001Okay. So, the next item on the agenda is uh special presentations. So, tonight we'll have uh a special presentation from Dr. Cas about the NJSLA scores for the 2425 school year. Uh we also have the green team here, the New Jersey, I'm sorry, the Denver school's green sustainable program leaders, and they'll be presenting on the achievements uh regarding and surrounding the bronze award that they received. And then on November 17th uh school audit presentation will be held here at uh uh on on the 17th. So uh Dr. Forte um I'll turn it over to you or did you want me to mention that agenda item now? >> Yeah. Well, uh, later tonight, uh, fellow board members will be, uh, voting on a resolution under operations, buildings, and grounds regarding a donation, uh, of a TX
002bench that they'll, uh, the green team or the green uh, yeah, the green team will be presenting. So, uh, that will be the resolution that, uh, we'll vote on later today. So, I'll turn it over to you, Dr. Forte. >> Okay. We have our uh green team here and I'd like to call up our two directors or uh coordinators um Mrs. Casper and Miss Olive. >> Okay. Um so I'm Alli Casper. I am a teacher at Valley View Middle School Science sixth and eighth grade. Michelle Olivera, teacher at Valley View special ed language arts. Christine Lions, uh teacher at Valley View Spanish. and we're we make up the Valley View um green team and then we also have an adult green team at Riverview and Lake View. So, if you guys would like to introduce
003yourself as well. >> Sure. >> I'm Dar Daniels, Lake View and second grade teacher. >> I'm Jen Matchi. I'm a STEM teacher at Lake View. >> I'm Jen Kuzzac, second grade teacher at Lake View. And I'm Alisa Freeze. I'm the music teacher at Riverview. Okay, you want to go back? >> We do have some students from Valley View [clears throat] here as well from our student grade team. >> I'm Brendan Fujer, an eighth grade student at Valley View Middle School. >> I'm Veronica Fuer, Brendan's brother, seventh grade student. >> I'm Katie Remalord. I am a seventh grade student at Valley View. Okay. So, just to go back on what sustainable jersey is and what we um achieve for bronze certification, uh we had to get for each school 150 points. So, what that means is
004that you had to form a green team. So, we have formed kind of an above and beyond green team where we had a district adult green team and then student green team at each uh at each level. And then you also had to do priority actions. um you also had to do different category actions as well. So we were able to achieve all of those um and each school was able to get over 150 points. So it wasn't even that we did like bare you know just minimum we went above and beyond. Um and a lot of that is from what we did at the district level and then at the school level. So um some of the things that we did at the district level was the trucks recycling. So, if you've seen them
005out like in the main area of the office, that's where we collect all of the stretchy plastic and then we go through it and make sure it's clean. And um the got sneakers was a really big success this year where we collected old sneakers and we found ways through this program to recycle them. Um and with all these kids go through sneakers really quickly, so it was very successful. Um then the farmers market, sustainable Sunday, was our big hit. We work really hard for that. I know at Valley View we like send out little projects for the different advisories and like kind of promote the recycling aspect through um through that. Um let's see. There is also oh the Dville um green team and the beautifification committee came and we had a ceremony for the
006tree planting and we are going to be doing that again um at Lake View in April. That's about it. Right. So just looking ahead, future endeavors, we are looking to integrate empowered schools into all of the schools. That's one of the um the goals for sustainable Jersey to keep that going. Uh we're also looking to go to the DPW to integrate some of the things that are going there and to educate the students, staff, and the community about what's happening at the DPW. Continuing with the oaks, we are continuing tracks collection. We are on I think our at least our third bench since Alli and I have really taken over and we probably are almost halfway to our fourth one as of right now. And then um we actually with the township environmental commission we
007are working on signage for interpretation for the mural hetner park. So something we're doing with the town as well. >> Going to go back and we'll just make sure um speaking of the bench that was um look was donated or looking to be donated that is in the middle. Um, so that is coming from the efforts of getting 1,000 pounds of plastic from all of the um the schools, the town, and the oaks. Um, so that's what that's what it'll look like in the end. >> At Valley View, we have developed and maintained garden and tower gardens. >> At Valley View Middle School, we have two types of gardens. tower gardens which are in the STEM rooms and well science rooms and we have another garden outside with outside of the gym. We were granted
008an warm an award from the MCMUA for litter abatement advisory participation and the winning advisory got got reusable water bottles and mugs. We have also started educating people about the air quality flags outside which are being placed on the garden. So basically an air quality flag shows what how good the air is. It ranges from green very good air to purple. Why are you even outside? [laughter] >> That's not all though. [laughter] my hope. >> So at Valley View, we al also did an Arbor Day planting at the oaks on in April last year. The Valley View band also performed some music for the senior citizens while we planted merry golds. Okay. And we also went to the Oaks earlier in the year to craft um recycled dog toys um with their green team as
009well. All three of us are actually in that picture. [laughter] There you are. Excellent. >> Good. Okay, I'll start off. Uh Lake View, we at Lake View on Earth Day, the Interact Club from the high school came to visit which was an amazing experience. Um the first grade classes uh got to learn about planting, caring for the earth, and life cycle of the plants. Um, and it was really neat to see all of the um, students from the high school interacting with those first graders. So, >> also at Lake View, we had some parent volunteers that came in to visit second grade classrooms and they taught about the life cycle of the Painted Lady butterfly. They donated caterpillars to my classroom and a couple other classrooms and the students got to observe the full life
010cycle of the Painted Lady as it transitioned, you know, through all of the stages. and they got to watch them emerge and then we released some in our environmental plaza. >> Um so for the green team uh we participated in a virtual uh um field trip. We went to an animal sanctuary in Colorado that promotes um rescuing animals from boarding situations or whatever. Uh it was kind of cool that we learned all about how farming impacts the world and um yeah. So that's kind of what we do. Saw a bunch of cool animals. >> Hi. Um the Riverview Clean Team this year um created posters and presentations um to help teach students about the power of reusing, reducing, and recycling. Um the posters were hung all around the school to help remind students about the
011important role that they play in creating a safer and healthier and more sustainable Earth. Oh, [laughter] sorry. Um, in preparation of Earth Day, we also um visited each of the kindergarten and first grade classrooms and we read stories and provided many lessons um to help teach our young learners about the importance of a clean and healthy Earth. We also collected old uh clothing items and recycled these into dog toys and we donated them to local animal shelters um including the Hapakhong Animal Shelter um in Hapakong, 11th Hour Rescue in Rockaway and also Father John's Animal Rescue in Sparta. Okay. >> So, something that Riverview and Lake did is we did a program called Bass of Trash where these lovely people came in and we learned how to make instruments out of recycled materials like drums
012out of water bottles, flutes out of paper. Very interesting. [laughter] That's just a picture from our recent award ceremony, which we have all three plaques now updated with our newest bronze award. [applause] [laughter] >> Thank you. I just want to say something first, too. Um, this group, it's good for the board to see all the things that are coming out of this, right? Because you fund it and you can see all the good things we're doing. Um, I am really proud of the fact that we probably saved 3,000ish pounds of plastic bags from going into into landfills. To me, that's that that's like the greatest thing that that we could try to stop that from happening. Um, those of you don't realize it, but 3,000 pounds of plastic bags is a lot. Probably more than
013would fit in this room. Like, I took 80 pounds over once, right? We all did. >> And there was what, two or three cars full. My truck was full. Every single thing. And I think it was 80 pounds. [clears throat] And And these are like bags like this filled with bags. So when [clears throat] we get our like in the beginning of the year when we get our deliveries with all this shrink wrap on it, you know, like that they wrap it up. We started getting that and that was a lot of stuff. So, but I also really happy with what we're doing with the oaks. They've been a tremendous um partner for us. Um I've been there a few times with you guys and they really love it. last time you guys planted flowers
014there, watered them. But the that's why I was real proud that we from this group and them too, we were awarded another TX bench that we're donating to the oaks even though they did help us with it. So, it's not just our efforts, but they helped it as well. Another really good thing that's coming out of this is at town hall. I mean, at the town recycling center, we never had a spot to recycle plastic bags there. Now we do thanks to these great people up here and um they're doing pretty good down there, right? Um so there's a we have another spot now for the town people to put their stuff in there. So these guys do a tremendous job. It's great to see the kids, too. We're all proud of your award, the
015bronze award. I mean, it's great. And you know, I said maybe we'll get silver next time and then they that didn't go over well, but it's okay. We're good. Let's just keep going with the plastic and and uh all the other things you're doing with the kids and the gardens look great. So, you guys are really doing a good job. I really appreciate it and uh thank you so much for coming. >> And parents, don't forget to vote. >> That was a fantastic presentation. Uh, as everyone can see up there, uh, a couple of the board members and myself were able to, uh, witness them receive the award and we're truly proud of, uh, all the work that they've accomplished. Yeah, getting a silver award does seem very, uh, uh, like a very big task.
016So, would love to see that, but I understand how hard it might be. So, uh, the next presentation is uh, Dr. Cullis and the New Jersey SLA scores. So, Dr. Cullis, the floor is yours. Well, for our 202425 spring NJSLA scores, I have some good news. We definitely had some increases which I'm happy to share. Uh the first slide is just the comparison from ELA and math from our district scores to the state scores. And a few of the items I wanted to point out in particular in 8th grade, our highest uh grade level was 88% proficient. And that's all students and in comparison to 57% at the state level. So you can see a huge difference between where we're performing and at the state level. So I can figure it states probably the average
017and we're way above those. [clears throat] And in all areas we are above. Uh in eighth grade it was our highest but you can see in ELA multiple grades uh were an increase. All grades com combined is 79% and the state is 54. For math, uh I wanted to point out our fourth grade. Uh the increase above the state level is quite high and seventh grade. [clears throat] You can see that it's also quite high. But what I'm most happy about is our eighth grade because we've been working so hard with our eighth grade core math. Three years ago, we were at 14% and now we're at 39. And that has been a huge effort to get us there. And although it's still a lot uh lot of growth to be had, it is significant
018that we have brought those students that far along. In [snorts] algebra, 96% and geometry at 100. Overall, our math scores are 63% which is above the state of 41. comparing year over year Dville of 24 and then of 25 you can see where our grade level so this is not the same students at that grade level but it is the same um content and majority same teachers and you can see how we fared each year our biggest increases you notice in 8th grade we went from 73% in 24 to 88% in 25 overall we up in ELA. When you combine all of the grades, last year we were 76% and 2025 we're 79%. So that's taking all of the students in the district. We're just shy of 80% being proficient, which 80% is considered mastery.
019Uh we're really excited that we're almost to that level. Um and this includes all students in third through 8th grade. For math, you can see where we've moved. Our third grade stayed the same, but in other grade levels, you'll notice that our fourth graders increased, our fifth grade increased, [snorts] oops, our sixth grade had a decrease, seventh grade a slight decrease, and then eighth grade was that 39%. So, four years ago, we started at 14, we moved up to about 21%, then 26%, and now 39% there. If we were to take all of the eighth graders, which includes our algebra, our geometry, and our eighth grade math students, they were 61% proficient. Last year, it was 62. But overall, combining every all of 8th grade, it was 51%. So, we moved the entire eighth grade
020up 10% in math. We saw those growth in algebra. Geometry was the same, but then also in eighth grade math. to look over a year, take the same cohort of students and follow them over a number of years. You can follow the color patterns that in that third grade cohort a few years ago that are now our fifth graders, they went from 70% to 76% to 81% in ELA. So, you can pick any color of cohort. Fifth grade went from 81 went down in 674 and back up to 85%. And the the group in sixth grade in 2023 went from 78 to 86 to 88. So you just have to follow the cohort and you can see how they have improved over the years. Uh in math the majority of them do see increases. We
021do see some decreases uh at the in sixth grade. The cohort that was excuse me [clears throat] at fourth grade cohort three years ago went from 52 to 58 and then to 46. So that is an area to look at. Uh one notable is that fifth grade group who increased almost 10% a year going from um went down to 56 and then back up to 74. So regained uh in that area. for ELA I wanted to this particular graph shows you how the students performing across the five levels so of course you want to see green the light green is meeting and the dark green is exceeding and the one I wanted to point out was in seventh grade ELA so they had 85% proficient but of the 85% 60% % of those are exceeding.
022So got received five which is incredibly high. Uh that's a very high score. Our mean score is exceeding for that grade level which is really impressive. But what you want to see is more green than any of the other colors. And for ELA, you definitely notice that pattern. Very few in the red. Uh a few more in the orange. Yellow is almost there. And then meeting is green and dark green. Light green and dark green. But it is quite impressive with that seventh grade ELA. In eighth grade ELA, they also had more exceeding than they had meeting. For math, again, you see that at least the light green is more prevalent than the other colors, but there's definitely a more of a distribution. You see more yellows and and less in the dark green. uh
023but we do see at least that the majority of the students are meeting expectations and still have areas to work on in each of those math areas. For science, science, we are moving uh it's good news that we are moving our fifth and our eighth grade uh students in science still uh have an issue with the test. The test still has not been updated. Even though the standards have been updated for about seven years now, we still are taking the test over the old standards, but we are moving our students and we are seeing more green and more dark green with exceeding. Yellow is still in eighth grade more prevalent. So that means more students are not meeting that standard than are at this point. I won't go over all of these numbers, but this
024is just for your information. If you want to see how are we fairing, you want on the left side where it's one, twos, and threes because those are not meeting. You want to see those in negative. You want to see negative numbers. You don't want positive. And what you want on the other side is fours and fives, which is meeting expectations. It's just exact math. If we go up in one area, then we're going to go down that exact same amount in fours and fives. So it was still even at that. So overall we went down 2.5% in the areas of not meeting and we went up 2.5 and that's what we want to see. You definitely want to see all of the grades moving in that direction. It's a positive. Uh the same is
025for math. So although the scores were not did not increase as much as an ELA, we did see an overall in increase. We went down 1.8% 8% in the not meeting and up 1.8% in the meeting. Now, this is probably my favorite slide. It's probably the most interesting. I've been tracking them since 2019. 2019 was the year we had our best test scores. It's the year that we had uh the blue ribbon award at Riverview. It was also every ELA was at about 80% all the way up to almost 90%. So, we had very strong scores that year and we've been moving that way ever since. All of the students that are that took the test in 2025 were not uh represented by the 2019 data. So, they are all gone. But what you can
026see is in 2019 those third graders are now in nth grade. But these were the scores. So we ended at from 75 87 90 76 85 and 88. What you notice now different students but in 2025 these students were the PS preschool. So they were three years old. The ones in third grade were three years old. The ones in fourth grade uh were four. Fifth grade were actually in kindergarten so five. Then you had our first graders, our second and our third graders. What we noticed is now at seventh and eighth grade, the students that were in second and third grade during COVID, so our virtual year with masks are back to the exact same percentage we were in 2019. So what this data was showing me is that our students that were in second,
027third, and up turned out okay. You know, things they kept their skills. They were they have they fall fell a little bit as did the entire state. However, when we're back to middle school, they're exactly where they were when we left at that time. The students that are not are the students that are were preschool, kindergarten, and first grade. And that is where we are putting an incredible amount of attention. Now, those students are in third through sixth grade right now, but we have a lot of interventions that we normally would not be doing at that grade level. Uh, but we are we see that that is the group that is still behind. they lost that time when we were virtual and when we were wearing masks which I think makes common sense that that's
028a very difficult time when they were learning their essential language skills that they uh were wearing masks or were not even face tof face with their teachers besides uh on the camera. So that is the target group. We have introduced and I'll say at the end what we've are doing now to address it. But we have introduced some additional foundational ELA uh material to address those deficits. But that's really our target group right now. our elementary comparison if you look between our so you can just look where where they are Lake View and Riverview uh in ELA math and science the highlight of this is our fifth graders at Lake View increased their score by 18%. So we went from 42% proficient in science last year to 60%. We did a lot of work in
029increasing that and we definitely were excited to see that much growth and we'll continue that growth. Riverview went from 41 to 51. So we definitely still saw growth, not the same amount at Lake View. However, also 10% growth there. If you look across, uh you'll see that at third grade were pretty comparable. We did have differences in both fourth and fifth grade across all of the subject areas between the two schools. [sighs and gasps] Now, demographic analysis is required. However, it's not the most beneficial piece of data for our district because it doesn't we don't have a lot of students in each of the categories and so it doesn't tell us a lot of information that's usable or actionable but I do want to present you can see different uh across subgroup of race you
030can see the different race groups anything below I mean some of the groups we have less than 10 students so it's really hard to compare to a group that we have 800 students in. Uh so it's not necessarily the most beneficial beneficial look at. If you were to go just on this, you might make assumptions that probably are not accurate because the numbers are just too low. That is where we are. Uh and you can see over the three years what we're hoping to see is that at least it's similar but for the most part we are moving up uh or staying around the same place. Again some of these groups are very minimal number of students. So it's again hard to make some actionable decisions based on this. For math, we we see a
031very similar pattern to what we saw with uh when we broke it out just in by grade level. We are meeting and exceeding are the higher groups. However, we do see uh in our Hispanic subop that we have many students that are three, which is a little bit higher than the number of students that are meeting and almost equal to, you know, just slightly less than when you have meeting and exceeding together. So, that is a target area. Year-over-year, same thing. Here's our map. You can just kind of see where the groups are are increasing a little bit. Every year we're staying about the same with our subgroup, our Asian subgroup being the highest. Last year in math, it was 87% uh compared to the other subgroups. The other numbers wise, you could compare it
032to our Hispanic subop. That's numbers wise the closest and then for science don't talk much to that over the years by uh gender females to males what we have been typically seeing is they are scoring about the same and we still continue to see that this is an ELA And I had some can't see my notes on there. I don't know if it will scroll down. Will that scroll down at all? No. Yeah, I had notes on there. Okay, I was going to share. She she has the PowerPoint, but I I have it up on here. Let me just take it off slides for a moment. I was going to give you the exact Okay. Well, I'm not going to be able to get that. Stay there for a second. Okay. It's not It's not
033There we go. Okay. Thank you. Just go back to my slide. Hold on one second. Uh so I was go I was noting that the actual percentage was swinging back and forth. So we had gotten where uh two years ago our male population was 8% higher and then it went down to then the next year was I mean male was 2% higher then 2024 it went to females being 6% higher and then back uh again it swings uh one more time. So it just seems to be swinging back and forth year by year, but for the majority of the students, the male and female gender is testing at the same Is that not going? Okay, for math this year we did see that the student the ma the uh males performed slightly higher than the
034females with 17% exceeding and in for males and females were 13% for males it was 49% meeting and females 47 so it's not a large difference uh if you also notice that for females only 2% are in the not meeting and 5% in the males for the majority I mean for the most of these areas it really is statistically the same for males and females and same slightly higher in science this year. 6% higher for males than females and that's only for fifth and eighth grades. Our year-over-year male and female again it goes up and down. For females, we are consistently going up and males, it went slightly down last year and back up to 46%. For science, our subgroups, ELLL, free lunch, section 504, special ed, and gened. Uh, you can see how they
035are fairing. Our section 504 students that have a 504 are the same about number of students that are meeting are also meeting as as GE ed. So those are very similar. Our special education group continues to have more students who are meeting and exceeding and our ELL the population is very low who are taking this test. So again we did have a number of our students pass. it is a really small number to use for our general education for language arts. If you look that it's at 88% for general education and if you compare that to like our 504 students that's 80%. So again we're getting quite close to um balancing some of these subgroups with our general education group. Some of these students are in general education but are also might be represented in
036free and reduced lunch. They might also be represented in section 504. So it's really hard to make it seem as if there's distinct groups, not necessarily distinct groups. Our math distribution continually monitor our ELLL and our special education group. The only ones that are not could not overlap would be our special education and our general education. The only two that wouldn't be the same students, math, [clears throat] science. Okay. And finally, so here are highlights. So our EL scores are at similar or rebounding closer to our 2019 data. Students who were crucially in that crucial literacy point as I mentioned before still have gaps to close and so we are concentrating on that particular group. Our males and our females have similar achievement data but showing some stereotypical gaps that we haven't seen in the
037last few years. So where we had closed the gap two years ago, we're starting to see stereotypical gaps again where the males are performing in math and science stronger and females in ELA. But we have not we had not seen that for a number of years up to about two years ago. So this year we had 6% higher for males in science and math and 8% fi higher for females in ELA. And those are really falling on stereotypical lines. uh significant increase in proficiency in our focus grades, which were fifth and eth. If you remember, we're been working with those particular groups. Our year-over-year math comparison, our fifth grade went from 58 to 67, and our eighth grade went from 26 to 39. Uh we had a 22% difference between our district and our state
038performance in math and 25% difference between district and state in ELA. the achievement gap between students with IEPs and those without reduced in ELA from a gap of 30 of uh 45% to 37. So we are closing that gap. We had a difference before of 45% between our students that had IEPs and the students that did not. And now we are closing that by uh by 8%. So it is moving in the right direction. We continue to work on that. Lake View I mentioned their science increased 18%. They went from 42 to 60. Our Valley View 7th grade had 60% exceeding expectations, which is incredibly high. It has to be one of the higher in the state. Uh, and probably one of the higher in our K8s. Anxious to see how that fits with our
039cohort. Our areas for growth. So, uh, math proficiency, we're still working to bring that up. I'm pleased with where we are. um moving in the right direction for eighth grade is a lot more students when we counted them that each student was really each student represented 1%. So we moved from 14 students passing to 39 in a few years. That is great growth. Our science proficiency it stayed the same for eighth grade but fifth grade went up significantly. We do want to work on consistency in the math scores because we're we're working and getting up in fifth grade and then dropping in sixth grade and then raising again in seventh grade. And then of course our subgroups we want to continue to look at closing that those particular gaps. We have a lot of strategies.
040I won't mention them all. One of the one but a few of them in particular. So because of this language arts gap we want to make sure that we are targeting them. And so we're using Heggerty uh which is a phenemic awareness. So in addition to our regular phonics, we are we have added uh hegrity phmic awareness in the K2s and then we've added another Heggerity product uh in three to five called bridge the gap with specific targeted lessons on which foundational skills that they don't have. We are also reviewing some an additional phonics program for next year called EUI. So we probably will be looking at adding an additional phonics program as well. We are continuing all of our math work with our professional development. We did introduce a new program to the middle
041school which is magma math for intervention and then also one for elementary called go math which really has been seen a lot of uh growth with students that might be in a self-contained or resource environment. Um so we did implement that program this year. So, a lot of new things. We we implemented our new science program just last year and we are in the elementary school and we're already seeing significant growth with that product. Okay, questions. This is always a long presentation because there state requires we show you a lot of slides that maybe are not um particularly helpful for Denver. >> Yes, >> Dr. call us definitely appreciate the amount of time and effort you have put into this and I do personally feel like we are seeing the fruits of your labor and
042the staff's labor. So, thank you very much for all the hard work. I'll go ahead and open it up to the board for any questions uh for Dr. Kovas. >> I just want to uh echo um Mr. Kim that it's exciting to see a lot of those numbers jump and I'm thankful to see the the cohort analysis. we've been asking about that a bit. It's just kind of helpful to kind of see those numbers as well. So, that was kind of neat. Um, that's I was wondering on section one, the last slide, um, what are some of the variables, the ELA disparity between Lake View and a Riverview? >> And we went pretty quickly there, so I didn't, you know, spend a lot of time looking at it, but uh, Okay. What's >> there was,
043you know, I mean, a couple of points here and there. No, no, no biggie, but that the the numbers out to me. >> They are um to be honest, I really think that the difference here is that the median uh number of years of of teaching at this point. If you recall last year, we had a large number of stu or of teachers that were on leave and almost our entire fourth and fifth grade team at Riverview. Uh, and although we had almost all the fifth grade teachers at Lake View, they went out on leave after the assessment, so they were here. Whereas in Riverview, we had almost entirely brand new teachers in fourth and fifth. And I I do know that that makes a difference because we went through everything. I went with the
044coaches. There's really no difference. This hasn't been the case in the last few years. So this year the only thing that we could really point to was that we our veteran staff has average between 15 and 20 years over at Lake View and the years the average years are about three and four with a significant number of firstear teachers at Riverview. So it's their first crack at it and you know we're working closely with them. But I do think that experience h is probably the difference here. It's like that in a lot of professions experiences the uh greatest educator. >> Um so with with the with the newer teachers I mean I know we have you know a mentorship program. I mean new teachers are not flying solo throughout the whole year. They're getting coached.
045>> They do. So they >> so was anything noticed like early on and things got better as the school year went on? I mean we no I mean the we didn't see any deficit necessarily during the school year where students were performing lower on the benchmarks but when the uh NGSLA data comes out in the summer and you analyze it. I mean the only real difference they took the same assessments and had all the same products. They had all the same professional development. Our coaches work with every grade level every week. So they receive all of the same experiences. The only real difference between them is the the number of new teachers and also the median year of experience. That that was really the only difference. Now, what we do offer, we have each of
046those teachers has a mentor and they also have uh we have a new teacher academy and they attend weekly workshops with our mentor coordinator. We do have our coaches that work with them as new teachers and then also as the whole grade level in that subject area. So we do provide quite a bit of uh professional development. Some of it was that uh the leaves were extended. Actually a number of them the leaves were extended where they were going to be a two-month leave and then it turned into a one-year leave. So that does make a difference in the type of PE professional development they might have taken um without intending to be here the entire school year. >> Thank you for that information. It's very helpful. Sure. Uh last thing I had here is
047you know something to think about. Um what would be the feasibility of of milestones? I mean you know scores have improved. We have a lot of intervention programs there which is great but do we have a you know a benchmark where we should be you know a year from now when we're we're going through this again. >> Well this is the last year of this test. So this will be the sunsetting this data. Uh the new test will not be comparable. So we will not I will share what the scores are but they're two totally different tests. So I have no idea that I mean it might absolutely be comparing apples to oranges. So we're starting all over which we did after uh COVID 2. We had to start at a totally new benchmark again
048because those students um didn't have anything to compare it to in the past. I don't know what that would be. What I do know is that our test scores continue to go up even as our number of students who are coming to us uh with limited language proficiency with uh more economic needs, higher special education population. So as those groups that tend to need more intervention are increasing, our scores are still increasing. So it's not only bridging the gap of those students who have higher needs in a partic higher academic needs, but we're pushing all of them forward. I mean, we're if you look at those numbers right now, we're about 22% who uh have an IEP. We also have a large number of students that have a 504s. And yet when you see numbers
049that are over 75 or 78% that means that students that are general education plus all the students who might have an IEP and students who have a 504 they are also passing. So any of those areas where you see like 88% that is a large number of students that have had to overcome a lot of academic struggles. So even they I mean I'm so proud of them that they are performing on or above grade level. So I don't know Don that's a long answer but I don't have a benchmark that I can say I my goal is always to get everybody 100%. Uh but I think we're so close to getting some of these grade levels at 90% and that's unbelievable. um a town like Dville with the diversity that we have in needs to
050be almost 90% proficient is incredible in ELA and we're still working at the math but every year is getting more >> 70s and 80s 80s considered like the mastery but of course I think 90s would be much better >> now overall you know it's a good report we see a lot of positive things and we've seen the incremental improvement uh since we had co I mean that's just absolutely devastating to not only our school district but uh a lot of other districts too, people I I know. So uh that's good. You mentioned this a new testing system now. So we going to be you know I guess you compare apples to oranges and see if it's better the same or or or worse. That's coming down from the state. >> It is. We're doing the
051field test as we speak. So we started today on the field test. Uh we'll be doing field tests for the next three weeks. uh where they're just take taking a smaller version of the test mostly for we don't get the test scores back or anything. It's just to try out the technology and for students to become familiar with the system. Uh but it is an adaptable test. So that means the question level is supposed to change in difficulty depending on how they answer a question. So if they're missing several questions in a row, the questions are supposed to get easier. And if they are getting a many of them right, they're supposed to continue to go up so that they get uh a band a proficiency level. I don't even know if we're going to
052get an exact score. They haven't told us that how it's going to be scored yet. So, we don't even know if it's going to be. They're a range of somewhere between 80 and 85. I'm not quite sure yet how they're going to be scoring that. So, it'll be all new for us. Hopefully, we'll be able to do some comparison, but I think that we'll probably be um starting all over. >> Okay. But it could but for for a lot of districts, I'm sure it's going to make things more difficult. You know, I mean, I mean, what's changed that requires the test to be changing? You know, it's it'd be a tough question to answer, but you know, a lot of talk in the uh coming out of the federal government about getting back to the
053basics, you know, reading or writing and arithmetic and um you know, you're making a change. So, it'll be difficult to assess where when we do this again, new test. So, it's going to be difficult to assess where we were to this year or you you'll see the numbers, but you know, hopefully they're the same or or or better. How often they change? Did you have a a set cycle when they ch changed the testing? >> The first year that I got here was Park. So, that was the last time the test was changed. They changed the name, but they didn't change the test. Uh, and this we just found out uh the third week of August that this was going to be changed. So, it's pretty late to us. I know there were some legal
054things that were going on between the testing company and the state of New Jersey. So, we found out pretty late. I mean, this may this may be amazing and we get really great data and students get a a range of scores that are very indicative of where they perform on a regular basis, but we just don't know. We're hopeful and optimistic that we're not changing how we're we're teaching because we teach to the standards and I think that they'll still do I know the students will still do well and this may benefit some of our students. >> I thank you for all that information and once again it was a very good presentation. Thank you, Mr. Cass. Uh, as a quick followup to that line of questioning with regards to the last year of SLA,
055uh, next year will be the final presentation uh, for SLA scores, right? Because they took SLA tests this year or, uh, did they now take, um, >> so this is from the spring. So, the ones from for 256 is the new assessment. It's still called NJSLA- A for adaptive. >> Got it. Thank you. >> Just want to make it a little longer. Test name. >> Excellent. Uh, any other board members? Yes, Mr. >> I just wanted to make a quick comment to congratulations to you and the team because I think um we talked about it a few years ago where our our math and ELA scores feel like they've been like kind of inverse of each other, right? We focus on ELA and it seems like we dipped a little bit in math, but this
056is one of the not one of the first years, but a continuing progression of really bringing all the standards up. So, I congratulations to you and the team and thank you for your focus on not just one area, but really making sure that we're hitting all the different areas with the different coaches and and all the different uh techniques and and programs that you brought in to implement. So, congratulations and thank you for the update. >> Thank you. I will pass that along. >> Okay. Um that concludes uh Dr. Culus' presentation. So, we'll go ahead and continue on with the agenda. Superintendent comments. Dr. Forte. Okay. Um, I just wanted to [clears throat] remind everybody that the early voting is has started on last Saturday, October 25th. It goes through November 2nd, 10:00 a.m. to
0578:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. I'm sorry, Monday through Saturday and Sundays 10:00 a.m. till 6 pm. The regular vote, regular election will be on November 4th. Uh we do have early voting in town hall, so it's a it's a good thing for convenience for our um voters here. It was nice to see our sustainable Jersey people down at uh school boards this week and it was an honor to get the Browns award again. And uh we have half days this week for for parent conferences and next week schools will be closed on the 6th and 7th for the NJA convention. And that's it for the superintendent comments. >> Thank you Dr. Fort. Assistant superintendent comments. Dr. Cullis. >> Our kindergarten numbers are holding 77 at Lake View Riverview 92 with a num total number of
058169. Uh our November 11th we'll be showing the growing up in the digital age the elementary version at Lake View and that's part of the screenagers program that will be at 7 o'clock in the Lake View APR and this concludes assistant superintendent report. >> Thank you Dr. Cullis. Business administrator comments Mrs. Gowski >> one comment uh the district has been selected to for an administrative review from the national school lunch program. Uh the this is a review to evaluate the meals uh that we provide in the pro in the in the school and is done for any uh participating school uh and we are one of them. The review includes both critical and general areas uh to ensure compliance in all programs and and also includes uh both of in um in on-site components. That
059concludes my report. >> Thank you, Mrs. Gowski. At this moment in time, we'll go ahead and open it up for public questions or comments. Currently, it is at 8:25 p.m. Seeing no one come up to the mic and no one online, um we are going to close public comments at 8:25 p.m. for all business action to be taken. Mrs. Adelis, can you walk us through that section, please? >> Sure. Um, I move the following resolutions. Uh under old business, they resolve that the board approve the following reports from September 2025, the treasur of school monies reports and the board secretary reports, the education reports report of student enrollment for September 2025 and the report of health office September 2025 as well as the 2024 2025 HIP self-grading and see minutes resolved from the uh sessions
060of 1 and two September 8th, 2025 and the regular session and executive session meetings from September 22nd, 202. 2025. >> I'll second. >> Thank you very much. Any questions or comments? >> Roll call, please. >> Dr. Moore, >> yes. >> Mr. Adelis, >> yes. >> Miss Asterino, >> yes. >> Mr. Cass, >> yes. >> Mr. Anderson, >> yes. >> Mr. Capello, >> uh, yes to all except uh, C2. I need to abstain as I was not in attendance at the September 22nd meeting. >> Mr. Kim, >> yes. Next item on the agenda is new business action to be taken. Mr. Capello, if you can walk us through personnel, please. >> I'd be happy to. If there are no objections under personnel, I would like to move as a block items one through nine. Uh item
061one consists of new hires, resignations, retirements, employee leaves, extra pay, salary adjustments. Number two is approving a an employee for unpaid extended leave. Uh number three are reimbursement of mentors fees for staff that are listed. Number four is uh another unpaid leave for New Jersey Family Leave Act. Number five is approving unpaid extended leave uh for an employee. Um number six is approving the withholding of a salary increment for the 20 26 27 school year for employee number 1226. Number seven is the board retroactively approving uh for leave of absence under FMLA for an employee. Number eight, uh approving uh leave of absence under FMLA for another employee. Number nine, approving the master staff list which was attached tab one for the 2526 school year. And finally, number 10, approving the substitute list attached for
062the 2526 school year. >> I'll second. Thank you. Questions or comments? Seeing none, roll call, please. >> Dr. Moore, >> yes. >> Misselis, >> yes. >> Miss Asterino, >> yes. >> Mr. Cass, >> yes. >> Mr. Anderson, >> yes. >> Mr. Capello, >> yes. >> Mr. Kim, >> yes. Dr. Moore, can you walk us through, please? >> Sure. I'd like to move uh for approval the following resolutions under uh instruction and program. Under number one, we have workshops for teachers. Uh A and B is the NJTSOL conference. Uh item number two is to approve the attached list of field trips. Item number three is to approve uh staff development workshops to provide mandated dyslexia training. Item number four is to um approve the Danielson group to provide evaluation training to Mars Catholic High School. That
063comes out of the title two funds. Uh item number five is to approve the attached nursing services plan for 2526 school year. Item six is to approve the following title three consortium purchases uh A through D. >> I'll second. >> Great. Thank you. Any questions or comments? >> Seeing none, roll call, please. >> Dr. Moore, >> yes. >> Mr. Delos, >> yes. >> Miss Asterino, >> yes. >> Mr. Cass, >> yes. >> Mr. Anderson, >> yes. Mr. Capello. >> Yes. >> Mr. Kim. >> Yes. The next item on the agenda is governance. I'll go ahead and proceed by motioning that we approve the list of policies as outlined in the agenda. The first 15 policies are for reading and adoption and there are also three policies for first reading. >> I'll second. >> Thank you.
064Questions or comments? Um I was able to attend a class on AI at the workshop. So quickly wanted to state that I met um the uh uh I'm drawing a blank on the policies company um >> Strauss House. Thank you. Um the Strauss Esme representative that I spoke to actually wrote the AI policy that we are voting on today. So, uh, we did talk at length and there, you know, uh, while I'm definitely going to approve this, uh, policy, I do want us as a board to maybe take a look and maybe deep, uh, a deeper dive into our AI policies and, uh, something more comprehensive. And the Strauss SMA representative was definitely open to working together with us to maybe develop something that could be more statewide. So, um, I'll talk more about it
065during, uh, for the good of the cause, but, uh, definitely eager to take a look at that. >> Mr. Kim, may I make make just a quick comment of policies in general? >> Please. >> Um, I saw an email, and I don't know if anyone else did, from uh, New Jersey school boards that they are going to be offering a new free service, a new free policy service. Um, am I the only one who saw this? Hopefully, I didn't dream it. Um, but my understanding is that they're going to be offering a free policy service. Um, you could pay for the ability to have edits done to them, but uh, this is something new, brand new that they just announced. Um, and I don't know how this will interact with what Strauss Esme does, but
066something we should probably look into. >> Sure. >> I just wanted to also note on this AI. So, we originally did approve the Strauss Esme uh policy version in the spring, but then working with Dr. Forte, we found that it really didn't fit all of the scenarios for us. So, this version is revised to incorporate some of things specific for Dunville. uh because after we approve this policy then we can go and write our our AI plan which we couldn't do until we changed the policy because our plan that we've been working on the policy didn't support the the plan. >> Perfect. >> So that's what the next step is. >> Thank you so much for clarifying that. >> Yeah, I'll share I'll share the plan with you. We've been working on it for a
067little while and once like like Dr. Coll just said, once it's approved, we can move on to final plan. In the policy, it says that the superintendent has to create a plan. So that's why there's a plan too. >> Yeah. I think one of the biggest takeaways from the uh workshop was that um you know one there were a lot of opinions or a lot of um emotions around the use of AI whether it was at the student level or at the teacher level. Uh but but the presenter also presented um some surveys. You know, one of the more striking points that uh resonated with me with with me was that students uh feared that they would be accused of plagiarizing or using AI to do their homework, which you know, which is kind of
068um striking because, you know, the the common theme or the common complaint is that they use AI to do the homework, but then you have uh students who are being surveyed saying they're scared of being accused of that. So, um, kind of I think it just definitely discusses a conversation, but eager to hear what that plan would look like. Absolutely. >> Mr. Kim, if I might just one quick comment on AI. I think this is an area that's super important that we are aligned with what the high school's doing or at least in collaboration with, right? Because we don't want to have one policy. It's a primarily driven probably at least right now and this can certainly change in the future to our middle school but certainly we don't want the kids to get used
069to something in the middle school and then go to high school and it's dramatically different or you know aligned significantly differently. So I think it would be important that when we have those uh collaboration meetings to understand what they're doing with AI. >> Yeah, I actually ran into the president of the Morris Hills Regional School District and uh definitely um discussed that too. So, he's eager to work with us um if if that came down to it. >> Excellent. Uh if there are no further comments or questions, uh roll call, please. >> Dr. Moore, >> yes. >> Mr. Delis, >> yes. >> Miss Asterino, >> yes. >> Mr. Cass, >> yes. >> Mr. Anderson, >> excuse me. Except no on the mil fun. >> Mr. Anderson, >> yes. >> Mr. Capello, >> yes. Mr. Kim.
070>> Yes. Mr. Anderson, can you walk us through finance, please? >> Sure. If there are no objections, I'd like to move under D finance. Items number one through six is a block. This includes uh our checks list, including the milk fund, Mr. Cass. Um the donation to Lake View and Rur School from the dental office of Dr. Nat Trajo in alignment in alignment with orthodontic medical or excuse me, Orthodontic Health Month. Donation specifics are goodie bag with a toothbrush and a pencil to bring awareness to orthodontic health offices working with uh school nurses on the project. Item number three is for the board to approve the attached 2026 2027 budget calendar. Item number four is for the b board to approve the to accept the donation of 16 lawn signs to be placed on district
071property that provide information to the public about the November 4th, 2025 funding vote donated by Dr. Steven Forte valued at approximately $200. Item number five is for the board to uh retroactively approve the attached quote from educateme.net for classroom audio instructional technology communication and emergency notification and response to replace the outdated FM systems in the amount of $17,721.80 paid from maintenance reserve. And finally, add number six, for the board to approve the agreement with Sensory Garden Occupational Therapy to provide physical therapy services at $125 per hour and physical therapy evaluations at $400 per hour for the 2025 2026 school year, not to exceed $25,000. >> I'll second. >> Any questions or comments? >> Roll call, please. >> Dr. Moore, >> yes. >> Miss Delos, >> yes. Miss Asterino, >> yes. >> Mr. Cass, >> on
072the milk fund, yes. On everything else. >> Mr. Anderson, >> yes. >> Mr. Capello, >> yes. >> Mr. Kim, >> yes. Mr. Cass, can you walk us through operations, please? >> Be glad to. >> Nothing to talk about for transportation. Item two, buildings and grounds 2.1. I'm going to ask the board to approve the attached uniform memorandum agreement with the demo police department for the 202526 school year and the attached memorandum agreement with demo police department for the sharing of live streaming video for the 2526 school year. Item 2.2 I'm asking the board to approve the donation of a trex bench to the oaks at Dville. The bench was obtained through a plastic recycling program with the Trex Corporation in cooperation with the Denell public schools township of DBLE and the Oaks at Denbal. Item
0732.3. I'm asking the board to approve the use of the board property at 46 Nicole Drive to be used by the Morris County team to conduct drills on or about October 29th. >> I'll second. >> Thank you. Questions or comments? >> Roll call, please. >> Dr. Moore. >> Yes. >> Mr. Delos. >> Yes. >> Miss Asterino. >> Yes. >> Mr. Cass. >> Yes. >> Mr. Anderson. >> Yes. >> Mr. Capello. >> Yes. >> Mr. Kim. >> Yes. >> Okay. That concludes uh the resolution portion of our agenda. We'll go ahead and proceed with the good of the cause. The committee reports correspondence discussion items such as board meeting highlights uh any kind of scheduling um for public school events and classroom space considerations or anything else gerine to the district. >> Yeah, I'd like to
074give the board some highlights from the October 27th Riverview PTA meeting. Um, I had a very short presentation just reminding everybody to go vote. I didn't tell them how to vote, but I told them how important it was to vote in this election. Um, Mrs. T mentioned a couple of key things, and I know this comes up in the sports programs, too, that um, when they have these various events with uh, the parents there and the grandparents there, no pictures can be taken without permission. Um she also mentioned that the danceathon was very popular with the kids and they'll be doing it again. Um is another interesting thing as we've talked about some of the controversies with vaccine and um the rise of autism. Um there were 60 plus students at Riverview that have allergies
075and going back to many many years ago when I was in school I think two kids had allergies. So, it was uh that's a um a a big deal. And uh one thing they're they're right on top of is that they have an approved snack list when they have uh events where you they're going to be be serving snacks and things like that to make sure it's uh acceptable. Um they went through the PTA code of conduct and um here's another good tip I got out of that meeting because many of us are involved with other organizations and we know how important fundraising is and they mentioned that um try not to mention an amount but just say they can make a donation because she says there's a disparity in a wide range of uh
076financial stability with families in the town. uh some people can can afford making lots of donations and some people cannot. So they recommended just ask for a donation if you're doing something like that. And the uh another good news that came out of it was the their PTA membership is up by 7%. >> Thank you, Mr. Cass. Any other board members? >> Um I'm sorry, Dearis, if you could strike me from um old business. I was not here for the September 8th meeting. If you could do that, thank you. Um, I want to uh provide this QR code to everybody. This is uh one of the u presentations that I was able to attend. I don't know if you want to grab the QR code um in Atlantic City. It was put on by Legal
077One and it is AI and the legality and the issues that are happening right now with schools and an issue that happened here in New Jersey. um where students who not only take the photos or create the AI but the accompllices or anyone who actually shares it will then also be uh part of that um consequence. Um so and and included Megan's law as well kind of pulling in from from that as well. I had a third thing that I wanted to mention to you and I forgot what it was so it'll come back to me. Yeah, we'll return to you any uh that's fine. Mr. Anderson, did you have something? >> Uh yeah, just real quick wanted to make mention that uh I know that a few of us uh had the opportunity to
078be down at schoolboard's convention last week. Um and I just wanted to give a congratulations and thank you to Dr. Forte who um actually was involved in a in a coaching presentation um and panel. Uh he did a great job representing the district and uh it was Dr. Forte's last school boards as a active superintendent. So, it was great to see him uh on a panel as he's been for quite a few different um schoolboard workshops over the years. >> I'm sure he'll come down next year just for fun, right? Um can I get that thing back? Um I remembered what it was. Um so, uh I I'm involved in a lot of federal grants and things like that. I I remember seeing the New Jersey SLA, the NJSLA, um request for proposal. uh it
079came out two years ago. They finally gave it and and you know now it's uh becoming you know coming to fruition. It is a seven-year grant uh with an option for three. So that means we might be using this for the next 10 years. Just so you have that info. >> Uh there's been a lot of news around Montlair uh Monontlair Board of Education. Uh Mr. Capella shared an article. Um we did ask the presenters from um how do you pronounce the auditing firm? Uh is it Nisvasia to talk about um Monontlair and uh some of the steps that they uh made to ensure that we would uh be protected as well. So I do believe that that will be a conversation or topic that will be discussed during the school audit presentation. Um I
080also ordered uh I also owe the board a brief uh overview of the board goals. So real quickly, uh goal number one was to strength uh strengthen the onboarding tools available for new board members. Um Mrs. Asterino did a lot of work to put together a document. So I'm very grateful for that. I took a presentation uh or workshop class down in Atlantic City uh discussing that as well. So between her notes and uh some of my learnings uh we'll we hope to have a a final output finalized uh by perhaps December. Um number two is to formalize the process of setting district and board goals. Uh that is something that we have yet to discuss. Uh but I have made a lot of observations with regards to what Dr. Collis and Dr. Forte have
081been doing. Uh as well as some of the mental notes that I've been taking with regard to our district uh or board goals. So I hope to uh put together something and have a discussion during our next governance committee. Uh advocate for district needs at all levels of the government. So that is something that um we are doing with regard to our participation at the county level for the legislative committee. And so uh we're hoping to have some handouts that we could give out to board members uh if they happen to talk to any legislators. Um so that's something that's in the works. And then finally, uh, advance a safe, supported, and respectful school environment by reviewing board policies on student code of conduct. So, I think Dr. Cliff and the IMP committee have uh
082had some conversation surrounding that. And so, I'm I'm really eager to see um the results of those uh those steps as well. So, and uh I think that concludes my comments. Are there any other board members that wish to uh add to the good of the cause? Okay. Uh, I believe there's a need for a second executive committee. >> No, I have the highlights. >> Oh, yes, please. >> So, I have the green award, Dr. Cullles's PowerPoint, and the donated bench from the Trex company. And then, what do you think? Should I um request a copy of that manual for free? I was going to fill it out. Did anybody else want to fill it out instead? But I don't mind doing it. I have it filled out, ready to hit submit. >> You're talking
083about the school awards form. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I I kind of assumed that the administration needed to do it. >> Yeah, we'll do it. I got it. >> Great. Thank you. >> And also, um, just want to remind the, uh, finance committee, the auditor will be present on the November 10th finance committee to answer any questions as well. >> Thank you. Okay, that concludes the good of the cause. We'll go ahead and open it up for uh public comments at 8:45 p.m. the second section. No one on uh seeing no one online and no one coming up to the mic, we'll go ahead and close it at 8:45. Mrs. Asino, can you take us into our second executive committee or session? >> Sure. >> I move to convene in executive session in accordance with
084section 8 of the open public meetings act. The purpose of this closed session will be to discuss negotiations, legal, security, and personnel issues. Minutes of this session will be made available to the public when the need for confidentiality no longer exists. >> I'll second. >> Thank you. All in favor? >> I >> Any nays? Abstensions? We before we go into executive for the public, we will not be voting on anything further after executive session. So we'll adjourn immediately after. We are now in executive session at 8:47