001Hi, good evening. Welcome to this month's curriculum people personnel committee m meeting. Today's Tuesday, June 3rd and we have a long agenda. So, we're going to start with Miss Dress who's going to give us an update on APA honor system. Yes. So, good evening everyone. Um, I have several textbooks that we are putting forward for adoption in both science and social studies. Um, so just so everybody knows, the procedure was pretty much the same. Um, we had various teachers look at, score, and interact with all the textbooks we were examining. Um, we use a rubric and a vote system to decide which textbook is going to meet the needs of our learners. So, um, one of the first books is for our AP Gov, um, class, and they decided to go with Bedford, Freeman, and
002Worth, which is pretty much the standard publisher for a lot of the history textbooks. Um, it is a very well-aligned book to the AP course exam description. Um it is has a lot of um activities and skill building onto the platform which is called achieve. That is what this publisher uses as their platform for digital work. Um and one of the things that we really appreciated was especially for a gov class um the teachers really spent time going through and vetting to make sure that we are being um as uh unbiased in the publishing as possible that both sides are presented and that um the information is accurate. So, um, they really felt that this was the most appropriate for that class and it is a new second edition, so it is brand new and
003it will be an ebook for grades 11 through 12 for six years. Any questions on that one? The next one, um, I'm going to explain. So at the high school we run AP US1 and AP US2. Students take the AP exam once they have completed AP US2 during their um junior year. So this textbook will be for two years. It will be their textbook in 10th and 11th grade because it begins in 10th and then continues. So again for this text we went with Bedford Freeman and Worth and this is called Fabric of a Nation. Um one of the things that the committee was definitely looking at is again that alignment. Um they really liked that this text laid out the chapters by period. So period one, period two, which aligns to the exam, which
004will really help students to be able to move through and um really get that time period that they're looking for. Um again, it's going to have that achieved platform. There are AP style questions embedded which include multiple choice, free response, document-based questions. Um they really we looked at several other platforms and other publishers and this is really the one that they felt would be the most upto-date. Um so that was what we chose for our AP US history. Questions on that one question? The next history is um our um honors US1 and two. Again, we're going to use the same textbook because it's US history. Um, one of the things that we were really looking for with this was um availability of teacher resources. Um, having really really good primary source documentation that the students
005can work with. Um, and for this we actually went with SAS which is US history interactive. They have a four-part inquiry learning model that is built into the platform which is connect, investigate, synthesize, and demonstrate. There are tons of primary sources embedded within this. One of the really nice parts as well is for our honors world history, we you use world's history interactive. So the students will be familiar with the platform and how that information is presented. Um, another thing that the reviewers really liked was that it's, you know, we're moving much more towards um, modern times. Uh, it goes all the way up to 2020. So, um, that's actually nice to be able to have because when you have a book for six years, launch is six years. So, it's nice to have things
006um that are more modern that they that they can really look through. Um and there were um a great many history teachers on the committee that really spent time looking through all these vetting and really looking at these publishers and um making those decisions for history. Any questions on the history suits? Okay, this is science. Um, so we need a new honors biology textbook. And for that, um, the committee decided to go with Campbell Biology Concepts and Connections, the 10th edition. Um, sometimes referred to affectionately as Baby Campbell, which is the book that we use for AP Bio. Sorry, my science work. Um, so this textbook again has a really great interactive platform. There's interactive labs. There are a lot of resources that the students will be able to use as they're studying. Um, again
007this is a digital subscription. Um, it is coming from Pearson which is no longer SAS. They are now a separate entity. Um, and they really really again found this textbook to be one of the best that we they had to offer. They looked at three other publishers and again this aligned very well with the skills that we're really trying to get the students to build as they go through science. And how long is that one for? Six years. Six years. Everything is six years. Anyone else have questions, comments? Nope. I have two more. Sorry. Um, the next one is our environmental science for AP. Um, again, this one we went back to uh the Bedford publishing. Um, this again is a six-year digital version. Um, the main thing for this that really sold the committee
008was that again that alignment. Um, a lot of the other environmental textbooks really require students to pick through different chapters to find the information that they need. And this is really laid out where again it's very studentfriendly where they're going to be able to get the information that they need as a resource. um it will be on the achieve platform again which has those skills built in um the current events um and that online platform that they will be able to interact with. My last one which is actually the big one um we are adopting a new K to5 science program um it is TCI that the teacher selected um this is a little different. We actually did have the opportunity for the staff to be able to look and use two different textbooks. Um
009they were able to do lab activities, teach out of both. And this was um we had representatives from every school, every grade level. This is the text that they chose. TCI stands for teachers curriculum institute. Um we will be adopting it K to 5. Um it's a very good program. Um students will be getting a consumable work with work workbook as well as an online digital platform that they will have access to. Um one of the nice benefits to this is all the differentiations are built right in right on the platform. It gives the teachers if you have um multiling lingual learners, if you have um special education students or also if you have students that are ready to move beyond what um the instruction is for the rest of the class. So that differentiation
010piece is very nice. The teacher platform is great to use. There are interactive games. There's super science built in. Um the teachers really felt that the students enjoyed working through the experiments um and were very excited. The part that I'm excited about is built into every single unit at the end is a claim evidence reasoning based on a phenomenon and that's really going to help bring that foundational skill that they need once they get to the middle school. So, it's going to really, I think, um, be a good foundational program for our students as we, as they move through science, um, up into the upper grades. Everything is aligned to the NextGen Science standards as well as, um, the New Jersey standards. Um, I don't know if I missed it or not. Is this a
011digital, too? So, yes. So there all students will have access to a digital piece but there is a consumable workbook that all students will be able to write in interact with um do their experiments in all the other texts that I mentioned before the elementary those are all just exclusively digital okay thank you does anybody have questions right I guess okay so I'm doing a textbook adoption that is for algebra one geometry and algebra Um and the majority of the public sort of kind of group them together. That's why this is called envisions AGA and the AGA stands for the three type of courses. Um it gives you continuity throughout the three. Um in particular it's very important the algebra one and the algebra 2 to have continuity. The geometry could be a standalone if
012there was a better book. Um but it does help to have if the algebra is immersed into the geometry to be able to have it explained the same way, done the same way and and kind of have the same approach going through. Um, this is going to be for seventh grade and eighth grade algebra 1, including the algebra one at the high school. It's going to be geometry and eighth grade, as well as all of the levels of geometry at the high school and all of the levels of algebra 2 at the high school. Um, so one of the things that we look for um in particular is a series that has a wealth of resources so that if students are moving levels or they're or they're not um succeeding or they want to move
013up um it will cover all those type of things. So this particular program um it's it's envisions which does connect with the elementary program the K through8 it's a fairly new program um it's been around more but this is going to actually be a 2020 more edition um it's I think 2020 might have been their first edition that they have but we it was not around the first time we did it um going through in terms of the resources we really we had presenters from this company for the entire math department we had presentered for another company McGra um McGraill reveal and then we I did talk to another country another one Hoot Mifflin Hardcore um just to see what they have and this by far had a wealth of materials even when I looked
014at the elementary and the middle school the two big front runners were revealed with McGra Hill and the ambitions by SAS and they're both very similar in terms of the textbook itself and the philosophy behind it but the SAS has a wealth of resources that are added to it um they have been around longer in terms of their philosophy so I think they've just put more time and more money into it. We did also look at the textbook that we currently have that is a McGraw Hill product. Um they will still sell it to you, but they will not put any more money into it. And my fear is in four years it's now going to be a 10-year-old copyright and isn't really going to be a fault. And it's the electronic side, the online
015that you really want to watch through. You see a multitude of different prices on here because the middle school gets hard copy and they get electronic. All right. And we've been doing that with the elementary as well. The high school will get only electronic. Usually I buy about 10 copies of a hard copy for students that might have some medical needs or things like that. We do always have a few that go along with that. So that's why there's so many different um um ISBN numbers because there's one for each one going through. Um to give you an idea, basically the the philosophy is similar to the lower grades, but it's obviously done more at a high school level with more um thought put into it. There's a model and discuss. the ideas that you
016can explore it, you can think about it. Then there's the critical reasoning and explain type of idea. Um, and then they're going into the conceptual understandings and then give you practice. Um, with the hard copy and the high school teachers would have access to anything online. There is a student companion that is also included in the price. The student companion would be more for in-class practice, not the homework that goes with it. That would be extra. Um, and that is definitely something that it comes with it. So, they have that as well. um not sure if it's going to get used all the time because it's an honors level at the middle school, but they will definitely have that as a resource for their notes. Um another big component that they have with it is
017that they have activities, online activities that are connected to Desmos and written by Desmos. Um some of you might have heard me talk about that beforehand, but it is a very very um successful and popular tool that there is to do different types of explorations with math. Um, and the fact that they now have the lessons connected to it. I think I think Sabas bought out Desmos or at least bought the lessons that go with it. Another big game changer and the difference between this program and the McGraill program, they have math XL, not EXL, that's a different program, but Math XL where when we looked at this originally again with the elementary, that was a whole additional purpose on top of it. They bought that company out and that is now included in the
018basic package. So, McGra Hills will have certain things that line up, but by the time you add in all the extra prices, it was a much bigger much bigger price point advantage. Um, so I do think that it's a great great tool. They also have the retach um as they do at the elementary. Like I said, they have a lot of different explorations that you can do and they have an enrichment that goes along with it. Um, again, hands down, the teachers at the high school because they saw both presentations were actually thrilled with this one. A like head and shoulders over it. The middle school only saw one of the two. They liked the reveal, but they understood that this was very similar, and we're going to bring in the publisher also to explain
019it going through, but I do think this is by far the best program for all. Um, so, um, other than that, it does follow the standards. I like the fact that it's up to date. It's current. Um, another thing that I looked into when I was going through is that I asked each publisher, give me names of districts in the area that are using them. Um, one of the ones that we looked at with the Hootton Midland, there were only five districts that she gave me in the state, four of the five were only using algebra one. It was a 2020 copyright, so it had been around and only one district was using geometry. And it was very traditional, very drilling skill. The book itself was good. Reminded me of a book we'd had maybe
02010, 15 years ago. Um, don't think they're up to par with the resources. Um, but like I said, other than that, I think, you know, it was truly the teachers are all on board with this. And I think, you know, and I gave them the option of repeating the one they had just with the understanding that there's no more additional resources that are going back into it from the company. Are there any questions? I did think it was a good price to point it. Yeah. Anybody have questions? Comment just on the tech piece. So, as you can see, we have a standard process. We go when we involve the teachers, the stakeholders. Um we reach out to multiple publishers. Uh they come on site. Uh they present to the teachers. Um at the high school,
021we run into a challenge sometimes because we dance between collegiate textbooks and high school textbooks. And there's a big difference. You know, you freshman in college, sophomore in college, the big cost for college textbooks. And sometimes we struggle as a public institution when we look for textbook adoption kind of getting into you hear most of these are multi-year uh adoption pieces at the at the collegiate level. Sometimes it's we're going to sell you x amount of licenses. So we have to buy 300 licenses or whatever. Each student uses it. Once they use it it's it's disposed of essentially. Um and then we have to revisit that more often. So, um, there's a lot of variables that go into a textbook adoption piece. Um, it's it's really driven by our curriculum, how the resources align with
022that, if it's an AP course, how everything syncs with in general the AP structure, and then uh where does it fall in price point wise and resource-wise. And we've seen over several years um companies are putting a lot of time into their digital resources um because for you know an iPad district at the high school level. So that's an important piece for us. Um and then we definitely have that technical connection at the elementary middle school that we're looking for because it also provides a foundation when they get to the high school. If they're using Pearson or they have that foundation they can engage in that at the high school level because they're familiar ever since elementary level. So, um, just a general overview for our textbook adoption piece. We had a couple subjects align
023this year that are typically a little off cycle and that's just related to we had an opportunity to uh get a free year of one of our the three the three years of my or all three the algebra 1, geometry, and algebra 2 all were given an extra year seven years ago. So, we weren't going to give that up. So, it through my cycle. So we have a double cycle this which is why we we have basically two large adoptions in sequence. We typically stagger them. Again when we look at budgeting at a district we're looking for a consistent expenditure which is why we're looking for every year kind of turning things over. So everything kind of align this year which we're not going to turn down a free year. Obviously it's a big piece.
024So you know several years ago we made that commitment and it's you know we're actualizing that double piece this year. So these are all for September. These are for September and everything's been budgeted for. It's gone through. It's been vetted. Um, and what we're pleased to to look at is most of the textbook adoptions are going to probably come in under what our initial budgeting piece was because when we do our budgeting piece, we're using previous year's costs and then we we have, you know, a slight increase to it. And a lot of times um the companies come in and they either held their prices the same or they're slightly lower than our initial budget. So again, we're not talking significant, but we're well within the budget range of what we uh we budgeted for
025these books. That's great. Thank you. Yes. I just I just haven't done what you guys went through whenever you have to adapt a textbook. I can appreciate I don't think people realize and they might the amount of work that you that you folks look into. I know the amount of work you do and in order to adapt a textbook. I like the rubric uh and the way you set it up and the way you explained it and and also the differentiation all the pieces were so clear and I thank you so much. Good job well done. Thank you. Mrs. Gasco, did you have to go over the um curriculum documents or No, I have one. Yes. Okay. All right. Ready for that one? Great. Okay. The last one for the year is ALA 180. Um
026we were doing a lot of text too. Um but we also remember we had the new standards. We had the 2023 standards. So geometry will be up for next year, but I did all the algebra ones and all the geometry. So, um, this course is very similar in terms of content to the regular out of one, but it is double the amount of time, which means when writing the curriculum, you really have to like focus on the type of activities that you're doing. Make sure that there's um, rigor in there where they're learning the concepts and they're retaining it. Um, the retaining in terms of the spiraling is big in that class where they have a lot of practice to go through. Um, we've had a lot of experience with Dr. Paul Rickmon just in
027terms of helping the teachers um, to do things to go with that. The other big thing was just making sure that we had the mandates in the curriculum. So, it's up to date with all of the standards. It it does not have the new book in terms of resources because that was not part of it at that time. But resources are just there for the teacher to give them some ideas. The document is written through the standards going through. Um, one of the big things is the inclusion of climate change. And what's nice about the standards, they actually give you set examples that you can do. And when we went through CQAC, that was one of the things they wanted. Um, just to give you an idea for one of the algebra ones here, it
028says students may create equations and or inequalities to represent the economic impact of climate change. Students may represent constraints describing economic climate change um with equations, inequalities, and or systems of equations. It even clarifies within the standards within Atlas which are good for algebra 1, which are good for algebra 2 because the standards do group the two together going through. Um, but it it really gives them a lot of practice. But this needed to be updated. Um, one of the big focal points that I have is making sure that the electronic resources and the technology resources are very specific to the unit. That's something over the last um, few revisions we've really up the game on because I don't want to just be told Desmos can be used and give me specific examples because Desmos
029does have actual um, unit and lessons that are attached to it. Now, in particular, we'll have even better ones where they just be easier for the teachers to find. Um everything is accessible through a Chromebook, a laptop or an iPad. So it works for all of those going through. Um but it's um it was like I said, it was an update, but it has we make sure that all the standards are included. Um the other thing that we're worried about too is going through in time to make sure that they can retain the earlier concepts because they build and they spiral. Um I call algebra 1 the foundation of all higher level math regardless of when you're learning it and what age you're learning it. If you do not learn the concepts and retain them
030of algebra 1, it will be very hard to do even the geometry and in particular the algebra 2 and above. So getting those concepts down, it's why we have the course with the double block. Um it gives them a lot of internal practice going for it. So that's what I wanted to just say in case members of the public don't know what a double block is. I mean because you they have the class every day essentially instead of every other they're going to this class every every day and my math brain not being quite as creative as possibly a language arts brain. Yeah. AB stands for everyday day and every day. Yeah. Any questions on that? No. Okay. And now we're going to summer programming and ESY. Yep. Are we starting with you, Mr. Mal
031first? Sure. I'll be very uh brief. The uh so uh last month uh we talked about our new plan for our summer mediation program which we put up with MTSC virtual plus uh and uh we've uh moved forward and we're in the process of our development and we're excited we met with the guidance counselors uh last week Dr. Scansky and Dr. Higgins along with guidance counselors, we discussed what new options would be available um for our students seeking summer remediation. We're excited that we're we're we're well ahead of schedule preparing ourselves for any possible students that need to come to school. Um we've also settled on price point um which uh is under $200. We settled at $195, which is more equipped to about $65 than the running price for any external $65 less than
032um all of the current approved uh summer remdiation options available to the high school students. So, um we're happy to report that not only do we think we'll offer superior product with embedded support, but we'll also be able to offer it for uh considerably less money than anyone else out there. Um and again we're in the process of finalizing our staff so I can be with the recommendations for our school uh staff. the review it's one day in person and then sure and that in that embedded support which will be available to students if not mandatory it's just it's it could be arranged as needed whether that be at the teacher's recommendation or at the students request and we're still going through all the nuances of that and um much like I was talking before
033in preparation for our summer advancement program um we will be playing virtual orientations for all of our participating students uh on the flip side of thing with our summer enrichment program. Uh since we last met, we had uh launched our first enrichment journey into uh biotechnology, medical and healthcare uh enrichment. Um we're calling the MTSD med as summer enrichment program and uh we sold 80 tickets within uh less than a full week span to members of the uh school district. So uh that doesn't that didn't and that sold out by the way. So, we are completely tapped out for that particular program. Uh, we're excited about that, but we're not surprised. As you recall, we did survey uh the public prior to launching that program and we were able to identify a want and we
034were excited to be able to deliver that. Last Friday, Miss McCloud and I uh met with the instructors who have been approved teaching and adding some more of the details to that program. Now that Miss DR kind series is about to implement it, we look forward to kind of diving in to that and finding additional ways to align these enrichment programs to what the teachers are going to be doing. And as mentioned in our last uh citizens advisory committee, all resources required for this pilot will then subsequently teachers. Uh so that's the update um on the enrichment and system programming ESY. uh before I throw it over to special ed for any updates you got all the way down there agenda um the uh you know we are prepared we are fully staffed on the
035enrichment side of things to fully support ESY um and uh we're actually coordinating right now with our art and culinary and some of our music specialists to make sure that our ESY students will have access to those original programs again uh we do have more flexibility at the high school to embed the ESY the older ESY students But that's not to say we won't be supporting we'll be sending some of our specialists down to as well and um we'll be coordinating our schedules over the next couple in case you missed the memo. Any questions about the pilot program the med lab? No. Okay. Okay. So ESY is going well. We are pretty much fully staffed now. Almost everyone was approved on the last board agenda at that meeting. We have a few people that will
036be approved at this next board meeting, but otherwise we'll be fully staffed and ready to go. Uh all of our parents already received the letters offering the program to their students, anyone who was eligible and that we have a time frame for them to respond. Um, we still have some students who have not responded yet, but some of those are due to IEP meetings not having been completed yet and updating to offer the Yes program and others are just they haven't responded yet. So, we'll follow up with them, reach out to them and try to get them to come obviously, but either find out either way what's you know what their plan is for the coming summer. Um, that's otherwise we're just planning. We're I just reserved all the rooms within the high school. Um
037the hours for ESY. Yes. For um the high school it will be from 8 to 12 again and Oak Tree will be from 9 to 1 and we'll offer all related services like we always do. Whatever is in the IEP is offered to our students during ESY. Anybody any questions about ESY extended school year? Everyone's quiet today. Okay. So, contracts. Yep. That's what's left. So, we have uh on this board agenda, you'll see contracts both from the district side in terms of operational pieces and then you have some of the curricular contracts. Um there's no new uh companies that we're working with or anything. Um we we likely have uh with the exception of the company that we'll be using as our online platform for uh the remediation the summer school piece. So that will
038be one uh addition that once we finalize that number we'll have we'll update that and that'll be on the board agenda. Other than that it's a our typical athletic contract renewals. Um one thing you won't see on there is uh our ice hockey contract at this point. We're not going to have an ice hockey team. So that is something that we didn't budget for and we also aren't planning on expanding at this point. Um you'll see we have score as our uh as a tool that the high school uses and high school students use in terms of uh kind of career readiness as well as college planning. Um we've used Navian historically in the past. Last year we transitioned the freshman, sophomores and juniors to score. We maintain the seniors on Navian this year. As
039the juniors become seniors, they will continue with score. Um so we will no longer be using Naviance. And then at the middle school where we have used Naviance, we will be using score. So um that was the change we made last year. We discussed um it's a user-friendly resource, a little cheaper than Navvian. It does the same thing. Um it got really positive reviews so far this year from both staff and students. the counselors uh piloted it, previewed it last year before we did any of the transitions. Um so if you look at a difference between uh just basically changing companies and saving some money on that um and finishing the transition. Um a notable is linkit. We are still paying for linkit with our federal funding. Um so that is grant funded fees. We've
040been using federal funds for the past few years. We're going to continue to use the grant funds as long as we have them. Um, so that's a nice piece that we will continue to use. And, uh, do you have any athletic contracts that you want to highlight or anything, Steve? Um, I mean, they're all basically the exact same thing we had last year. You know, many other vendors that we had held their prices, which is pretty pretty nice. Um, you know, like, uh, that we used for cheerleading, for Matt Rental, it stayed the same. The packs have tried raising the prices. We did have conversations with them and they've kept it the same for the last two years, which is nice. Um, as well as some of the other subscriptions that we have. Huddle stayed
041around the same as well which is the big the big one that we use for um you know for giving somebody everything else for the most part is around the same. Yep. Yep. And that's one thing notable is there the contracts or the numbers have either maintained the same number or had you know nominal minimal increases. Um so you know we were looking for anything that would be a red flag for us especially as we designed the budget you know last fall. Uh so we got prelim preliminary costs and preliminary prices and um we didn't see any major changes. Uh we adjusted enrollments were appropriate in terms of you know per pupil pricing for any of the contracts. Um some of the contracts if the pupil numbers are are the same as last year which
042reflect maybe a slightly larger enrollment than we have. They're being held there because if we go down we lose our bulk discount and we end up paying more for less students. So, we're going to keep our enrollment consistent there. Um, but outside of that, our contracts, like I said, are are consistent. The difference between Huddle and Link and NW MAP and um consistent products. Again, that's one thing we we looked at as we planned for this year was maintaining our programs, maintaining the level of academic rigor, maintaining maintaining the textbook access and program access. And that's something we did in the budget development process and it reflects as we go through and and sign off and move forward with all these contracts. I did have a question about the hockey. I remember we were talking
043not too long ago that we were going to do like a joint. Yes. Uh so next year there's no hockey team or is that the joint? Talking about did get approved for the co-op. So co-op I guess it's a try out now. It's three teams with South Brunswick and North Brunswick. process three. I'm sorry. So you still will have so we will work we will what will happen is that the process that's followed is you have to apply to the state first in order to make sure that the state approves it. So we had the discussion with the individual boards just to make sure that it go we're going to put in the application application was put in it was accepted and now we have to sit down the individual schools and just work on
044that contract so that they're all on the same page and then it'll come to the board for approval. And what kind of um grouping do they play? Do they play in with other teams um that are have three teams with them? Yeah, so the way that it works with with hockey is they have different groups and there is specific group of co-op teams, okay, or try out teams and then that's how they you know whenever they have championship stuff, it's all based off those individual groupings. Okay. And it's all um okay, it's all by the side. Yeah, hockey happens to be the only team, the only sport that they allow try out. Everything else they allow co-ops. You do have some schools that unfortunately can't provide or don't have the resources to provide specific sports.
045So they allow two schools to come together in a co-op, but hockey is the only one that allow try out. Okay. Thank you. So So then when you when we said no ice hockey contract doesn't mean we're not having ice hockey. Correct. For the ice. We have a team. So, thank you for clarify, but we don't need to with North any longer and yeah, the information will go out to the team as we get closer as to what this, you know, what the um trials look like and all those since a little different than we've had in the past. How do you pick a co I'm sorry. How do you pick a coach for something like that? So, whenever you have a co-op or a try out, uh, one of the schools has to be
046on the record as being like the home team. And in this case, it's it is South as they had me. I saw your rank. That's Yeah, that's the way they already had it set up. So, in as we had conversations about exploring, that was something that would already been stuck. They would remain as we Okay. Thank you. Okay. And so, we will have ice hockey expenses which are budgeted for transportation and all that and basically it'll end up most likely being a per pupil cost. So if we have three students that make the co-op, whatever the agreement will reflect the cost per per athlete that's divided equally amongst the team. So we have three and another district has 10, right? Another district have 10. It's all divided equally and we just pay our our share
047which goes towards ice which goes towards the coaching stipens and things like that. So we have all that will be in the contract. I actually have a meeting with the other two schools tomorrow to start the stuff. We have to have it ahead of time and that way can be presented to the board. Okay. Great. Great. Thank you for clarifying. Yeah, that is good. I'm not losing no kids that are interested. We don't host our own team. We pay nice but we're still not losing those kids. Nope. And they have an opportunity as well if they choose to go. Yeah. That's great. Okay. I think the last person is Mr. Snider. You have some of you? I have some exciting news. Thank you. So, good evening everyone. I am thrilled to announce and bring to
048the committee that recently we got some amazing news that for the first time ever, the Monroe Township School District has been recognized by the NM Foundation as a best community for music education. Um, for 2025, great. Uh for the first time ever, this national uh recognition uh is awarded to school districts that demonstrate an exceptional and ongoing commitment to providing all students access to a highquality music education. So, a little bit about this. Um each year, the NAM Foundation um evaluates districts uh nationwide in every state in the country through a rigorous application process. I can uh attest to that because it took me seven and a half hours to complete. So um it is reviewed by the arts research firm Wolf Brown and the evaluation uh they look at um many things such as
049curriculum, staffing, funding, facilities, student participation from uh kindergarten all the way through 12th grade, community engagement and involvement um and student accomplishments such in our day participation in region ensembles, all state ensembles and even all eastern ensembles. It also takes into consideration opportunities for staff development. Um, for example, such as um the ability for staff to attend state and national uh conferences in music education. Um, now the question is really what sets us apart from the rest of the the rest of the districts in not only New Jersey but around because the whole country only uh a little under a thousand districts in the entire country received this honor for 2025. So, um, time to pat ourselves on the back a little bit because I highlighted some things that sets us apart from from the
050rest. Um, what sets us apart is really the depth, the vision, and the excellence of the music program from elementary through high school. Um, a couple of our highlights we have here what I believe is the gold standard of instrumental music teaching called vertical teaching where uh every band director is a specialist on their instrument and they start the kids in fourth grade no matter which elementary school they go to and they stay with them through their education all the way through high school and our teachers travel in a big circle and it's lots of fun. Um we offer probably the most intensive recruitment um based system in the whole state which other districts have modeled off of us. In fact, next week the whole instrumental team will be at the three lower elementary schools
051where every single student in third grade whether they're interested in band and chorus or or not. They're going to have an opportunity to interact with our staff members and be fitted on what instrument suits them best. and if choirs them best, they will be, you know, recommended for that at a later time as well. Um, at the middle school level, our program is just exceptional, offering more ensembles than the average middle school probably anywhere. If uh for some statistics, two sixth grade bands, a sixth grade chorus, three jazz bands, four percussion ensembles, seventh and eighth grade chorus, chamber singers, seventh and eighth grade band, and a newly formed middle school with ensemble just to for just for three grades, which is which is exceptional. At high school, our perfor our program really expands um and
052we offer a really strong balance, which is important, between academic rigor and performance. um our honors our our um top performing ensembles that which are audition based. So honors uh treble choir, concert choir, percussion ensemble and wind ensemble are all honors weighted credit which is um which is fantastic. And we have a place for all students in our high school program because for every honors CL performing on performing ensemble, we also have one to two um ensembles that are open to any student uh in Monroe Township High School um and that are non- auditionbased. This year we um are very excited that in the next school year we are also um expanding our piano program to offer an honors weighted piano class as well at the high school. So now that's another one um on
053the list. Um our AP music theory course is um has been up and running but it is also dual accredited through through Middle Sex County currently uh through through the college. So it's exceptional with that. Just some highlights. Um our N our um wind ensemble was invited to the NJA state gala three years in a row. Additionally, our honors percussion ensemble was WGI champions three years in a row. And this year, our high school band of course had the honor of performing uh in Hawaii at the National Veterans Day uh parade, which is just a uh a fabulous time had by all. Um, additionally, aside from those, our district has really become a destination where worldclass performing artists and composers have visited through, I would say, the past seven or eight years. just uh in
054the past couple years we've had two of the most prominent band composers in the world right here in our district working with our students uh William Owens and Carol Britain Chambers. Um we have worked with them specifically on music that they have written and that our students have performed. So they got to work hand inand composer to ensemble playing their music and that has been performed the past couple years at our uh in our concert series. Um, we've been very fortunate through the years to receive, uh, grant funding, and I want to highlight a couple of those. So, um, uh, last summer, two of our middle school choir teachers, Miss Schmeer and Miss Constantino, uh, got funding to go to Mexico to study music, uh, and the culture there in Mexico. and they brought that
055back um implementing it into their classes and their ensembles uh in a circular uh fact and talking about the dances that they learned over there and really uh deep into the culture. Um a few years ago we actually had the opportunity to screen a documentary which was on the history uh and culture of the MIMA and vibrophone, two percussion instruments. The film was called Talking Sticks and the main character in the documentary was right here uh doing the film screening for us which was a great community event. And um I want to pat ourselves on the back just a little bit more. Mr. Morald and I this was back when I was uh a teacher. This is probably back in 2017 2018. I remember sitting in Zach's office at the time saying that I wanted
056to commission a piece of music for my percussion ensemble at the time. Um we worked it out through a lot of different steps and processes. The piece was called Luminescence. We gave the premiere at the middle school in 2018. Uh one of the memory I will I will always remember. Um now in 2025 I go on YouTube but I see this and in in touch with the publisher uh that uh publishes the piece. The piece has now been performed over a hundred times across the globe like internationally all this stuff. And it started really in in Zach's office back in in 2017. So it's really just tremendous what we've been able to accomplish. in my two years in this role, this is definitely one of the most proudest achievements we have. But we don't just
057stop here. As Mr. Pink can tell you, we take our program into the community. Um, our we are very active in Monroe. Uh, our ensembles perform regularly in retirement communities, concert series in them, and in very important township events. One of them that is near and dear to my heart, the M5K. We always have performing groups there. In the holiday season, you can find our choirs and jazz bands performing at the Menill Park Mall. Um, at the Monroe Township Library, at the Rec Center, we're all over the place. And if a community wants us, we will pro. That's all we have to do is uh snap our fingers and ensembles will jump. So, so um because our staff is very uh excited to do this and to get out into the community. So, um, that's
058all just some highlights of kind of what brought us to, uh, receive this honor. Um, this is a a recognition. Of course, it doesn't just happen with, um, with with just one. It is truly a team. So, I want to thank all of the music staff here at Monroe for their incredible uh, work as educators and the work that they do for their students. Um, of course, all of our students, their talent and dedication is just uh, fantastic to their craft. um the unwavering support of our families and community of the arts and music and of course to our um district administration, our building principles and uh and everyone here for just uh the support of this. So I was very very proud to receive this and I hope this is the first year of
059many that we uh we received this. So if you go on the N foundation website and you type in you can see all the districts that wanted when you look in New Jersey you type our school in and uh it will take us actually right to the district website I believe. So, uh, so I wanted to, uh, they sent us a certificate. Mr. Moralda agreed to be my Vanna White here. So, I didn't intend to, uh, figure big or go home. So, take a look at this. I have to be do this, but we're gonna hang this somewhere. I just don't know where yet, but nowhere near. Well, I want to say thanks for her attendance and briefing this. Mr. Snider, can I ask how many students I not can just give me a guess
060on how many students are involved in all of the programs you went through? Got it. Yeah. Um that was actually one of the questions that I had to that I had to answer. I don't have it have the application still on hand, but um our elementary schools just just starting in elementary school. Our Appleart band has 150 kids in it by itself. Um so there's probably 400 band students, 400 choir students just in the elementary schools alone. Our middle school has great retention um for many of those students and our high school uh is in the um I would say by the time they get to high school we're still in the mid hundreds for uh for um for students in throughout all these programs. So, we're very uh we're very very fortunate um in
061that and we're uh again um very thankful to all of the parents who support their students in music education because they don't go from that in elementary school all the way through high school without um without uh you know the support of them. And I can tell you this the year we graduated one of the largest senior when um at the concerts when we when we see uh all the seniors get honored this was one of the largest senior classes that we uh we ever graduated. And think about it, these students went through the co era as well and they still stayed through the program and and did that. So um so it's very very very wonderful, very exciting. So some good news. Yes, very good news. Any questions from anyone on the committee? No.
062Okay. So that concludes our meeting for this month. I know this is a busy time of year. So, I want to thank everybody for taking the time to come out tonight because I know how difficult May June meetings are. Thank you. Thank everybody.