Newark BOE Regular Meeting (August 27, 2019)

001good evening everyone thank you for joining us tonight and at our regular board meeting the time right now is 604 I will hand it over to miss lists for the console order in accordance with the open public meetings act NJ s 8 n : 4-6 at SEC adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by advertising in the star-ledger el nuevo Cokie Haiti progress and loser americano newspapers and by distribution to administrative offices of the Newark Public Schools a copy of this meeting notice was forwarded to City Hall for posting this is a regular board meeting Tuesday August 27 2019 603 everyone can please stand for the flag salute ready salute is Anderson present mr. Bledsoe Garcia miss Gomez present miss Haynes present miss Hill miss Marie Thomas MS Norton private mr. Padilla we have

002a quorum can we have a motion to amend the agenda tonight please motion there was a motion by Miss hangs second by this hill as I understand the motion it is to move items under the headings 9.0 10.0 11 point O and 12-point o before the superintendent's report that is after the board presidents report 5.0 and B 46.0 any discussion all in favor any opposed motion carries next we need a motion to approve the minutes that is item 4.0 shaytans 4.1 4.2 4.3 most of my machines second second by ms anderson who was it miss Gomez thank you any discussion any questions by board members all in favor any opposed any abstentions motion carries thank you miss listen good evening everyone fellow board members superintendent a all and constituents I'm Josephine Garcia the President of

003the Board of Education welcome back to the 2019 2020 school year there are so many exciting things happening in the district while we had some great accomplishments last year this school year primed and positioned to be even better the board continues to focus on governance and policy development on July 1st the board completed the superintendent's evaluation within established timeframes the summer visual arts and performance culminating ceremony was held at Arts High School on July 2nd on July 11th board members participated in the American Dairy Association summer feeding kickoff at school Stadium on August 21st board members supported the new teachers orientation at Park Elementary School it was nice to see and interact with a new talent who have joined New Nordic Public Schools district to prepare for the new school year we had a board

004retreat on Saturday August 24th retreat's provide our members with an opportunity to be introspective and a chance to focus on the board as a whole and discuss how we can become more effective in supporting students staff community and district initiatives we also discussed attendance and the student achievement data which you will hear more about from Superintendent Leon another topic was the transition plan according to the report that our highly skilled professional miss gnomes introduced I'm pleased to share that the board continues to meet the requirements laid out in the plan and the good news that the community we are on track to regain full local control January 2020 NTU members voted to accept the proposed changes to their contract 90 3.46 percent of the members said yes 6.54 said no newer teachers have spoken and

005have overwhelmingly endorsed their five-year contract tonight the final step the members of the Board of Education take action earlier today board members joined the superintendent as he welcomed all district staff back for the start of the new school year at the 2019 staff convocation we were honored to be a part of this amazing event everyone was excited and the energy was charged just an indication that the staff is motivated ready to soar and reach new heights so while bringing greetings and introducing my fellow board members at a convocation I fail to mention one board member which was board member Hill why this does not make up for the error I hope you will accept my sincere and humble apologies miss Hill our annual second backpack rally which is co-sponsored by the North Board of Education

006in the City of Newark and many vendors will be on site with a range of fun activities for everyone the rally is scheduled to take place this Thursday August 29th between the hours of 3:00 p.m. and 6 p.m. at school stadium Bloomfield Avenue in Newark nearly 600 families have registered and signed up for the event there is still time to register so please visit the district's website for registration information as I reminder the child must be present in order to receive a backpack just in case it rains the rain date will be August 30th the event was very successful last year as shahboz field and this year we're looking forward to having another another successful backpack giveaway the office of food services will be on site to assist families in completing lunch applications families can

007complete the application online where they can visit the food services at 765 Broad Street 2nd floor for personal assistance or at the day of the backpack rally we will have on-site lunch application registrations taking place in a moment I'm going to announce the 2019 2020 student representative but I want to share how you can become a student representative for any current 10th or 11th grade student the district divides the student selection process in an effort to make it more equitable in previous years the representatives was chosen as a result of an interview or by the total number of votes this year we improved the rubic to give candidates an increase opportunity to control his or her outcome based on their individual performance candidates submit an application participate in a candidate briefing meeting facilitated by the

008superintendent and board members campaign for the vote participate in a panel discussion they all performs extremely well and the only disappointment is that all of them could not win congratulations to our new student rep Bruno calejo of Science Park High School we look forward to you joining the parent engagement and Student Life Committee miss Deering will make the necessary arrangements for you to sit down with board member gomez before the September meeting the first day of school is Tuesday September 3rd last year all the schools did not have the same start time which was a bit confusing you spoke the superintendent heard you and now the elementary school day begins at 8:25 a.m. and High School's at 8:10 a.m. the only exception is the JFK which starts at 8:15 the district's goal is a hundred

009percent attendance every day matters together we can all help make this goal a reality call your family members friends students and neighbors to remind them that the first day of school is September 3rd commit to making at least one wake-up call on the first day of school or join the superintendent's gimme 5 campaign which was very successful last year thank you everyone for your time and I'll hand it over now to the superintendent for the superintendent's report actually [Music] sorry we're gonna move on to the action items we need a motion to approve action items listed under heading 9.0 that is nine point one through nine point four seven moves in motion by ms Norton by ms Haynes any discussion any questions by board members will have a roll call miss Anderson yes mr. Bledsoe

010yes miss Garcia miss Gomez yes miss Haynes yes miss Hill yes miss Marie Thomas yes miss miss Norton yeah mr. Padilla yes motion carries madam president I just would like to be noted as a yes vote before the approval of the minutes did we do that yes we did thank you now we need a motion for approval of items under the heading ten point O which is ten point one through ten point 17 motion motion by Ms Anderson second second by miss Gomez any discussion any questions my board members will have a roll call MS Anderson yes mr. Bledsoe yes miss Garcia yes miss Gomez yes miss Haynes yes miss Hill Miss Marie Thomas yes miss Norton yeah mr. Padilla motion carries next we need a motion to approve items under the heading 11 point

011personnel that is items 11.1 I'm not sure where the hardcopy agenda is correct we'll have been quite one through eleven point eight so are there more yes 11.10 last one okay we need a motion to approve eleven point one through eleven point twelve motion and we can we just read for the record what's all the items because it's not updated here the one on the screen is the updated one so what's on the hard copy is through eleven point eight what's on the screen is eleven point nine resolution of the Board of Education of the of the City of Newark County of Essex approving the collective negotiations agreement between the board of the Newark Teachers Union for the period of July 1 2019 through June 30 2024 11.10 resolution of the Board of Education of

012the City of Newark County of Essex authorizing amendment of the employment contract of superintendent Roger Lyon 11.11 resolution of the Board of Education of the City of Newark County of Essex extension of contract for medical vision dental and prescription drug insurance coverage eleven point twelve resolution of the Board of Education of the City of Newark County of Essex awarding a contract for medical vision dental and prescription drug insurance coverage did we have a motion okay any discussion any questions by board members on any of the items we'll have a roll call i personaly president i personally respect for our superintend i think we should separate that item vote on it separately so that we know that there's unanimous support he wants a supporting Devon point zero I mean it's up to the board if you're

013okay with doing that I just think that yes madam chair for my request could you repeat this I'm seeing what board member Calypso is requesting two separate resolution item 11.0 which is the Board of Education the con I'm sorry 1110 I'm gonna play 11 another ticket to extend the superintendent's contract it was a discussion we had Tuesday evening we all unanimously showed our support at our business meeting but we're voting on it tonight at the actual board meeting he's requesting to separate that item you guys in favor of that if not we can just take it all as a package I'm in favor okay so we can separate them acquaintance really miss list well we have a motion that I understand now has been modified is that correct my amended so that the motion is

014to approve action items eleven point one through eleven point twelve except for 11.10 yes yes we'll have a roll call is Anderson yes mr. Bledsoe yes miss Garcia yeah miss Gomez yes miss Haynes yes miss Hill yes miss Murray Thomas yes miss Norton yes I will yes but I need to abstain from 11.9 due to conflict mr. Padilla yes motion carries next we need a motion to approve item 11.10 motion to approve 11 points that is one every separate law actually separate equip I wanted to motion it we're doing a separate motion on 11.10 we have a motion by mr. blood cells do we have a second thank you maintains any discussion yes so again just to really reiterate I spoke of this at the business meeting last Tuesday due to a conflict I am

015NOT able to vote on this but I definitely want to share my sentiments of I'm happy that our superintendent is leading the North Board of Education our parents our students and our educators and so thank you again for your service any further discussion we'll have a roll call MS Anderson yes mr. Bledsoe yes miss Garcia yes miss Gomez yes detains yes miss Hill yeah miss Murray Thomas yes miss Norton I understand you're abstaining mr. Padilla yes motion carries and chuckling the amount of president she access to separated and because of Ms Norton's abstention well the record next we need a motion to approve items under the heading 12-point Oh Graham an instruction motion that is items 12.1 through 12.4 miss Norton motion miss Murray Thomas and this Norton second thank you any discussion on program

016and instruction items um I just am asking for clarity on the MoU with the North Public Library thank you board member blitz Oh would you specify is that what question you have as regards to that much can you explain how I'm not familiar with it so as we discussed in the business meeting last week one of the privileges I would say of my own childhood growing up here in Newark it's my ability to be able to go into the library is apply for colleges to check out books things of that nature superintendent in the district is the agreement and belief that every kid should have that same level of access to our public institutions and so with this MoU with the North Public Library and deputy assistant superintendent Johnson Allah you elaborate as well we

017not only will allow every child in the district the ability to get a library card from their respective branches in the Newark Public Library but also to take full access both of digital and non-digital resources within our libraries and fully integrate that within the district but if you have any other questions I'll defer to mr. Wu's different Yuma Johnson to elaborate as well that's fine I just would like to know um and this is for the superintendent manager since dr. Fitts you left the district to become Miss to print an orange on there is an XO official member to the Board of Trustees for the library support Jenna can you name its replacement to that board yes that would be obviously the deputy superintendent thank you I just wanted to clarify one of the things

018that we did historically in the past was provide an extended classroom experience wondering like each marking period so having children who are in the third grade visiting their library getting their library card is something that will always now be a part of our academic programming in the school for a third grader because obviously fourth graders fifth graders and above are not experiencing third grade again the MoU with the North Public Library will be the issue every single one of our students and a library card so the idea is to address the students that are impacted but also understand that there are other grades that may have not had that experience and are also impacted and so part of our strategy with this MOU is to make sure that all of the students regardless of third

019grade are actually receiving a library card any other questions we'll have a roll call on items twelve point one through twelve point four ms Anderson yes mr. Bledsoe yes miss Garcia yeah miss Gomez yes miss Haynes yes miss Hill yes is Murray Thomas yes miss Norton yes mr. Padilla yes motion carries superintendent it's your turn mr. Boyd member Norton um I just want to let can I close this door it's a lot of noise coming from um in the hallway and so I didn't want anyone to think I was closing it for any other reason just so I can just hear better over there okay thank you thank you that's it okay Linton president we remember blitz oh just really quickly I know that last week we had the updated academic school year's calendar where's

020the vote today to make for the changes I think if I'm not mistaken two changes to the calendar the academic Alan Squier calendar I may be mistaken are there any changes to the calendar we didn't make changes it was just in closing our packets for an FYI it had the locations the times all right miss Deering do we amend that did we amend the calendar no not the board count it was just an FYI enclosed in the folders okay all right thanks okay mm-hmm any other question board members Thank You superintendent Leone superintendent report Madam President members of the board and everyone who's here in attendance obviously welcome back to what will in fact be an absolutely incredible academic year today's the day that all of the staff members are actually back at work from

021vacation and we in fact hosted not for the first time because it was actually done in two thousand eight and nine during that academic year by dr. Janie but obviously as district staff convocation for our second year the first one under my administration obviously began last summer and we shared a lot of very important information with the entire staff imagine 6300 staff members strong every department every office every employee whether you are a member of the instructional team being principal a vice principal department chairperson in the high schools or other instructional staff members as well as our security guards custodial workers trade staff the entire organization from food services to directors of content areas in the office of teaching and learning part of the challenge that we in fact have is that we are reorganizing

022the school system and just poised and ready for incredible opportunities on behalf of children there are a couple of things that we began last year that I just want to take the opportunity to highlight to give me five campaign was an assignment that I gave all of our employees I assigned five students to every staff member regardless of their title regardless of where they were working and assigned five students to them the five students that were assigned to them the task was to convey to the parent of that child the importance of when was the first day of school why did they need to be to school on time and it worked out very very well and we will obviously continue that during this school year communications will be either going out to staff either

023this evening or tomorrow morning one of the other things that we did was to kind of impress upon everyone the importance and role of central office if the child is the most significant heartbeat in a classroom and I believe that that is what a child actually is in our schools then everyone who's closest to that child's heartbeat is extremely important in the work central office are in fact the arteries and veins between the district and that child and so our responsibilities in central office is to make sure that we only do when an artery does which is bring good good things to the school as well as what a vein does which is takes dirty blood away from the school part of the job of central office is to assist and support schools and so

024on the first day first days of school many people won't be in this building because they'll be assigned to schools to provide assistance and support we're in fact the children are Newark enrolls is in fact a enrollment initiative that we have in this district where students and their parents on their behalf apply to schools where they would like their children to attend the enrollment process occurs later into the year and around springtime parents get notifications as to what schools their children have in fact finally been matched to what we've done extremely different this year is that this building is known to be the office of the family support or a department called Family Support Center that is not that actual office won't exist here part of our strategy is to provide parents with the opportunity

025to get issues that are extremely important to them as it relates to enrollment resolved as close to their house as possible so if in fact you're a parent and you would like you're a child and you live on Hawthorne Avenue and you are a block away from Hawthorne Avenue school we don't want you to catch two buses to get here to downtown to be told yes you can go to Hawthorne Avenue school we want a pair who lives close to that school as in the example to be able to walk to Hawthorne Avenue school and if they want to go to that school we have provided access to every clerk in every single school so that they will be able to actually see if there's an available seat in their school and actually enroll them

026and register them all at the same time we think that that makes the most sense and ultimately providing that opportunity to our parents is something that appears to be a shock to a whole lot of people because we've lived in what I would argue would be something that is not normal so parents who are as old as I am will in fact remember or actually parents that are older I am won't have children in schools so parents who are of our parents today will know that when you enrolled in school you went to the school that was closest to your house what's different today from then is that we actually allow students to attend any school that they would want to attend regardless of their address that's what's completely different so let's say I live

027a block away from Hawthorne Avenue school and I do not want to attend Hawthorne Avenue school we still want that parents go to Hawthorne Avenue school because that clerk will be able to this the school closest to their house they'll be able to share with the parent what are all of the possible choices that they can actually have and that school will be able to enroll that particular child in the school that they want even though it's not the school where they are physically being serviced and then all that that student would have to do with their parent is actually go register at the school of their choice we think that that makes a whole lot of sense and we're extremely excited we've provided training for staff in june' training for staff during the course

028of this summer and we understand just like in everything else there'll be some work that needs to occur and we obviously continue to provide technical assistance and support to our school during the course of this summer we took advantage of a number of opportunities historically students who attend summer school did not perform well during the academic year we do not believe that that is what summer school it needs to be all about yes it is true that if your student doesn't perform academically well during the school year that we provide an opportunity for them to do well during the course of the summer I think that that obviously makes sense however students are not failing during the year and an opportunity during the summer is not being afforded to them well that has obviously changed

029over the last couple of years and in particular it changed this summer Haylee campus our students attended the Alvin Ailey dance camp during the course of the summer they did well during the academic year and instead of going to summer school because they failed they actually went to summer school because they did well that they did well during the school year our students across all of the elementary schools with teachers from our schools as well as dancers from the Alvin Ailey Dance Company provided an opportunity at our high school for our students it was an absolutely incredible success and our students actually were able to perform at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center distinguishing themselves we also had 40 students from Shabazz Central science and technology high school where they attended during the course of

030this summer a college-level math course at NJIT they were taught by college professors some of their teachers received training as well and ultimately some of those teachers who receive training were working with the college professors and these high school students as well the students did so well upon my visit I was so impressed with the quality of work that they actually engaged in that I presented to this board at last week's meeting actually I presented this information to the board at the program and instruction committee and then the board voted the last week to infact approve this NJIT course for credit for our high school students it's extremely important for everyone to understand that the students were taking this course because they thought it was good for them so they would become a stronger student

031when they returned back to high school next year these are high school students on NJIT campus for weeks and hours during the course of the day and they did this and they did well without believing that they were going to be assigned a grade so I shared with the students that I was so impressed and proud of them that I would present to the board for a credit on their transcripts the board voted unanimously to accept that recommendation and in fact that's what our students we're doing yeah I know yes you should applaud that I do understand that it is scary to know that high school students in Newark actually can be in college while they're in high school I can understand that that may be something that appears to be not normal to certain

032people but considering that I was born in the city went to schools in this city still live in the city was a teacher in the city a proud principal a distinguished principal in fact in the city I know that when you challenge our students in Newark they are capable of everything and so to all of the students that are out there and I know that you do watch you have a specific email to me if you actually would like to take advantage of this opportunity all I need you to do is do well during your academic year and then during the course of around the spring time reach out to your guidance counselor so that they can actually schedule you for these incredible opportunities to attend summer courses that are gonna help you not only

033do better in school but it'll let you understand that no matter what appears to be impossible that the fact that you live in Newark you will prove to people that you can we've conducted a comprehensive needs assessment in the district I did that during the course of the entire year and we did in every area from academics to facilities to certifications it's been very very thorough of the work that the team that I actually hired to do the facility's work is still even ongoing and they're making sure that every facility in particular as it relates to the work that we're doing in Career and Technical Education is ramping up so that actually students can take advantage of these incredible spaces I see that one of the members of that it's a two-person team just so

034you know that the Army is an army of two people MS Bennett who was former principal of malcom-x Shabazz high school and dr. Rael Ingrid who was executive assistant to dr. Bolden when she was superintendent these two former employees were also former Newark students who know how important it is to make sure that not only academically our students are receiving the very very best but that in fact that our facilities look consistent with what my expectations are I'm proud of both of them for the work that they are still doing and in particular for the work that they did last year water as those of you who will have been obviously paying close attention to the news the City of Newark is actually addressing a very serious issue as it relates to lead in the

035water as it relates to the school district as early as 2001 we had a responsibility to address lead in our water and it was re bizza 'td in 2016 where the district created a remediation plan that was approved by the DEP the Environmental Protection Agency and so of the plan that was written that was approved provided a unique filter in all of our water supplies not only in our schools but in every location where a student or staff member was in these filters are quite interesting because as soon as they stopped working what they do is that they actually turn the water supply so if you're at a water fountain and the filter isn't working there isn't any water that's going to come out that there's a monitoring system that exists and that we are

036confident as we get reports as this is constantly being monitored that any concerns that our parents have at their homes are not necessarily concerns that they should have as a relates to the water in our schools what I highly recommend any parent if in fact they want their children to attend school with bottled waters that they just need to make sure that those awards are actually sealed before they actually arrive to school but as it relates to drinking water in our school they should feel very very confident that they should do so the water fountains are up and running NPS clarity 2020 is a ten year strategic plan sorry is a 1 year strategic plan that is designed to actually do two things first of all is designed to explain what has occurred over the

037last 23 years and we're gonna try and do that all in one year in addition is gonna set the foundation for the next strategic plan which is a ten year plan now both are not what people know and do in most school districts most school districts is three years there's a school district in Virginia that is doing six years so usually they don't do more than that five and they definitely don't do one so I thought it was extremely important given the fact that we're in this transition from state control sate operation to local control that we kind of assess what has in fact been learned over the last 23 years the budget each year is a billion dollars you figure that there are grant dollars that have a tendency to be about twenty million

038dollars above that so that's twenty three billion and several hundred millions of dollars that has in fact gone into this school system how are we doing and the reality is that when I go into the student achievement data there is a lot of work that we need to do a lot of work that we need to do part of the other aspect of NPs clarity 2020 is to in fact set a stage for the next decade so that during 2020 to 2030 we actually establish and provide everyone in this community a new ecosystem that begins before children actually enter our schools in our schools students enter when they are three years old and then after high school they graduate that's a little different to some people like to when I was in kindergarten it started

039at age five and obviously high school at the end of senior year because of the Abbott versus Burke decision the pre-kindergarten program becomes mandatory in certain school districts it's a mandatory here in the City of Newark so any parent who has a three or four year old is highly recommended to make sure that that child is registered in school so for the last number of years we've been providing preschool access to our students that's what NPS clarity 2020 says it is not enough that the work has to begin from conception to cradle so that means any mom any dad who's having a child that the work begins when that baby is in the wall that it is about nutrition it is about being healthy it is about how to prepare so that when that baby

040is born that you can be the best possible parent for that child it's about parenting skills it's about working really really hard prior to their arrival to let them know that they are ready for some very loving parents to not only hold but to actually worry about in the years before they actually arrive in our schools and then when they go through this new ecosystem and they graduate from high school it's from college to career so conception of cradle college to career we want to make sure that every see every senior when they graduate from high school has been assigned a mentor this doesn't exist today student is assigned a mentor and upon graduation from high school as soon as they land a career because they'll be obviously opportunities that we're providing at the high

041schools where a student would be able to actually graduate from high school and land a job that once that student receives their first paycheck the mentor has in fact completed their work if in fact a student goes to college that mentor will also go with them to college not literally but the whole idea that the mentor will be monitoring them while they're actually in college so a that after four years of college a student wants to become a teacher and soon as they land a contract being a teacher that mentor has completed that task this is something that we're extremely excited about we believe that it will work and we are poised that by 2020 we will have approximately 2020 mentors that we will have incorporated into our strategy moving forward so MPs clarity 2020

042looks like that every student in our school system whether they are black or Latino whether they're white whatever is their actual origins that we want to let them know that they're beautiful that we want to let them know that they're smart that we want to let them know that it is our responsibility in schools to provide an opportunity for our students that will afford a different reality for them and their parents so there are six priorities that have been outlined in the strategic plan you can easily find the strategic plan in or on the district's web page there are 40 strategies along these six priorities and there are 168 action items now that's a lot of work we only have a year to do it so part of what we've already done is began this

043work last year when we were actually implementing the strategic plan called the next three years that is part of what we want to do in a strategic plan the ten-year plan that's gonna come by the time we figure out what we did in the ninth year might decide to change certain things well I don't know about anybody here but you may have decided to change a couple of things ten minutes ago you were gonna do one thing you decided to change it part of what our task is to write out a strategic plan and actually live the strategy not oh we're gonna think about something like for example during the course of this year all of these meetings I've had from thousands of people that I met with that's not what we're doing this year

044we're actually gonna get to work we're gonna get to work and we're gonna do the work and what we're gonna do is make sure that we're implementing this strategic plan and then monitoring how well we're doing it along the way these are our three district campaigns 100% because every day matters we need every student in our schools every single day oh then Jay slay is in fact the state standardized test passing is 750 we want to impress upon our students that we don't want them to pass the test we want them to be um we don't want them to just pass the test we want them to do and perform higher than the test and we only want to strive for fours and fives and then the last campaign is that we are number one

045and we are second to no one that we will teach our students that whatever it is that they want to do that they can be the very best at it and just so that we're clear my football teams here in York have modeled it in fact the best so we had all of our football teams at an incredible event that was sponsored by the bronze shields as well as the New York Giants and the end results of that conversation that I had with them so can you imagine all of our football teams they sometimes compete against each other and I said all of them can be number one this concept is quite difficult to understand what we have to teach in our city is that competition is a very very good thing and you do

046not have to beat your sister in anything whether you can share in the glory of each other's greatness the attendance campaign already discussed that with you all we have a home to school compact so we're the principal the teacher the parent and the students will be required to sign each school creates their own compact with regards to the relationship between the home and the school this is very very important as it relates to a lot of the work that we will do in how we redefine all of these relationships between both parents and staff I created the north's academic challenge for kids this is an opportunity that we're providing our students and that I expect them to meet them that's my job as superintendent I'm supposed to establish the bar they're supposed principals and teachers

047are supposed to help the students meet the bar and then my job as superintendent is to then raise the bar higher and every time our students meet it my job is to raise it higher this challenge is quite interesting there are academic as well as a number of social factors that go into play here are what they are I need my students to choose to care some of them have a real serious problem with that they need to have a GPA of 2.5 or higher they have to pass whatever is the state test they have to be in school they have to meet the graduation requirements they have to sit for tests that are designed for students who are going to go to college see some Westerners don't think that they're going to go to

048college so they never take the test to go to college so when they never get into college because they never took the test to get into college then they realize that they were never going to go to college that is a cycle that makes absolutely no sense what we will do is we will provide students with the opportunity to take tests that get them into college that they will do well on those tests and because they do well on those tests to actually get into college and when they get into college they'll kind of go oh I was able to do it all along lunch applications that's how we get money I need every parent to fill out a lunch application and I get it back in the day when I was in school the

049way that the lunch application work your mom like mine did we put okay we're on welfare here's our number la dee dee la dee da and then some lady in the main office started reading your business and started sharing that with everybody and so people get embarrassed because no one else was on welfare in the whole city and so you know all your business get out there ultimately what we need is every parent regardless of their socioeconomic status to fill out the lunch obligation because the lunch application is what results in funds being provided to the school district regardless of how much money your parents are in fact making so we need all of our parents to fill out the lunch application this is a process that must occur every year then we need to

050actively have our students participate in school clubs in anything that is being afforded to them at the school as well as in sports in addition to that they have to attend all of these meetings that I scheduled so they have to attend my high school orientation week yesterday was seniors and juniors Friday is freshmen and sophomores every student must go to high school before the first day of school the first day schools the Tuesday September 3rd well guess what I need my students in high school before the first day they have to know what has been planned for them the only way that they can know that is by actually being in high school before the first day of high school what do I need them doing on the first day of high school I

051need them in class going to class and learning from the teachers and meeting their friends and learning from them I need parents to sign report cards of each of the marking periods and then I need the discipline Adam clear this one Adam is and way that I can access how your child is doing in school behaviorally I need it clear so watch this every high school class I have given this challenge to so last year I met with all of the seniors all of the juniors all of the freshmen and all of the sophomores I met with 2500 students in each of those grades at the Prudential Arena then to make sure everyone in Newark understood that I wasn't playing I met with all of the 8th graders I met in 3 days with 12,500

052students it is extremely important can somebody turn off their phone called the off button so I met with 12,500 students and I challenged them I reminded them of what we're supposed to do for them in school and what they're supposed to do for their parents because all that my mom has taught me is that what parents want are for their children to be better than what they were and so in order to make that happen I need to make sure that our students are aware of what their responsibilities are not to us but to their homes so freshmen sophomores juniors and seniors received this challenge the seniors only had one year I couldn't fairly access all of the information for those of you who are unaware but I've already reported this out at the June

053board meeting we had approximately there are 2,400 seniors in the class of 2019 we had approximately 2000 of those students meet this challenge a little babies in North you know what they did because they met the challenge they didn't know what was gonna happen to them but you know sometimes kids don't do things unless they're gonna get something from it so all I told them is they were gonna hang out with me for a day cuz they obviously learned I was so cool they hung out with me at Forest Lodge and we had the most incredible day possible and they enjoyed themselves just to share with the general public um about ten different people with three students about four or five teachers and one principal was like they didn't understand what happened at Forest Lodge

054zero argument zero fight approximately two thousand of our babies from Newark that our seniors modeled for everyone what excellence looks like so the freshmen received a harder challenge because I have them for four years I'm the freshman superintendent I have them for four years so I wanted to make sure that their challenge was more difficult so you are we're a freshman last year or a sophomore now your challenge is this every year you're supposed to meet all of those conditions and in June if you've met those conditions and your parents or guardians are okay with it they go to the treasurer of the school and they issue a two hundred dollar money order or cash in your name and they do that every year so that at the end of this year if they in

055fact did everything that they were supposed to do then in June of 2020 your parents will go to school and go to the treasurer making sure you always get a receipt and issue a money order or two hundred more dollars and their to do that every June until their senior year their senior year they are to pay that two hundred last two hundred dollars up front in January of the students senior year that's eight hundred dollars that I'm asking every parent or anyone who cares about any of these students with the approval of their parent or guardian I need you to pay two hundred dollars every year that your child meets all of those requirements and what will happen as those students who are now sophomores learned last year is that when I was principal

056at dr. Horton school and then principal at University High School I challenged my student body the students who met my expectation they went and hung out with me for a week at my second favorite place which is Orlando Florida and so any sophomore who is attending our schools if in fact they have met last year's criteria and this year's criteria then junior year and senior years criteria that in June of their senior year we're gonna go we're gonna line up a whole bunch of charter buses on i-95 going south and we'll spend about four or five days in Orlando and perhaps maybe like two days in South Beach so that our students can see what happens when you're great cuz when you great you are great great things happen - this is just a reminder

057that that campaign is still in existence all of our Park High School who scored 90% on the literacy test so we actually have schools that are beating the state's average when we look at this we're looking at all of the schools that are and are in our school district and obviously there is a lot of work that we need to do as it relates to what schools are in fact growing any of the green bubbles our schools that have demonstrated growth and all of the red bubbles our schools that have demonstrated an a decrease if you look closely I'll see if I can read the slide from my deck so we have Clemente Camden Belmont Runyan Hawkins Flagg South seventeen Tubman First Avenue Hawthorne Mount Vernon Hernandez Alamo vania oliver 13th Avenue Wilson Ridge Ivy

058Hill Lincoln equipment Avon Park Spencer Cleveland and Chancellor all of those schools demonstrated growth in the area of English language arts from their previous year as it relates to mathematics that's English language arts that's a those are still the high schools right alright so thank you so we have we quake technology science bard central bérenger arts and shabazz so those are the schools that are demonstrating growth is important to know that a school that's demonstrating growth is very difficult to do that when you are already at the top so it's extremely important that everyone is aware of what the actual student achievement data is so that you can actually assess if it's a negative impact in fact on the school's performance in the area of mathematics so as it relates to all grades and the

059elementary schools we obviously see an increase at the secondary schools you actually see a dip and then the student achievement as it relates to each of the respective grades are listed m80 oh three that's third graders in Newark ma 204 obviously is fourth graders and it increases by grade with at the high schools Algebra one geometry and algebra to being the course offerings this is how we did in comparison to the state of New Jersey the red line is obviously the state of New Jersey the blue line is the City of Newark when I say City of Newark that is our schools the schools that this board governs over not all of the schools in the City of Newark because this school district is not afraid to show what the student achievement of all his

060students are growth and might I add that there are schools that are in the City of Newark that are not governed by this board that are doing extremely well but we would like to see it schools that have demonstrated growth in mathematics Salameh Eugenia Clemente Sussex first flag Wilson South Street South 17th Park Camden Franklin Oliver Carver Horton Spencer Hawkins Ridge Hawthorne Tubman Belmont Runyan McKinley Chancellor and Abington to the board one of the things that I'm trying to share a show with you that the difference from that the difference thank you that the difference from this morning's convocation is that I only shared what schools demonstrated a substantive gain meaning that it was statistically significant that something actually occurred there that requires everyone's applause and that's why everyone applauded the information that I'm sharing

061with you now as you can see more schools did well in contrast as it relates to how did they grow we did not mention all of these schools today but this clearly kinda is the explanation as to why these are the high schools so we have that's right you don't have to worry about recording it I don't have a problem repeating what I have to say I'm a different superintendent from other people I'll have a problem speaking up as it relates to the high schools we quake technology no these are English language arts sorry as it relates to the high schools in math we have yeah yeah but I'm looking at math games that's English language arts I don't see that slide in this jack so so he's at 33 all right so you have

062technology barred behringer eagle and Shabazz demonstrating their increases remember this is growth is not proficiencies extremely important to really know the difference in fact between the two how did our students do economically disadvantaged versus non economically disadvantaged so part of what our responsibility is is to present and I shared this information already with the board at their retreat on Saturday our responsibility in this state is to have every superintendent share how did these different subgroups do so as it relates to English language arts the interesting thing is that the economically disadvantaged students so these are students that are on free or reduced lunch the importance of filling out the lunch application when you don't fill out a lunch application then your non economically disadvantaged so when you are filling out a lunch application and you're

063determined to receive free or reduced lunch that then adds to the blue line and so we're seeing right now that based on the information regardless of the status that a little less than one percentage point point nine difference between the students in English language arts in math there is an obvious difference of a little what three point three percentage points as it relates to general education students and special education students we see that this gap is very very large with not only in English language arts the gap in math is smaller than the gap in the English language arts yet there's still a gap in both one of the things that will actually be doing is focusing on different special education programs during the course of this year the executive director and I will actually

064be mapping out the entire year to actually create different types of program and then announce in the spring what will be the opportunities that students will be able to take advantage the following school year that doesn't mean that we're not obviously doing any work during the course of this school year we're actually trying to do both and and make sure that we're improving what the students are receiving now and then obviously creating a better experience for them the following year i ´ll students and Nani ll students so English language learners are students where English is not their primary language as some of you may or may not be aware regardless of the status your students are in fact if they meet the criteria required to sit for both the English language arts and mathematics test

065obviously with the understanding that there's also accommodations in the area of English language arts the split is large and obviously in comparison to the math where the gap seems to be not as wide I did a comparison between our female students and our male students interestingly enough we didn't need this report to let me know that women are smarter than men where would we be without you ladies however to be to be two times smarter than us is a lot the important contrast is if you look at the math scores the math scores indicate that the ladies in our schools are all of our female students whether they're in the primary grades or in high school that they are in fact doing better in literacy than in math and the difference between 41 percent passing

066English language arts to 25 percent passing in mathematics is something that requires or will require us to pay close concerted effort at addressing as it relates to all of the other races this is a very busy chart however is extremely important to focus at the bottom because that's where we are students who are black and students who are Latino are in fact leading the bottom of our student body in English Language Arts and the exact same truth is occurring in mathematics so we actually need to do something very intentional to actually change these numbers we need to provide books where our students see themselves in we need to make sure that there's a curriculum worthy of our teachers teaching and our students learning we have a new math series and literacy series see what happened

067ladies and gentlemen over the last seven years principals were allowed to have this thing called Donna me where they were able to kind of pick whatever they wanted to pick they wanted to pick this book the Sok they wanted to pick that book that's okay they wanted to switch books that's okay they wanted to do one book one year change it do another one the next year then change it do another one next year see you're not gonna play with our students in this administration what we're doing is we're picking a book we're making sure that we have a committee of folks that are very concerned about the education of our children and they in fact make recommendations to me as to what in fact I present to the board for adoption that occurs in

068committee the board gets an opportunity to ask questions and then we not only approve it that we actually create a rollout plan for it so teachers have been working throughout the whole course of this summer during the next couple of days they will be receiving training in the new series there's a lot of work that teachers need to actually do before our students arrive on the 3rd of September but I have nothing but great confidence given the conversation that I led today that we are on our right track to kind of course correct a whole lot of things a whole lot of things last area should be of great concern to everyone and this is a comparison of our black males to all other males when I did this report last year my brother's keeper

069reached out to me very very concerned about how and what I was going to do strategically to address this issue and you know the job of schools is not to create a pipeline to a facility that was never intended to rehabilitate students or to even come close to educating them properly this school system is not designed to create children who do not graduate from our schools and then kind of mess up my streets cuz I actually have to walk them ultimately what we need to do is address this issue very intently I am proud to actually report out that in fact when we remove a certain type of student from these lines and that is a student with an IEP that is black or other males that have an IEP the black male students are

070competing in English language arts closer with their counterparts than in math this suggests that our black male students are being classified more than all of their counterparts see what we can't have is a teacher who is afraid of what a child looks like and then we can't help them by having somebody classify them so somebody else can help them so there's a lot of work that has occurred and I'm not blaming teachers only but ultimately in the end and we're gonna aggressively address this issue of how our males are going to be educated better than we actually need to provide people in front of them that can do that and let me be clear I am NOT suggesting that if in fact we have a group of Hawaiian students that the only person who can

071educate them is a Hawaiian teacher so I'm not saying that I believe that that's true in the City of Newark in particular I know that the children of our city do not see color first they actually see heart first so we need teachers in front of all of our students who care about our children because when chill do not see a teacher who cares about them because the teacher does not bring heart to the classroom then our children seek color Madam President that ends my report Madam President board member Norton yes thank you so much Tom superintendent for your report I have some questions in regards to early in the presentation so first I would like to thank madam chair Garcia and superintendent for repeating the importance of filling out the lunch application as chair

072of the Finance Committee it's actually getting a very clear understanding of what happens when the application is not filled out I do I am aware that there is a dollar amount attached to when that application is not filled out and it's not only for individuals who receive free or reduced lands but but also people who are paid and so can we get a rough estimate superintendent or madam BA when that lunch application is not filled out what is the cost that could negative how much is that affecting our district in our budget yeah so I think that the question is absolutely incredible what our parents need to understand is that filling out that application is probably one of the most important acts that we need the parents of all of our students to actually do

073it's one of many mm-hmm there's no one's saying that being a parent is gonna be easy just cuz you fill out the lunch application we know that it's a little bit more complicated than that yes ultimately what I wanted to do in answering this question is I wanted to add another subject to it so the school business administrator in getting to the issue of the implication I think I also see dr. McGill here she just stepped out so I know that the school business administrator will address item 1 but I wanted to throw a second item and that to ask the business administrator to speak to what happens with semi so that parents can actually understand that being on Medicaid actually can also help the district financially can add another point to that as well

074and so also I remember the executive director of federal programs and grants miss Chavez she also mentioned that the applications that we receive the lunch applications that we receive also plays a role in other grants and that the district may qualify and so just because these are dollar amounts as a district of our size we're always looking for money she put back in our classrooms and to our students our teachers etc and so just to hone in on the importance of how filling out this one sheet of paper can go a long way in bringing dollars to the district good evening Madame chair members of the board superintendent Leon and members of the community miss Martin thank you for your questions let me think I can go down them and then if I miss something

075let me know yeah in terms of the lunch application lunch applications are used by the federal government to determine a district's financial standing for one of a better term so the lunch application one allows children to be able to participate in the breakfast and lunch program which is a national federally subsidized program every child that eats in the district and has a lunch application there is a sum of money that comes to the district as reimbursement for the meals that the children get now in Newark all of our children eat both breakfast and lunch for free but when we do our accounts of how many children participate we need to identify them based on their lunch application status so number one it is extremely important because it brings funding to the food and nutrition services

076art meant to make it self-sufficient this school year that just closed that department had a 2.5 million dollar deficit which means monies are coming out of the academic programs to support the food services program and that is not the way it should be that program should be self-sufficient so if every child and we have about 5,000 lunch applications that are not completed every year so it doesn't matter whether your child is pay is free reduced or paid there's money for each of those categories free is three dollars and forty eight cents which must cover everything for the meal labor food milk bread paper supplies utilities many of you who do cooking at home think how you could provide one meal for three dollars and forty eight cents that provides protein eight fluid ounces of milk

0773/4 fruit and/or vegetable okay it goes down to 308 for a reduced price meal and I think it's somewhere around the twenty nine cents if I'm not mistaken 3939 for a paid meal but every penny counts the more self-sufficient they are the less goes from the academic program now let's talk about the other funding that's tied to the lunch application every single source of federal funding that the district gets is determined by the lunch eligibility status title one we are in all district title one because we complete lunch applications think what those additional five thousand applications even if they were all only paid could do for a hundred and eighty days two meals a day it's 360 meals for the year thirty 39 cents I'm not gonna do the math in my head but it

078adds up right so every penny counts so title one school improvement grants sig are determined by lunch applications any other grant that we qualify for whether they be discretionary or they be and they're not many discretionary non-discretionary grants out there anymore title I DEA all of them bring money to the district based on the lunch application it is estimated that a lunch application brings in approximately five thousand dollars in federal funding per child oh I forgot one ear eight you know that tariff you pay on your phone bill that tariff is collected and has provided this district in excess of four million dollars per year for the last 15 years to contribute to technology in the classroom if you spend a dollar for technology and our free and reduced rate is 80 percent or above

079that tariff pays the eighty percent or above so the higher your free and reduce the less the district has to spend of that dollar in our case most times we're spending eighty they're spending eighty two percent and for every dollar we spend the difference is made up by the district that's significant dollars you know smart boards Chromebooks right smart panels what else you have in the school's laptops iPads all of that technology is purchased through a rate so that tells you where the lunch application takes you the superintendent asked me to talk about did I answer all your questions miss moon yes I have more but yes the superintendent asked me to speak about Semmy which is special Eady medication Medicaid initiative and miss granado's office really helps with that the district is able to

080claim for every student who requires special services whether it be speech whether it be physical therapy whether it be counseling whether it be ambulance ambulance services to school because we have some children come in ambulances whether it's nursing care all of those categories as long as they are provided by a professional licensed professional individual and they are provided during the school day those services we can be paid or reimbursed for last year our reimbursement was what Carolyn do you remember 2.2 on our target was what one point one point nine right I'm sorry million yes the district has given a target in its budget if we surpass the target we are able to collect additional money these are services we've already paid for so it's a reimbursement to the district it also allows students to

081get those services during the school day what's important here is the parental consent how many people have heard about that y'all sleeping parental consent it means that you allow the district to claim for the services that it has provided your child during the school day I see some of us are cynical and skeptical it's not money extra it's reimbursement for money the district already spent and that money can be reallocated somewhere else so it is extremely important and I must note that the district has surpassed it's target for the last four to five years and significantly surpass that target so when we talk about revenue coming in and being able to allocate our resources and our revenue these are the things that are extremely important superintendent madam chair we remember Doran thank you so much

082superintendent madam BA for the explanation and so just for the public to know is there a timeframe for the applications to be filled out applications are done on an annual basis we do applications all the time year long but they are critical because in September we start our new school year applications become available on the 1st of July we now do our applications electronically we also do them as a family all of those things help us to get all of the children that are in the district so how the government works is that in September when you open school you take the eligibility of the child from June and you use that for the month of September on September 30th automatically we have to change over to the new year's eligibility so if a child

083may have been free in June and they're don't fill out an application in September on October 1st they become denied that's what happens they become denied and they're now someone who should be paying for lunch so the reimbursement rate drops and in districts where children have to pay for meals then they're told you must pay full price for a meal and that's what happens that eligibility is used all year long should there be a change in family status of any whether it's job loss loss of a parent anything that changes the family status the individuals need to come in and redo your lunch application because your status may change your husband or your wife may be laid off there may be a temporary layoff but it can change you from a reduced or a paid

084meal to a free meal which doesn't matter necessarily to individuals on the lunch line but it matters in the amount of aid that we receive our state aid is determined based on lunch applications if you are a free child I think the factor is 1.3 or something like that and if you're reduced and if you're paid it's another factor which goes lower so once again all state aid we receive all federal aid we receive semi Medicare initiative and just about any other grant we want to talk about or any funding source other than private is determined based on economic status determined by the lunch application thank you madam ei any other question board members yes madam chair we remember Nora and then board member Mary Thomas yeah and so since I was as the district

085is looking to open our schools come September potentially using our attendance counselors to help facilitate and getting those lunch applications filled out in the month of September as a potential additional resource for the district to use and then also something on another note in terms of Superintendent for the SAT and a CT is the district providing funding well is the district paying for students to take those exams and does that also qualify juniors and seniors great so let's start with the first one so as it relates to lunch have kids this is what we've done in this school district we had this position called community engagement specialists and we said hi you this employee you go to the parents and get it in the parents like who are you why am I gonna give you

086my information about this why are you trying to help me do this we've gotten this lunch application thing wrong all the time so back in the day when I was young we used to have these people call homeroom teacher and so the homeroom teacher is the one who's supposed to make contact directly with the parent and be the person and it's not that people disrespect people who aren't teachers but the parents are like well who's gonna worry more about my child than their teacher so our strategy is not to give the lunch applications to anybody else that's kind of some of the mumbo-jumbo that we're still doing right now that part of what we have to do is put it in the homeroom teachers responsibilities to make sure that all of their students have it

087done the attendance counselor can help the new parent liaison position can help that strategy is right but making them be responsible for getting it that hasn't worked as relates to just to clarify I wasn't saying to make them responsible but just yeah that's what we've got area but that's what we've done here we we've told a community engagement specialist hey you have meetings with the parents and you tell the parents to do the lunch application yeah okay it didn't work you know why because it wasn't ever going to work so principals need to be on top of it because that's what determines money that gets into their schools and the classroom teacher needs to be on top of it because they have to worry about getting the monies so they can actually get supplies in

088their classrooms as a SATs our students have waivers for them so that's a good thing they need to actually use the waivers when they get the waivers and I believe that there's just a certain constraint as to how many times you actually get a waiver so I do believe you can get them as as early as your junior year I didn't mention this before but the PSAT is something that when I was assistant superintendent of the high schools I required all students 7 through 11 to take that test today based on conversations with the College Board the correct age to begin the test is an eighth grade through 11th the PSAT is in fact the test that determines in your junior year in high school your actual abilities to get all of these college scholarships

089so what usually happens is that parents who maybe live in a more affluent school district will require because they have to pay for it the opportunity to take this test years before it counts see it only counts junior year but they take it sophomore year and they might even take it freshman year so the student get becomes a little bit familiar it's not the same test but the format is the same and then the student kind of gets a little stressed about it but they do it several times so they're stressed kind of maybe appears to be somewhat normal so what we're doing is we're gonna pay it for the parents they don't have to pay it at all they don't have to pay for the 11th grade test they don't have to play the

09010th grade or the ninth grade or the eighth grade the thing that we will do differently for eighth grade is we're not gonna administer it to all of the students we're gonna create a criteria that determines who qualifies for it and those are the students who will actually take the test the date of the test will obviously be on the web it is like the second week of October is Miss Jackson here okay when she comes back and she could just remind me when's the date because it's already set Thank You superintendent we remember Murray Thomas thank you madam chair Thank You superintendent for that lovely and robust report as we all know behind all these numbers is a lot of people putting a lot of work from our parents our educators our staff members

091to you know our board and our district staff so I salute everyone for making these numbers and gains that we made possible my question is more so about the gains that have been made outside of the numbers we know senators tests capture a lot they capture a lot of growth that capture increase the student performance but there are some indicators that aren't captured in the numbers and so superintendent could you speak to some other ways in which we can show how our students have made significant progress in the areas of social emotional learning great everything down to you know their ability to just kind of navigate trauma can we identify other ways in which we've seen gains and improvement both in the climate and culture and then some of the SEL indicators that also indicate

092success aside from academic gains this year turn on the microphone we know today that mental health is real it's real and so we know that the students are impacted in profound ways perhaps you know it's just been time and so things that were easily resolved by us when we were much younger or not what I realized by our children a day but I always tell my students that they've passed our hardest test of all it's not the state test it's not the SATs it's not even a spelling test in their classroom they passed the test of living in Newark New Jersey being able to pass that test should reassure our students that no other test is gonna be harder than that all that we have to have is our students confident that we will have

093principals who will lead teachers who care parents who love and students who learn and that's the compact that we are making between the school and the home that in fact it's everybody's responsibility to teach our students that your point is extremely important one today those were just numbers not to me I know all of those babies that were there represented by a number there's a face to every name that was there and what we have to teach our teachers is to know them by their name to know where they live to know what their circumstances are not to provide people with excuses that is not what we do in school so we will have students that our teachers will encounter who have single mom who's single moms are on welfare who's single moms on welfare

094don't speak English well guess what you better educate that child very well because that child could be like this superintendent eventually become the superintendent of schools because that's what my reality was as it relates to specifically how do you measure it you know ultimately there are different strategies on how to assess what the needs of our students are right ultimately what we our students need are the resources and opportunities so that they can actually explain to us why they're not coming to school on one side Westside high school no the new principal there he's in his second year when he was a vice principal he was asking students hey you know why are you not coming to school and one of the reasons we're students weren't coming to school was because there was some bullying

095situation about what people were wearing in their school and the fact that the school was and that their clothes wasn't clean so what did he do he said oh wow that's a serious problem and continue to have students absent from school not at all you thought of an incredible strategy which is an incredible strategy that has already been used in the district so it's not new to us the whole idea of what he's providing his students and the monies that he has garnered there is no principal as far back as I can remember who has gotten hundreds of thousands of dollars on his own for the students at that school and guess what when you look at his attendance his attendance went up so ultimately he would argue that there's a lot of work that

096needs to occur at Westside high school for that student to be of distinction but we're definitely on the right path so I'm not saying that you always need to have hired an employee to solve the problem but we do need people who are experts experts that are gonna provide and address some of these SEL needs that our students are demonstrating and without classifying our students so there is an iron RS process that miss Ortiz the new executive director of the Office of Student Life will actually be monitoring and that's something that she will do closely hand-in-hand with the executive director of special education so part of what my job is is to create a system that addresses and tries to solve some of our more difficult problems so I have an at-risk report that I

097usually used to give my high school principals when I was assistant superintendent that begins to chart out who the bodies are who's this kid what's their name and then create an individualized plan for that child with social workers now with attendants counselors so the whole idea that ms Norton was talking about comes into play there that's what we need the attendance council doing too often we have our really good employees doing something else and not their job so I want the attendance counselor actually counseling students I want the social worker providing the social services are there programs that the students need to engage in those are the things that our supports that has to be involved in and you don't get a grade for that you know it doesn't it may be one of the

098reasons why the student achievement isn't as high but you know what I'm not gonna toss it there I really believe that one of the reasons why our student achievement isn't as high as it needs to be is because of the type of tools our teachers have been using I think that that I think that the English books and the math books and whatever this mumbo-jumbo nonsense we've allowed the principals to do with their schools I think that's the culprit and we've just figured out the cure our office of teaching and learning will actually create curriculum with the assistance of our incredible teaching staff members initiatives that we have already started since last year as a result we'll begin to provide the very very best resources in modeling for our teachers with some of the stellar

099staff that I've hired as part of my central office team so it's about reallocating the resources that we have I'm not trying to belittle or downgrade the mental health issues I know that they're real ultimately it has to be a balance but we can't do a balance where we're not actually addressing what is a primary concern the other piece that I think is extremely important is all on the academic side is that we've spent a lot of money providing schools with intervention strategies instead of actually spending the resources we're providing them a product worthy of our students and ultimately we have allowed a crutch to impede our abilities to actually teach so our strategy this year is to utilize a textbook that we have confidence in a curriculum that lets everyone know that the students

100as well as the teaching staff members are tools in the task and ultimately focus on what needs to occur on the academic end there are too many people out there that are experts at teaching kids and there are too many people out there who are experts at helping students provide social-emotional learning or addressing social-emotional learning needs and what I notice is that we give them a lot of our money and I don't see any results so what am I good at I'm an awesome mathematics teacher and I know how to teach and I know how to create systems in place and I know how to remove principals who can't get it done and I know how to make sure teachers who can't teach don't go do something else and I know that students don't run

101the show they are the show and ultimately in the end that what our parents want is for our students to just be better and so the challenge that we have is a serious one because I'm in the middle of a system that has to be reorganized to accomplish its goals the issue that you're raising is one that I am clear that today I see differently than if we would have had this conversation ten years ago ten years ago I wouldn't go to class right now students are like here's a gun that they suffer this incredible wound of being a child in Newark where we've asked children to grow up and we should not be putting that on them at all Thank You superintendent madam chair any other question board members or member Hill um superintendent

102I was just curious about - do we have any of our freshmen that submitted to $200 at the end of this school year what I am gonna do during the course of this year I believe is like the second week of September is I'm gonna call for a meeting of the classes so it'll be 2,500 or so students and just me all of them and me and I talked to them all at one time they're sitting by their schools and part of what I want to do right so the answer is I have no idea but ultimately what I'm going to do is have that meeting again with them because what I would like to know is how many principals met with their parents of those students last year to tell them about this because

103if I have to go tell every student at every high school that hey the superintendent thought of this really great idea that you might be confused by because let me tell you telling a parent give me $200 because your child does something good it might sound kind of weird or what understand so if we don't have principals who do that I'll go do it for them and then I'll find myself another principal so just make recommending I want to report that number out let's say by October so just to make the little recommendation because of me myself I have a freshman student entering into his sophomore year and just so that it wouldn't be such a financial hardship on parents if they want to participate in that maybe at the first marketing period you get

10450 the second market period another fifty third so you doing installments so just Allison that's Ian actually that's a real great recommendation so part of what we want to explain to the students is that it had to be paid by June right so they can actually put the installments like that they don't even have to wait for the marking period although that's an easy way to remember and I appreciate the recommendation but you know sometimes the parents are working check my check so you know whenever they have that money for member noreen then we will be moving on to public participation thank you so superintendent mentioned the start times for the high schools elementary schools in JFK what are the end times actually I didn't mention any of that the board president so ah at

105the elementary schools it is let me see somebody's head raised at the everybody's head down and they're 255 at the elementary level yes a 25 to 255 at the elementary the high school a 25 to 255 is elementary schools and the high schools is 815 - what time - forty to forty thank you now we have the public participation portion of the meeting public participation at board meetings is intended to allow individual members of the public to address the board on issues of public concern and not intended as a forum for extended conversation or two-way dialogue with board members or district officials the board president superintendent or designee may respond to questions either at the end of the session or at a later time it shall be the responsibility of the board president to maintain

106order and efficient process during public participation at board meetings especially so that the full time allotment for public comment is given over to speakers from the public public participation at a board public meeting will be limited to 90 minutes this time allotment may be extended for an additional 15 minutes by the board president at her discretion all speakers regardless of whether he or she represents an organization will be allotted no more than three minutes for comment unless an exception applies time limits for all speakers will be adhered to there will be no sharing or granting of speaking time to others speakers must be present when their name is called all speakers will be required to give their names and addresses the public participation portion of the meeting will be limited to one hour and thirty

107minutes examples of unacceptable behavior that will not be permitted include but are not limited to naming district employees and engaging in personal attacks racial slurs excessive loudness calling out yelling generally disruptive behavior attempting to disrupt the meeting or inciting others to do so the superintendent or Board President may interrupt any speaker or terminate any individual speak privilege if the speaker's comments are disruptive or obscene an individual may be cautioned that a personally directed statement may be slanderous or defaming and that the individual may be liable for his or her statements attempts to hijack or filibuster the proceedings repeated interrupting or badgering the board president or district officials repetitive or truculent speech or other disregard for the rules of decorum will not be tolerated and may subject the individual or group to removal from the meeting

108if necessary the board meeting will be adjourned vice-chair Haynes yes so for the record I will be leaving now but I just wanted to make it very clear that I'm not one of those people that live in chaos and if I said since a moral compass isn't measured by anyone and I fight a good fight and assistant every way possible to accomplish the best results for this for the city of North to be screen shot negativity don't send it to me because I swear by Allah I'm not I don't care about it we have too much work to do it for me to get distracted but nonsense I bust my heinie to ensure that our children are comfortable enough to learn in the building and that said buildings are clean and well prepared to educate

109our children I am on school I am a public school parent which is a special interest to me hence why I do everything I possibly can to prepare my children for the future and I teach them right from wrong and how to talk to people and not be disrespectful and vulgar I am on the North anti-violence Coalition where we do violence prevention and trauma-informed care my brothers and sisters will receive this type of help from me don't get blasted on social media because that's unnecessary I do what I do to please Allah and motivate the sisters that's in my community that look like me think like me and sometimes don't see the light at the end of the tunnel to have my name dragged by anyone is very interesting but dig this if you're not

110here to help you don't have to be you can leave your embarrassed in this district yourself and I say what I said first speaker Vicki Plowden Fitzpatrick good evening miss cloud if it's Patrick could you just say your name and address for the record thank you hi my name is Vickie Potter Fitzpatrick my address is 7 1 7 South 18th Street Newark New Jersey you may begin ok hi I'm good evening board members and also super-tender Roger new yarn I'm here to address the process of the hiring practice I was born and raised in the City of Newark a longtime home owner I was educated in the public school system also you can't hear me ok what I stole and I was I was mentioning then I was born and raised in the city of

111Newark and I'm presently a home owner I was educated in the public school just like in many of you and my concern today is the hiring practice in order process I have been applying for I've been a school nurse's aide for 19 years I went back to school to receive my bachelor's in psychology in 2017 then I went back to receive my master's in May of 2019 I have applied for several position have not received not one interval now there wasn't in particular about which job but I just wanted the different job I think that earned and I went back to school and got educated and was able to deliver it with the services that was needed so the spirits that they're probably looking for I did not get from being a school nurses aide

112but I got my experience on the outside doing different jobs in fact the voyage some of the employees that I that got high as they say it for instance as intensest counselors they were not even employed by the Newark Public Schools so my concern is that how can someone that been working for the district get overlooked so many times in the process of hiring some of the jobs did not to mention some of them that I applied for was after the early childhood transition coordinator tenders counselor Student Activity seen your family coordinated health coordinate and student assistance and this is just a few so when I looked at my records I remember doing 41 different applications and have not received one interview and I'm born raised here and had been actually a new employee for

11319 years so these are my concerns is that how can someone that from an outsider come in and get a job when someone is not hired within I was told that you hired a third of people was hired within I should have been one of them I should have been one of them so this is Marcus earnest thank you thank you Miss Plowden Fitzpatrick next speaker Theresa Frankel Cole I really need to I talked a little quickly so if I'm speaking too quickly please slow me down well my concern is that this was my son's first year in the district and I was greatly disappointed as an ex educator Davis worker and others said social case manager I was really disappointed and I would like to be proactive that's my reason for being here as

114opposed to reactive cuz trust me I could have taken this in many different venues but I'm coming here as it takes a village I'm we need to proactively get together what I'm concerned about we've had several incidents of safety that are continuously occurring on half days and delayed openings within the school so I no longer send my school child to school I have already discussed it it was not resolved so my son no longer comes when delayed opens and half days and what people need to realize and check that on social media you've got something called North Wilding out and it's not just what's happening on the streets they've got school fights on social media that are not being attended to and resolve these incidents are taking place on school grounds during the active school

115day escalating into the community putting my son's safety and imminent danger because we already know what's going on in the streets stuff is not being documented in the classroom that has happened I have addressed this and will come up later that when incidents where another child is bullying a student the teacher has not documented thus the child has called on the phone we've got it we've got a videotape and it's escalating the school thank God by the grace of God my son went to mentor at JFK and this incident spilled into the community he was attacked by one of the kids in a class and two others he came home with his phone his watch and his wallet god is good it could have went far different and I point for addressing this because if

116it's happening to one there's other students students are afraid to report this especially our young black youth because then some of this stuff is gang related with kids in the school that we don't know about they don't want to report it to the police because see our kids got a walk get to school my son no longer goes to Boylan participates in Boylan rec boxing he no longer goes to mentor at JFK which he was very successful this is an honor-roll student who has become depressed he started out went on a road and it's going tragically wrong the other thing I wanted to discuss on two separate occasions because we were new to the district it was hard enough for parents coming from a new district to this district to get him rolled there there's

117a lot required but we did but his safety has been severely compromised since he's been dropped off by either myself or his step parent and he's been sent home without staff without parent notification we live in Vailsburg his school is in the South Ward thank God news travel training knew how to get from point A to point B it is not the first time we have addressed this and it needs to be brought to the community's attention and to the school board attention because we're going into school I have yet to receive a handbook I have documented times to where this was May 2nd this letter was sent out I couldn't get one particular person that I needed to contact I had to access the man and stand with security until the person came out

118I have been to this school miss Pringle Cole your time is up can you just tell them about school did your child attends abares thank you next speaker Hashim Hollen my name is kamala my result in South Ward in Newark and I'm the founder of financial boss I was encouraged to come before the the Board of Education because financial boss is a nonprofit organization whereby we strive to create better opportunities for sustainable success through financial literacy so I've created a program to teach children starting at age 5 the basics of financial literacy so currently in Newark there is a bill for high school as well as middle school children however not for elementary school I think it's very important for such basics and fundamentals to start at a very early age I'm sure everybody is

119familiar with like Tiger Woods it was lamented by his father that he started swinging a golf club at age three so it's no doubt why by age 20 he was in the pros and before age 21 he had won three PGA Tour's um what I basically would like to do and why I come before you is I welcome the opportunity to get the opportunity to actually implement and put this program into Newark school district in the elementary schools primarily excuse me what I have seen is that by teaching children especially young ones financial literacy it's that some up for a better financial stability on what it also does is buy into it integrates into the family and foresters and strengthens a family bond from a young age so that they don't have to go through

120many of the struggles that most of us did as we got to be adults so again what I would like to do is perhaps be able to set up an opportunity in order to speak with on someone regarding this this program implemented into the school district again my name is cash found a financial course and I thank you for allowing me to speak today thank you very much miss Deering if you can raise your hand thank you so much next speaker Dianne gallo so good evening Diane Gayoso 60 park plays welcome back everyone I'd like to to just talk about the board communication I know that the statement read prior to public participation states it basically tells us that the board and community can't communicate from the research I did over the summer I found

121out that it's a decision that was forced upon the board during the cami Anderson insert dictatorship years I'm asking the board to consider submitting a motion to restart communication with the board with the community dr. Janie had communication even if it was a 1 a yes or no answer he would acknowledge us okay and if he didn't have the answer he would put you in contact with someone that that would it wasn't an actual dialogue it was just a yes/no speak to this person we were happy that's that's really all we're asking I'm one of the speakers that he he helped every time I spoke it and and we were really appreciative about that I I know that that it was an agreement like I said that was forced upon the board and it's just

122been a practice that's been continued I don't know if you really don't realize that you can submit a motion to just basically change it like I said I know time is limited and we can have an actual conversation but we really I'm not saying that that you do but we really won't feel as ignored if we would at least get a response either via email or via or just a yes-or-no answer okay that would that would get that would get the community to support the board more because you guys are making decisions about our kids okay our kids education are in your hands and we are we as the community should support you but also we also feel that we need to get like I said we we need to go to you and say

123look this is what's going on this is what are what we're worried about I emailed several members over the summer about the comfort room update that I submitted to the pni committee last year I have only one person responded and that person wasn't even on the committee that that handles that okay and you know I I was supposed to be in kept up to date and stuff I mean I'm just asking you to please consider restarting communication with with the community thank you thank you Miss bio so next speaker Denise Cole okay I'm here today to cut out everything I want to congratulate you because I support you Roger not everything you do but most of the things you do so just congratulations but this is dear Board of Education members and Brenda lists this

124cease and desist order isn't is to inform you that you're intimidating and violation of Sunshine Law in JSA ten 4-12 against me will not be tolerated this letter is to demand that your bullying and intimidation tactics must cease and desist immediately should you continue to pursue the activities and violation of this cease and desist order I will not hesitate to pursue legal action against you including but not limited to civil action and/or criminal complaints bullying bullying harassing and failure to provide the written policy included in the ban letter violating my right to express issues concerning the state of Newark Board of Education on you said for me the 27th or one of them days I don't even know what date it was again it's in your letter please note that I have a right to

125remain free from your intimidating taxes and will take the responsibility to protect that right note that a copy of this letter and record of this delivery will be stored no to that it is admissible as evidence in court of law and will be used as such if you need be in the future this cease and desist order demands that you immediately discontinue do not at any point in the future under any circumstances do the following to me pursue harass attacks slandered threaten stalks shadow gather information about and/or block my movements in the school community where we are fully operational or social media and throughout New Jersey and including this open public meeting should you really choose to continue your current course of action I will not hesitate to file a complaint the Superior Court Attorney

126General and County Prosecutor for your ongoing violations of the Sunshine Law and noted previously this letter does not constitute sort of statement of my position nor is it a waiver of any of my rights and or remedies in this and other related matters I demand your immediate compliance this is an official documentation that will be used as evidence and I will give it to your secretary over here and I also want you guys to know that you need to read the sunshine act board keep letting her speak for you you can individually be soon you have no right to stop us when we come to this mic and just because I over speak three minutes does not mean that I am stopping the board meeting because immediately when I leave somebody else comes up and

127speak according to the open Public Records Act you all do not have a right to stop us when we speak in so you have to read the laws you have to know the laws and the reason why I'm up here public because they sent she sent me a warning letter in email form but it stated they hand-delivered it to me and sent the email I never got a hand-delivered I miss it just came to my email today and she had no lawyer in there I also want you to know your time is up move on to the next speaker please I sent an open request in asking for the statement that chief counsel reads before the public every day to provide the document the legislation the law the policy or case law that she holds

128to craft that statement my open request came back from her office saying denied no such documentation so she doesn't have a legal record that she's using and accepted her email she doing his crafting words on a piece of paper and wanting a creditor Janek are you here so community no you're right because she just mr. mechanic is not appearing we will move on to the next speaker Yolanda Johnson is Miss Johnson prey Yolanda Johnson 765 Broad Street dear North Board of Education members and Brenda Liz this cease and desist order is to inform you that you're intimidating and violation of the Sunshine Law in JSA 10 4-12 against me will not be tolerated this letter is to demand that your bullying and intimidation tactics must cease and desist immediately should you continue to pursue these

129activities in violation of this cease and desist order I will not hesitate to pursue further legal action against you including but not limited to civil action and/or criminal complaints bullying harassing and failure to provide the written policy included in the ban letter violating my right to express issues concerning the state of North Board of Education 625 820 and 827 today please note that I have a right to remain free from your intimidating tactics and will take the responsibility to protect that right note that a copy of this letter and a record of its delivery will be stored note to that it is admissible as evidence in a court of law and will be used as such if need be in the future this cease and desist order demands that you immediately discontinue and do not

130at any point in the future under any circumstances do the following to me pursue harass attack slander threaten stalked shadow gather information and/or block my movements in the north school community where we are fully operational on social media and throughout New Jersey note that your behavior is a violation of New Jersey open public meetings act and JSA 10 4 through 11 failure to invite portion of members to circumvent provisions of Act nsj 810 4 through 13 exclusion of public resolution adoption and content in JSA 10 4 - 12 meet is open to the public should you willfully choose to continue your current course of action I will not hesitate to file a complaint with the Superior Court attorney general and county prosecutor for your ongoing violations of the sunshine Shilo noted previously this letter does

131not constitute exhaustive statement of my position nor is it a wave of any of my rights and or remedies and this and any other related matter I demand your immediate compliance this is an official documentation that will be used as evidence warm regards and now submit that electronically to each and every last one of you board members and you too miss Brenda list and I'll give it to mrs. Nancy Darren thank you next speaker Lucy Lane Figueredo not appearing next speaker Kevin scenic not appearing next speaker Malik al-amin not appearing next speaker Deborah Gregory Smith I'm sorry Smith Gregory good evening my name is Jeffrey Smith Gregory 697 South 12th Street I serve as the president of the New York branch n-double-a-cp I had sent a letter at the end of June in regards to

132the facilities being ready for school the school opening and I wanted to commend the superintendent for the work of getting the facilities ready I would encourage and caution you that on the website there were schools that were shown to be ready but they were all in one Ward so we want to have a more comprehensive look at the schools I have been in some of the schools and they are looking good for the young and looking ready for the young people I know that you said that there was a lot to accomplish but I wanted to publicly commend you for the part that has been accomplished also last week at the business meeting I had posed some questions I am going to give them to Nancy Dearing I don't have the complete copy with me

133but the one thing that I do want to reiterate is the the request of the program and instruction committee and employing the district's resolve to implement the amistad act in the public schools and we highly recommend the utilization of the 1619 project in schools that have free curriculums guides and activities for the students so I will submit the letter to miss Deering and I wanted to know also when will the cambridge report be available on the Noor Board of Education website a final No that I have just learned because I live in Newark and I am affected by what is happening with the water research shows that fresh fruit and vegetables mitigate the effects of lead and they act as a buffer and so I was listening and you said point three three three quarters

134three quarters and I noted this is a big ask but with some of the supermarkets in the city I would encourage the district to consider beefing up the fresh fruit and vegetables and going above what is required because if there is any kind of ingesting ingestion of the lead at home and even though the schools are okay but they're getting something at home the fresh fruit and vegetables will help mitigate the impact thank you thank you Miss Smith next speaker Karen easkey good afternoon Bilal Walker speaking for carrying iski my name is Bob Walker I'm an educator here in north New Jersey that's not permitted mister I'm sorry I understand that miss iski and I are working together if you can give me three minutes okay class I didn't sign up and we can put

135you at the end of the list you can mr. Leo please sir where I think you're leading illness emotion on average a classroom of 30 children about three are likely to have asthma there your comedian children live inside inside up and we can hear you sir we just like to reiterate that you can sign up for the list and echoing madam chairs miss Marie tomboy member Thomas and I gave him the procedure he can go outside and sign up and we a message for him at the end and the event that he missed that just you could just sign up you could still speak just sign up please next speaker and any of us is the MS earring is the list of outside and any of us madam chair point of inquiry is Miss iski

136available to speak no he stated she is not here he wants to speak on her behalf and he cannot do that he can sign up and we can listen to him at the end next speaker madam oh he can't sign up but I mean we could next speaker will Amina holder madam chair if I may so it was just lifted up that if we were going to ask him to sign up we would have to pass a special resolution may I ask if we could if not for that as a board ocean it's not a raised emotion excuse me an emotion so maybe we make emotion or you can move the motion if you like since you're proposing it on the floor madam chair what I'll do is always sort of the formal list concludes

137and then I'll make a motion thank you miss holder are you making a motion now or am i thinking it's your turn okay miss holder good evening um Wilhelmina holder I'm still at two Cedar Street but um adorn you asked about SEL indicators I found that interesting one thing that we could do and and one thing that you can tell in working with young people is how they feel about themselves you want to know an indicator what it looks like when children feel good about themselves they define themselves in a positive manner when they're hopeful as opposed to filling hopelessness when they're able to self manage when they're able to communicate effectively and work collaboratively around challenges that's how you can define whether we're making progress in that area or not it also shows up

138in how they do in school how often they come to school and what their arm test results look like it's all about self image also when is the Amistad Act going to be put in the schools can when I have a deadline when this is going to start to snow start September and then what grades hopefully K through 12 can we get a date do we have teachers ready to go with that um curriculum and the other thing you talked about was mentorship which is he this is something that I do deeply believe in but I one little concern when you said with the career that the mentorship for those working would stop with the first paycheck I don't think that's correct I'll tell you why probation most people in jobs now on probation the

139first 90 days so why wouldn't you extend the mentorship through the first year instead of the first paycheck that's where it really makes sense so I want the board to review that initiative and extend the mentorship the first year someone's working that's when they need that support not the first paycheck also um today listening to some of the was very troubling listening to the results and reading and writing in our district and I I just ponder why our children aren't doing well in that area and I said to myself is it because some route teachers are not lovers of reading or writing with their parents or the community or the board members you see if people don't see you reading then you don't have value you don't hold that in value and kids are watching

140you we talk this hypocracy you want them to read but yet you don't read you want them to write they never see you writing so we need to come together as a community and figure this out because it does affect them at the SSAT level because I'm tired of reading essays of children who cannot write a comprehensive paragraph it's torture some of these kids find it torturous and we have to go step by step which is fine but it starts in the school and it starts with you and it starts with me and starts with all of us they don't know how to research why can't we have these tools built in the language arts curriculum and I know we have a new department chair I like to meet with her about that from K

141through 12 kids aren't even writing book reports how many you remember writing book reports on Friday every Friday a book report because you did something and current events our children are not even doing that thank you miss and that's best practices and the other thing I want to say is that three years is what we need for language arts I talked to dr. Santos two years it's insufficient please give our children the tools they need to be successful in life and let's stop playing education let's be about education thank you miss holder next speaker Latifah lemon not appearing there was one more speaker miss Deering that you gave me - Lynne hi this morning I got a letter and I came please state your name and address for the record thank you my name is

142Celine we only carry it's misspelling oh it's misspelled yeah and today in the morning I got a letter and I came here to find out what is it about and they told me that there will be a meeting and I wanted to attend the meeting but I didn't prepare anything so I don't know I I have been here for the first time so maybe if you tell me what am I supposed to do or should I miss do you want to address the board or would you like to speak to miss she doesn't know oh she doesn't know why she I don't know because I didn't have any email anything so I didn't know what to do I didn't prepare anything what type of letter did you receive us about I have been in the

143school and there was an incident it was about the incident but I didn't know okay if you can speak to miss Deering she'll take all your information and get it back to the board next speaker who laid off winters not appearing that concludes our public participation part for the evening madam chair madam chair or a member noreen I like to make a motion to extend the speaker's list second we have a motion by Miss Mary Thomas second by mr. Norton to extend the public participation portion to allow additional speakers is that correct one or more one okay any discussion among board members board members understand the motion yes yes all in favor aye any opposed any abstentions motion carries sir if you can approach the podium and state your name and address for the record

144its we don't have it on the list we need it for recording purposes thank you my name is bilal walker 25 manchester police my apologies everybody home asthma is the leading chronic illness among children and on average in a classroom of 30 children about three are likely to have asthma low-income populations minorities and children living in inner cities experienced more hospitalizations and death I'm here today to speak to the board I'm an orc educator and I lost a student I lost a student named Shuaib right April 26 2019 he was 14 years old he passed away from asthma attack and from that moment I decided that I was gonna reach out to any and everybody that could do any and everything to support our city as far as empowering quipping and educating our students staff

145and nurses with the proper education needed to service our students within the city of north suffering from asthma superintendent you spoke extensively about 100% attendance and attendance is directly related to how our our students breathe our students may not be breathing effectively and if we are not educating our staff we are not educating our students a house on how to effectively use their asthma pumps we are doing them a disservice when we think about our students we need to service them holistically and by holistically it speaks a lot to what miss Murray said about social and emotional learning and some of our social and emotional like habits that we have can trigger asthma attacks September 21st in Newark New Jersey from 9:00 to 12:00 I have partnered with the American Lung Association to bring norc's

146asthma Awareness Day I will be hosting this asthma awareness day to effectively enforce this this mindset that we need to take asthma seriously in our communities we are quick to turn our heads to asthma because it's so prevalent in so common within our communities and as educators I can honestly say as an educator I did not look at asthma is something that was something I would affect the students attendance their participation in class or their focus I'm reaching out to the board today asking that you guys take serious consideration into partnering with the American Lung Association with the Ironbound community association with the North Department of Community Health and Wellness with Clara Martin and Barnabas they will be there September 1st offering free services to all 21st to all parents from 9 to 12 and

147students during free live screenings asthma screenings providing students with book bags providing our nurses and other school personnel with the education that they need so that we can make them to us asthma friendly schools without your participation we will not be able to effectively do this I really hope that you guys can take this into consideration I will likely for all of my information to either miss Yvonne Anderson or miss a Dorian Murray Thomas about details concerning the event and if you show any interest in it please feel free to contact me Thank You mr. walk mr. Walker if you can just give that information not to the board members you give it to miss Deering miss Deering then in returns make sure that all board members receive it cocaine Georgia trended to her sorry

148Brenton and Leon cost you a minute to get there so you could stay there a little more time right so one of the important things and the reason why I'm doing this is on television right so in order to to speak at this meeting so frantically I can't hear you Thank You Jess I had a long day so that um you're required to sign up it's usually uh I believe the days of the Thursday and that it gets clocked in then everyone who has called in during that time period those are the people that we would expect to allow to speak in the meeting prior to this one it's actually there's a sign-up sheet where it's really who are the first ten people to sign up and sometimes because a number of people have concerns

149that then the board makes a motion and does an extension of the time because obviously everything is allotted based on time because technically we could go on for hours and hours and hours especially if I have the microphone so the reason why I wanted to do this is because based on the conversation you and I had I had a better understanding of what you wanted to talk about right I applaud the board for giving the opportunity to actually not only speak but really the message behind a person that's actually in this room that you were speaking on their behalf and what you did is you didn't stay talking the whole entire time you actually just followed what the procedures are you respected the board and the board in turn gave you that respect back by

150giving you the opportunity to speak so I'm just proud of you I don't even know you I'm just proud of you because you could have stayed seated and not stood right and the fact that you didn't do that and the fact that you came back up this is very very important when you hand it to miss Deering obviously there are a lot of people who give us advice of you know do this do that well obviously review all of it and if it actually meets what our requirements are we will actually not only share it with our principals we'll post it on the web I appreciate you and I thank you Thank You mr. Walker madam chair remember he'll so I just wanted to apologize to the superintendent and also to the board as well

151for taking the fire from the young gentlemen but also to just say I got a little bit confused because I'm a I'm not used to having a regular board meeting in this space so we're usually used to having a board meeting at a school so since schools are not open we had a board meeting here tonight so I just wanted to pologize for that just so that we clarify it it's not like you said you took it for him you didn't you were looking at the document so that you could see what was I want somebody on @tv land to be thinking that you just went there and snatched it from me you did not do that madam chair I just also want to mention that history was made tonight this board voted in passed

152the first contract negotiated ratified and passed for the first time in 20 years as a functioning board under local control you know you guys should be really proud of yourselves it's a vote that the teachers were anxiously and the Union waiting for and it passed 9-0 so congratulations to the teachers into their contract for the next five years madam chair if pass above 90% as I mentioned the ratings earlier I didn't want to say how many members voted but I just said the percentage and we look forward to continue to work with the newer teachers union thank you board member Norton yes thank you madam chair and so I would like to address miss Deborah Smith Gregory's consideration for providing fresh fruit and vegetables in finance madam BA I do know the district has already

153made purchases for four Mills but I would like to bring this to the Finance Committee in September madam be a good thank you Miss Norton I want to confirm this but I will say this preliminarily the district has already made an effort to move towards fresh fruit on a daily basis it's something we did last school year and we'll be continuing this school year we made that decision based on looking at the elements of a meal what we need to meet in terms of nutritional content and also the availability of product from the Department of Agriculture as excess product so it's also a way to introduce children to new types of foods which is one of the goals of the lunch program so we do serve fresh fruit sometimes the fruit is not used in

154the manner in which we would like it so we have to work on that raisins get squashed on the floor Kiwis get squashed peers get put down the toilet so we do have to work on that and encourage our students but it is something that we are doing on a daily basis we've actually moved away from canned fruit but I want to confirm that we're also doing that with vegetables Thank You Madame ba just a friendly reminder also that the administration of the pSATS will take place October 16 during school hours ma'am cheer we remember Hill so um superintended I know how much we take pride in our teachers in our staff and so there's one particular own teacher that's in the audience tonight my name is Linda Kelly gamble she's a teacher at dr.

155e alma flag school and she was honored today at the convocation for having over 25 years of service in the district but she brought it to my attention that she has yet to receive her pin so she wanted me to let you know how many years is it for real excellent so all of the pins were at the end of the convocation today issued to the principal's for issuance at their schools or at their offices so I'm in year 27 in this district yes so I have my 25 year pin on so you're gonna have it come here thank you boy remember Hil madam chair board member hils not done yet so um I also wanted to make mention I had mentioned it before that on November 24 24 at NJIT there's gonna be a

156college fair HBCU college fair hosted by Madeleine Barnard and it's gonna be at NJIT from 9:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. it's on November the 21st from 9:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and I think the awesome thing about this whole um job fair it means your college fair is that the students have to pre-register once they pre-register you put in your SAT scores you put in your GPA you put in a name of the high school that you go to now and then they give you a bar code on a badge that you print out and so when you go over to that station of that college or that university all they have to do is scan your barcode and all your information populates right into the computer and you will also have access to on

157admissions right at the college fair so I just wanted to make sure that we get that out to all of our high school seniors and um again juniors too I don't know if that's gonna be yes so that's the issue now because remember when I'm when I did the college fair for our seniors they were extremely appreciative obviously of it but they were like yo we really could have had this our junior year so what we did is we actually had in the spring a college fair for juniors so I would say we we target the juniors and then obviously any senior who has not made a final decision in terms of their applying to provide them the opportunity to do that can you get that information to me through miss Deering all right and

158then if I can have that when can I have it all right so I'll forward it to miss Ortiz you're gonna be on this yeah I'll copy you and dr. Santos and we do discuss a couple of things about making that happen sorry and so I just wanted to give this for the education of everyone so an HBCU is a historically black college or university and so I also just want to give a shout out to um some of our boys for over the summer participating in some basketball tournaments that were held throughout the city um Westside took the win for their summer tournament against Central High School and arts high school made it to the fight to the championship game but they lost against Jersey City but I think I just wanted to acknowledge

159that and I also made mention of it in our own community and that committee just because our young men could have been out somewhere doing other things with their summer but just for them having that dedication and that drive just to give up their summer and the focus clearly on basketball I just think that it was a huge accomplishment and I think that we as a board should at least give them some type of certificate of acknowledgement or something so let's be reminded that the basketball season doesn't start until winter and so there are no students in this school district that participated in any basketball tournament that is associated with their high school because if in fact they did so and they actually won the championship when the season actually was in existence it would

160disqualify all of their wins so I believe that what you were referring to were as students that are in our high schools that are playing basketball during the summer but are not part of the basketball teams because that would be non-compliant with state regulation yes exactly R okay now we're good madam chair port board member hils not done okay I just wait until she's done after that we're following with Noren Mary Thomas and we are done so this is my last thing for the evening and I just to give a big shout out to all of my board members into all of the district staff who showed me so much support and love in the passing of my father over this summer so I just want to publicly thank all you guys who went above

161above and beyond from start to finish and I just wanted to thank you guys bubbly thank you for remember nor in I'm not aware if the board acknowledged week way high school for their band championship and so if we have not done so already may we please acknowledge their championship the week way band championship of the 2019 2018 2019 school year are there at the September Borah money last weekend I don't remember that yeah Madam President I think that you know the whole idea that every time our students are doing beyond what they're supposed to do if you will like they wake up and they go to school and they go home right but it's everything else as to why they went to school that's extremely important right it's what their teacher was teaching that

162excited them to leave home to actually get to school into school on time it is meeting their friends and doing something productive with them it is about what occurs before school and after school and I think that what the marching band at week great high school did is a little bit more than just participated and so we need to take the opportunity to obviously recognize them in the public for that so we will make sure that we move that along to get them properly recognized make sure that they can attend make sure that the director is available things of that nature it will be a great thing to do for member noreen just sent all the information over to the chair of community student life pickles parent engagement and student life and we'll make sure

163we have them on the agenda for September for remember Murray Thomas they think madam chair I just wanted to just echo this Intimus of a knowledge and all the incredible work that went on over the summer to make sure our babies have what they need this fall the superintendent stated earlier how many teachers and staff members we had coming together both voluntarily literally just to make sure that our kids had curriculum that was reflective of their brilliance I have a curriculum that you know took them to a new high so I just want to personally just acknowledge every single person who was a part of that I'd like to acknowledge the students as well our babies could've been doing a lot of other things this summer but most of them were doing what they were

164supposed to do and above and beyond like was just share going to practice every day taking care of little brothers and sisters making sure they got to summer camp on time I live right off of Springfield Avenue it was you know one of the main quarters in the city and so every day on my way to work I'm seeing kids taking a skateboard on the bus when they way to a summer program or sports and so so many of our babies are doing what they have to do to excel and to thrive not just survive and I just want to acknowledge that and for all the parents community people educators who helped make that possible we salute you we thank you and you make us better and so I'll close with just saying that you

165literally as we grow we're growing with you and we look forward to you know learning and growing with you and we thank you for everything you do to make us better as a board and as a district motion motion by mr. Norton to adjourn to have a second second miss Murray Thomas all in favor motion carries thank you just a friendly reminder in every meeting will be held September 24th that Malcolm X Shabazz High School in September