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Following courtesy or what do you call that? Common sense. Tell me that it's trying to get out of this mess here. Yeah, well. Join the club. I don't know. There were a couple as they were coming across parents I thought were going to try to jump through. I was like No. You can wait. No. Oh, you got them down here. See them? She's got a I know what she should do. She waits. Notwithstanding. You can wait. 11:26. That took longer than normal. Wait till you get this class coming in. Is section three over here? Section three? Yeah. I see four. Well, it'll be next to it. I don't know what's behind the lady in green over here. There's a section sign. I don't know what that is. My dad said he's in section three. I'm just trying to locate him. It doesn't help when one of my eyes is still trying to focus after being closed for that long.

2% white you'll see that those numbers probably only range within a 4% difference between any of theems that we look at uh which showed us that there was some interest there are some other outlying ones that we're going to investigate just a little bit further once we get going but uh you know you'll see as we go through you could scroll down gender uh merging Tech and Entrepreneurship it was you know kind of a 6040 split between males and females non-binary was a choice but most students uh did choose one or the other and for programming it's 7% sped and 22% ml which kind of mirrors where we are you'll notice that you know at DHS and Kelly you can correct me if I'm wrong we're probably at about 15% sped but as we said not all the sped students uh were Cho could choose where they were going they were given a choice so they're kind of not reflected this is the students who talk theres do you have a question or is that up from before yeah no um out of all theems which one had the highest enrollment just Cur I mean there's no numbers you've got percentages um which you did a great job but I like what is the best one or the most popular one you'll never ever get me to say the best one but the most the most popular one seems to be scientific innovation and Medicine oh so that that seemed that seemed to be the the most popular one I could tell you the least one was probably info and cyber security oh yeah H otherwise they were pretty even because you you had to choose and it had to put you somewhere and we didn't make there were so many so many spots that the students could go to so that's why not everyone if we just opened it up and put everyone where they wanted to go you'd have you know say x amount of kids in the 300 kids in the science Innovation and medicine one but that's why we had to put caps on and the cap for each pathway was 50 so it's 150 per academy uh that they could go into but it worked out very well even because if you saw those numbers of First Choice 80% of their kids that chose got their first choice you want to go through Cara yep here's scientific innovation in medicine uh you'll notice the numbers don't change much at all it's a maybe a five-point swing from where we're going on one and the other where you start seeing the the swings is as you come down the other one we just saw merging Tech was kind of male heavy in what it was and this one is female heavy uh for the medicine it's almost the exact opposite it's 6040 in the female one so it it while it's not too bad when we're talking about 150 kids when you're you're looking at maybe a swing of 10 students uh either way 80 to 70 type stuff or a little bit more than that actually but um they went through and then we talked about sped and MLS uh it's 5% in this Academy and 70% MLS this is info and cyber security here we go again the same things 59% uh you know they they all Hispanic population that was leading the charge in this one uh and 15% white was down you know as we're trying our best to try to get more females involved in Computer Engineering and stem Eng General uh you'll see this one is pretty malale dominated when it comes to uh the computer informations and cyber security uh we will definitely look in the future on pushing for that to try to get this at a much closer to 5050 split this was probably our greatest one uh and uh special education and MLS this was a this was a heavy outlier for the ml one and and I'm thinking it had a little bit more to do do with the students that didn't make the selection when the selection was over and we're the ones that we had to go chase but we have no real um data for that right now because we weren't thinking that way when it came through so we're going to have to look at that number and just see if it was this year or if it's something that is a trend throughout you know cyber security also believe it or not had a lot to do with who was making the presentations how the presentations went who who decided to bring out the the cool things that uh they do I know for art engineering and design you know they they brought out some pretty cool things that they showed during those mini Flex sessions that made kids kind of go oh that's what I thought it was and there they go so professional Public Service I couldn't figure out how to outline the professional public service that's why it's yellow like that again pretty even across the board um this one you know deals with the law and the Civil Service part of Public Service part of what we're doing and culinary um it came out evening on the ethnicity part but then as you keep going down through the the gender part of it uh you'll notice that it keep going car uh this is our heaviest female one uh this came out they wanted to do that you know there are probably a doctorial study waiting to happen right here for somebody on why this occurred but you know it fits the trend that we've all read about when you're talking about stem and computers and stuff like that it's a little bit more malale driven and when you're talking about public service the education part and things like that it's a little bit more female headed so we're just kind of mirroring what you know everyone said so we're going to work very hard to get that um changed to 5050 uh this one has a heavy sped population because there are two uh Bas programs that are placed in this one because of the public service part um and the programming at the high school so they were placed in there but ml again is at 18% it's right around the 22s we've seen besides the outlier of 40% art engineering and design looks just like the other ones this one is almost a exact mirrors of the ones before it there's really nothing it was chosen where they're going and and how it worked another 6040 which is in bad uh you know when we start getting a little bit you know into the 8020 type range that's when we're we're looking at some serious stuff or anything higher than that but art engineering design this is going to be an interesting mix of um you know students in this one because you have art along with the engineering but again it's it's this one's at the the high school so it it's a heavy sped because they're staying there because of program reasons and a 30% uh MLL communication design same thing as the other ones it almost looks like the mirror image and if you like those Graphics you can thank Dr Martins because she worked very hard on the the logos to try to make them and uh you know as I look at them now they're they're very impressive on what they are we tried to find a similar format we got some work to do with two other ones but then we're done and then we have to do the green Academy as it comes out so you know our male female one this was was the closest one we had male female um when they were in there for the communication and design one I think it it talks to the communication part of it and the stem part of it uh that all come together so it'll be interesting mix on in this Academy definitely and again this one's at the high school so sp's a little bit higher and ml's a little higher too I mean that we were uh very pleased at the way firstly first one we concentrated on with was the ethnicity of them um we broke it down by college prep and honors classes that we had to give in the different ones and it seems like the scientific innovation and medicine one um has a uh little bit heavier honors uh population in it but besides that they were pretty even the whole way through and that's as far as we've gotten with our schedule so far and where we're going on okay that's the end of that questions any committee um member questions sorry Lauren yeah I have a quick question go for it what was the uh turnout for the information nights first one wasn't too bad uh I'd say it's probably a hundred total people it wasn't that bad uh the second one was non-existent we were all there and we probably had more admins than we did parents uh you know we had scheduled we were going to do a third uh but as we were going through it we weren't getting a ton of questions at that point we weren't getting any questions but we were like all right I guess we're good uh to go forward we really haven't gotten any more um I imagine it'll pop up when we bring it out on the June after the 6th uh you know when they get theirm and things like that going you know we spent a lot of time discussing this and I really believe that that exploration course that is taught in that first semester set an absolute great Foundation that these students could go home and talk to their parents about it and you know if you ask your your student hey what is this or what's this Academy and they give you the yeah I'm good I got it uh then you're kind of like all right you got it we're good to go and I I think we hit it the first one who had questions you know believe it or not more of the questions we got were not around the programming part but just more of uh you know what happens if they want to take uh play football but they're in the other building so it was you you know things we've all answered and we've said a million times over and over but just to get those and we've had answers for all of them because we've been you know pretty well this team sitting here on this Zoom right now has done an excellent job of planning this entire thing doesn't mean there's not going to be a couple of hiccups thank you thank you any other questions from committee members and any other Board of Ed member questions can you explain to me again how the um the special ed in the MLL how how does that work in these programs well the only one that is is different for them is some of the special education programs that's it ml ml students they are choosing just like everyone else we had special sessions for them exploration was actually taught in kind of a a bilingual type setting to make sure they had the information uh but they they select just like everybody else the only ones that really didn't get a chance to select um and Kelly I don't know how you want to explain I'm gonna let you do it you know it's the Bas and the Liz whites of the our class if you want to take that over explain yeah sure thank you Dan um so it's for our um students with more significant special needs um who have self-contained programs that um a large portion of their day is done in a modified academic setting um with vocational training built into their IEP or individualized education plans so those students even before we transition to the academy model we're doing vocational training uh during their you know during their school day at the high school and so those programs are continuing um within the special education department um and uh for some of the students with special needs it just wouldn't be appropriate to participate in some of the uh traditional academic classes um and so for those reasons um those students while they'll be part of an academy as Dan highlighted earlier we want them to be part of the comprehensive Danbury High School programming um and be included um when appropriate but for some of them the academic course uh courses will be done um solely on a special education track uh in modified curriculum so they don't pick they are laced they yeah so um so student students uh through their uh PPT process those decisions are made so every student has at least one meeting annually um where we discuss the individual programming for th for that child and part of that discussion um is both their Academic Program um and any vocational instruction that they're going to receive so through that meeting the program is dictated and and spelled out um and then as those decisions are made as Dan indicated earlier they're placed into the academy that's most appropriate to match that programming thank you they would and they would not be availing themselves of regular danber High School courses either um as an example the group that was going to they go to the hospital and work in the kitchen in the hospital as part of it they're going to be placed in public and Professional Service which is our culinary one so we can bring them into the culinary aspect of it but they won't be taking culinary as a class they they they can't do that but they're still part of it thank you anybody else committee members or board members okay um just a a question and I know everyone has has done their due diligence to our students uh when you make these decision special uh any student or special needs students and and talk about uh putting them in any type of program and when are you going to place them in the program I know you have a really sit down conversation with the parents so they will understand clearly what's going on just a comment yes that's correct Miss Cooper thank you Lauren can I ask a quick question please please go ahead thank you um and I'm not sure who the best person is to answer this but I'm thinking about our multilanguage Learners and sort of how they're going to be supported in you know these individual career tracks because I know you know we are still sort of working around how we're going to better address the needs of that that segment of our school population and I'm just thinking about like what that means in terms of having either technology or or a bilingual U teacher in that classroom as they're going specifically through the career tracks what does that look like I could I could answer that if that's okay um so one of we share the same you know concern that has been a focus for us for a while um I might just jump into number three on the Congressional appropriation because what you just described Kate really is addressed in the focus of how we're um of what we're doing in terms of programming and supports in our curriculum for second language Learners so the Congressional appropriation is geared towards taking the current curriculum the curriculum that's being built and making it accessible and rigorous for all students but particularly for language Learners there's something called the kelp standards um and so those are basically standards for for what's appropriate for second language Learners to to have and know and be able to do at different Lang at different stages of language acquisition and so the focus of that work in the Congressional appropriation um is to take um a lot of time money and programming and technical support and use that to take our current curriculum and to and to integrate um those uh areas of support in for second language Learners so that teachers are clear on what the expectations are for students at different levels so a loss one a l two a l three those are the language acquisition levels and then what they can expect of students in the curriculum and it kind of guides them to be able to provide better supports and so um we're going to be all about that in the next you know couple of years in terms of taking our programming and making sure that it's universally designed that it's accessible for all of our Learners and that we have specific reports uh specific resources and supports spelled out so that teachers um know where to go to address the different needs that that they're seeing in their classroom thank okay I think thank you so much if we're all set with that one I think we can move on Cara Okay so up next we have Dr Melissa Neu and then we have uh Trish deino Hall Dr NAU is our stem curriculum administrator and Trish deino Hall is our humanities curriculum administrator both of whom have stepped up tremendously during uh the transition here in supporting um the needs of the department and I've been doing a phenomenal job there's been a tremendous amount of work in the background with uh the curriculum development and the work around um all of the courses and the new courses in the pathway and so we thought it' be important to start to talk about those courses here and I will let Dr nidu and Miss uh Paul take over and start talking about this Essentials course did we losen Trish are you on mute and Melissa Melissa here did you want did you want a cast or do you want me to to roll forward for you Melissa you Melissa you ready I think Melissa's got like family things going on and there their dog is either barking she's laughing she's trying to figure out what's going on like she she knows how to hit the mute button she's like I can't unmute right now my kid's screaming it's bed time yes and I'm here I'm here to fully support Melissa in her oh you had it you had there you go is here she is you're good she's having some some sort of technical well we can talk about the essential course no we can't hear you we could talk about what the essential course so when we started with the exploration course in ninth grade the essential course is what all 10th graders take they are in their Academy now there's some different specifics to them but every single 10th grader will be put into an essential course and I have not seen this presentation but but I imagine the next slide is going to go over what they're going to talk about and how they came about and the development timeline for what they did we started this well back in the spring of 23 and Trish you want to take over you can too but I think they're on the phone with each other uh the spring of 23 uh you know we did have some uh funds set aside to uh hire what we refer to as pathway leads who can write this curriculum for I I I I'm back I I phone called in because my computer keeps muting me every time I press unmute thank you for stepping up for me I appreciate it no problem good that was about the extent of my uh you done well done well done D and thank you so much what a nightmare okay sorry everybody I've never experienced that in my life every time I pressed on mute it muted me it's um it's it's very telling um so I'm starting with going over our ENT curriculum development timeline so in our district um our curriculum development happens kind of in a sequence in an order and we began our Essentials curriculum development last spring um with our curriculum boot camp so we brought together all of our pathway leads who represent each pathway and we reviewed how to identify the standards that would be prioritized throughout the year how to start connecting those priority prioritized standards to the pg attribute and really talking about what it means to be teaching um through a career connected lens and making sure that we're prioritizing how the P attributes show up in real world connections um so after that spring boot camp which was a two-day boot camp the teachers left the pathway leads left with like a basic outline of what they think their course is going to look like and this was on the heels of our industry partner days where our pathway leads were really meeting with industry Partners multiple industry partners um to understand what basic skills in this pathway course would look like um forem that creation of units began over last summer so teachers went off the pathway leads went off they started to create their um units of study we had check-ins throughout the summer so I would meet with our um curriculum writers um and give feedback in the first couple units to make sure that we're on the right path and making sure that everything is being aligned properly so you'll see there um there's kind of a little rotation between those two um areas yep there you go um where we are writing we're getting feedback we're going back and making revisions and that's happening all throughout the fall so um that's happening on a continual basis um the curriculum teams are constantly meeting we're we're giving feedback in the in the in the same time and it wasn't until this spring that we actually had some finalization to the documents and I and and the finalization really isn't the word here because um really where we are is at a point where they're as completed as they can possibly be because the real magic is going to start happening next spring as the curriculum is being rolled out um so you know Dan spoke earlier about the career exploration course so that career exploration course ran this year and right now we're in the process we have a ton of feedback from the the students in the course we have feedback from the teachers who were teaching the course um and so this summer we're going you know even though it was finalized we're going back and we're making those revisions this summer and that's what will happen over the course of next year as the teachers start teaching these essential courses okay Cara next slide so today I'm going to take you through the essentials course for the Academy of scientific innovation and medicine so remember this course is a 10th grade course this is for students who signed up for this Academy and all of these students who will be taking this course will be either be in a biome medical pathway which is really kind of like a researchy pathway um you're still studying types of medicine but it maybe through the lens of um being in a lab um maybe doing some really high level kind of medicine type thinking and then there's the sports and Human Performance medicine one of the easiest connections we can make to this is like going to physical therapy um understanding Kinesiology and how your body works and then finally the Allied Health Services pathway which we've had a very successful path way for years with CNA um and we're we'll be adding EMT into that as well so next slide so you guys have been provided with a couple documents one document is this PowerPoint which I'm going to talk through the second document was a PDF of the scientific and Innovation medicine Essentials course that's the like 50 some odd page document um so what I want to do is I kind of want you to reference that very long document as I go through this um presentation so I can pick out highlights of how these courses were developed um through the lens of P attributes but also through the career connected lens as well so on the slides you're going to see blue which is just information about the section that I'm referring to and I'll give you page numbers so you can look at them there's going to be yellow which is direct wording from the document you have in front of you and so for you to go back um and look at in in in the future there's commentary about illustrating what that example means in this curriculum document okay so next slide so in each unit there's something called a guaranteed experiences and lesson sequence so if you think back to your schooling in high school you know your teacher went through a day-by-day thing building upon knowledge as they went through a unit um that's what really this this section is this section lays out topics um in the order of which they should be studied so that they can build upon previous knowledge um and it connects back to what in our curriculum documents is called the essential question this also introduces our P attributes um and it also has a beginning section which for all teachers should be very common for every unit we want every teacher to start with introducing that essential question talking about what p attribute we're going to be focusing on in this unit but also talking about how that P attribute what those skills are connects to what they'll be doing in their careers but also how it is just a real world skill that can be useful no matter what type of career you go into so if you guys um you can go to the next slide Cara on page six and seven of your document that um the the very long document that is shared with you this is our unit one essential question for our Academy of scientific innovation and medicine so in unit one they are exploring this idea of what ensures safety so essential questions for a un unit are very big and Broad they allow kids to explore that topic through various various lenses and when they're going through that guaranteed experience they're really building upon knowledge that can answer that question and what the beauty about an essential question is is that it's a question that does not have just one answer so for this particular unit if you look on your pages six and seven of that very long document that has been shared with you you're going to see that guaranteed topic sequence and when you look at that you're going to see topics that range from um policies you're going to see topics that range from how to put on um PPE which I think is like a synon a word that everybody knows now after covid how do you put on gloves how do you put on a mask how do you scrub up using water and soap right they're going to look at um safety signs that are we can even see them in our chemistry Labs here in the school they're going to look at regular practices and safety that exist throughout all Health Sciences Industries so what we are looking for kids to do is to make this really broad connection that you know what insures safety is not just an easy answer because what ensures safety is policies in the hospital making sure that sure that you personally are able to provide the safety that is needed to make sure that patients are being cared for but that you're also caring for yourself too in this unit they study how um the the chain of diseases and how you can stop a disease usually just by washing your hands but they track chains of diseases throughout an experience in a simulation but also through case studies so they're looking at how everybody has a part to play in safety so next slide CA So within um the guaranteed lesson experience right so we're going through all of these topics to build upon their understanding of that unit um there's certain things that are built into to some of these units not all of these units that guarantee students will have the opportunity to have an iterative experience in their learning so if you're looking inside that very large document that I shared with you on page 16 it starts The Learning Experience for unit two and in this unit you'll see eventually on page 16 this little circular um Arrow grouping of arrows so what this does in our in our units of study for our teachers is it signifies that in this section these three topics in particular we want students to go through an iterative cycle so you'll see that they're starting with topic five five how do Health Care occupations differ and why is it important to understand and then they go to topic six where they talk about how to inform Their audience about these Health Care occupations it is then in topic seven that they get some feedback on what they've communicated to Their audience so what we want students to do with that feedback is to go back through their learning cycle and go back up to topic five use the feed back that they received from Their audience to go back and improve upon their presentation I think what we did in these units for these particular situations is we made it less about the content they were presenting and more about how they are presenting this is where we're trying to pull those portrait of a graduate attributes out and making sure that kids are being um they're speaking to those core components of a portrait of a graduate so for this example that's up on the screen right now these topics students are actually Pro practicing the P attribute of communication so in their communication are they able to communicate to Their audience what they want the audience to know but then in return are they able to take feedback from the audience because in particular in this unit students are using active listening so they have to actively listening to the feedback that they're getting from Their audience in order to go back and make the changes to make their presentation um more understandable um for the audience of which they're presenting okay next slide Carol so this chart represents in each of the essentials courses that have been created where these iterative designs are located um so it's just a chart that says um you know in computer science Essentials in units one and four kids have this guaranteed experience to give Fe to get feedback on what they're presenting or how they're presenting it and then go back and make changes based on the feedback that they've received and what we tried to do in each of these units you'll see um a box that's called Career connected lens we try to outline who should be giving them feedback as well so sometimes we do want industry professionals to come back and give feedback on their presentations sometimes it's just simply presenting to their peers so we tried to really make some of these opportunities formalized to get industry feedback but sometimes it is just an audience of their peers or even teachers in the school uh next slide please so that unit essential question right I just presented unit one which is what ensures safety okay we want kids to really ponder that and think about that because again these are the essential courses and these are the questions that are really going to be the foundational knowledge for them to build upon as they enter their Junior and senior years and as they reach their Capstone projects that will happen in their senior year and so what we're trying to do now is link these questions um to a reflective process to the students so what you'll see in all of the essentials documents is um an assessment planning where kids are going back and writing a brief narrative to go back and answer that unit essential question so when they are answering that question and what ensures safety we're looking for kids to explore that from their sense of personal self they're looking to explore it from situational awareness they're looking to explore it from federal policy or local hospital policy and they're able to communicate that through their reflection what happens with these Reflections is that they're actually going to be part of their portfolio so the portfolio that they start in their career exploration course this becomes an a piece of evidence that they carry without throughout their their High School career so that when they get to their senior year and they're deciding what type of Capstone project to do they can now look back on these Reflections and say wow maybe I want to do a project in my senior year on safety here are some of the things I learned in my course load next slide please part of that reflection is also on the portrait of a graduate so in each unit there is a portrait portrait of a graduate skill or attribute that is being focused on and so what we want them to do is go back and reflect on their progression in that attribute each attribute has um a rubric they can talk about where they started where they feel they ended up and pull from evidence in the course as to why they think they have um they've they've grown as a communicator or as an innovator right so again using evidence from the rubric is one of the common core standards for ELA being able to pull from evidence in their experiences and use it to support their claim that they're making um and again this body of evidence will follow them throughout their experiences in the high school um because as you know um the portrait of a graduate um we want them to be reflecting on that and we want them to reflect on how their skills have grown in these areas next slide please so in in these documents um the one that has been shared with you has um assessment sections in it um I was very anxious about sharing these because these are how our kids are going to be assessed in these units um and as you can imagine um assessment security is very important because we want kids to be their own authentic selves as they're going through these assessments um and so what I have here is an example of how in um and this can be found on page 49 of the document that I shared with you again I realize it's a very long document um but this is a unit that kids are going to be exploring towards the end of their sophomore year and it's actually a Research Unit so kids are going to study um a disease maybe something that affects themselves or a family member and through that um study they're going to be focusing on the uh portrait of a graduate of a communicator and in particular they're going to be a they're going to have to communicate effectively through a variety of traditional and digital media for um in in all content areas so this was a pretty exciting um assessment for us to make um and there's two different parts of this so the traditional part of this assessment is that we are asking kids to write a research paper and then take that research paper and create a research poster so for anyone who's ever had to create a research poster they are very plain they are a big white piece of paper with pure words on it it's a very particular type of presentation in a traditional form that's a very academic form so that's one assessment we want kids to do that speaks to that part of that PO gr PG attribute that talks about using traditional media the second topic is topic seven and what we want kids to be able to do here is to take that traditional form and now create something either an in infographic or a social media post that is able to take those very research researchy type health things and put it into a form that's easily recognizable but also understandable to the general public because what we're trying to do here in the medical field is be able to communicate not only with people who are in my field in medicine but also possibly people who I'm communicating to as a patient I need to make my information attainable and understandable for my patients um I don't know maybe I'm showing my my 44 year old age but on on my Instagram I follow certain doctors who put things out there um about param menopause that I can absolutely understand and they do it in really fun ways and that's what we're looking for kids to do here take a topic make it accessible for a general audience but also be able to show it in a way that can show that you're a professional and you're an academic setting as well next slide um I believe this is my last slide um so this shows um how the P attributes um are represented in each of the units of each of the essential courses um so it just kind of um is an array that shows you know in the computer science Essentials course we really are focusing on communicator and innovator um just by the nature of the content of those courses right so we're also really trying to be um aware as we move through these next couple years of creation that we are hitting as many of the portrait of a graduate elements as possible because again if we're asking kids to reflect on their progress and that's going into um their portfolios they can have a full body of a portfolio to pull from as a senior and be able to do some reflection and creation of a Capstone so I believe that's it for me I would open the floor up to questions unless Trish has anything she'd like to add now that my phone is working she dodged a bullet there and I appreciate you for that um I just want to say how how incredible it was to even be able to introduce this Essentials curriculum to all of the uhms at um at Danbury High over the last month we visited every Academy and were able to introduce this and walk it walk them through and then um tie it tie in some connections and provide some ideas and uh for generating um some specific lessons that might align it to within the other content areas and so that was really exciting and we thank Dan and Meg for that um allowing us to come in and and do that work this was such great information so thank you all for that um other any committee I see Teresa has a question so go ahead Teresa um what happened to learner column so the learner that's that's a great question Teresa so if you remember the learner P attributes um I'm going to try to sneakily pull them up on my computer as I'm talking here um the learner is an every single one of these documents um they're going to be actually at the top under the priority um prioritized um skills and attributes by nature of the essentials course right the essentials course is absolutely connecting to Career um to Career um skills so the the idea behind learner the learner outcome in the ideal State states that graduates use acquired skills and knowledge to transform life for self and positively influence the lives of others so what you're going to see Teresa is that in these curriculum documents that is prioritized number one every single one of these units is about being a learner especially in the um context of outcome two outcome two is students will independently apply real world life skills learned from a college ready and career connected Continuum I'm sorry career and connected curriculum that is every single one of these Essentials courses so while that skill is not necessarily um highlighted in the assessment section it is literally the driving um force behind every single one of these Essentials curriculums that is the the the the outcome we want to see the most sure thank you thank you just did a nice job on on the chart and I'm going wait a minute there's nothing there yeah thank you you're right there is nothing there I think when we get to um senior year Capstone that's when they will show that big evidence of being a learner throughout the throughout every one of the um the uh courses that that they experience within their Academy the ultimate um goal is for them to Showcase their their learning through being a learner um at that in the so that will be your big highlight for learner as well with a lot of evidence right right no that's yeah thank you any other Committee Member questions um okay board member questions I would just like to say thank you I know everyone has been working and I can't even imagine the time and energy beginning with the big chief M Donovan and Dr kme and everyone that has contribute to getting this information out to the board and I'm just so excited about it whenever it open that I wish I could go back to school but I know that won't happen but I just like to say it's very exciting information and to know that there's a different phase of educ education that children are going to be partaking versus what I went to school and had to take so I just don't see how parents can't get excited about this it's going to be a wonderful opportunity for sure I could if I could just add Lauren for a sec um you know the the the the liftoff in the background of what of this Academy opening you know everyone's anticipating the building being open but um we're open now and I think it's important for people to understand that that our first cohort is they're our freshman group that we have right now and next year they'll be experiencing they'll have this uh curriculum as as being as being presented to you and then while they're engaging in that and we're and we're Gathering feedback from teachers and students on that implementation at the same time we'll have about 10 more groups working on curricul the next level uh for grade 11 so we're we're always trying to go one year out in terms of developing the curriculum then we'll implement the curriculum gather feedback on that curriculum and how it's going and then engage in a revision process to make it better so um we get the teachers together that's part of the work that um you know Dan did a great job of pulling together a schedule it's almost impossible when you think about it a schedule where all of these teachers teaching in the same Academy have a have a professional learning community so that's a break during their day during the school day a couple times over the week where they can come and talk about this and and share how things are going um and then you know making sure that they're addressing the student needs so anybody who's you know struggling or having a hard time or sharing ideas on how to make things better so that per that PLC time that has been B in the schedules is a um going to be a game Cher for teachers to be able to collaborate around the Great work and the curriculum that's that's happening and being built in the background so super excited about it I'm extraordinarily proud of the team that's working on this there it's night and day if they've been doing it since the pandemic um we've all been working on it since the pandemic it's still going on um and will continue to go on for the next couple of years at a at a very intense and complex uh manner so um just kudos to the team and and thank you for a great presentation yes thank you so much and Teresa I think you have another question uh right so you're saying this is [Music] further this is for the 10th grade correct this is the 10th grade curriculum okay gotcha thank you and so the the course that that that she shared with you was an example of for one of the courses and there's multiple so you can you know there's we'd be here all all night until next week if we were to go through all of those but uh it's you know very dense documents so U that was really just an example to walk you through um the last thing on the agenda is the is about the Congressional appropriation which I think I touched on um kind of quickly it was an opportunity to just really talk about taking this these types of documents and then overlaying into those additional information to guide teachers on how to address the needs of language Learners at different levels of language acquisition so the grant would be used for a lot of the the training and professional development digital tools um curriculum development to professional technical support um to work with teachers to do this work and to work with our administrators because our administrators are still working and learning on how to best meet the needs of second language Learners it's a it's a it's a real shift over the years and and um especially as uh new folks come in we have to continue to train and keep up with the training uh needs of both teachers and administrators um but also the grant will be used for um um bringing back we hope uh and restoring some of those SC up and coaching positions um at the for second language leers so um you know we think it's a it's a great focus and again there's not only is the curriculum work taking off but also the supports that our students are going to need to be successful with it so they can access it as well Teresa uh the from what I understand aren't there going to be for the each Academy like a overview committee with Business Leaders I mean are we establishing that here as well oh yeah we're working on um they're called advisory boards and they will have everything from teachers students community members to Community Partnership that are with those acmis uh that's the work of Brent Dean and he's been doing a great job making these connections and we're starting the um on boarding of those next year thank you Dan you're welcome any other Committee Member questions okay board member questions Al righty um I know Cara just wanted to touch on one more yep yep so as long as you're you're done so I know you know we've had some conversations around um you know clarifying roles responsibilities the curriculum committee is still a relatively newer uh of the Committees and we've got a lot of new board members and even new administrators sliding at different roles so um I know part of the training um for for this and other things will come on uh June 24th this is really more for the board members uh in the form of a workshop and so we'll be able to touch on um roles responsibilities and and what we're all supposed to be doing and and when with regards to our responsibilities around curriculum so we look forward to that and um we'll be touching on that on June 24th and there'll be more information and info coming out in my my board update uh to the board so um awesome thank thank you all so much I know this is a lot of work and we appreciate you bringing it bringing it to us um for further understanding and um we just really appreciate all your efforts and all that you do for us um and if there's no other questions can I I don't have a question Lauren but I just you know I'd like to say thank you because I don't know we we all we should always say thank you when you appreciate something and I just want to say say thank you to Lauren for uh putting this together and bringing this forth to the board uh this is my second uh meeting I got a little late on it but it's something I had to run out and do I want to thank Kate for uh first doing our community relation committee and then we have learned to have put together this uh information for the curriculum committee and I want to say to both of you I certainly appreciate the hard work that you continue to do and continue to support the board and the board members that are always on to get more additional information and ask questions and I I feel like I should always say thank you and I want to say that thank you so much for those words glus and thank you for always being there for all of us um if there's no other questions comments or um anything else can I get a motion to adjourn Teresa so excellent can I get a second second hi second okay excellent um so thank you all have a wonderful evening and um again thank you so much

[Music] um by calling the meeting to order at 7:02 and then I will just um call the curriculum committee members um for attendance and then we'll go right into the agenda um so we have Al I am excellent um Teresa present Dr Cronin um absent Lauren here and Louisa is here Al righty excellent um Dr Casmir I guess I will hand it right over to you and you can give us a little introduction of what's Happening sure awesome thank you Lauren and uh just want to say uh thank you to Dr Martins who is on her way to her daughter's recital and so she is pulled over to to make sure that she's able to participate today so thank you very much as well as everyone else um on the call um so tonight is really just um an academy update so a lot has been happening behind the scenes as you know students um have engaged in a selection process and there was lots of questions at the beginning of the year about how that would go um and it's uh kind of blown by very quickly so here we are it's May almost June and um we have our high school staff here tonight to talk a little about how that process went and you get a chance to see how those results shook out so it's very interesting and and very exciting um we have Melissa Nao Dr Nao is on tonight I'm not sure if uh Trish dinino Hall is on tonight but as well but um she's gonna go over oh thank you hi Trish I can't see on my on my screen um the Academy's essential curriculum um they're going to walk us through um that process and how teachers were engaged and uh what sort of the components to that looks like so that the board um you know is is involved and aware and that we can understand sort of how that curriculum development process is going and then also um Talk us through some of the the documents that have been produced um you know for the board's uh purview as well as we've attached those to the invite um for anybody who wants to take a look at those and then I'll talk a little bit at the end about the Congressional appropriation that we've received and how we're starting to um package that Grant along the lines of the the the the goals that that it was written towards um so we're happy to do that so right now I'll turn it over to Dan and mag and they can walk us through the latest Academy update thanks Cara um do you want me to are you gonna you're going to run it from where you are well if this looks okay on everybody else's end I'll use the PDF that was attached how's that does this work is this clear enough for everybody sure okay all right well thanks for having us here uh Meg's uh I said sitting in her car right now so I'll do most of the talking since she can't see the screens uh but we're here to talk about the academy selection process and as it says the results are in um we did a we believe a very good job of of going through this entire process from planning start to finish and our last part's coming up so let's talk about the process before we talk about the results uh process began soon as we came to school an exploration course the exploration course is the course that all freshman took probably 95% of them took in the first semester uh that starts off with them learning a lot about themselves setting the expectations for Dria high school and then as it work through there it starts going to heavily about theems uh during that time in the September we also came in contact with the group that was going to run the lottery for us um which is called Gunna Solutions uh they did a fabulous job of setting this up for everyone real nice and easy and it went smooth uh we worked September October uh you know October November working with them trying to get the verbiage down how we wanted to make this selection process uh as easy as it could and friendly for uh students and parents when they look at it so so during that process then we hit January we started with a all freshman assembly where all the Freshman came in we started talking about the process and then we also did team assemblies uh in which we met in the blackbox with the different teams there's eight of them uh plus our ESL population and started talking about what was going to be happening uh more straight info about the overall structure of how acmis work um you know showing the graphics that we're all familiar with and how the Freshman went through there and from there we started broke it down for two weeks of mini Flex sessions so they got an overall from their exploration course of and us as a whole group of what theem look like and in their exploration course towards January they really started looking at you know the careers and what jobs could be coming out of each Academy for for example if they had an interest in medicine you know it's an easy one to pick you know what um what jobs they were how much of those schooling was involved how much uh you know the salary was and those type of things so they could get a good understanding of where each Academy and course would lead them then the mini uh Flex section sessions were presented by the academy directors we did that for two weeks so they had a chance to get into each academy uh Meg and I presented for communication in design and we pleasantly surprised at how well prepared the students came in not with just the knowledge of um you know the basics of yes we got the email yes we know when the selection process how it works uh when it's due and all of that but their information and questions they had regarding what these would look like they got uh for example if they came to flex for communication design they got a little mini tour of the blackbox and and how their audio uh design class would look like they got a little tour of the TV studio the hatter TV studios and the soundbox and things like that downstairs and then um after that we did academy information night uh in January for parents to come uh kind of ran through the overall uh how the process is going to work information for them showed the program guides that uh Melissa and Trish have worked uh very very hard to get to they are easy and super friendly for people to see and understand um then we hit February we did another information night for parents just to make sure that uh anybody who couldn't get the first one came to the second one uh and from there we did the selection process closed and counselors and the admins up in the exploration Academy met with students who hadn't selected uh a a selection for various different reasons uh so we went through and asked them and explained to them why they needed to do this so they have a little voice and and where they could possibly go uh we've been sitting on this information as we're working through our scheduling process and now it's time for the Academy reveal which is coming up June 6 and the admins have been working extremely hard on trying to make this a fun event for for them but kind of run out of options when it's a big class size of 800 and what we could possibly do we went through the whole you know do we do like a good oldfashioned you know Sorting Hat and tell them where they're going to go and things like that so uh we have a good little plan coming up for them and that's coming up June 6th um you know we're going to try to make it as as hype for them as as they say as we possibly can uh so it's a good introduction onto their Academy their Academy directors and their path you want to move down Karen thank you so here's the overall of what happened through gun of solutions so 80% of the students who who selected and I mean by select is because uh some students didn't select uh for various reasons we have some programs like our our walls are special ed or Bas programs who we didn't didn't get to select where they want to go because if their programming is for them to go to the hospital which is a very successful program for them uh we put them in specialy the they're in you know the Terry wild group for public in uh public service that they kind of dictated where they would uh actually go if there if um so promatic programmatic changes and things made their choices for them but for everyone else 80% got their first choice uh 12.8 got their second choice and 3.5 got their third and it went all the way down to 19 no one got that far but it went all the way down to they could select all 19 Pathways at the time uh this does exclude the new one um the new Academy because we could not go back and have time like we spent all the time from September to January talking about them to add this on so that one will be rolled out next year so we're very happy with the 96.4% of students receiving one of their top three choices um you know the ones who selected they they got to choose where they want to go so uh we're very happy with that part of it Dan we have a question oh I'm sorry I'm not sorry Lauren no that's okay I didn't notice it so Dan we have a question shoot fire away where are oh Teresa sorry there you are what is the total number of students there's 720 students selected that went to it uh 800 the total number of freshman's 800 it varies but I'll say around 30 830 what happens to the ones who don't um who who don't select well a lot of them are the special education programs that uh we talked about they are placed into acmis because they're special education programming kind of dictates where they have to be whether it's at danry high school because what we have at that building which will not be replicated over in the other building um so they had to stay there and everyone else we go we we place them into eies and if Dan if I could just add to the discussion regarding vocational programming for those um it's typically our students with more significant special needs is a is a big discussion at the PPT process regarding you know which program that they go into so um there is input throughout that process but not a direct selection through this we felt that while they will not be taking the courses that the other students will Avail themselves of as they go through we felt it was very important for all the students to be recognized in an academy so when we start talking about our Academy celebration they they're a part of it just like everyone else we'll we'll be making special awards for them and things like that thank you you're welcome so one of the things that we noticed uh quite early on was we we we thought that freshmen were going to kind of pick by where their friends went uh it's the new building I want to go to the new building or it's not the new building I don't want to go but we started looking at the the breakdown of the first second third up to Fourth choices of what students chose it was very I was very very pleased to see that it appears they chose by what they wanted they did not choose there was we didn't find any peer blocking like oh everyone choose this one kids really chose what they it looks like they had an interest in same thing with the building the building didn't dictate to us it looked like where they went and we're going to go through some of the demographic numbers in a second for each Academy and I think you'll see that they're pretty even all the way through and uh I'll make some points as we go through is why we believe some of these numbers may be a bit different next slide dude sure I'm sorry okay so it kind of rolls the same way for all of them but this is emerging Tech and Entrepreneurship and this is the ethnic breakdown of where it is at uh you know 63% Hispanic 7.1 black and 19.

cuz 6:00 practice starts at 5:59 except for Nicole um so my seniors are truly the hardest working girls that I could have asked for um practicing 5 days week at 6: a.m. definitely is isn't easy and I couldn't have asked for any more from them so super proud of the group that we had this year these ladies um finished eight two this year we swept our division and we were crowned to the American League champions so congratulations so class of 2024 flag football seniors manager Ashley Rodriguez Captain Carly stoker Jaslyn vizcano Madison Greenfield Zana Murphy qb1 Captain Kiara koi Sierra fisbeck Amanda Pudo and our senior MVP who never missed a preseason training in two years work tirelessly on and off the field to make our entire program successful LED our team defensively this season with 49 tackles as well as whatever I threw at her offensively senior Captain Nicole [Applause] [Music] all right before we get to the portion of theight where we find out who our senior male and female athletes of the year are um just want to take a second to again thank uh you seniors for being such an awesome awesome group of kids being such a wonderful audience tonight I mean the respect that you've shown for for the last two hours um how polite you were out there getting your food how polite you were when you were in here eating the food and that's you you embody Clifton and just know that you come from a school district that values hard work that rewards hard work um not many school districts I've been doing this for a long time did not many school districts do something like this for their senior athletes not many at all you know you're talking about pizza parties in in in in the auditorium as a senior gift uh so thank you know our board Dr [Applause] Roi but you know it's not many not many people get rewarded like that um not many coaches will say the things that they've said and actually believe it and and live it it's amazing how you've picked up on their hard work and dedication they've brought the best out of you as not only athletes but as people so just know that you're taking you're you're coming from a great place and no matter where you go whether it's College trade school military just off to the off to the workforce uh just know that you're coming from a great place and you have you have a solid solid foundation so let's thank the coaches the athletic trainers the support staff once again [Applause] you many of you have also taken uh advantage of the strength and conditioning programs that that we've offered here uh not many places have that uh this year we also added uh some some some morning training uh female athletic trainer uh female strength and conditioning coach so we're doing some really cool things and we're reaping the benefit by your success the amount of you who are going to go on to play college sports is remarkable so we're very very proud of it so that being said knowing that we're in such a room of elite athletes Elite students uh we listen to a lot of your accomplishments on the field on the track on the court but also more importantly in the classroom and in your clubs and in your community so to be an athlete of the year in this class of 2024 that started with Co really started you know crappy right there's no other way to put it it was it was it was a miserable miserable time to see where we are right now today everybody's having a great night everybody's dressed to the nines we're supported by our high school administration by our school district so your coaching staff so let's give them a round of applause one more time so ladies first we're going to start with our female athlete of the year um her coach coaches have have talked at Great length about her Great accomplishments on the track it's really phenomenal what she's done what she does in the school I had her a member of um athletic management club and her commitment to to Athletics and academics is unparalleled we'd have some really cool speakers coming in and she would say sorry Mr mle I have I have a test I have to and you know that that's her and that's probably why she's going to Yale one of the many reasons why she's going to Yale and that's something that that we all take a lot of pride in when our athletes go when our community members go to Ivy League places um it's very very impressive so going to ask dorah am Moab to come on up one more [Applause] so on the boys side we also heard about so many impressive athletic Feats you know over the over the past four years so again this was a very difficult decision to be made um I've had I've had the pleasure of seeing just about everybody compete uh I've seen this athlete compete uh quite some quite very many times over the past four years and his growth not only as a person and as an athlete but as a leader has been nothing short of inspiring he's brought a lot of Pride to Clifton brought a lot of Pride to his program um this year's athlete of the year is vital DS [Applause] sry off voice all right so again thank you all for attending I hope you enjoyed your night and the best of luck with graduation [Music] hold on don't leave before dessert there is dessert e e

now therefore be it resolved that the Board of Education will go into closed session for the following reasons as outlined in njsa 10412 items 2.2 through 2.4 do we have a motion to go into close session motion by Mrs null very fervent motion thank you Mrs null seconded by seconded by Mr Brown uh Mr Yates roll call please roll call on Executive session Mr Bach yes Mr Brown yes Mrs N yes Mr Thompson yes and Mr Conan yes we are in executive session thank you Mr Yates per Mrs nolles motion we will see you at approximately 7:30 p.m.

e e e oh good evening guys we're going to get uh we're going to get started if you can get get to your tables [Music] all right if everybody can just grab their seat we'll get started [Music] yeah welcome to the 2024 senior athletic dinner uh this is always one of my favorite events of the year uh it's an opportunity for everybody to get dressed up hang out and have one more meal together uh it's also a way to celebrate uh your senior year and your four in many cases your four-year career here at Clifton High School where you definitely made us very very very proud and I just want to thank all the athletes for all that they they do uh BV part of my job is watching you compete every day uh you compete on a high level you work so hard you are superstars in the building many of our many of you are our best students in the building there's never any issues uh with you on or off the field which is really fantastic so give yourselves a round of hand for being such great people so as you look back uh we've done a lot of winning here we've done you know some losing and there's been a lot of life experiences that that we've picked up and we hope that that takes you throughout college and and Beyond so we couldn't do that without our coaches your coaches this coaching staff is is the best in the state of New Jersey I say it every year uh and every year I mean it let's give them a round of a hand a round of [Applause] applause I don't care where you go you're not going to find the more dedicated professional group of coaches they work so hard for you they really do uh I know that they're going to miss you but I know that they're going to continue to be a part of your life we also have to thank our support staff our games don't run without our support staff they don't run um without our live stream crew who even came to live stream to dinner so thank you to thank you to all you guys who made this process want to thank our our superintendent Dr Rober toi his his his administration Mr hamda his administration our Board of Ed members um the um the next speakers will introduce all of the members of uh admin and the Board of Ed but on behalf of the entire coaching staff in the clipton athletic department thank you for all you do uh you're so generous to us you really never say no the facility upgrades that we've had in my 11 years here are phenomenal I don't know of another District who's done an invest Ed as much time and money into an athletic department so let's give them a round of applause all right so before I pass the microphone off to Dr Rober toi every year we give out some special Awards so first award want to thank my assistant M Marion who is definitely the backbone of the athletic department um nothing goes on without her um games buses uh officials ordering she does so much every day uh coaches definitely appreciate it we appreciate it and thank you for putting this dinner together so if you want to come on [Applause] up thank [Music] you next up is our appreciation award uh appreciation award goes to someone who does something you know amazing for the Department that doesn't have to be um and this year's award goes to miss [Applause] Rogers I'm going to tell you what did she's wondering what she did she actually did The Impossible she has taught me how to use Google forms only a few reminders throughout the way uh she's definitely helped me organize so many different things have parent meetings uh so just just a little token of our appreciation so thank you M Rogers all right next up the man who makes it all happen Dr roosi thank you Mr Malley good evening ladies and gentlemen distinguished guests parents coaches and Clifton High School's outstanding athletes good to be with you tonight we're here tonight everyone here in this room is here tonight to celebrate your achievements so please be respectful when people are at the microphone talking as I know you always are on and off the field uh as I stand here tonight uh I remember how Athletics shaped my life now don't look at me now now I'm round get it round shape my life round to get it uh but about 75 lbs ago I was an athlete and I can honestly say that I would not be where I am today in my life without high school and college athletics many of you will say or think the same thing in the future through Athletics we learn the value of teamwork resilience and the importance of never giving up both wins and losses teach us the true meaning of sportsmanship success isn't only shaped by Victory but by how we handle defeat and you will have some defeats in your life but High School sports have helped you prepare for that in the future with Grace and with dignity thank you to our amazing coaches who have dedicated their time energy and knowledge to our athletes if if you take the the stien that they get for coaching and divide that by the amount of hours they put in it's pennies it's pennies what what they make they don't coach for the money they coach for the love of you the student athlete and the love of the sport so thank you to our coaches parents and Guardians thank you they get clap for your coaches parents and Guardians thank you for always supporting your children countless hours of cheering from the sidelines endless encouragement long rides all of those things have helped mold these athletes into the outstanding individuals they are today and finally to the athletes we celebrate you tonight for your countless hours of practice the early mornings the late nights the sacrifices that you have made you continue to inspire Us by demonstrating the SU success that success is defined not only by trophies or medals but also by constant growth and teamwork congratulations to all of you and may your journey always be filled with passion determination and a Relentless pursuit of greatness [Music] congratulations before I introduce your esteemed high school principal Mr Honda I'd like to take a moment to recognize the Board of Education members who are present here tonight Board of Education members are volunteers who volunteer countless hours to make sure that you have all of the things that you need in school and on the field so I'd like to take a quick moment to recognize the Board of Education president Mr Allan Paris board members Judith bassford board member Tanya Suarez and board member Joe [Music] [Applause] siano and now your principal Mr Honda would like to say a few words [Applause] good evening everybody good evening to our Board of Education to my team to all of our coaches and most importantly and I think I'm going to say this for the first time and I'm going to say this a few more times for the from here till the end of the year but most importantly our graduating seniors I look around this room and I think of one word and that's Excellence our coaches embody that word everything that you guys do for these kids will not be forgotten by them the other night I was at a I was at Miss babak's last uh orchestra concert and one of the kids there during their speech to miss babc said you were a second mother to me don't forget that that's the impact that you have on these kids and the reason why that kid said that is not because he was she was in her class it's because of the countless hours that she puts in with them and that's what you all do and you don't know we don't I mean you guys do know but a lot of us who aren't as intimately involved with your students don't know what their lives like are at home all the time but you guys take the time to know that and you guys take the time to make them great so thank you for everything that you do coaches to our actual parents everything that you guys have done for our students taking them back and forth all the time coming to their games supporting them thank you because now I'm going to address our students to our students I look around this room and that word again resonates with me Excellence you know as principal I get to know two groups of students right there are some students that I know for not so great things and there are the students that I know for the great things then there's a bunch in the middle that I don't know and every day I walk in I you go to school here but you guys I know because of your Excellence every single one of you in here has plans after high school whether that be going to a Ivy League school which I know people in this room are doing whether it's going to college to pursue sports or just purs to academics or whether it's entering the workforce I know that whatever you guys do you guys are going to excel at because you guys know what the word sacrifice means because you guys know what it means to put in the hours and work your butts off to be excellent and that's what you guys have done for the past 4 years and I'm so sad to see you all go but I'm so happy to see you all moving on to bigger and brighter things thank you for gracing the halls of Clifton High School for the past 4 years it's always going to be a home to all of you so if you ever need anything please reach out to any of us we will be there for you and good luck with everything that you have in the future thank [Applause] you all right next up is our board president Mr Alan Paris [Applause] thank you m m ladies and gentlemen admired coaches faculty Administration proud parents and most importantly our remarkable class of 2024 Clifton High School senior athletes as the president of the Clifton Board of Education and a proud Clifton High School class of 1977 alumni don't do the math on that please it's an honor to address you today and celebrate the outstanding achievements of our High School athletic Award winners your dedication hard work and passion have not only brought honor to yourselves but have continued a Clifton tradition spanning decades what does it mean to be a Mustang it's more than just wearing the maroon and gray it's a dedication to Excellence both on and off the field as basketball legend Michael Jordan w said Talent wins games but teamwork and intelligence win championships it's about the spirit of sportsmanship respect and integrity in everything we do it's about representing our community with pride and living the values that make Clifton such a very special place teamwork isn't just about scoring goals or winning games it's about the unbreakable bonds forged through sweat tears years shared victories and defeats it's about lifting each other up when the odds seem insurmountable and celebrating every Triumph big or small together the great Vince Lombardi once said individual commitment to a group effort that is what makes a team work a company work a society work a civilization work each one of you sitting here today embodies the soul of what it means to be a Clifton Mustang sustain your spirit of teamwork the resil the res uh resilience to overcome challenges and the courage to chase your dreams with unwavering passion on behalf of the Clifton Board of Education I want to express our deepest pride and admiration for all that you have accomplished congratulations to our exceptional athletes may your future be filled with continued success both on and off the field thank you Mr President all right so just a quick rundown of the night um we're going to do our sport presentations we'll call each coach up individually they'll say a few words about their season about their seniors and then announce the senior MVP then we'll eat I promise I also promise the food f is delicious and then we will have our female and male athlete of the year so it's an exciting night that everybody looks forward to particularly the end and we'll get it started going to bring uh coach sink you up to talk about football good evening everybody um tonight's always a great night because it's about you guys right it's about your work it's about the four years that you put in here right your freshman year you're pandemic freshman right so I can only speak for my guys right so I can speak for my guys that as freshman um I remember that summer we were at selanka Park and we were you guys were just doing workouts with uh Jacob Abel and uh just working out in the park and you guys showed up and you kept showing up and you kept showing up to your sophomore year we we want a chip and that was great right and what you guys what you guys learned like sports is life is the ups and downs the es and flows and how to ride them out don't let your highs get too high and your lows be too low and um you guys are an amazing group I got nothing to love for you guys and I know you're going to do great things in this life uh the class of 24 is an outstanding class really proud of all your accomplishments um real quick a couple guys going to college next year to play ball uh nateon AR's going to Monclair State um Marvin [Applause] Marvin Marvin Bailey and Devon Strobel are going to Springfield College Tio jimnez is going to Caldwell University and jine Lawson will be doing a postgraduate year at uh W seminary in uh Pennsylvania where he's going to do his senior year over and then hope that turns into something bigger and better and uh as far as our season went like I said it was highs and lows it was ups and downs a lot of injuries right and there's things that you can't you can't come back from and our senior MVP is the big fell Germaine Lawson [Applause] [Music] all right next up is coach lri and boy soccer [Music] like to have my staff come on up please so if I can have everybody's attention this is um this is about the seniors and um would I'd like to say on on behalf of being an alumni uh of Clifton High School uh I know what it means to be sitting there and how this school has shaped My Life um I never left it's been over 40 years uh but also uh part of my staff is here uh coach whitler we adopted because she's been with us for so long she's an adopted member of the Clifton family and and coach o' bricky and Coach tretti are both Clifton graduates themselves um as I said we're very grateful and thankful for everything we've had and what our Administration and our Board of Education gives us year in and year out it is amazing our 2023 season recap we had 16 seniors 15 of 16 seniors are going to postsecondary educ with one uh taking a gap year the one Gap year we had last year Steven OA has just committed on a scholarship to play division one uh loyal University in Maryland which is dear to my heart is where I played um eight of our 16 seniors 50% of our seniors are playing soccer next year which is an amazing percentage considering nationally 6% is the national average of those eight is a tremendous package deal so we're going to see how that works out but seven of eight seniors are all going to play soccer at Drew University which is the greatest compliment to our program where one coach values the the work ethic of our players and the mentality of our players to take seven uh seven of them on the on the roster for next year and then our other senior will be competing at division 2 tiffan University in Ohio our record this year was 15 wins two losses and one tie uh we had an undefeated conference champion ship we recorded our 23rd toake County championship and we reached a group four state finals uh Varsity Aces northjersey.com uh had us in a number three in the final poll in North Jersey Varsity Aces northjersey.com also statistically ranked us in the top five both defensively and on the offensive side New Jersey uh NJ School Star Ledger ranked us uh in the top 20 the entire season and with a final ranking of number 11 overall the four years that these seniors have achieved uh is the following and Coach Inu mentioned about that first year which was a CO year which we only had half of a season uh in the four years they stayed in the top 20 all four years in the state they won three conference championships they went to three County championships winning two and they went to two State finalists their overall record was 599 and four not just to say how uh proud We Are of their accomplishments but what a heck of a year we had for our alumni and I'll let you know a little bit about our alumni Dr Muki Manu Ponda was named uh hackin saac Meridian School of Medicine excellence and teaching clinical science recipient and also named to the United States soccer Federation medical staff overseeing various teams in World competition Matt meaza who a professional soccer player for Cincinnati FC and Major League Soccer was named a Defender Of The Year Junior and three-time all American Amir lukovich was named the NCA division 3 National Player of the Year and finally after 20 years of professional soccer at the highest levels in the world to sepi Rossi who's a volunteer assistant for us whose father is the legendary coach Rossy who I play for retired from playing and celebrated the birth of his second child so we had one heck of a year this year's MVP who was first team all league First Team all County First Team all state top 55 players in New Jersey uh North South senior allstar game recipient finalist for North Jersey Varsity Aces Player of the Year Patterson Oldtimer men Oldtimer soccer player of the year he will be attending Drew University to continue as a student athlete is Vitali DS [Applause] [Music] this up and um Mr M also affords me the opportunity to give out a scholarship that we started a long time ago uh in Mr rossy's name the Alumni Association decided to create a scholarship for the late great coach Rossi the association's goal is to keep a memory of Alive and Kicking for a person that has made a tremendous impact on hundreds of young men that have played for the maroon and gray each year our CHS alumni provide financial support to a deserving senior or seniors soccer players who will continue their post-se secondary education which was one of the core values of this great educator and Coach as a leader of the CHS boys VAR City soccer team for 23 years from 1978 to 2001 coach Rossy amassed a record of 353 wins 95 losses and 51 ties which included 12 Pate County championships 10 League championships six State sectional finals two group four finals with a 1994 undefeated nationally ranked team uh with the kind generosity of alumni and the and the annual alumni game uh the districtwide uh faculty and Friends of soccer we have afforded 30 student athletes over the last 10 years uh $330,000 in scholarship money for their postsecondary education Mr Rossi engrained in us all to use sport as a vehicle for higher education and a better life two of those recipients Michael Algerian and Coach tretti behind me also won this award uh the four recipients of this year Fernand scholarship will each receive $11,000 and that will be Aiden David Drew University Victor kale Drew University Alex Fedor Drew University and the Clean Sweep Cameron zotek Drew University come on up [Applause] [Music] thank you coach lri next up is girls soccer coach grisy [Music] they can't seear me over the podium all right girls soccer uh I had the pleasure of taking over for the girls this year and I do have to say this group of seniors made that transition so much easier for my self uh I can't thank them enough for all they did and dedicated and sacrificed for a successful season I have 11 seniors Kari stoer Kate R Amanda Pudo Zeta Murphy will be playing at ruter newk Giana Delgado will be playing at ruter Lyla Flores Leslie Perez will be playing at VMI Jackie Vis viso um Sierra fisek will be playing at Kane and Nicole aunia our senior MVP will continue her academic and athletic career at VMI she was a heart and soul and kept us in many games over the course of the Season Leslie [Applause] Perez thank you coach chrisin best tonight girls volleyball's up next coach [Applause] Alvarado uh good evening everyone um I just want to take a moment to thank our seniors uh Ashley de losantos Isabella andr uh Bianca jardi otillia uh Kettle and and Gabriela quas um this is my this was my first year as a head coach for the girls program so it was a transition for them and for me as well um so I just want to thank them and uh the senior MVP will continue her education at Princeton she is number four in the graduating class of 2024 out of 693 students Paris Gary gerardi thank you coach next up is coach Cole girls [Music] tennis again I'd like to congratulate all the seniors this year the girls tennis team finished the fall with a 13- 12 record we had nine seniors I'd like to uh call them out Jada Witter Dena Assad Lillian ushaw amena Fahim annias Jenkins Tamara corkas Caitlyn Rodriguez Paulina SoDo and Sharon sento this year's uh senior MVP won three straight state county first singles championships she didn't win it her freshman year because we didn't have it due to co but she would have won because she beat the girl that won it the year before the next year but anyway annias Jenkins is our senior MVP who will be playing D1 tennis at Fairley Dickinson metro campus this fall [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] all right coach pis boys and girls cross country [Music] hello everybody it's a pleasure to be here as the oldest coach it's actually a pleasure to be anywhere um I want to congratulate everybody in the room from the leadership of our district our superintendent the board of head the administration of the high school our athletic director his secretary all the coaches the unsung heroes the assistant coaches who do so much to help all of us in my case they M they mainly are my translators to the team but especially I want to thank the heart and soul of Clifton High School that that makes our community special makes us a team in every for for the 4 years that you were in high school you were Mustangs the truth is you're a Mustang forever and a Mustang is an animal that fights together for the good of the her and all of you that will stay with us in our community or go forward to other parts of the country fight for what you believe in and continue to make us proud I want to particularly thank three individuals from the boys cross country team Alejandro Raleigh Pat dubron and Dylan Cabrera they were three guys that were truly unique and crucial to the success of our team they were the elite champions for I believe the 18 out of the last 20 years they certainly weren't on those all those teams but for most of their High School career they were special like all of you and our outstanding senior who will be a college athlete in his future Patrick duat all right I'm going to start over again because I'm one of the fortunate coaches that get to coach two versions of the same team uh the second version of the cross country team is the girls cross country team that is truly phenomenal and as gifted as the boys are what's unique about all the fall Sports is as warm as it's finally gotten this year your school year started a lot hotter uh cross country is basically torturing kids into running at least 5 miles a day so that they can raise three miles but our outstanding girls the entire seniors that I want to recognize would be Denise dubl Victoria green dbor Amo and Olivia green our our outstanding senior is truly someone who is a gift to the team I don't remember her ever saying on a day of a meet or a day of a practice practices I usually refer to to the team is torture and they would certainly agree with that I don't remember her ever saying I can't do that coach she would always ask at the end did I do it all right and as long as you don't lose that trait about yourself Victoria you're going to be everybody's most valuable our most valuable athlete Victoria green [Music] thank you thank you coach this is my 11th year of uh doing this coach and you always start them off with a laugh and it's a different joke every year so I got to give you credit for that all right we're going to move on to the winter season uh coach cadus boys basketball thank you again I just want to start off by thanking our administrators and our board and Mr Mady for all the support we get I also want to thank our trainers especially uh trainer Nico trer Nicole to cuz my team was in there a lot this year we were definitely in there we as by the first week of January we had seven healthy bodies and it was a very very tough time and we wouldn't have gotten through it if it wasn't for this senior class um they are probably my favorite group to have coached in my 10 years here at Clifton uh their toughness they're willing to battle through adversity you know with something to be seen um and there's a reason why these guys beat a number two seed twice and yeah twice in three years all right they never gave up you know they went through the The Hills And The Valleys right and they kept going they never never stopped going and that was a Hallmark of of this team and it's going to carry with them through life um but we were also extremely lucky to have our senior MVP on our team uh for four years uh this this young man has shown incredible determination to continue to get better um from where he was a freshman on Coach the Ruby's team to where he is now where he is the first player in Clifton history to have a th000 points and a th000 rebounds in his career [Applause] and he got the th000 on the same day all right coach whitward girls basketball I first want to thank everyone for being here our our board and our awesome leadership in Clifton High School um so for our girls basketball team this is uh a group of wonderful seniors who most of them did not come out during the co year so I've only gotten three years with them and I've had the pleasure of watching all of them develop skills that I don't even know if they knew they had for basketball um I've got some soccer players and some some softball players on the team that basketball was not their first sport but watching these girls develop skills and work hard to fix mistakes that they made um was really a pleasure so my five seniors for girls basketball were Caitlyn Reyes Kate AR Zeta Murphy Leslie Perez and Kiara Koy and our senior MVP uh is a player who really worked to develop uh some of the mistakes that she made early as a sophomore being put on Varsity learning the skills really taking the time to put in the extra work um and it was really fun to watch her develop and take mistakes that she made and stay after practice and say no no I got to do this better or I got to make more free throws so our senior MVP for girls basketball is Zeta [Applause] Murphy con [Applause] [Music] all right next up is bowling coach [Applause] berberich okay it's been a great pleasure to coach Our Boys and Girls JV and Bar City bowling teams this 2023 24 season varsity girls finished with a 4- 10 record qualifying as the 11 seed in the state sectional tournament the girls captain and sister of our senior MVP had North Jersey's highest uh 13th highest average with a 164 in League average placing her uh first in state county 70th in the state she rolled a high game of a 215 High series of 534 she was named to the deliver division all team additionally receiving all County honors this average qualified her for the individual state tournament where she placed 33rd in addition our senior J Martinez received honorable mention all County recognition first in the season with a 103 average and in the full she plans to attend Bergen Community College to begin her pursuit in a degree of biology boys team finished uh third in Liberty division with a record of 78 qualifying them for the state sectional tournament 12 Seed where they lost a hardfought battle on Monclair boys team captain Sam zuel finished with a 138 average Landing First Team all league and all County honors in addition to his League High game of a 279 with a high series of 670 Sam finished with the third High game inate County tournament with a 2115 he also placed uh third individually in the Liberty division preseason tournament outside of high school bowling Sam also finished top 20 in the p in the Pepsi state tournament this year and top five in the under 18 Edith Kenny classic he will be the recipient of the USBC Pake County boys bowling xano scholarship academically Sam has been inducted into the National Honor Society he has been appointed to the vice president of scholarship he's received distinguished honor role every marking period that he has attended CHS he has taken 14 AP exams receiving a five on AP Calculus his sophomore year and a four on the AP Physics Exam which he self-prepared for he has graduated from boy State as a as a delegate where he was the editor of the programs newspaper at his former School of proris he qualified for the National American Computer Science league and was the captain of the history Bowl team where his team qualified for the national tournament Sam has committed to attend Ruckers New Brunswick in the fall where he will double major in astrophysics and philosophy and I don't even know how to spell that please give a round of applause to Sam's we [Applause] right that that's ironic cuz uh my degree is in astrophysics as well so glad we have something in common all right guys food is ready we're going to uh take this opportunity to go eat we'll start with the kids over here go ahead who's out here [Music] more Bo [Music] wearing I wanted to go to and play let e e e e e e [Music] [Applause] I'd like to first start off just by uh congratulating all our seniors and wishing them nothing but the best in the future U as far as our hockey team some of you may not know but our hockey team at Clifton High School is combined it's a triop so we're made up of kids from Cedar Grove from Pake Valley and from Clifton uh this year we were lucky enough to have four seniors uh one of them being from Clifton uh our senior our senior MVP is somebody who was new to the sport he started playing the game as a sophomore uh and anybody that knows hockey you know you got to know how to ice skate in order to play hockey so picking this up late in life is a tough thing to do but this player took to it very well put in all the hard work uh you know really put in the extra effort in order to make it work and by his senior year he's out there in practices challenging our power play challenging our penalty kill and just making us a better team every day he was there our senior MVP is Ian kro [Applause] yeah there's [Music] coach next up is coach West indoor track [Music] John's just assist yes [Music] get do boys all right so he's going in and out here uh for boys track and field I knew that just second for boys indoor track and field the boys came in uh fifth place in counties second place in leagues um before I mention the uh the seniors I would just like to thank all of the coaches that we had for track and field because without them uh we wouldn't have a program so uh coach DS with the uh the jumps coach fot with po coach Tubac with the hurdles uh coach post with the throws Coach Brown also helps out with the throws I can see him and the architect of course of the track and field program coach John [Music] fontis our boys consisted of Felix Benz St Cabrera Patrick du da Gutierrez Jason Jones Harold Munch Elias ragdale Alex rally Jude Rex David touris Lee Valentine and Ryan Bella for our MVP for the boys occasionally I do get to work with the high jumpers and occasionally uh I end up be having a really close relationship with my jumpers and is uh it's more than just coach coach athlete relationship so I'm very fortunate enough to to be this individual's coach and watch him progress in the past few years he's only been jumping for 2 years but uh he made it all the way to sectionals and indoor and he's an amazing uh athlete amazing individual my MVP Jason Jones [Applause] [Music] for the girls the girls also came second place in leagues uh seventh place in counties we only had a few seniors uh Denise dubl Lyla Flores Victoria green Jada Witter dor Mo actually I forgot to mention if you're on the if you're on uh either the boys or the girls team and you've committed to college please stand up just so you can be recognized please stand up track team if you got committed to a college you can stand up and be recognized please thank you [Applause] for my female MVP uh I'm going to come back up and talk about her a little bit later um also one of my my jumpers she was a second team um All County for indoor she's also a state champion which isn't isn't necessarily mention on here because it was an individual achievement but she's also state champion in high CH and committed to Yale University [Applause] dor thanks coach next up is coach janetti and swim thank you good afternoon it is my great pleasure to present the MVP award for our swimming team this award is given to the IND two individuals who have shown exceptional skill dedication and great sportsmanship throughout the season their hard work and pass have not only led to personal success but have also uplifted the entire team your achievements are truly inspiring and we are all proud of you keep up the great work please join me in congratulating Natalie risan and Nicholas Haron as this year's swimming MVPs congratulations [Applause] next up is Cheer and ask coach frini to come up [Applause] [Music] good evening everyone my name is Gina frini and this is my third year as the head trity coach I would like to start off by thanking my coaching staff Samantha ficio Sarah Co and Laura tanell for all their dedication and commitment this season I would also like to thank Tom Malley and Lori Maron for all their help and support this year I'm proud to announce that the Clinton varsity tring team had another incredible year they were T attending in classes stump clinics and choreography camps they competed in the big North cheerleading conference local competitions and the NJ cdca state championship they finished the regular season 8- 0 and earned the title of big North Liberty division champions for the third year in a row additionally they became back-to-back state champions at the 2024 NJ cdca state championship competing in the intermediate all girl division against seven other teams at this time i' like to recognize our graduating seniors Julia ovich Captain bana Gonzalez Captain C green nelli Guzman and Captain Nicole [Applause] Maga your leadership dedication and unwavering Spirit have truly defined this year's team you have all set a high standard for excellence and have been an inspiration to your teammates As you move on to new adventures we will always always remember the impact you had on our cheer family thank you for your hard work and the Legacy that you leave behind our two MVPs for cheer are Captain bana Gonzalez and Captain Nicole [Applause] [Music] MAA congatulations [Music] thank you coach next up is coach galleta [Applause] [Music] wrestling all right congratulations seniors hope we had a great four years I know he didn't start well 2020 was pretty miserable all we missed most of the season I think we were on the MCH for about two weeks and they shut us down three times actually uh what are you going to do right uh there is one kid who actually has four years of experience on a wrestling team his freshman year was pretty I'd say not as memorable where he went four and five and from that moment out he just turned it on all right uh what can I ask about this year's season we have seven seniors here that not all Wrestle over four years that's almost my entire lower weight lower weight classes yes uh my six MJ please stand up MJ Martinez 106 Adam Tamimi 113 right ma SEL [Applause] 126 we got Jack sea [Applause] 144 Adam Kar he's still things is 138 Amed Matari 138 [Applause] 132 and during the season my lightest weight glass Jarvis Rodriguez all right season wouldn't be possible without my three managers Luna Mia and [Music] Maddie we worked overtime all time showed up to practice every once in a while but your every [Music] match they B well as well uh all the tournaments they taped everything uh every single match they were always there was biggest Che leaders that we had on the team oh for gotot we have one more Che manager Jack sea who was out for the entire season last year so he became our manager learned a lot and then show the trade to the girls this year all right uh we went 20 and 5 this year if you could see this guys that wasn't the highlight of the season yet if you saw these guys if you look at them it's pretty scr but when they step on this when they step on the map they are beasts absolutely beasts starting with MJ Martinez I mean we go down to Adam amama another Adam I mean if you get into a fight you want these guys to be behind you hold up hold up Adam we are glad you graduated you have a lot of fans here don't ruin it okay so start a season pretty well we won our own tournament every single year we hosted we just beginig fundraiser that's the only fundraiser we actually do throughout the season our alumni come back and help out the season Tom helps out and it's a great event we open up the season every single year I only invite teams that I know we can beat all right to feel confidence okay that's opening season all right so from that moment on we go right into big tournaments went to nationally uh National Tournament this year been a lot of east teams from all over the US uh and we had n take fifth place in that tournament which is pretty high we brought five kids and four of them will be back next year which we still going to have to replace our lower weights but this group of kids were County champions for the first time since 1987 [Applause] they won big North tournament which is a big dual North tournament out of all the public schools in North Jersey and we were the best nor Jersey team with this group of kids awesome job and I see is that a referee over there no a ruby dressed up reminds me of represent the reminds me of a bad experience but really important experience for my team from last year in the state finals where we lost to pcti on a really bad F we was live televised live even with the commentators and everybody I talked to afterwards that we got robbed but it did got another one right there you got rob it actually served as a really good experience for the kids and you know you have to go through lows to get to the highs and this year we won in the last match of of the state championships and what a great group of kids like I said these kids are beast they're going to do well in life because nothing keeps them down all right my MVP this year is going to be n Seline joh congratulations could have wrestled in college he chose not to he was going to seat in the hall uh over 100 wins even though we almost missed the entire first freshman year which is unheard of uh he's got a medals from every event he ever went to got this districts counties regions uh First Team all leagues First Team all County place and regions and a state qualifier awesome job thank [Applause] you thank you coach all right we're now uh we cycled out of the winter season and we're going to get into spring going to ask coach Rivera come up and talk about the baseball [Applause] [Music] team okay first I want to congratulate all the seniors uh we want to thank you for everything you've done for the last four years and you all of you may clip them very proud um I'm a clion guy I played here um I know how it feels you got a great graduate you guys are going to do great things so I wish you the best of luck in all your endeavors I want to thank you for everything you've done I want to give a special thank out uh thanks to my baseball players and Senior managers first my managers I see you over there uh Madison Greenfield and m a g for everything you've done this season appreciate you our other senior uh baseball players Miguel czecho naiv deran Angel Geraldo keano gimenez Ryan mccornack NTI Saleem and Jack Seiko I want to thank them for everything they've done for the last four years now for our senior MVP um this player was a three-year Varsity player two-year starter um this season he was all league First Team all County second team um he's going to continue playing um at the next level at a junior college in Maryland it's a division one Junior College uh it's called Gary College um he was our captain and he's going to be truly missed our senior MVP is n [Applause] all right next up coach fet boy lacrosse yeah [Music] good evening first like to thank uh all the senior athletes for all of your hard work over the last four years um especially my four seniors Matthew Jimenez ad Del goodier William Mansfield and Paul Kars um our seniors you they do a lot for us we only have four um the dedic ation the hard work the sportsmanship everything that they put in really is a testament to our team even though we didn't have the season that we would hope for and would like um it's no short to their effort and hard work um for what they are walking away with and it's going to help them with the rest of their lives um a special shout out to our senior MVP um second hardest job on the lacrosse field face off man um everything starts at The X for the face off um it's a lot of hard work um you could equate it to wrestling getting nice and low working hard um this player was always able to make it a 50/50 ground ball you know give us a chance to get that ball get it to the other side of the field um and make things happen so our senior MVP Matthew himz [Applause] [Music] all right next up is coach griskin girls recross okay I can't thank these group of seniors I have for their dedication and helping build a foundation for the program and on top of it they were excellent Role Models this year for all the underclassmen and believe it or not all those underclassmen do live up to the group of seniors I had for lacrosse seniors are Carly stoker ailia Kettle k r Zeta Murphy Casey wellins and Amanda Pudo my senior MVP will be attending Monclair State University to to play lacrosse Carly [Applause] [Music] stoker all right next up coach Falone in softball [Music] good evening everyone before I uh begin I would like to first ask all my assistant coaches if please stand up coaches thank you for help next man please ask my senior please stand up senior please stand up come on sh uh this year we we struggled a little bit but uh one thing is that they never quit W up uh finishing third in their league a couple counties and we just uh the state the number one team so uh like I said we struggle a little bit but girls always always kep on fighting and that's what it's all about this is the most difficult part of my the job for me trying to select a senior MVP I wish I had seven of them but I can so today's senior MVP goes to me and Joor [Music] all right next up we're going to ask coach whitward to come up again boys tennis okay our our boys tennis team this year um had a a pretty successful year for us uh we finished 10 and seven uh fifth in the county which if you know anything about boys tennis it's dominated by the Wayne schools um and P County Tech uh but we had a pretty good year we competed well got some guys in the semi-finals this year my seniors for boys tennis um most of them a couple of them especially took some convincing a couple converted soccer players I convinced to play a few years ago um and within a week usually I tell them give it a week or two and if you don't love it you don't have to come back um and they always come back and they really do seem to enjoy it to my boys tennis seniors are patham Gandhi Marcel Murphy Ethan hoe J sha Desai Nelson Estrada um and of course my manager Mana fim who came to every match to help us record scores and and do anything we needed uh my MVP this year is a player who I knew I could count on uh I've never had to arrange my lineup based on AP testing like I did this year there were so many kids doing AP test and I had five seniors in my lineup um but I this kid communicated really well um and with someone I knew would be at everything and if he couldn't make something I knew well ahead of time so my MVP this year is Marcelo Murphy [Applause] all right guys just sit tight we're almost we're almost uh through this portion next up is boys outdoor track going ask coach pontis to come up again [Applause] [Music] thank you hello again and as we are rapidly approaching the end of awards it's a pleasure pleasure again to see so many people that don't know how good you are you know you're all good athletes you know you've worked hard you believed in each other you supported each other but the greatest thing about being a teacher and a coach is you get to see the future and the young women and young men in this room give me so much hope of of all of our future how great the world is going to be when you folks are in charge and I I truly mean that our voice outdoor track team maintained something that they didn't even know existed and that was we've never had a losing season and they made sure that they didn't have a losing season by working hard together by believing in each other and it was a struggle but life as you're all going to learn is the struggle that you've learned to overcome by being teammates together all of you our outstanding senior boy Alexandra Ry [Applause] [Music] thanks coach up next going to ask coach West to come up again to talk about the girls out through track I get this mic to work this time yell all right the girls team team had also had a winning record of three and2 we place third in league six and counties our seniors consisted of Lyla Flores Denise duil Victoria green dbor R Mo Jada Witter Sierra fisbeck GI Delgado MJ Martinez I just want to shout out a couple of those seniors that don't necessarily get recognized uh Denise d stand up please she basically learned poo this season and um we're still in season we haven't we haven't meet tomorrow our states are tomorrow and Saturday so we're still going um and also I would like to mention uh Lyla Flores for evance stand up [Music] [Applause] please the reason why I'm calling them out especially uh Denise and lilas because like I said sometimes they don't get recognized and they should because they've dedicated their the last four years of their life to track and field and they've literally done anything that we've asked them to do without complaining which is a rare thing to happen nowadays um my MVP is like the MVP of all MVPs I've been coaching track since 2007 and all right easy there and um I can honestly say there's only one deor Mo we're going to put some respect on your name because it's not Deborah it's dorah she is the jack of all trades she long jumps triple jumps high jumps 100 hurdles 400 hurdles she can throw the shot she can throw the disc she can be a relay she scored more points at the county championships than five other teams four of them combined she scored almost half the points of the girls team she just found out yest today that she's the allaround first team All Around All County uh there's not I cannot go on long enough and tell you all the things that she does she's literally the president of every you are you're the president of every extracurricular activity in the high school she plays every instrument and like I said she's going to Yale University my MVP our MVP DOR thank you coach West G to ask uh coach Rodriguez to come up next for boys [Applause] volleyball thank you thank you good evening everyone uh first off start by uh thanking Mr mlei uh Lori uh our training staff our support staff our live stream crew um our Administration thank you so much uh Mr Rober toy the board thank you so much for all the support that you guys give not only uh obviously volleyball team but our Athletics uh program um by the way if you can't understand me it's probably cuz my English is no very good-looking but uh Mark said that there'll be subtitles and captions uh on the live stream later on so you can rewatch it later um just kidding it's probably the mic all right obviously our coaching staff our assistant coaches uh coach alverado and Coach fil who's not here tonight our managers uh now to our seniors and the team uh this is by far the best boys team that I've been I've had the honor of coaching uh my three years coaching here at Clifton High School um they really embodi the definition of a a team uh which was um why I believe they're having such a great year um they have a 21 and six records so far uh we're playing tomorrow in the state state semifinals against uh Bridgewater we had 10 seniors this year only six of them are here tonight um I'm going to start with uh Axel barera Jason laki um we have Nathaniel fisbeck who made second Team all County um he will be playing next year at University we have Lao bares who made first Teo [Music] County Adrian nth who made first te All County and David Bia um I really wish I could give all of them on MVP again I wish I could give an MVP to each one of them uh unfortunately that's not possible obviously um I couldn't make the decision myself cuz I I didn't think it was possible so I left it up to the team to vote uh it was a really close one and our senior MVP is Adrien NE [Applause] [Music] all right last but certainly not least coach sinu and girls flag [Applause] football uh obviously Save The Best For Last um first and foremost I would like to thank Mr Maly our athletic director um he has been so supportive of the girls SL football program you guys have waited this long just give me three minutes um Mr Ley has been so supportive and honestly we wouldn't be where we are without him so thank you very much um in case you haven't heard of girls flag football we the group that you can find out on the fields 5 days week at uh 5:59 a.m.

[Music] manner posting written notice on the official bulletin board of the Board of Education Office emailing written notice to the brington county times in The Courier Post filing written notice with the municipal clerk of eam Township Mr Yates can we please have a roll call roll call Mr Bach here Mr Brown here Mr demarcy Miss Fox Mrs null here Miss Lee Miss Mr Thompson here Mr fisicaro Mr Compton here right so we have Mr demarcy Miss Fox Miss Lee and Mr fisicaro absent we have War thank you Mr Yates whereas an njsa 10412 allows for a public body to go into Clos session during a public meeting and whereas the Board of Education of e sham Township has deemed it necessary to go into close session to discuss certain matters which are Exempted from the public and whereas the regular meeting of the Board of Education will reconvene f following the end of Clos session at approximately 7:30 p.m.

[Music] a he [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] e [Music] oh [Music] la [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] bab bab d [Music] w [Music] no [Music] a [Music] n [Music] n [Music] m [Music] ah [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] a [Music] [Applause] [Music] e [Music] [Applause] [Music] n [Music] a [Music] [Applause] [Music] n [Music] n [Music] hey he hey hey hey hey hey hey hey heyyyy [Music] hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey heyy hey [Music] [Applause] [Music] he [Music] oh [Music] he [Music] w [Music] he [Music] o [Music] d [Music] d [Music] oh [Music] he [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] e [Music] he [Music] n a [Music] [Laughter] [Music] he [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] a [Music] n [Music] la [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] B [Music] a [Music] what a [Music] w [Music] he [Music] all those are able could please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance United States of America the for which it stands one nation indivisible liy and justice for thank you our mission statement tonight will be read by board member Mr Brown the mission of the eam Township School District is to promote excellence in an environment that engages students in meaningful learning experiences in partnership with students dedicated staff families and Community the district provides a strong Educational Foundation that will Empower our students to achieve their unique potential Embrace self-directed lifelong learning develop the skills necessary for appropriate risk-taking and responsible decision making respect themselves and others and provide and problem solve individually and collaboratively and become contributing members of a diverse and Global Society thank you Mr Brown I'll now hand the floor over to Dr Smith for presentations all right thank thank you Mr canthon so this is easily the best board meeting of the whole year because it's it's about honoring students we've got so many students here who've done incredible things covering the Arts Athletics academics and much much more so we're going to go through uh a number of these and and um if I could have um our board president Mr Canton and our board vice president Mr faka join me up front the the first awards we're going to give out are for meline B and Julia guzo and if they could come up the girls they won the silver award for the Girl Scouts of America come on up [Applause] [Music] [Applause] conratulations thank you may get a picture midd if if you can I don't know if you want to explain a bit about like what is the silver award what did you do like it sounds amazing so I don't know you want to give it a whirl sure yeah okay so the Girl Scout silver award is the highest award that a girl scout Cadet can achieve Cadets are Girl Scouts in grades 6 to eth the silver award is done in small groups of two to four girls during their middle school years only 10% of Girl Scout Cadets earned this award the silver award challenges Girl Scouts explore their Community find an issue they feel passionate about create a plan to solve it and execute the plan the silver award project is led by the Girl Scouts in the group with support of their leader and parents when necessary this award encourages leadership good communication problem Sil problem solving and taking initiative the end result is to make a positive impact on the community the nebor of our silver award project is everyone please when we were choosing the direction we wanted to go in for our silver award we decided we wanted to impact our school community Community Julia and I attended Dei Middle School something that stood out to both of our friend groups was that our time at recess consisted mostly of standing around or waiting for a turn to do something the options for activities at Deasia were basketballs soccer balls kickballs and volleyballs but if your group wasn't one of the first outside then you most likely weren't getting one which led to many kids wanting to play Waiting to play or feeling left out if they weren't asked to and not every student wants to play or is able to play a traditional sport at recess many students get very competitive which can be intimidated and some students struggle in large group social settings we realized that many students were not engaged in recess ourselves included and changing this could be the positive impact we had on our school community so we got to work researching and planning out our project according to the American Academy of Pediatrics re recess is crucial and necessary to a child's development physical activity is of course one part of recess but not every student has the same abilities other crucial benefits to recess are promoting relationship sh with peers encouraging creative thinking and building social skills like problem solving cooperation and conflict resolution then we asked students what they liked and disliked about recess and what options they would like to see at recess many students won in more of the items already there and many won alternate activities to traditional Sports we brainstorm and research items that would be age appropriate sturdy for outdoor use and accommodating to many abilities we knew the half of the money we ra would go towards purchasing additional sports equipment and the other half would go towards different recess games some of the items we purchased were beanbag tus giant Jenga and Connect 4 ring toss sets and jump RS we fundraise with cookie sales and fall product sales through our Girl Scout SHP all the items that we donate to Dy Middle School next month we hope that the students of Dei enjoy more items to choose from and we hope more kids can play a game of soccer now but more than that we hope that the students who normally stand around at recess because they aren't the best soccer player they don't have a large group of friends they have anxiety being in big groups or they have a medical issue that prevents them from participating in a sport we hope that they feel seen we hope that everyone feels like there's something at recess for them to do whether alone with a small group or maybe even a large group we also hope that our project sheds light on the importance of recess for reasons other than physical activity and that not every student is the same so multiple recess options for varying interests and abilities is necessary because the motto for recess should always be everyone plays [Applause] that was that was beautiful that was fantastic I just you're both amazing thank you so much for talking to us about it so uh and I know uh I see family over there too so that's awesome all right thanks so much yeah [Applause] yeah so next up we've got um from the mall Fon Middle School yearbook Club they won the J's 2024 National yearbook bronze level program of Excellence award and we're going to call if actually if um Mr Hoffman wouldn't do you want to you want to join or yeah all right you know thank you thank you and then uh Miss Smith and Miss KY if they're here if they want to come up to awesome and and we're going to call the kids up one at a time so we've got uh Elena escabedo she's here uh Ree ginart [Applause] Lyla Rose [Applause] laori Zoe mandry [Applause] Kayla [Applause] Weiss and Joshua [Applause] Zuko congratulations awesome awesome so here we have our bronze award-winning MMS Mustangs yearbook Club that's all let's all move in let's all move in yeah yeah yeah thank you both so much thank you thank you next up we've got the Elks sa contest winners and I saw Mr and Mrs matches over there going to join us up here the Elks W runs an amazing contest every year that we're very fortunate for our students to participate in and um this year's contest was what the Bill of Rights means to me we'll get we'll get I I know you're able to explain more too but let's get the kids up first so they can be up standing up with us so uh let's have Caitlyn Schultz come up if she's here [Applause] kayin is in fifth grade at Marlton Elementary School and her teacher is Shannon mcglaughlin she won first place in the Southwest District for fifth grade next up is Emily [Applause] Lee congratulations Emily is in sixth grade at the mton middle school her teacher is chrisy alato and she won first first place in the Southwest District for sixth grade and second place in the state americanism program and uh thank you so much thank you want talk a little bit that' be great thank you thank you so much for coming out we're so impressed with all that these children have done I'm a retired teacher myself and so I really know uh these we have um we have certificates for the students who are here we had other winners okay let's see um Kaitlyn good and Emily let me just see who you are okay very nice very nice and that's the district but Dave please get them their um their okay here we are yeah those are the district certificates and Emily here is our lodge certificate you came in first place in sixth grade so that came in that was wonderful and Caitlyn you came in first place in fifth grade so congratulations you've got all these things oh do I have it switched oh here let's fix this here hang on here you got that you got that all righty my goodness yeah give her yeah give her a hand here there she's she's juggling all of this okay we're not finished yet we have after after our after we judge the essays all few hundred of them and the teachers judge them then we judge them the ones that we deem to be the best go onto our district of nine lodges in the southwestern part here in New Jersey that's from heightstown all the way down to depford and over to New Egypt and so we have a lot then they get um the best that the best are sent on to the state now we know these two girls they've just gotten certificates from here from Marlton they just received certificates for the district so obviously they're pretty good after the district they are sent on to the state and where they are judged with all other um other essays that have been written all over New Jersey and they yes 100 102 something that 102 lodges in little New Jersey so the Elks is a pretty big deal so let me see could you hold I would like to read this okay okay here would you get would you hold that down thank you okay the New Jersey state americanism program 2023 24 essay contest what the Bill of Rights means to me the new New Jersey Elks americanism committee State contest winner division two grade six in the state she came in second place Emily Lee congratulations Emily that's very impressive we have had Marlton has had State winners before but not many it's hard when you're compe meeting with students from all over the state also also uh wait a minute hold on also being District winners they have received each girl has received a $50 gift card this is for you this is for you thank you and now the state winner okay I know she can't congratulations to Emily now let's open it and see what's in there you got your hands full okay this is a a check from the New Jersey state Elks Association for $200 so congratulations honey both of you have done such a great job I'm going to put this back in the envelope for you okay very good here there we goway congratulations oh oh we have oh I'm sorry we have other winners who are not here tonight we have [Music] from from Marlton Elementary School we have Ben forer from Miss Nichols class and he came in um third place we also have Brielle wolf and she is also from Marlton Elementary in M Atley and Mrs Hap's class so we'll pass them on we'll make sure that they get their certific ific thank you so much good luck to all of you here let's get together for a picture yeah let's get a picture we go very nice very nice thank you thank you right it's a lot of awards bling oh that's fantastic fantastic we've got up next honoring students who earned placement in the 2024 South Jersey honors Orchestra we're going to go through these by school so first up is going to be beer and I saw beer principal Dr Morris want to come on up yeah come on up come on up and teacher Tamara Kimler if she's here come on up we'll call the students up one out a time first up is Annabelle Lee [Applause] you can do the you can do like the handshake line if yous yeah awesome awesome next up meline Cruz and then stand here stand here [Applause] conratulations next up we have Alice Solano not here not here all right and then Hannah Wang if she's here Hannah there she is all right congratulations Hann thank you you want to go handshakes yeah go down so this is our beer South Jersey honors Orchestra students you want to scooch take a picture come down this way thank you Dr Mor next up we've got Dei Elementary School I saw Miss green out there screen if she wants to come on up oh yeah everybody's getting getting involved in uh Miss Smith or Mr Lightfoot if they're out here oh yeah yeah come on up come on up so we'll call the kids up here one at a time first up Conor lukovich [Applause] con sh shake shake shake yeah do some handshakes you go up and down he's wearing a great DS t-shirt as well next up Faith physico [Applause] Cameron [Applause] Mig Abigail lean [Applause] El [Applause] Wang congratulations our Dei Elementary School South Jersey honors Orchestra students [Applause] congrats again [Applause] DS next up jaggard we've got teacher westner if he's here out there or Mr [Music] mongan we're going to roll right on into these names Cooper Lynch come on [Applause] up congratulations buddy than you yeah I like the shirt nice thank you uh Inola ugui [Applause] there okay Eva [Applause] Samir Lori Lee [Music] [Applause] all right that's our Jagger South Jersey honors Orchestra [Applause] winners next up Mar Elementary School we've got Karin Falcone [Applause] Renaissance woman with the baseball softball on that's awesome congratulations Abigail cerney Alyssa [Music] George Harper Booth oh Elissa George is coming up awesome come on I got going too fast I got excited thank you so awesome this is our Mees South Jersey honors Orchestra students [Applause] next up rice I saw principal Amanda fry out there come on up and if if if Tamara Kimler is here she can come up to their teacher we're going to go with uh Emily Cummings if she's out there [Applause] Graham [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Campbell meline [Applause] Diller great job awesome awesome nice handshake thank you very nice this is our rice South Jersey honors Orchestra students let's get a picture let's get a [Music] picture next up vanan if Mr deas is here he can come on up and we're going to roll into names Elizabeth Miller [Applause] Nora [Applause] Kerber Samuel Hassen [Applause] this is our van South Jersey honors Orchestra [Applause] winners now on to Middle School we've got de Dolphins Miss green if you want to come back come on back up and Miss Smith Mr liot come on back up David [Applause] Yang yes absolutely am Marie k tan that's [Applause] beautiful Cody Herber all right here we've got our Dey Dolphins South Jersey honors Orchestra winners [Applause] y we'll take it great congratulations congratulations on to Mustangs and miss Mr Hoffman yeah coming back up and uh first up we've got Ellie galambos she's here awesome [Applause] Darwin [Music] [Applause] ducas Rachel walri [Applause] Nathan krmer all right these are our MMS South Jersey honors Orchestra students [Applause] from music to math for this one I'm I'm going to go with um all elementary together we'll get we'll get all the elementary kids up here as one big awesome group um Terren limb if he's here Terren earned the highest fifth grade score in berer school [Applause] Max Giordano Max earned the highest fifth grade score in Eve sham Township School District Cooper Lynch Cooper earned the highest fifth grade score in jaggard school and I recognize you conratulations thank you Owen Wakley w w thank you thank you Michael highest fifth grade score in Jag [Applause] School Michael Shapiro highest fifth grade scorer in Marlton Elementary School Mason Pion highest fifth grade score in Rice [Applause] School Samuel Hassan highest fifth grade scorer in vanz an coming back up again to [Applause] Saia these are our Math League Elementary winners great [Applause] group now we're going to do Marton we'll do all all Mart middle uh here we are all right Emily Lee she's here highest sixth grade score in etsd conratulations you're going to need help carrying all this stuff to the car later aren't you Samantha McMullen highest fifth grade scorer in mms Yellow [Applause] House elain eart highest fifth grade scorer in Martin Middle School yellow yellow house nope all right Anthony [Applause] Hughes and he had I got it out of order there he's highest seventh grade schoer in Blue House fantastic [Applause] Andrew ver highest eighth grade scorer in etsd and then Landon Hackney highest eighth grade scorer in mms blueh house conratulations Little Closer Closer Closer Closer Closer Closer [Applause] Closer DMS Math League pervy agrawal if she's here [Applause] awesome highest sixth grade schoer in etsd [Applause] push car vat um V highest sixth grade score in deacy Middle Greenhouse Charles Lou [Applause] he was the highest seventh grade scorer in etsd oh here we are awesome Zia Lee highest seventh grade score in deacy Middle red house and I think her sis might be picking it up for her zabelle coming back down [Applause] Gracie [Applause] O'Donnell highest eighth grade score in Dei Middle Red [Applause] House Dar gajera jagera uh um highest eighth grade score in deacy Middle Greenhouse nice let's all scooching together this is Dei Math League winners deacy middle [Applause] everybody [Applause] congratulations so from there we're going on to Athletics and I want to just say as a as a form of transition there's a ton of math in sports lots of statistics and this is soccer next and I've seen there's all kinds of soccer statistics now that didn't exist 20 years ago 10 years ago um so uh this is the Marton Middle School boys soccer team for their undefeated season Carter [Applause] Beerman and if we can have um if Vince principado or Chris Thomas are here the coaches if they can come on down too next up viven [Applause] chhatra congratulations thank you yeah nice Elijah Conan [Applause] congratulations Dylan [Applause] cafina congratulations Jackson Coleman [Applause] thank you Mika Hollow ni H Nia I got that right Bren h [Applause] Grady [Applause] IES oh sporting some kind of sports injury looks like right there congratulations Grady Brady clouder [Applause] congratulations Drew [Applause] Lada got the red shirt on I like that thank you yeah Liam May Brown [Applause] congratulations thank you Sullivan [Applause] mclusky Ethan Ramsey [Applause] thank you Kyle [Applause] reaker conations Carter [Applause] reev congratulations Landon [Applause] Ryder congratulations thank you Hamza [Applause] salahudin congratulations thank you Matthew Schultz [Applause] congratulations William [Applause] Sparrow congratulations and Sterling Washington [Applause] this is our undefeated MMS Mustangs boys soccer [Applause] team let's make two rows let's go two rows that's it that on to congratulations again to the MMS undefeated boys next up we've got DMS girls lacrosse undefeated season if kathern hton and Caitlyn Rell are here and they want to could come up and join us awesome want you want to take Okay cool so we'll go uh br anac [Applause] Alexandra basilis get that [Applause] right Abigail [Applause] Brown Victoria [Applause] brand Madison [Applause] Berger Brooke Butler meline chunk [Applause] Riley con Khan Riley KH Anna Damian [Applause] Julia din [Applause] denelli Gabriella despenza [Applause] thank you Payton [Applause] Duma Lillian [Applause] geline McKenzie juts [Applause] Casey Liza Liza Lisa [Applause] Lisa Ava Lumley [Applause] Maggie [Applause] melnichuk Gwyneth [Applause] Oliver Renner Rogers [Applause] thank binley [Applause] Rogers did she get hurt during the season yeah you're faster on those than I am without them so just saying awesome no wonder undefeated no wonder Mora Spicer [Applause] Madison T tan [Applause] feeman congratulations Analise [Applause] Tierney conratulations madori Johns and Adriana sponseller this is our deacy dolphin undefeated girls lacrosse team let's get let's get a picture this is awesome this is [Applause] awesome I'm in the back these are you should come over you should come over and be be right next to yeah [Applause] fantastic fantastic that's incredible it's so fun um congratulations to all the student winners tonight we're going to take a short couple minute break for the board anybody's welcome to stay if they want leave if they want um but we'll just take a little break for three minutes and and uh but thank congrats again to all the kids [Music] a [Music] oh [Music] n [Music] sh [Music] n [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] hand over the flo to Dr Smith for part two of our presentations all right so preschool the um the application for the 25 for the 2425 uh school year is not released yet so this is based on uh the current application the um the mission of the district always our starting point for a board meeting for a budget for change for talking about preschool the uh it's very exciting to get to talk about this tonight the um we've watched districts all around us expanding preschool we've watched the state of New Jersey establish it as its number one goal and start years ago shifting millions of dollars towards achieving it the uh our district did not had the opportunity to um apply for a preschool expansion until we were able to achieve tuition free full day kindergarten so this um this moment really isn't possible without the work of um everyone including the community in voting for um tuition free full de the other reason that we haven't been able to apply for is the funding was made available to districts based on free and reduced lunch percentage our percentage is below 10% so we are in the lowest bracket for um free reduced lunch percentage the uh as if we turn 360 Degrees every District we would be looking at is expanding preschool Cherry Hill Mount Laurel Medford um Vorhees the funding covers the cost of general education preschool and can help with regular budget expenses this is what we are hearing consistently from all the districts that we've talked to in 23 24 each P participating District received $1,514 per preschool general education student educated in District that number according to a webinar that that we attended uh about a month ago is expected to be above 16,000 for the coming school year educating preschoolers who are classified special education that's already the responsibility of every school district we already do that it's not covered by the preschool funding just a little rundown of kind of the 30,000 foot View across the state 272 of the 582 districts with K uh last year that's this is data from 2223 we're participating in this preschool expansion more have joined this year I named a few um and uh and there's a link there which we'll post this presentation to the website so people can access the link at that time but it takes you to an article Le that um shows New Jersey ranks number one in the country in Pre preschool enrollment which is a key part of why not in every that I've seen But in many uh rankings were also ranked number one in K12 education why preschool so two years of school right tuition free for the youngest kids that were certainly responsible for and accountable for fully funded by the state of New Jersey and there's been a lot of you know we've been in S2 districts we've lost over half of our state aid in the last seven years which has caused a lot of really difficult decisions progressively um this is really the first time where we're able to get the state to give us money for something good and the impact on the kids cuts across every metric you could imagine we know this we worked really hard to add a half of a year of school for kindergarten which cost our local taxpayers more money right um was about $98 a year for the average of home to add tuition free full Decay what we're talking about right now is about adding two full years of school at no additional cost to local taxpayers now we have 130 three and four year olds slated to attend half day at Rice next year we pay for those kids out of our regular budget minus 57200 in tuition that families pay for their kids but it does not come close to covering the full cost if we apply for the funding and our application is approved and I have to add that part because um it might not be there's a there's a very uh thorough application that as a you know that my teacher brain likes as a criteria for Success it outlines exactly how many points you earn it's very much like a school project how many points you earn for different components um but it's not a guarantee that it would be approved but in year one where it approved we would receive and our year one plan is is just to count the kids that were already paying to educate so we would receive again based on the webinar from last month 16,000 roughly per student time 130 2,800,000 um just for the kids that already are attending would be attending rice this coming year now a contingency of the preschool expansion is that all half day classes become full day so that means in our case nine additional classrooms teachers Paras preschool instruction instructional coach preschool intervention and referral specialist busing the cost of which about 1.5 million it depends a bit on when the application would be approved so we know with the um deadline um anticipated the deadline for the application would be August um very unlikely the state would turn that around and approve it um you know by September so we' be looking at implementing sometime during the year and from what we understand you get the full Year's funding even if you implement midy year the end of the plan quote unquote for the five years again at at at our Pace because when when you're embarking on something like this and I think this spring is is a great illustration of how there are so many changes already always taking place so on paper district has to have a 5-year plan but um so much will be learned as we go along and seen in terms of interest for example um but eventually um the plan has to show that you can serve 90% of your general education Universe of three and four year olds so for us that means a plan to serve 710 three and four year olds which is 90% of our general education Universe we average about 450 kids a grade um minus those who are classified right now which is 110 and this includes partnering with private providers and there's there's a town a sister town to us almost the same size as us both in terms of the town and the district that is ex started preschool before us and they're expanding it to a great degree through private providers which is wonderful as well because again what we're doing is expanding educational access for the the kids who are youngest kids so we hope to be able to partner with private providers the key piece is to have a plan on paper right that's the application whether or not that full plan is reached who can say right five years away the state's goal is to expand preschool so expanding to partial extent meaning counting the kids that we already have have being able to turn former TBA rooms into preschool um looking to possibly use additional space that some of our elementaries have not all means expansion to any extent which again is benefiting those children and bringing more funding into the district and districts as they go through this progression they've been using Lottery system until they're able to provide a preschool spot for every family seeking one and we would likely do that as well the uh the plan overview so as of today 4535 kids we designed this plan to avoid moving students out of a school as a result the um so Evans is the key piece of it would reopen as an neighborhood Elementary School in September 2027 with only preschool and K in its first year and then those kids would roll up age up each year thereafter so kids wouldn't be switched out of a school into Evans they would just matriculate into Evans as they would any other school in the district um and it would end up looking like rice which is about half prek half K5 two or three classes per grade timeline um we would look to submit the plan by August submit the application it's reviewed ideally approved in the fall last year districts saw their applications approved at varying points throughout the year there were two application Windows last year from the webinar uh last month we learned there is likely only going to be one this year which is the August one which is kind of why we're doing the presentation tonight um so that we can have um you know I can recommend approval or the board's consideration for approval of the application at the June meeting the uh you know similar repetition from prior slides uh full days required 2.08 million additional funding 572 from tuition um timeline continues year two essentially would be looking to activate the former TBA space looking possibly as well depending on uh what space might be available in um one of our elementary schools but this is a slow Runway here um and uh again seeking private partnership in town year three looking to open two more classrooms again continuing to seek private partnership year four the two Evans leases end that's um El Academy and uh Len Regional High School District and we would use the summer to get Evans ready um it would reopen as a neighborhood School September 2027 um and we would establish the the sending zone for Evans at that time so not not at that time but we would establish it as we get closer to that time it's it would be too premature to um determine that now with um over three years uh you know in the future so then year five the progression moves along as the kids at Evans age up you're six seven eight n as Evans fills up with K5 there are fewer kids in one or more of our LR elementary schools which would maybe free up space for um preschool classrooms it's it's likely that not all of our elementary schools would have preschool and I'm going to pass it over to uh Mr Yates for some conversation about funding and infrastructure all right so preschool funding it is allocated to uh districts of New Jersey by the state of New Jersey as Dr Smith indicated the funding um will provide to us or districts that are awarded the the aid roughly $16,000 next year we won't know what that number is the cost per pupil is what it is we won't know until the workbook is released but it is our anticipation that it's around 16,000 in change uh that workbook should be released I would think sometime in the summer if it follows prior year timelines with an August deadline for submittal to the state it's really designed to Target um low income families so that all children have access to free preschool or early childhood educ ation and the funding will cover the costs such as teacher salaries classroom materials and facility maintenance the funding will pay for 15 students Max in every pea funded classroom so 15 students no more we can certainly have less it will cover the cost of one teacher one full-time teacher one full-time classroom assistant and no more than that so if you wanted to add a secondary classroom assistant the funding does not cover that individual um and then of course uh curriculum materials supplies all of the necessary items to get that classroom up and running for paa will be funded through uh the the funding itself um and then there's some infrastructure needs these are just kind of the the basics but every pea funded classroom has to have a minimum of 750 square feet of instructional space so if you have a classroom and you've got a closet in there instructional space would be net of that closet space and then they have to have bathrooms um and the bathrooms will have to have preschool uh fixtures so child siize fixtures but preschool fixtures that preschool height requirements you do not have to have a bathroom in every um preschool classroom as long as when they leave their classroom they can see a bathroom so line of sight so if you have a bathroom around the corner it doesn't count so um that is that for us that that does give us a little bit of um uh some constraints but uh some of our classrooms will have bathrooms in them others if they're not line of sight we're working with our facilities Department see if we can't fix that um and I'll turn it over okay uh just wanted to briefly touch base on the curriculum part of preschool so as everyone has talked about there are certain requirements and one of the requirements of this particular Grant or funding is you have have to follow a certain curriculum um and one of the approved curriculums is creative curriculum and that actually is one that we're currently using in our preschool classes right now so just a little background on Creative curriculum uh we had a committee back when we started the preschool integrated program that was actually back in 2010 uh we formed a committee that had both preschool representation administrators kindergarten teachers we were looking at different alignments in terms of does it align to what we were doing in kindergarten play BAS all a whole bunch of criteria um and of those creative curriculum is what the committee selected and that we adopted at that time um there have been different revisions along the way that we certainly have stayed with creative curriculum and and updated um at different times it's Hands-On Project based play based is a is an easy way to describe it in terms of the different kind of instructional areas so there's a language and literacy component a math component Science and Technology social studies in the artarts social emotional learning um and interest areas and again with that play base one of the Hallmarks of creative curriculum is the inquiry based so we do a lot of studies so when we're doing a particular study like light like sound like um grocery store everything in the room kind of is transformed so the interest areas match the books that they're reading some of the different problems that they're doing so it's all connected and inquiry and play based um so we are currently using this program with 21 preschool classes both General Ed inclusion and self-contained and obviously we make different modifications along the way in our self-contained classes as appropriate the second piece of that is the assessment piece so we again are using gold uh it has different objectives based on just Child Development and learning so there are 38 objectives and they're all along a Continuum of learning what is a typical three-year-old typical four-year-old progress reports what parents get in terms of it's not a report card it's a progress report comes directly from that and then the last pie piece is something specific to eam so we have developed with our teachers and we currently um continue each summer to kind of modify and adapt is a shared reading resource um so basically we have differentiation for three-year-olds versus foury olds in a lot of programs you might see threes and fours together our programs are separate so we separate those resources connected to special days and themes and things that are connected um so that's just a little bit about the curriculum you're next clicker uh okay uh regarding uh Staffing for the preschool program in the first year we'd see the the most changes the most um uh new staff being brought on board uh during that 2425 school year after the application is approved our district would need to hire approximately six Preschool teachers for our half day prek integrated uh going into full day prek three Preschool teachers for our halfday prek disabled program going into full day prek and approximately nine par professionals uh and that would depend on the configur configuration of the classroom uh along with that uh we're looking to uh hire one District pre preschool instructional coach uh one preschool intervention and referral specialist and we also need to include transportation in this um approximately four bus drivers along with four bus AIDS uh in year two September 25 our district would need to hire six preschool teachers and six power Professionals for the six new prek classes uh and that would uh most likely be housed in our former teddy bear Academy Wing uh right here Mar to Middle uh year three uh would be to be determined based on the number of preschool rooms able to be opened using the available um Elementary School classrooms and year four and five are exactly the same uh once again to be determined based on the number of families seeking preschool spots uh and this we're looking uh to house it as was mentioned earlier at Evan School you ready Jen and one of the questions that we've received most frequently is how would preschool expansion impact special education uh one thing that is important to note about special education is that um that our district is responsible for locating referring and identifying all students um beginning from age three all the way through to adulthood who might have a disability uh and whether that's a disability primarily due to physical sensory emotional communication cognitive or social difficulties even if they're not enrolled in our district so that includes students who might be attending non-public schools that happen to be in Marlton if the school's in Marlon those students are our responsibility uh additionally if students live in live in our district um and even if they're not in school here if if anyone that they interact with so whether that is a private provider a physician a relative that lives in California if anyone one sends that referral or recommends that student to the school district we're responsible for completing that evaluation and determining if that student is in child is in need of special education and related Services even if they never step foot in our school district as a student it's our responsibility to identify them as as needing as needing support So preschool expansion wouldn't impact that however what it would help us do is identify more students sooner and our goal in special education is always to provide support hopefully even even in advance of needing special education and that's one thing that preschool expansion would potentially do for us um and help keep students in their least restrictive environment which is of course in their neighborhood schools learning with neighbor neighborhood peers um and in our general education classroom so part of preschool expansion um includes the um as as Mr danten mentioned on uh when speaking about Staffing and intervention position ition so would definitely be the least restrictive environment and provide more students support um in in general education uh classrooms and that is our our ultimate goal um and overlapping that is part uh is part of child find which which again um impacts um early childhood education thank you Dr Bland and Mr dantine and Miss mul and Mr Ys we've got a clicker here great great great moving on on so some FAQs um what if funding this has come up what if funding for prek uh would be cut by the state in the future um and I I I would I'm not going to flashback but there was a slide earlier that showed that currently almost 300 districts in the state are expanding preschool using this money um so you know it's very difficult to imagine a governor saying let's eliminate that funding from all these districts that are um expanding preschool with it at that level of being so widespread and because we're talking about children we're talking about families and communities being strengthened um it's very difficult to imagine uh you know that happening um the slim possibility of something like that happening should not preclude a district from embarking on this right right that would be like saying I'm not going to you know take on any um positive possibility because at some undetermined future date there is a possibility it might not be there anymore we nothing would very little would get done um at worst and again this is just um trying to imagine what would be the the worst case scenario that the state could possibly try to um push through it would be um continuing to fund the districts that are using it and sunsetting the opportunity for districts without an approved application um what if it costs the expansion costs more than the funding covers so we're hearing the opposite you see districts expanding every year doing this um that data says um districts would not be you know jumping on this if it was going to cost the money the districts we've talked to say that it covers all the costs and there's even some um left over to offset some regular budget expenses uh Evan Zone we would wait and determine that as we get closer um partly because of enrollment shifts and also um we we don't know you know we we we really don't know yet we're going to use it in the application but it's a long way out so we would really need to see if it even makes sense when we get to that point to to use Evans um but it certainly helps us get funding for the students that we currently are paying for out of our regular budget um and then the rent for Evans this coming year it's about $1 million um which is a sizable amount and the um what we would look at as well as we get closer to that date is um you know how the the local costs um of the funding that are covered by the funding could offset the district's Reliance on that Revenue okay any questions from the board I have two questions um so is my understanding that in the state of New Jersey uh education is compulsory for K through 12 um meaning would preschool which I'm sure most people would want their children to be a part of um but you know is that still an optional sort of service yeah so parents would opt in to it um we know that there is um desire you know we how much we don't know how much interest and that would that would partly Drive expansion as well um I I've gotten a few emails from people wondering you know almost like okay I'll just say like when are we starting the expansion but also why are we not doing what all the other towns are doing you know so there's there's those emails to me are saying there's interest out there but how much we don't know till we till we embark on this yeah absolutely and and and and I only ask because as that pertains to this law but um or the law that created the program um and and my other question is regarding Transportation um is more buses or bus drivers going to be something that we're going to need as the amount of kids uh participating in this program increase each year with the 5-year plan CU I noticed it said four buses in the first year but I there was um as far as additional to that you know what's what what's that Lookout look like uh in addition to what kind of transportation is needed for preschool uh as in completely separate from you know like they they they they're not able to be on their you know like the neighborhood bus route because I I assume it has to be something different yeah so good questions um we're seeing districts districts are approaching that in different ways so some are using preschool only buses some are doing like preschool and K combined and some are having preschoolers ride on regular buses or using that a combination of all three so for us we have I'll call them available buses right our our challenge has not been buses our challenge has been finding drivers um we have we recently hired a three which was great um since we did the um increase to the alley wage guide for the drivers so we anticipate seeing more increase in driver interest as that rules along um our transportation department believes we can you know achieve that those four additional drivers that we'll need by the time um this application is hopefully approved the buses we have so and as we move along through each year the pace fortunately the uh you know year one and two like year two would be expanding TBA which would be a maximum of six classrooms so um it's an achievable Pace when it comes to hiring drivers our compensation right now went from being less competitive to very competitive with other districts and um you know we can project that we'll be okay as we move along with that we'll keep working on uh recruitment could I ask about Transportation so you said year one four additional bus drivers are needed is year one beginning in January so year one would begin once we have approval from the state of the application so some districts this past year implemented in like late fall some in January some even as late as March this year because they're only doing the state's only doing one application window which is August we could anticipate that the approvals I I I I would foresee fewer approvals like more approvals earlier and fewer approvals later in the year so more implementations that occur um in the in like the late fall um so you're thinking the late fall would be the approval yeah I mean it's it's hard to hard to say but um sometimes um another thing we've seen talking with districts is they submit the application the state gets back to them with feedback they have to make some adjustments and then resubmit it so something like that can kind of extend the the approval timeline but um but it would be ultimately what we be looking at is a midyear implementation might be January might be earlier but it would be a little like what we've already done this year when we went from half day to full day kindergarten mid year do you anticipate we would have to hire for new bus drivers mid year or would we just do more Hillman's routes at that point we would be so we're we're we're working on hiring drivers all the time so like if four drivers showed up tomorrow we would hire them you know um through our process you know what I mean so we would make sure that you know they they met our standards but we would we would hire them every driver we hire we can use so and then can you just walk me through year one again did you say only rice half day do you going through that one more time with me please yeah so so um like the number of students there and how many going over from half day to full day mhm yeah so we have 130 uh general education three and four year olds right now slated for Rice so they would go from half day to full day part of okay 130 janed yep and then any of our um if I go to this slide here any of our half day um preschool classes that are special education would go full day as well so like our integrated classes so we have six of them they would go full and our three uh half day preschool disabled classes would go full as well so it's a total of nine classes going from half day to full day okay and so the additional Staffing and bus drivers you had a dollar amount on that yeah that was back uh I'm sorry you have to flip no no no it's it's good there we go so so uh that would be about 1.5 your estimates you know okay I see we both Park about 80,000 for a teacher and then real quick what's going to happen in year two is that just teddy bear Academy just teddy bear yeah okay trying to keep it all straight in my it's a lot I mean if if again it depends a little bit on um existing space but um if there was a high demand we might look in year two to add like one classroom or two class rooms in an elementary school that has the space right because they all do not have the space is that correct correct correct okay and also one other question I I thought that the transportation is not included in the preschool Aid did I read that incorrectly it's it's the funding so like the funding covers the roles right up there the in addition there's other things listed that the funding covers like I didn't list at all but the funding can offset percentages of existing staff so in the end something that the funding doesn't cover can be covered by offsetting costs in other ways any other questions sorry just trying to process everything um all right let's let's just real quick talk about uh the fall of let's say this gets approved the late fall of 24 sorry there we go um how are we so we have we have the preschool kids that are already in rice but we're looking to add more beyond that that's I'm trying to clarify no we're not adding more beyond that on 24 the goal of year one is just to get funding for the students that were already paying that already exist here already exist okay year two then is when we start we start adding those numbers yeah we start bringing people in yeah yeah yeah that's where I was just getting a little fuzzy I was getting a little fuzzy with that that that makes more sense your one is just is just what're what's changing year one is those half day classes go to full day but it's the same 130 student students only now we're getting State funding 16,000 per instead of paying for it out of our regular budget and for for year two for year two you're you're basically opening that door to anyone who wants to any any child that wants to do that so like if again if if our interest exceeded our capacity then we'd use a lottery system okay all right okay Mr Mar go ahead um so I'm looking at it here now we part of what was on one of the slides was that we were expecting um as part of our uh new revenues from the program uh was that we were going to have to lose the $572 that is currently paid in family tuition however you also mentioned that uh we are currently exceeding that amount uh in terms of what we pay for those services so in reality is that actually a savings to the district because now the funding is supplementing that yeah so we that 572 is basically 4,400 per student in tuition that the family pays and just to give a sense of scale so the state is funding general education students at 16 for next year at 16,000 or even a little bit more that's what we would get for every one of those general education students what we get right now is $4,400 interesting okay and what is our cost per [Music] pupil currently so it's difficult to break down per pupil we can give you an aggregate per pupil for the district as a whole but to break it down for though what what what I would say is again OB k through eight and there's one number cost per pupil for K through 8 can you make any sort of I what I can say is like again going back to um that taxpayer guide to education spending and this information was in our um tenative and final budget presentation our District budget is almost $3,000 less per student than the average K8 budget so looking at our budget dividing it by the students we spend almost $33,000 less per student than the average District so um the difference between what we spend on prek versus grade five versus grade eight it's all the state doesn't break that out that makes sense I understand any other questions from the board thanks Dr Smith we'll now move into public comment for agenda items only this meeting will now be open to the public referencing agenda items only however if your questions or comments pertain to litigation student or Personnel items or negotiations we would ask that you see the superintendent after the meeting since we do not discuss these matters in public please limit your comments to three minutes per person and state your name and address at the beginning is there anyone who wishes to speak about agenda items tonight hello my name is Chris Miller my okay to go yeah okay oh okay okay thank you my name is Chris Miller I live in ravenscliff um I just uh I guess I was a bit stunned to see this presentation tonight after my last visit here being uh so intense with everything else that's happening in the community and and to our school district and uh as an employee and an educator outside of this Township I understand the appeal of preschool um for everybody but I think it has a tremendous impact on the schools the resources of the schools the teaching staff that are in the schools and uh I just I I I don't think that that's a wonderful idea um I love the concept of it but I think that it will have a long lasting impact that would hurt the district that's all I had to say thank you hi my name is Kevin pman I have two children in the district um I just had a couple of comments I wanted to make about the preschool presentation tonight that were largely jotted down during the presentation um I think the first is I agree with Chris everyone's for preschool for kids everyone is a big fan of it it's all of the reasons listed for why it is helpful and all of the benefits from it are absolutely true and valid the concerns that the community have are largely related about the finances of it and the fact that it is not clear that the district can afford to do this right now we're not saying don't ever do it we're saying please wait to do it in this presentation very little money was discussed very little real numbers were discussed the things that were discussed for next next year is that we would receive potentially if the number is600 or $166,000 per student we would receive $2,800,000 we would be have new expenditures of $1.5 million for the slides in addition to losing $572,000 if anything moves at all we're already not covering what the preschool program will cost next year the first year in we will be losing money on the program and that's the year that's supposed to be the easiest it's supposed to be like the standard one that shows how simple this is going to be we're not talking about transporting kids from different places in the district these are kids who are already enrolled and we already understand how this works the fact that transportation is not included as one of the budget items as one of the items that is covered by the preschool expansion program the preschool expansion funding is a huge issue we already know that transportation is a massive cost within the district and that we have a ton of problems with transportation and with the rising cost of Transportation now saying we're going to add another four drivers when we can't hire another four drivers now that we're just going to find them and hire them is it feels like it's wishful thinking for how we're going to go forward with the plan it there are few to no numbers talking about how what the costs are going to be going forward talking about where the additional 710 students are are going to be housed in the out years we've talked about doing it at Evans but we haven't talked about what the true costs of reopening Evans are what the costs of modifying Evans are to be able to be used for this program the costs that we can charge against it are the against the program are the ones directly related to what is covered in preschool so if Evans opens initially is half preschool half kindergarten then any money that we could have charged towards the preschool expansion program only half of it can we use the other half has to come out of the district's Pockets because only half of the school is going to be used for preschool the other half will be kindergarten classes there are so so many questions that we have to present with less than a month time to this few number of people to add 800 students to the district to add 800 students to the district we're just asking for a pause to do for time and details to be presented Ed to the public thank you hello Rosemary Bernardi 10 Halifax Court East um I have a question if it can be answered are you voting on the preschool tonight okay a second F regarding uh preschool is in year one when does the actual check arrive if you open enrollment in Fall does the check come fall when does the check actually come here oh okay all right well then that answer well it kind of then that's an open because I think that makes a difference in terms of preschool because we have I shouldn't say we the school district has the issue with the general budget so I guess I'm concerned when the actual check arrives because you're you're talking about impacting this year's budget so I guess this to my second reason I'm up here is item uh 10.10 on the agenda Personnel addendums um there's what over 60 uh people that are being moved around um regarding uh because of the budget cuts which is um concerning that we're we're not talking about budget um when you have the ability to raise the tax levy and talk about budget tonight you all had um honored so many students for honors music orchest Etc but yet we couldn't we couldn't have the conversation about saving uh the uh the music position for uh small group lessons there's a list of items that account to about a million dollars so I guess I'm in terms of priority why aren't we talking about those budget items which actually could have infect impacted that addendum if you talk about raising the tax levy you wouldn't have to adopt 10.10 that could be um amend Ed I believe and then save some of those programs or those positions not have to impact so many people in the school district um going forward so I I I guess I'm a little confused on the timing like why aren't we talking about this year's budget and the people that are being impacted um on in that in those items on 10.10 um and I'll come back to preschool afterwards thank you hello Jen peelman I live in um Woodstream I just wanted to stand here and just say um that I'm supportive of preschool as well too but asking us to slow down um ever since we've been talking about preschool I know like private conversations I've had with Dr Smith and meetings we've had we keep being told that there's no concern that politicians would pull that money back and stop the program if that's the case for the Pea to not go away then many many people who unfortunately couldn't be here tonight because it's a really busy time for parents don't understand what the rush is everyone is supportive of it etsd parents United is supportive but not in the timetable that's being um kind of predicted or whatever the next board meeting is exactly four weeks from right now and right now you're only speaking to 22 people in this room some of who are your staff and some of who are kids that are wanting to talk about things or whatever so it's not a good cross-section of the whole town um when is how is it going to be pushed out to other people so I heard you say you're going to post it it everyone could be watching this now I know many people are but anyone that's a parent on the board or knows a parent May and June is such a busy time of year you guys honored so many kids here tonight there's concerts there's sport events there's tournaments there's end of the year f activities communions every single night of the week there was so many people that messaged me and said they couldn't be here tonight and they were upset about it and they were tuning in from baseball from swim practice please do not let the lack of numbers visible to hear tonight show you who's not like interested because there are so many people that are interested and super concerned about this um when we met with you parents etsd on April 13th we asked for dialogue and communication and collaboration if especially if there was going to be a massive shift to the district fifth grade's not moving for now yay that's so great the teams are staying for Middle School we're so grateful to all of those things this is still a big shift for the district though this is huge and four weeks from now when you have all those like fun things that I was talking about parents don't want to miss like a communion or their kids Tournament game or something they can't so they watch it later and maybe they send an email but then they're not able to dialogue with you like this or ask questions in front of of everyone it's concerning that a lot of specific numbers weren't shared I'm concerned because Cherry Hill is something I follow closely and a lot of those moms were linked with preschools for September in Oakland that's where their money is going so that's where they were linked is that something we're considering people should know that kind of stuff and be able to ask so I would just ask that you slow down and have some availability either Dr Smith to let people come and talk to you like a tent like you did outside or just to dialogue more about it and slow the process down that's what I'm asking thank you hi good evening my name is Erica poinset I live at five Charter oakle in Woodstream um I have a couple questions about the preschool I'm assuming it would run normal school hours for three and four year olds okay so I feel like the issue with that is that doesn't work for working parents so how are you going to compete with your Chester Brooks your kinder carees your dayc carees where my son received a perfectly good preschool education and is excelling at vanzan as a kindergartener you know for someone like my husband and I who had to be in work by 8:30 in the morning so I mean to to Echo everybody else if this is going to have a trickle down effect on the students that already exist in the district um really think about it and I'm not saying preschool is not great all my kids went to preschool but my Straight A Student sitting back there and she went to half day preschool so you you know full day what does that look like for a three and a four-year-old do any of you have three and foury olds still it's a long day and I can just tell you from my own work experience working in preschools having my own child who's only five now they don't survive all day you go to any preschool and the second half of the day is like a free-for-all sometimes because they don't have the capacity to keep going on an educational level for a full day so I agree we need to see more numbers um you know cost everything and and just take your time and think about it preschool is a great thing but there also are a lot of competitors like one thing you mentioned in your slide are private providers what is a private provider who are we partnering with like that is something I think as a Township we should know and you know where are these private providers in terms of helping with some of the other eam Township Educational Foundation things like keeping things like music alive my daughter is a musician she does have something she would love to say but she's scared now it's not the time to say it because all that was spoken about was preschool but um she wrote a wonderful speech about how music impacted her life through Middle School through covid she still had wonderful Educators that gave her lessons over Zoom so not the easiest thing to do and they still did it and those are the people that you're impacting with some of these decisions so again I Echo what people have said and just really look at everything and take your time thank you would anyone else like to speak on the agenda seeing none we'll close out that section there is one more public comment at the end of the meeting for any items of Interest now move on to item six approval of the minutes we need a motion to approve item 6.1 and 6.2 do we have a motion motion by Mr Brown seconded by Mrs null any questions on the approval of the minutes seeing none Mr Yates roll call please on the approval of minutes Mr Bach yes Mr Brown yes Mr deari yes Mrs null yes Mr Thompson abstain from 61 and 62 your abstention is noted Mr fisicaro yes and Mr conon yes the motion carries thank you Mr Yates moving to item seven we need an approval for item 7.1 through 7.6 under superintendent report and administrative items do we have a motion motion by Mr Thompson seconded by seconded by Mr Brown I'll hand the floor over to Dr Smith before we vote thank you Mr canthon just a few comments tonight the uh etsd AR Gala closes on Monday June 3D in the township building if you haven't gotten a chance to see it yet please check it out amazing student artwork also on Monday is the annual Eve sham Education Foundation Larry Cole Memorial Golf Classic this year's event is going to feature something new a live drawing of the 50-50 raffle winners for the new uh EF fundraiser aimed at helping fund one of our two two or three positions for the next uh two years tomorrow's update will have more information on it about how to purchase these 50/50 tickets at multiple locations throughout our town our district is grateful to the efforts of EF and all our Community Partners ptas PTO and more uh with this effort lastly just as the year winds down I'd like to highlight our staff for their continuing efforts to make every day count for kids and I've just in the last month gotten to do observations um which are windows into exactly how that looks tailored differentiated by grade um across the schools care creativity those cultivated family environments fostered throughout the school year on consistent display in classroom after classroom grade after grade school after school it's truly inspiring it's those relationships and connections with students and teachers and all of our staff that are built day by day all year that's what makes the difference so thank you staff for what is so so clear and that ends my comments Mr thank you Dr Smith any questions or comments from the board seeing none Mr yat roll call please roll call on administrative items Mr Bach yes Mr Brown yes Mr Demari yes Mrs null yes Mr Thompson yes Mr ficara yes Mr conon yes and motion carries thank you moving to item 8 curriculum and instruction we need a motion to approve items 8.1 through 8.4 do we have a motion motion by Mr deari seconded by Mr fysic Caro any questions or comments from the board seeing none Mr yates's roll call please on curriculum and instruction Mr Bach yes Mr Brown yes Mr demarcy yes Mrs null yes Mr Thompson yes Mr ficaro yes Mr conon yes that motion carries thank you Mr Yates moving to item nine finance and operations we need a motion to approve items 9.1 through 9.20 do we have a motion motion by Mr Thompson seconded by Mr Bach any questions or comments for finance and operations seeing none Mr Yates roll call please finance and operations Mr Bach yes Mr Brown yes Mr demarcy yes Mrs null yes Mr Thompson yes Mr ficaro yes Mr con yes the motion carries thank you Mr y moving to item 10 under Personnel we need a motion to approve items 10.1 through 10.11 do we have a motion motion by Mr visicaro seconded by Mr demarcy any questions as a obain of personnel from the board seeing none Mr Yates roll call please on Personnel Mr Bach yes Mr Brown yes Mr demarcy yes Mrs NL yes Mr Thompson yes Mr fisicaro yes Mr Conan yes and motion carries thank you Mr Yates moving to item 11 for policy we need a motion to approve items 11.1 through 11.4 do we have a motion motion by Mr Thompson seconded by Mr Brown any questions or comments from the board as it pertains to policy seeing none Mr Yates roll call please on policy Mr Bach yes Mr Brown yes Mr demarcy yes Mrs null yes Mr Thompson yes Mr fisicaro yes Mr Conan yes the motion carries thank you Mr Yates we will now move to item 12 committee reports are there any committee chairs who would like to share a report seeing none we'll close out that section we'll move to Old business of which we have none then we'll move to new business of which we have one we need a motion to approve the as discussed in executive session today motion by Mr Thompson seconded by Mr Bach Mr Yates roll call please roll call on new business motion to accept the settlement as discussed in executive session Mr Bach yes Mr Brown yes Mr dearcy yes Mrs null yes Mr Thompson yes Mr fisicaro abstain exstension is noted Mr conon yes and motion carries thank you we'll now move into open public comment um pertaining to any items of Interest however if your questions or comments pertain to litigation student or Personnel items or negotiations we would ask that you please see the superintendent after the meeting since we do not discuss these matters in public please limit your comments to 3 minutes per person and state your name and address at the beginning is there anyone who wishes to speak on any items of Interest hi Rosary Berardi again 10 healthx Court East um I'm a little dismayed that there was no discussion and any of the comments at all about the current the recent legislation regarding um the ability to you know you you received um 45% of your lost state aid and the ability to uh open to go to ta uh tax levy cap a new tax levy cap so I guess I'm a little confused why that was not discussed at all what your plans are you have until uh five days after the adoption of the state budget to readjust your budget for this year um interesting also too in your um when you approves the Personnel items you o approved a new position which wasn't listed in the budget um so that was concerning as well so I I guess I'm really at a loss so what what are you done with the budget for this year there will be no adjustments I guess that's really my question there's a lot to unpack with the new legislation so we are discussing it at this time well there'll be like a formal meeting I guess because there you know you only have the last meeting and you just approved a new position in tonight's meeting um which was not outlaid in the budget uh discussion items so I'm kind of at a loss here um do we need to start emailing everyone I just don't know what direction you're going to go in to preserve items in that were cut you know there's a list here of about 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 12 12 positions that are still on the table a million dollars worth so there's nothing all right hi everybody I'm cing poet I live in Woodstream I'm a sophomore at Cherokee high school and I would like to tell you a little bit about how music is a part of my life in third grade I started playing the violin which unfortunately didn't last long because in fourth grade I decided to start playing the flute I won't lie I wasn't the best at it at first and if you know anything about playing the flu it took me a long time to even make a sound out of the instrument this didn't discourage me though and in fifth grade I made the elementary honors band I got to play alongside the Cherokee went Ensemble which little did I know some years later I would become a part of I went to the Macy Middle School where I continued my musical journey by taking lessons in School playing in the band after school and always looking forward to concerts however the covid-19 pandemic made my middle school experience a little different than most we didn't let this stop our program though we continued to do virtual lessons kept on practicing and even put on Virtual cont concerts graduating Middle School I didn't quite know what I wanted to do in high school I auditioned for a band class and even decided to join the Cherokee marching band playing flute led me to learning new instruments just last year I now put the French horn the trumpet and a few other instruments I'll spare some of the other details but I can confidently say that the musical decisions I have made thus far in my life have been the best decisions I have ever made music has been something I have always been able to fall back on I have always had a place in times where I felt alone I would turn around and have somebody by my side the music programs that I have been eternally grateful to be a part of have given me a home the directors and mentors that I've had have been the most incredible people I've ever met they have always been there for me to support me and to guide me and the people are like no others I have made some of my closest friends through these programs and have made memories that I know are going to last me a lifetime I can speak positively on behalf of myself and many others that music has given us a purpose a home and a family a place that we can be ourselves with no judgment where we can feel free to make mistakes and grow from them a place where we have learned to be confident to be leaders and to never give up everybody has a power and a drive that keeps them going for many people that passion that purpose is music I remember the moment my freshman year that we got first place at States the feeling of adrenaline that rushed through my body as we ran out onto the field as a band and celebrated our success I remember the exact moment that I decided that this was my passion my purpose and my people these programs are not just about learning music but about overcoming fears stepping out of your comfort zone and growing as a student and a person I understand the challenges that the districts are facing right now but I truly hope you reconsider finding a way to findun your music program programs thank [Applause] you hi I have to read off this paper because I'm not good just speaking on the Fly here uh my name is Melissa odonnell and I live at for Normandy Road with my husband Mike and my twins Gracie and Shane O'Donnell who are at deacy Middle School I've been teaching kindergarten for 26 years at Little Brook Elementary School in Princeton taken care of hundreds and hundreds of little ones over the years I've put a lot of love into other people's children that's what we do as teachers my twins have attended Dei um school for the LA middle school for the last three years it's hard to believe they're going to be graduating this year uh I've been trying to find the perfect words to describe my children's experience at Dei under Mr Bree's care and I'm not just sure under his care I'm not sure exactly how to put this into words I tried today during my prep to get this together um everything that I have put into my students has come back to my Gracie and Shane at deacy the patience to your point Dr Smith exactly what you were just saying about your staff the patience love attention passion and heart the red staff has for our children is extremely unusual we have been blessed Mr Bray and the teachers have responded to emails early in the mornings late at night and on week weekends um my children are confident happy and thriving I have a child who needed to be challenged this year which was Gracie odonnell who won the math certific math award which I had no idea she tried to hide that from me by the way but I found out from your secretary who called me today to let me know that she was going to have this award um and another um and her twin Shane he has many challenges he's he he has IEP he's been in special education from the very beginning from small group instruction through um now he's in a regular uh you know in the mainstream group with special ed um when I tell you that all their needs have been met by the amazing red Hall staff I mean it after the six after they graduated sixth grade I told Mr Bray I was so nervous about seventh grade I mean there was no way another team would be that fabulous he assured me that they would be in good hands and sure enough in seventh grade and eighth grade they were they had more amazing years I'm not sure exactly what the secret is but I know from experience that most of this type of success and compassion starts at the top so I wanted to publicly thank Dr Smith for his leadership Mr Bray and the regular Ed teachers for a perfect Middle School experience for my twins I'd also like to give a huge shout out to the amazing special ed team in the red Hall you ladies have been such a pleasure to work with you all loved my boy like he was your own I hope other parents realize how lucky they are to have such a special group of people working with our children thank you deacy Middle School staff for all the love you've put into my children and my family I'll be forever grateful Cherokee has massive shoes to fill I hope Mr Bri gives them a heads up thank you hi I'm back again my name is Chris Miller live in Ravens Cliff I'm just here to talk about music one more time I have to say that the young lady that just spoke behind me a couple people ago uh she is her story sounds like every story that I've ever experienced as a teacher of music myself as a human being that went through a music program when I was younger um my best friends people that played in my weddings people that I went to their weddings and was part of their weddings we are musicians and we are friends for life and those people all make their connections in band and Orchestra and things throughout their their experiences when they're in school um and it is just so important to me that I reiterate to everybody that when you start to even make little modifications to a music program it has astronomical effects to everything before it and everything after it as well um and I just uh I'm shocked tonight with all of the stress that I I can imagine all of you are experiencing I I I'm not jealous of your positions whatsoever I think it's extremely difficult um but with all of that going on I'm shocked that we're talking about preschool and expanding um because to me it is just absolutely imperative that you have a functioning music program and arts program in your schools for students that are creative thinkers that have imagination that um maybe struggle to connect with other kids this is their home home for for tons and tons of kids and uh I just want to make sure that I reiterate the importance of the music program and I hope that you uh please try to just be transparent with the community as to what changes are going to take place um and if I could ever do anything as a a citizen of the township to help please know that I'm here to try to help and that's what I'm looking to do I just want to support the music program and support the kids that want to play music in E from Township Schools thank you hi Kevin pman I just wanted to add one more thing um to follow up with what Chris and rosemary said it is hard to understand coming from the outside and the parents perspective why a new administrative position is being added when multiple teacher positions are being cut it's it is baffling I don't there's been no explanation given for it and it just it looks terrible and no one really understand understands why it is but it has the appearance of that the administrative portion of it seems more important than the teaching portion of it given that there's being new positions created and people moved into them while other teachers are being let go thank you anyone else like to speak on any items of Interest seeing none we're going to be looking to a motion to go into a second executive session whereas an njsa 10412 allows for a public body to go into session during a public meeting and whereas the Board of Education of e Township has deemed it necessary to go into Clos session to discuss certain matters which are Exempted from the public and whereas the regular meeting of the Board of Education will reconvene following the end of close section at approximately 10:25 is p.m. now therefore be it resolved that the Board of Education will go into closed section for the following reasons as outl outlined in njsa 104-112 for matters of personnel do we have a motion motion by Mr Brown seconded by Mr deari and are we expecting action after no we are not expecting action to be taken after the second executive session Mr yat roll call please second executive session Mr Bach yes Mr Brown yes Mr demarcy yes Mrs null Mr Thompson yes Mr F Caro yes Mr conin yes thank you Mr Yates we'll see you all back at approximately 720 uh 10:25 is [Music] [Applause] [Music] he 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now therefore be it resolved that the Board of Education will go into closed session for the following reasons as outlined in njsa 10412 items 2.2 through 2.4 do we have a motion to go into close session motion by Mrs null very fervent motion thank you Mrs null seconded by seconded by Mr Brown uh Mr Yates roll call please roll call on Executive session Mr Bach yes Mr Brown yes Mrs N yes Mr Thompson yes and Mr Conan yes we are in executive session thank you Mr Yates per Mrs nolles motion we will see you at approximately 7:30 p.m.