Thank you. I'd like to call to order the July 24th public meeting of the Vernon Township Board of Education. >> Do Mr. Smaggley, Mr. Cino, Mr. Fischer
>> here, >> Mr. Krauss >> here, >> Miss Pellet >> here, >> Mr. Sweeney >> here, >> Miss Varello, >> Mr. Zimmerman >> here. >> We have a quorum.
>> Okay, let's get a member. onion. Onion. >> Okay. I >> will support the United States of the state. >> That I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of New Jersey. I will bear
true faith and allegiance to the same >> and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same people >> as the governments establish the United States in this state and 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
>> 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 impartially and justly perform all the duties of that office according to the best of my ability. So help me God.
>> Congratulations. Stephanie, you got moved up >> over here. >> Moving up in the world. >> Moving up in the world. Welcome back to >> Hey, Caroline, we could uh flip your uh name. >> Oh, yeah. To make your your name
visible. >> Perfect. Y >> All right. Okay, sorry. >> You're all set. Um, so we'll do another roll call to reflect.
>> Mr. Smagalia, >> Mr. Cino >> here, >> Mr. Fischer >> here. >> Mr. Krauss >> here. >> Miss Pallet >> here. >> Dr. Ross >> here. >> Mr. Sweeney >> here. >> Here. >> Miss Carell >> 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 we're You know what's funny? They probably changed one thing, but I feel so >> Thank you. >> Okay. Um, it is recommended that the board return to open session. Can I get a motion? >> So moved.
>> Second. >> Seconded by Stephan. >> All in favor? I >> open >> Mr. Smagle here. >> Mr. Smagley >> here. >> Mr. Gino >> here.
>> Mr. Fischer >> here. >> Mr. Krauss >> here. >> Miss Pellet >> here. >> Dr. Ross >> here. >> Mr. Sweeney >> here. >> Miss Varello >> here. >> Mr. Zimmerman >> here. >> We have a quorum. Miss >> rising. To the flag of the United States of
America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. The New Jersey Open Public Meetings Law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of to attend the meetings of public bodies at
which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with provisions of the act. Vernon Township Board of Education has caused notice this meeting to be published and adequate notice has been provided and notice this meeting has been properly posted in accordance with the New Jersey open public meeting law. Uh just a quick note that our next
public session meeting is August 3. Uh, sorry, August 21st. >> Thank you. Item H, approval of minutes. >> And just uh do you want me to read through the extra um notes? >> Yeah.
>> Okay. Uh just quick note, uh we also have items uh four, five, six, and seven. And those are meeting uh minutes from the superintendent search uh meetings. That's May 17th, May 19th, May 27th, and June 4th.
>> Is there your binder, everybody? >> Um, can I get a motion? >> So, move. Stephanie, does anyone have any questions or comments about the minutes?
>> Seeing none, >> Mr. Fisher. >> Hi, >> Mr. Krauss. >> Yes, >> Miss Plet. >> Yes, >> Dr. Ross. >> Uh, abstain. >> Mr. Sweeney from items one, four, five,
and six. >> Thank you. >> Otherwise, yes, Miss Varelo. >> Yes. Mr. Zimmerman, >> yes. >> Mr. Saglia, >> yes. >> Mr. Cantino, >> yes. >> Motion carries.
>> Thank you. >> Uh, item I, president's report. Um, congratulations and a big welcome to Dr. Ross, our newest board member. >> Thank you >> for stepping up to serve us through the end of the year. Uh, we've had a huge long stretch since our last meeting of
the full board, which came on the heels of many, many meetings. So, that was lovely. Um, but we're going to dive back in tonight with the discussion of the board self-evaluation findings with Chris, Miss Mitchell helping us out with that. Um, but first, today will be the last uh board of ed meeting for our
superintendent, Russ Rogers. And Russ, the board would like to present you with this plaque for your years of service. I'm going to read it first. They all know Russell Rogers, superintendent of schools, Vernon Township School District. with deep appreciation for
your unwavering commitment, inspiring leadership, and years of service that enrich the lives of students, staff, and the community. Yeah, right. Okay. Um and now we are going to uh it's recommended that we um adjourn for a short not uh we enter a short recess for
refreshments to celebrate Mr. Rogers. Can I get um a motion? >> So move second. And we won't call that. All in favor? >> All in favor? >> All right. Let there be.
There's Kane. Thank you. It's recommended that the board return to open session. Can I get a motion? >> So move. Second. >> Okay. Uh thank you. >> All in favor?
>> I All right, item J. This is Mitch. >> Hi everybody. Thanks for having me again. Um, and thank you for doing the self evaluation. I know it's a little bit of a heavy lift, but it's really
important to do mostly because you want to build your skills and you know we go ahead and do the superintendent every single year. So we really should evaluate ourselves, right? So, um, thank you for doing that.
I appreciate it. This year is brand new. Um, it's the, uh, acculation is about 15 years old, but 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. Uh 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 a 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 m 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 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 fiveyear 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. Mhm. >> So, um, so, you know, great thought process on that and, uh, clearly could be a board goal and a district goal,
right? >> Mhm. >> 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 how long they've been on the board. >> Yeah. And u but even like watch it.
>> Even 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 a couple >> my master board member. >> That's right. Yes. And and I think that that's a trend that we have to keep continuing to do is 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, Charlie. 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'd 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 it 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 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. 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 committee, 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 the dean. >> I do remember Charlie too really pushing us on that to make sure we had that committee for that and yeah I think it's been it sounds like it's >> fulfilling your wildest dreams 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 their 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 shy 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. So they actually say it in the second one who celebrates today presentation here about the 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. Whoever wrote that I agree with
>> I was thinking because you know 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 >> 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, you know. So, if it comes directly, >> it's not our message. It's somebody
else's idea of what is happening. So, >> yeah. Right. >> I have a 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 over >> 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, I was 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. Paige,
>> 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 runs social media? >> You can send them over or something.
>> It's exciting position. I believe the person just >> retired. >> Well, well, the high schools are made >> that person just 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 from the usually the high school about some achievements. >> 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 a 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 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 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 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 with other than the governance one
class that you have to take." Right. 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 a 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 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, 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. >> Great idea.
>> I think we should use Gemini. make a bot an AI bot to uh to to do it. >> Is that a 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 do 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 wrong um I know you know Mr. Mr. Slam usually sits with a 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 Brian far enough in it to make a decision that >> 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 in >> I think >> has been a long gap as you mentioned earlier, been a long gap since middle of June. >> Yeah. >> Feel like introduced myself. >> Yeah. Yeah, it did. It felt really kind
of you almost felt disconnected a little bit, right? >> And and maybe with the new sited, she might want to have more interaction. Well, that's to be >> Yeah. >> 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, 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 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. >> 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 they want to move forward. Yep. >> Right. >> So 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 it. >> 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 which is 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 and the one the one thing I I don't know if we really need two meetings or a whole year, right? 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 budget 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 really 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 workshop 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 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 pe 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 anybody have any thoughts? >> 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 >> but but you're right it's a good idea. >> Yeah.
>> So um >> does anybody else have any >> Oh 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, when 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 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 about 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 >> for reminders. Yeah. 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 great 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 we're 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 to 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 15, right? I mean there was a 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, develop 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. 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 coal 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 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. >> 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 and the rest of >> I say. >> Okay, >> that's my thought. >> Everyone good with that? >> Yeah, we want >> Great. All right. So, moving on to item
K. Uh, Mr. Gaglaststro and Dr. Chef, you're up. And for the public, this is the NJ GPA and WA test scores. We've always turned off. Yeah, there we go.
Happy >> they can see that. >> They need to see that. >> Perfect. All right. Well, thank you everyone. Uh tonight we'll be presenting our spring 2025 NJPA
which 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, but 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 of 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 about 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 a 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 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.
>> U, Mr. Gagastra 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. Mr. Gaglash was explaining to me because I questioned 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 al 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 is 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 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 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. or 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 taking time to get there or is there some more immediate things that we have to have
>> put supports in place for it? >> 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 ELLL 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 ELLL 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. >> 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 we're 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 population. So what that tells me is that that is the area that we really have to focus on when we're looking for getting them 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. Chef 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 NJPA. 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% 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 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 ready increase of 13.3% since 2023. So intervention strategies uh we have a multi-tiered 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 2 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 multiplechoice 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
are 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 uh 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 a 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 a curriculum. We really worked hard with our second and uh tier two and tier three supports with our guidance 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. 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 NJGPA 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're supported by our MTSS and guidance teams. Uh the teachers will meet with the students and help them through the process. It will 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 students are going to need this extra support um and the other part is them taking the NJ GPA 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 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 bridging levels. Uh 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 the instruction is guided by the VA 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 legislation 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 could 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, the most recent was 2019 for 12th graders ELA proficiency and this is considered a strong benchmark for the pre-COVID, 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 the only 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 I'll go over >> 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 okay you know we have some kids who are within a point of the test score uh and they'll get over the the threshold >> right 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 retested 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 need. >> 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 All right. >> Yep. >> I'm working to NJ Smart this year, but
we're switching to a new next year. So >> we are going to see where what the requirements are with that. So we'll give you an update on that. If you could go back to the slide on um Vernon's comparison to the state average.
>> I have a few questions. >> Yeah. GPA >> 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 let's
say >> a lot of numbers. >> Yes. >> That's why I like the pictures. I'm a big person. >> 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.
>> That's 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, our 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 Uh, so they're not special ed, but they may get accommodations to something that they have going on. >> And you said you took 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. >> 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 time frame was >> it's before the NDSLA testing before AP
testing before testing. >> Okay. But not brand new. >> Right. 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 and I just because I am sometimes critical on you guys. So I just want to make sure 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. I 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 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 like that. >> Right. Right. So So is the question type barrier as opposed to content that I mean logically makes sense. We don't get that kind of break >> breakdown 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. >> So that's exactly what I was going to say. The NGSA 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 and 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 about math lab. 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 so that question so you don't know if it's geometry based or algeb then then also do we know for all Are the students educated in algebra and geometry before taking this test?
>> 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 extendable circumstances 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 inspiration,
but generally yes, they'll have it. >> And then the last question I have and then I'll stop is >> do you know how many are I don't know homegrown students? So they've been in maybe we started in 8th
grade to 11th grade versus how many are new to maybe new to the district who came in 11th grade. Not not to say that would 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 and
>> I don't mean just home school I mean >> you mean like 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 accept
credits where uh you know we do assess when they come in. So they're coming in and 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 to 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 the one that showed the Hispanic and the
the various I know you didn't? >> Yes. Okay. Um, >> did you want the graph or the >> Yeah, I guess I was looking for the I can't even remember this one. >> Okay. Yeah. So, there's a pretty
significant gap, right, with with Hispanic versus white. Do you have any um any reason for that 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 um so generally if they're they're new to the country, they have a year where they don't have to take the assessment. Um, if they uh have been in country though for enough time, they
have 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 forming >> 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 >> Yes. >> Yeah. more.
>> Okay. Thank you. Um anybody else? >> Yes. You attributed a lot of the growth to instructional support from the instructional Did you call them >> 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 doesn't 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 two-on-one, threeon-one, but then they're also coaching the 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
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 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 work 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 worked with they worked with the teachers in that way to help their kids in those classes increase
their scores. Thank you. >> Dr. >> um I have a question but also the coaches probably help the teachers do more datadriven instruction too, right? >> So that that's that usually helps the test scores. >> U 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 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 kind of depends what country they came from too that has a huge impact on so >> it's kind of a mix okay but uh 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 teams need and what their previous educational experiences were because a lot of times they'll come uh here and have little to no educational foundation
due to their country's educational systems or they could be right where our students are and it really is just the language barrier and 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 it's getting that threshold to hit that 4.5 to even evaluate they're going to
graduate. Yeah. >> Um, 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. Get a chance if we get some light. Although this is nice. It's very huge. I like it.
>> Um item L, board reports summary. Carl, you're up. >> Oh, >> item L for >> Oh, we're 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 to 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, Shep, Dr. Felicep, uh, and Vinnie Gagglestro. 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 six period stipens. Um, we're going to Mr. Gaglostra 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 scope. 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 any questions. Okay. Um finance, building, and grounds, Mr. Grass. >> Okay. Uh the finance, building, and
grounds committee met on July 14th. Um it was conducted online through Google Meet. in attendance for 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
Masio's 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. Masios was asking for over
$90,000, but Mr. Slam negotiated and got them down. Now, I think I saw it. It's like 66, was it? >> Yeah. >> All right. Was it in 60? What was this writing? >> Okay. Uh, number two, we sold our bonds and got a pretty good rate for the EIP of 4.008%.
Mr. Slam is having a 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 makes 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, uh, application for additional tax levy. That was such a a big deal for
us. The application had to be redone to comply with 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. Vancerk was able to get the air conditioning repaired in house 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 was issued for the softball dugouts uh dugouts rather and we're
working with the vendor to get them installed. They're 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. Vanc
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? >> We have no mic.
>> No, you need a mic. >> I'm trying to be really far from Joe. Mike. >> So, we met for the first time. In attendance was myself, John Krauss, Charles Smanglia, 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. President. >> Oh, you did have a meeting. I'm sorry. Okay. Um, yeah, we can cover that policy. >> 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, we met, we
talked about the uh AI policy. Um I don't I just want to give a brief overview 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 >> 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 genative AI. we're embracing the whole thing uh artificial intelligence um because we thought it was to focus on one area 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 and uh put it up to the way we wanted 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 it in 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
hoping hoping to have this out for the next meeting and then uh approved approved sometime uh the end of the year. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Anybody have any questions? >> Okay, great. So, moving on to item N,
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? Somebody say 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? Okay, we're going to make a special of
your sit because your what you say your situation is. We will let you just I just don't feel comfortable make having >> My name is Robert Kenny 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, you do have every meeting. You can stay up there. Yeah. >> Yeah, you can stand up.
>> 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 Bian 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 those 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 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 Karen. Can I use her name or no? >> Uh no, let's not. >> All right. 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 stating 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 tax. That's taxpayer Rob talk. 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 would 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 more than 30 minutes. >> Really?
>> Is that what you said? Yes. >> Then then my son can come up here and take five minutes then. So read the rest. >> Okay. >> Unbelievable. I >> I have to >> Unbelievable. I have to run the meeting by the rules. >> 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 hours? I pay $10,000 a year in taxes. Okay. Why am I standing
here? A poor woman at home with that has stage three cancer. Okay. I am talking for her. Sir, you need >> I will leave. Then you will you will hear from my attorney. Okay. You want your windows, you want your roof, fire the goddamn people in human resources
cuz they can't. Okay. Yeah. Smile. >> Not smile. >> Not sure what to say. >> Okay. Um do we have anyone else in the queue for public comments? We do not.
>> Okay. Uh item N, superintendent report. Mr. Rogers. >> Um when I first started, uh we're coming out of virtual learning and 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 CUAC 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. Mendez and and
the board's support as well. And I'm excited to see uh continued uh continue 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 and 31st, Monday through Friday 8:30 to
12:30. It's our extended year program for students who are at risk at 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 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 uh 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 were 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 in 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 and a couple other appointments CD as well. So it's quite a long list of
appointments and corrections and hours adjustments. Um, at your time I'm sure you look that over already. Usually those are the questions I have in our agenda review. Uh, it is recommended that the board approve 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 uh right matches for for aids and support for students during that program. Letter C, it is recommended that the board approve the
following 2025-26 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 the board approve the substitute teacher secretaries to be inactivated, no longer accepting or DM assignments for the 202526 school year. Letter H. It 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. So >> 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 of 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 approved 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. Anne has recommended the board approve all certified teachers for bedside tuner 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, the
year letter of intent between 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 Vernanche Police Department. Letter R. It is recommended that the board approve the memorandum of understanding for live streaming video between the Vernancher 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 Vernancher Police Department and the Vernach 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 202526 school year 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 J 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 referenced the addendum because they were separate. >> They're separate uh classes that were added at the high school as well as a couple uh positions that were were absent. questions.
>> Oh, I do have one question. >> Okay, go ahead. >> That was moved and seconded. 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 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 empoundment 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. So do you know have you heard anything about the Perkins grant not being funded going forward? >> It is. >> That's good. >> Yeah, that's the CT. Um
>> Joe had a question. >> Oh, I don't understand recommendation H. Could you uh educate me please? >> 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. You want to speak that a little bit? >> It says resolution 2ji. Where is that resolution? >> In a 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, that 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 on the person who is going to be
>> John. Yeah. Yep. >> Or 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 1 2 3 4 5 cut one down page nine I believe they're all hourly rates and
that person's rate is a for 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 a lower.
>> 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 for DM 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. Usually these these needs are for
specific needs >> during the school year. What's the certified teacher? Sub >> 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 petition. These are
Yeah, these are teachers that >> that have specific searchs for for students in the ESI program. >> Yeah, I won't be here. Leave a note for the 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 uh desegregate some of this data that I was going to share with uh assistant at Mendes 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 more detailed discussion >> to to dig a little bit deeper. a lot of the the principles and 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. Okay. I just I just didn't understand what that >> 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 at one of our uh probably committee meetings to to to do an analysis of uh 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 because 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 >> Mr. Smith. >> Dr. Ross. >> Yes. >> Mr. Sweeney. >> Yes.
>> Miss Sakarella. >> Yes. >> Mr. Zimmerman. >> Yes. >> Mr. Smagalia. >> Yes. >> Mr. Cino. >> Yes. >> Mr. Fischer. >> I >> Mr. Krauss. >> Yes. >> Miss Pellet. >> Yes.
>> Motion carries. >> 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 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. I really do appreciate it because we had to uh uh dig deep and make a lot 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 discussionform information 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 that 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 C, second circuit the board approved transportation uh as listed below. You 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 joint year with the High Point Regional Board of Education, joint year with Sussex Vanage. 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 eventual needs whereas special services department has determined that services need will continue until June 30 2026 where the special services department has determined that the school/ services
below is the most appropriate placement therefore be resolved the township board of education approves the contracts as listed below letter E is open that the board approve the disposition of the following items is either obsolete or in disrepair letter It 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 that the board approve the turn and 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 vctte 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 requested that the board approved renewing the policy alert and support system contract with Strauss Esme Associates LLP for
July 1st 2025 to June 30th 2026. Total cost $5,15. Letter J is recommended that the board approve the agreement between Vernon Township Board of Education and the Atlantic Health System uh at Spartan Newton urgent care for the provision of medical service including drug and alcohol testing and physical
examinations effective July 1st 2025 to June 30th 2026. Certainly, the board accepted donations of the following items from Agra 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 have my QPA. It's gone from 44,000 to 53,000. Uh which results in also the quote threshold going up. That quote threshold is 15% of the new bid threshold. Um stuff that 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 rel 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 Vern Township School District. That's Walnut Ridge School SCA which is new. Uh letter Q uh it is recommended the board approve Williams Golden Spitzer PA as bond
council. Uh letter R is a the board approve Raymond Slam the business administrator/board secretary in accordance with NJSA1 18A1 18A-21B to as authorized to publicly receive bids unseal them and announce the contents in the absence or unavailability of the glo purchasing
agent the board of education authorizes Pamela Catchar assistant to the business administrator to publicly receive bids and seal them and announce the contents. The effective date of this this recommendation is July 1st, 2025 through June 30, 2026. Letter S is recommended the board approve the non-resident tuition agreement for student number
2259426 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 $12,51.90 at Stash F9. Letter U has recommended the board approved Skylands 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 is recommended the board approve an award for snow pling/ sweeping services for Vernon 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 snow plowing/ sweeping services at the Vern Township Schools District. Therefore be resolved that the Vern Council's Board of Education hereby awards the contract for snowplowing/ sweeping services to Earth Techch
Associates, Inc. in accordance with the July 11th, 2025 bid in the following amounts uh as noted below. Letter W is that the board approve and accept the 2526 application funds for 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 open to the board approve the list of additions and deletions to the fixed asset list. That's attachment F10. Letter Z is recommended to the business administration and the food service manage company by the
businessman shirt and the food services manage company that the board approve a 25cent increase for breakfast at each level and 25 uh cent for lunch as at each level as noted below. Uh letter A, it is recommended that the board approve the proposal from Beasley uh for deadly
weapons protection for the 2526 square in amount of $8,000. That's everything. >> That is everything. Okay, great. Megan, 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 Ray 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. >> Yeah, I I just want to look at item uh J. It's recommended a board approve Vernon Township and Atlantic Health System. I'm I know he's sent out to
other places for drug and alcohol testing, but also says physical exams. Don't we have Dr. Fischer that does that? The physical exam stuff or or have we changed it? I don't know. >> Do you have history on Fisher? I think
we me I think we put him as a doctor of record. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. He's a school physician but I believe students uh get their own physicals to participate in activities. Correct. >> I know some of the board members have a I think you our students get their own
physicals correct >> for sports. >> Yeah >> they do. 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 insurance we talked about. >> 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. >> Correct. >> 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 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 the 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 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. Came in under bud, which is great. Yeah. Same thing with 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 bedsp specs this year. So I I don't know about 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 received the one bid. So >> a good job. >> Yeah. Yeah. No, no complaints. Uh I've have not I've heard not 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 route, right? I just it
got confusing for a second, but then I reread it. The bids for this for the buses SR 16 section see SR16 R seven 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 >> scrolling down. Sorry. Uh >> that's the estimated retail val retail value. He's donating all the orgra 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 course >> 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. Quite I think they're for science labs. So maybe have a specific use. So instead of being like an actual uh instead of being an actual >> Oh, are these for
Dr. Chef? What? Okay. >> We were uh 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 lean anything that he thought we could use to
supplement what we already had. >> Okay. >> So, that was that was that we're not planning on giving this computer to for a student, right? It's not for the science lab. So, I just want to clear that part up. So, yeah, he he Nick went through everything to see anything that
he thought we could possibly use, pieces, parts, any type of technology that he thought we could use. He didn't take anything to So, >> so I I supervised her screen involved. >> Okay. >> She did she did the science app.
>> Got it. >> It's a nice list you have there for science. >> Yes. Hot plates, scales, temperature gun. >> That 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 earlier close sessions. >> Okay, got it. All right, 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. Zimmerman? >> Yes. >> Mr. Sagalia? Yes, >> Mr. Cino. >> Yes,
>> Mr. Fischer. >> I >> Mr. Krauss. >> Yes, >> Miss Pallet. >> 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 Ross County, >> don't forget to sign in. I'll give you a second to finish. >> Okay, I'll sign it in. >> Okay. >> Um, I just want to say uh it's a
pleasure to see some of the art coming out of my office. So, students, their art exhibit is right in front of my office. So, it's a pleasure to see that. Um, one of the 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. Um, one of the things that you guys kept talking about was how to communicate with the public, right? Social media and I know those things. I believe you guys have an app, but I wasn't going to mention this, but you'll hear how press
now that Vernon Township is releasing is going to go live with our own application 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. I'll be more than happy to tell. That's a pretty cool app and uh looking forward to to release. We just started building it. So, it'll we'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 mess up her name, Hitch, she uh from Lone 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 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 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 work for it, raise money, uh, to to sell lemonade to
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. um they were willing to work for it. It
speaks volumes for for the children uh in Vernon and and in our future society. So um congratulations on the test scoring that's all got up. I I come maybe an 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 come from a generation where it's where's the responsibility in the children and parents right that's just where I've come from and all you know from my background but but happy to
see that everything's got up and it shows that uh I know coming out of co was tough for all the kids and and to see see I mean it's 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 that the kids are coming out of that too and it's good to see that everything is going up. So really good to see that. Anyway, tomorrow we have the safety town graduation at the PA. 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 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 saying 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 night. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, M. Um, >> any any other public comments online? >> No.
>> No attendees. >> No attendees. Okay. Anyone else in the public who would like to comment? >> No. >> Okay. >> Item two, open board member forum. Um, anyone? >> Oh, right.
I'm looking at my usuals. >> Well, yeah. It's every now and then, you know, something. >> It's good. It's good to have a change. So I would just like to say that you know many years back there was always talk about selling this building which it may given us the 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. Of 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 a little prod 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. You're 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's 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 sentence. >> 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 a 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, Louis. >> Thought we were going to escape.
>> There'll be no old business at the next board meeting. >> Um, I just want to say thank you, Russ, for 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 going to 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 uh you'll see me mow my lawn. >> I'll see you. Yeah. Throw some cans and stuff on your lawn. >> I know where you live, too. You come back. >> Come visit us sometime. Okay. Anyone else? Is that it? Okay. Can I get a motion to adjurnn?
>> So moved. Second. >> Go. Carol. Um, >> all in favor? >> I think you're the only one who said I. >> I. >> I said I.