001Good evening everyone. It's really good to see some of our citizens advisory committee members back. I just keep it. Um, and I'm really excited for what we're going to be doing with the committee over the next two months. Um, I spoke way too much at the last meeting, so I'm going to try to not speak as much this time. I promise you, G. I really do. She doesn't believe me. >> Swear by. >> Um, but um, essentially, and I'll let Dr. Lman talk a little bit more about this. Um we are working on one of our goals from our strategic plan which is the portrait of a graduate and um it is now at the phase where there was a committee needed to sort of provide some community feedback and we figured this with the
002diversity and some of the you know helpful feedback we've already gotten from our citizens advisory committee would be the perfect place to do that. Um, so I just really quick figure we can go around the room. Um, I know Mary did that with our waist committee, but we have some more people here now. Just sort of introduce yourself. You can maybe just share a sentence or two about what you do if you'd like. Um, when you're not at this meeting, um, and then I'll turn over to Dr. Layman just to talk a little bit more about it. So, I'll I'll go first, I guess. I'm Kate Bratner. Um, this is now my second term on the board. I was a music teacher for about a decade. Um, and then I started working from home and
003I have lots of teachers in my family. Um, and three kids who are currently in our school district. Um, and I guess we'll start over here and then we'll kind of go around. >> Hi everyone. I'm Hu Padi. Uh, I'm engineer by trade and currently working with PSD. >> Yeah. Great. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Hi everybody. and I was the chairperson of this committee and brought it back up and I'm so glad to see you all here tonight and now it's in good hands with Miss Ratner. I'm now president of the board of education who I'm sitting back. I don't like to sit back. I still have to say something. My son always says, "Mom, what's in your head? Don't let it come out your mouth." So, I have to watch. Um I This
004is my 22nd year as a board member. I was 18 years in another district and I think this is my fourth fourth year here. So I do have a lot of background and I have two students. My son's a vice principal Hy Park High School and my daughter teaches the fourth grade in New Brunswick and I have a daughter. I have twins. They were just 46 last week. Um is a nurse. So and all proud proud mother and father of good public school education. All three of my children. So, uh, you can't go wrong with a good public school education which is being offered here in Monroe. So, thank you. Okay. I'm Vanessa Forsa. I'm a new board member. I've been in for just a few months now and um, I got involved because I
005have numerous grandchildren that are in the district and I just want to be part of it. >> Good evening. Shovic. I'm a staff member here. I've been a staff member um, in Monroe Township since 2001. I started at the middle school as an English um teacher and an ICR teacher and then I went right up through special ed gened and for the last 13 years I've been the staff development coordinator um in the district along with one of my other colleagues and and I work out of um the central office under Dr. Layman. And basically at this point what we do in our office is everything soup to nuts in terms of providing staff development to our teachers. Uh we work with our supervisors. We work with our principles and then we also hear from
006our teaching staff and our par professionals and our bus drivers um secretaries what they need and we do our best to bring that programming to them. >> Great. I am Sharma. I'm a board member since April 2024. Monro resident. My two boys went to this school. We were very happy. No complaints at all. Education was good. Teachers good, principles good. Everything was good. And I'm very happy to be a Mandro resident and to be a board member and serve a community work and help students and teachers and principles whatever they need my guidance. I'm here. >> Good evening everyone. Josephine Distri Soville. Uh I have two children, a two-year-old and a third grader in the district. Um I am a former teacher. Uh have current formal training in both education and special education. I'm currently
007a VP of operations for a healthcare company. >> Good evening. My name is Charlotte Bcuda. I am in my 25th year as an educator, currently serving as an instructional coach in a neighboring district. Um, I have two children. One that graduated already is a sophomore in college and then another that is about to graduate from the middle school soon. >> I'm Robin Shelblock. Hi, good evening. I um am very proud that I graduated from TCJ um in 2009 um as the first as one of the stu students that was in their first five-year education masters program. So, I went from having no degree to um having a master's degree in five years um in education and special education um and um I taught for 10 years um in a neighboring district um special ed and
008I'm real happy to be here and one of the reasons I wanted to be on the committee was to stay involved in teaching. Unfortunately, I did have to retire earlier than I planned because I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. And the only reason I bring that up is because as an educator, March is multiple sclerosis awareness month. Um, so I just wanted to let everybody know that things are possible um with a disease like this, but um you know, you never know what lies underneath somebody. So it's very true. >> That's good. Yeah. So Mr. Rner kind of gave us a little introduction. Um the portrait of a graduate project um was kind of brought to us a couple years ago. Um and we spent some time and specifically this year uh started to take
009a really good look at um how to make it happen. You know what's what's behind it. There are a lot of different ways to kind of uh embark on this process and some of them involve using private companies. some of them it involves doing it yourself internally. Um so we're at a point now where we're here with a group um a steering committee and some of our steering committee members logged in. The weather was not super friendly tonight so um we did give them that option. Um and just for context tonight is kind of anformational session. Um we everybody will get a little bit of homework to do and we come back next month uh and really kind of dive into some of the work that we uh we're going to get previewed tonight. Um
010and and this is really an overview of the portrait of graduate and some of the nuts and bolts behind what it is. Um and then some resources about what they look like. Uh some districts that have recently undergone and went through the process and can see what their outcomes look like. Um just so we can kind of get a context of, you know, Monroe is going to have its own unique portrait of graduate. That's the whole purpose of this. Um, but it always helps to kind of see uh what other districts kind of have as outcomes and we can craft our outcomes and projects and uh information we distribute uh the way we want to right to make it Monroe. So, uh, Sheriff Fobic's going to take over and kind of run us through some
011of the work she's done. She's really spearheaded this uh work and uh we're excited to see where it takes us. >> Thank you. Um I I became interested in this work when I was going through um an administrative licensing process and this was something that really spoke to me and it was something that I think we can as a community really sink our teeth into because it comes back it starts with and comes back to us and our children and what we value in our community. So we're going to go over that tonight. Kind of give you an overview of what that looks like. So, if you remember back during the strategic planning process, for those of you who engaged in it, I remember being in this very room, we have all kinds of posters
012over the walls with stickers. This topic, this portrait of a graduate topic kept rising to the top. It was something that over and over again, it kept coming up. So, it's no surprise that it's one of the top goals that we see in our current strategic plan. And I think it comes out of this. I think it we it comes out of the idea that, you know, every child is unique and it is our job when they're here and we see them every day that it doesn't matter what grade they're in, doesn't matter what abilities they have, we see something in them that can make them more successful when they are with us and then when they leave. I always say even when I I do trainings with our staff, you know, our job aid
013number one is to receive our kids in the morning, make them better during the day, and send them home to their families as better than when we received them. So, a lot of what a portrait of a graduate is, and I know that this kind of came the idea of um a north star was really what was attributed to our district's uh strategic plan, but really the portion of a graduate component of it is really our compass for our kids. Okay. Um, and what it will allow us to do as an educational community is really look at what is it that we value, right? We're going to create a collective vision. As you can see from our presentation, we're going to create that collective vision. We're going to look at what are the skills that
014our kids, our students will walk away with every single year. Okay? And when they graduate, what are the skills, the competencies, the mindsets, those qualities? Those for us have to be essential to success. They've got to be one and the same because those are the students. We we owe them nothing less than that. They need that. They need to be walking out of here with success and measured success. This will help us do that. It will also help us guide our curriculum and instruction. It'll help us guide our programming that we develop, whether that's during school hour programming or extracurricular programming, summer programming. It also will help us inform the next strategic plan or the next long-term initiative that we have whether that happens to be falling underneath one of our other goals in our
015current strategic plan of buildings and grounds or operations or facilities or any of the technology um pieces that we will look at over the next couple of years as a district. It's more than a document and as Dr. layman had shared um just a few moments ago. You know, this is something that we'll be able to craft for ourselves and that's why it's more than a document. At the end of this process, what we hope this will be for us is something what that will be demon demonstrative of our shared vision and not only of our shared vision of what it means to be educated in Monroe, but what it means for our students. meaning what will they be able to contribute as citizens beyond our doors once they walk out of here? And I
016use the words for me beyond our doors. And I'm not trying to um sway anyone, but for me, you know, we have families that come in and out of our district. They may not graduate at a at out of 12th grade. They may move mid career of school. We still want those students that leave, let's say, sixth grade, seventh grade, third grade, and move to a new town to walk away with something. We want to say they were Monroe educated and they should be able to at some point go back to that portrait of a graduate and see exactly what skill sets, what mindsets, what predispositions those children have cultivated as a result of being educated here. Okay. Um so what are the next steps? So as Dr. Layman had shared, we have re a
017research base. I've gone through um and I've really taken a look at through some of my administrative work that I was doing for my lensure and then just some of my PD work that I do for the district. Really looked at some of the other school districts around the state and even some of the other states, but really focusing in on the schools. Um they the districts have porches of a graduate. Some of them are very um elaborate. Then there's some that are that that don't really have too much bite to them. And then there's some that are all over in the middle. Um we need to examine them as part of our next step in the process and kind of see what's out there, what could be and then what feels right for us.
018Um we also need to do some research. We've got to really figure out what is it that our our community values. What do they want to see our students leave our district with? Um, and that is really kind of where we're at. Uh, I know that if you received an email today from Mr. Moralda, he had a link in there of a draft survey. That's really one of the next crucial steps. We've got to look at that survey um and refine it and make sure that we we have something that is ready to go uh to our community because at the end of the day, we'd like to get that out as soon as possible. We're targeting next week. Um so that's really kind of where we're at in that piece of the process. Um
019for that launch to when you mention to our community, is that to the parents and the everybody? It's got right now my understanding is it's going to be to the uh steering committee. >> Okay. >> And the school community members thing of steering committee. >> Okay. So this the actual survey like because you to look at the survey but then it will go out >> is that I guess that's the >> when we put it out to the community it's the community. >> It's the community but right now we have to refine what that survey looks like. That's the first step. Um our target is to launch that. >> So speaking of targets um here are the timelines. I'm going to look up here so that I can see. So, our timelines, we're really looking
020to get some feedback from you here. Um, those of you who have received the the email from Mr. Moralda, we're looking to get some feedback from you. So, if you could look at the survey and respond to him at that email, give us your your feedback on it so that we can make the necessary um edits and updates to it. We also are looking for feedback from you. if you could take a look at some of the uh portraits of a graduate that he shared with you. I believe he shared eight. >> Um take a look, give us some feedback. What do you think? And we're going to talk about that that feedback looks like hopefully at our next meeting on April uh 21st. So again, just to go back to our timeline, we're going
021to finalize that survey. We're going to uh this coming week, we want to launch it on the uh 25th of March, which I believe was next Wednesday if I'm not mistaken. >> That'll be open to April 10th, right after we return um from our spring recess. And then we will start looking at the data that we get from there and other data points and resources in our next meeting. Um and then we will start to see what kind of themes are emerging and those themes that hopefully emerge from the data that we collect uh will hopefully then enable us to start prioritizing what our portrait is going to look like and how it will evolve. >> Any questions from anyone on the committee? >> Once the survey will be launched the link link will be
022available on the on the school district website. We'll we're going to send it out in every way we can. We'll connect connect with our uh connections and all of our uh plan retirement communities. You know, we'll get it out through the township. We we'll do everything we can to get as many voices and as much feedback as we we can. >> Yep. >> And and are we authorized to kind of forward that link from our end if with few of the kind of residents if they are not aware of it? Yeah, >> actually that would be highly like >> we would hope that you will like. So that was one of the things that we sort of talked about when we decided to create the the citizens advisory committee was that you know we tried
023to find a diverse group as much as as we could without really knowing each of you. Um you know and that you will then reach out to your communities and ask them to you know please do this because obviously the the more participation we have from the various factions of our community the better the results will be. When you say community, it's not just those parents, >> correct? >> Community members, business owners. Yep. >> I guess um that was something that I was I started going through the survey and we could like when we look at the feedback would be great, but like I think it's a second page it asked like how many children you have and it says like one to five. >> Um and then it says which schools and those are
024like mandatory. But obviously for a number of our residents that are in like the you know active adult communities or planned retirement communities, I forget what we're calling >> active adult. Okay. It keeps changing on me. >> I have to write that in the active adult community. >> They wouldn't be able to answer that. So, you know, I just know we want to make that not a mandatory question. >> I think what happens is is the way we've designed the survey is that if you are a parent, you will get a parent bank of questions and it'll come back to general. If you are a staff member, it'll if you are a business owner, community member not associated with a student or a family member in the teaching in the district, then it will go
025to a certain bank of questions and it'll come back to the general. >> That's awesome. What if you're more than one? Like what if you're a teacher? >> Pick the best one that would represent you. You can add that line and pick the best one that you feel represents you. >> Okay. >> But that's the the whole idea is to get the community at large. Again, it's business owners, that's you know, residents, anybody, anybody under the sun. >> I students >> I was going to say the students. Is that something that we can ask them to do during the school day or is it they would have to do it outside of school? because I know that there's been discussion about that because obviously like I know we're attending a seminar at like schoolboard workshop
026where they had gotten feedback for a referendum during the school day meeting the students but I also know we need to be mindful of not every parent would necessarily want their student to participate. I mean like my personal opinion as a parent I would have a problem with it but I do know that there's others that might. So, I was just curious, is that something that we're able to do or would really just be sending at home and asking students? >> So, in terms of student feedback, I think that's a conversation we can have. Okay. Um, there are other ways like instead of just pushing out a survey and having students in front of a computer do it, we can have focus scripts. We can talk to them. Um, again, it's all with parental notification
027and consent, but there's other ways to hear uh the student voice um as opposed to just clicking on a survey. So, and we can kind of discuss that and bring that back to the committee and things like that, but >> student voice is important as well. >> Absolutely. >> Yep. >> Any other questions? My only other thing when I looked at the different districts um and I guess this is something maybe we'll talk about more next month but I did notice that there's some of them sort of like you said that they sort of just list some goals whereas you know I looked I think it was maybe Edison I forget but some of them have like very very like measurable goals where like they identify this the action steps >> um and so I
028guess is that sort of what will decide how we would approach that next month like if we want it to be more detailed in like here's what we'd like to see and here are the steps that we need to take or is that something more that like as an administrative team you're sort of going to determine the best way to move that and sort of with our feedback like would get what those goals would be >> I think right now we're going to focus in on figuring out what the what our community values >> okay >> and then we'll see what that looks like I think it's a little too early to tell kind of where how that would be broken down. We need to know what that that information looks like. >> Okay, that's
029good. >> Yep. >> I had a similar question just in terms of how we will measure success, right? So like is there do we want to survey students who are graduating to see if they feel like they learned these five different things or um it might be too early in the process but just something for consideration to see as we progress if we need to tweak the model or what we originally laid out. >> Yeah, Mr. I was going to ask about um if you're able to share a little bit about the origin of this meaning um is it a DOE initiative? Is it something that's come from a certain body of research or like this kind of sprung up for me? And I was like, >> it is coming out of a body of
030research that actually came out of COVID times when they were talking about how are we really going to make sure that our students have what they need to be college career ready to take that next step and leave into the world beyond high school. Um, and a lot of it had to do if you look at some of the the exemplars that were provided, you're going to start seeing some common threads and some common themes. And then when you kind of walk those back, you're going to see they all have a lot to do with communication and building relationships and those kind of requisite skills that employers regardless of whether it is a a college um you know a a job that requires a college degree or trade or just even your ordinary everyday 16
03117 year old getting a job to fill their summer. these are the these are the skills and and the dispositions that someone really would need and that's kind of where it has emanated from. A lot of states uh especially in the Midwest and in the South, they've created their own as a state and push it through. New York has also created its own and pushed it out to all of the school districts in New York. Um in New Jersey, schools have kind of come to it in their own way for their own purposes. >> Thank you. You're welcome. I'm interested. I saw fair social at the previous slide social emotional. >> Yes. >> Um how how are we going to go about that measure that a lot of that I it again it's going to
032come down to what our community deems as its its characteristics qualities and values and how that our portrait of a graduate takes shape. But I will say to you if you go to that body of research that I was just talking about by and large that body of research talks about the social emotional competencies those five competencies we see them that Castle uh came up with and that our state of New Jersey has adopted those are those responsible decision- making um all of those type of competencies that really will speak they they dovetail into not only is it academic but the um social emotional boost how are we going to be engaging in our communities from that perspective. >> Great. Um so the survey now you had asked for feedback from the committee. What is
033the best way for the members of the committee both those who are are here or online or those maybe who weren't able to come to get that to you >> reply to Mr. Maldo's team member. >> Okay. That way it'll be consolidated to the one that he sent everyone with the resources and he can uh compile it from there and make adjustments because that's where and that email you have the links to the other courses that are graduate. You have a link to tonight's presentation. You have a link to the draft survey. >> Correct. >> So everything's kind of consolidated there and any feedback or any thoughts we kind of keep them there be uh excellent and as organized as we can keep that via email. So >> Okay. But the like I said the
034body of the our discussion and our work will come next month right where we have seen these these uh templates where we have some of the feedback from um the survey. We'll probably still be working on the student piece feedback wise but it'll give us a place to start and have a conversation and begin to formulate. Um the majority of the lifting is going to be done with on the district side, you know, but you guys are uh part of the community that will help steer this a little bit. So yeah. >> All right. Um, and you want the feedback by >> it's on the >> by the 23rd if that if if we can be at that by the 23rd. >> Okay, sounds good. >> All right, >> thank you. Thank you everybody. Have
035a good night and thank you for the information. >> Thank you for coming. My pleasure. >> Nice to see everybody. Do you have excited about are