hello good evening everyone good to see you all here thanks for making out to the Board of Education meeting and for those watching uh we called our meeting to order in our closed executive session right before the public portion of our meeting um we're actually so we're going
to go ahead and I'm going to invite our student representatives from both High School North and High School South to provide us with report good evening thank you uh we'll start off with some general school events so South's music programs have
been very active lately with our Orchestra having their first concert with their new director Miss meckler along with Mr Moore uh pretty soon they'll be hosting their children's concert on December 8th so we're looking forward to that uh similarly our string
emble and our South choir will able to perform during our school's Hall of Honor this path past month um we've seen a lot of school spirit throughout the month especially during Halloween where our jazz band performed during passing periods and we got to see a lot of
creative costumes around the hall and we're definitely also looking forward to the flea market that the South PTSA will be hosting I'll turn it over to Anna for some events from our different clubs thank you Rachel for our after school clubs they began after the
college fair which was held at North and opens the whole District there was a significant turnout and lots of student volunteers from our South Pier uh leaders Sasa our South Asian American Student Association handed out devali cards to all of our staff members Andrew
chalk art by our school entrance to celebrate for Veterans Day our student council put up Flags to honor our veterans and student council will also be hosting their annual volleyball tournament this Saturday our theater program opened their play Harvey last
Friday and was a great success during lunch last week South's National Honor Society helped their annual Cakewalk where many students happily participated and W cakes to share with their friends finally our black student union has taken several field trips to turn uh to
visit um college campuses including uh Bowie State University and copin State University and last Friday they held a fun student and staff basketball game I'll just end it off with a recap into South Sports so our girls soccer
team made it to the semi-finals for the CVC tournament for the first time since 2010 and they also finished as the valley division champs so we're very excited for them our girls tennis took first place for singles at the CVC tournament led by our very own senior
Rica Ananda Kumar uh the north versus South serve up hope volleyball gam saw great success and was able to fund raise $1,129 for the American Cancer Society I would also like to highlight South senior shravan prep who placed eighth at
the njsa group four championship for boys Cross Country and this past weekend he was able to finish 12 fastest in the state at the meet of Champs so as we head into our winter season we were able to honor four student athletes that signed their nli and committed to
universities through their athletic programs and we're definitely looking forward to the start of the winter season and being able to watch these programs Excel as well and now I will turn it over to our North rep good evening everyone um so
unfortunately Johnson couldn't be here today but to start off our clubs are in full swing and we also have fall Club applications open as they're up and running and we're so excited to see what club students can bring to our
environment um during Halloween weekend the National Honor Society held their annual Trunk or Treat event which where students could decorate their cars and dress up in costumes and bring their families and kids from all over the where families and kids from all over
the community came to collect candy from the students this year we had an amazing turnout and we're looking forward to next year's event many seniors have officially submitted their first college application through early admission fingers crossed we hear a lot of
acceptances AP exam registrations have now closed and in early October we had the district college fair at North where seniors were able to learn more about over 200 colleges this past weekend the north
theater put on their play too much light makes the baby go blind which was a huge huge success um along with that fall sports are over with winter sport tryouts taking place over Thanksgiving week with all of her
teams having successful Seasons most notably the boys cross country team finished sixth at the njsi AA group three championships and the girls cross country team finished fifth North's girl volleyball team made it to the second rounds of States making it the farthest
theyve been since 2011 additionally North has continued to have college visits which have been very helpful for seniors and North's model un team will be attending their first competition of the Year this week from
Thursday November 21st to Sunday November 24th and we wish our de delegates best of luck thank you thank you so much ladies for that for the reports um a lot of accomplishments to be proud of and events and fundraising and it sounds like even more to look
forward to so thank you so much for coming out tonight um next I would like to invite um Jessica Smedley our director of counseling um for our program of studies presentation this evening good evening everyone I'm on
right okay so tonight we're going to go through some program of studies uh changes and kind of our timeline for the upcoming year it's hard to believe but it's already time to start thinking
about and planning for the 2025 2026 school year so we have some um additions to the program of studies and also um some minor changes so we'll just run through those so first is uh we will be having
um or just go through the timeline we will be having our traditional program of studies information sessions um one for each of our high schools um or those students who will be attending those high schools those are for eighth grade students and families um and then we
will also have a a second edition of um a program we began last year which is a program of studies night information sharing with all of our supervisors for our students in grades 9 through 11 are going into 10th through 12th grade um
because we found that um and this was an idea from Dr GS um and we started it last year is that we talk to and we have traditionally had an opportunity to talk talked to all of our eighth grade parents um and students about the opportunities for n9th grade and we talk about creating the four-year plan but
then we didn't really ever have an opportunity to highlight some of our upper level course offerings courses and um generate interest for and talk about and message to families in a wider Arena New courses that we would have coming on board so that was successful last year
so we will be doing that um that will be in January um and they will both all be all three will be Zoom webinar Style we do also record those events so that in the uh in the case that you're unable to make it um or you want to go back and
reference things you can find um all the information there along with the slide deck and we post that on our YouTube channel um we do collect schedule requests so elective requests from students um and that will be entered that data will be entered into the
Genesis um Parent Portal and then after that information is gathered uh each student will get a chance to meet with their school counselor um for the eighth grade students the high school counselors come into our middle schools to meet one-on-one with each of the
students um we anticipate that happening in starting in February and that does take us about six full weeks to do because it's a lot of students to meet with individually so that will happen um from February until the end of March um and then finally just with
change requests so we have a two-e period that runs from from August 1st to the 15th for students to make changes um what I would just note for everyone about that is that we um encourage everyone to start once we publish the program of studies the board approves
the program of studies document we'll publish that on our website and I would um strongly recommend that families and students start taking a look at that document it's long but it does have um it has all of our policies and practices referenced in there it also has a course description for every course that we
offer at both of our high school schs and um it takes some time to get through that and read through it but what I like to say is the more time that um that families can engage in conversations about course interest and um courses that in that are of interest to students
not only for the upcoming year but even looking ahead as we go down the road um it can be a little bit of a daunting task to say to your 13 or 14 year olds um okay we're planning the next four years and you want to have some idea of the end in mind and taking a look at well I know that I want want to take
this particular course I know that I want to take AP African-American studies while I'm in high school and so you can take a look at uh prerequisites and how that might fit in um and there is a worksheet available to all students in the program of studies and listed on the
website that you can do that um but th those are things that we want we don't want to wait until the night before the the students individual meeting um with their counselor those are important conversations to have and even ones that are not necessarily all done in one sitting I think it can get overwhelming
if you try to do that so we do encourage that those conversations to happen in January and early February so that by the time it's time to sit down and do the data entry and make those actual course Selections in the parent portal that you've had the conversations you can get that done and then the meeting
with the counselor is to answer any questions the student might have and just confirm those choices that you made as a family okay so we have um really excited to announce we have a pending board approval we have an addition addition to our summer course offerings so these
have been highly popular um again this is pending Board of approval but the name of the course is Asian-American and Pacific Islander studies um it will be worth two and a half credits um it is open to students entering grades 9 through 12 um and this would be the
second course in our ethnic studies our first one being approved by the board last year which is AP African-American studies um and this study aligns with the um with the law that requires Asian and Pacific Islander studies into our
curriculum so we're excited to introduce us we're hoping for the board approval here tonight um and this will be along with all the other summer courses um a four-week course run through um and credit bearing so that's important so
when we're looking at high quality summer programming and opportunity um this is this adds a new element our courses in the summer have previously been in the math science stem area so this would be bring um an exciting opportunity to bring a Humanities course
into the summer offerings other um our other summer courses uh have run before but they are we had not previously put them in the program of studies and so this is really just an addition to the document itself and so we've previously messaged these
courses there description through the program of studies night and also as we go through the spring um and through our Community Education Department that's how the sign up happens um but we wanted to make sure because they are credit bearing and because they need board approval we like to capture everything
about all of our courses and our curriculum in the program of study so um I know it's hard to see for anyone who's looking at the screen um but this information will be in the program of studies so we list the course name uh the number of credits who it's available
to what grade levels um and any prerequisites for the course as along with a description of each of the course courses so we'll have introduction to discret mathematics honors um introduction to data science
honors and then discret mathematics part two honors so those very exciting and they were highly popular um so that's in the math department and then we also have Marine Science and Marine Science honors uh again through the um in the
science department and through the Community Education Department next for some uh some changes and really expansion uh this year very exciting and in the late summer um we got word that the president of the College of New Jersey made a decision to
expand um really for equity and access purposes expand the offerings of the dual enrollment program across the entire state so previous um previously we have had relationships we signed a relationship or an agreement with midd sex County College for uh during the
middle of last year which allows our students to earn both community college credit and um High School Credit and so that would be transcripted it's at a deeply discounted tuition rate um and it is it is through middle sex County College but all of our students
regardless of where their residency is whether they live in W winds or or in Plainsboro they are able to earn that credit the expansion this year is with TCNJ so prior to this year um the rules around who could teach and which courses
we could name as dual enrollment and enroll our our students in on the college side was dependent on our teacher certification and background and and degree holding so um that limited our offerings because we know that a lot of our teachers um while so many of our
teachers pursue their master's degree and even doctoral degrees in their in in one area it's com it's not too common for um people to pursue a master's degree specifically in the subject area we see more frequently a master of arts and teaching we might see a master of
arts in educational Administration or curriculum and instruction I would say are probably the three most popular um and the colleges up to this point including TCNJ were requiring that master's degree in the subject area so we weren't necessarily able to offer it
um also in for Equity purposes sometimes we have we might have a teacher who has that degree at one of our high schools and not the other high school and so we want to make sure our offerings mirror each other at our two high schools so this expansion really um took away that
requirement and looked more at what are we actually teaching what does our curriculum look like and um that has been deemed to match um that it's closely enough matched and sufficient enough to to match the rigor of the courses taught on campus at TCNJ so that
allows us um to offer dual enrollment through TCNJ for every single one of our um advanced placement or AP courses so that was a huge more than doubled our our offerings um and there also have been matches in dual enrollment to
non-ap courses so for example our child growth and development course is eligible for that um and that has really been through the work of Dr G and the curriculum department and the supervisors really taking a look at a close a close look and a deep dive into
the curriculum to make sure it matches what the colleges are teaching so they can justify the awarding of the credit um but really exciting opportunity we saw a very significant increase I'm not good enough at Mental Math this quick when I didn't write it down ahead of time but I would say we're probably at
like a 200% increase of um or higher um so about 65 students total took advantage of the opportunity where we saw um very few being able to do that because of our our offering number in Prior year so really excited for that um
the cost of these courses at um at middle sex this year was um and this is yearby year and the college sets the price but this year it was $150 for the middle sex courses $550 for TCNJ courses um we did we do offer and we will
continue to offer opportunities and sort of Grants or scholarship for those students who are on free or reduced lunch if they'd like to take advantage of this opportunity um and up here on the screen and in our in the presentation you'll see on the website uh we do have all of
the listing of our dual enrollment offerings um so you can check that out and as well as the FAQs so um it would be its own presentation probably its own webinar for me to go through all the intricacies of what college credit and transfers look like it's also High
highly dependent on the college it can it can depend on the University it can depend on the program within the University or college um and it can depend on even the major um and so what students are coming in with the the other thing that sometimes impacts it is
uh some colleges and universities don't want to take what we call double dipping for dual enrollment so just for example where as Ryder University may take um the English an AP English class and they'll count that towards their English
credit um another school like let's say Rowan will say and I don't know this to be true I'm just using them because they're two schools in New Jersey Rowan may say we'll take it and give the give you the credit towards your 120 credit graduation requirement at the University
but we'll count it towards your general electives or your general courses because they still want you to take their colleges English class and I can tell you 100% with 100% certainty that is what Rucker University does all schools within that so um so a lot of
intricacies we wrote some FAQs I think probably the number one thing that we like to message is that it's important um to ask that question a lot of times people ask us in the counseling office what question should I ask when I'm interacting with a rep how do I know if thing if um these courses are going to
transfer for within New Jersey there is a website New Jersey transfer. org that you can actually plug in the course title and the course number on the college side and then the course or the school that you want to be attending again these are state universities in
New Jersey and you can see how they um they actually publish how they work that into your program so everybody outside of New Jersey private schools it's really a great question to ask when you're on a college campus or interacting with a college admissions officer if you're chatting them if you
go to an open house or an info session those are great questions to keep on your um on your list because it really could make a difference with the with the expansion of our offerings within the next few years we could be looking at students graduating here with between
30 and 45 um college credits so for anyone doing the math that could be a savings of um anywhere from 10 to $60,000 so lots of good offerings okay then just some other um
program of studies updates we have a lot of language just language changes so one of the things um the state of New New Jersey is has switched their nomenclature about English language Learners to multi- lingual Learners and so we are making that change as well um
that's really New Jersey took the stance that this is um that having an an understanding and being knowledgeable in multiple language is an asset not a deficit so English language Learners a little bit more of a deficit thinking where multilingual Learners they're coming in as a with a strength based
approach so that's just a match to the New Jersey language um updated descriptions for Algebra 2 Algebra 2 honors and algebra Intrigue um and these are just descriptions to match the language used in the story boards which were approved as part of the curricular
and standard revisions last this past summer in summer of 2024 um same with the updated descriptions for AP biology chem chem honors and AP chem um that's also some changes in scope and sequence that happened as a part of the approved
curriculum revisions in the summer of 2024 we have updated descriptions for Art Foundation drawing and painting drawing and painting two and two honors sculpture and Ceramics one sculpture and Ceramics 2 and two honors computer Art
and Design one computer Art and Design two and two honors photography one photography 2 and two honors AP art studio and AP art history so same changes in scope and sequence um are the changes there then then we have um an
updated course name so what was previously student research in the social sciences we changed to research in sustainable development CP and honors um and the course name in multi-level possibility was changed to try to yield
more interest in the course um it hasn't run in the past few years and so we're trying to draw attention to it and also the change any changes and kind of just get students in in that um interested in that taking that and then we have updated course names
from dance one to world dance from dance two and two honors to honors dance technology um and that was done so that the names of the courses more closely align with the course descriptions um in the program of studies and this as well as the student
outcomes so those were our course name changes um I talked about the dual enrollment and then we also talked about the summer courses I think that is it so I can take any questions you might have yes thanks Miss medley um yeah if there are any
questions or comments from the board Louisa are there any limits on how many courses a student can do at one time or in their High School career with the dual enrollment they're only limited by
um the prerequisites and how and grade level so um we have right now one offering that's available to current t graders um many many of them are just available to 11th and 12th graders so it is technically limited because it's
limited by the number of slots you have available in the four-year period that you're in high school yes go ahead Dana so following up on that question well first thank you for your presentation I appreciate it um so the
is there a limit that say like rers or some other of our state schools will have on the number of dual enrollment that they will count toward your degree like if what if a student did 15 15 like some students do the AP courses like um
there generally are limits in various areas um how so there there is such a thing called guaranteed transfer it's not super well understood so guaranteed transfer which you can read more about on the New Jersey transfer. org website
um went into law I believe in the late '90s maybe early 2000s um applies and is the guaranteed only when a student completes and a full associates degree so between a 60 and 66 Credit so any
courses taken um and kind of just let the put the dual enrollment aside if you consider that they're actually earning let's say 30 credits at middle sex County College or at TCNJ you can take those credits put them at T at the community college compl complete your
associates degree and then Ruckers Rowan all of our public schools have to take that full 60 to 66 credits into the four-year program that's the guarantee most schools do not limit the total
number but they limit through does it meet the humanities requirements so by and large in a general education program at a at a fouryear university you have two English classes two math classes at least two science Natural Sciences Humanities whatever other um sort of
requirements they put in place so the limits tend to be in those required areas where they might take let's say they took third they have 30 and that represents three science classes and two English classes and other ones as
electives they would put all of that in that sort of choice or elective um it's really highly dependent even as you get into major whether that is um goes into the major so right we add another layer on when we go to a college that now you have a major and a
minor or a double major or major requirements I.E education like that's got its own layer so now we're layering sort of like vend diagrams on top of each other so um there are typically limits on the number of dual enrollment courses that they will allow into the
major so if we're looking at the 120 by and large they will take them where it goes into the slots of sort of like the chart almost like how I was create I was talking about the four-year chart of high school how that fits into the four-year chart or less or fewer if you
have um if you have enough dual enrollment credits you might be looking at a three-year program instead of a four-year program how that fits in the chart is something that I would recommend that anyone who has curiosity about that and even as you get closer to admissions and certainly before you make a decision about enrolling in the
college or university request an appointment to go through your specific scenario so that you understand and what you're committing to and also um both for planning purposes attendance purposes but also Financial purposes at ly thank you for your
presentation um it's the second time I heard it so it's wonderful but um I just want a comment I just wanted to say I think it's such a wonderful idea that started last year the Dr Gold's um idea about having the um uh Rising 9th to
11th grade parents also have a separate program of studies night um because I think there's a lot of questions that come up afterwards inste you know from 8th to 9th um I just want how is it communicated to parents and students so that they can join because I think I missed it last year so I'm just curious
how that is communicated and then um the second is uh I think it's also wonderful about the expansion of the summer offerings I think with students um taking courses in District and uh this new course uh and pending Bo board approval the Asian American pit Pacific
Islander course is also going to be really um I think beneficial for our students so I think all these summer offerings I I'm sure parents are very appreciative that there's classes that the our older students um can take during the summer because it's always hard to find some things for them to do in the summer I just had one question
about um I know you said the free and reduced lunch are they for the um the program no excuse me for the uh dual enrollment are they communicated those students and families about uh the offerings how was that is that an email as well sure so I'll do I'm going to do
that question first so for communication um we we know who is on that list and the counselors specifically meet with each student to make sure that they understand the offering so General communication to everyone um it is it is communicated within our general one
here's the program with information that if you need financial assistance or if you're a part of the the free and reduced lunch program please see your counselor for more details but we did do Outreach and follow-ups to make sure that um because sometimes we do send the these emails to students to any family
who's opted in and also to their counselors to try to connect all parties together of um making sure that we're drawing attention to things but we know U life happens we get a lot of emails um and so we do generally try to message each each item at least three times like
uh here it's coming here it is here's a reminder final reminder here's the deadlines um but we did in this case for those students um Reach Out directly to make sure they understood what they could do and understand that there's a choice obviously they we it's two different costs so um we worked through
that and worked um with some of our grants money so worked with Dr Gould and the curriculum Department to for how we would take care of that in the process so um I I'm a fan of individual communication I think in trying to reach students especially ones um our students
who are economically disadvantaged absolutely stand to um take have the best benefit from this program so it's really important to us that we make sure that we're connecting people to the opportunities that are out there and that have been made available to them um regarding communication on the program
of studies nights um I um working with Kia Bergman our communications director we'll start messaging to probably right before the winter break I know um timing of communication is always difficult because it's like well when are you when are people going to see it then do you do it the first day back and are you
doing it on Monday and what if you send it at 3:00 on a Friday when do people sort of shut off so early and often is kind of my thought on that we will start messaging it um a really great suggestion that um I actually I'm not sure which High School thought of this
but the counselors will start putting it in their um in High School South they maintain really um active class of so there's a Google classroom for each class and so that's a way um the shared Google classroom or individual Google classrooms that kids can sign up for the
announcements from their counselors individually some people have their own some some do it as a group um so they can if they're not signed up for their class of um Google Classroom I would highly recommend getting that because there's other grade level specific information about a whole bunch of
things even not necessarily totally related to the school counseling department um it will be Zoom webinar so we'll also post it um post the link on our our website um we generally do the last minute sort of like it's tonight so that's another good thing is a last
minute reminder I know I like I enjoy when they send a last minute reminder so I don't have to scroll through um many many pages of emails you can just get the reminder so um and again we will record it and that will be available along with the slide deck itself it is kind of a long night and so I do
recommend that people that check out the the um the video because you can skip the parts you don't want to know but rehear the parts that you do and we do um at the s suggestion last year we started doing transcription and close
caption on our recording so um if something's unclear or if we had some transition one of our nights last year we had I I sort of felt like there might have been a ghost in the zoom because the slideshow was moving and no one was moving it so sometimes there's technical difficulties were tripping a little bit
but you could just go back to the part that you you wanted to get to but also having the slide deck there that if you don't want to watch the video and you just want to try to get to the slide that you're looking for you can do that as well great questions does anyone else have questions hi um one other question the
summer courses um parents have to uh pay for those right correct and how much are they that I don't know okay and then there's support for like free and reduced lunch students
yes okay it is first come first serve so definitely want to be on the lookout for that very popular I think we we maybe started with waiting list last year for our math classes didn't we yeah and Rising nth graders ring nth
graders can do that so yeah that's one of the areas that we even heard about from from some Representatives with the ptas and ptsas that we heard from this morning that yes like looking for and deciding on um on summer programming um as I'm sure many of you know if you're
trying to find things for your students to stay engaged in learning over the summer really cost effective um program so we we look forward to doing it and and it it's not just um staring at a computer like many of the um offerings
are out there um it's also not as cost prohibitive um I mean what I'm seeing in numbers as their early advertisement is coming up that there are colleges and universities programs which by the way do nothing to help your college admissions um process at all um that
usually are starting is like the lowest I've seen is about $3500 um up to 10,000 for one week so um and again just want to let you know that doesn't help your college admissions right so and we we want to see them engage with our learning and I
will say just on the um I said this this morning I said I say it every every time I get a chance to have the podium so I'll just go ahead and say it again um there is no formula this is nothing is a part of a formul there's no formula to getting into the most competitive
colleges there's not a one thing there's not something so many families ask that and even if they're not saying it and asking it they're feeling it like just tell me what I have to do to get my kid in there's not an answer to that question um however if we were really
going to wait an option to course versus full engagement with our instructors in a credit bearing environment in person in your own District that's going to be that if there if anyone 's making a judgment about that I guarantee you that
will be given more weight than an option to summer class great right correct right the race to Nowhere actually you mentioned that there was a weit list last year um if there is a um a large number of students who would like to enroll in any of the uh summer
offerings is there a possibility to offer more um CL um more sections of it or is that uh were all the kids on the wait list able to do it last year or no go ahead L just wanted thank you also for your presentation just had a
question I see the one the new summer course about about um Asian americ Pacific Islander studies and the you know both levels is there consideration for other types of um studies in other regions of the world U Middle Eastern studies or others that perhaps that we
can pursue as well consider looking into as another follow comment actually I'm so glad to see that these options are available for students at a really reasonable affordable rate for the most part for the summer and does help keep them engaged both my kids were involved
in it and it was very they never complained and it was very engaging so it was I thought developed really well um and I'm also you know appreciate seeing the Restriction about the not to participate in option to because it just you know kids do need a break too also the during the summer time and to
encourage that downtime is helpful emphasize it great thank you well thank you Miss medley um for sharing all the wonderful information um just my two cents is that I love the your Mantra of communicating early and
often um in this day and age of information overload it it is helpful to have that reminder um many reminders actually and um and you echoed um uh I attend the uh PTSA meeting with the
counselors there um who are so knowledgeable about the whole college application process um as it is in this day and age and in in this country so um I know not everyone can attend the PTSA meetings um when they are scheduled so I
hope um people take advantage of reaching out to the counselors both parents and students absolutely thank you so much thank you um I'm gonna turn over to Dr aderhold now great um thank you uh and and thank you again to uh
Miss Med Miss medley for her presentation um just a reminder to the board and to the public regarding the process for the program of studies uh tonight is the presentation um there'll be an opportunity for the members of the board if there's any questions or feedback to please submit those to uh Dr
ghoul to myself um and that will they'll be going back to the curriculum committee on 12:3 for the committee meeting and then we'll actually vote for the adoption of the program of studies at the 1210 board meeting right and that was done purposefully so that the board
gets an opportunity to hear it think about it if you have questions raise them and then we'll bring that we'll bring that forward to curriculum and then uh back for a full vote um and so that from a process perspective um also uh wanted to just take a brief
moment while the board of elections in merer and middle sex um are going to be certifying we believe this week is the statutory deadline I believe is believe tomorrow um is it really I I thought it was the
20th we heard from middle sex but we'll we'll hear um we do know we know this much uh we know that our colleague Rachel Juliana uh did not run so we we thank Rachel and we'll have an opportunity at the next meeting to recognize her for her 10 years of service to the Board of Education uh we
know that uh Liz ran un opposed um in West Windsor so we know we can officially congratulate uh Liz on her reappointment to the Board of Education uh with an unanimous consensus vote of 9,000 plus um and and we have a strong sense of where where the Plainsboro
election is um as the current tallies are well over 1500 1700 up for two of the three candidates um so while I can't uh say because until it's certified officially um we have a strong leaning for Pusa bansel and johnas sha who's in
the audience tonight that they'll be the next members of also to the board so uh tenative congratulations to to all of you as we wait for the official certific a um and and a thank you to to hanif Bak to um to put himself out there and to
run for the board um you know to show the interest in the community engagement uh it does mean a lot that we have community volunteers as we met with our PTA and PTSA leaders today um schools rely on folks that give service um as the nine members of this board of
education uh do this all uh for for no compensation but for the love of community um so uh just wanted to make sure I think I uh with respect to the summer numbers and weight list um I would I would just simply say we we do our level best to accommodate as many
students in their requests at some level we also are at the mercy of the instructor pool so you know we need willing um Educators to work with our community ed program and to be compensated and um and we we've we just started with financial lit as a way to
try to move things out of schedule uh then it became because Financial lit um state requirements two and a half credits but it really runs as a five credit course during the school year so it opened opportunity for students then we brought in with mathematics with with
different opportunities and math that were out of our course offerings that were not being able to be accommodated during the school year um and then it looked at different types of mathematics through the leadership of Miss bean and her math department um and then ultimately expanding with with Marine
Marine Sciences and now into the humanities um any I think what parents just need to recognize is there's a finite amount of space in a schedule for students seven classes a year plus a study hall plus lunch right so it's 35
credits a year and when you start mapping out and this is where the mapping that Miss medley was talking about so very important you start realizing that there's actually very limited room for Choice when you start looking at the the State graduation requirements and the district
requirements so the opportunity to take some of those deeper Dives in some of the elective areas um some families have attempted to work through option two and we strongly have discouraged option two over the years as we're seeing students with massive gaps and core knowledge in
major subjects um and struggle in the out years in some of the advanced mathematics because theyi they missed foundational skills um so we've really tried to put guard rails against option two over the years uh at the same time I'm trying to find ways to expand opportunities for students so real
credit to our supervisors uh in the CRI cni team under Dr G's leadership to find ways to continue it to expand and it's a credit to our staff because kids are signing up in Mass um and and we keep seeing the interests grow so we'll continue to build them if the students
continue to want them thank you all right thanks Dr OT hold um that takes us to our first opportunity for public comments the board invites thoughts and reactions on agenda items and items of concern from members of our community who are present
each participant is asked to give his or her name uh and address prior to making a statement which will be limited to three minutes in accordance with board policy 0167 all statement shall be directed to the presiding officer this public comment period shall be limited to 60
minutes do we have any comments for this first period seeing none um I'll close this first opportunity for public comments and move on to our committee reports so I'd like to invite Dana to give us a report on Administration facilities
hello everyone good evening um the administration and Facilities committee met on November 12th the committee reviewed um uh a policy and Regulation and we recommend um 1122 benefits covering non-affiliated administrative employees
category a for a second reading and approval at tonight's meeting um as for the reference ref um the closeout process continues for the remaining referendum projects including the media centers at moris Hawk and Village ele schools for athletic update the Middle
School winter sports season begins the the week of um November 13th while the high school session begins the week of November 25th district facility use by outside groups was discussed and the committee will continue to review facility rental rates and Associated
costs at its next meeting on that next meeting will be December 3rd thank you thanks Dana um any questions or comments from the board okay ly um for curriculum please thanks thank you uh the curriculum committee met on November
12th uh Dr gold had reviewed the NJ smart school performance report review um and the updated data with the committee the report uh gets submitted to the state annually and published for the public Dr gold also reviewed the changes to the 2020 5 26 program of
studies with the committee you that presentation was um reviewed this evening and will be available on the district website uh we heard a presentation from the supervisor of social studies Dr asini Who previewed and shared with the committee a proposal for a summer course
titled Asian-American Pacific Islander studies uh drini described the goals of the course possible unit of study and the benefit excuse me the benefits for students more information about this course can be found in the program of studies uh pending board
approval next on the agenda for votes T voting tonight uh first field trips uh first field trip for both High School North and South uh model un to Philadelphia from January 23rd to the uh
26 with the cost approximately 550 per student for north and 500 for uh South students and next the model United Nations both high schools to Washington DC from February 13th through February 16th the cost of that trip is
approximately excuse me $600 per student from both schools so uh next textbook adoption the committee recommends approval for um new textbook AP European History uh McKay John at all a history of Western
civilizations civilization excuse me Boston Bedford St Martin's 2024 and the committee will next meet on December 3rd thanks L um any questions or comments all right Louisa um a report for finance committee please sure the
finance committee met on November 12th uh first the committee uh reviewed agenda items including the monthly Financial reports the administration shared that there are enough funds to complete the year the committee reviewed the following motions on the agenda for approval to correct the amount of the
2024 safety Grant originally accepted on June 11th to approve a Cooperative purchase over the bid limit to approve the disposal of obsolete equipment to acknowledge the fall bus evacuation drills to cancel sever quotes to and from school award a quote to and from school and award quotes for school
related activities and to approve staff professional development travel and expenses staff updated the committee on construction projects bi-weekly meetings are currently being held at the high school North Auditorium dimming and control systems upgrade construction
work is scheduled to begin immediately after the last seasonal performance in the auditorium this project includes replacing the lighting control racks to enhance the performance Lighting in the auditorium the project is funded by capital reserve funds the second Energy savings Improvement program is in the design
phase which is now nearly 90% complete the board's contract attorney is currently negotiating the power purchase agreement with green skies and working with Snyder Electric to fulfill the role of the Energy Services Company the administration reviewed the projects eligible for inclusion in the second
esip and we now have a clear understanding if which projects can be funded through the savings generated by energy conservation measures a staff reported that work on the 2324 audit continues documents are being shared electronically and the
audit is due January 15th so work on the 20226 budget calendar the administration shared that the budget will be opened for the schools to enter their information November 15th staff updated the committee on Food Services in October the number of
breakfast meals served increased by 740 year-over-year totaling 3,975 meals however lunch service decreased by 3,753 males year-over-year totaling 44250 the number of students classified
is free reduced and New Jersey income eligible grew by 120 which was 29% specifically New Jersey income eligible enrollments Rose from Two students last October to 13 this October as a percentage of the total student population these three categories
increased from 5.38% to 8.87% representing a rise from 479 students in October of 23 to 784 in October of 24 in elementary schools 77% of breakfast meals served are for free
and reduced students Southwest Food Service our new food service vendor continues to address staffing needs they hired um six new staff members but then two employees resigned and one line of employee was promoted as of now 60% of
our local food for schools um supply chain assistance funds have been used and the deadline for full Grant expenditure has been extended to February of 25 to date we have spent $ 22,8 23 including $3,227 in September and October
additionally 819 West Windsor plsb students received summer electronic benefits transfer cards valued at $120 each for use from June through October of 24 uh we did not discuss transportation again because we had discussed it earlier and there was no other business
the next committee meeting will be December 3D thanks Louisa any questions or comments no okay then that takes us to the voting portion of our meeting so um can I get a motion for administration items numbers 1 through 11 uh Dana and
Liz um any questions or comments okay we'll start with Miss Cruz yes Miss Chenier yes Miss zich yes Miss bonsel yes Miss ho yes Miss malga yes Miss Shetty yes Miss McAn yes um can I
get a motion for curriculum and instruction items numbers one and two uh ly and Pua any questions or comments okay okay we'll start we'll start with Miss malga yes Miss bonsel
yes Miss chenera yes Miss ho yes Miss Groo yes Miss Shetty yes Miss zich yes m m yes um can I get a motion for finance items numbers 1 through 18 plus the blue addendum uh Louisa and scha any
questions or comments okay we'll start with Miss hoe yes Miss Shetty yes Miss bonsel yes Miss chenera yes Miss Krug yes Miss malga yes Miss zich yes Miss M yes um now can I
get a motion for personel item number one plus the green pink yellow and orange agenda uh yeah sure go ahead just want to highlight one item for the board uh and for the public um
on the green addendum under appoint under certificated staff uh there are three appoints all three of those are midyear graduation um tntp student teachers right so you know the the method to the magic
Madness of paid student teaching um is is yielding two midyear special education hires one science and actually a fourth that is in a Long going to be in a long-term sub for science as well so immediately and that's the midor graduates so there's only a handful of
them and we're hiring them so just wanted to point out that something that was out of the box that you're supporting is paying dividends right away for our students excellent thank you for the addition um Dana and
scha uh any questions or comments on Personnel okay we'll start with Miss Krug yes Miss chedy yes Miss bonson Miss chenera yes Miss ho yes Miss maliga Miss zich yes Miss McAn
yes um can I get a motion to approve Board of Education minutes from both October 8th uh Clos exec and our October 29th uh meeting uh Liz and uh Robin um all in favor say
I I uh any abstentions I'm abstaining for the eth I'm also abstaining for the eth um do we have any boardly on reports this evening uh new business uh that then takes us to our
second opportunity for public comments the board invites comments for members of our community who are present each participant is asked to give his or her name and address prior to making a statement which will be limited to 3 minutes in accordance with board policy 0167 all statements shall be directed to
to the presiding officer this public comment period shall be limited to 15 minutes um do we have any public comments this evening oh please oh um go ahead and um speak into the microphone please please pass it to
Dr Russo hi everyone my name is Tatiana I'm a West witer resident um dear members of the board we are writing to address an important issue regarding the current structure to our elementary school schedule specifically lunch and recess
periods the current 20 minute duration for each is inadequate and does not fully support the developmental needs of our children we support extending both we propose extending both the lunch and recess periods to 30 minutes each which
would yield significant benefits of our students physical health social skills and academic performance firstly a longer lunch period would allow children adequate time to eat and socialized a 30-minute lunch would not only provide children with the
opportunity to enjoy their food but also Foster important social interactions with their peers contributing to their emotional well-being in addition to the need for a proper meal the importance of recess cannot be overstated a 30-minute recess allows for
more unstructured play which is essential for developing creativity problem solving skills and teamwork furthermore ample recess time can help reduce behavioral issues in the classroom as children return from a longer break more focused and ready to
learn extending these periods would also align with best practices observed in other school districts several neighboring districts including East Windsor South Brunswick East Brunswick Hamilton ying and Princeton are all
already implementing 30-minute lunches in recess these districts have similar school hours to hours and are also meeting the state requirements for instructional time in all content areas if they can successfully Implement longer lunch and
recess periods then certainly our excellent School District can do the same our children deserve an environment that nurtures not just their intellect but also their physical and Social Development this is why we urge the Board of Education to extend the lunch
and research the lunch and recess periods to 30 minutes each this adjustment would significantly enhance our students physical emotional and Social Development setting them up for success in both in and out of the classroom thank you for your attention
to this important matter and we look forward to your support and advocating for our children's needs sincerely the parents of kada 5 K fifth grade West Windsor Plains sporl students um and just to let you know the the survey that's being passed around was one that
we created for the parents of K to5 students um we've been able to get 345 um responses in about a week that we shared and out of those 345 340 were in support of this uh so we really hope that you'll consider this in the near
future thank you thank you Tatiana do we have any other uh public comments this evening last call okay uh drold so I'll just speak briefly to the
uh the public comment with respect to his uh Petition of first uh I I make it a practice never to manage a school district by petition um but you know what we do ask is that parents come through the channels of um the building
Administration if they don't have um resolution that they're comfortable with to please reach out to central office for an opportunity for discussion um surveys are dangerous in that they they miss Framing and context um so if I put a survey out that said would you like to
have a longer school lunch to parents with no context of what the trade-off is um majority of families would normally just say yes I agree that students should have as much recess and as much lunch as possible um but the lunch serves not only as the lunch recess time
for students but as the lunch Andor prep time for teachers so then there's contractual components behind the time period of the lunch window for students uh that contractual window
um is driven through negotiations that's different across 600 local associations across New Jersey so that's remember it's the njaa but every District I I say this specifically because when I spoke to this at the PTA meeting today there
was some belief that there was one Union contract for the entire State and we just made different decisions than some of our colleagues um and then beware what you read online with respect to um other school districts in the magic that is uh districts like where my kids go in
Hamilton yes there's a 40-minute lunch and that sounds great but that's a 40-minute lunch recess which is equivalent to our lunch recess and since my wife's a teacher there and does lunch duty I also know the kids are there about 20 minutes and then they go outside for about 20 minutes identical
to us the difference is our cafeteria can't fit everyone so we specifically switch kids in the 20 minute Mark in and out at some of the elementary schools um and that's been that way for well over 30 years in wwp um and I would not say that we have
been misaligning students or not prioritizing their health and wellness over the last 30 years I've been here for 16 years um so you have contractual you have space and then ultimately if the board was to make a determination um that we should have
longer lunch it would impact the longer teacher um lunches because uh the contract reads that is equivalent to the student lunch um so now you would need to hire more staff to cover classes you would also need to then think about
length of um length of lunch and the duration and the space in which lunch goes which would mean two things one you'd have to make a decision on what you're not going to offer I offered up mathematics earlier today because we have enough folks taking on outside our math scores have been fine but our
language arts and writing have not been so um if we're going to decrease anywhere it'll be in math and you're going to need to do a referendum to put new cafeterias on all six schools because you won't have enough space or you can start lunches around 9:30 um so morning meeting followed by lunch
because you just don't have the physical space so out of context yes I agree everyone should have longer as much lunch and recess as they want but in the context of managing a district managing time managing contracts and being
mindful of both recess and play and lunch and to any one of us who have had lunch duty uh over any length of time we all know that um 20 minutes is more than sufficient for any 5-year-old or
seven-year-old to eat lunch um in fact I would suggest that most dinner tables aren't more than that amount of time you spend more time prepping the meal than at the table um and that's the reality of kids want to eat and go play 20
minutes is not an insufficient amount amount of time in the context of a school day in the context of children and there are steps that teachers take throughout the year in which one we teach we we lean into the schedule we lean into help teaching the lunch lines
we help we stay behind with kids that need more time we will extend to into a classroom if someone didn't finish their lunch there are times that students may need some additional especially by age and type of meal um but we really have
never surely seen this as a problem to then go to the table and attempt to negotiate a change nor do we think that it actually is required to go longer than 40 in addition to that 40-minute window we do encourage play and recess
above and beyond especially in the K3 pre2 prek-3 schools um so but you'd have to make at the end of the day you'd have to make some pretty big fiscal commitment and um schedule changes uh in physical plant changes if
you were to try to entertain a 40-minute lunch or even a 30 minute lunch and this whole buyer beware about what other districts are magically doing it's it's how it's presented on a piece of paper on a website and not the Practical reality of what's implemented in
reality thank you right thank you um next uh I'll be reading this uh statement for um recess and closed executive session um did I officially close the public comment though I
forgot yes I did okay okay um recess and to close executive session whereas the open public meetings act authorizes Boards of Education to meet an executive session under certain circumstances whereas the open public meetings act requires the board to adopt a resolution at a public meeting to go into private
session now therefore beat resolved by the West Windsor Plainsboro Regional School District Board of Education that it is necessary to meet an executive session to discuss certain items involving Personnel matters be it further resolved that any discussion held by the board which need not remain
confidential will be made public as soon as feasible the minutes of the executive session will not be disclosed until the need for confidentiality no longer exists be it further resolved that the board will not return to open session to conduct business at the conclusion of the executive uh session if necessary um
now I'll remember this time um can I get a motion to recess and to close session uh Robin and Louisa uh all in favor say I I um thank you everyone uh and good evening