001Okay, >> we'll start with the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Right, we will turn it over for the beginnings of the superintendent report. Again, welcome everyone and I would like to begin by recognizing um our students here this evening in a presentation that has been designed by Miss Denise Vega Moore who is our supervisor of world language and our assistant uh principal at Morristown High School, Marietta Scorsone. Ladies, take it away. We're excited to hear from you. Thank you everyone. Um, and thank you everyone for for coming. Thank you for being here and thank you to the board at Dr. Mucci for allowing me and Denise the opportunity to
002come and and acknowledge these wonderful students and all of their accomplishments. Um, I also want to take the time to acknowledge Miss Left, who unfortunately is not here, but she's been such an instrumental person um to this um to this initiative um dedicating endless hours. And I'm sure many of these students would recognize Miss Le as well for all the time that she's given you guys during lunchtime helping you all uh fill out the applications for CIE and everything. So um you know she's not here but I do want to give her a public thank you. Um these two remarkable recognitions seal by literacy and the seal and the CIE travel abroad truly reflect the spirit of the Mo school district. They celebrate our students curiosity their courage and commitment to connecting with other others
003beyond language and cultural boundaries. Each student recognized tonight has shown that it what it means to be a global citizen. Someone who values understanding, empathy, and the power of communication. We are so proud of their hard work and all the time that they have put into their studies and their dedications to acknowledge this level of language commitment. Before we recognize the students, I want to highlight what each program is and give a little bit more insight into what our students have accomplished. Um, so just I don't know if it's a technical glitch, but that's not the first slide. I don't know, Adam. Thank Yeah. Uh, throw back a few, please. Thank Yep. A few more. There we go. Okay. Thank you. Um, so just one, uh, do I click this right? >> Yes. Okay. >>
004All right. Here we go. All right. So, um, CIE is our travel abroad program. We've been working with them since 2016. For the last uh since then, we've had about 200 students travel with CIE to all different countries around the world. And the beauty about CIE is that they have given us close to $500,000 in scholarship. Many of our students have traveled with the full scholarship uh to pay for the the whole uh trip. Uh the only thing that they've had to pay is the the airfare. So, it is a wonderful opportunity for many students to be able to go to different parts of the world and explore uh the cultures. The program is broken up into two different types of programs. They have a language program which is a s four to six week
005language immersion program and if you look at the bottom one month of the program equals to one school year. So many if not all of these students come back almost fluent in the language that they are studying. If they choose to not do the language program they also choose to do a topic program and the topic program can range from STEM related programs to business social change. Um, and some of them do come back with a deeper understanding of whatever that passion is that drove them to that program. So, it really is amazing. Um, as I said before, lots of scholarship opportunities for many of our students. So, it really is a phenomenal phenomenal program. So, I would like to now recognize uh the students. So, students, when I call your name for CIE, please
006come up and get your certificate and please. All right. Congratulations students. And you'll see that um students have either one star or two star to designate whether they were a tra a language program recipient or if they were a topic program. Okay. So Himea Arita come on up please. Yes. Ha traveled to Rome Italy. Jada Blair I believe Jada unfortunately is not here tonight. Um Jada traveled to Shanghai China. Uh Maya Chowry uh traveled to Madrid, Spain. Maya, if you're here, uh, Allison Kan to Berlin, Germany. Julian Crochi, Gallas, I believe he's here. Yes. >> To Barcelona, Spain. Uh, Jaylen Fleming, I did not see Jaylen. Nope. Uh, Jaylen, Tokyo, Japan. Tara Foley to Sydney, Australia. Justin Jordina to Rome, Italy. Penelopey Jameson, Paris, France. Loretta Loretta Langlo to Madrid, Spain. Samantha Lima to Coyoto,
007Japan. Robert Morello to Rome, Italy. Liam Macdonald to Barcelona, Spain. Emily Patino to Barcelona, Spain. Guy Romano, Rome, Italy. Jada Smith. I did see Jada. >> Yes. >> To Mayora, Spain. >> Ryan Snider to Taipei, Taiwan. Jeffrey Vasquez to Madrid, Spain. Gavin Wesner, Wesner, I'm sorry, to Kyoto, Japan. and Genesis Orbina to Mayorca, Spain. And then we do have one more recipient. Um, this student traveled two years ago. Um, but aside from traveling two years ago, she's deserves a special recognition because she was also named by CIE as a global ambassador for them for two years in a row to again just show that dedication to widening those horizons and deepening those understandings of other culture. And not only that, but then coming back to Morristown High School and helping her fellow team classmates to
008fill out applications and really drum up the interest for for the program. So Elena Aleppo, if you could please come up, please. Thank you guys. Thank you. And then we're going to switch over to the New Jersey Seal of Biiteracy. So the New Jersey Seal of Bi Literacy is an award that is given by the state of New Jersey to students that can demonstrate their literacy skills not only in English uh through the NJSLA and NGPA and the SAT uh graduation benchmark, but also through their achievement in a different language. And that achievement is done through different avenues. I won't bore you with all of them, but it's basically a way for students to be able to have official documentation to show their language proficiency. Students who get the seal of biiteracy are also um
009able to set themselves apart when they're applying to colleges. They're able to say that they are a recipient of this certificate of the seal of biiteracy by the state to demonstrate that they are fluent in another language other than English. Also, uh many colleges accept credit. So when you apply to colleges and you say that you have the seal of bi literacy, many colleges do grant credit for that seal. Um students are able to like I said before demonstrate proficiency through their ELA graduation benchmark. And the rigorous part about the second language is that they have to now sit there and demonstrate proficiency not just by speaking but speaking, reading, listening and writing uh in the four domains. students can do it through either the AP exam, through the stamp test, the Ayer, all different
010kinds of of ways. The students that are here tonight are what I want to call my early birds, our early birds, because they are reached they reached the all the criteria before hitting their senior year. That means that they got a four, they received a four or a five on their AP exam as juniors and they reached their graduation benchmark. So, um, so they're ahead of the curve. Yeah. I'm proud to say that since 2017, since we adopted the seal of bi literacy here at Morrison High School, we've grant uh we we've had about 300 students that have received the seal of bi literacy in languages other than Spanish, French, and Italian. One year we did have Tagalog. Uh this year we're going to have a student who is going to test in Arabic. Um
011so we've had all all different kinds and this year we have the 21 students already for 2526. Um, and there's many more to come. So, without further ado, let's uh let's celebrate the students. Okay. Uh, Lani Arguo for Spanish. Himea Arita, Spanish. Tiara Veransa, Spanish. Aya Cay Spanish. Luca Camarada who's getting uh being recognized by his parents being represented by his parents tonight. Wala Lupe Carrera Papa Alicia Cortez, Spanish. Elena Deleppo, Spanish. Nathan Enelma, French. Natalie Gomez, Spanish. You got the pins. Jacqueline Gutierrez, Spanish. Allison Herrera, Spanish. Joseph Joseph Lopez, Spanish. Samantha Lopez, Spanish. Sophia Rodriguez, Spanish. Allison Selenas, Spanish. Katia Saravia, Spanish. Genesis Urbina, Spanish. Daisy Zang, Chinese, and Andrew Zuluaga, Spanish. Again, just a huge round of applause again for these students embodying the the true spirit of the Morris School District and
012their global endeavors and becoming uh true global citizens of this of this community. So, thank you everyone. I'm being told I forgot a name. Look at that. I'm sorry. Speak up. Don't Don't be shy. >> Very. Yeah. Come up. All right. I think you want a group shot. Nope. Nope. Okay. >> Yeah, I'm done. Thank you. Thank you everyone. We would like to break for a brief reception so that the board can congratulate all of our recipients this evening and that we can also take a group photo. Um, but as uh Daisy and we have Garrett here this evening, we'll ask that they just give you the update because we have a wonderful audience here tonight and they come to our board meetings to provide us uh with updates of what's happening in Morristown High
013School. So, if you could give us a couple of more minutes, uh they'll share with you some of the events that are happening around the district. Then we'll pause uh for a brief reception and we welcome you to stay with us all night long. We have a full dance card tonight. Uh so after the reception, we'll be reviewing student achievement data and then we'll also be looking at um some data about school culture and climate. Um, so just a brief uh update from both of our students, then we'll pause for a break and uh continue our meeting after the reception. Uh, Daisy, would you begin for us? And congratulations to you and all of the students tonight for representing the best of Morristown High School and our commitment um to learning about other cultures and
014just demonstrating proficiency in language. Just incredibly, incredibly impressive. >> All right. Um, good evening everyone. I hope everyone is having a good day. My name is Daisy. I'm one of the senior board liaison along with Garrett. Tonight we will be delivering our report on student government and various events around the school. >> To start with some of the fall sports going on around the school. The season is coming to a close, but uh the football team has their final playoff game against Paic Tech this Thursday after finishing their regular season 2 and seven. The boys soccer team is 99 and2 with their final game tomorrow at Paripony Hills. The girls soccer team will finish their season on Thursday against Newark Academy after a one- nothing win against Summit. Uh the girls field hockey team also
015sits at a record of 115 and one and will look to finish their season out strong with a 5-0 win against Sparta. As far as music in the school, there's an upcoming event in November. Uh the high school theater department will be putting on their fall drama, Little Woman, and they will have performances on November 21st, 22nd, and the 23rd. As far as the Heritage Club, the Heritage Club at the homecoming football game honored Vietnam veterans for their service, as well as giving tours the next morning to train new members of the club on the rich history of our high school. On November 11th, the Heritage Club will hold their Veterans Day ceremony and honor all those who served for Mortown High School. As we move forward into November, we're currently preparing for one of
016the school's biggest fundraisers, No Shave November, where teachers volunteer to not shave their beards for a month and collecting donations as the month progresses and at the end shave their beards into a funny or funky style according to the donations they received. In addition to that, we also have the turkey drive, an annual charity event for canned goods and Thanksgiving treats, which will be held near Thanksgiving for local families to attend. This path this past month, student government held our first spirit week and pep rally of the year. Every grade worked hard to raise the most spirit points through fun activities during the week, as well as a food drive whose proceeds went to the local interfaith food pantry. At the end of the week, the entire student body participated in an exciting pep rally,
017which also recognized our student athletes, clubs, and school accomplishments for the star of the year. Student government worked closely with the school marching band, cheer team, and student body to bring in new events that kept the entire crowd engaged, responding to feedback from previous events. As Daisy mentioned, student government is now focused on our season of giving events such as the Thanksgiving turkey drive, No Shave November, and our holiday gift drive. The homecoming game and dance was equally successful with a high student turnout in a great football game against Morris Nolles. The dance was held outside on Saturday, October 18th, and the unique location created a fun environment for students to enjoy the fall weather. Highlights included the food and photo booth section with aesthetics to match. Some criticisms involved overcrowding and a limited selection
018of entertainment, but overall the dance was considered very fun and memorable for students who attended. That is all for today. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. >> And I did jump the gun. I forgot the American Exchange Project. So, we'll do that quickly before Yes. >> with this audience because you're you're speaking to people who will appreciate the message. These are your folks. married. >> I sent >> Okay. >> Um it's not long. >> So you can go have your >> Yeah, there it is. Thank you. >> Um thank you so much. Thank you everyone. Um my name is Brienne Stevenson. I'm a teacher at FMS. Um and I'm here to talk to you tonight about a really exciting opportunity that I'm bringing to Morristown. Um the American Exchange Project. I have it also
019on my shirts. Um, the mission of the American Exchange Project is to civically engage citizens and bridge national divisions through an immersive shared adventure that encourages connection, fosters empathy, and exposes young adults to different perspectives, attitudes, and futures. So, it is a free week-long vacation for seniors after they graduate high school. Um, the catch is you don't know where you're going until March. Um, and it is a domestic trip, so it's somewhere in America. Um, but there is Hawaii and Alaska are options. So, it's very exciting. Um, in early October, I was sent to Fort Worth with new other new exchange managers um, in the American Exchange Project where I got to meet the founder, David McCulla III, which for any historian, American history buffs, um, he's like apparently American history royalty. His grandfather is
020David McCulla. I don't know if anyone knows what that means, but apparently it's a big deal. Um, anyway, while we were there, one of the things that really resonated with me was the fact that um, one of the greatest indicators of socioeconomic mobility in kids is who their friends are. So, when we expose kids to different environments, we can literally change their futures, which I think is a really awesome part of this. How do I lose this? Oh, I thought I >> um, all right. So, this last year I was able to do this in my hometown, Sussex County. And so, we um hosted 10 students from around the country, all from different states, and we were able to send seven of our hometown kids to different states as well. Um so, here's some of
021the things we did. We took them to a minor baseball game, which is up in Skylands, um Augusta, if anybody has ever been up to that neck of New Jersey. Um so, one of our High Point kids, Leo, he got to travel to Nevada. He said it was amazing. The trip was honestly one of the best things I've ever done and this kid did not want to do this. So, it took us a lot of convincing to get him to go and he absolutely loved it. He is the first or second from the left um in that picture. Um Gabe is another High Point student. He's in the middle with the cowboy hat. When I first got to Kilgore, Texas, I was unsure of where I was or what to do. Then I had one
022of the best weeks of my life. Caleb, he is the only boy in that picture. He's also a High Point student. Um, he went to Utah. Getting to experience the culture and people of a new area has had such a profound impact on me. Um, Ara is on the left from um, High Point and she went to Arkansas. But the fun thing is that the girl in the middle and her name is Jade and she came to our um, hometown week and then she's from Arkansas too. So, they got to spend two weeks together. Um, AAP truly connects you with so many people across the country and it's not only the people you meet during your trips. [snorts] Kyle is there you can see the back of his head there. Um, he's another High Point
023kid. He went to Tennessee. The American Exchange Project was an incredible opportunity to connect with people I wouldn't have originally and to immerse myself in mine and other cities culture. Um Danny is the boy in that picture and he's next to um Kase who also came to New Jersey. So she was at our hometown exchange and then he got to spend another week with her out in Montana. Um it was beautiful and it was awesome learning more about indigenous people. Um Logan went to Colorado. You see a beautiful um picture there. So, some of the great things about this opportunity was the kids were off their phones and I didn't even have to tell them. They just naturally it was, you know, things were more exciting than being on their phones, which is hard to
024compete with. Um, they were making genuine connections. Um, I think the really cool thing about this week experience is that the stakes are really low. Like worst case scenario, these kids never see each other again. So they actually let their guards down and I really sincerely think they were themselves and it was like they were accepted as themselves which maybe for one of the first times in their lives. I mean high school is hard. You don't always act like yourself in front of your friends in high school but they made I think were able to make genuine connections. Um and they gained confidence for college. So a bunch of them were like I was worried about college but I went for a week to a place I didn't even know I was going with strangers
025and now now they felt like they could do anything. So that was really great. Um, so up in the top is some of the kids and the hosts families and then down on the bottom is this is just our community members. So those are the host families and all the connections we made just in our own community which was really great. Even the adults had fun. Um, this was our thank you barbecue after the exchange. There were no kids present at that event. Um, and then another testament to the positive impact on the host families was that I had a whole itinerary of what I had to do to drop the kids off on their last day at the airport. So, I had a bunch of different flight times and where I had to go
026and gates and the night before all of the parents, every single host family said, "We want to drop our kids off." So, they all went to the airport the next day and I didn't have to drive anyone, which was fantastic. But there's just a lot of connections between the host families and the kids. So I do need your help bringing this opportunity to more of our kids. Um what you can do talk up the American Exchange Project in our community. Um send me the names of seniors who would benefit from and be beneficial to the program. Volunteer to help with hosting. You do get a stipend um or helping with the exchanges. So all the expenses of our trips are covered and it is a lot of fun. So, um, thank you so much for
027your time. Here's my email if you would like to contact me. Thank you. Thank you, um, Dr. Mchi. So, it's wonderful to see international as well as national connection. So many beautiful things to see and people to meet in our own country as well. So, thank all of you um for highlighting these programs and Miss Cole. >> Yeah, just thank you and congratulations. Lots to celebrate here. Um and we would just like to take a moment to say hello to all of you, but we also would like to get a picture. So, perhaps we'll start with that first and meet over by the MHS for photo and then we'd love to say congratulations ourselves. So, we'll regroup here after a brief reception. Thank you. Thank you very much. If I don't finish your fantastic Yeah,
028I just find out. They find out. I ran them and then a list. Ela, hold on It's just able to actually You're welcome. Can I So my question Yeah, >> that'll only No. Yeah. Thanks. They come here. basketball. So I'm never Congratulations. Hello. All the Absolutely. Yeah. I don't fix that. All same Social economic skill. No problem. Congratulations. Okay. Hey, thank you. Congratulations. Oh, are you running this year? >> Yeah. Yeah. But it's not a big election year. So, I like driving [laughter] through Pennsylvania this morning and we're It was just so funny seeing all these posters and campaign signs being boring and like so different. what different states and jurisdictions actually this guy's got post Oh, >> football. >> I was just kind of being lucky to get to go back to the game
029last year. You want to go first? >> Long drive this morning. My son, >> I'm sure there was I maybe got >> Wow. I sold my John's tickets years ago. That's a tough one. >> Always debateful on what games can you go and get sell the tickets. The girls got older and didn't want to go. Our next uh presentation is Alberto and Deb Angel will be presenting on some school culture and climate initiatives and our annual report on the HIV data for the district. Thank you Tina and Deb. Tina and I are here for our semesterly report of data. So we are um sharing data on student safety data student safety instance in student student safety instances from last semester. Um we have the data here also for the full year. So you can take
030a look at that. Um we did see a decrease over um prior years for our substance abuse and our HIV confirmed numbers. And um all of this, a lot of what team is also going to be sharing is all the work that we do to make sure that our students are connected, that they um feel part of our community. We have lots of opportunities, as you've seen, for students to get involved, to um be sharing time with trusted adults, afterchool programs, and sports. So Tina's going to be talking a lot more about those as she goes over the anti-bullying bill of rights uh self- assessment that we will be submitting uh later this month. Good evening. So each year the commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Education is required by state law to grade
031each public school. So each school's climate team evaluates its implementation of the anti-bullying bill of rights act. So each school's climate team does uh is provided with a selfassessment tool which contains eight focus areas listed here. And as you can see all schools in the district met or exceeded all of the requirements. So the scores ranged from 71 to 77 which uh we made great progress from last year. This is the HIB reporting from September 2024 to June 13th. We had a total of 58 HIB investigations. And out of those 58, 23 were confirmed HIPS. And again, that is based on the New Jerseys definition of what is a HIP. And we broke it down as you can see with the numbers reported by uh which is great. Uh we see most of our reports
032are coming from students which shows that they are comfortable enough uh to report. And then we broke it down to location and then the reason. So here we updated our HIB web page and we have uh great resources that we added for families and this lists all of our anti-bullying specialists. Each school is a we have an appointed and trained anti-bullying specialist for each school. What's important is regardless if a HIB is not confirmed or confirmed, we provide interventions for all of our students that are named. And some of our interventions include discussions really to build those social emotional skills, group counseling, individual. And in addition to school counseling, we also provide families with a link to community resources. And these are just some of our uh remedial actions. So what's important in regards to
033prevention is also education and training. So each year, what we've seen last year and we continue to do on a yearly basis is train our staff, our students, and also partnering with our families. And I just wanted to go over uh we listed some district program highlights, some of our initiatives that are occurring in our schools. We have uh each school we do provide individual and then we also have group counseling. Our counselors push into classes resto res restorative meetings. We also um heavily rely on character programs building our social emotional skills. Uh peer mentoring programs. We also have a we initiated a new peerleader program at Freeling Heisen, the Falcon flight crew, uh which we're seeing uh great success so far with it's part of the highlight of my day is seeing the eighth
034graders work with the sixth graders. It's just amazing to see them in action. And then we also uh really partner with our community and the state and also provide uh a variety of family programs for our families. And really our goal here in our Morris school district is we want to build an inclusive community. So, we have a lot of programs and extracurricular activities that really uh build on that and we uh listed those and those are some pictures of our multicultural night which we hold uh every year at FMS. Thank you. Thank you for your time and have a good evening. >> Thank you. Thanks. Our final presentation this evening is the student achievement data from spring 2025. And I'd like to welcome our administrative team members here this evening. And we'll begin uh
035with Mr. Matthew Kryley, the director of elementary education. >> Uh, good evening everybody. So, this is again our yearly presentation on the NJSLA and other state assessments that we do annually. This is a requirement from the New Jersey Department of Education for all school districts to present publicly at a board meeting by the end of October. So this evening, um, I will be presenting on ELA and math in grades 3 through 5, as well as the DLM. Brian Young, our science supervisor, will present on science in grades 5, 8, and 11. Alex Gentle, supervisor of math 6 through 12, will present on math, algebra, geometry, algebra 2, and NJGPA. Herod Duma, supervisor of language arts, will present on ELA grades 3 through 9 and NJ GPA. and Sophia will finish out our evening of present
036presentations by presenting on the AP scores at MHS. Um so before I start on this um I just want to remind everybody that there are five performance levels for uh NJSLA in ELA and math. So all of the presentation material that you see for ELA and math, we're focusing on the top two. So those are anything in green on the graphs. Um and that's our meeting and exceeding. So a lot of the data that you'll see when we compare year-to-year, it focuses solely on those two levels. For science, there are four levels, but again, we're focusing on the top two, which are also in green on the slides when we get to Mr. Young. So an overview for grades three, four, and five. We showed an overall increase in the number of students meeting or
037exceeding expectations when compared to 2024. Grade three math was uh a a higher increase with 9.1% of students meeting or exceeding expectations when compared to 2024. Grade five performed at or above the state average on every single tested math standard. And grades three, four, and five all performed higher than the state average in written expression and writing knowledge. So this shows the visual here. The top two numbers are the greens, those meeting and exceedings on the right. And this is the similar format that you'll see throughout the presentation. We're comparing the grade level from 20 24 to 2025. So it's really important to understand that it's not the same students. It's the same grade level. Um so in grade three we saw a 5.5% increase. Grade four a 2% increase. And grade five a little
038over 4%. in ELA. And then down below um you'll see uh our how our district perform in comparison to the state average. All of those numbers are above the state average. You know, we always want to be above the state average. Uh typically we are of you see down at the bottom there, we have some pretty significant differences between the state average and the district, which is great. Um and then these slides you'll also see in each of our um presentations today we are required to report on different subgroups. The first one we show is race race and ethnicity. So this is again showing how what percentage of those students met or exceeded grades 3 through 5 ELA. And on this slide we have economically disadvantaged in blue. So, 31.58% of our economically disadvantaged students
039met or exceeded grades 3 through 5 ELA. Um, our special education students, you have 28.65% met or exceeded. And then our bilingual students, we have about 15% met or exceeded uh grades 3 through 5 ELA. Moving on to math, again, the same the same format here. We have grade three uh in math had a 9.1% increase. Uh grade four went down 2.3% and grade five had an increase of about 4%. And again at the bottom we have our comparison from district and state uh averages which we are above in all three. And here we have our subgroups again meeting or exceeding in math. Uh we have in the blue economically disadvantaged 27.47% uh met or exceeded in grades three through five math. Special education we have about 30% meeting or exceeding. And then our ML
040and bilingual students we have 17.61%. So then the question always is how how will this data be used? And you'll hear this a lot. This is one piece of the puzzle. Um, I've had multiple conversations with multiple people. Um, there's there's a lot of factors in here. This is great data to use. It's not the only data that we use. So, in grades uh in our lower levels, we have the Dibbles assessment, which is also our dyslexia screener, which uh really focuses on literacy skills. So, I want I just want to be clear here that this isn't the only thing that we use. So, we have an implementation of a new K5 ELA and math curriculum that's aligned to the 2023 NJSLS. Um, we moved away from Rubicon and we had uh a consultant come
041in focusing specifically on a userfriendly document that teachers will readily and easily be able to access, right? And that helps us provide continuity of instruction. Um, at the lower at the elementary level, we have PDMA meetings dedicated to sharing NJSLA results in developing a targeted plan that supports student progress and focuses on standardsbased instruction. Um, one of the documents that the district receives from the state that is used internally is an evidence statement analysis. And what that is is it goes standard by standard for each grade level from left to right. It shows the easiest the quote unquote easiest standard to the most challenging standard. and it shows how that school performed in comparison to the district and comparison to the state. So we can actually look at that document and say this particular standard
042we we need to work on and it may be simply that they didn't get to that standard before the assessment and it might just mean that we need to change our pacing um or or planning at certain points. Um we have we offer academic support and small groups of students who met predetermined criteria for both monilingual and bilingual student populations at our lower elementary level. That is u more focused on the dibbles assessment which we're bringing up to third, fourth and fifth grade in the coming years. Um we also assess standards alignment of pilot programs and resources to make recommendations for future use. So, for those of you who um have heard, yeah, some of you have heard this a lot, CKLA. We have that at the K to2 level. Um we have we also
043have it at in grades three at Normandy Park and ah and we have a plan for a continuous roll out to to fifth grade. So, we'll have a a common program from K5 monolingual and bilingual. Um and then last but not least, we have instructional coaches that are um a new position this year at the K5 level to support continuity of instruction. So those two individuals uh were a were paramount in in curriculum development. They were both involved in reviewing and revising all of the K5 uh math and language arts documents. They've gone into classrooms. They've attended PD sessions um or meetings with our vendors for CKLA and the SAVIS math pilot. So they're a huge component of making sure that the instruction in each individual classroom is there's continuity and there's understanding of the
044program and its resources. Right? So when a classroom teacher receives a new program with all these online materials, they sound great, but maybe they don't know that it's there. Maybe they hadn't had enough time to to really look at all the pieces. So when they have somebody coming in and saying, "Hey, did you did you go on to CKLA and see the progress monitoring tool?" And showing them how to do it live in the classroom. That's a huge help and that helps build capacity in our staff for them to understand these things in a safe and supportive environment. Um, and so that's it for me for now. I'll be back later, but I'm going to turn it over to Brian Young to talk about science. Thank you. Thank you. Sure. Okay, thank you Matt. Uh,
045I'm here the next few slides we're going to discuss the NJSLA science exam which is taken in grades 5, 8, and 11. Um, just some uh key components here of how our data will be used. >> Yeah, that's okay. There we go. So first an overview um of our science here in grades 5, eight, and 11. You will see in the next few slides uh we have an increase in the number of students meeting or exceeding expectations when compared to 2024 in all three grade bands. Um you will see in grades 5, 8, and 11 all scored above the state percentage uh in the number of students meeting or exceeding expectations um in all three grade bands. uh specifically in grades uh five and 11 showed an increase in the number of students meeting or
046exceeding expectations in the economically disadvantaged subgroup. And also in grade levels five and 11, we saw an increase in the number of students meeting or exceeding expectations in the special education sped uh special ed uh student subgroup. Uh the format and uh patterning is the same as uh Mr. Kryley did uh talk about with our our bar graphs there. On the right hand side, you'll see our three grade bands uh grade 5, grade 8, and grade 11 uh changes from 2024 to 2025. And then the state uh percentage of meeting and exceeding versus our district. And as you can see in all three grade bands, we were above uh the state average there. Um again the three grade grade bands here fifth, 8th and 11th broken out into race and ethnicity subgroups uh colorcoded there.
047And then we'll present the economically disadvantaged in all three uh grade bands and the percentage as you can see fifth, 8th and 11th. And as I mentioned before, the fifth and 11th um did um score above the state average and show an increase from 2024. The same with our special education subgroup uh in fifth and 11th as well. And then finally our multilingual and bilingual students in fifth, 8th and 11th grade. So then our last slide just uh note the NJSLA science exam. Um this is the seventh year it's been in in existence in 2018. Students are required by state law to sit and take the science exam in those three grade levels. However, unlike um English and math, the science does not count um towards a graduation requirement. um but the students are required
048to to take the exam. So when we look at the data and the exam, a few uh key points here of what we're doing and and conversations that are are being had at the district level. The first thing in K5 science just uh the idea of programming, right, related to the curricular programs that we're using, but also the delivery and the frequency of exposure to the content. Um those conversations are ongoing. So instructional delivery and content exposure time. Um also uh explore integrated spiral sequence across uh grades six eight. And what that means is uh at our middle school currently we teach uh content level grade level science meaning sixth grade is earth and space, seventh grade is life science, eighth grade is physical science. The NJSLA science exam is an integrated test which means
049it's all of those subjects uh that the students are tested on in grade eight. So um the the conversation of uh implementing um I know when I first started in the district which is 21 years ago um we did have a spiraling sequence at that time in science meaning all three um content area science uh subjects were taught in each grade level. Um so that's certainly something that um we are we are looking at and and thinking about as we move into the future. Uh also we are we are currently piloting uh the open sed curriculum that the state has released in middle school and in 9th grade. Uh this is what the state's recommending. It's um modeled after the NJSLA exam. Uh so that's something that we are in the process of doing. Uh
050we're also in the process of um as you know resequencing our science courses at the high school level to a more traditional uh biology, chemistry, physics approach. Um this is going very well this year. Uh the students are really doing well in biology and nth grade. Um and then we'll be moving that sequence, you know, will not settle down until uh two years from now and then we'll have all our students in following that sequence as we move forward. Um and of course throughout the grade bands, these are things that we're still talking about and practice test, practice questions, skills um that are directly related to um the science test itself that the states given. Okay. So now I'm going to hand it over to uh Mr. Gentle. Alex, uh we'll talk to you about
051math. Go ahead. >> Hi everybody. So in our highlights from our math testing for 6 to 12, we had a a big a big change in our sixth grade math scores, we had a 9.7 percentage point increase compared to last year. Again, compared to the sixth grade students who took it last year. So they're not the same students, but it's the same grade level. um seventh and eighth grade were fairly similar except eighth grade had a had growth in the the level three the approaching expectations. So there was growth but not necessarily for the number of students that are passing. Um we've got our algebra one algebra one students the number that passed match the state algebra 2 outperforms the state. In FMS our geometry course did very well. We only had one student who
052did not pass and we had a 25.6% uh percentage point increase in the number of students in middle school who passed the algebra 1 exam. So here's our data overall. Uh you can see the the grade eight one. It's that orange section that grew from last year. So we had while the the top two the the 6.2 and the 28.3 those were about the or the about the same the middle sections grew. So, we had less of the students in the level one and level twos. Algebra 1, geometry, and algebra 2 are high school courses. And I I I want to mention just like like Mr. Kryley did that these are not the same students. And they're not even these these grades don't these don't represent students in a particular grade. Algebra 1, there are
053seventh and eighth graders and nth graders who take it. Geometry, there's a mix of eighth graders and high school students. And algebra 2 is a is mostly n is ninth graders. So the algebra 2 they they they shrink as they go. So the algebra one is the most number of students but it's not everybody. Here are subgroups for um for our our middle school and our high school math scores. Uh economically disadvantaged versus non noteconomically disadvantaged for middle school and high school. special education versus general education and then we've got multilingual and bilingual learners. So, how will the data be used? So, this is these are just some changes that we've been working on. This is not it's not everything we're doing this year, but we've reorganized a lot of the teachers at the middle
054school. We we want to make sure that we have the right people in the right places so that this the teachers that are teaching high school level courses have high school math certifications. We've got some very strong people in seventh grade. We saw growth in sixth grade last year. So, we're hoping to continue that in our seventh grade math courses. It's been a weak point the last couple years. So, we really wanted to make sure we have some good people in there. And I I actually I feel very good about all of our middle school math teachers this year. I we have we have a very good group. Um, we are adding a a requirements for NJSLA scores BA to for course placement the next year. If a student wants to advance, we we have
055we want to hold them accountable by making sure that they pass the NJSLA. And we are looking into creating a course between pre-alggebra and honors algebra 1. the middle school. We noticed a little bit of a gap between the the ability levels of those two classes and we want something in the middle to help the kids out that don't fall in either one of them. And we are we have a big focus on algebra one at the high school. We've got two interventionists, so we have one person on one day and another person on another day. The high school has an alternating A and a B day schedule. And I I personally like that because then we have people who are teaching and doing intervention where they're pushing into algebra one classes and pulling out
056small groups for some small instruction when it's appropriate. And right now, which is ending, we've identified students at the end of their pre-alggebra course that could use a little extra support so they have an extra quarter of math. And back to some ELA dip. Good evening everyone. So for ELA grades six, seven, eight and the the high school only ninth grade. Um grades 6, eight, and nine performed above the state average. 6, eight, and nine also performed at or above the state average for all pros constructed response tasks. So those are the when the students actually respond in writing. Um, grade six showed a 10.3% increase of students meeting or exceeding expectations when compare compared to the year prior. And grade 8 showed a 4% increase of students meeting or exceeding expectations when compare compared
057to the year prior. Okay. So, here's the the same chart that you have been seeing. And we want to pay attention to the the dark green and the light green shade because those are the the meeting expectations and exceeding expectations. And then I already noted grade six and grade eight made gains in the students who are achieving at levels four and five. And then the bottom chart is the district compared to the state that we went over as well. This is the um the subgroups performance of race ethnicity subgroups on your if you're on your left hand side is going to be six through eight and on your right is grade nine. Performance of economically disadvantaged the blue represents the economically disadvantaged group. Again on your left is 6 through 8 and on your right
058is nth grade. Special education student subgroup in blue. Special education on the left, middle and on the right, high school. And then multilingual bilingual students. How will the data be used? similar to what my colleagues have shared in their in their departments. The evidence statement analysis, we're looking at we're actually looking at that November 4th for PD day next week. We're going to look at the um how students performed and see where where we're falling short and where we can shore up instruction and lesson plans. We did a course grade and NJSLA score correlation analysis which I'm proud to say it's it's very close how the students are being rated, the feedback they're getting is on par with how they're performing. Uh vertical articulation, uh just making sure that we're passing the baton smoothly to
059the next grade level. uh implementation of new we have new curriculum that teachers have worked on have started working on since since last spring and it was just um thank you board approved um so we have new curriculum there and we're also in year 2 implementation of preap English one which is amazing um and preap English 2 which is also it's just off to a phenomenal start it's our first year implementing that uh so we're over the moon with the college board um materials that we're using and we're also looking forward to leveraging AI our district approved platforms as resource to different differentiate and tier instruction based on results. I'm going to jump into the NJGPA. This is reflects math and ELA for our 11th grade students. There was an overall increase by.3% in ELA
060and 3.9% in math graduation ready performance from 24 to 25. So you're going to see that we have made gains from the year prior. In 2024, 4.1% fewer students passing compared to the state in ELA, whereas it was 2.3 fewer in math. But this past year it was 2.9% fewer students passed compared to the state in ELA and 1.7 fewer in math. So you see that we've made gains in comparison. And then again for ELA we were at for 11th grade at or above state average for the pros constructed response test which is great. We have like great writers. [gasps] Um for th this is uh district ELA is on the lefth hand side. graduation ready. That's level two. Um that's what we're looking at. The yellow and and there's the the math is right
061next to it. And then the change from 24 25. >> Okay. All right. I'm going to pass this off to Mr. Gentle and he'll finish uh the slideshow for GPI. Okay. I I I also wanted to clarify something just so the the NJSLA is the uh these are the one the NJGPA is the one that the students need to pass to graduate. They have to take the NJSLA tests if they're enrolled in those courses. But these are the ones that actually determine whether they graduate or not. And they're based on like the science exams. They're cumulative through what they've done in high school. There are alternate path. It's not that only 56% of our students pass graduate. It's the there's other pathways to it, but this is the this is the first one, and we
062we help to make sure the other students meet the other ones, but these are the graduation tests. >> When you say other pathway, you mean a certain grade on the SAT, >> SAT, ACT, um there's a portfolio process that we do with the students that don't meet it through one of those other tests. But there there's there's there's there's various different assessments the students can take that would replace this requirement. Oh, and JGPA is juniors in high school. >> So, they can have another opportunity to take, >> right? They can take it again over the summer if they don't pass and they can take it again in the fall if they don't pass it over the summer. So, the right these are just the fall assessment results. I'm taking it earlier so that students would
063have another opportunity. Yes, we've got our subgroups for uh ELA on the left and math on the right. Economically disadvantaged versus non-economically disadvantaged for ELA and math. uh special ed versus gened students, ELA on the left on the left and math on the right and multilingual and bilingual learners. And what are we doing with the data? So the ELA and social studies are having meetings together because there is an overlap in both of those subjects. Um we've also talked about the overlap between ELA and math. Uh there are we articulation between grades 11 and 12th because the assessment is based on uh 9th and 10th grade standards as well as just 11th. Um aligning more classroom assessments to NJGPA type questions which is something we're working on in both subjects. And like Dr. Duma said
064and Mr. Kryley about the evidence statement analysis to look at which specific standards we need help on and how we can help our teachers meet them. What is our graduation rate? I I should know this, but what ultimately is our high school graduation rate? >> It's about uh it's a 97% graduation rate. >> So, we go from 56% not being able to graduate and in one year we find a way to graduate almost everybody. They may have already met like if a student already took the SAT or the ACT, they may have met it already without saying extra >> they can't pass this but they can get a good enough grade in the SAT. >> Yes. >> Very interesting. >> Can I answer that too? So sometimes what students are doing what I've seen some
065of our juniors say, "Oh, well I've met the requirement taking the PSAT, the SAT, the ACT, so the NJPA is a throwaway, so I don't have to take it serious." That's right. >> And one thing we found this school year in particular for class of 2026, the state did not release the graduation requirement for the additional pathways until October 18th. And that was after the fall administration of the NJGPA. So there are about 50 students who met the requirement for graduation during the second pathway, but they couldn't use that at that time because they just blew away the NJGPA. So a goal for this year moving forward is take the NJGPA serious. you're doing the work in real time. So remember those skills and do well so you're not doing this either the summer or
066the fall of your senior year. So we are trying our best to encourage students and hold their feet to the fire. Do well, focus. That way you don't have to worry about is my graduation standard based on an assessment requirement in limbo because I didn't take the initial requirement of the pathway serious >> because the cut score is 725. A couple years ago it was 750. they brought it down to 725 and we had students with 724 722 and like oh can we appeal it the answer is no it's not 725 so really encouraging students don't just lean on second pathway but do the first pathway first and one final thing NJPA every student must sit for the NJGPA before any pathway is considered >> so [clears throat] that's another thing that the state does
067require so you know hopefully we see a change or shift this year in how students respond to taking the test and not waiting until the second pathway release. >> Okay, good. Thanks. Thank >> Okay, so the last thing I will present on is the DM also known as the dynamic learning map. Um, so this is for our students in the district who are at a cognitive ability where the NJSLA is not appropriate for that. Right? So this assessment is typically administered one- on-one with teacher support. This is not an assessment where we really compare data, but we're looking at individual students. So, if you look across the the bottom here, you'll have grade levels that are actually missing. That's because there's not a student in that grade level to assess. Um, so in total on
068this spreadsheet or this graph, excuse me, there were 16 students. Um, so this again, this isn't something that we uh um assess for um you know, how can how can we hone instructions, what curriculum do we need to look at, what what do we need to we're looking at the the abilities of specific individual students, but this is also something that we're required to report on. Um so you'll see that these students are assessed in ELA, math, and science. Um and you have four levels. So you have advanced at target, approaching target, and emerging. And then finally, I'm going to turn it over to Sophia Kenny to talk about the AP scores. >> Good evening all. I promise I won't be long. Uh I just want to report on our AP scores from the 2425
069school year and really excited about everything that took place uh from the teachers, the students, and support from the board and Dr. much and everything that took place with AP score at the AP performance this year. So, the vision of the AP program is to provide students the ability to have access and really be exposed to um another opportunity within the AP curriculum in their high school experience. And that's exactly what happened this year uh last year, the increase in participation and things of that nature. So, if we're looking at our five-year summary, [snorts] as you can see, there is an upward progression in how many students have participated in AP tests from 2021. And as you can see on this chart here, um the number of students uh that earned a three or higher
070was uh 89% of our students that participated, which was a wonderful number. Right here, you can look at our five-year school summary. So, we can look to see um from I'm just going from year 2024, spring of 2024, we had 450 students participate in uh the AP tests, uh we went up to four 536 students that participated, which was a 19.1% increase. Uh number of exams from 888 to 1,028, a 15.7% increase. Um students that scored a three or higher went from 371 to 479, which is a 21.9% increase. So, you know, it's not done in a silo. Students have to learn the material, study the material, and then perform. So, all prongs work together to end with the results that we had for the spring of 2025. And really excited about that information. So,
071what I'm going to share with you now is just the five-year summary, just how our some of our courses have done over the last five years from participation and the averages of the scores. So the few that I wanted to highlight on this slide right here, our biology course, um the numbers have grown over time. Um which is great from a participation perspective. Averages have, you know, increased increased at different points. Um chemistry, while the number has fluctuated pretty substantially over the last couple years, the average has stayed rather consistent um and never going below 3.8. um our environmental science course, while the numbers have increased, the average has also increased, which is a great thing to see. And then in our physics one class, this is for our students who took a part of
072the STEM Academy last year. Um they took physics one. Um this was the best performance yet for 41 students and the average has increased. Now, this course is not going to be offered within the building next this current school year, but if a student wanted to take the the exam, they still have the ability to do so. Um so that's for our science. When we're looking at world language, I just wanted to really highlight the Spanish language and composition course where our numbers skyrocketed. And I really have to stress the number of students who didn't have to worry about the financial barrier of of paying for the course were able to sit and take the test without stress. And we can see from the number of students that earned their seal of literacy tonight and
073others that were not here and they really, you know, benefited from the support of the board and Dr. Muchi and allowing them to take the course without having any barriers uh worrying about, you know, paying for the course. And this is not just in Spanish language composition. This is across a lot of other courses. Um this was just one that was a significant increase in participation and teachers that would come and speak with me directly about students um in the course. in history, our African-American studies course, all students participated in the AP exam and the average was extremely high. With this course being only it second year in inception, um the the response to the course and how students are really buckling down and taking the course series is really great to see in our
074human geography human geography course, excuse me, there's been an increase in student participation and our student and the average in that course. And then also in our AP government class, there's an increase in participation and the mean average as well. Going to shift over to English. In our AP English language composition course, as you can see, we jumped from 75 students to 109. This was another course where I will say teachers boots are on the ground coming and having conversations. My child, my student can do this. What can we do to help? And again, thank you all Ford and Dr. Mucci for the support there. And we can see how the average has increased and the numbers are have increased and I don't see that number falling at all. If I'm being completely honest with
075you, the number of students who for this year who signed up for AP English language um is is very high and I I feel like we'll surpass that number. Um and as we look at our um research course AP research, this last year was the first year of AP research. This is um a capstone along with AP Seminar. So students who take AP Seminar are sophomores are able to take AP research as a junior or senior and 18 of our students took that course and the popularity of the course has grown and we now have three sections of that course this year. Um and really looking forward to seeing how students do on the IP exam in the spring. As I mentioned briefly, AP Seminar is our 10th grade AP English course and our students
076thoroughly enjoy the class. Um, while it gives them the ability to have an AP course earlier in their experience, it also allows them the ability to have the capstone, which means they complete the AP seminar and the research and they receive a certificate depending on how they score on the AP test from the College Board um in honoring and recognizing them, which is coming down the pike. We have all those ready um once we get out of this window of testing. So, we will definitely have that conversation and the presentation to those students. As I move on to math, we have I just wanted to highlight both our statistics course and our compsai course which there was an increase in the number of participants and our average. When we look at the economics course um
077while the macroeconomics course pretty much doubled in size, the average stayed the same and you know really looking forward to the development of that course and the microeconomics course. We've had some changes in personnel. So looking forward to that number increasing and the average of that microeconomics course honestly mirroring and matching the macroeconomics course. And then we look at our arts courses. You know students have done very well in our music theory and our our art design courses. And you know as we see in the walkthroughs and the events that take place during the school year, our students are extremely talented both in the visual and and musically inclined. It's just absolutely amazing what our students do here and then take into the world. So really happy to see what they've done. Courses with participation
078of 100% our calculus BC class, Chinese chemistry, AP research seminar, and our US history course. So having every student in the seat, take the test. It's a really good thing. And I I really applaud the teachers for encouraging our students to take the chance, step out there, and take the test. They've done the work all year. Why not just finish it out and finish strong with the exam? And finally, the course courses that students took that had 100% of three or higher, African-American studies, Chinese computer science a English lit seminar, and 2D art and design. And one thing I need to say, um, the the leadership of Mr. Rooney from the AP core perspective, really encouraging students, really encouraging teachers, you know, being that that cheerleader, whether it's standing outside in the rain during the
079AP exams, and it rained a couple times, and he was right there with his coffee, a couple of other teachers joined him. Um, it makes a difference. Being visible makes a difference. And, you know, really excited to partner with Mr. Rooney on this path of encouraging our students to take EP course and really step out there and try something that they might not have ever tried before. So, this concludes the presentation. Am I closing in? >> Just a question. But, first of all, that's fantastic results. So, it's awesome. So, like for Chinese AP then, >> yes, >> we have two students in the class. >> No, there are more. There are more students in the class. Well, there's this year currently there's one student in the AP Mandaring course, but there are students who take
080the test that just study for the test and they don't take the class. >> Okay. So, we have a class with a teacher for a period that only has one student, >> but it also partners and works with um our Mandarin for class. So, it happens at the same time. Yeah. >> Okay. >> Question. I I don't um first not a question on AP but overall I I I think the results are remarkable and it's good to see the improvement. At the same token I have to say I remain dismayed after almost seven years on this board that our students of color are trailing by double digits the students in the district. And I have to just go on the record to say we've had this conversation almost every year I've been here. I don't
081see the data to say what changed from year to year. So it may look it does look a little bit better. I'll go find my notes. But it's the most disheartened thing to see. And our economically disadvantaged students continue to lag behind. And I'm not saying there's not effort. I'm not saying there's not attention. So please don't hear that in my comments. It's just disappointing. And it's something that we talk about a lot. We do a lot about our AP students and our high achieving students. We do a lot for our IEP students and all of the right things we have to do, but it's this mushy middle that just seems to still have something that trails. We don't specifically talk about our students of color. We talk about our English language, our bilingual ed
082students, but this is troubling after all these years. It's an incremental improvement and not a radical improvement. I would really like to have a deeper conversation about this around the board. I know our students of color are dwindling as a percentage of our population in our community and so for some it may and not on the board but some people in the community is like well why are we worried about it? There's still students that need to be served. It would be great to get the insights of why what's happening there because it's just a hard thing to see almost seven years of seeing this same dismal result. It's pain it pains me. It pains me greatly. >> Um I was just going to say, you know, uh I I feel the same way ju
083to go back to the beginning of the presentation. I I agree. I think we're on a positive trajectory and I appreciate all the bloods, sweat, and tears that the administration and the teachers are putting in. Um I think one of the things that you pointed out, Alan, is that it would be helpful to look at the um the uh compare subgroups from year to year because I think we actually have because I I was I was looking at that with Mr. Kryley earlier today and I think there are some things that we can celebrate. So I think that's maybe we can follow up with that at the next meeting or in one of the committees. Um and then I also wanted to say that I think it's important for us to to know you know
084we're making um so many changes so many positive uh taking so many positive initiatives and I think we as a board need to understand what what is working and where it's working right so one of the things we're doing this year um is uh in the in the middle of the year students are assessed and we're going to be looking at that to see how the improvement uh what improvement is happening from fall to winter so that we can uh so the administration and teachers can take steps to you know further you know address areas of need you for the rest of the year so we're not waiting to look at data from spring to spring so that's one thing um I think that you know could could help um but again I thank thank
085everybody for for all their work. >> Thank you. Um, I also just want to point out that what we see in tonight's presentation is the capability of the students in the Morris School District that are guided by exceptional teachers. We often hear that if we broaden the net, if we remove barriers, we're going to have a negative impact on student achievement. and we've proven that that clearly is not the case. We've expanded AP enrollment at every level. We continue in that effort and then we have also seen significant increase in student participation. So I'd like to begin by first congratulating our AP team at the high school recognizing that they lung out any barrier that existed. They got as many students involved in taking those courses. We had AP teachers going to seminars and national
086conferences and we saw dramatic increases. But we understand that that is with a select group of students and that is with students who are primed to do well on tests. But I think it really shows the potential of what the district can do K12. So, it's expected that we would see dramatic and quick results in AP and it's anticipated that we've proven the formula can work. We can put the students in these classes that are challenging and demanding and they can do especially well, but we take a lot of time looking at those slides that are there deliberately, which is what are we going to do with the data? And there really isn't much more to do than sigh when you see the difference between our economically disadvantaged students and the their peers. Those are
087stark contrasts and they're not lost on anybody here on the administrative team. Um so we know we have the potential. We know we have amazing students. We know we have strong administrators who are going to guide this work. Um, so I want to also acknowledge the comments that are made. We're not shrinking from them. We put them up uh to discuss and to know how we can continue to improve. And I'd like to thank Mr. Kryley and all the members of the administrative team who are here tonight and congratulate you for the successes uh for the movement in the right direction. But more importantly, on behalf of the board, I want to thank you for your deep commitment to those slides that I know keep you up at night, help you work um with planning
088with teachers, which is how are we going to use this data and how can you've never met a group of people who are more excited for the next test administration. This group here knows that we are going to continue to to see that support. I also want to take a deep level of thanks. you know, you're here tonight and it seems like some of the presentation went through especially quickly. You know, we're going slide after slide. So, a couple of things I'd like to review. This presentation um was created uh in cooperation with the curriculum committee. We spent hours um reviewing the slide deck, amending it, having presentations each month. So the board uh and the curriculum committee in particular I'd like to thank first for their high level of involvement their commitment to asking
089difficult questions to I've never worked with a board like this before who is so deeply committed to every student and what I see in the curriculum committee inspires the work of our administrative team because they're never just asking questions about their own children or the peers that they might have. They ask about every student at every grade level. And it is the deep and committed work of the curriculum committee that I know will continue to show improvement in student achievement. And I have never seen a committee or a board who consistently puts their money where their mouth is. Uh what you heard a lot tonight was thank you for giving support. You heard Cara um thanking the board for the new curriculum resources. I know Brian has a long wish list with STEM. We have
090all new math books that Alex came forward for. Sophia is bringing new college reps in to see us every week and expanding all of the offerings. But again, not only does this board believe with the passion that every student should have the opportunity, they carefully make budget decisions to put the money there. So the intentions that we have to make the work um better and improve these outcomes would not be possible with such an incredibly supportive board. I'm incredibly proud of our administrative team. We all know that we have more work to do. No one's going to shy away from it. And I encourage you to um view online since we went through here so quickly our detailed curriculum presentations. They're all there. Uh we want you to be able to meet members of our
091supervisory and administrative team and it takes a lot to digest this data but we encourage you um members of the public parents give us a call if you have thoughts after reviewing anything. We want to know it and although this is an annual presentation on student achievement data, it's a daily conversation for us. Um, so we welcome your input and again I'd like to thank an incredibly strong team for all your hard work and we look forward to, you know, more continued good news in the future. Thank you. >> And I just I just had >> reinforce what Allan and Meredith said though. It'd be good to see the numbers tracking a class on how they change from fifth test to eighth test to 11th test and stuff to see because each class is going
092to be different. That'd be helpful to see >> cohort to cohort compar comparison is critical >> and for the point of the data presentation we just do those checkpoints in the grade and it's formulaic but we do trace cohorts and we're happy to share that information as well. And I I wanted to expand a little bit on something that Alan said because I I do think that in addition to a number on a test, it is also about really understanding the experience because that's a student who goes to school every day and just making sure that these discrepancies aren't only about how they answer a question, but what is the experience that leads to that? And I think that the there's no question that our teachers care deeply. And I just for one would want
093to make sure that if there are needs that the board should be aware of that helps that experience which makes that more possible. I think that's really important beyond just a number. And on the flip side, I think that there's also the notion I was really happy to see the really the strength in the pros because in addition to doing well on a standardized test, we want to see critical thinking in our students. So being able to write and express themselves is just one of the most hopeful things that I saw in that. So I'm I'm very grateful for that. And I think it's wonderful to see the APS opening up because that really is about that critical thinking rather than a standardized test. So I would just encourage us to push past simply those
094numbers every day, which I know I know you all do and I thank you for that. I think it can be hard to boil down all of your work to to those data presentations. The data informs everything you do and we know that. But we also know you're working with these students and see them every day. So just please keep telling us what we can do to support those daily experiences because I think that's just such an important piece and that correlates to that test score. So thank you >> and just for the avoidance of any doubt. I 100% applaud you and this team. The clarity, the transparency since you arrived and your leadership has been remarkable. I was thinking about this the other day. The volume of communications and the mode of communications radically
095improved. This transparent conversation didn't always happen this way historically. So, congratulations to that and congratulations to you for your efforts. But I would be remiss if and you all know me not to point out the thing that just jumped off the page to me too. So I know your team is committed to it. But it is still painful for me to see as a parent of a African-American child here and an African-American in this community from those constituents. They feel left behind. And so that kind of shows it to me. So how do we help those families too? That's all. Of course you can go home. They can all go [laughter] home. >> Thank you very much. >> They're back early and in the morning too. >> Thank you again. Thank you for the comments
096and look forward to the continued conversation. We have no more presentations tonight. That's cool. >> Thank you. Um the only thing I just I wanted to add is um a thank you to all of the different teams and the marching band. There's been some really wonderful celebrations and senior games in the past couple of weeks. So just um extending congratulations to not just the the year that all of those seniors have had, but some of the youth sports leagues and all of the hours of music practice and things that have gone into that. Um that was exciting to see this week. Um, and with that, luckily we have heard from the students, so we'll go into the reports. Um, Susan is not here and I have the curriculum report, but Linda, could you start us
097off with finance, please? Of course I can. I love talking about finance. Um, we had our last meeting on the 20th of October. Um and the first good news that I want to report uh and thank Anthony personally for doing this. Our health benefit increase um is actually projected at 6% whereas the state um health plan is uh reporting up to 36% increase. We backed out of the state plan a couple years ago thanks to Anony's foresight and we're beginning to see real dividends as a result of that. So, uh, and that's a big number because that affects all of our, um, employees. Um, I'll also say that we've been using a, um, I'm going to call it a lease finance program. I not sure if that's the right one, but we're purchasing some new
098buses for 1.7 million. We'll have 11 uh, new school buses, six of which are 54 passenger and five of which are 29 passenger. and we habitually replace our buses on a I'm I'm going to call it a fleet management basis so that it's helped us reduce maintenance and also make sure that the buses keep running and can do what they need to do to get our students from here to there. Um just want to report on a number of grants. Um uh education matters motion three talks about um a nearly $1.5 million um submission for title monies uh which are based on student populations. So these this these are I think federal dollars if I'm not mistaken. We're also accepting some grants from uh the Perkins grant which is under education matters motion two that's
099about $40,000 and you'll see a series of other motions related to the Perkins grant um motions 9 10 and 11 which set up some programs and then under HR motions 29 20 excuse me 28 29 and 30 which are staffing uh those programs so there is a direct link and as we find in our committee work we often work on one thing that goes to another uh committee to have some additional work done and uh this is a good example of that. The idea grant uh uh people services motion three for 1.9 and um we uh under business matters motion 10 are submitting the preschool uh grant transfer. It's just moving some money around from one item one line item to the next from a a facility update. Um, I think all of the vestibules
100are completed now. Uh, I think the one outlier was at Freeling Heis and I'm not sure if that one is actually done yet. >> They're still installing some glass. >> Okay. So, still installing some glass, but the one at the high school is done. Um, we're hoping that the high school gym is going to be repaired for basketball. >> That was that was a very sad story. For those of you who attended uh previous meetings, we had a roof leak that destroyed a brand new >> floor that we just put in two years ago and now we're having to replace it again. >> Um we um also are uh looking at installation of a building management system which allows a remote self-management of heating and cooling. um that's going to be limited for the time
101being because we have to upgrade some of our H uh VAC um product in order to get full capability there, but it sets the stage for us to be very efficient going forward. Um we have a couple of trees at the high school that are at risk for some new wacky disease. Uh and um our buildings and grounds folks are working with an arborist to try to figure out what we can do with that. And um Anthony has uh uh under business matters motion six a um comprehensive maintenance plan. So this forecasts um you know what we can what we can spend in the coming year. I think the budget is around 2 million if I'm not mistaken. The res we have a very substantial reserve also which is below the max that we can
102have but it's still over $4 million. So we have we have monies for uh maintenance as we need. Um I also want to point out under human resources uh a motion 12 there's uh some substantial changes to our bus driver pay and hours uh which uh I think is helpful. And moving on to the rest of transportation uh the district report on transport and students uh is an annual report that goes to the state and it reports on students both public and private. We do offer uh transportation services to a number of private schools as well and it's due to the state by November 15th. Uh bus safety week uh was October 20th through 24th and our bus safety team uh used Buster the Bus. We've talked about Buster the Bus before. um presentations at
103Woodland, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton. Um and um we also had our safety team present at the Morris Township trunk and trunk or treat uh where all the kids go to get candy um to highlight our bus safety program. So that was really fun, too. Um just reporting uh you know, we do transport a lot of kids um outside of the regular to and from school. So the high school sports trips uh in September were 83. Um and then there were some just general trips the 19 uh filling heis and sports trips were 10. So a total of 112. Um the jointure uh uh schools that we support uh PE had uh 10 Morris Plains 7 and this is above and beyond us transferring the students to and from school I might add and assumption one
104so there were 15 total there um and we get [clears throat] money for doing that so it was a little over $8,000 for just that one month. One of the thing that's affecting us is there's new um laws about uh non-domiciled CDL holders. So we currently have five bus drivers that do not have permanent uh resident cards and may be impacted when their CDL license is up for renewal. Um and uh any existing CDL holder is able to continue working. However, the state DMV will not renew or add endorsements uh for any driver who has a temporary immigration status. So, that just complicates our life a little bit. Um, luckily it's five, not not 25. So, uh the it's a it's a problem for us, but it's not a not affecting a big population of
105our bus drivers. Uh from a food service standpoint, we um have 2100 students qualified for free and reduced lunch. That's of of as of October 15th. Uh we're still working with another 106 who have not submitted uh for uh free and reduced lunch status. Um, and Ptonian, our service, our food service provider, is recruiting to replace a couple of cooks and one food service worker is out on workers compensation. So, uh, that was basically what we had. And, um, we did talk, as we do every month, we talked about the school counts and whatnot, but uh, be talking about that in a number of committees. So, probably someone else will bring that up. That's it. Our next meeting is uh November 17th. >> Thank you. Uh Susan had shared the curriculum report since she's not
106able to be here. Um the curriculum committee met on October 15th for a productive meeting filled with lots of great discussions and approvals of the following items. The September 17th meeting minutes. Various field trips across the district for grades K through 12. A full list can be found under educational matters motion number five. summer curriculite curriculum writing was approved and Susan would like to thank Mr. Alex Gentle, grades 6 through 12 supervisor of mathematics for sharing the curriculum updates for high school math. Kate Mcllen, math instructional coach, who presented K through 5 math curriculum updates and Katherine Tpadino, ELA instructional coach, who presented the K through 5 English language arts curriculum updates. This is under educational matters motion 74 and 15. The committee approved three programs that are a part of the federal Perkins grant.
107The first is a stipend for a career and technical education mentoring program for $2,000. This mentoring program will support student subgroups in participation and completion of CTE programs related to architecture and health prof professions. This specific grant supports females and students with disabilities which CTE endofyear data from last year identified as subgroups falling below data thresholds. The second program is for an architecture, construction, and engineering adviser for a Perkins stipend of $3,000. This is allocated towards establishing a district adviser for our ACE mentoring program. This program partners MHSCTTE students with professional architects in an internship environment as a post-secondary professional experience. The ACE mentoring adviser is responsible for overseeing all events related to the program and will also coordinate working se sessions outside of school contract hours in partnership with architectural firms. The third program
108is for a CTE grant curriculum audit. As part of the Perkins federal grant, a portion of funds must be allocated towards course curriculum support and updates. CTE staff will perform an audit and revision of current CTE curriculum to asssure courses are aligned to state and national standards, industry standards, and professional skill sets. The total stipen for this program is $3,000. Thank you to Brian Young, supervisor of science and STEM, for presenting these programs to us. They can be found under educational matters motions 9, 10, and 11. The state testing data presentation was approved and is under educa educational matters motion number eight. Uh Susan also shares thank you again to Brian Alex along with Dr. Car Duma, supervisor of English language arts, Sophia Kenny, Matt Kryley for joining the meeting and presenting all of the
109state assessment results from the spring of 2025, including NJSLA math, ELA, and science data along with the New Jersey graduation proficiency assessment data, dynamic learning maps, and the AP assessment scores. The committee also approved a contract with NJIT to give students currently enrolled in Morstown High School's linear algebra class the option to earn college credit for this college level course. This dual enrollment credit course is under educational matters motion 12. Another approval was for the young artist mentoring program, which is a weekly after-school program involving Morristown High's artistically talented students who need additional support and encouragement in refining their artistic skills and assembling a strong art portfolio to enhance their ability to compete for admission into quality art schools. This is under educational matters motion number 13. Additional approvals were for various support programs at
110FMS, including a homework lab program, extended instructional support in math, extended instructional support in language arts, intensive phonics, and a social group program. The extended instructional supports in math and language arts provide highintensity instruction. The intensive phonics program targets students who qualify for ELLL support. The homework lab and social group are for are both after school programs. These are motions 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20 under educational matters. Our last approval is for MSD preschool program to provide teacher assistance with training on how to write anecdotal notes and what assessment looks like at the preschool level. This is educational mo matters motion number 21. Lastly, the curriculum committee discussed the financial literacy graduation requirements at Mortown High School as a follow-up to the public comment at last month's board of ed meeting. And Dr. Dr.
111Mucci shared options for a revised 2627 school calendar with the committee. Thank you again to everyone who joined us at the meeting. The next meeting is on Wednesday, November 12th. Susan's report. Uh Melissa, do you have an update for HR? >> Yeah. Uh the committee met on October 21st and there's just two things I wanted to highlight beyond the normal comingings and goings. Um the first is a revised job description for an evening custodial supervising foreman and then Katie just mentioned uh the calendar but as HR is the last committee meeting before the board meeting. We sort of had a rounded out conversation where uh the feedback that we've received from parents over the past two weeks had been incorporated and the calendar that was presented to parents was sort of synthesized at that meeting
112and it was a really good conversation. um trying to balance all of the different needs in this community, which is always challenging, but um we felt pretty good about the calendar that we presented. And our next meeting is on November 18th. >> Thank you. Um Beth, could you give us a policy update? >> Yes, sure. Of course. So, the policy committee last met on October 17th and um similar to what Melissa was just saying, we also reviewed um and discussed the different options with the calendar taking into account all of our community feedback. We also had a very long and robust conversation um taking it very seriously. Um so that was the first thing for discussion. The second thing we also similar um to what the curriculum committee had noted is that we also took
113a look at our financial literacy as brought to our attention in the September public comment by the budget bridge foundation. Specifically, we uh took a look at policy 5460 requirements for our high school graduation as well as our financial lit literacy offerings and required classes. And as a committee we had agreed that there are no changes needed at this time. Um let's see then uh what we did is we took a look at policy 0155 regarding board committees to review our current language uh regarding remote participation in committee meetings. We felt that it was not uh currently reflecting our current practice. Therefore, we made some revisions to that policy and um agreed upon uh same and approved for first read on this evening's agenda. Uh also, Meredith will be happy to note that our uh
114policy calendar roles and responsibilities was provided to the committee as well. Um committee members reviewed in individually and no changes were noted. So, that's great. Making progress there. Um then we did our typical uh policies for periodic district review. We had 13 policies primarily uh regarding support staff um as well as their corresponding regulations were applicable. We also had a few regarding students um along with their corresponding regulations were applicable. All have been reviewed and approved for first read on this evening's agenda. Finally, as always, and as Linda mentioned, also in finance, our committee um also reviews our district and individual school counts reports. We did so for September 30th, and we also took a look at our K5 section counts, which are looking really awesome, which is exciting. Uh our next meeting is November
11514th. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um Meredith, can you give us a governance update, please? Uh we did not meet but our next meeting is on Thursday, November 13th. >> Excellent. Thank you. Um and we did um the only thing I will add is at the retreat we did speak about the committee for referendum which I'll have an update on next time at the at our governance meeting as well. Um, Tina, do you have a Morris Plains update for us? >> Sure. Uh, we met twice since our last meeting, uh, the 30th and on October 14th. Just two highlights I'd share outside of normal business. Um, they did announce that we started a new program this year working with the peer group connection team from the high school. So, once a month they are coming
116down and working with the Morris Plains 8th graders. So, that's always great to hear and see the connection between the school the two school districts. Um, and last meeting prior at the start of the meeting, we had a presentation from our uh 2025 steam tank state finalist team. Um, so it was a bit of a dry run before they presented at the school board conference last week. Um, and they ended up taking second place in style. >> Yeah. >> Awesome. Thank you. Um and um we are slightly off off pace, but I will shout out the audition season has begun for Morristown on Stage. Um auditions are December 13th. So call your friends, call your neighbors, get them out there. Let's show off their talents. Um and um thank the MEF for their work on
117the 180 campaign um in trying to get more funds to support more programs. Um, and that is all I have for committee reports. Um, we will move into public comment. Before we open the meeting to public comment, we wish to remind you that our meeting is now video recorded and publicly aired. While the board welcomes and encourages public comment, we ask that you be respectful, including in any comments you might make about staff. The board does not endorse any comments made by a speaker, nor will the board be held liable for any comments made by members of the public. The law prevents the board from speaking about specific students and about personnel matters. For this reason, the board will not answer any questions on these subjects. Finally, the board's policy limits each speaker to 3
118minutes. We ask that you respect this policy in the time of your fellow community members by concluding your comments once you reach 3 minutes. Public comment is open for an hour or until public comments are complete, whichever comes first. At this point, I would like to invite any members of the public to come forward and to please provide your full name and address. Good evening everyone. Lana Fri 71 Madison Street. Um I want to say thank you for the data and everything has been done. What I wanted to provide I would like to provide some feedback because I feel the data it shows our population especially in um special needs or low-inccome families. But what I wanted to say that we're doing great collecting the data, but I I I feel like that's what could
119be improved. It's communication because between the data and the families we have in September data sending to families that it's been blasting email. You can collect your data from a website and that's it. Parents has no idea what's mean level one, level two, level three or level four. Teacher do not reach back. Administration do not reach back. I feel that parents and administration. teacher or principal has to go back to parents and say here what is the stand where what is your child is some data it's not even reach the parents because they have no idea how to download and teacher never reach to the parents to say that even though your child needs greatly support there's nowhere we provide still by this day. So data has been out for quiet month nobody reach and
120we're talking data from June which has been in the air so much and arrive in the school for so long but it's still not communication. So I feel that's one things that we have the data but what we doing with the data how family knows what it means level one level two who is providing that first input to the parents that we working while we working our child children they have no homework and they greatly need our help. So I we like the board to look into the data that need to really be analyzed and and give the parents support to do their own part at home. You know we know that it's level one what it mean some parents know some don't but we know we don't know how urgent or going forward children
121will not be able to do anything in 12th grades right or the next year because it's not being support put in place based on the data we collect so I thank everyone I just wanted to give a input because I'm one of the parents. I know the data, but I still don't see any support coming too. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> So, thank you for the feedback. The individual score reports in addition to being downloaded um hard copies are available and I think that your point's well taken. Uh you know, this is an annual process for us. We have the letter. We uh have different links that we put in so people can, as you said, if they have go through the process, download and have some of those tutorials and this and all
122of the mail that we send home to kind of walk them through that piece. Um but your point uh about perhaps leading uh whether it be a webinar or just more when the data is presented to parents inviting them in to work through reading it and decoding it together and I think you know it's a good reminder this is something that's for us every year and we use the letters and we tell everybody where to go but for families who are going through this first time you know perhaps it is important that we offer more parental support on how to interpret those results. So, I appreciate the suggestion. I'll bring it back to the team. Uh we do uh also give hard copies of all individual score reports. So, we >> child children come home
123and when you look to the data, it's not support for the child. >> Thank you. Thank you. support the child. It makes sense if it's below grade level. >> Understood. Thank you. >> Good evening, Ellen Stoloff, Alexandria Road in Marstown. I actually just thought of this question. Um is Mars planes included in the NJSLA um results or it's a separate score like separate data? So Morris Plains students uh students who live in Morris Plains would only be included at the high school and we don't disagregate by send receive. So we don't look at the data as this is how the Mars Plains students do as opposed to Morris Township or Marstown. We're all one high school district and we look at the data collectively. And then I'm sure Miss Perry could speak to how the
124K8 data for Morris Plains is shared out probably in a similar fashion to what we do. >> Yeah, similar fashion. We had the same presentation probably two weeks ago for the K3. >> Perfect. Thank you. Okay, if there is no additional public comment, we will move on to business matters if state. As the appointed representative of the sending Morris Plains School District to the Morris School District Board of Education, I would like to clarify that my votes on tonight's business agenda items will relate only to those items that are identified as applicable district-wide to grades preK through 12 or to the high school grades 9 through 12. I am abstaining from voting on agenda items pertaining solely to the elementary and middle schools grades prek through 8. Thank you. >> Uh moving minutes motions one
125through four. Second. Thank you. Any discussion? Okay. Please call the role. >> Mr. Lloyd. >> Uh yes. I'm one and two and abstain. Green sports. Miss Murphy, >> yes. >> Mrs. Perry, >> yes. >> Mr. Smith, >> yes. >> Mrs. Fota, >> yes. >> Mrs. Wall, >> yes. >> Mrs. Davidson, >> abstain on one and two. Yes. To three and four. >> Mrs. Gold. >> Yes. Sorry. I'm moving policy motions one through four. >> Second. Thank you. Any discussion? Okay, please call the role. >> Mr. Lloyd, >> yes. Miss Murphy, >> yes. >> Mrs. Perry, >> yes. >> Mr. Smith, >> yes. >> Mrs. Fota, >> yes. >> Mrs. Bull, >> yes. >> Mrs. Davidson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Cole, >> yes. Moving educational matters motions 1 through 21. >> Second. >> Thank you. Any
126discussion? >> Okay. Please call the RO. >> Mr. Lloyd. Yes, >> Miss Murphy. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Perry. >> Yes, >> Mr. Smith. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Fota. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Wall. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Davidson. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Cole. >> Yes. Moving pupil services motions one through three. Second. Any discussion? >> Okay. Please call the RO. >> Mr. Lloyd. >> Yes. Miss Murphy? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Perry? >> Yes. Mr. Smith, >> yes. >> Mrs. Spoda, >> yes. >> Mrs. Wall, >> yes. >> Mrs. Davidson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Cole, >> abstain on number one. Yes. To all others. Moving human resources motions 1 through 32 with new motion number 32. >> A second. Thank you. Any discussion? >> Okay. Please call the role. >> Mr. Lloyd? >> Yes. Miss Murphy? >>
127Yes. >> Mrs. Perry? >> Yes. Mrs. Mr. Smith, >> yes. >> Mrs. Pota, >> yes. >> Mrs. Wall, >> yes. >> Mrs. Davidson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Cole, >> yes. Moving business matters motions 1 through 11. Second. Thank you. Any discussion? >> Okay, please call the RO. >> Mr. Lloyd, >> yes. Miss Murphy, >> yes. >> Mrs. Perry, >> yes. >> Mr. Smith, >> yes. >> Mrs. Pota, >> yes. >> Mrs. Wall, >> yes. >> Mrs. Davidson. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Cole, >> abstain on number five and yes to all others. Okay. Any new business? Okay. Could I get a motion to adjurnn? >> I'll make it I'll make a motion to adjurnn. [laughter] >> Second. >> Thank you. All in favor? >> We are. Thank you. You get to the night to hand the
128prince who