001Good evening everyone. I am Charles Iikner and welcome to the curriculum committee meeting. It is Thursday, February 12th and it is 500 pm. Present are Dr. Layman, Gail Depay coming over. >> Okay. Gail will be arriving but late. Carmen Alvarez, Dr. Peek, Gail Ratner, Sugasa, Danielle Rest, uh Dr. Kelly Rosselle, Steve Baron Mika and Zach Morala, Samantha Mloud, Jen Rhoden, Maretta Ruel, is that right? >> Ruella Sabatur Anga and Jim Smanski. Okay, before I begin the agenda, as the committee chair, I'd like to stay within the time allocated to us because it's just not fair to the other committee. So if we you know I don't want to exceed another committee's time. So please keep an eye on the time. I would like to end at least two minutes before our time to give the
002next committee the opportunity to get set up. So let's just get to the agenda. Uh we have on the agenda uh Steve you're up first. >> Awesome. Thank you. Okay. Um, so I'm here to uh talk to the board about um a student athlete who came to uh to a couple of us. He came to one of our vice principles, Mr. um Araro, as well as me as the athletic director. Um his name is Rohit Chala. He's one of our football players. He is a member of the NFL Gen Youth National Youth Council. So he represents, you know, it's definitely a leadership role for him, which we're very excited for him to represent us. Uh, Gen Youth equips schools with critical tools and resources to provide students with greater access to nutrition and physical activity.
003Um, as a member of this council, students have project throughout the year um, within their community which promotes the mission of Genude. So, he did sit with a couple of us um, and he came up with a task of um, basically trying to grow the sport of flag football uh, which is a sport right now that is growing significantly within the state. Um, flag football's been in a pilot program since 2022 to 23 season. Um, it is going to be approved next year officially um, as the 35th sanctioned sport in the state of New Jersey. Um, and right now we have over 160 programs in the state of Monroe Township having one of those programs. Um so the idea that Rolet had for for this um for his for his uh for his task was
004to basically um have a camp um for students at the middle school or middle school age to try to promote not only physical activity but the specifically the sport of flag football. Um and there's a nutrition component to this as well. So um basically I'm here to kind of just present that to the board. Um, in order for us to or for him to be able to move with the project, he would have to request a grant which the NFL would give. Uh, the grant would include all the supplies that he needs for the flag football camp. It would also include a $2,500 grant which would be sent to the school. Um, I would have to apply for it, you know, on his behalf, but they would send that to the school for him to
005use for anything else that he needs. And the plan right now would be to use that in order to um provide um some nutritional um I something from a nutrition standpoint, you know, maybe shakes or or bars or something like that for him to to be able to use throughout the camp. Uh the idea would be again to promote flag football and to talk to the student athletes that are coming up to the high school. Um you know, a little bit about the importance of nutrition, working out, um and obviously it would help to hopefully funnel some interest for our flag football program as well, which we run in the spring. Sounds so good. >> Yeah. Yes. 24. Thank you. >> Yeah. Um so I I really love the enthusiasm from a student like proactively
006looking at this grant. So kudos um to to him. >> Yeah. >> I um I wanted to find out if I recall and I might have outdated information. Our flag football program was that only female? Was that co-ed? >> So flag football is the only female sport in the spring. >> It is. Okay. Um so would this camp then also be only for females as well? >> So the flag football the program could be open to anyone in general. Um those are you know some of the details that we have to kind of still work out. But the idea would be to also promote obviously the importance because again he has to promote the importance of physical activity and nutrition just in general but at the same time the idea is for him to try
007to funnel and create a little bit of enthusiasm for black football as a whole. >> Okay. And then my other part, would there be a cost to the students for participating in the camp? >> It would be a free camp. >> It would. Okay. Thank you. >> And he's already uh he's already secured some volunteers uh some of our some of our current football coaches who also work at the middle school and who already have um you know connections with a lot of the students. They have already um agreed to be able to you know you know um volunteer their time to be able to help them run camp. >> Great. Thanks. >> Yeah, of course. >> Anybody else has very much any question? Okay, thank you so much. >> Awesome. Thank you so much.
008I appreciate it. >> Okay, we'll move on to the second item. >> Good evening. Uh I am bringing a pilot for curriculum this evening. Um it there is a nominal cost associated with it which uh falls within our allocated budget for the 2025 2026 school year. Um, as we've presented on previously, Monroe Township has done a lot of work on our MTSS system, multi-tered systems of support. Um, but this program exists in a constant cycle of reflection, revision, and refinement. So, we are always looking at our student data, at our staff capacity, professional development needs, needs for resources, and being able to um adjust as we go. uh one of the areas uh in ELA that we are looking at is to have a digital resource which is that will provide a connection to our
009NWA map program. So our MAP scores funnel into be able to provide students support. Um but there is also an embedded diagnostic tool which teachers can use. Our MAP is our universal screener. So all students take MAP and from that data we can identify students who may be in need of intervention. Once those students are identified, it is up to the interventionist to determine what are their specific areas of need. It is it is it a foundational literacy piece funological awareness or fluency or decoding? Is it more comprehension? Um and has an embedded diagnostic in that. Um, so we want to explore the potential for this um, particularly at the middle school, but we have enough licenses within this pilot to also explore within our 9th grade MTSS system um, and possibly working with M.
010Mloud um, at our upper elementary as well. Um, what this would include is all access and rostering to EXL for the remainder of the school year. um professional development and follow-up professional learning opportunities uh in small group for the teachers who would be implementing the program. Um the company would also walk me through our usage and to really identify how we can use this for a progress monitoring tool for students who are in intervention um as well. So, we I am seeking your approval to be able to pilot um this program. >> Yeah. >> Cost is >> the cost uh the exam cost is $595 for 500 licenses. >> Did you say for 500 licenses? >> Wow. Wow. >> It's basically the licenses are no charge. It's the setup. >> Okay. >> The rostering and
011setup fee. >> Yes. Um Mr. Lightner, sorry, if I ask a question. Oh, cool. All right. Um, so >> it sounds fantastic. I was just curious as to like the selection of the grades if there was a reason for focusing more on like the middle school like instead of the like lower elementary or um like what I guess sort of how you decided on those grade levels. >> Um, so Ms. Mloud and I worked really intensely last year on identifying for K to 5 what our diagnostic needs were. Okay. Um and we identified uh Hagerty for phmic awareness really K to2 but also that can extend in tier three intervention up you know to grade five >> um and UFly um University of Florida Institute for Reading um for funological awareness. So those are really
012the diagnostic tools that are in place there. While we can also use UFly at the middle school, there's a comprehension component that we really want to dig more into, our current digital tool through Edenum is study islands. Um, and it's not providing the same resources that we would have for um from um so when I was at Texo at the conference last week, um I had met with one of the reps. They really sought her out. did a lot of one-on-one time with me and we had a follow-up call um for her to really I established what our specific needs were and made sure that this would um meet those needs. >> Great. Thank you. >> And we also do have like we said Edenum is part of our study island and we have some
013licenses that we use for the ELA tiered students >> at the lower end. But this will give us a good view of what EXL has to offer ELA 2 at the higher level and we'll kind of weigh which one would work out better for our students. So we're getting >> to see both okay >> at this point but our our lower end our key to >> you feel you already have diagnostic >> at that level. >> So that's wonderful. >> This is another piece that you're going that's going to be added on. How are you going to evaluate this? Um, so there's a couple po components to it. So we've looked at a couple tools that we did not end up adopting because when we piloted them, the time that it would take to implement
014with fidelity was not there within the school day. Uh we looked at student engagement with the program. We looked at small groups of students and the progress that they made during that pilot period when they when we were implementing with Fidelity. So that's what we would be looking at. We want to look at how students engage with the platform. Um how teachers engage with the platform as well. Is this user friendly? Is it is the technology intuitive? Um and is it giving the type of data that teachers are also able to then teach into one-on-one and small group? Because a computer program is not an intervention. It's a tool for our interventionists to really have that one-on-one and that small group time to to close any gaps. >> Okay. Any other questions? Yeah. >> Okay.
015Thank you so much. >> You're welcome. >> Okay. Let's move on. Uh we then have um Mr. Morocco. >> All right. I just have uh two handouts tonight and there's a lot of information on these and I'm not I'm not human. take these with you to Mr. You don't mind. >> Thank you. So, um what what do you uh there's another So, yeah. Uh two handouts that are coming your way. uh both are related to the uh new electives that we will be offering at both the Monroe Middle School and the Monroe High School. And what's in front of you is is not just new electives, but also updated electives. And we'll talk primarily about the middle school uh for now. And I just want to uh preface all of this that the the courses
016I'm going to talk about tonight are not the only electives that are being offered. These are just some the new ones or the ones that have been recently refreshed. So, you'll notice that you won't see the culinary arts program on here. Um, you won't see the television production program here or any of the fine performing arts programs. I'm just here to talk about the new or refreshed courses. And, uh, speaking specifically first with the middle school, back in the late summer, uh, Mr. Snider, myself, and the middle school administration. We took a critical look at the electives at the middle school, um everything from how well they were being attended or as far as selected as far as uh course selections, um the viability of the curriculum, uh making sure it was up to date.
017Many of our programs have uh seen new or tweaked state standards over the last couple years. So, that's always important to go through those processes. and also making sure that they were appropriately vertically aligned with our elementary and high school programs for purposes of continuity. In addition to that, you know, uh all the electives at the Mon country Middle School are designed to be fully inclusive. So, we want to make sure all the appropriate special education uh accommodations are are set up in the event that a student should choose one of those electives um in their instruction. So basically we just wanted to make sure we were up to date wellness check for lack of a better description. And a couple things that came out of this in conversations with both high school staff administration,
018middle school staff administration, and even some members of our uh steering committees that we rely on in the community. Uh the first thing we noticed was that our sixth grade cycle class um that was formerly called computer applications uh was in in uh in need of of an examination. And what was really cool about this this portion of the process is that a couple years ago, as you know, we installed the new clicks course at the middle school, which is a mandatory fullyear class to teach career readiness, sele life literacy, and key skills. And many of the foundational uh computer application topics that were historically taught in the sixe class were already being covered in the clicks class. So what that did was it gave us an opportunity to maybe look at what other type
019of uh and I believe it's 8week cycles at the middle school. What other 8-week uh could be wrong but that could be longer. Um a cycle is a is they go in there for mark a marking period basically. So what kind of marking period long course would be appropriate for a sixth grader but also um practical considering we have an abbreviated time. And so we didn't want to abandon the idea of of computer applications and digital literacy, but what we did was we just brought kind of brought it up to speed, made it a little bit more 21st century appropriate, we're going to be installing some more AI uh implications in there and really zero in on the digital citizen citizenship uh aspects of it. So, in addition to the fullear clicks class that all
020sixth grade students will take, students that pass through the cycle program in sixth grade will also get exposure with a little bit more focus on what we believe to be uh 21st century middle school appropriate skills. And that new course will be called the MTMS digital skills studio. And we're excited uh to to bring that to next year's sixth grade students. We'll be working on that project this summer. >> Mr. Maldo just >> um I see that it will you know align with the student landing standards for technology and career readiness. >> I don't know how many students are affected like I I think perhaps AVID and I know for sixth grade it's the chorus students. I'm not sure if there's any others but are they getting this information like elsewhere? >> Absolutely. But they're
021getting it through the clicks. >> They are. Yeah. So, so, um, and that and just, uh, that is another project that we'll be revisiting this summer, but there are entire units, uh, dedicated to those skills and every unit in the clicks course highlights, uh, really the whole class is built on standard nine. >> And if on the last page, at the bottom of last page, you can kind of see the four uh, really the four standards that drive all of our courses and that those are the standards that clip clips built on. Um, but yeah, no, everybody will get exposed to that regardless of what they choose. All right, good. >> Uh, as far as the seventh grade electives that we uh, excuse me, that we renovated, uh, we're really excited about these two courses.
022The course that was formerly known as transportation technology will now be known as design and modeling. And we're not abandoning the spirit of an approach to design, civil engineering, drafting, prevocational preparation. This course blends industrial arts and modern uh engineering practices. What we're also doing is installing a project leadway unit into this course which would then really connect the dots between some of the things we've been doing in fifth grade and at the high school. And uh what's nice is that our staff is already in the process of being trained for this. And it's just going to be a nice couple tweaks to some units and assessment mechanisms. All of these project leadway courses provide and of course assessment data that um is then uh added to a student profile that carries with them throughout
023their career that all of our technology eds teachers will then utilize to help inform their instruction. So uh the complement to the so that would be kind of maybe your more traditional prevocational civil engineering design style elective and then the complement that on more of the uh uh neo stem side of things would be the robotics coding and digital innovation class which is currently called multimedia. And so what we're going to do is all of those foundational STEM skills are just going to be presented through a much more technology, computer science, and uh uh robotics lens. So students have two options in seventh grade how how they want to approach their careers technology education. Uh what's nice also about this is this is not a complete new class installation. We're taking the things we like
024about the existing classes and simply installing more modern, more career aligned appropriate units of study, particularly ones that produce data that we can track and then use as proof of concept. Uh, and then the eighth grade course that we have examined uh this year to update for our middle school learners will be computer science and design. It's not that much of a name change. It's currently called computer science and coding. But uh our curriculum really wants there to be a increased emphasis on the design side of things. And what we're finding as students pursue computer science there they they they tend to associate that type of learning with either robotics or software engineering. And sometimes our youngest learners they we they the concept of this type of instruction feeding into prevocational career care careers into
025even analytical decision- making. We want to make sure that design thinking is the essence of everything we do in careers technology. So we wanted to tweak the name and also with the installation of the app design unit. So students in this course will also be designing apps through the project lead the way app design program. Um it just aligned the units more appropriately and it was a little bit more of an authentic name. So what you see uh in front of you would be more of like a a formal stuffier version of how the courses would be described maybe to people like us at this committee. >> But what we're going to be doing now um as students at the middle school and the counselors begin talking about scheduling. We are going to take this
026form and we are going to repurpose it to a more student and parentf facing n uh description. And in addition to making this available for the counselors, we will push this out via email to all of the children and their parents so they're aware of the new programs. And uh one of the challenges we have in the electives is that our courses change so frequently uh and so constantly that it's it's not it's not fair or nor realistic to expect the counselors to become supervered in in the nuances of the units. Particularly when you think about how we try to position our special education learners in appropriate electives. when you're changing the the the courses so frequently, we have to do whatever we can to keep the parents and the learners and and really the
027teachers informed. So, that's what we're going to try to do uh with this approach to updating our community on these new electives. But that that's uh what we can look forward to at the middle school. >> Again, I just want to be just want to remind everyone this is these aren't the only electives at the middle school. These are just the ones that are being changed for next year. >> Um I just really quick these look fantastic. Of course, you know, I like I wish everyone had the opportunity to take them, but that's a much different conversation for another day. Um, just really quick, the computer science course that's in 8th grade, is that going to teach a lot of the same concepts that then like the computer science course at the high school would
028teach or like is it would it be redundant or is it going to be separate topics? >> It wouldn't necessarily be redundant as because it's going to be more age appropriate. >> Okay. and and in this particular class there's some there's some deliverables that the students can look forward to uh particularly with the app creator module so that so in a middle school elective we want to produce a deliverable for for a portfolio but also for something that they can feel like they accomplish something our middle school courses are not necessarily sequenced >> um like there's no computer science one and then two >> uh so we want to create their them as a standalone experience for the students but also make sure that there's transferable skills that are applicable to the other existing courses.
029>> Um, if you're asking me, would a kid enter a nth grade computer science course at a disadvantage if they didn't take this course? Absolutely not. >> Uh, so, you know, I mean, would it help if you have some exposure to that? But you don't need uh these courses to get exposure to this type of thinking. Um, many of our teachers are participating in computer science modules in a co-curricular manner through uh some of the science classes and other electives. But uh you know when you think about students coming from sending districts or even students that are maybe coming from an avid background or performing arts background everyone will have the opportunity freshman year to start with a on a level playing ground. >> All right. Thank you. >> Yes. >> I I had a
030question. I don't know if you answered this. I may have missed it. How many sections or how many students can apply for these electives? So, historically speaking, the only time we've ever had a class- size cap have been in the culinary arts class and the video production class. And so, to to answer your question appropriately, I I would cap these classes at 24 students because they're Latas classes. And I could just tell you in the industrial arts room there's six um you know those pots that we would safely fit you know four to five students in. So that's generally what dictates our class size and then also when you have lab-based classes there's safety things to be considered when you have machinery. One of the reasons we really wanted to take a look at these
031electives is because there was a disproportionate population of the electives and a lot of times students would want foods because it's exciting. >> Um and and let's face it, it's a nice job. >> Yes. >> Uh but we wanted to shine up our other existing electives to make make sure our students were aware of that there are other exciting things besides foods um and video production. If we get to a point where we're capping off these electives, um the middle school does have the ability through uh various cross teaming uh strategies and things like that. That's how we handle some inclusionary uh scheduling as well. Uh we haven't had that problem yet at the middle school. I would say that would be a nice problem to have in these new electives especially. I'm sure uh
032the other practical arts electives would be excited if we got there. But um that would be something we would look at if we got to a point where kids were being denied access. Then we've been we've usually been pretty good at making sure kids want to get in, they can get in. >> Okay. Thank you. >> But that'll be something we'll be looking at and we'll know that's we'll get course tally projections as early as you know around Memorial Day usually and that that's when probably we'd have to take a look at any any type of complication that might present. >> What is the timeline for >> uh Dr. Dr. Sansky might be able to answer that a little bit better for middle school schedule. >> They're going to be going in March. Uh they
033they just were presenting today actually at the middle school and they did GMV yesterday. Um they're going back. So when I say presenting, they presenting uh the programs studies. Some of the supervisors were there um just as a presentation to the eighth graders. And then I believe it's uh first or second week of March they go back and they individually meet with all the students and and create the schedule. >> So the implementation of the program will occur. >> Well the classes I I don't >> Yeah. So the the the classes I'm referring to today will be for next September. >> That's right. >> Yeah. So and that way we would orient the students and the teachers to prepare appropriately. >> Yeah. And I like the timeline. I appreciate that. Thank you. And someone else
034I think Todd >> I was going to say just to follow up on what you've just said. Okay. Were today when they or yesterday whenever it was added presentations were they told about the new electives as well >> or >> so yes so the the counselors are are well pretty much what you see in front of you is the information that the counselors have. So when they when they present to the students they are going to have this but what I will be also pushing out to the students and counselors supposed to be a little more of a studentfriendly version of what you have in front of you. >> Right. No I guess my question is they had already met with the students to share Yeah. I mean, >> that's why I was curious how
035they'll find out about the new electives. >> Yeah. The middle school piece. >> Yeah. So, so for example, students that was going to take a if the student wanted to take uh multimedia. >> Okay. >> They're going to take it's just going to be called something >> something new. All right. >> And again, it's the same teachers. It's the same pathway. >> Uh it's just a rebranding would be maybe a more appropriate and the installation of the project leading union. I just want to be mindful of Mr. uh Zikner's wishes and transition to the high school. But then we could also anyone has any questions, they could also email me. The high school uh changes are are are not as vast or as significant only ex with the exception of the installation of the two
036new advanced placement courses which we're very excited about. Uh in the business uh program, we have a business with personal finance which is something that is currently being piloted. We do have one of our staff members that's sitting on committee as part of the planning for this, which we're excited about. And we will be ready to roll this out uh to students 9th through 12th grade next fall. So, it'll be another addition to our already uh vast and dynamic AP course offerings and we're excited about adding that to our business program. Our teachers are very pumped about them. In addition to that, uh this year we introduced an a cyber security course into our careers technology offerings. uh in preparation for uh what is now going to be a new AP cyber security course uh
037which we will be installing in the fall. It's important for our students and parents to know that this does not mean we will be removing the cyber security course. We will be adding an AP cyber security course to already existing cyber security course to make sure all learners they want that collegiate experience or if they just want a traditional high school experience they have that choice. Uh we've been working with some other school districts that are currently piloting the AP cyber security course. Our staff is currently preparing for training this summer. And we think given the fact that we're we've already have a familiarity curriculum teaching the uh general course this year, we'll we feel pretty good about our ability to deliver a high quality course in September. >> That is all. >> Any other
038questions? >> Hey, very excited about being really outrageous. Thank you all so much. Have a lovely, lovely evening.