001Welcome to the April Focer Athletics and Pupil Personnel meeting. Um, I want to start by expressing my gratitude to the board members and the administration for being flexible on the schedule. I am a senior mom this year and as everybody would know, we are going into the pickup pins with senior mom moments. So, I did have one yesterday and had asked to reschedule those meetings. I appreciate everybody's flexibility. Uh joining us tonight is Miss Ragner on behalf of Mrs. Saviana who cannot be here. Uh Mr. Lightner is here and Miss Alvarez is running a few minutes late but she asked us to get started. It's going to be a shorter curriculum meeting but our agenda looks pretty comfortable but once but once we will not be running you know out of time hopefully I shouldn't
002jinx that. Um I do want to start this meeting by saying that as I was walking in the science honor society is having a field day event. Um and I spoke to a very wellspoken gentleman who seemed who was the president of that society. Apologize I will not remember his name. Um but it gives me great pride to walk into a curriculum meeting as I see something like that. It's a direct um feed in to the work that we are doing and to the work that you all are doing. So Miss Rust an excellent president of the society. I don't know what ties you have into it, but um he was very very well verssed in marketing the event to me. Almost made me want to turn direction and go in that direction instead of
003very good but I I have obligations to keep um we have a short agenda but we have a very uh interesting agenda and I'm very happy for that. Dr. Roselle, we have the summer reading list back on. Um so we're going to start with Dr. Roselle. Uh all yours. All right. Um so very minimal changes um for the past but anyone new who may be joining us um our K through 12 summer reading um each summer reading packet uh begins with a parent letter that shares the district philosophy surrounding literacy uh that we want students to choose books that they are interested in reading to read from a variety of genres and to consume media uh whether it's podcasts or listening to audio books um as well because that does contribute to developing our comprehension.
004Um so starting with K to 5 uh the list is organized with picture books first. Um picture books being text that parents are going to read to children. Um and then it goes into different genres. Uh each of these books are recommendations. Uh they have been compiled through a few years um from my office from recommendations by teachers, the Monroe Township Public Library uh media specialists and also um school library journal um best of lists. We have included those as well. Um and so those go through uh different genres and then on the last page are recommended authors. Um, I was recently, um, shopping for family members and went into Barnes & Noble. I had a digital copy of this list. Um, so I was able to, you know, ask someone there either for specific
005titles um, or for specific authors there. So, we do try to keep it um, as user friendly as possible. And we work very closely with the Monroe Township Public Library. they have copies of these texts, which is why we try not to make significant changes yeartoear because they do invest um quite a bit of money to having multiple copies available. Uh any changes, any new titles are highlighted in yellow for the committee to be able to see what updates have been made. That's the K to 5 list. Um the grades six list is very similar. Uh we do ask grade six students um to complete some activities about the book that will help them when they get back into school. Um because we really use the summer reading to build a community of readers uh
006in in grades 6 through 12. Um all grades but really in grades 6 through 12. Um so there are some options for students to um kind of engage with their reading. that's on the second page of the document. And then again, it is genrebased lists. Uh so middle school, um I'm scrolling through has science fiction and fantasy, non-fiction, realistic fiction, graphic novels. And then new this year, um at its apartment meeting, teachers had mentioned students really like um humor. Um and we hadn't had a separate section of humor. There's humorous um science fiction and fantasy, humorous graphic novels, but we created a specific section um for humor. So, that entire section is new. Um and then we did add a few titles to uh the non-fiction list as well. And then continuing in grades 9
007through 12, grade level lists, anything highlighted in yellow is new. We did replace some titles that the teachers just felt were a little stale or titles that students really hadn't read in the past couple of years. Um, none of the texts are required reading. They are suggested. What we really do want though is that students are coming into class in September having read multiple texts so that they can engage in the activities that their teachers have planned. um AP courses. So AP language and composition which our grade 11 students take or AP literature and composition which our grade 12 students take do have required readings and that is to help pace the AP courses. Um it really helps students to uh kind of get a jump start on that curriculum for the year. AP Seminar
008and AP Research also have summer work that is hyperl um at the bottom there. Before these go live once the board approves all of these lists, I will test all of the links that are embedded in the documents um and make sure that everything um is good to go. I send them to the schools. I send them to the public library. Um, and the documents are also linked in a Blackboard Connect that will go out in June, July, and August programs. Any questions on our summer reading program? Charlie, did you have a question you wanted to start with? All right. So, I'm I have comments. Okay. Um, but I I'm glad you pointed out that humor is completely new because it wasn't highlighted. So, I was paying attention. and I was short of time, so
009I've been paying attention to the highlighted part cuz I've been reviewing these for a few years, so I knew the old one. Um, I'm going to start with your high school list. Okay. I am a diehard fan of Atomic Habits by James Clear. So, I love that you added that in there because I've been trying to get my kids to listen to the audio book. Now, I can now say it's a recommended reading. Please read um The Lecture by the Navy Seal. That's a great edition. Make your bed. Right. It's just it's amazing. I have not seen the links yet for the um seminar and research, but I will do that before the board meeting. If I have any questions, I might bring it to the board meeting, Dr. Ling. Sorry, I was pressed for
010time. Um the humor section is a great addition. Um I I love the diversity and inclusion um in and you've done it previous years also, but it just it is um it it's a very good feeling to see that in our um in our recommended reading. So I don't have any questions. I only have compliments to give here today. Um but I would love to open it up for questions to the fellow board member. Miss Ratner, go ahead. Sure. Um so I just uh wanted to ask do the teachers um or media specialists in the schools go through the list with the students um so that they sort of know about the different options when they go to select them. That's a great question. Um so I do send the list to the teachers and
011I encourage them to to kind of go through some of the list or at least the organization of the lists. Okay. Um, we also bring in um, sometimes it's Emily Mazone, sometimes it's um, Becky or Lynette from the public library and they will come in and do book talks at different levels. Um, so Emily is more of the teen librarian, Becky and Lynette are more of the children's um, they'll go in and do book talk. The media specialists are also involved in that as well. And I will say every summer because um, I is my contact information that's on the list. I will have parents who reach out to me like can you make a recommendation or do you have a question about this or or things like that and I'm happy to make book
012recommendations or or things like that as well. Great. Thanks. Yep. Any other questions? So, one more thing I wanted to to add as well is that students who qualify um for Learning Ally, which is a nonprofit organization that provides human read audio books, um those are indicated with an asterisk on all of the documents. Um, and if parents whose children are eligible for Learning Ally need any help, they can reach out to their child's case manager. They can reach out to to me and we'll make sure that they're set up um for success over the summer with that tool. But to clarify, all other students are expected to read physical book, not listen to. So, is there any guidelines on that? So, there there really isn't. Um, I do encourage physical reading of text as
013well. However, um consuming audio books, the same parts of your brain that are activated when you are reading a print book light up when you are re listening to an audio book. So, the comprehension particularly for reluctant readers or students who may have um you know have dyslexia or may have an other impediment to to access to text. uh listening to books is a way to ensure that their comprehension we don't create a comprehension gap um so I yes read books that um are accessible to students um and you can go to different reading list so for example if you're in nth grade and and those might be inaccessible to a nth grader take a look at the middle school list um or things like that um but also to to leverage audiobooks listen to
014podcasts um you know things like that as well read magazines um that as well. Agreed. I'm 100% there with you on that. Um for the benefit of the community members that are listening in, I do want to say like you said, after the board meeting and board members approved this meeting list, it will become accessible on our website. Correct. Um and early access is to your advantage. Like Dr. Roselle shared, we work with the Monroe Township Library. And for those of you that do not know, the library creates dedicated shelves for every grade level with these books. Earlier you go, the higher the chances that you can get the books that your child would like to read. The later you go, you're left with fewer options. So, if you have an enthusiastic reader, you're probably
015off the hook as a parent, but if you have reluctant readers, you might want to expose them to the list earlier on and get to the library earlier on. Um, and that way you wouldn't have to walk to into Barnes & Noble and spend some money. So, um, that was just a little PSA for community members that are listening in. And these lists will be accessible as soon as the board votes them through. So, that was our first agenda item. Any questions, any comments? We can move on. Excellent. Um, sorry, I skip I I read summer reading for some. So, you have We all get very excited about summer reading. So, say I though I have to admit um these days I've become more of an audiobook person just because I'm always multitasking. Um summer
016programming update Mr. Moralda all your Thank you. And actually we can send this down to what's our special ed team down there. Oh that reminds me. I'll take this moment. We do have a new administrator in the room. So Dr. Layman, would you please do the honors? We want to uh welcome our new special ed supervisor, Mr. Sam Alonei. Is that how you say your last name? Angone. Yes, and uh he wants to take a moment to introduce himself. So, welcome aboard Sam. And have a seat. You're right. Yes. And introduce yourself, please. Thank you. Welcome, by the way, too. Thank you. Welcome. Such a warm welcome. I'm really happy to be here, Monroe. Looking forward to working with each of you. Thank you. Good luck to you. He brings a welcome experience uh from
017multiple districts. Uh he has experience at the elementary the middle school level and uh we're looking forward to working with you and uh supporting our staff and you know your engagement in this committee as well you know as we bring in some of the topics really department. So fantastic. Welcome aboard. Thank you. Welcome. Thank you for joining us. Um Dr. uh Mr. Moralda all yours. Thank you. So uh last night we had a very very long uh discussion on uh the evolution of the ephemeral program uh particularly settled on uh well we talked specifically about summer enrichment and summer rest. Um the one area we did not discuss was again one of the original installations when we had the funding which was summer remediation or summer school. Uh historically and really for the past five
018years, our summer school has run and we've enjoyed a very successful Patre um and a high degree of of success working with our students over the summer in that capacity. Um however, we were acutely aware of the fact that the overwhelming majority of our students were obtaining summer school therapy elsewhere uh pretty much exclusively online. Um and uh through a system that we did not govern nor really uh verify uh that would align to the the needs and the vision of this school to put it politely. Um we held pretty steadfast to our philosophy that we we we loved uh the idea of inerson summer remediation. When I say summer remediation, let me just clarify. um anybody that fails a course for the year with an average between 55 and 54. And so we always
019describe those students that they were close, right? They had they were in the game most of the year and they just need a little bit more to get themselves to the finish line. Um and then uh so we ran the program very well. Um thanks to uh the staff that we would hire which were all Monroe instructors and the supervisors um would would work with them and set some expectations to make sure we were able to to finish the summer, give the child credit and get them in in um back on track in September. And the nice thing about it doing it in house was that we knew that the students were being taught in alignment with each individual department's expectation. So, we were very proud that it was working. However, um we you're only
020servicing a very small percentage of the students and the main reason why and feedback we were getting why is that the program was not very accessible to to the manga learner over the summer. Many of our students work uh many of our students are responsible for child care uh for siblings. Uh many of our students are involved in a variety of activities whether they be athletics, religious, performing arts, things like that. And we are not naive to the fact that in this 21st century um arena there there is you know there should be some sort of flexibility. Uh so we looked around at a bunch of models. Um coincidentally at the time Dr. Roselle was working with a solution to some of the challenges within uh uh her departments and uncovered uh a model that
021we believe could be leveraged into a solution for summer remediation. Uh it is a virtual delivery for that is designed specifically for summer remediation. But what's unique about this platform and and and various platforms within this model is that it allows the district to retain control over the delivery the front and back end of the the courses. Um so uh we discussed this um and and some of the the things that Dr. Rosselle had seen working for for her and her teachers and her students and we thought after meeting with a couple uh representatives and and discussing it uh with Dr. Dr. Layman and Dr. Higgins at the high school and Dr. Nancy as you're transitioning it obviously. Um we thought that there would be a significant benefit to the monarch student with this and
022and the model which is still under development but we wanted to bring it here tonight because it would be a pivot from what we had done in the past would be a virtual model. However, there would be ongoing embedded support along the way not unsimilar to the way we run the DLE or I'm sorry the digital learning experience here at the high school with the exception that it would be authentic. Um so what we think that this would allow us to do is one maintain our control of how the summer remediation is being delivered governed and the students are being treated. You know if a student's taking an online course let's say with one of the other services and they send an inquiry we don't know who's on the other side. If a student's taking
023one of our online courses they send an inquiry. We will be on the receiving end of that and we'll make sure that the work they're doing is in alignment with each individual supervisor's expectations. when they do arrive back in school in September, um we at least know that we were the last people to touch them along their academic remediation journey. Um we can operate within the same window as our summer advancement program um with the difference being our students will no longer be tied to a certain time on those. Um, we uh we're still developing this, but included in our vision with that embedded uh ongoing support would be on-site instructional support optional for students one day a week. So, if a student needed um specific one-on-one instruction or support for whatever reason, um we
024would be prepared to offer that in our model. um the deliberative program and and and miss Bor you may recall we discussed this as one of our areas of concern in the last year of after action um what we do we do believe the solution could address all those areas uh specifically we can expand our course catalog historically we've been limited to language arts one two and three physics biology and the three math course deltry we believe we can break that open so historically when we've had to say no many kids you have to find it elsewhere because we're not offering you will no longer have either. Um, which is obviously a benefit for us. Um, it does offer [Music] uh a recommitment to the digital virtual learning model. Um, which obviously is still very
025important in this day and age, but it is not going to be um we're not selling amendment uh down the road and saying login will see again in August. There's going to be a Monarch Township certified instructor and administration overseeing this all along the way. um obviously the enhanced flexibility for students and families but also our staff. Um so we could we could execute this this program with a high degree of fidelity without losing that the comfort and the safety net of this monitor of staff supporting a full year. This model because of the new way we would execute it would allow us to reduce tuition costs to families. Um while we haven't settled on a price point yet because obviously we're still developing it, we will no longer be um hamstrung by some of
026the fixed costs that operating this program brought about which were significant um historically. Um obviously the last two uh points are the ones that we think are the most exciting. Well, I'll throw in the last three points for the family. Um the fact that we can control this is everything. You know, when we when we would meet with our staff over the summer, particularly our summer school staff, you know, we would often stop with all due respect at some of the other third party services that students are taking because we would joke we should have to rete these things in September anyway. And you know, that's obviously a problem. So we want to regain control ex of our summer learning even more. So we put a great gigantic step forward with summer advancement. Um, we
027know that we have a staff that's willing and and and capable of learning and and supporting these students that need a little extra help over summer. And uh, we think it's going to offer more opportunities for more students, which obviously um, we we know and it's not just because, and I just want to be clear, this is not to help the kids that are going on vacation or the kids that just don't feel like waking up. You know, there are a lot of kids that can't get here in the summer. Many most families these days have have working households. Many of our students have to take care of younger siblings. um and and and it just so we we we think that this is a win for students in every aspect particularly because we are
028not outsourcing their education. And uh the last bullet point and um and you know like we described left men actually stole one of Dr. Rosselle's nerd terms when she said the you know the summer program has been one like a sandbox for us to develop new ideas and new programs. You know we do believe and Dr. Rafel if she'd like she can elaborate on this a little bit further maybe talk about the work you've done through some of these platforms already. We do believe that this model could create more opportunities even beyond the summer particularly in areas content areas that we struggle to staff and also through our alternative pathways program. Um so if executed successfully which Kelly has done Dr. sorry, has already done in a in a small pilot mode already this year.
029Um, we think it could really open up the door for even further opportunities for our high school students that are not limited to remediation, possibly even obtaining credits and courses that we may not offer already, things like those ones. So, um, so I don't know, Kelly, if you want to just talk about how you used it and how it worked. Um, so just to give you an idea, this was through the, um, through the ESL program. Um, one of the challenges that our multilingual learners at the high school level will face, particularly um, when they come to us at 16 or 17 years old, um, and they may have had limited or interrupted schooling, it is a race against the clock to ensure that students earn the credits necessary to earn their diploma. Um, and
030we're we're limited in in that time. So there are situations where um a student may not have had the background in a particular course, they didn't earn credit in that course or um they came to us late and we have their core courses completed but there's an elective that they may need credit for. Um so I in working with colleagues in other districts looked at the solutions that they were offering to their students. um many districts who have much larger multilingual learner populations than we do. Um and I vetted the two companies that that districts are using and one is far superior to another. Um one because it offered translated trans um close captioning for students. It offered translated resources for students in many languages. Um it offered the ability for students to speed up,
031slow down and it was also it is human delivered content. These are teachers who are delivering the content um and they are modeling pieces for students there. We also have complete control as Mr. Moralda had alluded to over the front end. So we can embed our own content um our own assessments or our own lessons but we can also use what is already created. We can pace students. So whereas um you know I I won't mention other names with some of the virtual programs that students attend over the summer. You know they may click through and earn what they need to earn. We can control that pacing. Um, we can see how long a student spent on an assessment, how how many attempts did they take at specific questions, and we have all that data,
032not only to determine the student mastery of the content, but also to pass that data along to a a teacher in September so that they know what a student's strengths and areas for growth might be. Um, so I did a very small group pilot, worked very closely um with Mr. sample who is the one of the senior counselors this year with two students. Um they found the content to be comprehensible. They found it the the pacing and the delivery to be something that they were able to to really learn. Um, and I'm very excited to be able to leverage this tool um, for our summer programming um, but for other options um, in the future because it it there really are so many different ways that we could leverage the tool. So, we're we're deliberately
033not saying any company names right now because we still that was my first question. So, so obviously and and like the last thing because it's a negotiation uh process that goes on with that but the um the idea that would also um you know in anticipation of your next question the let's see if you get it right this program will come at no cost to the current budget um this program we did get it right so this this this new initiative is being funded purely you know as all of our new pilots have But however, with in mind that you know and and and this is something that Dr. Layman uh so us up with quite regularly at least especially when new crazy ideas you know we have if we're going to install something new
034it has to be sustainable. So um you know it it we have to make sure when we introduce something that if if the summer program let's just say you know stops producing the revenue that it it does. we have to make sure that we don't have to welcome anything back as we go. So, you know, I want I want to be clear that when we introduce things and and we're able to pilot them and fund them um through through uh atypical mechanisms. Um we do we we make decisions on things with the idea that this could be something that could be sustained over time. So, that's why we look at these things and whether or not out was fit in our current operations. Um, we do believe that this model offers us a complete flip
035of what the financial model was like previously, another good model. Um, I don't want to over permit, but we do think and we're very confident that it would be sustainable solution indefinitely. That would be a part of our summer program moving forward. Um, Dr. Roelle much more explained much more eloquently than I could the fidelity of the system and the front-end work that went into evaluating these potential solutions. Um, you know, obviously everything is aligned to the state standards and everything like that. That's what we all can bring it here if it doesn't. So, um, you know, basically our purposes for being here tonight other than just to field any questions you may have about summer remediation, um, would be just, you know, to to discuss the idea of pivoting to what once was a
036traditionally exclusively inperson model to something different that we think aligns a little bit more with what Monroe students will benefit from, but also with what best suits their needs in the 21st century society. Before I get into my questions, Mr. would you just share in a few sentences what does our current remedial model look like for anybody that's so we run two sessions um throughout the month of July it's 100 it's it's 60 hours that they need to complete um we break it over five weeks and we build in two makeup days on the back end students are committed two absesses because they need to hit that 60 hours but that's where we have the makeup days on the back that those originated because we started this during co so we were anticipating extended absences
037and we kind of just held on for those um those makeup days because things like well I couldn't come in because my my three-year-old brother needed someone to watch him and I was like how do I avoid a kid summer and and we started realized that we really needed to start evolve on on that but so the current model was um the first session came in at 8 they left at 10:30 so two two and a half hour sessions They gave the teacher a real break in between and then a second group would come in and we do at least 1050 to you know we we were out by um and then uh you know to pass on mile um there was a tuition point um of just under $500 I believe 385 385 yes
038right around just under $400 um and uh even with that fee which was uh it was significantly lower than in inerson instruction it was higher them virtually. Um and uh so that was that we brought them in, we got them out and then we we had them in front of what was certified teachers and in many instances den um so that was the original model. We were able to address all um subject areas that need no so we so yeah so we were limited to what I had mentioned before language arts one two and three and I think even a couple years we decided to not run one of the language arts courses just because of we couldn't afford them um and and you know when I say that we we knew that there were
039other options for the child at that time uh we always ran free math courses because particularly mindful of the sequencing there and obvious obviously bio and physics because of the similar um but that was it. We never ran a chemistry course. Um we ran we we there were a couple occasions Danielle we ran right world history but we didn't run that ladder. No no um and uh that was it. So pretty much we were the only course that consistently offered were math and science and and not running it dependent on dependent on students needing it or interested in it or staffing issues. We were never staffing was never an issue. But we would have a situation where and this is where we started to kind of change the idea of our model where we would
040have I had three language arts teachers, five language arts students. Two of them needed language arts 2, one of them language arts one, one of them knew language arts three. So we worked amongst ourselves to to help all of those students, but there's no point where teachers sit there and the teachers are super understanding that. So um so yeah it was very um underenrolled not that we cheer you know we root for enrollment some people want to be clear but you know but is it because the enrollment was low because students were taking it outside oh yes and I don't know Jim you may be able to tell better than I know you're just looking over the data now but I would say dozens more than threequarters more than threequarters of students el I know
041I'm already asking questions so I'll just continue the the I I know you wanted to disclose the name of the platform but is it the same platform that is being piloted right now by Mr. assembled with yes through the ESL. Yes, it's the same platform that's being so you from September from se um I have two students taking four different courses um started in September um and I've been the one managing the back end of it and the front end of it and and things like that. So, I've I've gained some fluency with the tool um and had vetted the most common two um solutions that districts are using. When are we looking to start this? Is it this summer? So, we have enough time to train our staff for the front-end content perspective and
042backend management. So, it's just a pilot with two students right now. We're ready to go. and and and the PD part was I'm sorry, professional development consideration was part of our our study. I love when you said that you wouldn't have brought it here if you had not checked all the boxes. So, I I really do appreciate that. Um the the price point that you shared um we were charging students who needed this, right? And now they will be paying for this virtual service, but we're saying there'll be a cost savings to our students. there will be a cost savings to students um and they will continue to pay the honor board of education directly. They are not paying another another organization. Okay. For tuition. Okay. Um I'm going to open up Z and I
043do had a question. Yeah. I just I just have I just have one and that is um I imagine some kind of evaluation uh designing a new program to give you some feedback in terms and perhaps the board in terms of you know how the how the program is going because I know you're constantly making changes and you're constantly doing new things and and this is a great addition to you know just moving it down another step um in the process which is it's Yeah. So, I'm glad you brought that up and it's something that Dr. Layman and I have discussed. Now that these programs and and Miss Gast and I mentioned discussed it briefly when we uh launched the summer advancement program, inevitably um these programs evolve and change annually, but we're at the
044point where we're positioned to construct a metric to evaluate programs, not just performance of, you know, listen, if they sell out, that's not just because the pick and sell out doesn't mean the program's great. Again, it means that we made money, but we need to be able to evaluate efficacy and also staff performance and and you know that that would be the natural next step and as we this this program extends into the summer. Well, obviously there are a lot of there's a little bit of contractual red tape and stuff like that we have to navigate through you oneon one I was really impressed with where you're going with. Well, I have to give credit to Dr. Roselle and and I congratulate he brought he brought the idea and we knew we we as a
045team knew that we had to come up with a solution of remediation. Um and at RIP at at risk of tipping the hand of who the organization was before we actually were able to meet with them down the school boards previous poll. So, so this process started back then. Back then we and when we started to evaluate these solutions and I we just had the benefit of of Dr. Rosel was working very closely with the solution that emerged that that money we spent on the schoolboard conferences were very well spent. But and that that is you know in that time it also gave us gives us opportunities to feel out vendors and and also talk to other administrators that have done business with with organization. It's not working both ways with vendors with your peers.
046Um, Miss you had a question. I may have missed this. The virtual component, is that done by our teachers or different? How how should I explain it? Go ahead. Um, the virtual component is live teachers. They are not our teachers. They were contracted through the company to deliver the content. Um, so they are pre-recorded videos. So using our COVID learning terms, it is asynchronous. So, one student may wake up and do the lesson at 8:00 in the morning. Probably not. Another may be doing it at 11:00 p.m. Um, but they progress through the content. They're not able to to skip around. Um, but it is it is that company's employee first. And just to piggyback on that, excuse me, I'm sorry. The our vision for that is going to be designated minor teachers to oversee
047it. We don't know. We don't know honestly. going to parse it out yet, but there would hypothetically be teachers available to student for what Dr. Roselle coined as embed is important. I like that that phrase. So, if a student is enrolled in uh Spanish 2 summer remediation and going through the content but just feels like they just need to bounce off something off of one of our certified path staff members, that option will be there for them. In addition to in the original model that we are proposing that we're still working out, there would be an availability of on-site face-to-face instruction where students would be um have the opportunity to come in and work with one of our staff members if there's a particular area of trouble. We we often feel like a Monroe program.
048I just want to um interject too for a second. I think having the monitor teacher oversee it and and being you know almost kind of like a you know a pseudo mentor for them and try to encouraging them and going through that that as opposed to just an online course where there's really nobody monitoring or going through and and in those cases sometimes the parents are working or not working and they're just like oh good they're getting through this. We've had cases where a student has gone through supposedly a 60-hour program and all of a sudden a weekend and done one or two and from the site, yes, they finished it. But the question is, did they learn anything? And and from the standpoint of my department in particular, if you don't learn the previous
049course and you don't learn the content, whether you get the credits or not by trying to bypass things, that's not going to help you in the next class that you have to take. And so, I think this is really going in the right direction. um they're the students that struggled. You know, they they didn't pass it for a reason. So, there might have been they might have been overwhelmed. They might have been struggling. They might have been disengaged. So, it was harder to get that group into the school physically, but if we can do something where we're helping them and we're monitoring them, and they say, "Hey, you know, I noticed that you weren't on in the last three days. Is everything okay? What's going on?" Or, "I noticed that you did three units in
050one day. Are we going too fast? What do you think?" And I I think that side of it from the the almost like the counseling monitoring side is going to be like not that somebody's watching me, but somebody cares about me. Yeah. And so somebody cares about me and they're going through and wait, they really want me to pass this. And I think it might be an encouraging part. It benefits everybody when these students there, right? and and and not only that it you know it it's benefits guidance right for scheduling things but not only that if you know when you think about the students that are failing within that range that could have been just they had a couple bad weeks you know when they're failing by that small margin so the idea of
051a very humanistic approach to this program is something that we and which is why we love the in in-person exclusivity we feel like this is the best compromise we can offer and the one thing that I don't want to overstate that Dr. Rosel mentioned that this platform will deliver as it relates to special ed because we're not naive to tell you that we'd like to interject because we are using it right and I I think what was great as part of the supervisor's meeting which I don't attend but Miss she heard all of this information so our student information is confidential and it was very specific to a student and the needs and we were looking for something like this so we do have a student and they are getting all the emails and every
052day it's very I'm gonna let Jen really talk about it because it just started about a week ago and we mentioned it to Dr. layment. So we could see that it would be approved that we could utilize this also and we have one student right now. So we do have someone and you're right it it does work very well for us also and before you don't mind before before the thought leaves me which it does often the yes so the so obviously when we talk about virtual learning okay so obviously that doesn't work for all types of learners we understand that however the data that we will be have access to as this program progresses will really empower the teachers we assigned to this to and we can triage any problem before it arises and
053we still we don't lose sight of IEPs prior to the summer. Um, we're very thorough ahead of time with the staff to make sure that we're in place. And you know, again, Jen, I don't know, you know, you obviously if if you've had success with it, we feel pretty good. And that's like you said, we wouldn't have brought it here, but Jen, if you want to talk about it, that would be great. For our side, from the special education side, we will probably always have the company teachers kind of be monitoring the whole thing. However, we have access to see where the student is at in it. When I assigned the student up, I was able to upload the IEP so that they were able to provide all the accommodations, modifications that they were supposed
054to for the student. It's the same thing like um Dr. Roselle and Miss Basco was saying, they follow up with them. I just checked on the student yesterday afternoon and he happened to go in and do the initial there's an initial thing that you go on that like an orientation video almost of how to use the program. He had completed that but he hadn't signed on again. So there were already letters from them two days later like asking hey where are you need anything and so it is very and it is aligned you know standard wise we did take a look at that right now it's one course because we're just beginning this and we did speak to the parent so the parent was part of like a training to go through so they could
055also see what the child and the expectation is for the child. So we're just beginning so we don't have a lot what happens after but um but thought when we looked at the emails they were very pleasant to the students hey you know what's going on we haven't seen you today you know so I thought that was you know very nice and there's tutoring there's tutoring pieces and and as uh Dr. Dr. Rossel said anytime during the day um there's help catching up. It's seven days a week. So on the weekend they can also um have contact with someone and it can be virtual or it can be just online and they're working on. So there's many different areas you can work with this. It it has so much to offer. So so far we
056we were very pleased with it and I think the parent was also very pleased to for the child. Thank you very thank you for that feedback. You also Dr. M Scaper on the monitoring piece we can also do periodic assessments which are in our control. The assessments are embedded. So when we make the purchase it is the entire curriculum all the instruction all of the assessment all the tools but we can customize and say okay that unit isn't even in our curriculum. We can pull out a whole unit. We can add our final exam in if we wanted to do something like that. So it it is every component of it is completely customizable. Um so just two quick things. I I think this is wonderful. I love my synchronous classes for my master's degree.
057Um and I think it really gives kids that opportunity to be more flexible in the summer. Um my first question is there are certain limit that they are able to take of these courses over the summer because they're not restricted by schedule because it's asynchronous. But obviously we don't want too many. It's it's been usually been two for remedial like if they were taking summer so face to face courses but I I support that. So the reality is they're 60our courses. So two 60our courses 120 hours that is a large lift uh whether it's one advancement course for 120 hours or it's two you know credit recovery courses. So our model's men too and and that's you know the intention with this is to pace and ensure the hours and the time are put in
058to navigate this with fidelity and uh that's that's the consistent approach we've had. And I'm glad you brought that up too because similar to the summer advancement um registration process guidance, there is a approval process for students that are to make sure that you know we want to make sure they sign up for the right thing and and they students will go with their counselor about through about their summer school decision and that's worked pretty well in the past. And then just my other um question and I might be thinking more of school year requirements um but I know when we spoke of policies during COVID about remote learning and and credits is that not applicable to these programs or is there anything we need to do to support the programs with our policy? So
059this is this falls under the umbrella of our summer uh credit recovery. We've always had for years uh New Jersey Virtual School as a company. Okay. Um, so we have a history and a process that involves signing up and identifying and previewing through the guidance department what courses are going to be taken. Um, we then move into our inerson piece which was an an additional element for a few years. Um, and now we're going to have our element be some version of a I would call it a virtual learning with support um, model. So, our summer credit piece is something we've had in place and we do have a process set in place. Everything we have, you know, aligns to what we need. Um, so in terms of a virtual learning piece, that was it
060really a school year, you know, instructional time during the school day during a five year, you know, five five day week, 40week school year piece that the state put in in place for us. Right. Great. Thank you. Any other questions? Well, my closing remarks on this is going to be about the SWAT analysis that you bring up, which I absolutely love. I'm suffer SWAT analysis and I know that remedial um you know action was one of our weaknesses, opportunity, whatever you want to call it. So, I am very grateful to everybody that has um worked on this to make it a reality that our the students that need it are being met where they can do it. So coming in for 60-hour courses per remedial like you've said is challenging for many not because they're
061going on vacation. While I do know that might be the truth. Um but we are helping them however they need to be helped. And um thank you for doing this. This is very exciting. I do not think this needs board approval, right? This is just an information for the board. So this isformational. What we will do is if there's a need for an additional contract because we already have approved the expenditures and and again the costs are significantly less and once once the negotiations are done um you know it's a it's a student by student license right we're we at this point that's what we believe it'll be depends on how we settle things in. Um, there is a district license that we could potentially look into in the future if this is something we
062would expand to the school year, right, to offer things that we don't offer already. Um, but if there's a change in what we already have in place or there's something, you'll see it on a board agenda for approval. As it stands right now, we are going to recover the cost that we might have for additional license because we the students are covering the correct themselves. So, correct. Excellent update. Thank you so much. Um everyone the last item on the agenda is a dual enrollment at Middle Sex College. So Mr. D is going to highlight something. So um we are um happy to announce that we will have um dual enrollment with um chemistry next year for AP chemistry. Um, honors chemistry is we still have some um logistics that we need to work out that
063most likely will not be ready for next school year, but um we are working to um try to get many more enrollment courses. So we have Middle Sex now for them. Excellent. Congratulations. Yeah, I'll just give a little framework. It's a maybe not specifically how this evolved, but we we have a history of dual enrollment courses with Middle Sex, uh specifically in the business department. So, it's introduction to business, marketing, um we have a music, uh the music theory, AP music theory course. Um and one of our hurdles in any of the dual enrollment with any university that's been their screening process for our instructors, right? They were probably 15 years ago very liberal and said, you know, pretty much anyone could teach. And as they've evolved as a university and rightfully so, you know,
064they have a threshold and many of the areas require certifications and or degrees that are uh far exceed, you know, what we often have for our science teachers or math teachers and things like that. Um, one example I'll use for the visit department is they require an MBA for that. We do not require an MBA. We certainly would, you know, hire staff, but oftentimes candidates with MBAs, they're, you know, not a part of public education. So, we fortunately do have staff with MBAs and that's how we have been able to maintain that partnership. Similarly, in the sciences, we have a you know a similar issue. We have staff members that uh have met the threshold and now we're able to leverage that connection to uh to make this partnership. I think that's the simplest way
065to explain it. You know, we we have submitted tens of doc tens of our documents and it very often has nothing to do with our course sequence or the document itself. it really comes down to they're looking for something in an instructor that's on par with the collegiate level instructor and there's just not that synchry sometimes. Um so that's that's our biggest barrier oftentimes and we communicate that to the universities every time I have a chance I know you've done it you've met with the president. Um so and any college that we interact with that that is now becoming the the barrier the barrier. Yep. But we were able to leverage this partnership this year and that's why we're excited. One at a time we're goingit I do remember that um I think last year
066around this time our closer well Dr. Higgins had given us this update about how many courses that we've applied for and that the barrier is teacher qualification um I want to congratulate you. What this means to the parents who are listening is that if your child is taking AP chemistry next year in Monroe High School, you will have the opportunity to save on college um tuition because you can apply for dual enrollment which is um as a parent I can share that I've had two children take two classes each of dual enrollment with Middle Sex College in the business classes and it has saved me a lot of money and um it's um it's a great benefit uh that the high school is providing and I'm grateful that we have teachers meeting the qualifications one
067at a time. I'm hoping that we keep adding these uh it's an alternate pathway to early graduation in college. So the more credits your child is able to get in high school, the sooner they will graduate out of college. So all that money is saved and college is not an expensive and it is a goal. It is our administrative goals goal. It's a goal that we keep on moving forward with. It's an excellent it's an excellent opportunity for anybody that wants to go in that that area. And I know that there are some school districts, you know, where I previously worked in Florida, it's a it's a a very very um it's a it's a massive situation where they work directly with the programs and some children literally graduate high school with an associates degree.
068Sure. Yes, Mr. Gl. Yeah. Just very quickly, um my granddaughter um graduated high school recently and she's starting as a sophomore out of college. An example of that. It's it's amazing and you know she has the ability to do it and subsequently she um you know I'm I'm just you know forgive me I'm just so proud. Exactly. And that's and that's our goal as a board to keep supporting you guys in this work that we give them more and more opportunities to take that urine life and travel the world. You know why you're in college and use the money that your parents saved and you saved and go travel the world. So thank you everybody for your hard work. I do one more piece about that. You guys uh for board approval will see our
069memorandum understanding with Middle Sex. It's going to include the AP chemistry as well as some of the other chemistries that we're working on. Yeah. Um it also has the price structure. So just for the sake of the public, a three credit course is $135. Yes. Four credit course is $135. And a three credit course with a lab which would be inclusive of the chemist 3. And the lab piece was another barrier with many of the scientists. They require a certain level of engagement in certain activities that sometimes aren't conducive in a public high school environment. It's more of a collegiate piece. But again, with the instructor that we have leveraged um and their commitment to this university, we can I think that was one of the barriers that we we were able to do it
070in our facilities. Yes. for one of the courses and we're working on that's I think that is the barrier was the second course figuring out the lab piece going forward. So I just want to give you a preference that at a board level you're going to see a bunch of courses. The AP is good to go. There's a gen uh on here that we're still working through but we're going to pre-approve it so when we work it out we can just roll with it. Um, and it has instructors. And the instructors, again, they may change the ones that are listed on here, but the uh that's what they require on their end for approval. But I wanted to highlight for the public's sake, it's $135 for three credits. You look at I mean, it's $900
071a credit most universities, you know. Yeah. Um, so this is just an outstanding opportunity to just get a it's not per credit, $135 for the course. And I I can give that testimonial as a parent that I have saved all that money two courses at each one of my childhood. So it's an opportunity not to be missed and I hope that we can share this um you know for people don't listening that don't listen into these committee meetings or to our board meeting if we can make sure that the counselors are really educating our parents and students very well it will be very helpful. Um I do before we close the meeting I do want to go back to a couple meetings. one of our discussions on the um student achievement uh piece that Dr.
072Higgins was here to address and we started to talk about the National Honor Society but we ran out of time. Um we have been in receipt of emails from community members in the last two days uh relevant to the National Honor Society and I wanted to bring all the supervisors in on that. It's not an agenda item, but I wanted to share with you that um based on that discussion, the recommendation from the high school, I know the conversation started with the principal's list. And while I made my piece with the principal list based on what other schools are doing, we do understand that too many children are qualifying into the National Honor Society in our high school. We need to raise the standards. We're in agreement on that. But one of the changes being
073made that has gone through the first read in the policy is that we're taking away the weighted GPA and we're making it a nonweed GPA and that um is bothering the community and we've received emails for the last two days just today before I came to the meeting I counted 40 emails from community members that are requesting that the policy be changed. You can raise the standard, raise the barrier so fewer uh students qualify. Right now, I think a majority is qualifying into the national honor society. Raise the barriers but keep the credit for honors and AP classes. Use the weighted GPA. So, um this this has come from the community. I as a curriculum chair 100% support that. The policy committee has already gone to the first reading. So, I believe it's going to
074be back for a second reading in the in the next board meeting. But I urge the administration from a curriculum chair perspective that we should not make case decisions like that that could impact our student. National Honor Society is a nationally accredited recognition. We do meet the baseline. We do have the ability ability and flexibility to change it to suit our high school. But we have to do it in a way that we don't discourage students from taking AP and honors classes. And at this point that is the fear that the parents have. the community is reaching out because they are fearful that their children will be hesitant to take honor and AD classes. So I wanted to bring that back here as a monologue in the cur community committee and I'm going to comment
075on that as well. So I've received the saying probably at this point at one point it was only eight literally and 50 or 60. Um I do agree that there should be a high standard. We should always have high standards but because so many things are weighted perhaps the standard should be raised numerically but it should still be weighted. Um at this juncture though the way the policy works I do not have the ability to remove it from the agenda because it is um the ability is through um the policies come directly to the board of education. So um it is my recommendation that if it is approved we could always bring it back for discussion again. If it isn't approved we could bring it back. I want to compliment Dr. Higgins. I did reach
076out to him. He is willing to have further discussion on the matter as well as uh Dr. Layman, but at this point I do not have the authority to remove it for so it will remain on the agenda for a second read and and of course is the board's decision through their vote whether it's voted for it. But I am in agreement with the public um in the regards that I am not in agreement that anything should be lessened nor is the public. That's not what they're asking. But I am in agreement that perhaps we need to take another um we need to do our due diligence and take further um look into the matter and have a further discussion. Right. And I'm sure all the board members have received the same emails I've received.
077And I'm hopeful that the board members will take that into consideration when voting for the second read of this volume. Oh, I thought I would have been people who had been back and forth and I had actually said like let's make this, you know, more competitive but just maybe in a different way. And you know, I have a very um direct influence because I have an eighth grader and that would be the first class that was affected and she was selecting her classes and we were going back and forth about honors because she's that kid who probably could challenge herself at certain classes but you know the do the benefits and you know outweigh the the risks you know and so we were having that discussion but because of this there's been you know a
078lot of discussion when we were at a couple of the events and um I for like if they will be on the agenda I mean we can have that discussion at hopefully other there is you know the need I guess for additional discussion I guess we can always discuss the idea of tableing if that's what the the board wanted to do um right and I appreciate that you shared what other districts are doing in your in one of your email and other districts for NHS quite a few districts are using weighted so we're not like for the principal list the argument was nobody does That's not the argument for NHS. So why are we changing a policy that was working? Just raise the barrier. Leave it as as waited. So hopefully we will have this
079discussion in the board meeting. Thank you everybody for coming out tonight. That concludes the next start meeting. You will be starting the finance.