Nutley Board of Education Meetings 2012

001[Music] in compliance with chapter 231 Public Law 1975 entitled open public meetings act adequate notice of this meeting has been provided as specified in the ACT proper notice of this public meeting was provided in the notices of March 26 2012 said notice was posted at the entrance of the Board of Education offices mail to the Nutley Sun The Star Ledger Jersey PE booms and the Nutley ger mail to the Nutley count clerk advertised in the sun on April 5th 2012 posted on the district website this is is an official meeting I'd ask everyone to stand for a moment of silence for the victims family and those who are affected by the shooting in Connecticut last Friday for the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge Allegiance to the FL the United States of America the it stands one

002nation under God indivisible and jce [Music] for Mr Kinski here Dr re here Mrs Russo here Mrs here M shman here Mr here Mr here approval of minutes I'd ask the motion to approve the minutes as distributed make motion second discussion all those in favor post minutes are approved as distribut uh tonight's agenda we'll have an audit report Mr Dy U we'll have that report and then we'll be going into Clos session for approximately an hour to discuss legal matters and then come back for the rest of [Music] the thank you Mr President good evening to everybody uh if the board has a copy of that c there are two reports we submitted uh to the board the comprehensive annual finan final report which is the bigger document if you want to uh look at

003page 56 I can highlight the financial condition of the district keep in mind the state um few years ago determined the amount of surplus districts were allowed to maintain uh and if everybody has that page if not I can walk through the uh dollar amounts your year end is June 30th uh the district at June 30th 2012 ended the year with a total surplus of uh just about 3,450 th000 which is over $1 million more than the prior year uh the reason why the increas is that the board was able to save money in really two budget accounts which generated that increase in Surplus uh one was with tuition and the other dealt with the uh maintenance of the school facilities I think those two areas alone increase the bottom line about $800,000 um but

004keep in mind the state does allow you to create reserves uh the board did have a capital reserve which was built into that Surplus at year end of about $124 ,000 the state with their uh State formula as I mentioned before limits the amount of surplus anytime you go above a certain threshold you create excess Surplus uh based on this audit we determine that your excess Surplus is uh just over $1.6 million which means that when you do have excess Surplus you have to appropriate or fund that in a future Year's budget so the $1.6 million the board would be required to use your cash resources to balance the 1314 budget um that amount of money is you have excess Surplus the prior year but you're about $1.4 million was higher what I would just

005caution the board since there was a significant increase that in 131 14's budget development that you utilize those increased monies for onetime expenses uh because the excess Surplus levels fluctuate fluctuates by year and it varies by the dollar amount of your expenditures so the unassigned Surplus that the board had which is your 2% threshold is just under $1.1 million uh that's basically % of your expenditures so the in the financial condition of the district is very healthy increased uh uh considerably over the year the U short spoil report is a auditor management report which summarize recommendations that we had as part of our testing um and none of the recommendations that we had were material or significant in nature uh the first recommendation dealt with the fact that the board still has an outstanding standing

006receivable from the county of Essex and I think that dealt with the rat Cliff vertical lift uh it was a $4,000 Grant uh the board did expend the monies but the receivable has been has been outstanding for a few years if the receivable is not collectible then I would uh recommend to the board that they fund that through a capital reserve appropriation through their budget again that could be in the 13 14 year uh the second recommendation dealt with the internal budget accounting reports as part of our testing we just noticed that there were certain accounts that did not agree with the adopted budget that you submitted to the county uh so it's a matter of just reconciling the original budget to your internal accounting records again not many accounts out of balance but we

007did notice that they were a handful the third recommendation dealt with the cafeteria uh we just noticed with the elementary point of sale reports that they were not in agreement with the daily deposits uh we've been talking with the business administrator about setting up a meeting so that the uh Food Service management company is aware of the information and how we do our testing and if there are differences how they should be reconciling those internal reports and the fourth recommendation dealt with the application for state school aid we just notice that there were differences between the number of students reported versus the Numbers number of students that you had I in your registers or on free and reduced uh milk applications again none of the recommendations are significant I think the uh the business office

008should be commended for uh the fact that the rest of the audit was very clean questions from the board um of that Surplus that you said for next next year how much of that can go into capital reserve or Capital no what you can do as part of the uh board action every June the board is actually allowed to supplement a capital reserve by resolution the maximum amount that you're allowed to fund would be equal to what's in your long range facility plan so I would tend to think your plan allows significant dollars to be funded um so you can use all of that part of it you can actually fund that Reserve in June 2013 also so the whole thing could go depending on what our our capital reserve plan looks like yes and

009you could also fund there are two other reserves you can fund an emergency Reserve as well as a maintenance Reserve now the state does allow districts to to fund for those uh reserves for future needs do we have anch I think U business administrators will address this later in their comments as to cplus some of the things that okay can I just one question so that of that amount right because you increase the budget 2% that's by the by the tax R so this would be we could actually use include this as a one time and still do the 2% on the rest of the budget yes okay good thank you very much you're welcome any other questions thank you very much report thank you happy holidays to all and happy and healthy New Year

010andice whereas the Board of Education will be discussing matters exempt from public discussion pursuing to njsa 10 4-12 now therefore be it resolved that the Board of Education recess the closed executive session at this time to discuss personnel and legal update on the tri Che and dcn matters the had further resolved that the results of the discussion will be made public by inclusion on the agenda of the subsequent meeting of the board education or when the reasons for discussing such matters session exist I move all those in favor and as the agenda says we be approximately minutes [Music] session here here mrin yes Dr re here mrman yes Mr Mr we have the student report from Ab good evening as the school year goes on many events and activities have taken place while high school

011students continue to get involved and reach out in our school Community as the cold weather rapidly approaches the winter sports teams have come back in action the High School varsity girls basketball team K Dr season with their first home on December 14th the boys team had their first game on December 4th and will be having their first home game on December 20th the boys ice hockey team had their first game on December 1st and the boys wrestling team started their season with the first tournament which was held on December 15 the girls and boys bowling team had their first match against monair on December 7th the winter track team will be attending their first meet at your University on December 20th as the holidays are quickly approaching nley high school has been very active by

012spreading the holiday cheer not only in our school but AC the state as well on December 7th student council hosted their annual toys for talks party which was a huge success over 150 toys were raised by both student council and King club members which will be donated to Union M Mana Squad two towns that were severely damaged by hering Sandy student council has also collected a surplus of clothing cleaning products household goods and non-cable foods for several task affected at Hurricane Sandy as well the NHS music department hosted their begin on December 7th through December 9th they also held their annual wheel TI concert on December 13th the NS choir and NHS Bross emble will be hosting a choir holiday benefit concert on December 19th at 7:30 p.m. at St Mary's Church All Pro will

013benefit the music program scholarship fund the interact Club is conducting a winter clothing collection to benefit the homeless and the nutly family Family Service Bureau STP shops members of the club have beeni our home rooms asking for clean Gently Used winter clothing this collection will be ending on December 20th the future educators of America have started their annual food drive on December 3rd and it will be ending on December 19th all the items will be donated to the Red Cross the young conservative Club has also been collecting supplies for our trops students are asked to donate toilet trees and non foods which will present to our troops stations overseas an athletic collection also taken place as students of NHS were asked to donate gently use athletic shoes to benefit the Perpetual Prosperity comp foundation in

014academic news progress reports were recently sent out through the parent and student portals this program makes accessing grades easier for both the students and parents the guidance Department instant decision day was held on November 29th seniors had the opportunity to apply to 11 colleges and universities many seniors also had the opportunity to receive money the National Honor Society held their fall induction for seniors that it did not necessarily meet the community service requirements as of last year seven seniors have been recently inducted the schedule for midterm examinations was also sent out to students and parents midterms will be held at early High School from Tuesday January 22nd through Friday January 25th only for your courses will be given midterm examinations overall the students and faculty have been very AC in events and activities throughout nle

015high school as the new year approaches we hope to continue to strive forward and are eager for more exciting events to arrive thank you very much you're welcome to stay as long with the meeting as short as you want have school superintendent report hello um I do apologize ahead of time for the L A lot has transpired since our last coord I want to make sure they get everything on record um first and foremost there were questions at the last coord regarding the academic calendar uh I know um as we get CL Midway through the year I can't believe we're already there but the public has an extreme interest in the end of the year as far as scheduling um there have been many questions regarding the end of the school year especially given Sandy

016um we were forced to close for a full five days uh however with the cooperation of our faculty staff certainly the Board of Education the community we're able to recapture three of those days the following week I want to point out to the public again that as we build our academic calendars we build in four emergency closing days um as last year and with every year moving forward this included um in order to maximize meaningful instructional time we uh we hold those days until the very end of the year and if they're not used we give them back taking them off end of the year instruction in order to make clear the end of the year because of this like last year we are providing on our website the chart that you see up on

017the screen it is exactly the same as the chart we've had in the past and I just wanted to go over it again um so it's clear the chart includes a series of columns each detailing specific dates depending on how many emergency closing days we are forced to use currently we've used two days and as you can see from the chart the two columns all the way to the right have already been gred out because we've had to give back um two of those dayses the column that is in green details for anyone um where we currently are based on the progress that the academic calendar so as of now we had to close for 5 days we reopened for three that we had been previously unaccounted for the board approved the change in calendar

018and therefore we are currently um down two of our U emergency closing days thereby as you see from the chart the adjusted last day for students would be Tuesday June 25th if all things remain constant where they are now what I want the public to understand is that as we have to close or should we have to close this will be updated so that any point in time they can go to the same point over the same spot website and find accurate information about the end of this um again there were questions about my hope is that as we see it year after year um it will just become second nature and everyone know exactly where to look and how to read and understand um just as a reminder we did open for election day

019which was previously a Clos day as well as the two days for teachers convention and thank again thank you to the association um moving forward we're looking to approve calendars more than in advance in March on the board agenda on our agenda tonight there is the academic calendar for 1314 I do want to make clear to the public again that with um the uh the approval of the board all these calendars are subject to change based on conversations with the association and more readily uh dates that are issued from the state of New Jersey when it comes to testing and arrest uh we try and set the calendar as best as we can um and then we have to kind of play catch up when they um but one of the things we've been trying

020to do is make sure we're ahead of the game and that we're approving these things early so we it's easier for people to make plans um finally one things that would like to point out that Mr Williams uh in one of his first acts as principal of high school delivered to me a proposal to uh move graduation earlier in the day based on the issues that we had been having it's gone through a number of communes where it's something we want to revisit because it's something the board is going to pursue we want to start advertising that in January um and so we want to make sure it goes back through our commit our committees for January and can be back in front of the board by the 22nd okay um Switching gears from the

021calendar moving to academics as we continue to work toward our strategic plan there is a great deal going on in District that I I certainly want to highlight a lot of great work going on with our professionals volunteers and the rest I'm going to start with our math pilot Miss Martin's here um we kicked off our search for an updated math program Happ say with a meeting that included teachers and administrators from all levels as well as parents and certainly members of the Board of Education uh the group reviewed a number of current systems and are meeting again following the break I believe on the third uh to complete their review of a second group of systems from these they will select two to piling classrooms which will begin prly and continue through the spring

022uh the goal is the group will follow a specific process which we have outlined including um specific methods for documenting the strengths and weaknesses of the two systems we can get the group back together for a conversation based on evidence the district will then work with the chosen vendor to obtain the materials and establish a meaningful training plan which is key uh for both the summer and the fall to ensure that our teachers are prepared to effectively Implement um the selected system in support of our new curriculum uh again all this work and it is a lot of work represents our commitment to multiple components of our strategic plan sticking with math I want to thank and she here Mrs Coro there she um Miss Lani and Miss Martin again together they ran a meeting

023with parents at Ana school last Thursday and know Miss danj Martin was present substance of the meeting was to detail plans to shift the organization of our grade six classes in order to allow for stronger implementation of our new math curriculum um they answered parent questions to communicate the moves that are to come including timelines and our overarching purpose which again is to move instructure for thank you to them and the parents who were there sticking on that theme of parent meetings um Mrs npal hosted an evening for the parents of students currently identified as gifted I attended the meeting as well and uh after her presentation the parents and I had a robust conversation discussing uh regarding the needs of all of our students including those identified as gifted uh we discussed for a

024while what the district has been providing what the district is providing this year and what the district plans to provide moving forward Mrs Russo was in attendance and shared her perspective as a parent of an identified student um the clear Focus that we tried to convey at that meeting is that as for our strategic plan and the goals of our institution um all of our students must be always engaged in rigorous instruction um we should not be waiting for pieces of a week to feel like we are meaningfully engaged and we need to make sure that all of our students are rigorously engaged that being said you're going to see a presentation tonight from some of our colleagues in the audience on the middle school program of studies just a brief note we continue uh

025our focus on instruction and rigorous student engagement with this presentation that marks the second year that we're doing this and if you meant another example of our strategic plan coming to life that we focus on students and their learning I do want to point out on Friday to the board miss fani Mr Odell who's here with cour uh joined me at the Panasonic Corporation sarus um we were invited and through the day challenged to explore the rigor of the instruction offered here in District based on student outcomes as well as the access of the different populations in District um to varying levels of R we discussed things such as leveling and placement which um is going to impact a number of our decisions moving forward we had to present our findings to the various uh

026Taylor districts that were present and we were able to observe their presentations following that uh we worked with research experts from Bank stre School Manhattan and uh from uh the state of Delaware's Department of Education regarding administrative evaluation which you will hear more about uh from Min Odell today um moving forward exciting another exciting day thing that happened today mark the first day of our focus training uh regarding current research-based literacy instruction we've had a lot of teachers clamoring for a while um that they wanted exposure to other things that were out there it's an extremely large Endeavor um run by Miss valani Mrs deonis who here um we're directing at exposing our teachers to the changes in best practice around comprehensive literacy um the group included multiple teachers uh as we discussed previously from

027each grade level K8 um they're going to continue their training for the spring plan is to gradually Infuse the learning practices into their classroom supported by research and consultant support um that will be piloting this year district will then like the math pilot um choose and obtain necessary resources to expand Beyond these specific model classrooms there's a training plan for the summer and the fall for a second tier of teachers allowing for uh the majority of our teachers to support our updated curriculum um with expanded uh teaching practices and materials beginning next September differentiated support from our consultant will continue uh for tiers one and two through the year and as we progress we will begin to phase in the third tier of teachers until every classroom in district has the benefit of both wide

028variety practices and upto dat um upto dat materials uh an interesting note up to date Patriots pen competition in October uh Middle School social studies teachers ask students to participate in the BFW sa Patriots pen competition happy to announce the Taran Goldberg one of our eighth grade students submitted an essay for competition that w at the local and District level and is now in the running at state level uh teran's family will receive a letter inviting him to lunch in February where he will be acknowledged and the state will when will be announced so that's exciting we'll certainly get back to you once we here um instant decision day this is Dila was here but I have hard fast numbers I believe now correct me if I'm wrong but 190 students received acceptances um initial

029scholarship is holding uh just shy of $1,550,000 higher now uh rer up to our number numb to 1.6 $1.6 million to this point fantastic um and again the totally only the total only includes ch ch me to make sure I'm clear the initial offers made many scholarship offers are still pay principal valuation so just very quickly again the board has been aware through brief um again while we've been pushed by the state mandate to do this I'd like to think that it's it's really fostered and push us to have meaningful conversations at the administrative level we've married the same philosophy uh with ministrators that we have with the teachers as far as what will support us in having the best possible conversations about what we do and Min Odell's prepared to make a presentation on

030that um I'm not sure if Miss D Martin is making a an update today about long range facilities I will beer to that moving to communication um two things I would like to point out regarding communication as an example um we had a member of community to come to a board meeting uh asking questions about our fruit service and uh the business office in Mr has put together response to that which is now found on the website and just wanted to highlight that as an example of our communication members of the public coming and raising issue which is valid so we're making sure we are communicating not just to them but with everyone uh through the website the other piece of communication thanking the board for approving uh the recent light path contract um are

031we clear there are still in the process of getting there currently configuring our system based on the contract I I actually have in my speech here that as I speaking uh so it might in fact be true um they are they are increasing our level of service at no increased cost so I want to thank you to the board uh that will enable us to do more in District for saving the taxpayers money finally last piece that I do want to talk about is security um the events on Friday obviously have shaken everyone uh received uh an executive order to the to State um to fly the flights at half staff tomorrow from the governor in which he ref refer to the events as quote of Senseless and devastating active violence I've been in touch

032obviously with the board over the weekend um through email um with our administrators and faculty and staff thank the association for um working with us through the weekend um to be clear the district communicated directly with parents through email um and certainly with a larger Community um via the district website we tried to provide current upto-date information as frequently as possible as well as meaningful resources to assist parents and community members in in dealing with the events I do want to reassure uh the community that while the events of Friday have brought the attention of the entire country to school of security um this board and this Administration focused on security every day and we have been for a year and a half um we've been engaged in review of The District's entire security plan

033at each and every Administration committee we've continued our review we've made monthly updates on our work at the board level including public superintendent reports such as this one put directly we take security the security of our students and our staff with the utmost seriousness at this point we're prepared to begin making changes to facilities but this is the culmination of 15 months worth of work um we' completed we completely updated our plan and thank you Miss balani certainly the principles and administrators that were involved in that um and prepared to submit it um it was presented to the administrative committee back in November was initially discussed it includes a detailed timeline prompting the work of the past year and more importantly laying out our plans moving forward training with administrators and staff and preparation of

034updated supporting resources are scheduled to beginning January and those preparation will carry on through March during these months revisions will continue to be made on feedback and presentations will be made to the board um beginning in April we will drill with students using the revived plans and update documents only as needed uh the detailed schedule is part of the plan approving board gr um the community needs to know that we've been systematically reviewing and revising our plan for the past 15 months this is not in reaction to what happened Friday um over the weekend though I spoke with both the chief of police and the mayor both were clear and proud of the Township's preparation for incidents such as these um as well as the cooperation that we've had over the past 18 months um

035between the towns res resources in the districts uh the police are in our building every year to train um and they and Mr nicholet of the office of emergency management um are part of our planing teams they've had an active role in collaborating with us to make sure we're doing everything Poss can and that best practice is the only practice in District because of our recent progress both the mayor and the chief of police are all in agreement that what we need to do is continue to do what we have been doing that said please uh we need to make clear to the community each building is required to do two security drills every month um there are still two scheduled drills for December remaining and um we want to continue them uh one of

036our drills is scheduled for Spring Garden Elementary School and the other for the middle school they were both actually scheduled for today we posted postpone them uh this is the first Public Announcement we'll be making direct contact with parents certainly with students tomorrow and Wednesday so that they are completely informed that we are running a drill and only a drill um on Thursday so that we can minimize the stress uh connected with Friday um and actually keep the kids focused on practicing what we need to do in case of an emergency um I'm announcing this now again because I do want to make sure that everyone is aware that is not normally our practice but given the circumstances fair and in the best interest of everyone to make sure that we're on the same page

037that's a scheduled drill that was a scheduled drill and then not a reaction was actually sched to happen today um had Friday not occurred we would have had those drills as planed um with all this I do want to say that we also have taken what happened on Friday into immediate account um the administrators participated in early morning meeting today prior to school um the purpose of the meeting was to outline the district's Philosophy for supporting our students identify the the desired procedures expectations and as well as resources as well as allow for questions and conversation between the administration as a group before we dispers to our separate buildings our faculty and staff reported to their buildings prior to the start of school with the same information was conveyed and questions were able to be

038asked and answered as large groups there our goal was one message across the district I will say that feedback and we've got a lot of it um through the day from staff has been positive they felt that they were supported and and uh because of the district's actions we're clear on how to return our students to a regular schedule as a cohesive District um everyone's responded to this incident in their own way I've received communication over the weekend uh email and phone um from parents as well as community members I try to get back to everyone in a timely manner um and I do want to say that in their comments I've experienced the full gamut of possible reactions with some parents um sharing with their students literally everything about the and other parents sharing

039absolutely nothing um and everything in between because of the the different um responses the fact that students of different ages uh and from different family experiences have reacted to this differently as well as the fact that the recommendations from the experts over the weekend um including both the the state department um as well as the traumatic loss Coalition which we worked with when we suffered a loss last year um they've all been to return students as as quickly as possible back to we want to get them back into the regular routine and for those reasons we made decisions to keep the school day as it was um and to talk to the teachers BR actively about how we can do this um out of respect individual parent wishes as well as the inability not not

040knowing how a whole group of students would react to a large conversation um uh what we did was we encouraged teachers to not initiate conversations regarding Friday but also not ignore conversations um we ask the teach to minimize conversation and questions arose focusing on fact and the importance of our drills and our students take that practice seriously um we try to return all conversations back to plan instruction as seamlessly as possible at the same time we talk to teachers about being vigilant for students who were struggling with the situation different than being inquisitive um we put into place thank you Mr vilam um a specific support plan to ensure that our trained counselors could be any place needed in the district there was a communication between administrators to make sure that because we did not

041know where resources would be needed that administrators need Mo contact and how so that we could get resources where we needed to be um during the day we did ask teachers to to take note of students who were in or concerned and to specifically reach out to parents so that the parents had contact from the school and understood if their son or daughter raised questions so that we could work collaboratively with parents to make sure our students were supported um I communicated with the principles at the end of the day as well as with m who was in every building there um overall the feedback was positive uh we had limited issues in a number of success stories um overall it was I think a successful return to our primary business of learning I do

042want to thank the staff for all their efforts certainly our faculty and administrators for responding as they always have with professionalism compassion and focus um Mrs sasio who is here and I met this morning she's the director of extended day uh she put together and issued a release to all parents students in the program basically put the reiterate that the program continues to operate under its moment schedule that all locations meet the New Jersey state childcare security reg regulations and as well they follow all district procedures um and they perform all drills with appropriate staff and emergency responders to ensure that at all points in the day were as prepared as impossibly can to keep students safe with all this said and it's a mouthful um I know that there are still concerns regarding the

043safety of our schools one school was underway uh I conven a meeting with the district emergency planning committee it includes administrators from each of our three levels elementary middle and high uh teachers Mr nicholet O Captain strum detective Sergeant Watson the police department as well as our Mr nicholet and Mr V Meister uh of building and grounds and Technologies respectively uh we reviewed the events in Connecticut based on the information provided to the police department from the FBI um in in comparison with our current plans both as they stand in where we're where we're taking them um we defined both immediate and long-term action action as based on this review however all items once we looked at our long-term plan um have already been incorporated into our current action plan which was reassuring um I

044do want to State again that we do have a plan encompassing both immediate and long-term items and we will communicate these items as we take each step along the way both to the board and publicly that said I've gotten a ton of feedback from parents and I encourage them and community members as well as students at the have levels to communicate with me regarding concerns questions and certainly suggestions um we've said in our our strategic plan that we value communicators and we mean what we say finally said though another piece of our strategic plan developed by that large committee earlier this year is that we value safe inspirational communities and I want to thank everyone for their cooperation because I truly believe that as a staff and as a community today we absolutely have it

045this well thank you Mr Les and thank you and your staff for doing an excellent job for this this difficult weekend and day [Music] safety is a primary Rec concern thank you Mrs gam thank you Mr President for the past several months you've heard the board speak about refinancing the 2003 and 2005 bonds we've been working very closely with the district's financial advisor and underwriter to complete this sale and although We've Come Close a few times at the last minute the market changed market conditions have changed and we could no longer realize that required 3% savings while our patience is paid off market conditions showed signs of improvement earlier this month and upon the advice of our professional team the sale finally took place on December 13th our patients paid off so well that we

046realized a savings of 6.92% so what exactly does that mean to the taxpayers of Nutley well The Debt Service portion of the tax levy will now be reduced by a milli 45,000 over the remaining Bond payments through 2030 at which time the bonds will be fully paid the district is very pleased to be able to provide this type of tax relief to the taxpayers of Nutley as we continue to move forward in offering quality education to each and every student this evening the two June 30th 2012 financial report was presented by The District's auditing firm LG Higgins the report highlighted the district's Financial strength and overall Financial operations more importantly no material weaknesses were found the recommendations and corrective action plans that are included in the Audits and packet have continued to drop in number

047over the past 3 years but this can only be achieved when you have a team of individuals who are working together with the same purpose and diligence I would like to personally express my thanks to each member of the business office without whom this would not be accomplished and to every administrator secretary and staff member for adhering to the processes and requirements that we need to do on a daily basis while sometimes we seem a little picky everybody's actions always impact the audit results and the impact that we saw tonight was a very positive one as to those recommendations there were four one of which has already been corrected and the remaining will be corrected over the course of the school year the fourth one was noted in the audit last year and is listed

048as a repeat recommendation and it involved the $40,000 grant that the district was originally awarded from the county to pay for the lift at Spring Garden school this grant was funded with Community block development Grant funds that the county receives from Hub so as I began researching this grant earlier this year to find out exactly where the $40,000 was it took several months and a lot of phone calls to various people in the county office till I was finally sent a copy of an audit that HUD conducted on the County's Grant operations the audit found that the project did not qualify for funding through the community block brand while this matter took a long time to finally get resolved we now now know what the outcome is is and that um all the proper accounting

049entries need to be made this year to remove the receivable from The District's finan records um the auditor also spoke about the reserve fund balance also known as surplus of 1.6 million that was reflected in the district's financial statements the Surplus is a result of a conscious effort last year to carefully monitor all spending and to ensure that what is being requested is what we actually need not just what is wanted several of the out of District tuition students were also brought back into District last year which resulted in a significant savings the district is required to utilize These funds in planning the 20134 budget and since this is not a recurring Revenue stream it is important that we allocate the funds to onetime expenditures as Mr Vincy also spoke of in his report this

050evening our goal is to Target instructional needs that the district has not been able to do for the past several years years such as textbook series and Technology needs and increasing the capital reserve account while considering a maintenance Reserve to plan for future projects and building needs thank you thank you Mrs y we now have two presentations the program of studies for Middle School one [Music] all thank you good evening um tonight we're going to talk to you about the middle school program of studies as you remember last year we created this document to help students navigate their way through the Middle School um this year for this presentation this evening we are just going to highlight for you the changes from last year's program to this year's program we're going to speak to you

051this evening about General updates including Readiness assessments the elective selection process and honor role and then some of our coordinators will also speak to Department specific changes to the middle school program of studies by creating this document we hope that it answer helps to answer two questions why do we need a program of studies at the middle school and also how does this program of studies help students staff parents and the community understand our course offerings and our academic procedures at the middle school we hope that this document will help students navigate through the middle school we also hope hope that will help to bring together the students from the five elementary schools into one program and it should be used as a tool to assist with scheduling decisions just some of the the general

052updates to the program of studies um as we've been working on both the high school and the middle school program of studies pretty much simultaneously we're working hard to make sure that the language matches and is very similar from the high school program to the middle school program to help build continuity from grade 7 through 12 um in this program of studies there are some minor edits to course descriptions we've included some additional forms and with processes and procedures to help the process at the middle school for various components such as scheduling and in the last middle school program of studies there were disciplinary procedures those have been removed from the program of studies because this is an academic document those disciplinary procedures are still in the student handbook the first component that we wanted

053to talk to you about tonight is the Readiness assessments if you remember last year we developed what we called Vector assessments for students going from sixth grade into 7th all students had the opportunity to take those assessments to see about placement in their schedule for Once they were into the middle school program we've changed the name only from Vector assessments to Readiness assessments we will continue to give these four these Assessments in the four core areas adding this year for students going from seventh grade into 8th grade last year we did just six to 7th now this year we'll be doing sixth graders to seventh grade and seventh graders into 8th grade to reassess the Readiness for various courses we will use the Readiness assessments along with data from common assessments and also teacher input

054to help Place students in various courses throughout the middle school program um just a a quick reminder we've been talking a lot about common assessments and I just want to identify the difference between the Readiness assessments and the common assessments we built common assessments into our curricul ulum so in our our core courses and and all of our departments we're giving common Assessments in most cases at least twice a year um the Readiness assessments are will be assessments that will assess the students overall knowledge in a Content area and will be given to all students towards the end of the school year so we'll we will still be giving both of those assessments next I'd like to introduce Mr corite to talk about elective offerings at the middle school thank you m um the Ive

055offerings that we have at the middle school will be similar um in terms of the classes that are going to be offered uh to our students U Mr mat will talk a little bit about the world languages um what we want to do is provide some flexibility in scheduling um and flexibility in opportunity and choice for the students currently when the students make a decision moving from sixth grade to seventh grade they kind of get locked into a course um and they would follow stud as an eighth grader but we wanted to do is allow um access to electives regardless of student grade level so as an eighth grader that student may make a make a change in the overall course where they want to gain exposure to a different foreign language for example so

056as eighth graders we want to be able to provide them with that opportunity so there may be some elective courses that would could have potentially seventh and eighth graders in there together um we do have some of those courses in our math current math program as well I see as a great opportunity for those students to have some flexibility to make a change and gain again as I said exposure to something else um as far as the process uh for going through it um very much similar that that that was the past we will be involving the students as well as parents in the process U Miss fani talked about the core subjects the academics uh through the Readiness assessments uh the electives will be chosen based on a menu that they get to pick

057from uh as I said the menu will expand as they get to eighth grade which would include some of the seventh grade classes that they may not have taken as seventh grade um we also did work on um kind of streamlining the document so there's one form to make it a little bit easier and user friendly for both the students and the parents and as guidance works for them to through the process thank you m Mrs bilio is going to speak to the honorable last year we made changes to the honoral requirements at the high school um we included all courses for the first time at the high school where in the past it was only was all subjects minus fette so we added fad so this year is the first year of high school

058all courses are included um currently in the Middle School only the four core are counted for honoral Engish history Math and Science Vis that in health electives and World languages were never counted in the honoral requirements for the middle school and in order to validate the importance of all subject areas and also to you know better align the Middle School philosophy and procedures with the high school we made this change for this year uh so next year in 13 14 um both middle school and high school will have the same requirements which for Honor Roll would be a B minus or higher and also subject area and for high enroll in a minus or high enr subject areas thank you next we're going to talk about content specific changes to the middle school program of

059studies um I'd just like to highlight that all of the coordinators work collaboratively with their departments this evening we're only going to highlight two two different departments World languages and science um but they did all work together they worked with their teachers and every Department did have at least some edits to course descriptions first I'd like to introduce Mr B to talk about the science Department thank you uh this year we piloted physics in 8th grade for high Lev math students students that had algebra background and it was very successful all indicators are pointing to uh students being engaged and learning a lot we're waiting to give them the same midterm as other grade students will take in the high school so as the math progresses and we get fundamentals of algebra coming online uh

060we're looking to expand that course um to include maybe three sections for next year so while as that expands we're probably going to see a decrease or have a pull out from the eth grade vector class so we're looking to uh eliminate Vector eighth grade and move those students into stem I'm sorry into physics class during the eth grade so we're looking at three to four sections of that two slides are one one which is the stem course I'm sorry so the physical science one of the things we're moving to in science Next Generation science standards engineering being a big part or big component of science class physics class does have an engineering component to it kids are Mak catapults they're measuring vectors they're using their algebra to solve problems so it's very consistent with

061the way we're going in next gener and science standards and seventh grade we're looking to Pilot a Project Lead the Way course Project Lead the Way is a nationwide attempt to integrate a stem component into many Sciences a lot of schools do it as a tech part we're bringing in as a science course we're going to pile with two sections maybe 50 students um and this type of model students integrate the science content into problem-based inquiry science where their final assessment is usually building a project or using the skills they learn from the content to solve a major problem so we're looking to integrate that in as well it require some teacher training uh some supplies but um has three different components one for example might be um Robotics and automation uh we're going to

062incorporate the science component to robotics autom at the end we should see a final result of kids going through a problem which um is kind of the next generation of science standards um I think that's it thank you very much thank you Mr Materia to World languages uh good evening currently at the middle school we offer Italian uh Spanish and Latin um seventh graders take level 1 a uh and eighth graders take level 1 B basically what that is it's a one-year course that spans two full years of Middle School what we want to do in the bo language Department in Nutley is we want to take advantage of the best practice that states that younger students retain more language features and learn language more efficiently so the first proposed change for next year the

063only proposed change for the 13 14 school year will be to offer a full level one a full level a full traditional level one course to all seventh graders that will be enrolled in a world language in the three languages that I just mentioned Italian Spanish and Latin that will also afford uh the opportunity for eth graders that are currently not enrolled in a language to take a language in their last year of Middle School what that will do is it will also give those students the ability to be at the same level of proficiency as their as their other eighth grade counterparts so once they get to the high school they'll be able to take that same level of course um the second part of this change will take place actually in the 14

06415 school year uh which will replace the level 1B course which is the other half of the level one course that our eighth graders take currently in in Middle School uh that will be replaced by a traditional level two course for next year eighth graders that are taking uh seventh graders taking 1 a will still take level 1B and then the next set of eighth graders in the 14 15 school year will take level two the great thing about that change is that students demonstrating higher levels of proficiency at the end of their 8th grade year enrolled in level two will'll have the opportunity to take a level three course as freshman thank you we hope that by updating this document we will continue to bring consistency to our processes and procedures we want to

065continue to communicate information about course offerings and academic procedures um and we want this to be still be used as a source of information for students and parents um this the document along with the PowerPoint will be available on the district website if there are questions or comments you please ask that you email the email address on the slide and we'll get back to you um i' just like to take the opportunity to thank the coordinators and I know I did this after last month's uh presentation of the high school program of studies but they've really done a fantastic job and the building administrators working on these documents it it does take a a huge effort and a lot of time among everything else that they're trying to get done so I just want to

066thank all of you for your hard work on these and that's it thank you than just jump in really quick Mr sorry can you hear me um I had the opportunity to observe Mr cner in his class and um in our conversations he was mentioning because he teachs the approving course the high school does at the eth grade um and he was mentioning that the high the eighth graders are actually moving at a faster Pace um had we not introduce this course where would those eth grad be currently they' be probably Vector sence grade and as far as our curriculum comparatively where would well now we're incorporating math skills in so uh this application class is against stem and nature where they're designing different things and it's almost you can treat as another math class

067they apply the math they learn so it's really Progressive it follows our first um our physics first idea many schools do actually many schools do in nth grade we're implementing in eighth grade so hopefully um as we move forward AP Physics is turning into a two-year program in two years so these students that take physics in e8th grade can enter AP Physics one as uh Juniors and they have an opportunity to take AP Physics 2 if they didn't take eighth grade physics and they would never get AP Physics too again not to single Mr because it's happening all our departments but it's happen have the opportunity Mr casner um same point we've accelerated now this the the learning potential for these eighth graders the same way actually we're talking about doing that for eth graders

068in World Language um and and it n is doing almost four times as much as we would have done um but so now introducing the seventh grade class you speak to what that will do moving forward well it's a whole line of thinking and you know we're kind of being proactive to the new standards coming in line probably within 2 to 3 years uh there huge engineering component so we're bringing this in prob next year really starting to get a thought process going and how students think how they try something revise that try again really scientific method is finest and then hopefully expanding that pilot group to all seventh grad so every student has the opportunity to think like this to process like this to be exposed to this kind of science I wanted to

069point out to the board of of the public and the parents thank M and the administrators but also highlight the fact of this example that the teachers are really taking ownership of this and through this process which didn't exist before we're accelerating learning going on across the district it's not just for one group of kids um by combining stem bringing math into science and back and forth you're seeing um more efficient use of our time and we're challenging kids in ways that we would not have before um the people sitting in front of you as well as the teachers because the teachers are jumping in um you of their own Val and really taking on and they're finding exciting things can happen in class but we're pushing kids faster um and I would think based

070on respond to the students more appropriately because they're having fun they're finding success and they're going be much more prepared for next year than they would have been had we not made these changes so it's want to highlight that all the work that these people do the building administrators um the coordinators for St miss fani m dilia um it's not just about process in paper but it's really truly moving the district for so thank you again I thank you very much and I appreciate the hard work you're doing just have two questions when you're talking about the menu that the seventh graders will have to pick from will that menu and I and I was talking to Rob about it will that will that be on the website so the parents can take a look

071at that menu at home part part of the program stud all inform Avail and the other question I had was in and we talked about the languages in the Middle School how and I talked to Russ about how are we doing with the languages in the grammar schools I mean I I I appreciate what you're doing in middle school where do we stand with Rosetta Stone in second grade I'm exaggerating but I I know I know where most of our Rosetta Stones are we can't find I have not met Mrs Rosetta Stone yet no um I did speak to the academic committee uh with regard to my plan for uh the apologize I'm not I'm not putting you on the spot Russ I've talked about this in the past and I I appreciate getting to

072the seventh and eighth grade level but um you know we need to be concerned of our gr school and we are concerned and we will be addressing it right now um we we have um our program at the middle school is a lot more robust when compared to the elementary school and we can make uh more lasting CH at the middle school um there is a plan in place that I've discussed with the academic committee as well as Mr elzabeth and miss bani that um will also affect the elementary school um that will be shared uh when the time is appropriate because that's where the success of the whole program will start where our younger students will be exposed to more language thank Mr Odell thank you uh the evaluation of teachers administrators has been

073part of education for a long long time but what giv uh Inus to tonight's presentation are these requirements in the state of New Jersey you can see that by December 31st uh this year all districts must adopt educator evaluation rubrics that include state approved teaching and ouro principal practice evaluation instruments uh the state gave us an extremely narrow window of about a month to conduct this whole process and I really do want to thank all my colleagues administrators Mr lazic and M valani for your assistance in getting this process done uh so quickly and so efficiently uh by February 2013 uh we must as a district report to the New Jersey Department of Ed okay start um on our progress towards meeting this requirement and to get everybody started the um Department of Education posted

074a list of nine approved principal evaluation instruments that we had to choose from uh our goal is we wanted to choose one and we thought about just what it is we're after uh most importantly to Foster the the necessary conversations that gu our practice and these conversations are ongoing we have Advent team meetings about every other week and of course you know throughout every day uh to choose a framework that we could adapt to our needs our goals and our vision as a district everything has to be consistent uh and the framework was by far the most important part we're not looking to buy the whole package as many these vendors wanted we wanted a framework that really met our needs uh to support professional development which has to be ongoing and to choose an

075instrument that was compatible with our existing data system which as you know is performance matters uh the process uh Committee of four administrators of which I was a part along with Mr B Mr Williams and Mr Melle uh met with Mr lzic and M bani we reviewed the nine approved instruments from the state uh concentrating on the framework that was included in your system that list was reduced down to four uh one we did subsequently drop when it was found that it required its own Software System and was not compatible with performance matters uh the Frameworks for the remaining three were then distributed to all the district administrators for their input they had the documents to review uh we set up a Google doc using the technology to keep that conversation going around our days

076and uh this discussion reduced it down to two one known as MCR and one known as NPP you see it stands for multi-dimensional principal performance rubric very few of these have very short names um so last we I actually G nicknames at one point our final discussion and decision occurred during our administrative team meeting last Thursday on the 13th and that led to our selection of MRA all right uh now the rationale for it they have to be research based and this certainly is it works off a Balan leadership framework with links to the 2008 mislick standards uh it's the interstate uh School leader license lure Consortium standards uh which are the basis for many of the instruments uh what we like about it is very explicit in its emphasis on professional growth and learning

077that is consistent with what we ask of our teachers also that the emphasis is on growth and learning uh it's a very focused framework some of these were very very long this is organized into three domains and 21 components making it you know we think focused and very usable uh regarding a very important part and a part that was a concern to many of the administrators uh instruction it points directly to the research-based practices of a district it points directly to them whereas many of the others try to insert some intermediary language that approximated the instructional framework this one says go back to whatever ever your research-based framework is in our case Danielson and allows the administrator to you know keep the Focus right there so that that was very important certainly we think it

078will Foster the conversations regarding the practice that we seek and it is designed to address appropriate change when it occurs this district has been seeing some changes and of all the Frameworks this was perhaps the most explicit and also trying to you know talk about how an administrator would manage that I give you a sense of the the domains and components the first one uh principal leadership responsibilities associated with managing change and see that the things that the administrator would be um evaluated upon categories developing proficient accomplished distinguished not demonstrated usually is not an issue your ability to act as a change agent your flexibility which administrators must have ideas of release intellectual stimulation uh making sure faculties are where of the most current theories and practice knowledge of curriculum instruction assessment monitoring and evaluating

079and optimizing so Inspire lead new challenges and Innovations the second domain focus of leadership you see again the the aspects of it contingent rewards uh discipline certainly you know maintaining order and security important uh Focus clear goals and then keeping those goals the Forefront of school's attentions working with the Strategic plan would work with that uh certainly our involvement in curriculum instruction and assessment and that we're directly involved in helping teachers design curricular activities and address assessment and instructional issues uh maintaining order Outreach to the community and all the stakeholders and certainly managing our resources our budgeting process and everything else and the final one uh our work with creating a purposeful Community uh they have headings such as affirmation communication working on the culture uh of your community and cooperation the input that were

080involving teachers in the design and implementation of important decisions relationships with staff our situational awareness uh so that we you know are certainly flexible on how we adapt to situations and our visibility and getting into classrooms working with teachers and students so you know these are the components of the evaluation system and just this is a screenshot of what one of the Frameworks would have looked like so know as it would work you know the administrator again focusing on the administrator's growth would you know start with looking whether they hit this category and then work it through the check boxes foring proficient to accomplish giving a sense what that growth would look like in each category and you know we are pleas pleased with the uh the choice uh it came from a consensus of

081the administrators and again if there any questions I'll certainly be happy to answer that thank you thank you very much any questions Mr OD clarify um because I want the board to understand the process as well as the community can we initially as a group of six uh so before Administration SP when we looked at the nine um we came up with a very different group initiative um what what changed what do we have to what conversation do we have to have to lead us eventually this decision well the conversation went back and forth a great deal uh very much so uh the conversation is very much focused on the framework and the language and you know what kind of conversation that really would be would it focus on our goals would it focus on

082our instructure would it um adapt itself to our situation our data system you know uh that it was basically flexible to our needs we were not looking for a prepackaged one and many of these as we talk to them would start to say to us well we are going to insist that you buy all of this or that you use this software system or that our training will take your leadership in this direction and we wanted this very much adapted to the goals of the nut school district and because of that I mean we our administrators looking on their own I don't know if we were clear about that and we talking about Marshall and some of the others when we were in um at Panasonic talking to number of the other districts they ended

083up with Frameworks that we discarded um and when talking to them they they ended up with those for the same reasons that we initially I think rested upon them because we were looking at well if we have to buy a whole system which one is least um detrimental to where we want to go as opposed to which framework is most powerful for helping us get where we want to go um they didn't have those conversations and they ended up with a lot of the Frameworks that we ended up discarded before we we got this small group um as Bob said once we really became focused on finding the framework that was best for us and not the package that was least uh damaging um I mean we've had multiple conversations Mr Odell has had even

084more than I with um the sales reps on all these the representatives and I think we frustrated them a little bit because we're coming at them with something new they built these packages based on the requirements of the state and we're finding a different way to meet those requirements um but because of that we don't want their prepackaged that we want the framework and because I think we end up in a much different result people were willing to actually put aside the other things that may be worrisome trusting that we could move past those as a district um and look at which framework was best and we have those conversations on Friday and talk through the language of the framework a lot of the district admitted basically that well I me we look at just

085the framework yes we didn't pick the best one and you know as a group the administrators were committed to having it Thursday was somewhat difficult conversation yes yes it was and uh but I have to say from talking to other districts which you know I do my role going to my my supervisor Association we probably had more of a conversation than any District I know of you know many why did you take this one well it came with the teachers one so we just bought the package uh our conversation was I would say rigorous and extensive and at times a little heated and and I think one of the good parts and we with Friday's incident haven't been able to follow up so much um but all the administrators one of the things they did

086once we came to a consensus is we started ask them to share with us any um of the challenges the framework would would um would pose or any of the deficits we think the framework may have before we even get into it so that we can actually start planning on how to amarate those before we start using them so we're we're not only picking the best framework but we're hopefully going to make the best possible use of it so again thank you Mr Odell for running and researching it and certainly for all the administrators for being part of the conversation our thank you very much start and go around the table okay all right the uh long range facility planning committee met on Monday December 3rd um in attendance beside myself was Miss Flynn Mr

087CA Mr scera M Jan Mr lasic and also we invited Mr Courtright as a representative of the configuration um Str action committee um we interviewed Ross ha from Ross ha Associates in regard to the RFQ that was issued for enrollment rejections redistricting analysis facility planning and Capacity Analysis uh since 1986 Mr Haber has worked with over a 100 school districts providing services in the area of demographics redistricting transportation and information technology um the committee recommends Mr paper based on his strength of his resume his work with districts across the state ranging in size from Newark and Jersey City to milber and West Orange his experience as an educator and planner and the strength of his references um and he is on the agenda tonight um underneath Financial resolution number 10 thank you the academic committee

088met on December 3rd and a quick overview uh regarding what we heard this even in terms of the comprehensive report provided by superintendent laic as well as some of the presentations so it was really a dry run for the um administrators to give us an overview of the program of studies which we saw this evening and as you can see it's an extremely con comprehensive document um along with not being a static document it's Dynamic and that's one thing I want to impress upon the public and my board fellow board members is that in the application of the program of studies it's not something that we're going to try to address in the 11th Hour these are ongoing changes that will be taking place as we move along in terms of addressing our students needs

089so I think that's an important fact that needs to be um addressed in addition I'm uh very I think it's enlightening to hear Mr bny address our group in terms of the uh inroads that we're making with some of the stem ideas in terms of science technology and Mathematics and it's certainly a breath of fresh air of taking this student centered approach and then modeling that with these project Le initiatives by our students and I think that is where we're headed for the 21st century and it's right along the lines of what we propos in our strategic planning document so again that's something that I'm very impressed by in terms of the initiative that we are taking not just with science but integrating that with the whole math sequence as well um the principal valuation

090model thank you Mr oel for doing an extensive and comprehensive presentation and enlightening Us in terms of where we're headed in that direction and again it falls in lines with what we're trying to do with our teachers and I know it's going to be a lot of pressure on this F Las to get those evaluations out but again it's good information that we're going to fold into improving student instruction language arts consultant is that on the agenda tonight I I missed that okay so that's going to be on there as well our comprehensive literacy coach for our teacher so that will hopefully be approved this evening uh we had the math pilot program I know trusty Flynn as well as truste kazinski attended that meeting this past week I think we're going to have another

091meeting this coming January for more vendors regarding the pilot math programs that we hope to produce and last but not least um we talked about our academic calendar I want to say 2013 2014 uh as well as 2014 to 2015 we'll see that on our agenda come March for approval some minor uh tweaks to that calendar that being professional day which usually occurs in February I want to say was moved to election day in November and this provides the opportunity to save an instructional Day in February while eliminating the need for additional safety during election day um I also met this past Thursday with uh Mrs LaGuardia uh Mr Materia uh this was for our curriculum subcommittee for the strategic planning effort and again just a quick update regarding some of the progress that has

092been made in World languages as well as uh I want to say our music program we're going to see some significant changes regarding this comprehensive curriculum review process um that's going to trickle down to science and social studies I want to say come early next year um but speaking to Mr kazinsky concern earlier uh regarding how we want to ratchet this down in terms of our approach with Bal languages and that's something certain that Mr Materia has wrapped his head around I know with this best practices model look at Princeton New Jersey where we have manger Chinese being T at the elementary school level and at some point we hope to get that here in that we but again it's a program that has been historically decimated regarding resources to Target the same GI talented

093so I think it's a commitment or it's incumbent upon us as board members hope advocate for these programs for our children it is so important and vital as we move into the 21st Cur model of education so that's my report thank you Mr kazinski yes Mr President first of all I really want to thank U excuse me our our academic um committee for outstanding job I know we're all here for our children and and we're all we all serve on different committees to to expedite our our final decisions but um in my mind the academic committee does not stand the job I you know want to thank you guys because this this is the results of what's coming of all all our all of our hard work my uh Administration committee is not that exciting

094fact is we had a difficult time this past month had a difficult time this past month getting our committee together because of our busy schedules our busy Lifestyles so um you see what what was discussed but in reality this was discussed between Russell AIC and myself myself and then uh the the reports were I I contacted Mr scol and I contacted Brenda Sherman to bring them up to date on what was discussed at the uh at the meeting with Russell and myself and you'll see uh we discussed the first reading U of the um policies that you see before you we discussed the calendar the calendar the uh public service electric gas which see on the agenda uh The Substitute rate we talked about our facility planning um meeting with we had with Mr scarelli

095uh the athletic update with Mr pyro who also was not able to make our meetings so that was uh rather upsetting but I I moving forward we'll we'll uh we'll make sure that we all are in attendance at our next Administration meeting we did talk about security with Mr lck uh touched on before we talked about some Personnel issues which we discussed in in a Clos session and they're on the agenda tonight um other than that the uh I did discuss with the board members the um the brief discussion that we had with uh the county and Mr scar hly on some work we might be doing on rler school it's ongoing we haven't made any decisions yet the board will be completely involved when we get to that next step but we're not there

096yet thank you the finance committee met on December 11th um many most of the items that uh we discussed at that meeting have actually been covered already this evening I just mentioned they were uh we had the audit report we talked about the bond refinancing we talked about the Red Cliff school we talked about the food service student account which has been published um the grant grad grad cliff and the budget development for 2013 2014 and some of the priorities that going to that budg in addition to those things which I think we we already covered this evening uh we went over the agenda items for tonight including legal Church um thank you Mr President um I'm going to be reporting on our community action team meeting part of strategic uh planning um we met

097uh last week December 12th reviewed uh we actually had a survey uh we put in hockey in hockey Monkey son Survey Monkey apologize for that hockey monkeys are by the equ I said the same apologize reviewed the Survey Monkey for the uh teachers to respond we got 59 responses from teachers uh a lot of them are very good they were engag in discussion about the difference between community service and curriculum based service learning projects uh we identified some of the stronger examples of service loaning projects that we do have um that already exist that we may able to roll over into that type of model for us here um the Community Action team members present examples of starting learning projects guides toolkits uh We R some rubrics actually um we found um through research that

098New Jersey had this program from 1996 to 2010 so we have the 2010 model that stopped the program on the state DOT uh uh Department education do site in 2010 um Maryland still has it we have a rubri we received from them there were some other resources that we did find um eight districts throughout the state that were listed in this program that said they had the program um they've all been called none of them at this time it called is back um so we don't know if it still exists and the there were actually eight municipalities using this plan our next meeting is January 31st Rec School 345 we'll be reading through the highlights and the components of the national plan New Jersey and the Marland models and we will be uh actually beginning

099to write our district tool guide in accordance with that thank you thank you I'd like to report on um the meeting I we had this few two weeks ago I think it was about the character component of our strategic plan um this was our first meeting our strategic plan goal is by June 2017 uh students in N public schol will assume responsibility for the Integrity of an uple student population demonstrating character by their actions in the school and the community and through their own participation monitoring the presentation on CS of Honor so that's what started the discussion um we also discussed the first year of goal is 2013 and everyone kind of agreed that the character committee will have conducted a program review issued appropriate recommendations and completed a draft ethic cor um Mr Odell

100is one of the leaders of this action committee as well as Mr Jones and Mr a um Mr Odell had a um had a u had a had a slideshow that rivaled a little bit of uh trusty reads from last but we're not going to show um but we um but everyone seem to be on board and excited about doing the first year doing the program review um it seems that Nutley has already been involved in character development and kind ofusing in his ccum but there's going to be a closer eye towards it uh doing a full full review of the ccul then come with a draft at culum Mr Odell has set up a Google stock program where Comm members can go on there and sign on and provide their comments and we plan

101to meet shortly again um to move forward um the other thing is I want to talk about just talk to some some of you about the math pilot um uh the presentations presented uh last week about the new textbooks and new I guess buiness kind of like report yeah and I just I just want to go over I was blown away and I think you would all be and eventually I guess we'll be presented full board about what is out there for our kids and I'm very excited that this board has you know built a budget that is focused on providing new type of services to our kids we're also laser focused on making sure our kids have the best possible uh equipment and curriculum and you know now we got to give them the

102materials and these materials out there are amazing iPads and you know for a math they can go online and get tutoring Services provided to them online I I it's amazing what's out there when I you all say it you're going to be blown away um and I'm looking forward to um and and it's also very interesting to see how differently as it relates to math how it can be taught and the reactions of everyone so I'm looking I I I mean I don't know if I go but I think it's really interesting to see how it's changed in terms of having instruction I think it's an eye opener for a lot of people in there and it's really going to move the district forward and I think this board deserves a lot of credit I

103mean and the superintendent and the administration for demanding us but this board has been really focused on it and demanding it and I think with our budget presentes right um the finance committee you know we focus on doing better budgeting better Bud decisions we're putting our kids in a place where they can get these great services so it's going to be thank um I was not able to attend the communications meeting because there was a last minute uh time change but I was fully briefed um what they were able to accomplish um was they did review the year one goal and there were some minor modifications the year one goal and it is I see it's already been posted um by June 2013 Communications committee will utilize surveys and focus group discussions to identify the

104variety of communication needs across the district and develop a seamless plan that integrates existing Technologies to meet this work will culminate with a presentation to the full Board of Education having read that um what I report to you is they have added some Comm uh community members there were seven committee members that were added um that I will give the names to so they can be up you can update the web page um and they did actually create a survey um of about 10 questions um the survey although um was completed and and uh to cover a lot of areas they're going to hold off on actually presenting and see if they can perhaps coordinate with some of the other groups making more comprehensive so some of the areas that the survey touched upon are

105also addressed in some of our other strategic goals of um competency configuration curriculum so they're not going to release the survey yet but they have already come up with a a very um detailed survey to present and the only other item that I wanted to mention along the lines of communication is since you've announced that we're going to have drills I believe at the last meeting there was concerned about the timing of the drills and if they are going to be done during lunch to make it at lunch period I one of the parents so they all work communication boort and there was no um uh date plann for the next meeting next month um although this will probably be my last report on the communications committee meeting as a board member I will be

106staying on the communications um strategic plan committee going forward up as a community member said Thank you And and with that regard Mr kazinski will take place commun oh one other thing uh speaking of replacing uh rad School rep um going forward whoever does take over representation of after school school of Georgia you could please keep them involved in the plans to buing as well hearing of we now come to the portion of our meeting we allow members of the public to address the board in this section we allow questions or comments on only the resolutions addressed in tonight's agenda our board regulations allow 20 minutes for these communications person shall be limited to 3 minutes and we ask you to try to stay within this requirement speakers may speak more than once only after

107all others wishing to speak on a topic have been heard statements conducted me as chairperson and no one may address the board members individually please be reminded that your statement is Du lengthy personally directed abuse of OB seen irrelevant or redundant your participation may be terminated please remember always state your name and address each and every time you address the board first person to speak a step forward see no one I'll close the section portion of the meeting Dr Reed will you move academic resolutions 1 through uh yes Mr President I make a motion to move to academic resolutions 1 through discussion R please no Mr SC yes M chairman yes Mrs pado yes Mr yes Mr kazinski you Administration resolutions three yes Mr President I move Administration resolutions 1 through three as so prepare

108second discussion call R Please Mr Mar yes M yes Mr Kinski yes yes yes Mr yes yes Mr spado we move Finance resolutions 1 through 22 yes I move Finance resolutions through 22 has written [Music] discussion yes yes Mr kazin yes yes yes Mr yes Mr yes Mr yes we're going on to the Personnel I just like to uh recognize and thank those the donations which is in resolution number 20 the r p the matching donation life donation from Rory Riley and from the buiness for advancement of Technology thank you Mr kazinsky Personnel resolutions one and two yes Mr President I move resolutions personel resolutions one and two second discussion R pleas this is the yes M Clint yes Mr gazinski yes yes Mrs yes Mr yes sh yes yes yes hearing of the citizens

109in this section we allow questions or comments on all School related matters our regulations allow 30 minutes for these communications again each person shall be limited to 3 minutes for the TR St in this requirement I stated previously all statements as chairperson and May address board members individually please be reminded that if your statement is to lengthly person directed abusive obscene irrelevant or redundant your participation may be terminated please remember to always state your name and address each and every time you address the board first person wish you to speak please step forward seeing none to close this section of the meeting old business Mr President yes I want reference to the Committees we're working on um in reference to the uh committees that we've been working reaction plan Committee Action team several ones we're

110doing um I'd like to ask because we've all come up with June um deadlines for the agendas to be done that immediately when those are done we have a board retreat or workshop on them um I think we need we should have a discussion on each of those policies and not do it just with as a presentation to us on it um there are different things happening in different committees one to mind that I would like to make sure we bring out and discuss before we got the per policies so I'd like to make recommendation for the board thank reason any other old business new business and I do have a couple things um and I want to write I I put something out on this John but U uh last weekend um two weekends

111ago actually um there was the nly Christmas extr by Mr and I just want to I get a little write up on so I just have to read that I said music is alive in mle high school the nle music is tragan n school was another wonderful uh Canary production I called it uh tonight in did not have to go far to hear holiday music of the past to the classics of the 60s and the present day there were appearances by the famous Rockets the Andrew sisters the Jersey Boys all created by our students in nle high school also appearing was a group called DMM headline it was headlined by a 2010 graduate of Nutley High School majoring in music in Philadelphia and has produced his first CD his name is Daniel fornasa and to

112hear him sing on stage and I I was sitting in the audience and talking about see one of our students where's he from and to learn at the end that actually uh he graduated and has now produced his first CD and is a product of Mr Kary that is success to our music program so I said to everybody if you're really looking for some holiday music and something to do I'd recommend you go and see that and you won't be disappointed um then uh this past Thursday I actually went to the holiday celebration at the high school which is everything included from our our um I have to say if you haven't heard the J the the Jazz lab play uh Zach Kari and his brother's usually at some of our meetings he did the

113arrangement for the music that they performed so it wasn't just an arrangement most you saw all the arrangements as you're going down of the list that were done and I'm looking this one said arranged by Zach clar he actually did the arrangement it was phenomenal the things went on that night from uh Mr aella to the uh the concert to the choirs I mean to the instrumentals to the strings to the uh to the uh choir to the uh quetes if you haven't been to the programs I was in the music program when I was school it was nothing like this we've come a long way and they're doing a great job and I just wanted to let everybody know how well our music program is doing in the school system thank you thank you

114at this time I like to thank and recognize Brenda Sherman who although her stay on a board filling in for vacancy created by Mr Rogers uh become the commissioner uh short but she she pursued this very diligently she gave her all she was 100% And and asked the question was truly engaged as a board member and like to recognize her and thank her for that not going to say much U mostly because I often say I like my actions to speak louder than my words um I've learned a lot I've uh picked up a iPad and an iPhone which any before just so that I can keep Pace with the rest of the board members in our Administration um but it has been a a lovely experience I've enjoyed working with everyone I truly mean

115that uh administrators board members parents uh who I now have a lot of friends on my phone um and I look forward to uh hopefully uh serving continue serving on the communications committee and perhaps in a more meaningful way in the future so thank you everyone thank you there's nothing else at this time we'll be uh joury to close session again after which we'll reconvene and take no further action andern whereas the Board of Education discussing Matters exemp from public discussion pursu to njsa 10 4-12 now therefore it be resolved that the Board of Education assess the close executive session at this time to discuss student matters we further resolve that results of discussion the public by inclusion on the agenda of subing the Board of Education or when the reasons for discussing such matters

116in close session no longer exist second fav