001in compliance in compliance with chapter 231 Public Law 1975 entitled open public meeting act adequate notice of this meeting has been provided as specified of the ACT proper notice of this public meeting was provided in notice said notice was post answers of the Board of Education mail to the nle son mail to the nle township CLK advertised in N sun and posted on a district website this is an official meeting black salute the flag the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty here here I the approval of the minutes motion appr minut dist second thank you any correspondence Mr last presentations Mr kazinski thank very much as you said we have a pack agenda I do want to say um one of the
002things I was I was not aware of when I took a job two very short years ago is um how great a community not is Le and um every time that I I have the pleasure of attending an event where our students were performing whether it be through dance or U acting obviously local instrumental music it really sight sound for uh to be remembered I bring my children as frequently as possible I've been pushed by many members in my short time going to make sure I don't miss these events you haven't missed too many and every time they perform with something special but we have these kids behind us which I think the board members start to move um as I'm talking but students behind us every time as they said they do something special
003I do have to congratulate you guys because what we've done this year is incredibly special the the um Bo is the skill that it takes to perform music to begin with let alone to move with Precision across the field and work is one to tell a story um it's something very few people I think really appreciate um and considering I can't play an instrument and I can barely walk in time I completely appreciate everything that you guys do and so I want to congratulate I'm sorry I'm not looking at you but I congratulate Mr Riley for stepping in his first year certainly Mr myell and all the staff members that work with you and to all the parents who I know put up with uh countless fundraisers and rehearsals and crazy times during the day
004and the week and weather and everything else and carrying extremely heavy instruments for students from the time they were not higher than this table um you're giving them a gift that could never be repaid and the gift of music and so without further Ado congratulations to all of you who look forward [Applause] to [Music] l [Music] [Applause] [Music] la [Music] [Applause] [Music] I [Music] [Applause] yeah [Music] [Applause] [Music] he [Music] w [Music] what [Music] [Applause] [Music] woo [Music] w [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] all [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] yeah [Music] [Applause] [Music] I [Music] h [Music] than [Music] [Applause] [Music] he yeah [Music] yeah well that was fantastic I I know I'm I'm deeply touched I see our Manor commissioner Rogers in back come forward with our presentations please it just makes it makes
005all those board members so proud as as parents and as board members to see a presentation like very and used to be very proud of theming ladies and gentlemen it's honor to be here I have a word for you students made us very ladies gentlemen on behalf of the board Commissioners mayor and I are presenting the C clock officially uh present it tomorrow night but we have a little room at Town Hall not as much room as here we're giving out more WS tomorrow night so the idea came up for us to come here I think it's a great idea now there's a lot of wear appes on this I'm going to get down to the last wear app because that's probably the most important aspect of tonight whereas the Raider marching band continues the
006longstanding tradition of promoting rder Pride by providing unwavering support encouragement to fans and players throughout the year as well as excelling in the competitive performance Arena by the way the other whereare the winter guard and the drill team everyone's included now therefore VI have proclaimed that the Board of Commissioners in the township of Nutley and the county of ESS joined with the citizens of nle in recognizing and congratulating the not raer March van real team and the directors on their outstanding accom accomplishments throughout the 2013 seon thank you thank you cheer for one more time because that was but I I have to say too I mean it's just incredible you make the town so proud of you all the time every time you guys go somewhere represent us well the people in the front
007with the guns and the [Music] flags howy how do you practice that in your living room it is fantastic it's really it's really a tribute to our town that have such a successful Mr May to say unbel job is always here for this and show every each and every perform so thank you so much important I've learned so many years parents the music booster Association God bless you for your work God bless thank you mayor PCO and commissioner Rogers for being here I also have a presentation from the children of freeholders there's a lot of we on this also very important I'll read the most important part I I proceive this being whereas a high school Raider marching band completed its outstanding 2013 competitive season undefeated when he first placed in all five competitions in
008which he participated and where 2013 the N High School Raider marching band competed in the AA size group of the newly formed Independent League of New Jersey where finished the head of a total of 24 different bands at the following competition and I'm sure this is repetitive to the parents because I know you sat there through this but it's nice to hear what your children have done overall the Rox competition where the band captured first place and one of the best music and the best effect categories Rolf competition where the band captured first place in one of the best music best color guard and best percussion categories the West Orange competition where the band captured first place in one of the best music best effect categories the Mount Olive competition where the band captured first
009place and one the best music best visual and best drum Natures category in the Wayne Hills competition where the band again captured first place in one of the best music and best visual categories what more can I congratulations every one of your children will receive this Proclamation that cover that we have for there this one obviously will hang in a place in theard of uh in addition to honoring the marsh B we're honoring three students as well this evening who also were accepted into the nor Jersey per van North Jersey area is made up of a consorti of 22 of ourth Jersey Jersey three students accepted um and each will receive uh the same FL as well as the mar those three names and every name again will be given a certificate from Board of
010Education and from we have first aen Broad Nicholas C and Kevin [Applause] TR um like I always say this can only happen with the support of our Board of Education our Administration our parents and ultimately our talent team effort and um if one of those aspects doesn't isn't fully behind us and support what we do there's no way that we can accomplish the things that we do so uh that's why you know I've always said that it's been my honor and privilege to serve here at M for 10 years and uh I'm just going be glad to finish out my you know this is just an example like I said of all who we are so thank you all of you for what you have given to make this happen okay we have certificates for
011everybody y this so this is the way to me to call your [Music] alare s [Applause] b [Applause] a Mel mcoy Thomas Sparrow Amy [Applause] sui Ross [Applause] cardillo Eric de Rachel [Applause] Gasco uh our leader so leaders do the right thing Nichol [Applause] PR [Applause] [Music] cortiz Brian J Patrick dud Alec Duffy Sierra DJ Fernandez Frank [Applause] Ferrer Ian proos sah proo [Applause] Zach [Applause] Gonzalez Britney nette [Applause] Hernandez Josh ID Andrew [Applause] klicki great Sabrina Lopez love Alexa Michelle Milo Dave mer M mil Leah NE Jos neona [Applause] Brandon it said is new I got the Z which is X I so I didn't get this in [Applause] right SP I spelled it right [Applause] Dominic yeah Sophia pulus Cassandra [Applause] Ria Andrew [Applause] Roberts Catherine Ruben Catherine Michael Rosell Nick selano Anthony
012Salini John salivia Sher Josh small [Music] thir Dana Testa Kevin Alexander Valor [Music] [Applause] Z Kimberly ritel Josh [Applause] Wolf again on behalf of the Board of Education my board members I I thank you I congratulate you I I know what the children go through but I know what parents go through having through a program also many of our Bo MERS the same way thank you Freeholder Gill was not able to be with us tonight but he did make a presentation to the fact that you have here we are going to be going into a rather Bing Board of Education meeting you're welcome to sit through it and you're also welcome to leave I appreciate you being [Applause] here on the uh nutly website there should be a tab that says okay great [Music] be
013oh what um probably tomorrow okay look forward [Music] thanks shut it off okay obviously we don't have money to fix our microphone [Music] system thank you okay we have the June 30th 2013 comprehensive annual financial report which is the larger of the two books that you have just quickly I'm going to review the balance sheet which is on page 20 it's also B1 if you have the synopsis it's the first page of the of the synopsis at June 30th 2013 the district had an unmodified audit opinion which is the best audit opinion that you can have previously it was called an unqualified audit opinion um our audit was performed in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles which is referred to as Gap the balance sheet that we're going to go over is on the Gap
014basis um um June 30th the general fund had $5.9 million of assets of which 5.7 million was Cash had 554 th000 of liabilities and fund balance of $5.4 million of the $5.4 million fund balance you had 1.1 million in your capital reserve that's money that's been earmarked for projects in your long range facilities plan you had excess surplus of $85,000 which is money that you have to use for the 145 school year budget for tax relief you had 1,644 392 of excess Surplus that was designated for subsequent Year's budget that money was used in your 1314 school year budget you have year end incumbrances is about $1.5 million that's money that was committed at year end you put in a purchase order for it but the goods and services were not received as of June
01530th that leaves you with with an unassigned fund balance on a gap basis of $294,000 the district keeps its books on a budgetary basis the budgetary basis fund balance to get from your Gap fund balance to your budgetary basis we would add back the state a payment that the State Deferred to July which is $843,000 which gives you a budgetary fund balance of $1.1 million so that's going forward that's what you have so right now the dist in a very healthy financial position we recommend just monitor your activity during the year to make sure you can maintain the same levels um capital projects fund you had $2.2 million of cash in that and $2.7 million of fund balance in the fund balance there are some commitments and conferences that purchase orders that were put in
016to finished projects and does anybody have any questions on the financials all right that in the small book on page 13 or I think it's the third page the last page of the back page of the synopsis these are the um recommendations that we're making to the district under financial planning accounting reporting there's four recommendations has anybody everyone had time to read them or you want to go through go through them specific questions anybody have any questions we' all had a chance to look at them okay okay so like you said we met with the finance committee we reviewed the findings and the recommendations um I just see there's no Aster Aster denote a recommendation that was a repeat from the prior year so the district has no repeat recommendations sure so I just have
017one question you have one there that says District modify the fiscal year 13 nonpublic project completion report to agree with you a what is the nonpublic project completion in your special Revenue fund you get Grant that's where you account for the grants that the district gets you have monies that are e marked specifically for the non-public schools that children and not go to so there's a non-public project completion report for the it's chapter 192 193 nonpublic textbooks nonpublic nursing and nonpublic Technology there was a error in one of those that just needs to be modified to the rep should be amended to reflect that no problem thank you I just while we had not public thank you thank you you're welcome any other questions from the board members thank you very much Mr you're welcome
018thank you all now board members we can reassign our seats in the audience we're going to listen to a presentation on health and physical education and science miss prepar toce each if we can hear you yet good the 201o put together plan that for better um let me start again during the 11 12 school year um Co District developed a strategic planning committee to help set a plan in place as we move forward as part of that work six action teams were put together one of which was in the area of curriculum the curriculum action team is led by m Lori LaGuardia the spring board principal Mr Joseph M the coordinator of world languages in ESL and Mr Michael Sullivan the vice principal at the middle school along with Dr Reed as the board rep
019as part of that action team their year one goal was to put together a pilot Pro a program riew process excuse me and the world languages and ESL departments went through that process that presentation was provided to you last year as they came to the end of year one and they successfully completed their goals they built a their year 2 goal which was to help the health fed department and the science departments complet their program review as well as develop a pilot process for any Department going through a pilot M flower for the past five months miss Robin poell our coordinator of helin fed k12 and Mr Kent van our coordinator of science K12 worked collaboratively throughout the pilot process to create to um sorry the program RW to create a program review for each
020of their departments individually while working together to better um increase theice process and then share that information with the curriculum action team so tonight we have for you a presentation for health curriculum k12 and science K2 I'd like to begin by introducing miss Robin [Applause] poell I just want to first thank everyone for the opportunity to get a chance to discuss B so again an opportunity uh to give this program review and get a chance to discuss the health and fed program uh as Miss fonnie just said we tonight's presentations both science and health fad are the results of the Strategic plan curriculum committee who created this process this 5year cycle we are in the second year of that cycle We are following both uh World Language and ESL and I really would like to
021thank Mr Mata Miss fani and Mr Vania for helping me through this process um as you can see we are in that year four of that review the review was complet completed through the process of gathering information from student staff and parents as well as uh some student data hopefully culminating some recommendations for the future of our program tonight's presentation uh I'd like to present a few things a description of the health and phit program the current course offerings and enrollment data a review of the curriculum instruction assess assessment resources and professional development first and we'd also like to take a little sampling of some of the student data that we did take place during the school year and then finally with some recommendations for the program first I would like to start with the
022requirements of health and fizzed 150 minutes per week is required for all students as well as the graduation requirements for health and PE three and 34 credits for PE each year and one and a quarter credit for health each year as well as the foundation of what we do is based on the standards the New Jersey Core Curriculum content standards and you can see the general areas Wellness integrated skills drugs and Medicine human relationships and sexuality motor skill development and fitness those are all the things that we try to accomplish in a school year K through 12 if we start with the program description at the elementary level we have health education is supplied by the classroom teacher and health uh fad there's one PE teacher in each Elementary School all grades take physical education
023two times per week in order to accomplish that that requires classes to be doubled which means two classes two first grade classes for example would come to physical education at one time so it would look something like this if we took the 34 teaching periods that each physical education teacher supplies during the week if we took Lincoln School for example out of those 34 teaching periods 27 of them are doubled so easy to come to uh a conclusion that the class size obviously is large if you take a look at the slide you can see that a number of classes are over 25 students many are over 40 there's classes that are over 45 so and that happens anywhere from K through 6 and remember that is to order for the students to be able
024to get fysical education two times per week at the middle school health is one marking period daily each year physical education is three parking periods daily we have three physical education teachers two of which teach health and PE and one teaches just physical education the reason for that is due to uh locker room coverage there needs to be a female teacher on at all times we only have one female teacher at the middle school there therefore physical education cannot be offered two periods a day which leads to larger class sizes the average class size is 45 students in physical education per period which means that there's 90 students in the gymnasium at one time because two teachers assigned physical education at one time the remaining students 30 of them are in health at that time
025at at the high school there are seven full-time teachers all of which teach some combination of physical education Health drivers education the average class size is 30 students but just a reminder that four to five teachers are assigned to physical education at any one time which means that there's anywhere from 120 to 150 students in physical education at one time which makes the biggest I won't say problem but the concern is when we're indoors outside we have obviously a lot more uh options but inside 120 to 150 teenagers is crowded the curriculum was last revived in 2010 uh as for the way it stands right now uh progression is locking from level to level it's not a useful resource as far as instruction is concerned and as far as assessments we've made a large or
026great strides in assessment as far as how it would uh evaluate the curriculum's effectiveness and the growth of the students the types of Assessments we've implemented so far are common skills and written assessments and numerous rubrics to have guidance for the various activities that we do one example and I find it to be an important example of one of the assessments we've done this school year has to do with Fitness grades 4 through 12 have put have been administered a fitness test which takes a look at cardiovascular fitness or aerobic capacity flexibility a muscular strength and muscular endurance we've as I said before grades 4 through 12 I just wanted to give you a little quick look at this is just the results from the high school as you can see more than half of
027our students did meet the Healthy Fitness Stone but there is an area of concern when it comes to cardiovascular fitness you can see a number of students did not reach the Healthy Fitness of Zone and matter of fact they are in a health risk zone so what this data does say is that the importance of adding Fitness continuing that practice and to add any particular programs and content to Fitness is extremely important we can take one other quick little sample if we look just at 12y olds you can see that a number of students nearly 45% have only and females in particular have only reached the Healthy Fitness Zone when it comes to aerobic capacity or the cardiovascular fitness this is a sampling of a program that I'm going going to recommend going forward in
028the uh recomend recommendation section of this review this is the abilities of the fitness gram software to allow us to pull out particular age groups females males going forward this is how we can structure our curriculum and and really provide services to some of the students that are in need so I just wanted to throw that up there so you could actually see the capabilities of that software program as far as construction is concerned it's a combination of both content based and skill-based as our approach to uh how we teach our our units as I mentioned before we do uh need to work on the progression of our units from level to level grade to grade to avoid repetition we want to see growth we don't want to repeat repeat repeat consistency the consistency and
029as far as health education K through six is an area we would like to work on it varies from teacher to teacher the amount of health education that goes on in in our elementary schools and that's an area going forward we would like to to work [Music] on re resources perhaps one of the reasons for the inconsistencies in the health education is the lack of resources especially K through 6 and health even K through 12 many of our textbooks are copyrighted from 1990 that leaves it up to the teacher to generate all the resources uh for the for this subject matter so teachers are working extremely hard in in trying to meet those uh needs for each of our students but that does lead to inconsistencies physical education resource obvious limitation on space and Technology
030there's in consistency from building to building with technology the resources available to in the gymnasium Wi-Fi for example projectors for example the inconsistencies are there for that this leads me to my recommendations first one to increase the Staffing at the elementary level of one fiscal education teacher to help address this double class situation to help reduce the numbers of those classes to increase the Staffing at the middle school by one full-time educator physical and health educator this will help maximize the use of facility so we would not have to close for two periods of the day which the end result would be to decrease class size uh increased Staffing at the high school by one full-time educator I'm going to suggest a program in a moment that has to do with adaptive fette and that
031additional staff member could help staff that an additional recommendation is a stien position for open gym we are stressing the importance of Fitness but in also in order to help students reach those goals to improve their Fitness we need to give them the opportunity to do so 30 minutes of physical education two times a week or 40 minutes two times a week at the elementary level and similar to that at the high school 30 minutes a day does not reach the goals necessary to meet the fitness needs of our students so having an open gym might be one of the solution we'd have not competitive open gym open gym for them to explore play increase their Fitness but under supervision the programs and courses that are recommendations uh we have found one adaptive fed in
032order to meet the needs of the students in our special education program to to provide specific instruction for those students would be a recommendation of ours an additional recommendation would be an ad advanced physical education course for those students that are looking to explore physical education as a resource for potential career based perhaps one day that they can take a look at uh a deeper value and the components behind physical education such as exercise physiology and Kinesiology for those students to take those skills and perhaps address address a future career Fitness gram and project Adventure I'll come back to in a moment rewrite the curriculum which is part of this process to just align it with the standards and also address those progression issues resources and Technology resources perhaps textbook but materials K through6 as
033far as health education is concerned to help with the instruction of health education K through 12 technology such as iPads for learning there's multitude of abilities and resource uh projects presentations curricular advantages to having these resources in physical education Fitness gram software which will go with the fitness gram Fitness testing that I'll explain in a moment and project Adventure resources first Fitness gram Fitness gram is a a software component that allows teachers to use it as a a Data Bank to collect fitness test results but it's not just for the teachers use what's great about this program is it's userfriendly to the student and it also creates a link from school to parents because it generates that data for parents in a very easy userfriendly format which can either be mailed homeone or email to
034where it explains the tests in in depth and it also reviews the results results of your student and provide suggestions of how to improve if necessary those components of fitness it's also great tool for students to use to create goals and also how to complete those goals and lastly with this it is a way for us to take that information from year to year so follows the student so we can see where things may drop off or where things may improve over time it is not uh it's a K to 12 program testing doesn't begin till grade four to 3 it's h how to build those skills in order to do this performance assessment down the road it is not an evaluative meaning grades are not formed by this it's solely for Education as far
035as the benefits of Fitness creating goals and health it relates to health most of us are very familiar with the Presidential Fitness Test which is no longer exists this is the new implemented tool because it relates what's nice about it it relates the student their performance on a fitness test yes but how it relates to to their health it does not compare student to student and Compares your results to health risks and where you are as far as your health is concerned the final recommendation is a program called Product project Adventure project Adventure is a a activity based challenge based leadership responsibility type program where students are engaged in Cooperative activities Trust challenge activities that helps promote responsibility engages the students in creative activities and most importantly promotes healthy habits it is an exploratory different
036than anything most of our students have seen which both have indoor and outdoor components to it and it was something I think that would truly benefit our students at Nell High School school and once again thank you so much for the opportunity M Bia Mr M Mr B thank you so much any board members have any any uh concerns thank you Robin um I like to thank while my presentation is coming up uh miss fani the rest of the coordinators will be there the board um teachers for trying something new this year thank you Yan teachers as well as um Robin Robin has been great through the whole process we've gone back and forth numerous times weekly running things by each other and I really appreciate it Rob thank you um in this presentation I
037go next slide oh I can I know I will present um kind of what's up and coming in science head as well as the current state of the science department where we are right now um some data that we got back from some of the tests we gave common assessments survey results and recommendations as well okay there we go so you can't see it up there but uh it says Next Generation science standards these are a new set of standards that are coming online in Science Education currently we're using the 2009 Core Curriculum content standards right now these standards are in the adoption process in state of New Jersey uh these standards were made by 26 States 41 member team that came together Nationwide to put together a concise science statement n was lucky enough
038to have three representatives from the high school level to join the adoption process um in midx Community College where we could provide feedback and vote to adopt or not these standards change the way we think about science in three different dimensions Dimension one uh talks about the practices that scientists go through Dimension two concepts between the content and science pract practice kind of related to and dimension three would be your traditional content based areas that we need to cover in science so quickly I just wanted to take you through some of the things we should see scientists doing okay um scientists should be doing all the following and just science should be doing that we should be seeing this in our class right we want our kids participa in the science program that does these
039things as well U for example we want them especially analyze interpreting data developing models engaging in argumentation that's a Core Curriculum U core uh curriculum kind of standard that's a very important process we want in the science Community the second dimension this is a little bit of lack down I'm sorry this Bridges the gap between the content and and those scientific principles in every area of science we can develop patterns cause and effect energy matter flow structure and function these are themes that show up every single science lesson we have every area of science the third dimension is the different the four different areas of science uh you can see the traditional first three physical science life science Earth space science the fourth one is new to the Science World this is the engineering principles
040engineering is becoming a part of the science classroom and we need to incorporate it not only as a topic by itself engineering at the secondary level but in a lot of the design that we do and integrate it into the other science areas um you can't talk about science without you can't really see it up there but this is a SL a slide describes the need for a stem education uh it says on top 80% of the fastest growing jobs in the US are stem based why stem last one should come up if it goes because that's where the jobs are moving forward into the into the world um we're going to rely heavily on students that can take multiple different areas integrate math science engineering uh to perform a skill or task uh so
041our Science Education has to be there as well um currently this is the elementary says on the top our current state in elementary we are transitioning to a series uh that we piloted at the end of last year we implemented k35 this year it's called the STC series Science and Technology Concepts it comes to us from this Institute uh it's published by Carolina biological those are both big names in the science field um it is research based and it's very strong to incorporate language arts aspects into it um it does have stem based approaches and inquiry based approaches in certain modules of certain areas it is driven by a learning cycle that's consistent throughout each lesson each module that we offer the Learning Cycle ask students to focus within a question it ask students to
042explore that with a Hands-On activity um it asks them to reflect on what they just did from that concrete relationship and to apply that to themselves their world their surroundings this helps teachers get to a true inquiry classroom for Science and also helps them to differentiate engage students all the time this approach currently this is our um our framework for K through 5 uh as you can see we've run from you know physics chemistry Earth Dynamic systems life on Earth we try to cover or of science based on the next gener of science standards recommendations um and we only see three topics per grade level this is much different to you know from our current our Maps a year ago if I was to bring up the grade six map it shows many different topics
043throughout every month and we kind of go between the earth science the physical science back and forth this is a concept of Science Education we're trying to talk about fewer topics but much deeper instead of going and going around all different topics we're trying to hit a couple with a Hands-On approach um just to give you a sample for what you might see in an STC classroom I'm not sure how this is going to work is there any okay uh this video will be online if I were to show this video uh just happen to walk in that day science was going on and you were able to see one of the more true inquiry modules we have these students were building this vehicle it's called motion design from fifth grade and their task to
044keep these blocks in here um without them falling out it's about a minute long these students are so happy when it gets down the ramp here in 3 seconds and that really shows them explaining back and forth how they did this um so I don't think we'll be able to play that no at the middle school level we have grade seven science grade eight science which are really Explorations and science they go through various Topics in life physical on earth science uh we also offer accelerated physical science which is an algebra based course it's our physics first um so students who take this it's very comparable to a first year Physics course um junior year high school they're really accelerated in the fact that they'll be able to take uh other classes sooner when they
045get to the high school level uh currently have three sections of that we're also piloting the seventh grade or the middle school version of our STC module program a lot of people asked why didn't we Implement K through six that's how our M schools are set up um sixth grade is considered a middle school year in the program and we didn't feel comfortable implementing something we haven't tried first so in sth grade here at John Walker Middle School we are piloting um several different programs there in the of breakout to the middle school next year current Staffing we have five quarter science teachers that is a quarter that comes across from the high school to teach our acceler physical science uh for one period a day we also have two special education teachers uh this
046is our High School uh to sum this up this these are the cour we offer and the students enrolled currently in these courses um as you can see we're very heavy in the life and physical sciences not so much in the earth s this is a concern with the Next Generation science standards as we move to um adopt those we may have to look at Earth Science courses to fill those standards we currently have 10 and three4 staff at at the high school as well as two special education teachers just to note also we offer many dual enrollment courses at the high school for AP classes as well as several classes that go into project acceleration C home courses okay um now the data portion of the presentation um when looking at data you can't
047see at the top but this is John Walker Middle School Common Assessment data versus the ask8 so in science we have data from the state that comes to us in grade four grade eight and after biology it's an end of course test if we're to take a look at our common assessments or internal data given at the end of of each third and those School rotate thirds earth science physical science life science and compare them to all the way on the right you see the 2013 as science um blue being Advanced proficient green being proficient red being U partially proficient uh you'll see that especially if you compare the eighth grade data probably the value here you'll see that uh we um well when compared to the asate our com more rigorous and students so
048we challenge students to a little higher level than the as does I think the as very on test we perform fairly well in the ASCAP if I was to bring a fast for data we' perform excellent in the as4 if we look at other data the New Jersey biology competency test which is given in May of biology year uh you can look for Trends in this data as well we have three years of nutly data with the state average as well as our biology and midal data as well or internal data uh you can see that over time from 1011 1112 12 12 13 our Advanced proficient has increased our proficient has increased especially from 101 to 11:12 then kind of stabilized from 12 to 13 I say stabilized because between the first two years
049this test has been offered we uh pulled out some of the population put them in a preparatory course first and reintroduce them to the population at one time the state was considered making this a graduation requirement and at that point we found a need to make sure our students were ready for this assessment when they were re reduced in 1213 we found that you know the proficient students still held up a little over 20% and the change that we made in our curriculum really held up so we're very happy with that data we really think we've had an impact is in the student with disability you can't see that it's up there but if you take the other way around here 10 11 11 12 12 13 State and District factive group on the left
050side you can see over time um our data uh just gets better it you know you can interpret that as um Advanced proficient we see showing up last year we actually had about 10% Advanced for ficient that when compared that to the state district Factor group that is pretty impressive compared to those two groups also you can see our proficient our green increasing over time I think this is due to uh our special ed curriculum aligning with our reg curriculum our teachers that teach that do a great job and they're really making um a lot of gains in this area as well over time last bit of data I'd like to talk about there we go uh this is I'm kind of glad it's kind of off up there this is a sample of our
051AP data uh and you can look pretty much at any AP course in the department as well as probably in the school and see very similar Trends in data we're looking at grades in the lasc on the right compared with scores and if we equivalate a five with an a a four with a B the two are not matching up and I think there's many reasons behind that I wouldn't necessarily say that it's what's going on in the classroom I think we really when we made the move the students all taking the AP exam uh we really have to think about you know what students we have in class and do they want to take that AP exam I think a lot of the students are looking for a second year biology or chemistry and
052currently the AP class is all that we have to offer for them uh so this data does tell me something um which we'll get to in the recommendation portion of sorry we also surveyed the community uh between mid-september and mid October we via the website we sent out a survey and we asked several questions one was strongly disagree and 10 was strongly agree Rob and I each came up with um five particular questions we put it together this is part of the process we were talking about with the the committee learning how to best get feedback this feedback gives us perception information based on how we're perceived in the community um and this was an area I was very interested in the engineering uh does the science program support the Engineering Process help design complex
053systems and as you can see the survey results came back kind of across the board with significant amount of the one as well as at the 10 but more at the one um we don't offer engineering right now and with the Next Gen Science standards coming on I think it's a good time to think about that um with the recommendations from this presentation um based on the F for the pilot program as well as feedback from the K5 program both teacher feedback as well as data feedback we're starting to get in uh I recommend that we continue to expand the STC science program to keep a consistent k um we've already talked with the Middle School teachers we've already talked about expanding the pilot these would be the topics we would look to expand to
054uh moving forward I would also recommend an offer a seconde high level biology and chemistry course to give students an option that want to pursue biology and science careers chemistry careers but don't necessarily find the importance in the AP exam I think we have to offer them a very high level rigorous course uh we definitely want to offer a rigorous uh Collegiate level engineering course uh prior the past month we've been in contact with Rucker's College of Engineering and we are on the ground floor of partnering with them to bring one of their first year engineering courses to nutly uh for not next year but the following year as part of a grant with the National Science Foundation they applied for um that will be a dual enrollment course so students who take that course
055here will also receive Rucker credit engineering credit um also create an academic um Academy of Sciences which is putting together a program that challenges students at a very high level open this to the few not the few students but the students that can participate by maybe bringing them in at a AP bi biology or an honors to biology course freshman year inste the traditional route and really challenging them with many dual enrollment courses as well as opportunities to show a high level of learning the last one would be currently to Anchor the AP courses we have in test released items make sure that those courses students are prepared and waited appropriately um for the AP exam moving forward uh the recommendations for staff is to uh some of this is to to fit needs uh
056currently we would needed half a special education science teacher with our current population for next year so that is the first part of the recommendation increase staff the Love by one full-time employee um to um accommodate or to uh prepare for the Middle School model to have six teams moving forward for next year increase Staffing at the high school by one full-time employee in order to handle our engineering program that we want to bring online as well as the seconde chemistry and biology course uh create a position the last one there to serve as layers on materials for K through r with the new science program there are materials we will go through every year we have to reorder every year currently we we are reordering everything every year if someone was to itemize that
057and only get what we need they would save the district a lot of money they would pay probably pay for the sliping um on on their own so my recommendation is to create a position that would just do that um would be under my supervision back and forth also other resources to um expand the program and support it not only six State program but the kindergarten components currently we only have one kindergarten component and that is because the other two under't development so we didn't purchase those and roll those out until they've been developed um also replace a couple book series but speaking with teachers today we are interested in ebook series um we are interested in classroom copies and much cheaper cheaper uh for the district ebook Series where kids can take them home
058on their smartphone on their iPad uh the costs uh there are some quotes I have from Carolina 6 through 8 um yearly refurbishment um the the yearly refurbishment if you break it down per student comes down to less than about $20 per student over the course of the year I would argue that that number can decrease if we itemize what we need every year um materal for I'm sorry I'm going backwards here um so we we also would need um some ebook series for next year uh year 2 would be a k38 refurbishment sorry um and as well as as supplies for the engineering course uh there are no books this is a problem based course developed at Ruckers students will need tool kits to complete tasks they get about six tasks ring from solar
059energy to uh all their types of engineering uh this is a again exploration course that students take in college to direct them in the correct field of engineering want want to offer that here at Nutley um this is the map kind of spread over 5e plan you see this year heavy in the program review as well as um introduction to the K through 5 series as well as uh updating Curriculum maps as well as piloting seventh grade a letter to Ruckers signifying our um interest in that that class um moving forward we would like to implement the rest evaluate with data uh revise and revisit as necessary um thank you anybody have any questions thank you Mr thank you uh Mrs pal I I hope that as a board we're taking a good close look
060at this tonight I know that the academic committee and the finance committee is is going to be busy perusing what was presented tonight and we need to move forward with some of this and I know we have the support of the superintendent of doing that I guess we'll move back to our regular seats now and proceed with the program okay [Music] yeah just working oh that's [Music] working okay where are we at we are at U superintendence report thank you Mr kazinski Mr here did you leave hey how are you I want to congratulate you and the guidance Council high school for decision day for having some success it seems like every year as we go um more and more students are taking advantage of that opportunity thanks to your council department um if I
061have the numbers right correctly come along with 111 seniors 34% of the actual class that 223 appointments so was a busy day for you and Department um and then we offered immediate acceptances including cell College college um blomfield Centenary Jersey City and Kane just to mention a few um and I can't wait to hear the update on scholarship thank you can't see $6 million over four years again it's good to know that we have that kind of support for students um Mr Capello just as update still working with NJ cap um moving the program for first grade students again this year PR meeting scheduled for Monday January 13th at 6:30 in the Lincoln School auditorium umcl classroom sessions to begin end in January want to make sure the parents are aware what we're doing again
062character um program trying to prevent child abuse and just informing kids with information and concept at their level so that they're engaged um World Language pilot meeting thanks to Mr Materia who was here support Mr benjam C but again um our staff members are going to be piling new materials for Italian Latin and Spanish 712 looking to implement this coming September so again moving that whole curriculum process is part of our strategic plan forward so thanks to m m bani and um Mr Mia for that work um just updating the board again Miss Bonnie and Miss Christian tell um part of the traffic circus again traveling in every building to meet with our skip leadership teams as required by the state um it reviewed 14 15 process that's upcoming what we're doing the structural rounds
063and peer-to-peer observations as well as just just the general role of skip as defined by the new state buity keeping on that Trend our evaluation trainings with teachers continue in every single building dealing not just with sgos but uh the use of our framework uh and we continue to meet every uh twice a month actually with our administrators focusing on the use of our evaluation process we've just finished the second window moving into the third we are doing it a little bit differently than other District and the feedback as we keep going through and more teachers and more administrators get more exposure to the process it's been contining positive we look to continue the collaboration um with all of our staff members and make sure that we're about growth learning and accountability in that order
064um Mrs Jam Mr line and M Val and I met with our two incoming board members for our second annual board member orientation again the goal was just to catch them up up the speed prior to that reor meeting so when they sit down they actually hit the ground running um I want to thank uh my three administrators for the the preparation for that meeting partk update Mr is not here but we're continuing to prepare for the park pilot which our kids will be engaged in every single building been selected on honoring of building here in distri state thank you um the assessments will go from mid- March to Mid April um and then we have end of year course assess happen as well we're not going to get get any data back on our
065students and their performance from this assessment that's not the point uh the state wants to see if the actual assessment works from our end we want to actually have a chance to practice what this is going to be with all students taking all these assessments online to ensure that we have the appropriate Hardware simple things that just scheduling coverage and the rest as well as our the infrastructure and our Network being able to hold that kind of capacity we want to know this year whether or not we're prepared before we're actually forced to do it for real in 20 uh 2015 so again that's happening in the spring um on high note I want to thank again we had an example of it here this this evening but I've been attending the holiday concerts uh
066as much as I can we saw the high school concert Mr spair was there with us um on last Thursday and sure report again just wow every single time I get to hear our students perform both vocal and instrumental a fantastic evening and an incredible turnout by the community in parents so it's great to see everyone there enjoying that we definitely um congr the districts I've been in it's it's a wonderful time of year to be part of the another Community um I know Dr Reed the academic Community M been working Contin with the you Sur um we're finalizing the survey itself we actually submit that out uh to students again for year follow to see where we stand what would impact the decisions that the district has made since the initial survey went out
067have had and how we want to determine our course of action moving forward on Friday just update this past Friday Mr B Miss V Miss Martin and I attended our monthly uh Panasonic meeting uh some interesting work we had a a member of the Charlotte meinberg School District from North Carolina come up and speak to us about equity and about their of evaluation and their talent placement as they call um an extremely strong push to put their best people where their most people across the district and we had some great conversation on a side note this is the second meeting since we hosted here and uh all the Panasonic members and Leadership um of Panasonics are still commenting how they having trouble keeping up with nutly specifically the food that was prepared by our students
068here in District so on top of everything else this the Kudos again to the students and to our owning Department um they're still talking about it and looking see what happens when we go to freeall next month um just as a note the district calendar we're making modification tonight it was actually always planned but as Mr Williams was here still we've moved truly trying to keep our focus on rigor at the high school we've added midterms we did them last year um and some of the feedback that we got was that students were not successful they could be and teachers um struggled to keep up because we did not modify the schedule to the test we knew that we're giving so again um we're adding half days just for the high school students uh when
069we when we actually take the midterm and we want to make that modification to get the information out now as well professional development update our language arts tier one and tier two continue um we've actually gone beyond just those tiers in our planning for the spring trying to get every teacher up to speed with General workshop model and more importantly assessment I know our second science training Mr is coming up um teachers grades 1 five participating again in a full day of science two parts really if I understand it correctly cor if I'm wrong but again we're not only assessing how teaching the first unit went and looking at data about preparing them for unit to as a transition um another piece as we talked about as we moved our gifted and talented program forward
070Miss Woods Murphy um has been across the district not just working with students which has continued um but she continues now to work with the teachers um she's working with teachers that are handling the higher levels of our curriculum to make sure they understand the new resources so she's become another form of professional development um through November she's worked with teachers by grade level in specific content areas um January and December she's continuing that work by actually modeling lessons for teach in their classrooms so they can learn how to differentiate for our students again our big push is that every student's challenge every second that they're with us um just as a final some upcoming holiday event upcoming events holiday concerts for grades five and six or tomorrow and Mr Riley has been running all
071over the district without rest um again NJ C information in January and then School sessions the 23rd and 24th a big push Mr on my calendar wor 16th of January 7:30 the High School auditorium we'll be having our e8th grade parents scheduling meeting again we're trying to reach out to the community parents as involved as possible in supporting their students and their success um we have a financial aid program the 21st of January um for any any parents but obviously specific to parents of high school students and then we're running another sat on Saturday January 2th thank you Mr just to reiterate again um I see that the mayor is still here we've met a couple times to talk about trying to get more involved and I know there's a couple new board members that
072are going to be teeing in on U trying to have more parent involvement those two dates that were mentioned January to 13th over at Lincoln School mayor is what you and I talk about having those parents there to learn more about the the anti-bullying and the programs that are going on not we we need to get that turned out so we're going to do the best we can tomorrow and I and I know you're going to push it from your end in the 16th at the high school is also so so very important to get those parents out there and and we need to we just need to get more involved we're all trying hard we need to try hard to get that parent invol I just would like to take a few minutes to
073thank everyone in the district for all of their efforts um in with the finances throughout the entire school year I know sometimes you'll get a phone call or an email from the business office and it may sound Petty because we may be questioning something that is $50 or $75 and you probably turn around and scratch your heads as to this you know we have a $56 million budget and they're worried about $50 or 75 but all of those little things add up and all the efforts that everyone puts in throughout the Entre school year and the responsiveness of everyone throughout the district for the time when the Auditors were here in the office giving them the answers and providing them the additional information that they needed all led to the positive impacts of the financial
074report that was presented this evening so I just would like to extend my thank you report the finance committee met on December 10th and at that meeting uh Gary viny and Elizabeth shck uh presented the audit which she made the presentation tonight we went to through it in a little bit of the detail and I'd like to actually uh commend Mrs yens and her staff on a clean audit uh which is is excellent to have and keep up a b work hope next year it'll be another uh we talked about the finance uh agenda items tonight uh for tonight U Mrs G gave us an update on both the 2014 15 budgets uh preparation and review of the 201314 budget um with respect to next year's budget we looked at Appropriations and onetime expenditures and
075expected revenues we discussed the rod grants uh Lincoln school projects still being reviewed at the state level and we should have give a decision shortly Mrs yens gave us a report on rfps for this coming year and uh we concluded we need to develop a calendar for future rfps so that the we can sequence them properly without uh all of them being in one year but giving it the appropriate spaces um we reviewed the extended day financial uh report and finally we talked about the B School R school thank you thank you Mr Dr re yes Mr President the academic committee meeting met on December 9th 2013 I'm going to combine two reports this evening regarding our program review presentations and I I want to commend Mr B as well as Miss pal for an
076extremely thorough presentation it just shows you in terms of where we've taken this as part of our strategic planning efforts and the curriculum review process where we've essentially put a process in place that I feel at this point in the game it's much more robust than we were a year ago and it's evidenced by the degree and the breadth of presentations that are before us um we're going to be moving forward with that so as the superintendent looked to earlier we start off with World languages and music and we progress towards science and fette and health as we move forward throughout the years we'll be tackling other departments as well with the uh program review process um that being said the math pilot set the stage for our current Pilots um this past week uh
077Lisa Dan Martin myself had the privilege of attending um more recent World languages curriculum update panel and it was an extremely informative process for all us involved so that's where we stay with the program review process regarding high school graduate graduation I think FKS will we have it here that we I don't know if we have it here this or not but we're going to keep our graduation pretty much where it remains in terms of the evening hours and that was through a survey that was conducted by parents it was pretty much a split vote and I want to say 52% of the parents uh want to keep the uh graduation ceremonies in the evening so hopefully that doesn't offend too many people um regarding the park Readiness process uh just to uh reiterate some
078of the points that superintendent ltic addressed grades 4 and8 and grades nine English and geometry now one will be the folks that will be Target for that par Readiness assessment regarding our qac approval update the district received notification of the updated qac outcomes based upon our request for an additional review of items we perceived to be incomplete and after an extended review of that document the score for instruction and programs increased to 83% Bible school for the district and again just to follow up on another Point raised by superintendent lasic we're seeing our GI and talented program and du to the uh trenches in terms of actually being in the classroom right now so we do have that professional development for our teachers and it was a comment that was raised to me by a
079parent that they felt that their child was being left behind with the new ma curriculum and it's important to note that we are trying to make to differentiate the instruction and at least afford our students the opportunity if they're lagging or if they're excelling to give them the core elements that they would need to achieve their their true U their true outcome District calendar as Mr LZ addressed the midterms are scheduled for January 27th through the 30th so that was a new update or addition to this school calendar the N the youth survey will be administered January 27 the final edits of that document have been put in place um I just got some more edits this evening will take care of that momentarily and last but not least we have our curriculum and instruction
080update uh we're going to again be back in the interventions in the classrooms with our reading workshop coordinator Miss Klein and that's going to be taking place in early January throughout February and Miss Martin will be providing I want to say over the next few months she'll be providing a uh an update to our math and focus curriculum and I know that's something that we have actually been Bing the um the administration for of having more informative session for that curriculum that's going to be happen over the next couple months so that's the academic committee report in N show than thank you Mr President um I'll give a report of our uh administrative uh meeting that occurred uh December 5th um so one of the subjects we had on is uh technology and it was
081in reference to the part testing um the park testing that we are a pilot for that will be occurring um this coming year um requires uh is good for us in one way because we're going to find out our shortfalls every single student must take this test online during a set amount of 20 days of time to establish that we know we can get through it on the uh pilot that we're doing and the pilot will not not count against us but uh will be a good test for us um that we now know that uh we met with Mr LaVine and Mr V Meister that there's a lot of technology that must be purchased for our district to come into comp compliance sence for the 20145 school year when we have to do the
082testing of all grades in 20 days so um to some respect um when you heard some of the needs I saw on the slides up here about iPads and Technology a lot of that's going to be per purchased and be able to be repurposed multiple times because we're going to need it for the park testing so we are going to be upgrading um iPad carts um laptop carts in all the grammar schools as well as high school and in middle school to be able to comply with that so it it kind of does two things it really works out well um we also and I've talked about this multiple times we did the final review of the communications RFP and I asked before but I haven't seen it on the website yet the RFP for
083the communications I did not see it posted on our website yet okay so it's going up we after the first year you heard me talk about it before but we're looking to to purchase a mobile Communication System that'll communicate through all the schools whether evacuation what's going on the superintendent will be able to talk in all the buildings at once be able to talk individually um have individual Communications up upgrade our security and all of our emergency plans uh to a new standard and I'm very happy and excited about that um we reviewed the Personnel commit committee that's on the agenda to tonight um we did uh have and we spoke about our long-term um facilities uh planning committee which we did have a meeting just prior to this meeting to for discussion we reviewed
084policies updates that you currently see as our first and second reading on policies and I think that was it Mr kazinski thank you thank you any other committee reports we now come to a portion of our meeting where we allow members of the public to address the board in this session we allow questions or comments on only the resolutions addressed in tonight's agenda our board regulations L 20 minutes for these communications each person should be limited to 3 minutes and we will try to stay within this requirement speakers may speak more than once only after all others wishing to speak on a topic have been heard all statements will be directed to me as the chairperson no one may address board members individually please be reminded that if your statement is too lengthy personally directed
085abusive obsene irrelevant or redundant your participation may be termin please remember to always state your name and address each and every time you address the board anyone wishes to address the board if not we'll move on to our resolutions um Mr Reed I make a motion to move academic resolutions 1 through 4 as written yes yes yes yes um Mr will you take Administration resolutions please yes side move Administration resolutions 1 through 4 as written yes yes Mr cook do you take Finance resolutions please yes Mr President I move Finance resolutions 1 through 15 as written like to call everyone's attention to uh resolution number 11 Finance resolution number 11 the acceptance of a donation from the business people for technology acknowledge them publicly certain do you want to people well it's the it's the
086name of the the group it's the not business people for advancement of [Music] techology yes yes Mr CL you take a personel resolution please yes yes in this section we allow questions or comments on all School related matters our regulations allow 30 minutes Rel these communications each person should be limited to 3 minutes and we ask to try to stay within this requirement as I stated earlier all state statement will be directed to me any questions come before the board on any issues at this time I'll entertain in the old business I have one piece of old business I I'm sure most of you U look saw the article in not son about um and and the headline is Raiders you did us proud this past season and then went on to mention the boys
087soccer team the girls soccer team uh the football team girls cross country and the GRS volleyball and obviously the band performance we had tonight it has been a a good year for it's um I'm glad to see the article in the paper and I want to thank them on behalf of the board and the other world business at this time I'll entertain as uh most of you know um this will be Mr Cook's last meeting with us and we just want to thank him for all this leadership and every all his volunteers that is given to board thank you thank you i' like to thank the board uh it's been a a privilege and an honor to serve with this team and I do mean team uh it's been it's been fun most most of
088the time it's on and and and I think we've as a team accomplished a lot and I uh I encourage the board to continue with its role as providing policy and evaluation I think we have a great uh administrative staff and teachers and great staff in the district is moving in the right direction uh under Mr laic he has a good team and uh I encourage the board to uh support him on that thank you board members can have something to say I would just like to say has been a pleasure to serving with you it was an honor being elected back onto the board and for serving 15 years in my first term coming back on again with you with Rob re was was a dynamic team I think we we as a team
089as you mentioned before come together and have this District going right certainly we were instrumental bringing Mr lasic forward and with the board we have and you being part of it it's been a uh it's been good team I appreciate your thank you so I'll just say Jim Jim I've been with you pretty much since your first election through many uh and I have to tell you that uh your expertise in finance UR and different type um knowledge that you brought to this board has really been able to bring us far forward especially uh um you know you were here before I was and you know did more of the interviews than I did Mr El came on at the end when I came on and finding him working on that project then working in
090with him the financial Miracles that have occurred I'm really excited Jim the things we're able to do with the finance committe finding money for the books and the extra technology we bought last year and projects you L us forward saving us money on insurance and constantly looking at those things none of that can be replaced most of the time that's behind the scenes and people don't see what goes on on finance and insurance they see what's truly happening in the classroom well if they knew you and they knew what you're doing behind the scenes that was for what their kids needed in the classroom so Jim thank you very much Jim how you doing I just wanted to just thank you uh from the bottom of my heart in terms of it has truly been
091a privilege and honor to serve with you over these past I guess three and a half almost 4 years now and as Charlie um mentioned earlier it was somewhat magical that election in 2010 what we were able to pull off as a team and just see the definitive strides we've made as a district and it's been a pleasure getting to know you your family your daughter Amanda I wish her all the best having had her as a student of Monclair State and I just wish you continue success and hopefully be able to enjoy some your retirement now down in LBI thank you J I I've been worried for you for the last year on the finance committee obviously your your knowledge in that area is unparalleled what I love most about you though was your
092logic you always brought logic first motion was was never in the picture definitely loar a tremendous it's it's been great I just like to say also it's been an honor to serve with you your shoes will be near impossible to fill thank you for your service sorry uh Chim it's been an honor even though it's only been a short period of time that I've served on the board with you but the one thing that was um was was clear is your commitment to the to the students to the district and to the township and uh for that we uh we're grateful thank you Mr C sorry want to already said but um I mean you were in mental bringing me here I will never forgive you for that um in all honesty with first board
093president transition being I thank you for all the support um no one will know what the members of the board in unless you become youo the table I'm sure your wife is miserable that late nights will no longer be as numerous but um your support your vision your commitment to this community is something that we all should strive on to um and the way you carry yourself respect others I certainly Years thank thank you Mr kooka I will miss you tremendously we have been working very very closely together since probably my first day here um and having your leadership on the finance committee has been extremely important it has made my job easier and and you have been instrumental in helping to turn the financial complexion of this District direct and for that you should
094be extremely proud and it's been an honor to work yes um Rob although you are wearing the exact same outfit that I'm wearing right now um well be you're a college professor you probably got dressed at 12:00 today and I got dressed seven so technically probably me but uh met Rob four years ago during his campaign his passion improving the school district motivated my own involvement U obviously improving the district it's a group effort um takes a lot of people but but I firmly believe that without Dr Green we wouldn't be on the path that we currently take Rob let a movement obviously with Jim with Charlie to recalibrate the board to ensure that education is at the Forefront of every conversation we have Russ and we have this strong Administration now to do that
095for us but for that year before they were here and we had Dr Reed uh to push the academics in The District Board of Ed meetings we know up here that we we have conversations regarding academics test scores pedagogy implementing policy that's that's at the frontier of all of our conversations but I don't think that was the case in Prior years and largely due to what's your Dr Robert James G um thank you very much for everything it's been great it's way too kind can I say a few words sure is that right um real quickly as I sat in the audience before uh it's pretty remarkable to see how your life pretty much goes full circle um sitting where mayor Petco was in 1981 and I could vividly recall watching MTV it was first
096being launched and seeing this humongous television set in the background and watching angel in the cfold to J G band performing and here I am 30 what is it 33 years later sitting before you as board member just I'm about to share with you some parting words so with being said just let me uh read a few Choice words that I had to prepar for this evening it truly has been an honor and privilege to serve this great Township and school district of ours and I would like to extend my thanks and appreciation to the town's people notely for having the faith and confidence in my abilities and electing me to serve on the board I would also like to thank past and current board members superintendent lzic and assistant superintendent bani for creating such
097a supportive and collegial atmosphere in which to serve it's hard to Fathom the progress that we have made in the four short years since I have joined the board back in 2010 and I say that would a smile on my face because some of those years certainly felt much longer than others I'm sure that a few my board members get ATT test to that as well collectively as a board and as a school district we have made accomplishments to be proud of we brought the focus back to where it should have been all on academics for instance we didn't have an academic committee when I joined Bo and to me reinstating that committee and having had the opportunity to serve as chair for almost four years was a huge Victory also for example one of
098the first policies that I had the privilege of voting on was for the old day kindergarten program and this vote will be part my legacy and others and will certainly pay dividends for our children now and well into the future thank you Charlie for that it's something we both were really pushing for um I think one of our more crowning achievements was ushering in New superintendent with a strong background and curriculum and instruction I can vividly recall sitting through 30 plus hours of interviews to help identify the new educational leader for the district only LLY out that we were running into some challenges as we got closer to the end of that interview process and I literally and and I don't say this blly I pray that there's got to be a better way that
099this District deserves better and I I can't say without I guess I get a little choked up that to say we are extremely fortunate and blessed with the uh decision that we made at that time so I just want to thank Russ for that I think you deserve a round of applause so that being said once the new superintendent came on board it was full steam ahead and I would be remiss my last core meeting if I didn't highlight a few of the major accomplishments that we've had as a district and it is important to know this is by no means an exhaustive list um again so which has a direct result on I want to say Russ's vision and tenacity for this District on the academic front as I mentioned earlier our Focus has
100shifted and our priority is now on student growth and performance we have red a data driven approach to improving academic performance and armed with his data and empirical evidence we are making definitive strides ensuring that our students are provided with all the possible resources and learning tools that they could possibly need for Success uh we heard it tonight the program of studies for the high school middle school ensuring that we are up to date with all our curricular needs we revamped our grading policy we also strengthened our AP policy we also made sure that we're getting resources back into our classrooms where it so belonged think about it folks $500,000 invested in our new math curriculum an additional $300 plus th000 was invested in our new reading libraries for each of our grammar schools purposeful
101and goal directed professional development opportunities for our teachers more recently we had Teachers College my Moder Club University come in to direct that teaching and that reading workshop and all of these ideas have been conceptualized and our strategic plan which provides a true blueprint for Success on the technology front 1 million plus dollars getting reinvested into our technology re refresh campaign hiring an information technology director a new student information system real time a new website for the district and that's something that we kind of begged and clawed for for God knows how many years but it was finally delivered under this Administration under Russ's watch uh teacher and student uh outcomes evaluation system performance matters app track so again to help address the more pressing needs of the district and last but not least on
102the policy front I want to say one of the more significant contributions that I think was this flare myself produced was this procurement best practic report as also Vicky Flynn's involvement and we drafted a policy that allows for a more transparent way in which we do business so it's important to note that this is a policy that has already saved the district thousands of dollars and I hope that this will continue well into the future and needless to say prior to this we were a fraction board and this was a golden opportunity to restore faith in our abilities to operate as more cohesive unit for the better of this district and our children in closing I would like to share a brief quote from Robert F keny the purpose of life is to contribute in
103some way to making things better hopefully I was able to make things a little better for the children in our school district thank you for granting me the opportunity to serve who truly was an honor God bless and God speaked thank you I would just like to say a few words as I'm sure us through um I um I did not know Rob Reed until four years ago and I met him when both of us were campaigning with a passion and along with Jim with a passion that we know we needed in this district and no disrespect to anything or anyone this District needed help at that time and we the right place at the right time in my life bringing the superintendent forward was was one of the better moves since Dr was with
104us when I was on the board many years ago it was the same type of atmosphere that we needed then and we needed now and and I I going to certainly respect Roby I I I probably love Roby for what he brings forward and Rob and I had a little standard Jo from the beginning um not an academic person as Rob Reed is or Dr Reed is but I'm a u I'm a getting done person and we made the deal he take care of the academics and I would take care of everything else and and um we we've been running as a team that way along with Jim doing our finances we just start our own business but aside from that we I love you for that Charlie seriously and thank you for your help
105I think the children than you for thank you Mr uh in 2010 I think at that point the uh the district needed a change and and Rob you stepped up to the plate uh you brought your skills and your talents your integrity to the board uh you led the academic committee over this period of time and and it's the focus has become academics which is critical to the district uh prior to that the focus was elsewhere and and and I think the it showed and and uh I commend you on stepping up to the plate and and bringing the leadership to what was needed and uh your integrity as a person and your dedication to the district thank you for that thank you for those kind words here I was going to want want to
106make me want to stay a little longer [Music] so Dr Reed it may have appeared in the beginning that we were on opposite ends of the spectrum as far as academic rigor but thankfully I think we both discovered that wasn't true at all it was a pleasure to serve with you on committee and the board and good luck in whatever you decide to do thank you thank you de truly was a pleasure to work together on so many po projects so I think we made a lot of progress together and I appreciate that thank you for involving all this time thank you Mr President yes it was 4 years ago when I met Rob I was going to run for election with Jimmy and Charlie we had some events I heard him speak talked about
107many things but the one thing that was clear was it was education education that we needed to make a change the classro our programs behind what our our students were learning was behind and he spoke multiple times and every time you would hear him speak he knew he would been coming to meetings he was standing up listening to data that he couldn't understand it wasn't shown at the meetings he was asking for continuously and he made a commitment back then that he was going to work on education for our Stu our children and our students here and to straighten the district out and to work on it and over his four years it has come full circle he's done a tremendous job he's going to be a great loss on the education level because he
108lived it he breathed it his kids his his uh his family is living it with his uh his uh daughters in school and he truly brought us full circle on education district and of course a little bit help with Mr LZ at the end to finish you off what he needed to get done but uh it worked out so well and I want to congratulate Rob thank you Robert next no I just want to say a quick comment um Freddy and Charlie are true nly Legends there's no denying that fact and these are folks or gentlemen that I would up to when I was a kid you know I don't want to give too much away in terms of of the age of that's but I can really recall 1982 I was in sixth grade
109I remember getting flyers from Charlie kazinski which is pretty remarkable and as I said earlier as I started off my my my words in terms of things coming in Full Circle to have have that opportunity to sit and to sit side by side these guys has been a truly an honor for me so I just wanted to kind of get that point across that maybe that's why I love you so much he actually my son [Applause] um Robert it's been a privilege and a pleasure um serving with you on the board especially the academic committee um we have your number we're going to call you and share your expertise with us in the future thank you and God bless you thank you Lisa and again just from the early stages of running that campaign back
110in 2010 and the support that you would like provided at that time was um was so appreciated it's still to this day and you have my number of course and I'm going to actually be back I think in a few short weeks with some of this another youth survey stuff so you're not going to lose me that quick thank you Lisa and God bless you and family as well uh Rob it's been a pleasure working with you the last uh two months I got to know you uh four years ago when you ran the first time and your dedication to the children to the town uh to the district the sacrifices you've made over the last 3 years years the time away from your family your children uh for the benefit of all the children
111in the township uh thank you so much for that and best of luck uh s again I just want to publicly thank you for the support that you provided back in 2010 and it truly was a Grassroots movement of what we were able to accomplish back then and here we are reaping the rewards of that hard work so uh I want to congratulate you for stepping up to the plate and U taking your links I guess with the next few years years so to speak but uh you're going to be trying this board member your financial background your involvement in the township I think is going to pay huge dividends for this district and thank you for pretty much taking my spot so to speak thank you sir Dr Reed I just want to thank
112you so much for the leadership that you have given to this district and on the academic committee and for all of your support for all of the things that we needed to also change and get moving in the right direction in terms of the financial complection of the district and it's been a pleasure working with you and I will miss having you here on the board with us thank you Karen I'm going to actually miss your smile you're sweetheart and you've always been uh gracious in terms of our involvement and it's something again thinking of your contribution to The District in terms of that piece we talked about earlier the instability that we've had with the ba spot for God knows how many years than that can recall again when we were gearing up for
113that election four short years ago and how many B did this District have and there was no stability in that spot and your professionalism your dedication in terms of what you brought over the past four years has been amazing and I'm sure run get a test that we go to all tested how we desperately needed that and I thank you for that thank you Dr pleas to the end um I think as a board it's one of our Prime achievements over the past years that we have been acting as one voice we disagree and I know that everyone's sitting up here at the table because I interact with you on a regular basis is committed to the succcess of every student in the district but you also also bring your own passions and personality and
114while Jim certainly brought his expertise in the finance side it was clear from my first wiie where um your focus was and as as as Fred said it was education education education you have a wonderful young lady who attends our schools um and I know you do anything for her but I just want to recognize all that we've done all the other students in the entire Community um it was a pleasure working with you um even when we see things the same way and I think we're just as passionate about education we know we have a great staff in a great community and um we know we can be better every single day just want to thank you for pushing me as an educator make sure we're doing all we Poss we can for the
115students here and trying to be an example for students everyone so best of luck we know where you live and so we expected not to go far but again thank you for everyone Ros It Go without saying in terms of um you know how I feel towards you in terms of what you've done for this district and it's and I appreciate all the accolades but it truly has been your vision in terms of where you've taken us and as I said earlier um I do not say that lightly in terms of I truly feel it's a blessing that you're here in terms of where you you're going to take this District over the next few years and it's something where I committed myself and what I feel I gave myself you give 10 beyond that
116and it's y's effort and at the end of the day we're a better district for it and I you've given a lot of yourself in terms of your time from your family and your two young daughters and um I just want to say thank you from the bot my heart I really appreciate everything you've done for this District you've given a part of you've left a part of yourself here that goes without saying thank you for that app program uh gen it's going to be said that farra I really have enjoyed our academic committee meetings and that to me is what I think part of what I'm going to disos involve in terms of that having that dialogue as Ryan alluded to earlier uh just that collegial atmosphere and how everybody was on the same
117page we just pretty much share that vision and all we were concerned about was moving dist District forward and getting the job done and I just want to thank each and every one of you from the B my heart of making this a truly truly viable and rewarding experience and I encourage to see if few folks in the audience hopefully at some point some of you guys will definitely step up the plate and give back the way we have up here because again it's it's it's a labor of love and I can't thank you enough for that thank you for the Memories thank you thank you very much for starting a new business yeah just like to make a note about the uh musical at the high school that was mentioned but if um you
118attended the musical the other night where we had everything from our choir to our instrumental and I just have to state that there's also a jazz band if you've never heard that jazz band and they play some places I think they were up in uh um Whole Foods one day I saw posted they were doing a segment up there they actually take a song and they have no instruction from our instruct our teachers at all Mr or anybody they have to take a song or music tell them what it's going to be and they have to make keep their own and then after they made it he has to approve it and say it was good enough but what they did with some music the other night all on their own selft talk or not
119self-instructed I should say the approval on after SM was phenomenal if if you can get out to hear them or hear any one of those groups please do they were great thank you um one thing I wanted to mention commissioner Rogers has invited all the Board of Education members to his Christmas party at his office starting Wednesday afternoon at no time make you aware of that any other business whereas the Board of Education will be discussing matters exempt from public discussion pursu njsa 1042 have therefore be resolved at the Board of Education research the Clos executive session at this time will discuss matters he have further desire that the results of this discussion will made public by the inclusion on the agenda of subsequent meeting of the Board of Education one of the reason for
120discussing such matters in close session no longer ex all those in favor