001I'm going to address them in a session. Board correspondence that we have in the youth project journal. We don't update the library's correspondence that I've actually posted correspondence that I'll share either now or during my comments. I want to make sure I follow the process. I received a thank you note from Mayor Lontai from Warren Township because this past weekend our drama director, Mr. Peter Martin, and his students helped with the haunted graveyard tour in Warren. So Mrs. Beck, who's serving on the town's 250th committee, connected them with Mr. Martin. And they've already been making plans for next year because this year, I guess, went so well. So this was part of the 250th anniversary celebration and it was designed to both entertain and educate, bringing local history to life in a fun and engaging
002way. Thanks to Mr. Barton's leadership and the enthusiasm of his drama club students, the tour exceeded all expectations. Their performances were creative, well-researched, and wonderfully improvised, capturing the spirit of our community's rich past and delighting attendees all evening. Mr. Martin's dedication and generosity in volunteering his weekend and investing significant time and effort did not go unnoticed. His professionalism and passion clearly inspired his students, who in turn demonstrated exceptional talent and teamwork. She also included some pictures, and I believe she's going to be sending each student a look or a song or a few things as well. So that was something really nice. We've actually been very active. Mrs. Fink has been coordinating all of our involvement with the town's 250 activities. And I believe Ms. Process Group is going to be speaking at our Social
003Studies Department meeting. Yes, I think so. Yes. And a couple other items. I don't know if, Julia, you're going to talk about homecoming in your report. And Sophie, who is not here because she's performing at our concert this evening, was actually home. She's a player representative. Lastly, I just wanted to mention today was Media Literacy Day, and we had spoken about that in the head committee. It was our first annual Media Literacy Day. I did get to see some of the panel. There were presentations in here. It was a very productive day, and I think a successful first go at media literacy. So it's everyone's process, and again, it's so apparent, so I want to go to the test, but it's happening. So with that said, sanctioned an authorized report on this theory. The committee
004is the reason why we make it U.A. school. I will get the support from our students because no one else seems to care about them. My kids had already graduated school. They were not part of any savings. The front driveway at the school as they arrived, it was overseen by Kelly Sheehan, who was our transportation coordinator. And all the drills went over well. So that's good. Exploiting reactive art. Her paper was published in the November issue of Curio at the Montmore School events. School Night was held on Thursday, October 9th. The faculty did an excellent job of sharing art. parents. In the atrium, parents were able to obtain information regarding co-curricular offerings. They were able to meet with out-school counselors who were also accessible in the main. PTO representatives for President's Register and Informed Events
005and Project Graduation Reps were there to reach out. We are pleased to report the exceptional success of our recent Fall Club Fair, which saw outstanding students turn out and featured positive representation from every active club. This high level of engagement was largely due to the suspension of lunch lunch. which allowed students to maximize their time to connect diverse extracurriculars. The vibrant atmosphere was further enhanced by the energetic contributions of our DJ, Mr. Wyatt, and the turntable to add excellent ambient music during the club fair proved to be a powerful vehicle for fostering new student connection. On Friday, October 3rd, the Watchtower is marching into Mr. Dahlia's, acting old tradition, middle school band night, welcoming over 77th and 8th grade students for our Sunday edition. The middle school students spent the afternoon rehearsing alongside the marching
006warriors. Learning hour stand tunes and fight songs were performing together under the Friday night lights at Tozer Stadium. It was an exciting and memorable experience that showcased the incredible enthusiasm and energy. We are pleased to announce the overwhelming success of our pink themed homecoming, the first on-campus dance held in quite some time. The dance took place on Friday, October 10th at 7pm and 5-6. A total of 242 tickets were sold. demonstrating strong enthusiasm from our student body. Students were treated to a memorable evening of dancing, music, Chick-fil-A, and fun with their classmates. A member of students served as volunteers for the Somerset County Journal, the Social Studies Department, or the historic Jacobus Vanderbeer House in Bedminster on October 13th. Mr. Murray's civics class ran a voter registration drive on October 16th and 17th for our
007students who are at least 17 years old. Some of our scripting students participated in Warren's Haunted History on October 24th and 25th at the Mount Bethel Church Cemetery. Kean Dean and Professor Jonathan Perkins-Hill spoke to the Social Studies Department about the physiography of the Revolutionary War. And Mrs. Petroca is leading the initiative to have students make holiday cards. This update for this month is as follows. Congratulations to our September Athletes of the Month. Tyler Ashnall, volleyball, Lilla Bellish, tennis, Lillian Bengelsene, cross country, Mia Flores, field hockey, John Luca Menino, soccer, CeCe Miller, soccer, Omar Mahal in cross country, Dylan Nunes, football, Sydney Paradise, gymnastics, and Ryan Prinzeval, cheer. And to go back there for our board. How did it go? Okay, so this is the last in our installment of presentations for the time being.
008So tonight we just have each of our department heads or executive supervisors and our directors presenting on their areas of focus for this year, which are still aligned to our current strategic plan, which I know that the goals are things that we've talked about that are not going away, even if they may be adjusted a little bit with the new year. So it's still certainly very appropriate to continue working on these. So we have each department just sharing very briefly about their areas of focus for the current year. So I think the first couple slides, maybe I probably referenced the strategic planning case. If any of you haven't seen it, if you just want to go back to that, we still have it. Yeah, isn't that pretty? Just a reminder of our strategic plans that
009are set to expire. Our first court team meeting a few weeks ago, and we've struggled so far. And this is all just part of the cycle of continuous improvement. I include this slide in almost every presentation. talking about our progress, we're talking about our goals. Some people it's unsettling because you never are done because you keep going every other cycle. That's what makes Watchdog Hill such an outstanding learning community because we are constantly reassessing, reevaluating what we're doing better and how we can be better tomorrow than we are today. So now I think I get to turn it over to Ms. Scheiderman, our professional development goals for the year. And goal number one this summer, the general book study was the next generation new educator review of our multi-sports, counseling services, pre-referral interventions, 504s and
010IEPs. The staff were introduced to our RAMP health and wellness coaching program, which is for our faculty and staff, and also an overview of Do What Matters Most, which is ongoing professional learning that assists employees with prioritizing tasks. And just to show you the thread of the website. Doing what matters most began in 24. So these are not wanting. He's a physical therapist, a wellness coach, and he's been in professional learning communities as well. Continued sessions on 504s, on an RST, understanding the impact of anxiety and trauma. And that was for Rutgers-Waitebrook. And our PLCs continue. Second area of focus. In August, the arts department assessments through the... And they had a follow-up. Special Services held a session on a tool for differentiation, DFID. There was a session on college admission trends and writing recommended
011letters, a session on differentiating instruction with peer assessment, and also universal design for learning. October, the counselors all went out to Raritan Valley and community college and learned about their academic programs, arts design, health sciences, and STEM, career training programs, Center for Accessibility and Inclusive Education. honors college, dual enrollment, early college options. And back here on campus in October we had sessions on Inclusion 101, which is part of a New Jersey inclusive education grant that was being managed by Lord D'Amato, our director of special services, and that work is going to continue all year long in addition to the PLCs for differentiation. We have a session. differentiation supporting multi-level learners as well as developing student leadership which is as I mentioned there's a facilitator who worked with the administrators in the summer of 2024. And
012our last area focused technology and I this year August PD we had artificial intelligence applications notebook, LLM, and Canvas utilizing artificial intelligence to support instructional decision-making artificial intelligence integration and common assessments, and ethics and artificial intelligence. October, we have 3D assessments in AI integration and workshops on Desmos. And we have two PLCs running on this topic this year, one on artificial intelligence and technology, and the other on design thinking and the design lab. So it's a very comprehensive professional learning program, lots of continuity, and aligned with our strategic. It's my pleasure to introduce you. Thank you. We're assessing a support climate survey and presented the program for the Raritan School District, a somewhat similar version of a multi-tiered system support model program, and just really honestly spending two hours just training ideas. First of all,
013ours, doing our school climate team, this PLC that Ms. Scheiderman mentioned, our crisis response team that we have. Additionally, we're working on post-secondary and career readiness practices, so to get a particular focus for the school council department and make sure we're diversifying our conversations and our offerings. that best prepares students for successful future careers. Great levels with making sure of what we offer here. And also we're looking to make sure that we're furthering our focus on our outreach, let's say first-generation college students who have been a success. And then finally, I know Mr. Motto is going to speak to the walls of Washington Hills while they're here for your internships and have been a part of that this year, as well as, I know it's a shy man rather, community college visit that we did
014with a college program overview, but we're focusing on it in the school. And I would like to ask Ms. DiMato to come up to speak about the special services department. Good evening, everyone. So we have some great pictures up there. On the left, we have our Unified Chorus Program. Once a month right now, we've got Ms. Bird and Mr. Johnzano. Our gen ed students, our special ed students coming together to do some fun activities, including karaoke. And on the right, you can see our Unified Fly Football Team, which is sponsored by the Jets. That's been a great success this year, and we're looking to grow that in the future hours in our department. Coming up this year, we showed your own piece of programming. We look to continue those types of programming. We're working on
015an activity of Bajiball event coming up. We're looking at the potential of doing a unified bowling committee and, again, growing our flag football team. Our second goal is identifying ways to enhance our programmings in our CARES program, which is our LLT Self-Contained program, as well as our OCR Pull-Out Resource Room program. We want our kids to have access to the general education community and to the curriculum, but also modified at their level and at their ability. The last goal for special services, these two are to expand our career internship program. Mr. Spino mentioned them previously. That program is growing. There's a lot of interest in that program. Last year we had about eight students in there. This year we're at 13. So we're looking at different opportunities for those students and different staff members to
016help us out with that program. Any questions? Mr. Bertelli, I'm going to hand off the mic so don't drop it again. Quick shout out to Mr. D and the band. for a phenomenal performance today in the New York Center. It will be up on the PAC website if you guys want to stream it. The sound quality for our live stream sound boards. So, no pressure for any upcoming players. So, anyway, congratulations. This year, the Arts Department had two goals. Our first goal, everybody's, all our teachers' favorite goal is to analyze. data. So we'll create books to identify assessment inconsistency. This will help us collaborate and develop. Secondly, Ms. Shatterman noted that we are inviting Michael and me back for a third opportunity in a few short months to address the board and update on our
017progress in the tested areas. I'm not going to say the L word. because we have already heard about literacy and how well or not so well it was accepted. I'm going to share our two goals this evening, but before I did, since I'm not planning on coming back in November or December, I did want to mention that we are going to lose some very big talent here from our members. I know you're waiting with bated breath to hear about science and reading. But I would be remiss if I didn't shout out to the members of this board who have been nothing but here for students, here for innovation, here for diversity, here for making this one of the best schools in the state of New Jersey. I have visited many. I just want to say
018to the three people who are definitely in support, they're going back over our time together. Although we didn't always agree, I would argue that most of us were always here for the right, looking at this route tonight, looking at the books, seeing the tech, seeing all the things that were planned and worked as a team with Dr. DeWitt. You know, Bob had the first strategic plan meeting looking over since this is our third one together, and both Dr. DeWitt and Beth were there. I also went to the Kennedy night. have a chair brought in gracious. I will say that we are fortunate that we have seen people learn so much from you. And I always appreciate multiple perspectives, so thank you. Okay, so what would all of us in here tonight agree? Reading is a
019fundamental foundational skill. So over the past 40 years, a preponderance of evidence about what constitutes a good reading has been, you know, the research has been Well done. However, there are still three myths that are misunderstood about reading. I think all of us remember that first time we finished a chapter. And one thing that has come out in the research, reading is not natural. Reading is not like walking and talking, for those of you who are toddlers or those of you who have grandchildren. Teaching kids to look at pictures and then skip words or guess words. based on context will not develop the strategies necessary for a high-level reading. There are a hundred ways of learning to read. There are not. Reading research tells us reading must be systematic, intentional, engaging, and data-driven. So throughout
020the year, the English department will be focused on data-driven. and research around the science of reading, some of the top reading strategies that work with high schoolers. Many of you think science of reading is only reading groups or days of reading, but that is not true. So one of the best books is written by Michael Opitz and Timothy Rosinsky. It's called Goodbye, Robin Reading. Now, there are 25 reading strategies. Of course, I'm not going to do tonight. But our five favorite are to think aloud, introduce imagery, direct listening with a thinking activity, paired reading, and say it like a character. So we're using our novels and our standards to help all our students, whether or not they're reading at a college level or they're reading at a middle school level. So we're excited about this
021work, and we look forward to seeing you again in June. Day two. I really thank you. So, for our department this year, Mathematics and Business, we're really focusing on AI. You may have heard about some of that. We've changed this summer for testing and school performance, but we're looking at leverage AI. So, really go back upon the history of student performance is taking place and how that can shape our career. Students are very excited about that. The AI we typically use here is Gemini and Notebook LN. So we are looking way back into the data to see how, not just at some of these that we provide to you, but other, looking at both mathematics, shared assessments. We don't have midterms and finals here. The day when I first started, I don't want to get
022any students nervous or anything, but we are looking to create more shared assessments among teachers who are teaching the same class. That does a lot of things that make sure that there's... There's some checks and balances in the curriculum that also indicates that we have data that is performing in one class or performing differently than others, so shared assessments. And this past October, we had a Desmos presenter. By this time, I spoke about Desmos graphing, calculating, and we completed a three-year journey in this. And I'm really proud to say that next year, the department is transitioning. to the Desmos online handheld Texas Instruments. Why is that exciting? It's not because I'm a math nerd or anything, but it's exciting because we won't have to have our parents pay for a $130 calculator. Typically, sometimes lose
023it. Also, during their 40, we're taking advantage of the technology that's afforded to us. The Desmos online graphic calculator is right through the student books. So it is taking, it took a while because there are a lot of enhanced features on Desmos and we do have to train teachers on those and we have. We've been successful and I'm really looking forward to that because it's going to change the learning with Desmos online. Amazing. So just if you want to tonight while you're listening to the concert that Mr. Patelli suggested, go onto your computer and just type in Desmos Graphic Calculator and you can play on that at the same time. Thank you for listening. So next is Ms. Gina Heidemann, supervisor of science. Up there, the first picture is a trip that our marine science
024student, Sandy Hook, they were actually out there catching various types of fish to see what was available. On a rainy day, these kids really, they put on those waders and were right out there. They were like champs out there. It was a great trip. Those are our Terra winners. Last year, they actually participated in our science fair and then also participated in the Terra State Fair. And they did get an honor in there. And then our beautiful new design lab, a homemade roll-out this year. So science has two really important goals that end here. And the first one is to design lessons and assessments that are focused explicitly connecting the science and engineering practices, disciplinary, cross-cutting concepts. And you're probably wondering what those are. The science and engineering practices include analyzing data, designing their own
025experiments. Disciplinary core ideas are the basic science standards that we're supposed to be focusing on, and the cross-cutting concepts include such topics as patterns, analyzing, looking at scale, proportion. And then our second area of focus is effectively the use of AI tools and strategies. And in our first full-day PD, we had... people who felt very confident with AI and some people who were scared to use it and the board just said I don't have time to even dive into that and this year we spent a good amount of time just sharing how everybody uses it and coming up with new ideas and already some of the AI tools that we introduced during our PD Teachers have come to me and said, we've already revamped some lessons, and it went really well, and kids are seeing
026them do it from last year, seeing them doing these new lessons and saying, why didn't we do that? So we're already seeing some progress and a lot of learning going on. I need a bit of a surprise here. I canceled some of the journey through the past. Those two students on the right are at the Dr. Vermeule House in Greenbrook volunteering their time. I know some of the, unfortunately, on Sunday, some of the events were canceled, but they were good sports, and they went out anyway and volunteered their time for the community. So, Dimaggio had shared with you from Ed Committee a lot of what we were doing in the Rev NJ 250 celebration, so I'll just kind of go through that quickly. We are a revolutionary NJ 250 school, which is exciting. We are
027going to focus a lot of that on our local history. We've had Warren come and speak to us and we are having Long Hill next and hopefully we will reach all four sending districts. We're doing some oral histories that the communities have asked us to do. One of our teachers, Mr. Aftadal, is working with his class to do QR codes of all of the historic sites in the four towns so that you can connect with a gun that and make a little blurb about the town. It's fascinating. know all of the history, to our fault I guess, all of the history that is in this community because in our courses we focus on the whole United States or the whole world and so this opportunity gave us a chance to really look at where our
028students live and come from and some of them don't know so we're really excited to do this focus on local history. I hate to use media literacy, but it's not literacy. Media literacy is the idea of... I was sitting there and I was like, what am I going to do when I go out? It says it right there. Media literacy is the idea of checking sources, validating the sources that you have, not teaching you how to read. or anything along those lines. But we've been doing this now for two years and really looking at multiple perspectives, fact-checking, ideas like that. As Dr. Jewett mentioned, our media literacy day today, I want to give credit to one of our teachers, Mr. Rappel. His sociology classes had... kind of a set up affair type of thing here.
029The students did trifles or slideshows. We bribed the kids a little bit with candy to go to the different booths, but it was really, I was so impressed with the sociology students. They knew AI and read it and Instagram and they had the pros and the cons. It was just a really nice morning. here at the high school and then our panel discussion where we had the president of Media Literacy Now, Olga Palaides, we had Bill Spady at the 101.5, we had Scott Gervie who is a professor at UCLA and also was the kind of head honcho of the Navy Business Report, and we had a graduate student, Clara Pell, who She's like 26, but I'm pretty sure she's like 56 because she was so well-spoken. And I think that would relate to our students
030also. So a really nice day today. And then finally we're going to be working on some data also. I want to take a look at across the grades and across the courses, how many assignments, how many grades we have. Sort of like what Mr. D'Alessio was saying about kind of standardizing. what we do when it comes to assessments and homework and so on. So that one of our students actually is a reenactor, not that one. He was trying on his friend's Revolutionary War costume that he brought to actually my class. So I thought it was kind of connected to the whole Reva and Jay thing. I couldn't believe how the students wanted to try on 1700 standard quarters, but it was fun. So without further ado, Mr. Brad Comerford and all the subjects that he
031supervises. Essential physical, social, and cognitive skills. Curriculum focused on clear, straight-up love, removing thinking, positive, support choice, fun, and enjoy your visual and physical. We're certainly getting more robust temptations because we've... That's my boy. That's my boy. Thank you for that. As I've said this before, we're being told that things are around this special place opportunity. So, Terry, Sarah, Karen, you know, and any other teams you want. So, if it's okay with everybody. The discussion is to move this to a committee for further discussion. Are we going to move it to a new plan for further discussion? Just because then it will give us a direction on moving forward. So, to that end, the discussion would be that we missed or that was a question that they want to discuss at that retreat. So, I
032think your conversation with me. based on the recommended process to focus on. I know that that won't happen. There is no process that they identified for us, but they're available to me. I know what we have. I don't have any idea if I say anything. And so long as waiting for the, so, my apologies. Mr. President, I'd like to move items A12 through A14. Mr. President, Mr. Fouser, I have a request to move items D14 through D16. Cool. So, the selection of the computer can help, but how can we pursue it? Do the associates, I don't know. Donna Rogers, last week she presented at the New Jersey Science Convention an excellent presentation on developing gradient lessons for physics and chemistry special education. I think this is a great way to highlight the professionalism and caliber
033of the staff. Shout out. A lot more to come. Let alone the fact that some of the representations that were made were wildly. Some would say, go to. Some come in on buses, elected officials. to be good stewards of that 65%. The study is commissioned to take an objective look to address the quality of the interest of varying reasons. Are there ways to be good stewards of those taxpayer funds? Use those funds in the ways that are efficient to benefit the purpose of the study. That may say or not the report will be released on Thursday. The report will then be submitted to the State Department of Education. and our funding agreement. Everyone in the public will see what some districts are so afraid of. So if you want to know what everyone's afraid of,
034come out to the report at 6.30 on Thursday to hear from a former commissioner of education. Recommendations that they have on ways that we may improve public education for our students and be good stewards of the taxpayers' dollars. And if any elected official were to say that they don't need... I'm not sure that those are the right officials meeting. I want to know what all the fuss is about. Come out Thursday evening. He's also a great teacher. Your peers will judge him. He also has great Spanish. You know, I'm a Spanish teacher. So I just want to congratulate him.