001Gibbs, will you please read the statement of compliance? In compliance with the Open Public Meeting Act, public law 1975, chapter 231, notice of this meeting has been properly advertised in daily record and suburban trends. Its agenda has been posted at the appropriate locations and a copy has been filed with Mequanic Township Clerk. Thank you. Please call the RO. Mr. Bloomer here. Mr. Sesi here. Miss Espazito here. Mr. Gon here. Miss Ao will be late. Mr. Puini here. Mr. Pompeo is absent. Mr. Senic here. And Miss Shenton will be late. She stepped out. We have a quorum. Okay. Will everyone please stand for the flag salute? Pledge allegiance to the flag of United States of America, to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, liberty, justice for all that. Good evening. Welcome
002to our May 27th regular business meeting. I hope that everyone enjoyed the weekend and got a chance to remember those that have made the ultim the ultimate sacrifice for our nation and our freedom. It is said that freedom is not free and I'm thankful to live in this great country under the protection of the outstanding men and women of our armed forces. The board was invited to walk in the parade yesterday and it was a great experience as always. The parade is a great chance to pay tribute to all our veterans, past and present, and be grateful for their service. Mr. Leonard spoke during the ceremony that followed the parade and it was very moving. He spoke about our unity as a town, our unity as a country, and he spoke about the sacrifice made
003by so many. It was very sincere and an emotional speech that really drove home the point of Memorial Day. On behalf of the board, I want to say thank you to all those that have served or are now serving and especially to those that have made the ultimate sacrifice. We are grateful. On another note, I am pleased to report that on May 19th, a tenative memorandum of agreement was reached between the board and the Puquanic Township Education Association. The memorandum of agreement was reached in good faith and could not have been achieved without the hard work and dedication of both negotiations teams. The parties are in the process of mutually discussing and developing salary guides. Once salary guards are once salary guides are agreed upon, the committees will present the terms of this memorandum of
004agreement to their respective groups for ratification. The terms of the memorandum of agreement will remain confidential until fully ratified. Additionally, tonight the board will receive a presentation on the mathematics professional development that we've been supporting over the past few years called conquer math. This is a business in town and we are excited to hear about how this training is helping our teachers as well as our students. Last, I want to congratulate our valadictorian and our saludiatoran. Congratulations. And now I'll pass the mic to Dr. Poris. Hey, thank you, Mr. Senic. I have a few announcements to share of my own. Um, I was fortunate to attend the NJSA conference about a week and a half ago. Uh, the keynote speakers were Principal Weman from Philadelphia, who concludes her announcements at the end of day by
005telling students, "If no one told you they loved you today, remember I do and always will." uh her work was actually featured on ABC News um and it's quite remarkable the impact she's having on young young lives in her community. Um another keynote speaker was a woman named Ally Stroker who was the first wheelchair performer on Broadway and she and her father um shared their story of overcoming adversity and their equation that events plus responses equal outcomes. That one was very inspiring as well. Um, some of the sessions I attended included teaching executive functions to strengthen students academic success. Uh, had a chance to catch up with the presenters after that and I'm interested in bringing some of the um, work that they're doing to our district. Uh, right now they're focused on K to8
006students and they have a partnership with Ramsey schools and we're looking to find out a bit more about that one. Um, ultimately it's a great way to help kids really develop self- advocacy as well as other traits and skills that will benefit them throughout life. I also forwarded some information about uh creating and sustaining effective board norms, a blueprint for governance success. Has some really good ideas I think might be useful for board goals for next year. Uh I also attended a presentation on how new federal changes might impact New Jersey schools. And then another presentation called calm in the chaos navigating behavior management in today's school. And I was happy to be able to share some of the information with that out with a few of the uh few members of the administrative team
007um as he gave some really good strategies for helping to address um student behavioral concerns and be proactive in our measures. Much like Mr. Senic, I'm happy to report that we participated in the Memorial Day parade yesterday. Um several members of the board and I were able to march. It was a beautiful day for it and I just want to express my appreciation for being able to participate. Uh it truly is an honor and I was so impressed with the remarkable turnout and great energy for the community. It was it was uh it was quite impressive. And then finally uh in terms of kindergarten enrollment and placement, we're meeting tomorrow with the elementary school principles to review the final registrations for kindergarten and to finalize placements. Um we will have seven kindergarten classes. We had
008a little bit of an uptick in enrollment. So we are confirmed we will have seven. and Hillview will be housing the third and then the rotation will go back to SJG next year. That concludes my report and I will send it over to Ms. Marada. I believe there's a clicker available on the podium but you can actually click from there. It looks like you already have it. So supervised the allied health academy at the high school, but I'm grateful to present to you about conquer math. So uh conquer math is a workshop um of professional development workshops that's located here in Puquanic on uh North Pump Turnpike. So what we were able to do was form two cohorts of teachers who are attending. We have a total of 40 or so teachers who go. So
009each of the cohorts is attending 2year workshops. So our first cohort started last school year, the 2324 school year, and they're concluding their second year workshop of workshops uh this school year. And then this current school year, we started another cohort of teachers attending and their second year will be next school year. So, just a little bit about the workshops. Um, they're hands-on, engaging workshops. They, uh, utilize a variety of different manipulatives and tools for teachers to learn about. Um Nancy Schultz uh is the consultant who leads the professional development workshops uh with a variety of innovative teaching practices in order to enhance the understanding of math and the foundations of mathematics for teachers who are attending. Um and there are a number of different districts who attend the workshops. It's not just our teachers
010there. So what's nice is that our teachers get to be there with a variety of different districts. Um, and each workshop is specific to the grade level that they're attending. So, what the teachers do when they are attending their workshops, they have anywhere from like four to five workshops in a year that they go to and their topics cover all of the domains in their grade levels that they're attending. So the New Jersey student learning standards for mathematics are broken up into domains of learning and the teachers learn about the specific grade level standards. Um each workshop is domain specific. So it could be something based in fractions, could be something geometry, data literacy. Um it's a variety over the grade levels. And what they do is they engage in a number of different learning
011activities and they use all different manipulatives and tools in order to understand how to teach math best to students. They learn what's developmentally appropriate for the grade level that they're teaching. Um, and they learn the three stages of learning which is CPA. So concrete, pictorial, and abstract. Concrete meaning the hands-on. So if you look at the visual there, just so you understand, the picture's a little bit blurry, but those are connecting cubes. So what you're seeing in that picture are three green cubes and two blue cubes. So students uh in a lower level elementary class might be learning to put numbers together to make the value of five. So you would see that there are three green cubes and two blue cubes and they come together. When you move to the pictorial, that's a number
012bond, those circles up there. So we can now see that the green three represents the three cubes and the blue two represents the two cubes making five. And the abstract is of course the equation then that students come to put together to say that 3 + 2 equals 5. Um the other thing that Nancy offers to our teachers um that we have available to us on the New Jersey Department of Education site are all the released items for um standardized testing for NJSLA. They release items every year and they put them up and we have access to them. But the teachers also get to unpack those tasks, meaning they get to work through them as if they were the students themselves um and work to solve that and understand what exactly do kids need to
013know as they approach solving problems like this. So I surveyed our teachers who are attending our workshops over the course of the two cohorts. So whether they're in their second year and finishing up or they're in their first year. Um in the middle there, these were just kind of some overall results. Um some feedback I got from them. The presenter ratings were overwhelmingly positive. They love Nancy. They have great things to say about her. She's a wealth of knowledge and she's also really approachable. So any questions they have, um she's always so open to talking with them about that. um it's very uh a strong likelihood that they would recommend the workshops to others. Uh they gave it a four out of four rating and the overall rating they are highly satisfied. At the end
014of the presentation there's some comments and um anecdotal things that teachers left. I asked them to share but I also wanted to survey them on some of the things that specifically they're gaining from the workshop. So in terms of understanding their math standards, the usefulness of the material that they're receiving at the workshops, how they're integrating what they're learning into their teaching practice, and then any recommendations they might have and what they found to be some of the most valuable aspects of the workshops. So, in terms of understanding their math standards, I asked them, "How well do the workshops enhance your understanding of the standards for your grade level on a scale of 1 through four?" And 96% rated these as enhancing their their practice and their content for their standards, which I thought was
015amazing. they are saying they gained a lot of knowledge um and it's extremely useful. The material they also said was very useful. So Nancy gives them a binder. It's like a 4 inch thick binder for their grade level and it's comprised of all different learning activities. It's the standards. It's all different resources they can use, samples of different u manipulatives and things like that. So, they love going there because Nancy always gives them something that they can go back with. Um, the other thing that I asked them about was how they're integrating it into their practice. So I had asked them how many of you are currently integrating this and doing it now the things you're learning and how many of you are feeling like you've done it and now you're ready to share it
016with others. And I loved this because more than 60% of them are doing these things as they're happening as they're in the workshops. They're coming back to their classrooms and they're putting it into practice immediately. 30% of them said, "I've done it and now I'm ready to share it with my colleagues." Meaning that they're ready to now do some PD of their own and turn key to their own peers, their own colleagues because they're comfortable enough with it. So, I thought that was great in terms of the now and the next. So bear with me because in the copy you have some of the remarks are a little bit are tiny to see but these this is what I asked the teachers to respond back and just say you know what were their thoughts and
017what did they find to be some of the most valuable aspects of what they're learning. So, a PV teacher at the middle school said that the strategies and methods of instruction and the detailed information about state testing and standards and the questions is what's most valuable. Thank you. Um, I loved that a high school teacher said that the hands-on activities they can do with their students in algebra was one of the most valuable workshops because algebra is so abstract. So, being able to present it to students in a hands-on way allows them to really understand the concepts. So, I loved that. um couple of elementary teachers. Uh this one was especially impactful for me because this teacher noted that they're learning what's appropriate for first graders to be doing and what's not developmentally appropriate for
018first graders to be doing and they're also learning how to teach certain things in elementary that they'll need for years to come all the way down to um to high school all the way up to high school. So, I love that they're able to recognize that as a first grade teacher. Uh, this teacher spoke about the binder of resources that they liked taking with all the different tools and manipulatives that they don't have. Um, this teacher specifically purchased some of her own to have in her classroom. So, they're outside of what we receive from I Ready, which is our core program for math at the elementary. When I ask teachers how they might share ideas, these are some of the responses that teachers shared out. So, the information from the binders, I a lot of
019the teachers have told me they've just been photocopying and sharing with their grade level partners if their partner is not attending one of the workshops. But the way we arranged the cohorts was the first year we had one person from each grade level for any of the workshops we could get them in. And then the second year we filled in any other grade levels that we didn't have attending or the partner for the other grade level we did have attending. Um so the hope is that we have at least two people in every grade level who is in year one or year two of the workshops. Um, this is a high school teacher who talked about sharing the activities with their in-class support teacher, meaning um, I can't remember if this was a special ed
020teacher or a gened teacher, but our our co-eing model at the high school with our special ed and our gened teachers for the math department. Um, they work very closely together. So, I love to hear that they were sharing because I see that them doing that and hearing them talk about that is great. um at grade level meetings, they're already having conversations with one another about the things they're learning. So, it's kind of happening organically, but it would be nice to be able to now put this into a little bit more of um a set motion for our PD days that we're having um next school year collaborating at the workshops, turnkey information, and then I just asked for any final comments um that they wanted to share with me. So, this elementary teacher said,
021"I believe it would be beneficial for each teacher from elementary to high school to attend the workshop with Nancy at Conquer Math. I would also love to attend one of her make and take workshops. Additionally, I think it would be beneficial for administrators to participate in her workshops as well. Nancy is so open about any administrator coming. She allows us to come at any time. We can come in. We don't have to stay the whole workshop. um you can come in and you can out can come out. You don't have to stay the whole time, but she's really um open to allowing us to stay there even if we're not a person who we paid for to be there. And the last one I wanted to share with you all because I love that this
022teacher is reflective. She said, "I absolutely loved attending Conquer Math and I'm sad that I'm almost at the end of year two. This experience changed me as a math teacher and gave me so much more confidence to teach and explore with the students and ultimately that's what it's all about is to learn and grow and explore from there. So what is next? What are we trying to do? So we're looking to improve our math outcomes ultimately. That's the goal with the workshops that we're attending. So, what we're looking to do is evaluate our pacing for math and all of our grade levels, our scope and sequence um for any of the curricular revisions and rewrites that we're going to be doing. Um the math standards change for 2023. And so by this September, we have
023to have them all integrated into our curriculum guides. Um so we're looking to lean on some of this stuff to help us with that. Bless you. Um, we also are working on creating and implementing some guidance documents for teachers to use. So, even though I Ready is our core program, we also want to know what other kind of resources and activities lend themselves best to certain standards and outcomes for the standards. So, being able to offer these guidance documents to teachers are helpful, especially at the elementary level when they can just kind of look at a plan and know, okay, what what's the best way to teach this concept or this skill? We're looking to explore some screeners for K to2, some universal screeners. We have um some that we've looked at and explored for
024ELA, for reading, I think, right? It's for dibbles. So, for math, it would be nice to have something like that um beyond just the I Ready benchmarking that we do um with the diagnostics. So, that's something we're looking to do for K to2. And as I said before, utilizing our professional development days, our grade level meetings, our department meetings for some vertical articulation. So not just our grade levels or common courses talking, but above and below those grade levels as well to have some vertical articulation. So teachers know how are students learning before they come to me? What do they need to know after they leave me? And maybe even a third cohort for Conquer Math if we get the money. If we could do that, that would be great because we do have people
025who asked if they could attend another grade level. So, those who teach multiple grade levels have asked, they want to go back. They love it. So, if you have any questions for me, that's all. Thank you. I have a question. Um, to what extent was Nancy able to sort of tailor some of the workshops and activities to our specific weaknesses in our NJSLA data? So depending on how teachers might be asking specific things like we've gone through with our heat maps that we are able to dig into with our results to know in specific areas. Those are some of the places our teachers are really asking to look at. So different activities for how to teach different things. She's really she's great. So if we say to them like hey listen we noticed that like
026our in fifth grade we really need to work on our fraction work. She'll be sure to curate some resources and things and bring them in. She's really like hands-on like that. It's nice. Thank you. I have a few questions. I have a Oh, sorry. Can I go? Yeah, go ahead. Oh. Um, first, so similar to like, you know, survey that you were talking about with the 96%. Um I found I find like when I have you know in the corporate world when we have these surveys you learn more from that 4% that did not put a three or four. Um were there comments with the survey that showed why that 4% did not find this as a three or four? So we had no ones which was great. Um and one person did say they
027have been teaching in the grade level for a while so felt like they understood the standards but appreciated the other resources that they gained from it. Okay. My other question is, so you said 60% we're using it to I I don't 60% doesn't excite me. So I'm just kind of curious like if we're we're investing in this, right? We've been doing this for a while. I've heard great things about Nancy and Conquer Math and they're all doing this but 60% are using it. So what can we do to push move that needle? Some of it is timing. So they by the time they're in a workshop for a standard domain, they may have already taught it in the school year. So that was the pacing. So they might have already taught it in the school
028year. So now they're thinking about, okay, so for next year, this is what I want to make sure I do when I teach this topic. Um, also we've talked a lot about spiraling and coming back to things. So that's some of the guidance documents that Ann Marie and I have talked about trying to put together for teachers. So if they're teaching one concept, being able to spiral back to something else that they've already taught so that they can make sure that it continues to come up, students have opportunities to practice the skill and in another way of being able to do it again. The other piece of that is the curriculum revisions and rewrites that we're making. So, in talking with the teachers um at their grade level meetings after they've been to the workshops,
029some of the feedback that I've gotten from them about, hey, we've thought about we should reorder uh some of the topics that we did in the grade level. That's been something that we've talked about doing. Um that's been helpful because I can take that back. I can make notes. We can do that. We can kind of try to hurry that along a little bit and make some of those changes in time. others. If it's already happened in the school year, it's a little bit difficult, but at least we know we want to do it for next year. So, I think little by little as we go, that'll help us. Okay. Thank you. Um, real quick, I just I have two quick questions. Um, how are we as a district measuring the effectiveness of the integration
030of of these methods? Like, what data points are we using for student achievement? Well, I think ultimately I know we we're focused on our New Jersey um NJSLA, so we want to increase our scores, but I think even just one point here and one point there is a big gain. Um for a lot of the teachers, learning how to teach a concept in a different way is new learning for them. So being able to be comfortable with the content of their grade level and then being able to implement that. And so I think one of the things in our walkthroughs that we do as administrators and certain observations we have the alternate um observation which a lot of our tenure teachers have made use of because they want someone to come in and help them
031work through something. So, I've worked with some of the um high school and middle school teachers with the alternate observation and they've said like, "Hey, I learned this. I want to try this out. Let's utilize this as a chance to try and see how students are learning from that." I think the other piece about measuring what how impactful it is is to really see how many of us are able to implement this. But I think we need to we need to have our PD days with opportunities for the teachers to turn it. Definitely understand that. I understand the professional development. I mean, I think that as as an educator, I could see where this is phenomenal. And however, as a board member, I'm looking at it as how is this effective with our students? What
032achievement? What growth are they making? Not just necessarily with the NJSLA score, which granted is like end all beall, right? when you're as a district board member, but are we looking at other assessment and criteria within the classroom? Like are our overall math averages increasing? Are we seeing on benchmarks from K to 12 that they're making that improvement? So, what are the data points? But I mean, before we invest another cohort three, right? Is this working for our kids? Sure. Like great, I want to integrate and give the teachers whatever they need, whatever they want, but where is the student achievement? Especially with our math scores for our students learning with the manipulatives and the tools starting from our elementary grades where that is so much of a common practice and then moving up into
033the middle and the high school grades where it wasn't always common practice is a change for them. Ultimately, we want our students to leave us as critical thinkers and problem solvers, which I think is what they're going to gain from looking at math concepts in this manner. They're going to be able to approach a new concept in a way that even if it's a challenge or it's a struggle or something they're unsure of, they're equipped with it. And so I think the way that we measure that is we have to do some small action plans with teachers I think who were involved in the cohorts who are now finishing their second year. Um I'm thinking of one of the activities we did with our algebra and our middle school groups with cups and chips and
034balancing equations. Uh it kind of caught on like wildfire. Even teachers who hadn't gone were like I want to come in and I want to see that. And so they're eager to go in each other's classroom and try it. and they're trying it with their students. So I think even just having like small little action plans with groups of teachers who have gone to see okay how are our students what's the result with our students implementing this activity now do we have more students who are understanding how to do this and then when we measure that on our local assessments like quizzes and tests we might be giving or even on our um benchmarks and diagnostics and we can see in certain areas where we want to grow where we're implementing more handson and concrete
035learning are those the places where we're increasing. So I think being able to kind of pinpoint a specific area and a small group and then be able to measure that because we can look at the domains in I Ready, we can look at our domains um on NJSLA and then we can even do that in our local assessments that teachers are giving. So with because you're talking a lot about I Ready I Ready is our K to 5 program. So then where does that leave us for 6 to 12 in terms of those type of assessments and diagnostics? We have the diagnostic assessment that we use up until 8th grade. Um and we're piloting an algebra one um for here at the high school and at the eighth grade honors level um with I Ready
036because they're branching out. Um, I think when we start looking at some of the information that we get from that, we can find places where I is great. It's our it's our core program. Um, it's it's a great program that kind of just enhances some of those other things that they're learning. the teachers. That was one of the things was are the things that you're gaining from the workshops you're going to how are they pairing with I Ready lessons and a lot of the teachers have said they go nicely hand inand there's a lot of hands-on and it's nice to have another just another way of doing it when teachers need a or when students need a little bit more work with it so it builds in nicely so I think with our I Ready
037it's a nice pairing that's great my concern is that's K through five a a little bit of eight and nine, but what is there? And this is not a you this might be a broader type question is what can we provide for our six or 6 through 12 or 9 through 12? I feel like they're just kind of left out. Um do you know do you know what I'm saying? Am I like am I making sense? Yeah, I totally get it. Um so there's a couple things I think Jill um was making some great points. One, the I already diagnostic is K to8. So if we're looking at using a benchmark data, we have that K to8. The ready math program is separate. That's K5. So that's the actual math program. The diagnostic we go
038through the eighth grade. Um so we can use that to actually look at the students growth yeartoyear. And we're looking at growth is going to be a big uh um buzzword next year for us in terms of um our student growth data. So one thing though I was thinking about when you were speaking is we can actually look at the tests that the teachers are giving each year to see is there more improvement for that. So let's say a second grader they give they're going to give a test on addition and subtraction every year. So can we look at are there more students performing better on our addition and subtraction work each year to year. So kind of like oops sorry um a little bit of a longitudinal study on those type of assessments I
039think would be very beneficial and to see if our instructional practices are improving that that would be one piece. So I I feel like it is easier to really look at that data and diagnose that data from K through six maybe K through 8. So, you know, it's great to look for a K K to2 screener, but I'm kind of like, what are we doing with our older kids, right? Like, cuz that's that is where our scores are a little weaker, correct? Is the older kids. But no, I think we can do the same thing there, Danielle, with the um so for example, like your seventh grade or eighth grade math test. We're still testing the same concepts year to year. So, I think it doesn't matter the grade level. We could do that straight
040through 12th grade if we wanted to because um the standards that we're teaching each grade isn't changing. Yes, we're giving tests on that. So, if we're going to break that down, we could break it down by standard, but if we were at least going to break it down by unit and topic, um are the students improving based on the instructional practices that we're implementing? I think that's what we're looking at. Absolutely. I think that's that's kind of what I was asking. Is there also, and this is again not something that you may be able to answer, but like if there's a K to2 screener, is there something kind of like the ready diagnostic that we could implement within the high school? I know it's not a traditional method. However, it's something or 6 through 8
041that maybe we need to research a little bit to see because we need to improve those scores. So, what can what other data points can we utilize? Because the only way you're going to improve instruction is through data driven data, right? Yeah. I'm Does that make sense? Absolutely. A benchmark for the high school. I know it's easy, but I thought I will look more, but I have not come across one yet, I will say. But for the high school, I think the common assessments that we do across a course would be where we would want to look for that data because um I really don't mind teachers doing like different quizzes. If you have the same teacher teaching geometry or pre-calc or algebra 2, whatever it is, they can do different quizzes because they're as
042as they're working through. Having common assessments at particular points um across the year is really really important to make sure that we are um providing equitable um equitable information and learning across the different um across the course the courses and um so I think that for us is probably the best place to pull our benchmark data from year to year to see that there's growth happening each year and we have link it so like we should be able to easily do that with the linkit information correct or I mean, linkage is just a a warehouse of our data. Um, they don't use the link benchmarks, though. Okay. Yeah. But even Okay. Yeah. No, I I just um I think this is great. This is phenomenal. I'm so happy the teachers love it. It, you know,
043I just want to make sure that it's being effective because that's, you know, and the only way we're going to know that is through the data. Thank you. I want to jump in here as well if I may. Uh, no, that's right. Danielle promised me two questions. She's a liar. Um, that's fine. Uh, no. I want to jump in here. I do want to add on to some of the questions that Danielle was asking, but let's kind of backtrack a little bit for me. Um, I don't need the answer right now, but a reminder of what NY's qualifications are and why Conquer Math versus another one besides location would be really good to know as a reminder of of why we're picking one program over the other. And I love it. Sounds like NY's great,
044but again, I'd like to hear what her qualifications are since we're using all her stuff in the classrooms. Um, so that would be good. But I'd also like to ask, um, we've talked a lot about how the concepts are learned at the workshops and then teachers are implementing them and sharing them, but how is it changed the curriculum from a top- down perspective? So what is it that we've done in the last two years that we said hey in the high school in second grade math at PE at wherever Hillview Dice we have to change this from a top down or is it strictly being brought from a bottom up so teachers are using this and sharing it what what's the gap there which direction is this being driven some things were um easier to
045do immediately so um for example I worked with the fifth grade team this year um as we were starting out the school year, there were certain concepts that were coming that the way we originally had them ordered. We had kind of brainstormed about reordering them and just doing them in a different order. And um the teachers had talked with Nancy and Marie and I had looked at some things and we had just thought uh specifically Anmirie and I had thought it just made sense to do it in a different order than the way that it was because of the way students were going to be introduced from the get-go to the topics. So we had reordered things that way. Um so it's not necessarily like starting from the bottom and moving up. there were certain
046places where we could make those changes like right away as they were happening. Um in other places it's um taking a little bit more collaboration um between grade levels uh or between common courses. So to rethink about how we teach a certain concept or even the tools that we use to teach them. So for example at the geometry workshop the teachers were introduced to patty paper. So this is just like your hamburger patties come separated with that patty paper. It's like tracing paper. It's um that's basically what we're using. But it's helpful beyond geometry even in the algebra classes and utilizing that for things like transformations and stuff. So what we were doing was just even using that tool, but learning how to use that and then now they're having these like explosive ideas about,
047oh, we could actually use that for this and for that. So just the time they need to talk about that and then the time for me to sit with them as the supervisor and make note of where some of those things are appropriate in the curriculum and start putting them into our rewrites and our revisions. I just want to add I think it's um really important to so I've been doing math training um I feel like for a long time now with teachers who um I say the word standards a lot when the standards were introduced in 2010. Um it was a different way of looking at teaching math based on a lot of research and the research came out when most of our teachers were probably still in school. So they were taught a
048different way than the way actually we look to teach students now. So there's a lot of time that I know Nancy spends unpacking the standards and just helping them understand what is it exactly that the standards are asking the students. It's not just about can you get the right answer. It's about can the students explain a process? Can they understand conceptually what it means to add or subtract? Can they understand um with the function work that we're doing in the high school like what does that actually mean? So they they can act so they can teach the kids how to critically think, how to reason better, how to do modeling. A lot of these really higher order thinking skills. Um they need a lot of train all teachers need a lot of training in this
049because one it's not a part of your normal college teacher prep program. They don't they spend like a course on just math. Um maybe and it's like one week you're doing fractions, one week you're doing decimals. There's not a lot of prep in colleges to actually teach students how to learn math. So, the on the job training that we need to give them is where all of this is helping us um leverage. When we can get 40 teachers into PD, how many days a week do they how many times a year do they go? They go like four or five times. They each go four or five times a year. So the leverage that we're getting by utilizing Nancy to help us unpack the standards um teaching us in the standards tape diagrams um basically
050rectangular bars is an amazing visual concept to help students understand how to do word problems how to just take these abstract concepts and put it visually so that they can actually figure out how to create an equation from it or solve a problem without even an equation. Most teachers didn't grow up using tape diagrams. We have some coming through now that have, but most teachers don't. They they tend to teach or they tend to think first how they were taught math. So, we have to kind of do a little bit of rewiring. So, um, one thing I don't know NY's qualifications off top of my head, but I will say um, I am very I I say a lot like I teach the way she's teaching our teachers to teach. So when I hear about
051the things that they do and I'm like yes that is good practice. I know that is what we need to get into um our teachers hands so they can help our students that concrete pictorial abstract method is evidence-based researchbased on how students learn math best and it's not just in K to2 it's K to 12. So getting our algebra teachers to understand how to use algebra tiles in the classroom and realize that is a huge huge benefit and t and we should be doing that. It's not an extra, it's we have to do that with our students to help them learn how to complete the square, etc. blah blah. Yeah. So, um I just wanted to add if that helps a little bit. It does. So, I I have two followup questions. I want to
052let others talk uh as well or ask their questions as well, but so in the last two years, um you've mentioned professional development days several times. I agree. It sounds like it's something that we need to get with all our teachers together and dis, you know, disseminate all the information. How many times have we used professional development days to take lessons from Conquer Math to the teachers? How many times have we actually done that in the last two years at the secondary level at the ones in the district calendar? You mean correct of those? Well, this year we used our February and our March day. So, our department meeting time. So in those two days we had department meeting time and last year I think we had another couple of days that we were able
053to do it. I know at the secondary level in the department meetings I'm able to coordinate that a little bit easier and then at the grade level meetings those have probably happened. Okay. I' I'd like to get a better idea of how we're utilizing that again if we're going to invest in in further um doing this. And then just a followup based off of the results because I do think it comes down to the kids, right? I think it's great that the teachers love it and they're using the tools and they feel like they've gotten a lot out of it. Is there anything over the next couple weeks based off of all the things that we have to track data that we can look at the last two years and say this is where it
054made an impact positive or negative or not at all. Um do we have something that we can concretely look at based off the last two years and that's it for me. So I got a couple questions. Uh the first one is Anmarie, you kind of answered it. The um the overarching theme uh that the data presentations has essentially been we look at the assessment data at this point we're getting very granular with it down to the point where we can understand okay this question related to this standard caused a student to either fall below or above a certain line and if we can pinpoint that particular type of student then we could move the scores generally up because we're right on the cusp and then that went to okay well then logically we're going to
055seek out some kind of training for our teachers that are going to specifically address the things that are required to be taught in the classroom that address that apparent deficiency. So my question was going to be is the professional development at Conquer Math in line with that and and is it being lined up with what we see the deficiencies are in the assessment data that we're analyzing. And you kind of answered it and said that she does go over that where she goes into the standard and says, "Okay, this is what you have to teach to address this standard." So, I I like that we're lining that up because I think that and I'm not a teacher obviously, but I think that if that's a logical linear line that you can say, okay, this is
056what the assessment from the state is showing. This is what we need to improve teaching on or uh teach better and then teach the teacher how to teach that and then the student will obviously benefit. I think this is only the second year that we've done conquer math and the first year was smaller. So last year we did it but it was smaller. This year I guess we doubled it. So I was hoping we would start to see results but I don't I wasn't expecting to see it yet because it's been this is like been the second year that they've actually seen it. Um so but I'm glad to see that that connection is being made by her to actually go down the line and hit where we think the deficiencies are. The second thing
057I wanted to ask you was um you had mentioned that you're exploring screeners sort of in the line of dibbles. Do you have any picked out yet or do you have any at the at the front of your mind that you're thinking about or is it something that you're still exploring? We're still exploring it. I don't have one in particular. I don't like almost all the ones I' we found only because I'm very particular about what I think we should be screening for. So I keep telling Jill we just need to make our own. Um but there's there's several Aadians. Um Georgia Numeracy Project has one. Um Acadians Math has one. Forefront Math has one. So we're looking we're looking at them. I feel they don't we talk about granular. I feel they don't go
058deep enough. I feel they're too too high like they're not high level questions, but they're just it's like surface. like I can figure out really quickly um particular things, but I want something that just goes a little bit deeper that our teachers can actually use as a preassessment to know that this is what they're missing for this concept coming up and this is what I have to scaffold in to help them when we get to that on-grade level concept. I know they're missing this. So, um that's our challenge with the screeners and math because there's just not as much out there that's as dibbles has been around for a long time. Um, math. We're there. I feel like people are just starting to get into it. Um, so I feel like we just need to
059make our own. Um, but we'll figure that out this summer. All right. Thank you. I have a couple really basic questions. So, thank you. This was really informative. My first is from a cohort perspective. How many what's the breakout between elementary versus middle versus high schools? That's sort of my first. And is our goal to have 100% of all high school math teachers go through this first before we do I I'm also not a teacher. I would think conceptually it's probably easier for elementary school teachers to share concepts than it would be for the high school teachers. I don't know if that's true or not. So I sort of want to understand your rationale on that first. The workshops are broken up by grade level. So that's easy to do K to8 um because each
060grade level has a workshop. So there's a kindergarten one, a first grade one, etc., etc. until 8ighth grade. Um after that, then there's an algebra one, and it's for both algebra 1 and two, primarily foundations, and then geometry. That's as far as those workshops go. Um, so it expands into the high school, but once you get to algebra and geometry, it's course-based. Um, and then that's how the standards are anyway. So they're broken up by the standards. Uh, in the first year cohort, we had first grade teachers, fourth grade teachers, fifth grade teachers, then one sixth, one 7th, 1/8, and algebra, an algebra group. In the second year, we were able to get into the kindergarten, the second, the third. We were able to fill in again with um more fourth grade teachers, more fifth
061grade teachers, um another seventh, another um the eighth grade one didn't have just in general the workshop did not have a lot of participants. So that one was concluded and the person who was attending for that attended another grade level workshop because he works in both grade levels anyway. So that was helpful. And then we did the geometry one so that we were able to span it. Um, and then we added two teachers to the algebra 1 as well. So we have the majority of our teachers who are teaching our academic levels at the high school are attending. So it's nice because those who are teaching algebra 2 are attending the algebra workshop so they can plan accordingly that way as well and kind of connect. No, that's great. Thank you. Sort of bringing it
062back to math scores in the high school and so making sure those teachers are getting the support that they need. Um, and then my last question and you answered this but I just want to make sure I heard it correctly. So when we talk about information sharing obviously there's informal meetings teachers there was those comments teachers are talking to each other you're going to meetings to sort of share information there's talk about putting together guidance documents would they be done per level per concept I I'm thinking about a new teacher joins tomorrow and what can we give him or her to help them sort of acclimate and and learn how we do things here exactly and I think we found too for um our elementary teachers as well who are teaching all subject areas, a
063guidance document is helpful to know when you're teaching concept A, there's also an opportunity to bring in something else to go along with it because they're generalists. So being being able to pair all of that together nicely is is a nice marriage. So helping to put those guidance documents together for them with things like measurement um things like data literacy because data literacy is new now the measurement and data domain is split up um into measurement and data literacy. So uh that was a new workshop that came on in this year as well. So that was newly added which is nice too because now we're seeing about how where literature is in math and how to use data literacy in the math classrooms. Um, did you want to say anything else about the um, so
064guidance doc documents are slightly different than the curriculum and I love that you said the newest teacher because that's what I'm constantly I have been saying a lot lately is I want to have something in place so that even a leave replacement teacher or the newest teacher can walk in the door and be like, "Oh, this is what I'm supposed to do. This is how I'm supposed to do it." Those do take time. um when I've developed with them in the past, they they take time to put together and we have a lot of grade levels. So, um we're looking at um which grade levels do we want to attack first um in order to get the biggest bang for our buck. Um the other piece is we have to revise the curriculum um to
065meet the new mass standards, too. So, we've got a lot of writing work to do that I'm hopeful that we'll grab some teachers this summer to help us do that. Um, but this is going to be a um a journey in order to get it to the point where I feel it's something um a that a teacher has a full year, they're ready to go um no matter whether they're a brand new teacher coming out of college or they've been here for 10 years. Yeah. No, that's great. I mean, I'm sort of thinking about like the question came up earlier and we teach the standard, we then go and learn how to teach the standard. If I'm not teaching that for another year, if I'm not documenting that and have fantastic notes, I'm not remembering
066what I learned about teaching that standard 12 months later when it comes around again. So, we have a great group of teachers in Puquanic who are phenomenal about communicating it. Like, as soon as something happens and as soon as they do it, they're like, "Hey, we need to do this." So, they'll email me, they'll text me, they'll reach out to me, they'll grab me when they see me in their buildings and they'll be like, "Hey, we just learned this. We did this. this. I tried it with my students. It was great. We need to make sure that we do that. So, we make note of it. Like, they're they're fired up about it. They do get excited about it, which is it's it's really nice to see. Thank you. Thank you. Very good presentation. Thank
067you, Mr. Gibbs. Do you have a report? Yes. Good evening. On May 14th, I was able to negotiate a better percentage increase for the high school meals for the 2025 2026 school year. The percentage increase is 3.2% for all schools instead of 3.6% for the high school. This represents a 15 cent increase per meal for all schools and a copy of the breakdown has been provided to the board for their approval. On May 15th, Mr. Bloomer, Mr. Hendricks, our appraiser, Mr. Anderson, and I visited 494 Newark Pompton Turnpike office that is for sale. It was an orthodontist office that is currently abandoned and is in need of a lot of work. On May 20th, I contacted a representative from Jeffrey Realy regarding a building for sale on Route 23, formerly known as Plaza 23 Diner.
068The purchase price of the diner is $2.7 million. On May 20th, the school district received an OPRA, which is an open public record act request regarding copier leases. The request was honored on May 21st in accordance with state guidelines. On May 22nd, I received a copy of the appraisal for 494 Pumped in Turnpike. The appraised value for the building is 575,000. Thank you. I'm sorry. What was that over? I apologize. I didn't hear that. The copy releases. Okay. Yeah. Any other questions? Um, did you want to add anything to that? Uh, yeah. just to bring it back to the Conquer Math presentation and I really appreciate Jill, you're coming out here today and obviously Emry being here um to talk about it as well. Something that I wasn't aware of until I went to some
069of the trainings and this is about 10 years ago when I was still a principal was um how much she does to help to instill confidence in teachers and their ability to apply strategies. I I find that often times as public school educators were resourceri and strategy poor. And I like that one of the comments from one of the elementary school teachers was that she felt so much more confident. And that's really critical. The two areas where people tend to have the greatest degree of uncertainty about their skill is in math and in writing. And often times that's reflected in achievement levels because the teachers don't feel like they're necessarily good enough at it. So if they have these strategies that'll certainly help. And something else I think is great too is that we'll have
070vertical professional development that's articulated. So the kids are going to be learning almost a shared language as they're using different strategies in their math classes and they'll carry that language up through the different grade levels. And the teachers won't in fourth grade won't be saying, "Wait, what what what was that terminology we're using?" Because it'll be consistent with what's in second, what's in third, what's in fourth, and and so forth up the line. Um, and one other thing I thought I thought was great about it too is this this concept of a train the trainer because your your your best your best trainers are those who are are practitioners. And so if they're actually putting into their classrooms, they'll get the buy in from their colleagues um and they'll also be reinforcing their own skills.
071So, um, just a few things I just want to chime in about because I think it's really important that we're we're focused on this. Our teachers feel supported and as their confidence rises, we expect that student performance will will rise to a level commensurate with that. So, so I would chime in with that and once again express my appreciation for your work with this and also your presentation of it. All right, with that, I'll open it up to public comment on an agenda item only. And there, since there's no public here, we'll close that and move on to approval of the minutes. I'm going to ask Miss Ikeo to please move the minutes. Sorry, I closed the tab. I'd like to move the minutes from my gosh, 28th. Thank you. April 28, 2025 and May
07212th, 2025. Second. Any questions or discussion? Mr. Gibbs, please call the role. Blame. Yes. M. Yes. Mr. Gib, yes. MO. Yes. Mr. McManey. Yes. Mr. Pompeo. Yes. To April 28th. Abstain to May 12th. Mrs. Chanton. Uh, also yes to April 28th. Abstain to May 12th. Mrs. Espazito. Yes. And Mr. Sing. Yes. Motion carries. Okay. That brings us to approval of our action items. And I'm going to ask Miss Shen to please move the items under PMC. Absolutely. I would like to move PMC um 227-25 through PMC250-25. Second. Any questions or discussion? All right. Mr. Gibbs, please call the role. Mr. Bloomer, yes. Mr. Sesi, yes. Mr. Guten, yes. Miss Ao, yes. Mr. McMeeney, yes. Mr. Pompeo, yes. Mrs. Shenton, yes. Mrs. Espazito, yes. And Mr. Senic, yes. Motion carries. All right. I just want to
073say thank you and congratulations to uh you, Mr. Gibbs, for getting an extension on your contract and hopefully see more good stuff add in the future. Thank you. Appreciate that. Thank you. All right. Uh, next up, CIS. Miss Esto, would you please move the items under CIS? Sure. I'd like to move CIS 85-25 through CIS 91-25. Second. Any question or discussion on CIS? Yes. Um, I'd like to ask Dr. Poris to expand on CIS 8525 for the Rucker ELLL ESL. Yeah. So, that's something that we entered into an agreement with Mr. Rodriguez uh back on February 9th of 24. Uh he had expressed an interest in gaining English language learner certification, which is something that um we in our memo to him identified as a critical staffing need. So, we are working with him to
074ensure that he gets the requisite uh coursework done as well as certification so that we can have an additional ELLL teacher on staff. Um, this is something that's mutually beneficial not only for Mr. Gonz Rodriguez but also certainly for the district. And we also have something in the agreement that if he were to get said certification and then leave here, he would be responsible for compensating us back. That's exactly what I was looking for. Thank you. You got it. That's great. Thank you. Mr. Gibbs, please call the role. Mr. Bloomer, yes. Mr. Sesi, yes. Mr. Mr. Gon, yes. MOO, yes. Mr. Mcweeny, yes. Mr. Pompeo, yes. Mrs. Shanton, yes. Mrs. Espazito, yes. And Mr. Sen, yes. Motion carries. Okay. Next up is FFA. Mr. Bloomer, would you please move the items under FFA? Yes. I'd
075like to make a motion to move FFA 167-25 through FFA 188-25. Second. Any question or discussion in FFA? Yeah, I have one question. uh on FFA 18225 the addendum uh for the management fee and guarantee language was there any sorry I didn't ask this sooner was there any change in that from previous years in terms of the 8 cent fee per dollar did you say 18 what you asking uh it's the uh sorry 182-25 my bad uh school lunch prices there's an addendum uh management fee and guarantee language Was there any change in that fee from previous the previous year? This is an extension to the existing contract. It extends the contract for another year. Okay. Right. Did there was no change in the fee then? There's no change in the what? The management fee
076and guarantee language and the addendum. I don't believe so. Um, they did increase the prices as I mentioned earlier on the food and that's all incorporated into that. Right. Okay. All right. Thank you. Anything else? All right. Mr. Gibbs, please call the RO. Mr. Bloomer, yes. Mr. Sesi, yes. Mr. Giddon, yes. Miss Ao, yes. Mr. Mcmey, yes. Mr. Pompeo, yes. Mrs. Shenton, yes. Mrs. Espazito, yes. And Mr. Sen, yes. Motion cars. I'd like to take a moment just to thank Exxon Mobile Education Alliance Program as well as the PTHs Association of Music Parents for their generous donations. All right. Thank you, Mr. Bloomer. Next up is public comment again. And since there is no public here, we will close that and move on to unfinished business. Any board member have any unfinished business? How about
077new business? Board member announcements. Uh, yep. I I uh attended the May 14th MARS ESC meeting. Uh item to note is the declining enrollment that they have in their uh special needs school. It's now down to 19 students. Uh was it I think it I think they said back in 2020 sorry 2001 there were 144 students. So it's gradually it's dropping every year and that's mainly due to most stu most districts keeping their students in district for for financial reasons and also it's better for the students. Um so they are looking at what they're going to do with their school in the next couple of years. Next year they'll be down to 16 and in 26 27 they'll be down to 12 students unless they get uh more students coming in which doesn't seem likely
078because student most districts are keeping students in house. Um that's it for that meeting. Anybody else? Okay. Uh we do have consideration to go into executive session. We will discuss student matters and evaluation of the CSA. No action will be taken and we will adjourn from there. Our next meeting will be June 9th here at the high school. Is there a motion to go into executive session? Motion to go into executive session. Second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Good night everyone.