified teachers for bedside tunering as needed for the 202526 school year. It's recommended that the board authorized the
superintendent to extend offers of employment for 202526 school year letter of intent during July and August to such candidates the superintendent deems worthy of employment upon terms as a superintendent deems advisable consistent with applicable collective negotiations agreements and subject to
ratification at a later date for the board. It's recommended the board approve the Mckin Vento LEA general intent to collaborate between Bernington School District and Bern County Special Services for 202526 school year. Funding for this program comes from the New Jersey Department of Education. Letter Q. It is recommended the board approve
the law enforcement against drugs or lead programs for the 202526 school year which will encompass instruction for grades five and seven by the Vernancha Police Department. Letter R is recommended that the board approve the memorandum of understanding for live streaming video between the Vernon Police Department and Vernon Public
School District for the 202526 school year and attachment D. Letter S. It is recommended the board approve the memorandum agreement between the Vernon Police Department and the Vernon Public School District for 202526 school year and attachment F. is recommended that the board approve establishing letter T
and erra class ERRI class at Rolling Hills Primary School for the 202526 school year in accord letter U in accordance with public law 2001 uh chapter 2299 amending section one of the public law uh 1982 chapter 163 the school district's school safety data
systems report is attached etc attachment she Okay, >> I'm s I'm saving the next superintendent for the August meeting. You're welcome. >> Can I get a motion for superintendent
resolutions N2A through N2U? >> Second. >> Questions or comments? >> Yeah, well, I I I reference the addendum because they were separate separate uh classes that were added at the high school as well as a couple uh positions
that were were absent at questions. >> Oh, I do have one question. >> Okay, go ahead. >> That was moved and second, but I decided hold on. I wrote it down over here somewhere. >> Oh, all right. We're talking about the federal funding being withheld. Now,
you're not even sure about title one, two, and what's the other one? Four that we get. >> Um, so title two. So, in general, title two, three, and four we uh have been impounded. We had usually receive two and four. Um I don't believe rece I
don't believe we receive any title three funding here. In terms of title one, uh we usually receive those allocations in July. I don't believe those have come out yet, but I also have not really heard much in terms of a poundment of title one. Um so I think you know it's still developing in terms of whether
what funding we will will receive or won't receive. >> I have one more question. The Perkins grant is also a federal funded itself. Do you know have you have heard anything about the Perkins grant not being funded going forward?
>> It is. >> That's good. >> Yeah, that's the um >> Joe had question. >> Oh, yeah. I don't understand recommendation H. >> Could you educate me? >> Um that's to provide uh hours within the
contract that there's not a stipen for and that uh we we would not include a a stipen. >> Vinnie, you want to speak that a little bit? >> It says resolution 2JI. Where is that resolution? >> Previous board meeting. >> That's correct. So, uh in a previous
board meeting, someone was approved for this. However, that individual no longer changed. >> Yeah, the person changed basically. >> So, the resolution of 2JI from board meeting last month or Uh, I don't know if that might have to go back and check, but it's the same wording just we changed the individual
because that's not the person who is going to be. >> Yeah. Yep. >> We're approving it for the year in advance. Correct. >> This is for this past year. What happened was we had someone resign in October of last year. This is the person who replaced them. So, the person who
resigned was originally approved to get these and now we need to switch to the person who replaced them after resignation. Thank you, >> Charlie. >> I have question um um B on B. Um there's
a this is not is that an hourly rate for substitute teacher or is that flat rate for the day? Um looks like the one two three four fifth left one down. Page nine. I believe they're all hourly rates and
that person's rate is a is a rate for the 4.25. >> There might be a typo. >> Charlie, are you talking about five down? >> Yeah, >> there's another one. There's two. There's two two others. >> So, that must be
>> I will I will double check. I believe that all those are I'd have to look in the contract. Those are per those are per day rates for the subs and all the other rates are hourly rates because they're aids. >> That's that sounds right. >> Yeah, I would have it would have been
nice to put slash per dam slash hourly. >> So that's a pretty hefty amount for a day, half a day. Our substitute teachers don't get that much, do they?
>> Our certified teachers do. And usually these these needs are for specific needs >> during the school year. What does certified teacher sub get? >> Certified sub or certified certified sub. >> The subs the subs are 150 per day. But like I said, these are teachers day.
>> These these are position these are yeah these are teachers that that have specifics for for students in the ESI program. Yeah, I won't be here, but leave a note for your replacement. >> She's taking notes. Very good.
>> Um, anyone else? Okay. I had one for um item N2U, uh, the student u safety data um attachment G. I just noticed this today, but um, so we have like some some just
real changes here like the the number of incidents of violence, vandalism, substances, whatever at the high school is 32. But then it says other incidents leading to removal 328. What does that refer to? What are other incidents? >> Well, I was looking at the changes from
year to year and I had her desate some of this data that I was going to share with uh this is de tmenez as well to see what what numbers are going up and why. Um I I do know at the high school some of the incidents have increased uh because of the cell phone policy but it
didn't make up the difference like a lot of these incidents have have gone up. Are you looking at SSDs? >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Right. So like I said I was probably going to have a discussion with >> a more detailed discussion >> to to dig a little bit deeper. a lot of the the principles in and people I
wanted to talk to were were were not in this week but that would be my follow with those principles to have the discussion of uh why is there upward upper trend with certain incidents. I started doing that the last couple days and uh the only thing I noticed was at the high school there was quite a bit of
increase because of the cell phone policy but it that wasn't the total difference. So that would those discussions would be had with the uh the high school and middle school uh principles and assistant principles. >> Okay. So you're talking about the increase from the previous year, which I can't even I didn't even see on here,
but I was more asking what I and it's just a a I'm sure it's just something I'm not aware of, but um there's the incidents column with the little asterisk that says violence, vandalism, substances, weapons, and HIV confirmed. And then there's a column that says
other incidents leading to removal. I am I wrong like does that mean removal from school and if so >> it means removal from class so it could be an ISS ISS as well as analysis >> okay I I just I just didn't understand
what that is called >> All right so when you do that trend data um you're going to share with us as well >> well yes when when the trend that conversation will be probably a good followup in one of our uh probably committee meetings that to do an
analysis of of what happened with some of these. Uh I I know that some of the restraints inclusions may be um specific to specific students at what grade levels are at at the time. We we had decreased them in past years.
>> So I think we can have discussions about those. >> Okay. Um Okay, great. Thank you. Uh, we're ready for roll code. Send >> Dr. Ross. >> Yes.
>> Mr. Sweeney. >> Yes. >> Miss Ferella. >> Yes. >> Mr. Zimmerman. >> Yes. >> Mr. Sagalia. >> Yes. >> Mr. Canino? >> Yes. >> Mr. Fischer? >> Hi. >> Mr. Krauss. >> Yes. >> Miss Plet.
>> Yes. >> Motion carries. >> It move. Mr. So, first I just wanted to um start off by echoing some of Miss Pellet's sentiments earlier about Mr. Rogers retirement. Um just want to add that I'm very grateful to be a part of Mr. Rogers
time here. Uh it's been a privilege to work with him. Um and that as his BA, I'm extremely sad to see him go, but as his friend, I wish him a very restful and joyfilled retirement. Uh and it's very welld deserved. And uh I look forward to seeing you come back at our
next budget meeting so I can talk about talk about excess surplus and fund balance. He asked me to talk about it tonight. The meeting got a little long so I cut it out of the speech. But boy were you guys in for a good presentation on that. But uh all kidding aside, uh
it's been great working with you and now you will be missed. >> Thank you for teaching me so much about school budgets in the last couple years, Ray. I really do appreciate it because we had to uh uh dig deep and make a make a lot of cuffs cuts to survive these state cuts and I I I I'm very happy at
where we're leading the school district right now in the current year's budget to be able to to achieve and meet your goals and I think some of them will be academic and some of them will be facility related this year that we'll be able to reach this year. So I'm excited about the the the upcoming year with
Mrs. Mrs. amendments as well >> and I look forward to going over all the financials just in as in depth with you as well. >> Woohoo. >> So, uh discussionformational items uh use of buildings and grounds letter A as noted below.
Letter B is field trips as noted below. And then literacy is just a reminder that petitions for November elections are due by Monday, July 28th at 4 PM to the Sussex County Clerk's Office for anyone interested in running for a board
of education um position. Uh number two is recommendations. Um you'll notice uh just as I'm calling this out on the addendum, you'll see the re reports uh were included on the addendum attachment F5 and F6. That'll be for letter A and B that I'm about to
read. Uh actually letter B I'm about to read. Uh that's because we're in June uh which is what month these reports are for. That's the last month of our financial year. Uh so it takes a bit longer to close out the entire year. So that's why a little bit of a delay in getting those reports. Uh so it item A
is rein the board approve the following financial reports as noted below. That's attachment F4. Letter B approval of the board sectors and treasures reports. As noted below it's attachment F5 and F6. Those are the two attachments that were included on the addendum. Letter Circuit the board approved
transportation uh as listed below. We have the July 2025 transportation quotes. So quoted routes, quoted trips. Uh we have bids that were received on June 11th for extended school year results. Uh you have the uh jointure with the
High Point Regional Board of Education, jointure with Sussex Swanage. Uh then letter D you have sent for 2025 2026. Whereas the special services department has determined that individual students require special education placement based on their individual needs. Whereas special services department has determined that services are needed will
continue until June 30, 2026. Whereas the special services department has determined that the school/ services below is the most appropriate placement. Therefore be resolved that Vern Township Board of Education approves the contracts as listed below. Letter E is recommend that the board approve the disposition of the following items. Is there either obsolete or in disrepair?
Letter F is recommended that the board approve the SAFE, that's the school alliance insurance fund assessment proposal for the 2526 fund year in the amount of 1,450,000 491,450,497. That's attachment F7. Letter G is recommended the board approve the turn
in renewal agreement for 2526 school year in amount of $8,473. That's attachment F8. Letter H is recommended that the board approved the submission of the application and the acceptance of funds for the 2526 Perkins v CTE grant and the following amounts. Uh just a quick note, we did um receive
notification that those amounts would change slightly. So you'll be seeing this resolution again, but we thought it was important to get an acceptance on uh an approval for putting the application in. Uh so you'll probably see revised resolution moving forward probably in August for that. Letter I is a requirement that the board approved renewing the policy alert and support
system contract with Shme Associates LLP for July 1st 2025 to June 30, 2026. Total cost $5,15. Letter J is recommended that the board approve the agreement between Vernon Township Board of Education and Atlantic Health System uh at Spartan Newton Urgent Care for the
provision of medical services including drug and alcohol testing and physical examinations effective July 1st 2025 to June 30th 2026. Certainly, the board accept the donation to the following items from Hagert Environmental as noted below. I just want to stop to say uh thank you and that we appreciate those
donations and uh working with the district uh to get those uh delivered to help the students center programs. Letter L uh is recommended that the board approve independent contractors as the EB operator for the school district. Letter M is recommended the board
approve the following resolution as uh noted below. Um the short version of that is essentially that the threshold uh for bidding has gone up uh since I had my QPA. It's gone from 44,000 to 53,000. Uh which results in also the cold threshold going up. That
cult threshold is 15% of the new bid threshold. Um stuff that BAS get excited about but no one else even knows happens. All right. So letter N application for uh toilet room facilities for all intervention pre kindergarten preschool programs and kindergarten classrooms as
noted below. This is related to the pea program. Uh letter O application for dual use of educational space as noted below. Letter P is recommended the board approve the quasi entity for the Vernon Township School District. That's Walnut Ridge School SCA which is new. Uh letter
Q uh it is recommended the board approve Williams and Spitzer PA as bond council. Uh letter R is going to the board approve Raymond Slam the business ministry/board secretary in accordance with NJSA 18A18A-21B
to as authorized to publicly receive bids unseal them and announce the contents in the absence or unavailability of the block purchasing agent the board of education authorizes Pamela Katchar assistant to the business administrator to publicly receive bids and seal them and announce the contents. The effective date of this this recommendation July 1st, 2025 through
June 30th, 2026. Letter S is recommended the board approve the non-resident tuition agreement for student number 22594 with 2526 school year as an 11th grade student. Tuition will be $16,287. Letter T is recommended the board approve the 2026 senior prom contract
with Blue Arrow Farm $12,51 at staff F9. Letter U is recommended the board approve Skyland urgent care for mandatory drug school drug and alcohol testing for 2526 school year. Letter V is recommended the board approve the following resolution. Whereas it's recommended the board
approve an award for the snow plowing/ sweeping services for intera Township school district. Whereas one seal bid for said services was received from Earth Tech Associates. Whereas the Vernon Township Board of Education will accept the bid for snowplowing/ sweeping services at the Vern Township Schools District. Therefore be resolved that the
Vern Township's Board of Education hereby awards the contract for snowplowing sweeping services to Earth Associates, Inc. in accordance with the July 11th, 2025 bid in the following amounts uh as noted below. Letter W is the board approve and accept the 2526
application funds to the IDA consolidate grant as noted below. Letter X is that the board approve payment to Mashia's food services for the supplemental billing for the labor differential during the 2425 school year in amount of $66,900. Letter Y is recommended the board approve the list of additions and
deletions to the fixed asset list as attachment F10. Letter Z is recommended the business administration and the food service management company by the business manure and the food services manage company that the board approve a 25cent increase for breakfast at each level and 25 uh cent increase for lunch
as at each level as noted below. Uh letter A, it is recommended that the board approve the proposal from Easley uh for deadly weapons protection for the 2526 school in amount of $8,000. That's everything. >> That is everything. Okay, great. Making
a motion to approve the business administrators resolutions um O2A through O2A. >> So move second questions or comments. >> I have one Carl. >> Okay. So, I notice on the out of
district placements that there is one student being sent to a location that's not on the list of approved public um >> I think I think Ry said that you found out that it was.
>> Yeah. So, I I did reach out and u that's actually a state placement and uh I confirmed with the director of association that it is on the the approved private school list. >> Okay. Thank you, >> sir. >> Yeah. I I just want to look at item uh
J. It's recommended a board approved Vernon Township and Atlantic Health System. I I know we sent out to other places for drug and alcohol testing, but it also says physical exams. Don't we have Dr. Fischer that does that? The physical exam stuff
or have we changed it? I don't know. >> Do you have history on Dr. Fisher? I think we me I think we put him in as the doctor of record. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. He's a school physician but I believe students uh get their own
physicals to participate in activities. >> I know some of the board members have a I think you students get their own physicals correct >> for sports. Yeah, >> they do. But why do we need to approve an urgent care to provide them if
they're getting >> so uh so uh these physicals wouldn't necessarily be related to sports. These physicals will be related to um random drug testing or uh the ability to return to school.
>> Yeah, that makes sense. And I have one more thing. I just want to comment that the labor differential number was over 90,000 that they asked for and I would just want to congratulate you. Thank you for bringing it down to 669. Good job. >> Thanks. And I just want to say the um
food service program uh even with that differential uh still made a profit of about $100,000. Um my profit it's not an actual profit, right? It goes directly back into the program because that's the only way you're actually allowed to spend the money. >> Thank you. >> Right.
So aa is recommended the board approve the proposal from beasley for deadly weapons protection for a grant. What what exactly is that? Like approve vests. >> That's a separate and sure we talked.
>> Uh so it's a separate um coverage that's been recommended by our insurance broker that we didn't previously have under safe. Um and it would cover um you know any inst you know incidences that would involve you know deadly weapons.
Unfortunately it's something that you know schools have had to start to think more about in terms of you know insurance. >> All right. >> Um but that's why it's something new that we haven't seen in the past. >> Okay. >> So Beasley is an insurance company. >> Yep. Yeah. So it's uh
>> Yeah. Beasley. Yep. Uh but it was uh the quotes uh were received through uh safe through our through our insurance broker. It was something that was missing from the initial safe package that they went out uh and based off of the environment they went and looked at different options and
then they brought this option to us with a recommendation. >> So I have >> I'm done >> about safe the proposal of 1.4. How does that compare to last year and what did we budget for this? Um, so
I don't have the number for off the top of my head. Uh, it was probably about a um maybe 3 to 5% increase I would say. Um, we were anticipating um a 12% increase.
So uh that means that we were able to >> came in on the budget. >> Yeah, it came in under budget which is great. Yeah. Same thing with the regards to the snow plowing. >> So that is going to depend greatly on the weather, right? >> What was the bid? I mean, this says uh
cost is >> like per incident or >> so it's it's per inch. Um >> is it the same? >> That could get ugly. Uh >> I'd have to go back and check. Um
because I actually revamped the bid specs this year. So I I don't know that >> I have to go back and see if it's if it was apples to apples, but I can I can check. Um >> it is the provider that we currently have, right? >> Uh usually you hope for more
competition, right? But we only receive the one bid. So >> do a good job. >> Yeah. Yeah. No, no complaints. Uh I've have not I've heard no complaints with the services they've been providing. So >> thank you. Um the the bids I just wanted that the
that's we only one bid was um was awarded per uh group, right? I just it got confusing for a second but then I reread it. The bids for the for the buses SR 16 section six SR16 RF SR 17. I
had it back up. Yeah. >> I just want to make sure I read it right. Yeah. So, um, >> we took the lowest bid, right? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> And then I just had a question. I mean, we got these, um, I mean, I love I love
donations and I think it's great and I appreciate when people reach out. What What's an $80 computer? I mean, if I can sell an $80 computer to one of my clients, they would love me. But >> I think
>> scrolling down. Sorry. Hold on. Uh >> that's the estimated retail val retail value. He's donating all of the or Agra isn't is donating all this to school. >> So you can see the estimated value of the donation. >> So
it's not >> I'm not saying we're buying it. I know we're we're getting it. But >> is it useful? I guess is that >> is it a is it the actual Oh yeah, it is. or the >> like some of the stuff is great. >> What does workstation mean? Does it mean like
is that the act just a computer or is that >> Charlie that's going to be your new computer? >> I was actually going to set it up tonight for you because there's there's a >> workstation's a desktop computer. >> There's a course associated with getting rid of it, right?
>> Yeah. >> So, if it's not useful for a year, we're paying we're probably paying more to accept the donation. I I think they're for science labs. So maybe have a specific use. So instead of being like an actual uh
be an actual >> Oh, are these for Dr. Chef? What? Okay. >> We were um Mr. Gur was wonderful to give us this amazing donation. We had computer parts and pieces and things
like that that Mr. was able to go through and he could glean anything that he thought we could use to supplement what we already had. >> Okay. >> So that was that was we're not planning on giving his computer to >> for a student right
that part up. So yeah he he Nick went through everything to see went through anything that he thought we could possibly use thesis art any type of technology that he thought we could use. He didn't take anything to have to So our IT supervisor screen all
>> Okay. >> She did. She did the science app. >> Got it. >> It's a nice list you have there for science. >> Yes. Hot plates, scales, gun. >> That was it. >> That's it. Okay. For item S, um I just
want to confirm that non-resident tuition agreement. That's money that we're getting. The tuition we're getting for that student. >> Yeah, that's correct. We talked about it in earlier close sessions. >> Okay, got it. Great. That's all I had. Um,
so do we want to move to a roll call? Oh, anybody else? >> Yes. >> Mr. Sweeney? >> Yes. >> Miss Varela? >> Yes. >> Mr. Zurman? >> Yes.
>> Mr. Smagalia? Yes, >> Mr. Cino. >> Yes, >> Mr. Fischer. >> I >> Mr. Krauss. >> Yes, >> Miss Pellet. >> Yes, >> Dr. Ross. >> Yes. >> Motion carries. >> Okay. Item P, public comment. Do we have
anyone from the public who would like to comment? Finish chewing first. Anthony Rossy, >> don't forget to sign in. I'll give you a second to finish. >> Okay, I'll sign in. >> Okay. >> Um, I just want to say uh it's it's a
pleasure to see some of the art coming out of my office. So, from students, their art exhibit is right in front of my office. So, it's a pleasure to see that. Um, one of the things I I I I found really really the uh Kelly Mitchell was given that assessment. I
think sometimes we always lose uh how we're doing as the elected officials or so it was good kind of to see where we we gauge on some things and where we can improve. And I I thought that was that was a pretty pretty nice add uh addition to to the meeting
tonight. Just bring it out there. Uh, one of the things that you guys kept talking about was how to communicate with the public, right? Social media and I know those phones. I believe you guys haven't, but I wasn't going to mention this, but you'll hear how to press now
that Vernon Township is releasing is going to go live with our own application for the for the township. And one of the things in there we could add board of education. Um, so if you guys want to you guys want access to
that section, um, and you want to put something out there, you guys can do that part of it yourself. We can this way if you can get communication out there. It'll have notifications. Uh, we'll I'll give out the whole display of the app. Again, I wasn't prepared to talk about that, but I know it was a
subject today about how to get communication out there more. So that's a way that it's another way of bringing us a little bit together as well as a community. So be more than happy to that's pretty cool app and uh looking forward to to release. We just started building it. So it'll work out some of
the kinks and then we'll we'll go ahead and release that live uh soon. Um, early June, Miss I may guess of her name, Hordage, she uh from Rowan Hills, all of our students sent me some very nice
letters. Uh, they expressed their appreciation for everything that that we've been doing in the town. They also asked uh they gave me some of their ideas, some of the things that they want. Um, and I will tell you, I have read every single one of them. And then I had some of my staff read them as
well. Some of them were the inclusive park, rubber mulch uh in the in the playgrounds of garden um garden planters and a splash park, which I thought was a great idea. >> Um but I I have to say the most
inspiring was that they just didn't say, "Hey, we just want right." they all asked to to work for it, raise money, uh to to sell lemonade. I mean, they all look to fund raise these
items. And I and I thought that was that was really great to to see that we have a younger generation coming up that's not just looking for the handout. So, um they were built to work for it. It speaks volumes for for the children uh
in Vernon and and our future society. Um, congratulations on the the test scoring. That's all got up. I I come maybe an old little old school background where I know some of the school the teachers would I know some of
the administration will get beat up on lower test scores. I've come from a generation where it's where's the responsibility and the children and parents, right? That's just where I've come from and you know from my background. But but happy to see that everything's gone up and it shows that
uh I I know coming out of co was tough for all the kids and and to see see I mean there still some today we're still going through the challenges of finances and coming out of that horrible time frame and it's good to see that our that
that the kids are coming out of that too and it's good to see that everything's going up. So really good to see that. Anyway, tomorrow we have the safety town graduation at the PAL. Uh so be a bunch of students there as well. And I just
want to say uh enjoy Russ your your retirement. It's been a really a pleasure and I I've met a I got a friend out of this and um you'll be missed. So I I appreciate you opening up the door for again for for my administration to
come in and help try to find ways that we could save money and we we've done that. And I and I hope to keep expanding that. I think we'll we'll do great things and I think it's very good. So, thank you guys again for everything and that's it. >> I'll see you at safety town tomorrow.
Mrs. Sparta made sure there was a representative there from the schools. >> Take care guys. Have a great >> Thank you, Miss >> Um any any other public comments online? >> No attendees.
>> No attendees. Okay. Anyone else in the public who would like to comment? >> No. >> Okay. >> Item Q, open board member forum. Um, anyone like >> Oh, right. I'm looking at my usuals. >> Oh, yeah. It's every now and then, you
know, some >> good change. So I would just like to say that you know many years back there was always talk about selling this building which may given us a temporary money but not significant to make any changes but
to see over 300 kids back in the building. This is where my two kids started course Zimmerman was all the way down the end of the hall like two blocks away but you know so it is good to see the building with a lot of kids in it and they go abroad. Russ for helping
with Vinnie and lots of other people spearheading with Ray the whole kindergarten prek situation and uh it's a good thing and good luck Russ going to be missed. >> Thank you. I want I want to thank all the staff involved in in pulling
together a full day kindergarten on December 16th as well. So it was quite the accomplishment >> from from teachers, custodians, administrators, there there was a lot of work that went by that >> Russ, you have spearheaded our district
through some of the most difficult times it's probably ever faced and you did it with such a grace and a an appreciation for the community. And I just want to thank you for your service and thank you for all I've learned from um as a new
teacher myself. I've modeled a lot of how I've seen you handle stress and my day-to-day activities of managing a class of 30 kids. And I just want to thank you for your service to our district and wish you the best in your retirement. >> We all share that sentiment.
>> I just want to thank thank everyone on the board for the support these three years. They they haven't been easy where where things started and I'm pretty where we're at now. And being the growth mindset person, it's nice to see growth and that that's not just from one one part of the community. It's the board
member support as well and all everything that everyone does at every one of their individual committees for the school as well. >> Thank you. >> Good luck, Liz. >> Thought we were going to escape, but there'll be no old business at the next
board meeting. >> Um, I just want to say thank you, Russ, for for your time and uh and I I'm glad you got to leave on on a high note with with those I'm glad >> grades came out before you left. >> You're gonna see more. >> So and you know I think your leadership
the leadership of the rest of the administration um just it was just great a great way to end the year just seeing those grades come up and beat the state average. So good job there and good luck with uh good luck and I'll you'll see me
mow my lawn. >> I'll see you. Throw some cans and stuff on your lawn. >> I know where you live till you come back. >> Come visit us sometime. >> Okay. Anyone else? Is that it? Okay. Can I get a motion to adjurnn?
>> So move. Second. >> Go. Um. >> All in favor? >> I think you're the only one who said I. >> I said I. Part: 2
Thank you. I'd like to call to order the July 24th public meeting of the Vernon Township Board of Education. Do Mr. Smagley, Mr. Canino, Mr. Fischer
here, Mr. Krauss here, Miss Pellet here, Mr. Sweeney here, Miss Varello, Mr. Zimmerman here. We have a quorum. Excellent.
Okay, let's get a new member for Mhm. [Music] onion. Okay. And then just I I Carolyn Ross
domly swear domly swear or affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of New Jersey that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of New Jersey that I will bear true faith and that I will bear true faith faith
and allegiance to the same people as to the governments established the United States in this state under the authority of the people. So help me God. And to the governments established in the United States in this state under the authority of the people. So help me God. I I Carolyn Ross do solemnly swear or affirm
do solemnly swear or affirm that I possess the qualifications prescribed by the law for the office of member board of education that I possess the qualifications prescribed by law for the office of member of a board of education. the catch. And that I will faithfully and partially
and justly perform all the duties of that office according to the best of my ability. So help me God. And that I will faithfully and partially and justly perform all the duties of that office according to the best of my ability. So help me God. Congratulations. Oh, Stephanie, your job moved up over
here. Moving up in the world. Moving up in the world. Welcome back to me. And Caroline, if we could uh flip your um name. Oh, yeah. To make your your name visible.
Perfect. Yay. All right. How you doing? Okay. Sorry I'm late. Oh, you're all set. Um, so we'll do another roll call to reflect. Mr. Smagalia, Mr. Coutino
here. Mr. Fischer here. Mr. Krauss here. Miss Pallet here. Dr. Ross here. Mr. Sweeney here. Here. Mr. Sarella here. Mr. Zimmerman here. We have a quorum. Excellent. Okay. It is uh is recommended
that the board enter close session for the purposes of discussing legal personnel and student matters. All in favor? I would. We need a motion. So move. Thank you, Carl. Second.
Okay. Now, Thank you. It's recommended that the board return to open session. Can I get a motion? So moved. Second. Okay. Uh thank you. All in favor?
[Music] All right. Item J. This is Mitch. Y. Hi everybody. Thanks for having me again. Um, and thank you for doing the course evaluation. I know it's a little bit of a heavy lift, but it's like super
important to do mostly because you want to build your governance skills and you know, we go ahead and do an evaluation of the superintendent every single year. So, we should evaluate ourselves, right? So, um, thank you for doing that. I
appreciate it. This year is brand new. the uh theation is about 15 years old this year. This rendition of it is brand new. Thank you. So um you'll see in your
packet that there's a overview. That's the one that I'm going to work off of now. And then you have a full copy of all the comments that were made and all the scoring that was made that's underneath there. Um, but we're going to just work off of the overview. And, uh,
usually this is done in like a retreat setting. Uh, because it's summertime and you had the one meeting, we decided to put it into this meeting. So, just pretend that you're in a retreat setting. And, um, it's supposed to be very discussion based. So, when we go
through it, we get the most out of it if we talk about the comments. So what I'll do is I'll read off the glowing remarks that you did about yourself in each bucket and then I'll talk about the growth indicators some of the things that you said you know what we need a
little bit more improvement on that. So those are the grows and then um once I get done reading that we'll have a discussion for each individual topic and there's there's six of them. So we'll start with uh vision mission and goals.
So the glowing remarks that you said about yourselves was that you ensure that the superintendent develops a measurable plan to achieve the district goals and engages in regular discussion about the progress. That was one of your highest indicators um at a three. Now uh
just keep in mind that the highest score is a four. So a three is quite good. Um the other glowing remark that you said about yourselves is that you have effective use of committees. you worked really really hard on the committees this year and it really showed there was very many comments about how you felt
about the committees and how they're functioning. So um great job with that. That was actually one of your goals and you achieved that. And then uh another glowing remark was that um that you demonstrate through the vision, mission and goals your focus on student
achievement. That was a high indicator at a three as well. Some of the growth indicators that you had said was that um developing goals that you wanted to see a little bit of an enhancement of the process of uh developing those goals and then the measurement of success. You
wanted to uh talk about that and see if you can enhance that process. Um one of the direct quotes that I took out for a growth indicator was that the board often lacks direction and needs to clearly articulate a list of priorities.
the district desperately needs to do a uh strategic plan. So, that's something that was a direct quote out of some of the comments that you made. Um, and we'll talk about that uh shortly. Another growth indicator was to schedule more time to revisit and reaffirm the
vision, mission, and goals currently. Um, and like because you only have one meeting per year that you actually talk about the vision, mission, and goals. uh the board member felt that you really needed to have more time spent on that. Um, and I put in little parentheses that
to see uh possible change in the uh agenda. Um, at the back of your packet, there's a strategic agenda and that's based on the book the governance core. And we'll talk about that in a little bit, but that really helps guide you in your board meeting to talk about
strategic focus and specifically the vision, mission, and goals and student achievement. Another uh growth indicator was that uh the board would like to see you revisit and reaffirm um and revise your vision, mission and goals regularly
to ensure consistency of purpose. Um that was actually the lowest indicator. So that needed to be um a a bigger growth indicator there. And then another uh growth also at a 2.57 is ensures that
the mis miss mission vision and goals are clearly articulated to all the district stakeholders and progress updates are communicated. So those are some of the growth indicators and what I'd like to do now is um having said
that let's just talk about where you are and where you'd like to be and and possibly how how do you get there? Okay. Uh, Carl. Oh, okay. Oh, you seemed like you wanted to say something. I'm so sorry. I think having a strategic That was my
comment that you read. Having a strategic plan. You didn't have to identify yourself. I know, but I wanted to. Okay, that's all good. I wanted to um I I think we really really should do strategic planning. I think that's one of the best moves we could make to really make sure that we're holding ourselves accountable to
what we set out to do. Because like I said, I feel like we all have really, really good intentions. We're all very student centered. We have the best priorities, but we need to have a long-term plan that we can check in on periodically and make sure that we're on
track. Yeah. So, um we do a very um intense process of of a strategic plan uh that we facilitate through New Jersey school boards and it would uh be a five-year strategic plan. We have community input
sessions. where all stakeholders come in and break out into small groups and we have three different meetings that help guide that. Once all that's done, all that data is collected and handed over to the administration so they could do action plans for that strategic plan.
And then that gives you that five-year look vision and goal um setting. So you can then pull the goals out of the strategic plan once that's done. Um and a lot of districts do that customarily. Yeah, I believe the last time Vernon did a strategic plan was in 2014, right? Or
somewhere around there. It was about 10 years ago. Over 14. Yeah, something like that. So, it's been quite some time. So, um, so, you know, great thought process on that and, uh, clearly could be a board goal and a district goal, right,
Charlie? Yeah. I just want to say I I think part of what we're doing now, I know this is some of it is required, right? But what we're doing is actually I'm glad we're going in this direction. I mean, we're in education, so we should also be educating ourselves, right? We're we're
preaching people to be educated, then we should make sure we're educated as well. And I think we have a young board. Well, I guess it's split, right? I'm talking about year long been on the board. Yeah. And u but even like watch even somebody who's been here the longest,
Joe, he I see him at the conference every year, you know, we're he's always learning. He's got my master board me better me better me better me better me better me better me better me better me better me better and and I think that that's a trend that we have to keep continuing to do and learn do these these sessions with with uh school boards and just keep on
growing that way because um you know we all come in here with ideas of what the board's supposed to do and how it's supposed to act and then we takes three months we realize that's all wrong and then we have to re re-educate ourselves. So I think this is great what we're doing.
Well, thanks for saying that. Yeah, I think um I think it's a great thing. I I when I was a board member, I wish that I knew that something like this existed uh because I think that it's super helpful and it sharpens our governance skills. So, I think it's really important and um
they say that when you do focus on all of this and help improve your governance skills, you're moving the needle for student achievement and um and that's really very super important and that's our primary goal as a board member. So, thanks for saying that, T.
Anybody else on thoughts about mission, vision, goals? I mean, I do I do think that we did set goals and then kind of um set them aside. And so, I like what you uh suggested would be um revisiting on a
regular basis. Um, I think that would help us to make sure that we're not neglecting the goals. And I also like the idea of tying them to the committees now that we're um a board of committees. You know, each committee should maybe have a goal linked to it um in order to
make sure that we're covering them in a robust way. Yeah. So, um, a lot of boards what they do is they build it right into their agenda and that strategic agenda on the back of your packet. It helps allow for a lot of a lot more discussion based on
the goals and it keeps that focus very very strategic on student achievement. So a lot of times when we're making the agenda, we're just kind of checking the boxes of the things that we have to do and those are important things but we never allow ourselves time for the
discussion on uh student achievement, strategic planning, all of that focus. So uh this type of example of the agenda helps build that in. Um and then we do a training on the governance core. If you
choose to use this agenda, we can do that training. And it's really helpful to set a growth mindset on that uh and a governance mindset. So um something that we could do at a later date, but I just wanted to put that in there. Uh just an example of what you could do for that
focus. Another uh idea is that a lot of um districts do a vision and mission like little seminar with with the community itself and do like little breakout groups on thought process on that and that's how the board comes up
with the mission and vision statements. Um I believe that our mission and vision statements haven't been updated in quite some time and so that might be an exercise that uh you all can engage in. Um, and it helps with the community engagement piece that Carl's, uh,
community engagement, uh, communications, community relations, community relations, um, uh, committee is doing such a great job. And so that could be a goal of theirs, you know. So, anybody else on mission, vision, and
goals. So, normally as part of this retreat when we do the board self-evaluation, we do goals. Um, we do board goals and district goals, but we're putting that aside until next time so that uh we can circle in our new superintendent with
with that discussion. Okay. So, then we'll move on to policy and um policy uh was a was like amazing. Policy uh was 3.45. It was the highest indicator out of all of the categories.
So, uh, great job to the committee. That was one of the glowing remarks that you said about yourselves was that was really effective use of the policy committee. Uh, Charlie, I believe you're the the chair of that. Congratulations on that. That was a lot of work, heavy
lift, right? But certainly worth it because all the board members have commented on that. So, so great job there. Um, another glowing remark is that uh you provide the opportunity for feedback on new and revised policies prior to final adoption. It's really
super important to uh you have the the two readings, but you allow for that discussion as well. And that's really super important. Uh, another glowing remark that you said was that you review, update, and adopt policies and procedures and bylaws annually or as
required. That was your highest indicator at a 3.7 uh 3.57 areas of growth was to incorporate policy into strategic plan and collaborate with other committees. So um maybe have like a cross-section when
they involve other committees in the topic and then creating AI policies. That's that's a uh a growth indicator for a lot of boards right now because most boards don't have the AI policies. So, uh, we're actually our first, um,
Sussex County meeting is going to incorporate AI policy. We're going to have, uh, somebody from New Jersey school boards, uh, from the corporate office speak on that. And then we're going to have some board members that have done a really great job with AI
policies speak at that meeting. So, that might be something that you want to mark on your calendar uh, for October. Um, it's going to be a really good meeting there. So let's just talk about those uh growth indicators. Anybody on that policy?
Charlie, do you want to talk about the AI policy because we have actually been working on that, right? Yeah. Yeah, I can talk about that. Um um yeah, actually I mean just overall I'm glad people see that we work hard and you know obviously I'm the the chair
of it but it's it's a team right team effort and we you know Russ is always there, John's there, Brian's there and uh she's not here anymore so it doesn't matter. Shout out to Nancy too and Nancy. Nancy, thank God for Nancy and Vinnie's come a
couple times and uh you know, we work together and and and it's not doesn't stop there because when we come out to the to the board and I present the notes and everyone, you know, still asks questions and we're we're there to answer the questions and and I I I think it's we're flowing in the right direction. Um we we did start the AI uh
policy. Um we're um waiting for the technology uh to get which is actually one of the goals, right? Working with another committee. So, we're working with the technology committee to uh actually take a look at that and I think we're going to pass it over to curriculum afterwards. Um, get their
feedback and then present it to the board. So, um, and we're we're Yeah, I don't know if I want to talk too much about it. Are we going to talk about policy? I just meant to to note that we are that you are, you know, says creating. So, we are in the process of creating.
Yeah. Yeah. So, both our growths we're actually working towards already. So, this is nice. Yeah, that's very good. So, I guess we notice it too. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, policy is not the most exciting committee, right? So, you know, you
know, we never had one, right? We This is a new I mean, it's a new committee. It was a goal, right? Right. Committee of the board last time for for years. Yeah. Dr. Ross put that on as a goal when she was working on it before as a board
member and we followed up on I do remember Charlie too really pushing us on that to make sure we had the committee for that and yeah I think it's been it sounds like it's fulfilling your wildest dreams it's one of the most important functions of a board and we didn't have a
committee until recently so it's that's our next policy is to have fun at the policy committee there's no such thing I won't be there but the the Strauss SNA just came over to policy update so you'll have that to go over as well so you have plenty plenty of other things
to grow on as well. Fun stuff. And Charlie, if you're so good at it, you might want to talk at our Oh, there you go. our Sussex County meeting because we are looking for guest speakers on that. So, I'm I'm a little shocked sometimes questions.
Okay. So, we're going to move on to student achievement. And student achievement, you scored a um a uh 3.04. So, that's that's good stuff. Let's see. So, uh the glowing remarks you said that
you ensure fair and equitable educational opportunities um are available for all students. That was the highest indicator at 3.7. And then also a glowing remark is effective use of curriculum committee uh that you meet monthly, you monitor the
progress of the uh committee and you review the data to improve student achievement. Uh and we all know that uh Jen's committee reports are stellar. So uh great job with that and curriculum committee. Uh and then growth indicators
uh ensures communication to the public links of our decisions for uh student achievement data. That was a low indicator at 2.43. So we'll we'll chat about that in a little bit. a direct quote from some of the growth indicators
that the board and administration could and should do better at recognizing staff and student achievements. Communications about initiatives and achievements should be pushed out on multiple platforms rather than just at board meetings. So, I know that you all
do a great job at celebrating our staff and our students at board meetings. Uh but this quote was, you know, to say put it out on all the mediums that that you have. So, uh why don't we chat about um the communication with the uh student
achievement data um because that seemed to be the lowest indicator. So, what are your thoughts on how to improve that? Yay, Carl. Oh, wait. Ray wants to talk and I've talked already. Oh, okay. Well, they actually say it in
the second one who celebrates today presentation here about scores. We need to push it out beyond the meeting answers it in the next comment. You know,
I think it goes hand in hand with community relations. It's something that um our committee has been working towards creating a better motive just communication with members, stakeholders in the community. when there are achievements to celebrate or when
there's news to spread. A lot of times if you're not watching the board meeting or monitoring the website, it's hard to have a cohesive idea of what's going on because you know every school has its own Facebook and digital back well not Facebook but they
have their own ways of communicating where if we were a little bit more consistent and we had more platforms it might be easier for people to be in the loop. Yeah. what whoever wrote that I was thinking because you know one one
thing we all get is the advertiser right you know maybe it's something we can look at putting a little corner in there you know or that new Vernon magazine might be a good idea yeah I mean you want to be on the front page with your
he lost publicity uh you know the advertiser news right it it used to send a This is I think has been a a change. They used to send a reporter to meetings and they actually covered meetings or they drew it from the the uh video. U but they kind of
stopped doing that and so I sort of fell by the wayside. Maybe we need to do sort of like an update for them or sort of almost like a press release or something. Um, and I notice here, and I don't know if I uh I might have written this because I do agree with it, but the
it says the board could should and I know the I know we communicate the te you know the staff communicates to the students and the parents and you know the I'm sure to one another, but um the board never communicates other than here really. We don't we don't try to get our
message out and I don't know if we even understand if we're allowed to do that. There's been some talk about not ever commenting on social media if you're on the board. So, I don't know how we do that, but it would be a good idea for us to figure out what's allowed or what's what's good best practice in terms of um
getting to the public so that people see the good things because they mostly read, you know, Facebook, which is not always a positive. So, and it's not always accurate. So, if it comes directly, it's not our message. It's somebody else's idea of what happen.
Yeah. Right. I have a I have a question. Yeah. Does the board itself have any social media? No. We in fact years ago were basically told if you're on the board, you should not and you should not comment, you
should not post, you should not anything. No, I get that. But I'm wondering why we as a board don't have a social media because one of us would probably have to deal with it. Take hold just to, you know, release. Yeah. Statements or or
I mean we did um push out some positives at one point when we did the uh carnivals, right? And the drive-in uh when the district was doing things sometimes, you know, the president would post about them to art standing. You're called to do it, you know,
because I'm the head of that committee. Oh yeah, your community relations. Okay. Social media totally different ballgame. I've learned a lot about social media lately and why I shouldn't say that much. So, I really I would I think that um it would be pertinent for
someone from the who works for the district to control that because you can't have one board member speaking for nine. The only person who really has that authority would be the board president and even then you'd have to verify that we're all okay with what we're saying. So, aren't there some
boards that have a PR rep or where someone I mean I don't think we have the money for it. Well, I mean in very, you know, high-end districts maybe, uh, but, uh, you know, some boards do like a little board corner on the district website, but it's
controlled by the administration. um you know just to give little snippets of what the board's working on or you know some achievements of the board and it's just like sit there on the uh you know on the website itself. You could definitely do a little board corner. Um
social media is a slippery slope and uh we could get ourselves in a lot of trouble with that one. So we kind of shy away as board members from social media but certainly um you know I I love Jen's idea of the newspaper and and getting it out to the newspaper. Um I have uh my
district um Manchester regional the superintendent will engage the uh this the uh newspaper and and say you know what the board just got certified and I want you to come on in and do you know do a uh something on that and take
pictures and things like that. So um you know that's something that is controlled and and I think is a a good idea. Social media is a a very difficult uh you know slippery slope um that can cause a lot of ethics problems.
Well, I'm not talking about putting any sort of opinions or anything else out there. I'm talking about just street announcements. Yeah. You know, the board board will be meeting on Thursday, you know, or uh you know,
this committee did this, you know, just straightforward information. Yeah, that's I mean and that's super, you know, either on social media or we do have a a section on the the district website. Yeah. Page. What about ahead?
What about a like a little hybrid of this is why why don't we push it district has one like right don't you guys have a next account Instagram? We we can because I don't think we have enough to talk about like for for a whole you know we meet a couple time
once a month now and seven committees eight committees eight committees right a lot of committees but I mean that's that's a week's worth of news who run these social media you can send them over or something it's a position I believe the person
just retired well well the high schools are made that person No, Vinnie does not. We're not going to do that to Vinnie. Very good. Okay.
Usually you'll see me forward throughout the year. I'll forward uh some Instagram posts and Facebook posts from from the usually the high school about some achievements in that. Yeah. So, um years ago, uh Vernon did
podcasts and they they had a lot of views. Um and that showcased a lot of different things. It showcased some of the things that the board was doing. It showcased staff and the students and um that was super popular. So that might be something to revisit as well.
Anybody else? Okay. Then uh we'll move on to governance team and uh relationships and accountability which was a 3.25. Uh so some of the glowing remarks is that you complete the annual performance
evaluation of the CSA by July 1. Yay. That is that is in statute and it's very very important but not all boards do that. So congratulations. That's awesome. Um, another glowing remark is exercises its authority only as a board
of the whole at meetings and recognizes that no individual board member has the authority to take independent action on behalf of the board. That's the highest indicator at 3.8 and congratulations on that because that's a very difficult uh
thought process to get through to a lot of board members. So if you're collectively doing that and understand that it's super important and it strengthens your team. So that's that's wonderful. Uh another glowing remark is that the board is cohesive, respectful
to each other and unified. That's really super important. Not all boards have that. They have a lot of drama. So I I saw how unified you were with the superintendent search. You did a great job with that. That was a heavy lift and everybody had little different opinions
and everything but everybody listened to each other and was very respectful to each other. So kudos to you because that does get a little emotional and you did a great job on that. Uh another comment was that the board president uh president sets a great example. So um
kudos to you Jen for setting a a great example and running the meeting very very well. That was a comment in there. So um so great job first year board president and doing a standup job. So kudos to you. Um some of the growth
indicators uh was that um you need a effective in district uh orientation for new members. That was a lowest indicator of 2.6. So um that's something that you all collectively said that really needs some
improvement. Uh another uh growth indicator adopts uh explicit uh uh goals for the board uh distinct from district goals. It's really super key and important that board goals are very very
different than district goals. So uh board goals is something that the board sets for themselves and it's usually based around a governance growth type of uh mantra and district goals are you know sometimes derived from that strategic plan and also with the board
and the uh administration coming together and talking about the direction of the district. So very very different and we'll talk about that in the workshop next um when we do uh goals. Um and then uh holds itself accountable for
uh the accomplishment. So that is something that you said that you really wanted to um increase that monitoring and that's just basically building it into the agenda. Um, and then there was a comment about the twice monthly meetings that would allow more
opportunity for interaction and allow the board members more opportunities to provide feedback. So, I know that you went to one meeting a month, but there was some comment about whether that was uh the best course of action. So, let's just chat about some of these growths
for a second. John. Okay. I want to talk about the effective indistrict orientation for new members. I don't think we have anything like that. When I first got elected four years ago, I was thrown into the deep end and and I
had a swim. I had a lot of studying, a lot of listening, but nobody talked to me and said, "Well, this is how this works." Other than the governance one class that you have to take, right? And um and and I came from education, so I knew a lot of stuff, but I didn't know what was going on here just yet. Yeah.
So I think we need to maybe even have a committee that orients new members once they get elected onto here. I you know I I think that's very very important. People walk on with certain ideas that they come from the public and now I'm a board member. I'm going to do this but you can't do that until you find out. So
I think we need that. We definitely Yeah, we definitely need to do more in that regard. And I went to a meeting um of that a leadership thing at the the New Jersey school boards um had and I was talking to a woman who had uh onboarding at her district and they
are each assigned a mentor um which I think we a little informally like Brian was very um you know good about talking to people like he you you met with the um with the staff and then you met with me and and Charlie and so and Stephanie
as well. So, we did it sort of informally, but this was a mentoring program where each new member is assigned to a longer term member and that longerterm member can kind of help them with any questions and kind of talk them through some things. And I thought that was a nice idea. And they also got
in her district a binder with you know which I know we're moving away from paper but we have our drive and we do have the drive and it has all the historic background and things like that for each committee and it has a lot of background material but we don't have we don't really push that on people so much
as we say oh we have this drive go here and find things. So maybe we need to be a little bit more um have like a new member, you know, section of our drive that would maybe give them sort of like, oh, and we do have our um our template for commit, you know, for what to do if
if you're a committee chair. Um how often you should meet with your committee. And so we have some things, but it needs to all be kind of pulled together and added to to make it, I think, a more cohesive on boarding program because people have like a handbook, you know. Yeah. Yeah. Something like that. They
work really hard on that though. So it it initially it's a heavy lift and then once you have it you have it right. So you just need to update it every once in a while but um you know you might want to form like an ad hoc committee to work on that handbook and then go ahead and
and have that. I think that is super helpful. Yeah. You know um Stephanie when you when you were brand new did you feel like you were kind of like floundering? Oh yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yes, you would very much so. So, you would have benefited from a handbook. I definitely would have. Everyone helped
me with any questions I ever had, of course. And um I learned a lot from Mr. Fischer, of course, because he was always asking questions. Yeah. And um you know, it it helped me. Sometimes I wasn't even sure what to ask to be
honest with you. So, um I think that would be a great idea. Yeah. I think we should use Gemini. make a bot an AI bot to uh to to do it. Is that policy yet?
I think a human is necessary. But you know it would be you know what I'm thinking too is you know maybe they spend the new a new person spends time we have with the policy committee to learn the rules and learn the stuff and then spend time with the budget because two of the big the big the two of the
biggest um parts of our job right budget committee and and policy. So the third one I think it would be collective right because I don't think we have one that or maybe negotiations committee can do relations I don't know the other part
yeah or maybe each chair can sit with a new person and talk about their their committee and what the committee works on and the the hot things going on um I know you know Mr. Mr. Slam usually sits with the new board member at some point and walks them through the finances, right? You always do that
pretty much. Yeah. And that's something um you know I've seen in other districts where you have like a formal sit down for every you know new board member with usually like the superintendent, maybe the the BA, maybe the board president. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Because you start in January and then you're heading right into budget season. So yeah. And that's hard and and when you're sitting at the table and you don't know what questions to ask, you know, it's uncomfortable. So, um, so that sounds like a really great board goal.
I, um, I really love that idea of assigning a mentor. I I can say when I first got on the board, um, every board member who was there at the time, which includes Mr. Krauss, Mr. Zimmerman, Mr. Sweeney, Mrs. Mitchell, and Miss Pellet,
every time I had a question, you guys were always there for me. and you all seem to have my best interest in growth as a board member in mind and that made me feel so supported and the idea of assigning a mentor who's there to guide a new member um especially if you picked
someone who may not always agree with that person showing them that that critical thinking and that back and forth is a part of a functioning democracy. Um I really like that idea and I'm lucky that I kind of had that.
Uh and then the other growth indicator was a comment about the twice monthly uh meetings. Any thought on that? Yeah, Brian, I think we're far enough in it to make a decision that Yeah. Yeah.
literally I think May was our first month where we did one meeting. Okay. You know, and we agreed it was a a hybrid experiment, right? So I I really don't think we're far enough. I think has been a long gap as you mentioned
earlier been a long gap since middle of June. Yeah. Feel like I reintroduced myself. Yeah. Yeah, it did. It felt really kind of you almost felt disconnected a little bit, right? And maybe with the new system we had, she might want to have more interaction.
Well, that's to be determined. Yeah. system. Uh I was just going to say um so we we had two in May but the I think the first meeting was like May 2nd. Oh, so it was very early in May. So the in June we had one meeting um it
was earlier than it normally would be because of graduation. Normally it's the third week. Uh but I believe it was maybe the 12th. I think it was the second week. So and then we we didn't miss it because we had a million superintendent search meetings, right? But I don't know if it was a million. It
might have felt like a million. It was long. It was long, but we had potato salad and it was really We saw a lot of each other. Let's just We did. We did. Which was lovely. Yeah. I have to say that the committee structure with us having as many
committee meetings as we've been having. It makes it feel when that's up because it's the summer too. I don't think like Brian said, I think it's too early to really make a determination. Okay. But in the summer, my experience is it always feels like it's a long gap between board meetings because traditionally we always only had one
meeting a month in the summer. So during the school year, I remember in June, it was nice to have one meeting a month because we were having so many committee meetings. I mean, some of us are on three or four committees. That means you're having four or five meetings a month.
So when you have two board meetings and all those committee meetings, it starts to feel a bit redundant. where when you have those committee meetings in one board meeting, it makes sense. And that's what a lot of board of committees do, right? Like that's normal for a board with active committees to only
meet once a month. It's a bit overkill to have all those committees and then a work session meeting and a public meeting. That was our thought process. Yeah. No, we do have a lot of committees and if everybody's serving, if we have four people on every committee, then everybody's going to a lot of meetings.
So that was the thinking. Um, the other way to do it would be to streamline the committees a little bit so you're down to four committees and then maybe you could also have the two board meetings, but I don't know which way we want to go with that. So, yeah, it's too early. Yeah. Yeah.
TBD to keep an eye on. Yeah. Right now, we're scheduled going forward with one for the rest one per month. So, if we want two, we're going to have to add them. Yeah. because initially it was uh set up with one per month uh based off like
discussions that were happening at the beginning of um this previous year. Uh and then there was a vote to add the work sessions back on to give us like the board some time to kind of figure out how to move forward. Yep. Right. Yeah. We still have the opportunity to
call special meetings if there's something specific that comes up that we have to vote on. Right. I mean we do. It's just that if if it's done that way, then you lose a lot of members because people have plans and they haven't held the date. No, not normally, but I mean
something specific comes up that's crazy and we have to meet and vote on. Yes, Dr. Ro. It's interesting uh considering it related to this sample uh agenda. Yeah. That you have here too because I wonder if that'll be supportive of moving towards committees.
It looks like it it's focused more of our time is focused on strategic focus items and less time on like consent agenda. Yes. Which is interest I could see that being helpful if we're moving toward more of a committee focus and then I because if we didn't
sort of adjust our agenda, you could imagine, you know, a once monthly meeting that would last until 2 am or something. Right. Right. So I wonder how the two will work together. Yeah. So that type of agenda allows for discussion. and the comment about having the two meetings possibly was all about
allowing more opportunity for discussion. So maybe uh using that type of agenda will allow for that and then you could just do the one and you feel comfortable that you have everything into that one. Um but a lot of times with agendas you're just kind of rifling through. So
there's no time for that type of focus and discussion. So um I would try that agenda and see how it works. I I think uh you know the boards that have utilized it have said that it made an enormous difference um to them and their
understanding as a board member as well. Charlie, the one the one thing I I don't know if we really need two meetings during the whole year, right? Because I see that I mean I don't know I go back and forth where I like it or not. Um but you know we get we can get our stuff done but one
part of the season is our budget season and it is I think I guess this will be our first time going through it as one one meeting. But you think about it, if we don't start the budgets really until the governor gives his address, right? And takes a little bit of time. So we're like February, March. We only we as a
board, we don't really we won't really get to talk that much. We only have March and then you're kind of voting on it and and and it's over. And maybe if I see anywhere, I think maybe in during the budget season, we maybe want to expand an extra meeting or two just to have
little workshops so we can all talk because you know, finance committee, but and uh they all do that. They're they're you know, they're with working with the budget all the time, but the rest of us were, you know, we just looking at the notes and then it's a lot, right? Brian, you you said it the first time when you
got that paper, you're like, "Wow, that's a lot of that's a lot of stuff I got to look through and and figure it out." So maybe if we think about it, maybe it might be good that during budget season do like an extra meeting or two. Just want to say that I have seen districts that um around budget time
they do an extra meeting, but they normally want meeting. It does make sense. Yeah. And then a little bit of uh the uh board governance slipped over to the next page. So one of the other glowing remarks was that the committee structure has made a large difference in the board
effectiveness. So uh you know that has been a definitive focus of of you all and it's really made a difference and all the board members have collectively discussed that. And then another growth indicator was uh confidentiality issues.
Um and uh the example was citing uh the superintendent search candidates. Um so how does how do you all feel about confidentiality? Do you feel that there's an issue with that at times?
I mean, we definitely have an issue with that because a lot of information gets out before we talk about it in public and that is not supposed to happen. So, I don't know how to fix it. Does any
I think a lot of it could be solved through onboarding like we were talking about the assigning of a mentor so that people understand what can and cannot be shared. I think a lot of those issues come from people not grasping what a
personnel matter is and what should be confidential and what shouldn't. Um, and a lot of new board members tend to make that mistake. I think that could be true with some things, but um, it's specifically mentioned here superintendent search and everybody was well aware that that was
Yeah, I mean that was that's a but but you're right, it's a good idea. Yeah. So, um, does anybody else have any Oh, Ray, Jeff, I think I think we could just always I
mean, something we should just work as a group is always just improve on that. I mean, it's very easy to say things and not mean it, right? It's like a job, you know, and when you're working all day long and you want to take a coffee break and you you're there, you're just like, "Oh, this is what happened today." And you want to
tell everybody in the world, right? And and it's very hard to come back and say I can't say nothing, you know, and and we have to just keep on reflecting on ourselves and just say, you know, maybe we made mistakes. Sometimes we we say things that we don't mean to say and it was or we thought it was we're keeping
it confident with somebody else, but confidentiality with somebody else. But I think I I want to say I think it's been a I've seen it as a problem, I think, for a while. But I I I want to say though over the years I've seen it become less and less of a problem. You
know, there was a couple things that maybe happened this year. I was like really but you know it's not like every day. I don't I don't you know it's not like we you know we go through the agenda everybody knows what everybody thinks about it because we everyone we've heard it from town you know. So
it's I think it's improving and I think it's just a self-reflection ourselves is you know if you say something just you know think about it next time and say all right can't say education too we should educate ourselves what's happen
labels right yeah and maybe um before something's discussed you just chat about that and say you know what we're going to discuss this and this is confidential you know like maybe that's helpful reminders Yeah. So, um, so thanks for openly discussing
that because that's a tough one, right, as as a board to discuss that. So, uh, we'll move on to resource management and oversight, everybody's favorite thing. Uh, that did uh quite well at a uh 3.11.
So, uh, the glowing remarks is that you ensure that the health, safety, and security of all students and staffs is your high priority. Um so that was the highest indicator at a 3.3 and then also a glowing remark that you comply with all financial
statutory and regulatory requirements and it has internal control policies and procedures in place. So you do a great job with that. uh you have a great business office that you've really worked very very well with and there was a lot of comments about the business
office and the new BA and how you're feeling about that relationship and it's very very strong. So um that's really super important so for you and and Mr. Slam, thank you for all your help there. Um a growth uh indicator was to uh
provide a high quality uh facilities to support student learning. That was the lowest indicator at 2.6. six. Um there was another growth indicator about better communication with the public and then also addressing aging
infrastructure with limited finances just a growth indicator which most districts have. So uh why don't we chat about uh some of the indicators of growth? Anybody wants to start with communication with the public?
I guess I'll start it. Go for it, Carl. Uh, I feel like everything could be better communicated with the public. I'm pretty sure that's one that I wrote. Um, that's I think through running a community relations committee, I've noticed that that people just aren't aware of what's going on sometimes. So,
especially with our facilities, communicating better always an area for improvement for us. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if you see it, it's in every every every bucket seems to have something about communicating better. So, okay.
But I agree, you know, it's true. You don't have to tell on yourself. Yeah, you do. I mean, the facilities comment, you know, I mean, we we all know we have some facilities issues and we have only so many resources. So, I don't know. I
think does anybody feel like we're not doing Okay, Brian. Well, I wanted to go back to communicating with the public because to be honest, we don't know how well we're communicating with the public because we don't get feedback, right?
Like the digital backpack. We do we get feedback on on how parents I know I read the digital backpack. I know we just got a new superintendent through the digital hackback, right? So, you know, that
works. some people. So, do we know we're not communicating with the public just because the public isn't communicating with us? No, I don't know um if it's that per se. This is a a self-evaluation. So, this is your perception of yourselves and
sometimes we're tough on ourselves, right? So, maybe that is the board's perception of themselves. Um we did get a lot of communication back on that survey that we did with the superintendent search. So, you all have on the AI. Yeah. So you you have all that data um
that you could kind of like pick through and and see what the uh the community feels. Also, if you do engage in a strategic plan, that's um very community engagementoriented and you're going to get a lot out of that. But the best way to get the most
out of that is to invite all groups throughout the entire community to make sure that you reach out to the senior citizens, the local realtors. Those are the ones that are bringing the buyers into your homes and they really need to educate those buyers on what's going on
in the district. Um to make sure that you have students and you have a student voice. We had that with the input sessions with the superintendent search and it was really interesting what the students thought much different than what the board thought the students thought. So, um that constant engagement
of getting feedback that way, I think that that'll help guide you in your vision on um communication with the public like and and the wants and needs of the public. John, sure. I'd like to talk about the the high quality facilities to support students.
Yeah, I was surprised at that because I I mean I felt like we kind of really have some really good uh facilities, but Go ahead. I'm sorry. Isn't Is that what we're talking about that or not? Yeah. So, it said that um the the growth was that, you know, you wanted more highquality
facilities to support student learning, right? And and I wanted to speak to that. We just did a long range facilities plan and we all know that we have to spend a lot of money to fix a lot of problems and that we don't have high quality. Yeah. Right. So, I just wanted to bring that up. We have like air conditioning
issues, heating issues, things breaking here and there. I mean, we do a lot with with the one committee that that you get a lot of things done. We can only have so much money to spend to fix stuff. And you can look at at the meeting minutes for that tonight with all the things that are being done, but it's nowhere
near enough. So, I think we have to do better at that. And how do we do that? We need money, right? So, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, like add a little bit to John and to the last one. Um because I think actually it probably goes into the
vision and plan. Like I think what worked good for me this year was um we we had the we made a commitment that we were going to make facility uh changes to district. There was about a list of 10 or 20, right? I mean there was a huge
list too, but we had a short list that we wanted to these were our goals. We're going to definitely do it. and you know the administration bringing it up many times throughout the year. Um and it it seemed to be going good because you if you missed the meeting or you didn't know what we committed to as long as you
hit one of you know three or four of the meetings during the year you would have got an update. This is where we were. This is how we we're doing it. And I think as as a committee, we we have to put those goals down. Like we we've seen what the schools look like, parts of the schools, right? I mean, some of the I
don't want to paint the picture that everything schools are are falling apart and nobody wants to come inside of them, but there there are things that have to be updated. We have to put a commitment down. I mean right in his windows for three years you know like four years, five years like we have to put those
things and then talk about it every you know if it takes every meeting or it takes every other meeting give an update to the public so they get communicated they know where we are and if we keep talking about it we'll get it done because it's very easy to say well the windows they kind of work put a
shade above them in front of them and we'll just do it next year and uh you know and especially when you have limited money limited resources that's It's hard. So, we have goals. We set them and then try to make make them get it done and keep the updates with the
like like Mr. Slam and Russ have done this year for the short list. Anybody else? Okay, we'll move on to community leadership. Uh, and that came in at a 2.94.
So the glowing remarks are that you conform to uh requirements for the open public meetings act and the open public meeting records act and that's the highest indicator at 3.6. Um, one of the direct quotes that I pulled from the comments on glowing
remarks was that the board has uh this has been an initiative of the board for a while and that seeing improvement this year with the community relations committee uh Carl uh events like the state of the district uh address have
shined a light on this. So, um, you know, that was a great example of community leadership and, uh, kudos to you, Mr. Rogers, for for doing that. That was, uh, was very wellreceived. And then, um, thank you for whoever said
that NG NJSBA's involvement in the superintendent search has made headway in better community involvement and relations. So, so, thank you for saying that. Um and then a growth indicator uh was to maintain a presence in the
community, understanding its strengths and needs, developed uh productive relationships and engage its resources. So that was the lowest indicator. So you're saying that you need a little bit more growth with that and then um again more community engagement.
So, uh, anything about this, um, productive, uh, relationships, developing that as a as a growth indicator? Any thought on that? Carl, you invited um, community members
in on some type of uh, are they in your part of your committee? Yes. So, on the community relations committee, we have members of the community who participate in every meeting and who are notified when we have meetings. And um as I'll state a little bit in my
pretty brief community relations report tonight. Yeah. Uh we've been working lately on 50th ann adding to the 50th anniversary celebrations of the high school and the members of the community on that committee are contributing to what they would like to see and some of them um
either know or are very close with people who worked in the high school when it was first built or graduated from the high school in that first class. So, we're seeing how we can contribute to that discussion. But having the ability for members of the
community to partake in one of our committees through community relations, I think, is one of the biggest steps that we've made this year because now there's an avenue for direct community involvement in the board. Yeah. Besides running for it.
Yeah. Cool. Good. Good. Good. So, then we're going to move on to the uh board goals. and uh you had five of them and you all scored that you achieved every single one of them. So um what does that mean? That means that you focused really
strongly on on some of the goals that you put in there and that um the good news is is that now you've achieved those so now you have to make a whole bunch new ones. So um so good job and they were all around uh the committees. Uh that was a
big strong focus. um the absenteeism, the cell phone policy, super um successful in that. Uh the buildings and grounds, you you really worked very very hard on that. Um so great job. Uh the policy committee, we talked about that.
Um all achieved. So so good good stuff. Uh and then it goes into the board's strengths. The greatest strengths that the board says about themselves are that you're transparent, collaborative, respectful, and unified. all good things. And then uh some of the areas um
of focus that you feel that you need training uh and a little bit of work on is goal setting. Um staying focused on student achievement and finance, monitoring goals, um setting the timeline for the strategic plan and that's something that you know we'll chat about in the goal session. Um board
member training, we talked about that onboarding, I think that that is u definitely part of that and then having more discussion based retreats. um you felt were going to be helpful. And that concludes the board self evaluation. I hope I hope you all got a lot out of it.
I think it was a great exercise. You did a lot of heavy lifting with it and I really appreciate all the discussion today. So, thank you. Thank you, Miss Kelly. Okay. So, um just as a discussion point under Jay, we also have the um board and
district goal setting process and timeline document that everyone should have in their binders. I don't want to spend a lot of time on that um tonight unless somebody else really does want to because basically this is a timeline of what we can do um
and and you know tying into what Mrs. Mitchell presented, board goal development was um seen as something we needed to spend time on and this is a document that would um have us doing that. So that's great. So did everyone have a chance to look at it? I did email it around earlier. Yeah.
Yeah. Um any any any cons? Well, there are the two options which uh I believe we're kind of leaning toward option B rather than because we just dismissed um Kelly
rather than doing our goals right now to kind of identify maybe some focus areas and then follow this um timeline. Is everyone comfortable with that um plan? I know we have a lot to get through tonight. So maybe that is best.
John, I think B is the way to go because we have to get Evan into into the process. Russ is leaving and we want her visions and stuff in here. So we should do that sense tomorrow. Great. Do we want to talk about the three to five focus areas tonight or do
we want to do those in August as well since we do have the test results to get through in the rest of I say August. August. Okay, that's my thought. Everyone good with that? Yeah, we won. Great. All right, so moving on to item
K. Uh, Mr. Gaglaststro and Dr. Chef, you're up.