##VIDEO ID:C27k0BJHxak## what for what where I went to school um FN not where I went my kid yeah I yeah FN good evening everyone I would like to welcome you to our Tuesday October 29th 2024 Board of Education meeting we are calling the meeting to order and it is 7:03 p.m. and if everyone could please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance a reading of meeting notice the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of the public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the with the provision of the act the Verona board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published in the Star Ledger posted with the township of Verona and the Verona Education Association posting of the meeting setting forth the time location and agenda were posted at the Verona Board of Education Office and on the Verona Public Schools district website copies of tonight's agenda and resolutions have been made available to the public via the Board of Education website Mr Cruz if you could please call attendance Mr wer here Mrs brazel here Mrs Farrar Mrs prisco here Mr Boom here we have Quorum thank you thank you moving on to our resolution um I need a motion please to approve our routine matters our minutes from our October 15 2024 meeting so moved motion by Mr Boon seconded by I'll second seconded by Mrs farrara any discussions see none Mr Cruz if you could please call V Mr wer pres yes m M Vella yes Mrs Farrar yes Mrs prisco yes Mr Boon yes motion carries thank you thank you um let ran go okay sure I'm going to switch over and we're going to start with our student um report by Mr Ryan grook thank you uh good evening October is coming to a close which marks the end of the school Year's first quarter as we approach November the latter half of this month has brought about a multip a multitude of accomplishments activities and events for VHS on Thursday the 31st Halloween VHS and the student council will be hosting a Halloween parade and costume contest students of all grade levels are encouraged to participate and dress up this November November 1st this Friday November 1st marks when registration for AP exams is due in May VHS will be administering AP exams to registered students students who take AP exams and score well could earn placement and or credit at colleges and universities parents and students are strongly encouraged to register and pay for such exams online by the 1st of November to avoid late fees as November approaches the fall Sports Seasons have become have begun to come to a close the fall Sports season forona has inarguably been a great per has seen Great Performances across the board of a myriad of VHS teams including girls tennis soccer and volleyball among others having Advanced the counties and seeing success our fall Athletics programs have showcased the dedication and Excellence of our students despite Seasons coming to a close VHS still has some fight left with remaining Voice soccer matches Cross Country meets and football playoffs which are bound to be exciting speaking of football I'd like to engr congratulate Michael Gus a senior on the football team who was awarded this year Steven de Gregor Young Man of the Year by the New Jersey super Football Conference Michael's hard work dedication and character have earned him this incredible recognition exemplifying the rigor of VHS student athletes uh in the world of Performing Arts the VHS marching band last Saturday had competed at Ruckers University for the bands of America New Jersey Regional Championship garnering a second place placement for the single a competition group for the region but impressively also having the third highest score in the country among all bands in the same competition group bands of America is one of the largest and most prestigious High School Marching Band circuits in the country conduct conducting Regional Super Regional and national championships where the largest programs and top bands of the country compete this Sunday November 3rd the VHS marching band looks forward to competing in the New Jersey marching band Directors Association state championships at the College of New Jersey uh like the prior meeting I will be dismissing myself early to attend rehearsal in preparation uh for this upcoming event uh this Friday November 1st at 6:00 pm. the VHS Spotlight players are proud to present the fall Cabaret performance Broadway throughout the ages The Cabaret is a collection of musical pieces performed by our very own talented VHS students with this year's performances following the theme of Broadway pieces from various eras come see the Cabaret at the VHS Auditorium and house opens at 5:30 performances start at 600 lastly the VHS homecoming has unfortunately been cancelled and will no longer take place this year however the student council plans to move forward with a winter formal with a date and theme to be determined that is all all thank you thank you Ryan three things first um the third place on the band that's awesome if you live where I live for as long as I've lived there you get to hear every part of the band rep yeah and and they're always great um thank you so I also want to commend uh Mr gergus I've gotten to know him uh over the years uh he's he's a really good boy so I'm happy he got that recognition and last you talked about a costume party yes will you reveal what costume you were dressed as for this this year here okay well your secret safe here thank you Ry thank you Mr Waka does anyone else have any questions or comments thank you sorry Friday Friday Friday thank you Ryan good luck at practice and good luck this weekend as well thanks Ryan moving on to our agenda we will now go to our superintendence report by Miss dppi and uh since uh Dr Miller and the curriculum team are here to do the njsla access for L's and dlm re uh report I'm GNA keep mine brief and also Ryan stole a lot of my stuff so um yeah so in addition to uh the Verona High School Marching Mar in white taking third place nationally uh uh there were three Southern California a New Brunswick and a St Louis um Missouri um uh competitions and in our in our size which we are a um we were uh third in the nation in terms of our points so it's uh it's really and Mr Lynch will remind me that they have a very limited budget it's I look at it thinking it's not really all that limited but I guess for as far as marching bands go it's limited so they do a lot with a little and just um want to act lat to the kids they also came in second at the Randolph uh competition and second at the West Orange competition as well so good luck to them on Sunday in the state finals um our high impact tutoring is uh up and running and in progress and um a preview Summer Splash uh will return this summer uh we had been using Esser funds and with the exhaustion of those funds sumers Splash went away uh but Dr Miller and Mr Cruz and I talked a little bit about how we utilize Title One funds and uh we are going to reallocate Title One funds to bring to Summer Splash summer uh remediation program back um and they are Title One funds are while they fluctuate year to year they're more stable unlike Sr funds had an ending to it so to update the board uh on any changes to the hbw schedule we are on target to have a schedule change in place for um September uh it is uh I was um updated on it today U Mr galber Mrs arriman and um Mrs Peter presented to the rest of the group The Final uh schedule configuration uh next steps are to present it to the hbw staff and then the board and then we will run uh parent information sessions as well I just want to thank um uh the curriculum team that's here tonight Mrs arrian and uh the administration at hbw for coming up with what I think this board not going to talk too much about it because I need to tell the teachers about it first um what is a winwin win win win for everyone and the creative minds that came up with this schedule I'm very very impressed oh thank you half of them are over there um and the elementary principles uh and met with the district administrators last Friday to discuss a common block schedule for the Elementary uh school as well we are actually pushing that out to hopefully try to get it in by September 26 and the reason why we're going two years out on that one is that we don't know what Verona Flat's impact will be on our elementary schools so we're going to hold off on changing a schedule until we know whether we have to change configurations of our schools so if we need to move boundary lines or change to grade band schools in order to accommodate um what really is unknown right so the the the folks um from the uh what's the name of the company Pam H coner I was thinking pine tree Conifer uh the the uh gentleman from Conifer did say a lot of the applicants were from Verona so their kids are already in our schools but whatever property they vacate to move in to is you know could bring families into into the community so we really don't know the impact um uh even though we had the demographic study done so um we're going to wait on making any big changes to the schedule until after we see that impact and um I will turn it over to Dr Miller Mrs Peter Mr can we ask a question about your report first sure oh yeah I'm sorry sure so you I I think we all agree that like you know the the last resort is to to change boundaries you know um so we'll make that clear and and if if you could ask Kyle because I I don't know what a board's responsibility is as far as how it would go about the process of of of if we get to this scenario that we don't want to get to that we should still at least prepare for it right so let us know what the board's responsibility is if if you have to redistrict how how many votes it's going to take or what the any other things because I've never experienced this okay that's that's my only thing I will do that thank you and one other thing to follow Mr WKA in any uh configuration or any setup is um transportation going to be an issue and if so do we have any sense of what that would look like it we'd have to really take a look at um what we would have to do let me answer the question is yes it would but we we would have to have to split the the community in half and do a a k235 k235 or you would wind up paying for transportation because you would have some boundaries I mean listen what we three square miles yeah so we would probably have some um potential um need for busing um but it wouldn't be cost it wouldn't be cost-effective for us to have bus is it would be cost effective for us to reimburse parents the way we do currently with some of our parents that drive to um approved special education schools Etc because busing is is hard so we have to really uh do an in-depth study as to what that would look like and optimally it's keeping it as it is um in neighborhood schools because that's what the community likes we understand that um I just don't know uh a side of referendum and adding on to our buildings because right now Lanning um does not have an extra classroom we have 24 and 24 in kindergarten there and could not even split it if we wanted to because there's no classroom space um the only place we actually have CL and same with forest forest has no extra classroom space so the only place we have extra classroom space is Brookville and we are over capacit hbw just throwing it out there do we know if there's any vac can see if if if we had to rent out like a I'm just throwing ideas out there but I like the idea of Like An Early Learning Center for for for prek or or for kindergarten or something like that and I agree that you know we we do in Verona really like the the neighborhood Elementary School setup and because of that like you know we we want to do everything we can not to change it because we do like it right but it doesn't necessarily mean it's the best setup but um it's something that I think we want um so that's it yeah um it's definitely um in most communities that have my own Community has neighborhood schools um my community my son grew up and had neighborhood schools and people were very um you know they like that uh at instructionally grade band schools are significantly more effective but um it's that's not the reason we're moving that thought we have no space in our schools and we have the potential of a hundred or so kids coming into District is the uh you the church school was called the Trinity what's it our lady the lake uh do we know if they even have vacancy if we needed to I don't but I can look into that I I'll give um Mr Conroy a call I I think also just while we're on this topic you know we know that we have obviously Verona Flats coming in but we also know that there is a round two coming there is a round two coming so I think when we're when we are talking about discussing massive changes to you know I potential massive changes right um we have to also consider the fact that this is not this is not the first right we have a lot of things and I think that this just reinforces the importance of the board being a part of these conversations with the town so that we are able to make these decisions because we've been talking about this for a year because we don't have a lot of the information so it's very difficult for us to make decisions when we don't have that information so again I just am reiterating publicly that it's really important that we have these conversations these opportunities to you know collaborate with the Town Council so that we can make the most educated decisions that we can well and the T the township just received numbers um from the state that that are much higher than they expected with regard to what we have to provide going you know they're going to appeal it and they'll talk more about that at the council meeting um I think they have to appeal it because most of what's available to to to build in our community is open space so um they're going to have to appeal it was 157 right is that what they said so 157 more units right and I do think that the town is if I recall from when I looked at the last town uh Town council meeting they were doing some changes to uh local regulations to allow um commercial and then two or three levels of apartments above um don't quote me if it's two or three where right now I think it has to be an equal number so which is going to increase capacity um even if absent um open space so I think it is something that that M you know is right to make everyone aware that this is not a oneandone solution um that we may need to look to expand some of I jump in on that so if the if if the board president and the super agree can we ask the Cara Rino to to let us know which structures maybe even know this where which structures are buildup and and which some schools might have no space where you could build other schools might actually have space that we could build if we had to but just to get that info might help as well um where do we know where we are at the Spectrum we 360 site yeah loation as far as I'm aware yeah okay thank you without further Ado I asked Dr Miller to Weedle it down to you know 85 slides from 185 very funny it's less than a hundred so we would like to we're waiting for this to come up welcome everyone it's a pleasure for us to be here and to share information with you all right so we're going to back up there we go let's make sure that this works okay so we're going to present to you access uh for L's dlm Dynamic learning maps and the njsla results from the spring from 2024 our mission uh for the district is to empower our students to co to cultivate their intellectual curiosity and social responsibility like to call up missar Colo so we're going to begin this evening by looking at the results of our access assessment the access assessment is the um annual exam that our students who are multilingual Learners take it tests their Proficiency in listening Reading Writing and speaking it is a nationally normed assessment and New Jersey was one of the first states to begin giving the access test so here you will see the results um we are proud that our students overall made growth um in their speaking scores from the previous year to this year we still notice that students do perform more strongly with reading and with listening because there are those are both receptive areas and are still struggling a bit with writing uh and with speaking so we are um really focusing on those two domains and how we're doing that is one implementing the champion curriculum which is our curricul that we're using for our multilingual Learners we're implementing that with Fidelity we are also meeting with general education teachers who have multilingual Learners in their classrooms and going over the we to can do descriptors which talk about what students are able to do in each domain and then their next area of growth we were also very fortunate a group of us had the opportunity to attend a three-day sheltered English instruction um professional development with Barbara tadesco and Dr BJ Franks who are truly experts in the field so we learned so much from that training and we're eager to share back what we learned with our colleagues who have multilingual Learners in their classroom we also this year have had more um students join us in the upper grades who are new to English which we're very excited about and so both our general education teachers and our ml teacher are working hard to ensure they have translation tools available to them so that we're still providing them with a rigorous curriculum and access to grade level standards but also able to have tools for them to to translate documents into their native language so they can better understand so that's what we've been working on in terms of our multilingual Learners I'm now going to just speak very quickly to our Dynamic learning map for those who don't know our students who have more significant learning and cognitive needs do participate as per their IEP team in the dynamic learning map which is also known as the dlm we had 13 students take that assessment this past year both students who are in District and then a few students who are out of District um we had 13 students in total and that tests students in ela and math and science it tests third through e8th graders in ela and math as well as 11th graders and then in science our fifth eth and 11th graders take that assessment so there are four levels that students receive a score on the test is administered oneon-one in what is called testlets and the teacher the special education teacher works oneon-one with the student gives them um an assessment they take a break and then they take more over a few week period so um you'll see the results here they're either um emerging approaching Target at Target or Advanced when we receive the scores we then meet with the special education teachers and give them the breakdown of the specific skills where the students have strengths and then areas of growth so that they can Target those areas in their small group instruction I'm now going to pass it over to miss Peter the supervisor of humanities who's going to speak about our njsla Ela results I don't know that I'll be quite as quick as Miss Coler but I will try all right um I'm going to go ahead and kick off our njsla portion of the presentation and this is the score breakdown this applies to our Ela and math um njsla assessments that 750 number is key that's the number that we'd like students to hit in order to meet expectations I'm going to be focusing on the ELA portion and I'll begin with our elementary schools um this first uh graph that you'll see and and you'll see this graph come up again and again in our middle school and high school um portions uh displays the averages of our njsla results over the last three years beginning in 2022 to 2024 um we like to see that green bar grow and you'll see here in third grade it has been um that's a wonderful sign of the hard work that our teachers and students are putting in the blue and the red shrink yes yes and as that green bar grows hopefully that's that's happening on the other end yes um and here we have our fourth grade results over the last three years here are our disaggregated results you'll see that also in our Middle School and High School portions um in our disaggregated graphs you'll see our scores broken down by gender race and ethnicity socioeconomic status classified status students with that have IEPs or 504s um and whether a student is a multilingual learner you'll notice some blank spots across these results those are for student groups that are under 10 we do not report on student groups under 10 here are our third grade results our fourth grade results here in this graph you'll see how Verona compares to the state in third and fourth grade you'll see here that our green bars are higher than our state's green bars that's a good sign I'd be remiss here not to thank Julie Joo who did some really excellent work with our third fourth grade teachers last year uh that nudged those green bars higher um our our teachers put in a lot of work and and so did she and I'd like to thank her for that in my absence here we have our current fifth graders this cohort model gives us a really nice look at how students grow across the years this helps us to compare apples to apples oranges to oranges um so these are our current fifth graders when they were in third grade and then when they were in fourth grade you'll see that that group of students continues to improve proof to continue to support the really great work that's happening at our elementary level we'll continue to lean into foundations and integrity as our word study programs um we'll continue that work in fourth grade as well our k12 and now third grade teachers have all been trained and retrained I should say in fundations over the last couple of years we're leaning into our Dr cadians map growth and njsla scores to help students inform instruction through data we continue to work with our reading coaches particularly in letters training over the last couple of years um we also have been working hard at unpacking standards writing really effective specific learning targets and that's all work that all of our teachers are doing but particularly at the elementary level it is challenging when you're teaching multiple subject areas and I'd like to commend our elementary teachers for leaning into that work across uh content areas moving along to hbw here we have our fifth grade averages over the last three years some really impressive growth here our sixth grade averages our seventh grade averages also extremely impressive here as well and our eighth grade averages here we have our disaggregated results in fifth grade in sixth grade seventh grade and eighth grade here we have our fifth and sixth grade students in comparison to the state our seventh and eighth grade scores in comparison to the state here we have our current sixth grade students when they were in third grade fourth grade and then fifth grade we see continued growth there as well our current seventh grade students also continuing to grow our current eighth grade students who saw extremely impressive growth from uh from our return to testing post pandemic so can I just interrupt for one second absolutely so um for those people out there that are not used to seeing these presentations and they're watching or they'll be watching tomorrow um the tape of this we look at two different things we look at fourth grade to fourth grade and that gives us information this current fourth grade to next year's fourth grade or last year's fourth grade that tells us about our curriculum right gives us indications about whether or not we we are um hitting the right information looking at a cohort shows you a student from third grade how they did into fourth grade how they did in fourth grade into fifth grade and how they didn't so that shows you individual the learning that our students are are growing across those grade levels that's why you're getting the two different slides of of fourth to Fourth third to Third and then third fourth to Fifth and I know this is a lot of data to take in so please know that this presentation will be posted and you are welcome to take a closer look at your child specific grade band um or across um you know where your child is headed over the next couple of years so please you know know that that this is available and we're always happy to answer additional questions here we have our current nth grade students again we're continuing at hbw to lean into professional development um we this year made some tweaks to our win and more specifically our literacy lab to support areas of need um under our new much anticipated h PW schedule will continue to prioritize intervention as well um teachers at the middle school are continuing to unpack the standards write really effective and rigorous learning targets um they are working with data um more than ever before and I'd really like to commend them for this work it's not uh it's not an easy lift it's it's different than what they've done in the past and it's not easy um and they've they've gone ahead and and taken it um great yeah they really have and we transition to our high school these are our ninth grade results our disaggregated results at the HS our scores in comparison to the state um really really a bright spot there these are our current 10th grade students also at the high school we're leaning into our district uh professional development around unpacking and writing learning targets we continue to review School evidence statements especially given the new standards in ela this year we're leaning into to which pieces of our curriculum we can improve um to meet those standards uh We've we've already updated our curriculum to reflect those new standards but really to make sure our teachers have a good understanding of the the slight changes and the broader changes is very important and we're continuing that work throughout this year most of the changes for ELA are at the lower grades though right yes yes most of the major changes are are at the lower grades um and for our technical standards our our Ela standards that are applicable in the content areas like science and social studies here in this chart you will see our average scaled score so that's that 750 number that I referred to in the beginning of the presentation that signifies a student meeting or exceeding standards um in comparison to the state we are Verona maroon the state is blue and with that I'm going to go ahead and hand over our presentation to Mr Stephenson to speak about math and science thank you thank you yeah sure no that's okay thank you so much I I I I see some of that growth I love that we're starting to use data I think we're doing some really great things so I appreciate it thank you I just I noticed and I and I don't and I apologize if I'm wrong because I was kind of just SED out to me that the throughout the grads it it seems like males are really underperforming yes right compared and I think it's fabulous for our girls like they're doing amazing National Trend National Trend yes and and this used to be something that we really saw in ela um we're seeing some of that in in math and sciences as well um yes definitely something to keep an eye on yeah so I just want to I asked this last year um and I and I understand it's a national Trend but what have we went into to see like and then did did like a um an inventory of our libraries to see you know if we have those selections for males like what what books are we offering them are they reading at the same rat as as our as our girls are in school and I understand that this is um I'm not asking us to collect that data to see how what I'm what I'm really just don't worry I'm not asking for that but what I am asking for is do our classroom libraries offer options for our boys to read as well yeah and you're you're speaking more at the elementary middle school level yeah classroom like in the classroom getting their independent reading what does that look like have we ever done an inventory to make sure that we're offering diverse books you know books for girls and you know everyone I can't say that we've done a formal districtwide inventory that was actually something that I did um at the middle school when I taught sixth grade um of my own personal classroom Library more as a reflection point for myself um and it was surprising to to me some of the groups that I thought I had better text um that that I didn't or you know there were a few key titles that maybe not the same quantity as some of the other groups um so it's definitely something we can be more mindful of and something that that we can we can assess throughout our elementary and middle school libraries yeah something that we can purchase or add to or just make sure libr absolutely we're actually looking at um programmatic changes anyway uh for the for the K five group um and uh Peter and I were talking today about what was the one we were talking about Whitten and wisdom is one program that's that's out there yep there's several and and we've been looking you know to to begin our committee work that will actually kick off this week um at our Halloween PD um and continue throughout the rest of the school year but that's a big consideration that a big consideration that the texts that are included in programs um you know are are not only diverse to be representative of all the students but but certainly by gender and when we do see data like this it's something in particular to keep our eyes on I I think you know it's it's I'd like to see the long-term data of it but we know that there there were a whole lot of studies that show that for for Generations male students got more attention from from teachers in the classroom right um but but then perhaps you somewhere along the line we started becoming cognizant of that and and and changing that so maybe this data is more of a reflection of of girls showing just how awesome you know they can do as opposed to you know the the males like it behind but I don't know enough of the the 20 or 30-y year data to show that but um you know the the girls are ahead right now they're do they're doing better and that's we should emulate yeah no and and just to be clear I'm not but it's not really about boys and girl yeah I think it's wonderful that that we're seeing that data I really I'm speaking specifically to our classroom libraries and if we have options for the boys to have choice and choose books to read and take home and and have that you know because Interest really does play a part in um especially for our younger leaders right so it's really just more of that not necessarily who's doing better who is it a good thought I think absolutely you you Google great books for girls in fourth grade and you come up with a thousand yeah you know you have to do that reverse for for boys and I don't think you come up with quite as many because I think there is a certain Listen I'm a girl mom I have every princess you name and I got it all um but I think that you you know there are there is kind of a whole for quote unquote boy books not that any book is a gendered book you know but just it's interest it's interest it's just interest you know like my kid doesn't want to read about baseball but your son may want to and that's just you know yeah just to uh address your question uh when I got here when Dr suit Banji was here uh when she had her had her uh baby uh she really saw she became transformed in a way and since that date we've been looking for diverse libraries we would set aside 500 $500 for each teacher um we did that up through covid uh and we would encourage them to uh teachers individually to look for more diverse books boy books books for people of color Etc to try to enrich those libraries so I think it's a great question and it's something that we can look more into thank you you're welcome thank you ready for math everybody's favorite right um here we have the third grade historical um postco fourth grade nice uptick at the end there on fourth grade here's third grade disaggregated fourth grade disaggregated this is Verona versus New Jersey I do want to point out that the test has five scoring bands that kind of go one two three four we've merged the four and five into a single bar because they've met expectations um and you'll see something different with science in a little bit this would be our current fifth graders in their trajectory through our schools um we've seen sort of historically that fourth grade it seems to be a little bit more difficult test I would love to know from the state if that holds true across all the districts or if that's just a Verona thing no it was just it's been like that since the espa yeah fourth grade espa was always a harder test I don't know why um the things that we're working on um we're continuing to use Dimensions math which focuses on uh conceptual understanding and modeling um getting to see numbers flexibly seeing numbers visibly um we've encouraged math games for consolidation I think finally I'm starting to see um other support materials like I have in my office addition by heart and multiplication hard sets of flash cards that are very different than the flash cards that you and I had as a child which would have an expression on one side and an answer on the other this is multiple visualizations with either um sets of of dice spots or bar models or um arrays do arrays you name it um and it helps kids connect a visual to a fact and one fact to another fact U the learning science shows that you learn through connection and elaboration more than repetition although repetition plays A Part um we are all busy as a district unpacking uh standards and improving our learning targets and matching those um and we'll be taking a look at the rest of our test data with a kind of closer lens moving on to HP here's fifth grade's historical sixth grade historical seventh grade historical orle now this is just math 8 in e8th grade they either take the eth grade test or they take the algebra one test and so the graph starts to look different in seventh grade they just take the seventh grade test there's not like a pre-algebra version of seventh grade so all the kids are together here's our algebra one inp results historically math five disaggregated math six disaggregated Math 7 disaggregated math 8 Al one disaggregated or was that in there Charlie put the graphs together we'll track that down I was expecting something else on this slide I was expecting algebra want disaggregate yeah me too we'll find it um this is our sort of Verona versus New Jersey for both fifth and sixth six Math here's Algebra 1 in the math 7 and math 8 and Algebra 1 versus New Jersey um not necessarily a fair comparison on Algebra 1 uh because that new jersey number is everyone who took algebra whether they're in eighth grade ninth grade or some other grade Beyond and this is just hp's algebra 1 we'll see it again in a minute in VHS this would be our current sixth graders and their path through njsla math this is our current seventh graders notice that there's a split over on the right last year they took either math 6 or math 67 these are current eighth graders again you're going to see a couple different groupings there uh because they either took a sequence of math 67 and and then eventually eight this year or they took 67 and 78 and they're in algebra our current freshman same pattern um what we're working on there HB is our fourth year of dimensions in fifth grade and our third year of Amplified math it's focused on conceptual understanding it's focused on transferable skills in terms of making sense and collaborating and talking expressing ideas in math um we've we've got our win period in five and six and math lab in seven eight we've made some adjustments of those things and again we're busy working on unpacking um the standard um we're continuing to focus on routines through building thinking classrooms so that kids can collaborate in math Express their ideas use math as a language and sort of explain their understanding of math and not just get answers at the high school this is algebra one historically this is geometry historically I would say honors geometry for the most part is it's the Freshman who take this now the algebra one VHS disaggregated results oh that includes is that everybody that's everybody so that's HP and VHS that's the slide I anticipated it's not split by school they don't give us that got it the geometry disaggregated results this is algebra 1 um it includes the eighth grade Algebra 1 and the VHS Algebra 1 and then geometry versus the state this is looking at the cohort U there's a lot going on in this slide because of all the different levels and grades and everything else uh the kids on the right took uh math like pre-algebra at that point is what we called it as essentially math 78 and then they took Algebra 1 and they're in Geometry the kids in the middle um took math 7 then math 8 then Algebra 1 in our high school what we're working on here at the high school is the same sorts of stuff we're in year three of Amplified math and again it's about um kids understanding conceptually making sense of math learning through problem solving communicating with each other communicating their understanding um we're planning a little bit of a lesson study with them so that we can look at specific activities and kids making sense of math and kind of digging into classroom level um data and observations together as a department um and we're all still unpacking standards and making sure our learning targets are focused towards the test we're implementing the building thinking classroom strategies um and we've been through the data um I went so far as to pull the frequency of every sort of like evidence statement across eight tests just to figure out like what are they really testing on these tests State doesn't tell us that I had to dig it all out yeah they don't do that um this is kind of New Jersey versus the state in math um across the three different years uh Verona is the reddish colors and the state is the bluish colors uh I apologize if you're color blind it's going to be hard to discern all right on to science or do you want to do math questions first math questions first okay so um I must say I is very loud I am a little concerned because it's seems like we are going in the wrong direction in on some of those slides and not just the break between the kids that go accelerated and the kids that don't it seems like some of the cohorts either the numbers that have achieved have gone down or they're not increasing so what are we doing to combat that so in a couple cases we had teachers who were in their first year of teaching a particular subject um we had a teacher for the first time teaching geometry um we're going to dig in on the geometry standards and the sequence and the techniques in that class um likewise we had another teacher who was in their first year of teaching sixth grade math same sort of thing um I've already been in his classroom multiple times this year looking at how he's approaching problems and getting kids to make sense of the problems um and then making sure that exactly what's happening in the classroom is lining up with how they're being assessed in the end this and I think I brought this up last year that the kids with 504 plans who are not cognitively impaired they don't have slds they are consistently lagging behind all grade levels right and do we have an idea as to are there supports the these students are not receiving and is that a problem with our 504 system or is there something that we're missing in administering the test even um to these students where they are not um performing close to at least their peers on on those test follow up on that on those tests um uh do they get additional time or ability to function separately it depends on that's in their accommodations they get it on state test as well so so one of the things that I see is kids do certain kids do struggle with math facts and and being accurate and efficient and how they develop answers to math facts um and that's sort of what I mentioned before we're now finally seeing sort of ancillary materials and and I don't want to use use the word drill but drill types of materials that support multiple representations certain kids have a hard time memorizing math facts by rot um you know I I've met with even parents who are like yeah I didn't have my math facts down until I was an adult um the and I can I can bring you samples so you can see what we're looking at it's multiple different representations that support those kids who struggle with rote memorization so that they can build robust memories around these facts and even if they can't just recall them by rot they can reconstruct them you know it's a kind of thing like if you consistently forget six time 7even but you know three times 7 you can rebuild six times seven um and it's making sure that that the students understand those compensatory strategies and and for as much as I've advocated over time making sure the teachers understand those compensatory strategies as well but the materials that we finally found um on the market which didn't exist before are finally there and I'm hoping that that starts to close those things I have I do think to just let me um one one thing um I mentioned this earlier where we saw a huge huge leap a growth with with our Algebra 1 students last year they grew 15 percentage points in one year and they did that with targeted Mr Stevenson and worked with the two teachers they went over evidence statements they went over each individual students um performance on on those assessments on our map assessments on teacher made assessments teacher observation teacher Data Tracking that's where we're going to make those strides and and and and I jokingly said earlier in the year it's teaching on purpose but it's not a joke it's teaching on purpose every day does does does that fact on sorry um does that also factor into whether the algebra is in e8th grade or ninth grade actually in the nth grade algebra um uh which historically in all school districts students struggle um in eth grade you saw the numbers here you saw the State numbers eth grade math is uh historically difficult for students that don't make it that are not taking algebra in eighth grade um and then uh Algebra 1 in nth grade historically across the state as well um tends to be a lower um achievement rate but I I was so unbelievably impressed with what our teachers did with Mr Stevenson last year and it just reinforces we know what to do we just have to do it more widespread yeah so I think this is kind of where where where my mind was going with the eighth grade when when I saw that discrepancy because my question there is does is that data telling us a story of the importance of that tier one and two um intervention for the foundational skills so I think that it's glaring not only because the content gets harder but because we're now seeing these two groups this group who needed interventions at an earlier age and this group who was successful because they're stronger students so I think that while the content does get harder and I understand that it's a glaring it it I mean I'll share an anecdote in 2019 I was in an eth grade class and they were working on slope and calculating slopes and understanding you know graphs and and what the graph says and I watched students count on their fingers to multiply in eth grade and I kind of pulled some of them aside I would end up going to their math lab or even their their literacy Lab at times um and kind of like drilling them with alternative flashcards to try to get them to rebuild these things I'm like look if you're if you're going to progress in math you have to have that Foundation if you're spending your time thinking about what your answers to multiplication problems are you're not going to understand yeah so I that's a great practice for that group but I think as a district we have to ensure that that is happen acoss buildings across classrooms correct and that's what I was talking about like the the things that I used with them were semi self-made you had to print them cut them kid by Kid by Kid and now there are things on the markets that mimic that that we can just purchase and put in the hands of teachers put in the hands of students um they can play games with them that sort of demystifies the math and there's a routine of inter leave practice so that you have a chance to forget and remember and Reem and forget and REM yeah remember and that builds solid foundations I think too um the other piece that we've been talking about because most of our teachers didn't learn math the way we're teaching math to kids so really making sure that we have a strong professional development or how those manipulatives how those representational flashcards that stuff that we know will get kids from concrete representational to abstract ultimately to be able to solve those algorithms um without you know because they understand the conceptual nature yeah um uh I'm sorry concrete nature of what they're doing that's going to take Ser it's not going to happen overnight um because we we didn't learn that way right and I and I I think too I can't speak for the board I can I can only obviously speak for myself here but I think that I would like to see you know we we talked a little bit which I'll I'll report out on but we talked a little bit about this tier one and two instruction um I'm sorry intervention in our Ed uh committee but I think only speaking for myself here I really would like to see some type of plan because while I understand that it does take time I think that without a plan we just kind of keep floating and we we can't keep floating like this because we're going in the wrong direction so you know whether it be okay this is our you know fourth grade plan where we're going to start our fifth grade wherever it is I think that if we we have some clear interventions in place for teachers to do in the classrooms and they're getting the professional development support I mean I know again myself or even through ad committee I'd like to really see what that is and and where where we're going good thank you science science um I don't know why we can't be consistent science has four buckets instead of five buckets yeah the range is 100 to we think 300 instead of 650 to 850 um the graphs are going to look a little bit different we merg the top two tiers uh appropriate understanding and advanced understanding um this is our fifth grade historically um here's our eighth grade historically I'll speak to this one specifically one of our as we work through the SDC kits in hbw a lot of our emphasis was to try to make assessments handson and a little bit practical and mirror the lessons that they did in class and that doesn't speak to the test because the test is about here's a here's a little bit of reading here's a graph here's some data here's a diagram can you connect those um and so what we've said that as a PDP goal for the entire HB science department is getting our as as proud and happy as we were with our Hands-On practical assessments into something that looks like that was an oops right we thought we were doing the right thing and definitely not um so we're working on that um here's the 11th grade historical here is fifth grade disaggregated eighth grade disaggregated 11th grade disaggregated Verona versus the state Verona versus the world all right all right we'll start with the state and then take the rest uh and then here's the I'm sorry if you're color blind this is Verona versus the state for all the threes compared to each other um we've now reached the halfway point of this presentation joking that's all any questions on science I I do have a question go on the science and it was on one of the earlier science part slides I forget exactly where I saw it maybe right right there um the it seems that the keep it in simple terms I think it might have been an earlier slide regardless the yellows are going more to the blues over time then to the greens um and to follow up on M Bala and Miss barara is what I'm curious to know is are some of the those math struggles impacting that growth in the science and and if if I'm if I'm reading that it's if you're looking so the the students are going to do the best on the science test are good readers and super confident in their math skills um and then have an analytical component as well right I think what we've done in the classroom in science is work on that analytical part but we haven't necessarily like here's three different pieces of information can you integrate it and answer a question about it right and particularly in the eth grade I think that's very true because we worked really hard at trying to make our assessments practical and match what we're doing in the classroom and that missed the mark right science my my thing with science is that when when you give an assessment uh and Statewide the scores are so so so so poor it shows there's a a clear disconnect between the standards the state is saying here's what you need to be teaching these children versus what they're actually being assessed at in the state test um so to me I I I think that it's it's impossible to tell what or very difficult to tell what BR is doing right or wrong within science because this test is just fundamentally flawed it really is and it's it's it's it's a joke well I will agree with you and like Mr Stephenson I also was a science supervisor I served on many state committees to try to improve this test first of all it's a bad company yeah the test is a bad test um the ngss or now the New Jersey student learning standards for science are a dream and a nightmare at the same time right it's what we all want for students in science it is almost impossible to recreate what those standards are asking kids to do in K12 classrooms on top of that like we're we're being encouraged and I and reasonably so and I I support it to do either problem or solution based science learning activities and and and they're they don't really Translate well to to a standardized assessment but I I think when we see it work we see how much better it is than the traditional memorization route so that's my point on our science test the other thing that we know about the science test is the ngss triangulates um uh three I'm not going to go into it but it triangulates three different components of science this test company has not been able to write a question that assesses whether or not our kids can triangulate yeah and you know I did see a national report that said the states that were early testers on the threedimensional science NG GSS have kind of the worst tests and New Jersey was amongst the first um I had in mind when this rolled out sort of what happened in the region in the past that if you were given a science region you actually got a box of materials in the mail and kids had to perform a lab with the box of materials that came in the mail right right true stories um that never happened right and you know I remember I was a biology teacher during the end of course biology exam they released a sum total of eight multiple choice questions for the entire lifespan of that test every year right with every question and every answer so to to to all that point um and not being the state now as as close to the state science test mandates are there any learnings that we can take from say some of the um science focused schools say in Morris County in in Bergen that how do they navigate this well I I could tell you another component that we're not going to get so much into because this the science test is not a great test so we don't spend a lot of time talking about the test we do need to take a better look at our uh K8 curriculum with alignment for standards alignment um you know our problem in Verona has always stems back to money science materials and kits are very expensive and we're still kind of using the ones that we've been using that maybe don't align to the new science standards as well and we see when we look at standards what we saw in ela just from one year of looking at standards you saw those green bars G you know Rising we can do the same thing here you will see the science scores increase once we get that work done the the problematic piece is that we are working on math and language arts right now and and you can only clobber teachers so much and and I mean clobber in a loving way it's just unfair to say oh and we're gonna take a look at science tomorrow too um that if we do especially in that K8 setting if we take the time to work on that those literacy skills and we take the time time to provide that math support we'll see this start to happen organically because the students will have the skills to to attack it so I think that that's a fair and good place to start well is is the science scores don't impact anything other than it's a federal requirement that they sit for the test right and you could possibly see some of those artifacts in grade eight and grade 11 when they know the deal there the right those students aren't terribly motivated to take that test it ends up at the end of the testing they're like all right one more um so it's not necessarily a fair representation but you know our fifth grade scores for the stuff that's not aligned they're actually a little bit better you know I really think here we went a different direction expecting something different it's not about looking at the pieces of data the way they have the questions together um so we're kind of looking at that and seeing if we can add that because data analysis and interpretation is a big piece pie of the science standards and that's really what the test is assessing more than anything um I did show Charlie earlier um the three-dimensional nature of the standards Measurement Incorporated kind of took it like you could pick any science and engineering practice and any DCI and any cross cutting concept and mush them together in a question but if you look at the standards that's not how they're written the performance expectations are very particular um so there's a whole series of questions what do we look at asking questions and and identifying problems um I think there's a total of at least at the high school level maybe eight standards out of all of high school that focus on that and there was questions after question after question that was asking questions um that's sort of more of a it's an important science practice but within the performance expectations it's pretty Nick um I would love students to be asking scientific questions every single day and driving their learning out of their own curiosity but that's not what's on this test there we go and we're reviewing things we're looking at the data um and I lied when I said it was just halfway we're all done Miss Peter you mind if I ask you one quick follow-up question so I think this kind of runs parallel to the com the point Miss Rara brought up but so like when I go to Barnes & noville right I don't look for a reading level I go to the sections that interest me and I grab the book um what I've noticed in it seems like every school district kind of has their own kind of um flexibility as to how far up or down a reader can go go as far as the reading levels based on student interest so where's Verona Edge so I have a better idea so it's interesting you raised this I I recently went to a workshop at Ruckers University and and we were talking about the new Ela standards in general but but specific to reading level um and and the statistic that was really jarring to me um they compared it was fourth through sixth graders uh students that were encouraged to read at their reading level and students that were given grade level text and those students that were given texts that were at their reading level and not grade level specific text encountered it was something like 3 to six million less words per year than their peers who are encountering grade level text and it is important that students have access to high interest onlevel text for independent reading that is so crucial to what we've done for many many years at our elementary level um it also hinders some students ability to inter act with grade level vocabulary grade level knowledge building um and that is something that we're really looking at as we explore new programs um you know how can we ensure that students while they have time and access to those High interest on level text also are encountering grade level texts with whatever scaffolding and support is needed to help them get there uh but I I do think that that is something important that that we continue to to push our students to do it will help help them in in vocabulary in knowledge building and it'll help them on those science tests where where the the readings are at grade level yeah I think that's a I think it's a very fair answer I do um and it it's we all know that that second grade reading on an L level that when he reads a book about dinosaurs all of a sudden he makes all the context flue connections and and can figure it out um but then we've also seen the kid kind of jump and then bite too much more than they can chew um but it seems like you're saying there's there is some flexibility but it's not like a hard stop no we have we have certainly no hard and fast rule across the district you know students can't read outside of their their text band um i' I'd encourage them to try it particularly we know you know that classic baseball study that the students that is behind in Reading can access a higher level text if it's on a high interest topic baseball was was the the topic that researchers used um in that particular study but um yeah absolutely go for it try that harder text that is at a high interest level and and when across the elementary you'd say I think so yes and and we really do try and focus more on text band rather than level it gives students a little more flexibility we know that the texts are banned um and grouped together based on similar characteristics of text those leaps between bands that second grade leap right LMN is really really challenging to move into that next band we know that those texts have similar characteristics um and when students can access a lower level text in that band and helps them to you know kind of learn the characteristics and move up to that next band who will also have similar characteristics so they're able to kind of bridge those gaps more easily when they understand what's expected of them at a higher text band level thank you for that very good answer thorough answer thank you yeah absolutely um I I just have one general question and I'm I'm not sure if it's for uh superintendent DJI uh Dr Miller or or uh mler uh whoever wants to try you to answer um I I really appreciate the efforts that everybody did with this data analysis and I'm asking more in the spirit of Mr waka's Question um looking at all of this through the lens of a parent who is paying God awful high taxes in Verona if I am a parent with children in say third grade in Lanning another parent with children in hbw and another parent with a 10th grader at Verona High School all of this what is the story that this tells me how should I feel as a parent with you know at each of those grade levels um you know we we talked about the test and and all of that and and it's just you throw the data at people and and their eyes are going to glaze over so I'm a parent at those various grade levels what does all of this tell me I think we did a lot of specific work um last year in ela um and I think what it what it should tell you as a parent is you have really good teachers that are making moves to improve um our scores after a really tragic pandemic and um I would be I'm very I promised this board two years ago we would see an improvement in scores and we see it it's two years and um we know how to do the work I think we are going to continue to see those scores rise and and I want to go on record by saying this is not the end all and be all right we see growth outside of njsla njsla is the only measure we can say we can hold ourselves accountable to our surrounding districts and and the state so it's what we use and by law we have to present these slides to you um as a parent I would be happy that you have a district who has uh teachers and administrators that are doing the hard work and doing um doing it well it's hard to see that kind of growth in one year I truly I we encourage parents to take a look at their child's score reports I I do think you know very often uh those score reports come home and you know a quick glance is given and you know if the numbers are seem to be where where we expected them to be you know it may be a good job and and a Pat in the back but um it is important that if the scores are not where you thought they might be if they're higher than where where you anticipated or lower that you reach out I I know that teachers welcome parents that have concerns and questions and it it is really important that parents feel that they understand what those numbers mean whether it's njsla or map growth that comes home three times per year you know the the lovely thing about map growth is we we do have that benchmark test and we have time left in the school year to make adjustments if things aren't going the way that a parent hoped or child hoped um you know before this end of the year assessment sometimes njsla feels a little bit like an autopsy um and and we're not able to enact change on the spot to help students in the moment um so I do encourage parents to pay attention to those map growth uh results that come home periodically if if things are surprising to reach out and other things that Verona does really well we are steeped in Tradition we have um loving schools and teachers who kids are happy to come to school and um enjoy being here um we have caring principles at our at our schools that do a lot with extracurricular um we do a lot really well here and uh it's a it's a I if I were a parent here I'd be happy if if I can add to that I live in Rockaway my kids have G to Morris Hills and Nos and every time I come back from a back to school night there I'm sorry if they're listen again I know what you're going to say and right back at you I was angry yeah well not angry I came back to Verona and wanted to give all my teachers hugs right like like compared to what I saw for my own kids and we've had a few conversations in my house of bringing various of my kids here um over you know this is year 12 so you know I know my Sarah visited she shadowed kids in fifth grade right in hbw for a whole day to try to figure out like do I want to come here right Dr Miller's daughter did come here yeah exactly so um yeah quite honestly things are going to be all right well and and just to be clear I'm I'm kind of asking that Quest the question I asked is clearly the dumbest guy in the room and the but the stories behind these numbers is what I think you know brings that excitement and enthusiasm to life good I'll just say with the um with the math what we are doing is right it's supported by brain research we're getting kids to think to question it's uh anybody could teach to the test basic facts but we're trying there are a lot of kids who don't learn and remember that way they just don't and we want them encourage them to get into stem Fields those are the top fields that are the career that where we where they graduate college um so it's definitely different we could have learn us as kids but we were not taught that way uh Singapore Math other they they took American ideas and they they took those to other countries and showed what we were not bold enough to do so I would say have patience with math uh did another observation today and the kids are at the board and they're talking about math rather their seats and they're trying to figure out ratios and we're trying to help them but they're also struggling with it but that's what it takes to learn you have to be wrong to Le from your mistakes you have to and that's what imprints and stays in the back of your mind so uh the right ideas there what you said Glenn was right on track uh same thing he did and that Mr jeppe you talk about with uh the algebra we did the same thing he's doing that with Sixth and eth he he literally went in and dug up every evidence statement and in the state and matched it to all the questions that are available the state does not do this he did it spent several weeks because if I'm a te teacher and I get this graph which we're not allowed to show we we found out from the state we're not allowed to show this to you at a meeting cut confidential uh a teacher should be able to click on where they got the question wrong and it should tell them what the questions look like that's feedback at the teacher level that's important so to your point we are doing that we're trying to supplement that and blend it and our uh I was going to call illustrative math but or amplifi math the questions are the same as we see on the state assessment what's different on state assessment is they'll give choose the following and if you get one of those questions wrong out of three you get zero points in Verona you may get three four out of five so it's the process that matters the standardized test out asking if the state's listening and I've told them this because we've we've had the meetings with the state you got to give partial credit to kids when they think we do it with writing we have to do the same thing with math and our teachers are doing the right thing so we just need you to keep believing in them and we're getting there you're welcome thank you good night good night thank you for coming out moving on to our agenda to committee reports uh first up is finance hello everybody I guess I'll take a lot of that's on the agenda you know usually I'm after Mr Cruz so I just say everything that Mr the crew says um but uh we did meet God it's like a week and a half ago now um just to give you the highlights um free launch applications closed on October 15th but if something changes in your personal situation please reach out to the school district uh we are here to help um we have currently 24 eligible students we'll see what happens with that um later on this year and then we put in for um last year this the state had a a budget for menual product reimbursements for the middle and high school uh girls bathrooms so we have put in for our reimbursement for this year because it seems to be we're not quite sure how it's happening but there's a pool of money we're putting it in early to try to capture as much funds as we can so we put in just over $4,000 in reimbursements which um hopefully we will get reimburse for all of it um the playground update I always like to do this because I know that parents are always wondering what's going on with the playground we are still working through mediation um we hope to be able to come to an agreement all the parties are now in the the room so they can all just point fingers to each other and hopefully someone will cut us a check that's that's the hope at the end of this um so and then um for refinancing our public that we have been talking about that and that is coming up in the next few weeks I believe um when we bonded out in 2015 our debt service for the bond um we're going to refinance that and it's going to save the taxpayers uh almost $620,000 um like Mr Cruz over the next over over the next seven years um so thank you for that and I think that is it unless there's anything just yeah do we should we share why the um or the benefits of the um the Red Rover um time tracking thing it's not uh as glamorous as the uh savings that we're getting from the uh yeah well the time it's a new system for tracking time for subs and uh other part-time workers yes and it automatically generates time cards and invoices and stuff like this which will help streamline um all these processes which when you streamline it you spend less people time on it and that means there's people time for other things our payroll supervisor tonight was by hand calculating all of the time sheets that for for our time clock that we use currently this will streamline it'll pull right in from Red Rover into payroll and although she is very conscientious everyone's a human and every now and then a five looks like a six or something seven looks like a nine and you end up with a mistake so this will help prevent those type of little things thank you any questions moving on to um education very robust conversation about education so much of what we what we talked about um we did come up in um Ed committee um and Miss Coler thank you it also came up with the m TSS training and the tier one so thank you um I think the only thing that we did speak about that is important to note I know we're all really proud of our life skills program that we started in the high school um and they're doing some really wonderful work right now it's in full swing um they've been able to do the CDI trips um they're working on their job skills and also there are trainings that are beginning in the middle school as a feeder program for the high school so um I think that kudos to miss Simmons and Miss ker for um the work that they're doing to ensure that um our students have the opportunity um in in this life skill program and that we're really being in you know that there's an intent behind having that feeder program in middle school so I think that um everything else we kind of touched upon it was just that was something I wanted to to highlight thank you thank you any questions anyone have any questions Mr Waka any questions no okay good moving on to our agenda for public comments on agenda action items anything that we will be voting for you have anything you would like to say please come to the podium and you have three minutes and just state your name seeing none moving on to discussion items new business or old business does anyone have anything to bring no no I'm sorry um so I know I just you know um first I think that we have sea Leo on SI is that right yeah thank you so much I think it's great and I I appreciate it very much I think we all do again um I I wanted just kind of thinking ahead budgetarily because we're in approaching budget season um I I wanted to just kind of bring up this subject again and it's it's really just to kind of start the conversation about what our options are with respect to um security grants from the state because I know that the deadlines are I believe early in the new year right so we have some time but I just wanted to kind of bring that up so that we can maybe look ahead at some of the security grants so right now there are zero right right but I'm just lo I just I get an email that gives me all the security grants there were 14 of them and I went to every single one and it said this grant is no longer open why they send the email out I don't know okay so there's nothing right now okay so we'll just maybe like okay so that's we'll see what happens with that does that change it's not open now you know what I don't know I think it's just kind of like it's just they're done yeah if new ones come up we'll get notified of them but um anything that was available and I don't know when it was available because I get a monthly email and it's just always says the same thing yeah no longer available and then and then also just again in as we're thinking about the budget you know to kind of think about what are our options so what are our options for um you know possibly having either a security guard a monitor it it doesn't doesn't matter what we call them but someone who is um or a group of people whatever we decide like in the schools looking at the cameras ensuring that you know we are that we just have those extra hands on eyes on on Deck um so really I think before anything we have to see like what are our options budgetarily for this um whether it's in our budget whether it's a referendum I really don't know but I just want to have those conversations and start to really see what what we can do for the for the next school year and I just wanted I just wanted to um and not um report out that the board as a whole and the teers that I me just D and Mr Cruz did attend the New Jersey school boards convention I want to thank Miss Chrisco Mr Jeffy Mr Cruz for supporting uh the entire board going um it is really nice when the whole board goes because we can in in many ways we we divide and conquer a bit and we all went to different uh seminars there was a couple we all saw Mr Waka present and he had a great presentation um and while we were there we learned a little bit about ethics because the because the presentation the room before uh next to us was also being broadcast into our room um so that was interesting um but I personally went to a bunch of really interesting um presentations and one that spoke to me was on uh Middle School law which sounds kind of weird but it was a lot about um HIV versus code of conduct um and and uh the gentleman who presented Jonathan Bush um oh is the founder of bush la Group which is a very large um and popular Schoolboard uh attorney group and one of the things that I took away from it um and you know I I know this a little bit but you know just because something is not declared an HIV because it doesn't meet those criteria doesn't mean that it was right doesn't mean that the students involved were not disciplined or counseled or otherwise um remediated you know it just means that it didn't fall into this fairly narrow definition of what an Hib is um so you know I think you know I I see it in my professional life i' I've seen it in my personal life um sometimes we just get caught up into well why isn't it an HIV well does it matter if it's an Hib versus a code of conduct and often it doesn't um so that was good and the other one that I went to right at the end actually was something called called support our superintendent which was also very interesting um and made me mindful of some things um about communication and making sure that our superintendent um is not on call 247 because she does need and deserve to have her own life um outside of as boring as it is listen I need some bread make my bread and we did see two excellent speakers uh John konis from um what would you do I he was great if you ever get a chance to see him speak his life story is amazing he was a migrant Farm worker in high school like it just blows my mind that this man has has come from you know seemingly nothing to to this absolute wonderful human and then we also saw Maria man man man man she she's gonna be Maria she will be Maria um you know from the time I was list talk about um but they were both excellent uh speakers um if anyone ever gets a chance to attend it is a a nice um indeed couple days down in Atlantic City I agree it was um it was great to be all together and like you said this the keynote speakers this year were both of them were just wonderful so it was great to be there um I did also attend a couple interesting classes I got down there on Monday to attend the security one and um some interesting information as well and again with what Mrs Fara said it's really we need to start the discussions as the funding is really our main goal because I think we're all on board with figuring out what we need in each School building more cameras better visibility on the cameras in and out in and out outside of buildings um and somebody that's actually physically watching the monitors daily closely um not just the school secretary that is responsible for you know seeing what's going on when she's doing a million other things so but the funding is really our biggest concern in how is that going to happen like where if that's you know a referendum could we go out for a special vote at another time I mean that was brought up somebody discussed it at one of one of the sessions or we were at somebody was talking about doing a special meeting a special vote um so just kind of getting a price tag and figuring out where we go from that is I think our top we really got to start focusing on on that and I wanted to um also mention give my condolences to um the crossing guard passed away from the corner of Samson and Grove Avenue Mr um so I want to give my condolences to his family I think he just passed yesterday so and to the FN Brown community and any of the students from the high school that would cross over by him um he was very well loved and uh I saw flowers there today when I was coming up onto Samson so Mr s um roselli and his family here in my thoughts and prayers and I think um that's all I I just wanted to tack on real quick and I'm sorry for the loss I can't tell you how many times I've driven down there after dropping my kids off at high school and always friendly with a a wave so it's terrible um so yes condolences um I just wanted to add to miss ralo's um conference uh update um I did see a wonderful conference on or discussion on U the implementation of AI in the school system um I shared you uh what I was able to see and just the main takeaway is there's no formula it's still the wild west of course but what my takeaway was some of the successful schools do is they allow the teachers the freedom to experiment um I think it was something that Dr Miller said is not you know from a students uh learning aspect is not to be afraid to fail that some of the implementation the use of AI um is experimental and that's okay um things are going to get a little messy with it um but to go into the approach and the implementation of AI with eyes wide open knowing that um what we do today is going to be different six months from now and I think that that is an excellent opportunity for a learning environment ALS on that and we take the position here in Verona is generative AI is going to be ubiquitous really quickly and so rather than say don't use it this is how you should use it and we're teaching our students to responsibly use it so I do want to um just say one thing before I forget Mrs brazel uh as a result of uh a similar Workshop that I went to on egb last year we revised our Hib letters so they now will say the district did not find evidence that your child committed an act of harassment intimidation ability although no evidence was found it indicates that it was a violation of code of conduct so it clarifies for parents just because it was an Hib doesn't mean it wasn't something else I mean there's obviously unsubstantiated in total but um so we we actually changed our our letter in with with help from uh Mr Trent say thank you to you because I think we were I don't want to say one of the first but we were we were the first to adopt we were the first we were the first Dr Hughes in crcll okay adopted but our board meeting was first but we wrote it together we wrote it together adopt a policy around AI in Verona so that was um ahead of ahead of just came out with their sample policy we did yeah yes thank you anything for correspondence no moving on to our resolutions for personel please I need a motion to approve resolutions A1 through A8 moved motion by Mr W second by Mr Boon are there any discussions I just ask a question about A5 is that for work that she did last year yes yes so um she submitted two sets of invoices and uh because we still use paper invoices which I hope we're not going to be much longer we don't know what happened to them but she was not paid okay just thank you Mr Cruz if you could please call R Mr Waka uh yes and congrats um to miss Solomon on retirement yes Mrs fella yes Mrs Farrar yes Mrs prisco yes Mr Boom yes and to I want to Echo also Mr W's congratulations motion carries thank you moving on to our education I need a motion to approve resolutions B1 through B9 moved motion by Mr Waka through B10 oh move that too B10 revised I know I have the revised solution yes CL thy B10 sorry it's under the chart B10 I'll second seconded by um it was motioned by Mr Waka seconded by Mrs f are there any discussions Mr Cruz if you could please call roll Mr Waka yes Mrs Fel yes Mrs Farrar yes Mrs prisco yes Mr Boon yes motion carries thank you moving on to Athletics and co-curricular I need a motion to approve resolutions C1 through C3 I'm mooving motion by Mr WKA seconded by second Mrs Vella are there any discussions Mr Cruz if you could please call roll Mr Walker yes Mrs brazel yes Mrs Ferrar yes Mrs prisco yes Mr Boon yes motion carries thank you there's nothing for facilities moving on to our finance I need a motion to approve resolutions E1 through E7 sure by Mr WKA seconded by MRSA any discussion Mr Cruz if you could please call roll Mr wer yes Mrs Vella yes yes Mrs Ferrar yes Mrs Pisco yes Mr Boon yes motion carries thank you moving on to our governance and policy Mo I need a motion to approve resolutions F1 through F2 to Mo motion by Mr Boon seconded by I'll second seconded by Mrs perer are there any discussions I just want to point out that this is the first year in many many years that we did not have a single Hib investigation to the end of October got two days we have hallowe don'tget we normally start right away in September and uh so good things yeah good things good things good things good things Mr Cruz if you could please call roll Mr Waka yes Mrs Ral yes Mrs Ferrar yes Mrs prisco yes Mr Boon yes motion carries thank you moving on to our agenda to public comments you have any um you'd like to speak on please come to the podium and state your name and you have three minutes thank you good evening everyone I'm Carla buglione and I wanted to make everyone aware of an incident that occurred last week at Lanning with my son um I do want to start by saying everything is okay and I'm very fortunate to have the principal um be so communicative so last week on Wednesday October 23d principal fre of Lanning Avenue called me to make me aware of an incident that involved the safety of my son during recess my son Luca is an LSS student in kindergarten which is the spe special education class and he ran away from the recess area thinking the older children who were playing on the baseball field would follow him and chase him playfully this is adjacent to the landing Avenue playground um the incident can happen to any child of course but the likelihood of a special needs child running away is much higher why the proper terminology is actually called alotment and for children with autism spectrum disorder that means and my son has that diagnosis um that means they can run away at a moment's notice for any reason and so from what I heard Luca ended up very far away from the recess area closer to Elk Road and it took a teacher who was driving in at the time to stop and help catch him um again I want to say thank God this was not a a bigger incident but I'm really here to make everyone aware of the safety issue that at hand um The Landing Avenue playground has two open areas where any kid not just a special needs child could run away either to Elk Road or on the side of the school to Lanning Road I communicated my concerns to principal fre and again thank you to him for such prompt response um he mentioned that he did put parameters in place and Miss Kohler who is here can attest that at recess um they made sure there were extra Personnel in the corners of the open area which is fantastic however it's not a long-term solution and so on October 28th which was yesterday I emailed principal again just to check in on where things were and he said that he made the the grounds Department aware and someone actually came out to look at potentially putting a fence in place and so again all positive trending in the right direction but I'm here tonight as a parent of a special needs child who was obviously worried grateful that this was not an incident a lawsuit a death or anything like that however wanted to make everyone aware um there were other parents who were also made aware particularly in the LSS Community roxan torado Jenny Chow Carrie Walden and CLA gouty who all gave me permission to share their name and their overall concern for the playground and the lack of the fence so if Landing is going to be the hub for special education adding a fence to the perimeter of the playground is definitely a need happy to do a fundraiser with these moms again I am thankful that nothing serious happened but I did need to make everyone aware here on the board so thank you for your time thank you thank you Carla do we do um alotment drills yes at Landing okay yeah I mean this was a a different situation he had a second crisis happening in the building so Personnel for yeah no um definitely we do y hey at our next b& meeting we just get an update on that thanks yeah thank you thank you is there anyone else that would like to come up speak seeing none um our next public meeting will be held on November 12th 2024 beginning with confidential session at 6 p.m. public session at 700 p.m. in the Verona High School Learning Commons I need a motion to adjourn so motion by Mr Boon seconded by all in favor I I and it is 8:45 and we are adjourning our meeting everyone have a wonderful evening and thank you for being here tonight