001Good evening. We'd like to start the board meeting. The regular notice requirements of the New Jersey Open Public Meeting Act has been complied with in the act with advance notice that this meeting was given at least 48 hours in advance. On June 20th and 21st, notice was mailed to the Courier Post in the Aldea. At this time, we will rise to salute the flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. and to the Republic for which it stands, one with liberty and justice. Due to the fact that we do not have a quorum, we will go straight to the superintendent. No need to read roll call. No, read roll call. At this time, we'll have roll call. Ms. Atwood? Present. Ms. Blackshear? Present. Mr. Bruno Beto? Ms. Burley? Present. Mr.
002Coles? Present. Mr. Muhammad? Ms. Minear? Present. Ms. Reyes-Morton and at this time we do not have a quorum. That's okay. We're going to proceed. All right. So I'm going to come down for the superintendent's presentation. So we're expecting at least one other board member to show up later and at that point we will have quorum which means that we could go into executives into closed session however not so as to not disturb the flow of the meeting. We either will not have a closed session during this board meeting or we will do it at the very end of the meeting after public commentary. So we have a number of items to take through here for district updates and then we'll close out as always with district highlights. And we'll start with the first day of
003school. Just to acknowledge it, it's the fourth start of the school year for me personally and certainly for other members of our staff a lot longer than that. I can testify for my four years of starting off the school year, this was our smoothest start to date. From really by every measure possible. It was it was the smoothest start to date Not the least of which being from a staffing perspective while we had a couple one-off challenges It was the the best percentage of teachers staffed across the district in the last four years at 98.6 percent of teacher positions were fully staffed So successful kickoff to the year and here a few pictures of us celebrating. I see I see at least one of our board members there So I want to begin by sharing
004with you all the latest park results and I have been alluding to These results over the last few meetings and before I jump into it I want to give the proper caveats that I think with this group go without saying which is certainly Higher standards a more rigorous assessment that's aligned to Common Core that is in roughly 40 states We put emphasis and we put import into the results that we are evaluating. At the same time, we don't put all of our eggs into this one basket. And I certainly am not of the mindset that PARCC results are the be-all, end-all, and it's a full-stop conversation, and that is the only measure of how our students and our schools are doing. There are many other measures. For example, attendance rate, monitoring chronic absenteeism, our graduation
005rate. And all at the same time, we will continue to also be focused on social and emotional learning. Instruction is, of course, our charge here in many respects in academics and in our schools. However, the social and emotional learning capacity of our students is equally critical in the work that we do. So I just wanted to send that caveat before we jump in. So for grades three through eight, these represent the first, by the way, year-over-year results we now have for PARCC. And as you can see here, there is progress. And, of course, we're starting at a low proficiency level. And what we're focused on here is not so much how far we have to go, but how far we've come in this one year. And so we do want to acknowledge and celebrate that
006progress. And if you look at the total numbers of students in the district, we had over 120 more proficient students in math, nearly 250 more proficient students in ELA. And that growth in math is basically directly in line with what the state saw in terms of growth. And then our growth in ELA actually exceeds the growth the rest of the state saw. On a high school level, the results were slightly mixed. So you see progress on Algebra II and ELA and a slight dip in geometry. And of course, when we think about state averages, it's a reminder of how far we have to go. And by no means are we stating that we have reached the state average and enclosed that gap, but we do see some progress just about across the board. And clearly,
007there's a little bit more work to do with geometry. As far as next steps, I think we've had certain conversations here about some of the new positions and new capacity that we're aiming to develop inside of our schools with additional operational support, chiefly with our operations managers, providing earlier literacy interventions. So that has to do with... not just the step assessment, which is a newer assessment in the district, but also the additional capacity we're providing in grades K-3 with literacy interventionists to be able to support on an individualized basis all of our readers in grades K-3. And just the day-to-day work that is being led by Deputy Superintendent McCombs, our Chief Academic Officer who's here, Andrew Bell, and many others on their team, is to support teachers and to provide professional development for both teachers
008and school leaders. And so certainly there's accountability that comes with that, but it's the training that we are incredibly focused on. I'm going to skip through a couple of these slides just to kind of... This represents all of the schools, so you saw the data that were rolled up on the first couple of slides. So you can see how some of the schools shook out. We'll, of course, make all of this public. There's the state average. We still have a long ways to go. Our Renaissance schools, these are the results for our six Renaissance schools, excuse me, seven Renaissance schools that have testing for this year. Some have year-over-year testing. So there's math and still a big gap there with the state. ELA, same story. This represents our Renaissance schools for ELA. In terms of
009the same students coming in and the year-over-year results of Renaissance schools, given that was a big topic of conversation with the schools that were transformed through our partnership with Renaissance schools, this represents mastery's outcomes. So just about every grade level at every school saw progress year-over-year. This represents KIPP's outcomes. So these are students that came from the old Whittier School. They're incoming professionals mostly from the old Whittier School. Potentially some students came from other schools, but this is a student-to-student analysis. So it's the exact same students in 14-15 and how they did in 15-16. And this is Camden Prep, which is part of Uncommon Schools, the year-over-year impact. So the net takeaway is... Renaissance schools are still serving fewer students, so this represents just a few hundred test takers, whereas in the district it's several
010thousand. And the second takeaway for me, at least, is that we're seeing steady progress in our district schools. Renaissance schools saw more significant progress from where they inherited their students and how they wound up the year after. All right, so to move forward with additional supports, at least in the theme of additional supports, I want to welcome up our school support team to talk about the new science and social studies curriculum. I believe it was actually last board meeting or the board meeting before where a number of audience members had asked about social studies and science curriculum. We had recently had a conversation about math, and so now we wanted to dive in science. Now we wanted to dive into... K-8 science and social studies. I guess we're going to go K-12 on science, right?
011Yeah, okay. So am I welcoming up you, Katrina, or Andrew? All right, so welcome up Andrew Bell, our chief academic officer. Good evening, everybody. Let me see. So our... First slide here talks about social studies and gives you the continuum from K to 5. A new social studies curriculum completed with scope and sequence and digital content is available online. One of the things that we try to do is not spend a ton of money on purchasing books that will be outdated. So the online material, which can be easily updated online and teachers have access to. It focuses on reading and analyzing nonfiction texts, evidence-based writing, and a culturally relevant curriculum. And that culturally relevant curriculum is something that we are going to continue to work on and continue to develop as we move forward. In
012grades K to 5, we have some other initiatives that we rolled out with reading intervention. So we will be teaching social studies 30 to 45 minute blocks in two week cycles. So we'll be two weeks on, two weeks off with science. And in grades 6 through 8, for the first time, we have actual content in... In middle school, sixth grade is geography. Seventh grade, ancient civilizations, Greeks, Africans, Romans to middle ages. Grade eight, U.S. history, explorers to the U.S. Revolution. And there is a cultural theme and additional supports to all of those content areas. And in the same thing with grades nine through 12, and as you get to grade 12, there is electives that students can... take African American history, Latin American studies, financial literacy or government. You would take one of those electives.
013You would not take all of those in grade 12. So included in some of those online components is Studies Weekly magazines and Brain Pop, which is the digital companion. for social studies and it's been audited and aligned to current text in ELA so there is an alignment between social studies and language arts literacy in grades K to 12. And for science This year, we have had many conversations and been in many meetings across the state about next generation science standards. And this is all across the state and proud to say that Camden has kind of led the way in a lot of those conversations in developing a curriculum that. includes those next generation science standards. And what it is, it's just an emphasis on hands-on approach and labs, STEM-based activities for students in grades K
014to 12. And with that, identifying labs and opportunities for students, we've partnered with the New Jersey Center for Teaching and Learning. So focused on inquiry, so allows the students to inquire and... take some time to kind of figure things out through hands-on experiments. Again, with some of the other initiatives that we have in K-5, we will be teaching science in two-week cycles. On and off from social studies, there is kind of a caveat to that. There will be an emphasis in grades four and eight. We know that students will be testing, state testing in science, so we will make provisions to make sure that we have ample instructional time so they'll be prepared for any state test in science. Grades six to eight will be general science. We'll be taught... And then you see in
015the high school, algebra-based physics in ninth grade, tenth grade chemistry, biology in the twelfth grade electives. anatomy and physiology, AP physics, AP biology. And this year, kind of unprecedented across the state, there is always a need for physics teachers. We were able to enroll 14 teachers into an alternative certification program through New Jersey CTL. So we have some of our more harder areas to fill, bilingual science, sped science, physics, biology, and chemistry. I believe we started the year almost at capacity in our assignment for teachers. Also is the online technology for science includes responders and clickers that are compatible with the smart boards. And that's for all grade levels. And there's an emphasis in high school to also have online and have every student in high school have access to a tablet or some computer
016based content. So again, not purchasing tons of books that may be outdated in a few years or need to be updated. every one or two years with digital content. It will be updated as the provider sees fit. Along with those some of those curriculum changes we have some assessment changes from last year to this year and our goal was to provide high quality assessments, implement a rigorous curriculum, of course assessments that were aligned and somewhat indicative of PARCC. Provide school leaders with additional coaching, specifically around data-driven instruction and also around Common Core implementation. Eliminate testing redundancies. And further reduce, a big one was further reduce the time that we were spending on testing, especially in our lower grades, K1 and 2, the amount of time that we were asking them to test on assessments. So
017we have step testing in grades K to 3 for 15 last year, and we were very happy with our results. Implementation went very well, so we expanded that to grades K to 5 for 16, 17. We used Edmentum. Last year for our interim assessments, we found many gaps and many areas for improvement. And so we have moved on to, for our K-8s, actually grades 3-8 in our K-8 schools will be using Achievement Network, ANET. And along with that assessment, they also will provide support through coaching for our school leaders and lead educators. And for high school, we will be using Measure Progress for grades 9-12. And the difference from last year is that we used MAP for math and literacy grades 1 to 12, and this year we're using MAP just for math in grades
0181 to 3. So one of the big reductions in time for assessments. I know we're not in an open question session, but I will be around for a few, and so if you have any questions, you want to grab me in the hallway, or you can email me at abell.camden.k12nj.us. Yeah, I can take a paper and say we're going to take a couple of questions. Mr. Barfield. For a printout of the slides, it's on the website. But, yeah, I'll talk with Ashley and just assess, like, what the costs are. But it's very logical. Also, Mr. Barfoot, for those of you who will be attending back-to-school night tomorrow for K-8s, there are one-pagers that outline some of these changes and have some content about what's happening in our school. So our family and op coordinators and
019principals should have that literature available for parents tomorrow night also at back-to-school. Thank you for that, Ms. Atwood. Yes, so we are going to really, our social studies curriculum and also kind of just in alignment with what's happening in our country today, we want to make sure that we are, we just had our conversations about this, that we are giving professional development to our teachers, equipping them well enough to have those conversations with students. So I think that's our area of focus right now is to make sure our students are, our teachers are. well-versed enough to have those conversations with students. We'll take note of that. Any other questions? A lot of questions, yes. Yes, Ms. Ragsdale. Absolutely. We also, there is an emphasis in language arts literacy in those grades for some cross-curricular informational
020text through social studies and science that the students also get exposure through language arts literacy in those areas. Ms. Ragsdale. That the state, I think that's a district choice. With map I don't think it's a state mandate So I believe we're working on I believe so I don't have a definitive answer But I will get back to you real soon with an answer on that. Mr. Waters. That's a great question. And so In all in complete honesty, we've had that conversation I've reached out to some community members who said that they would want to work with me on creating that curriculum and like I said in the beginning when we started that this is something that we're going to continue to develop and Like you, I'm going to make it one of my things. I
021told Paymon and everybody else that it's very important to me personally that we have a really good comprehensive curriculum that teaches our kids about diaspora. But we also have to work on it, right? And so on a capacity issue, I don't want to just roll something out and it's not completely vetted or a really good curriculum. There's curriculums out there that we'll be looking at. So be happy to discuss it offline. But we're going to move towards that, absolutely. Yeah, so we have cut it down at this point pretty dramatically if you go back two years. And so I agree with you, and that's the reason we've moved in the direction that we're moving in. So MAP, for example, two years ago, there were four administrations across all grade levels for both math and ELA.
022We've dramatically peeled back on ELA, and there are now only two administrations across the grades that even have MAP at this point. So that's just one example there. PARCC, the state, removed one of the two administrations of PARCC last year. So the net impact is actually pretty sizable. I think we're going to continue to monitor this year if we still feel as though, and this is where the teacher roundtable is coming to play, the student roundtable, board meetings, like it is a qualitative assessment at the end of the day. But I can tell you that quantitatively, it is a fairly, I don't have the number in front of me, and it's something we should probably pull. Fairly significant percentage of instructional time devoted to assessments that is that we've seen decline over the last two
023three years especially There there are still interim assessments and that we still want to be able to monitor progress for our students And I still think that's important and I don't think you would probably disagree with that either I think the question is like how do you find that right balance? It depends on the grade level at the you know, but yes, there are there are three different kind of big vendors if you will Miss Vida So the teacher roundtable, are there any folks who have been on the teacher roundtable? All right, Ms. Borelli has been. Which roundtable have you been on? There are like 20 people in the room, so there's not a big sample size. I can assure you the roundtables exist. Happy to introduce you to the folks who are on them.
024And if anyone's ever interested in joining a roundtable, come talk to our team. Mr. Davis, you and I have our own roundtable along with Frank Ingram. So it's a three-person roundtable. It's the best kind. You have a question? Yeah, we're using Amistad. We meet with middle schoolers as well, so that leaves K-5. And, like, I don't disagree with you. We want to engage with all students. We really should be moving on here. Let me take the last two questions, Ms. Jocelyn and then Mr. Frazier. Is that what you're going to say? Thanks for that. Anything you want to add to that, Mr. Bell? Are you good? Okay. Last question, Mr. Frazier, and then move on. Yeah, I think this is one of those topics where you've got people who feel pretty strongly on both sides,
025and maybe it's worth an offline conversation. I know our chief academic officer, this is an issue he feels pretty strongly about. I also know one of our board members is very aligned with you on that very issue. She's nodding with a big smile on her face. I'm going to stop early. Headmanship. Right. Right. I think we're talking about at which point are you focused more on digital skills? I mean, obviously in the earlier grades we're teaching our kids how to write. So, guys, we've got to move on. We can rabbit hole on a lot of these topics. Good conversations to be having. I want to get through the rest of the presentation. So, no problem. All right. So I want to introduce a new position that's in our two large comprehensive high schools. Some of
026you may already know about this. And so at Camden High and Woodrow Wilson and Camden High there's There's now two schools, as we've discussed, with Principal Shanklin and Principal Jones. Each school will have, so in total three schools, will have a dean of culture and climate. So they're going to focus on monitoring the implementation of the code of conduct with a focus on restorative justice practices and just the day-to-day coordination of in-school suspension. And so that is a big focus area for us. We don't want to take kids out of school. And so in addition to just the work of in-school suspension and operationalizing it, it's really just to set the tone for culture and discipline inside of a school building. And these are the three individuals we've hired, Nair Amitri and David McKee at
027Camden High and then Preston Brown at Woodrow Wilson High School. I imagine a number of you all know those three individuals. So a nice segue into... what has been in the local, regional, and now national media spotlight with our Woodrow Wilson High School football team led by Coach Preston Brown, who's the Dean of Culture and Climate at Woodrow. I think everyone knows this, so I won't share too many details on the setup here. with the short version being that Coach Brown and all but two of his football players for the last three football games have made the decision in a respectful demonstration to kneel during the national anthem to raise awareness of issues rooted in social justice. And the district position has been one of support for both the coaches, because it wasn't just Coach
028Bowne, the other assistant coaches as well joined him, including one of whom served in the Air Force. And, you know, I believe that this is an important teachable moment for our students and our coaches. And our staff has been spending time with the football players and other students to, again, use this as an opportunity to have what I believe is a really important dialogue. On a personal level, I've been a little bit frustrated with the way the press has been talking about this because it's been mostly an issue and mostly a focus area on whether or not kneeling is respectful or not respectful. Our position is it is a respectful demonstration, but there's very little dialogue about why these students have chosen to kneel, and that is the direction I hope the conversation goes, both
029from a press media perspective and also within our schools. And so I just wanted to call that out because I know that there's been a lot of social media chatter about it. And again, just to state it in very clear terms, we support our students, we're proud of our students for this very respectful demonstration to raise very, very critical issues that are playing out in our country today and have been playing out for a very, very long time. And so we are here at the district to support them because this is a very formative time for these young people. And they are young adults. Many of those football players are 18 years of age, old enough to vote, old enough to serve. in the armed forces and give their life for our country. And so
030we need to be there to support them and facilitate this dialogue with a clarity of thought and with responsibility given the gravity of the topic. And so we had a, Mr. Bell alluded to it, we had a pretty extensive discussion on our leadership team just right before this meeting, the latest round, I should say, really, to talk about how we can better support both students and staff moving forward on this front. So water quality, I wanted to follow up from last month's update and give you another quick update. So you may remember that I think it was last board meeting of the board meeting before I shared with you that over the summer we did an assessment at. So we tested 200 different points of water dissemination in our schools over the summer, and we
031partnered with the EPA to do that. This was just voluntary testing to be as cautious as possible, and that there were, out of those 200, there were 13 areas where water was being disseminated in the school that had elevated lead levels. None of those 13 were areas where you would consume the water. So these are, we're talking about sinks for the most part. And so through that process, we realized that one of the areas where the district, long before I was appointed, made the very smart move to mitigate impact of potential lead in the water by bringing in water coolers. One of the areas that wasn't served by the water coolers was in our kitchens. In this testing and other testing we've done, we've never found elevated levels in our kitchens, but in an abundance
032of caution, we are also now supplying water coolers in our kitchens. So that was the last board meeting, or maybe, again, two board meetings ago, I can't remember. The quick update for you all now is that this fall, and in all likelihood in the month of October, we are going to be testing every single outlet in every single school. We believe that that process will begin and end within the month, so it will move fairly quickly. And so we're talking about a number, a very high volume of testing that's going to be happening. So I just wanted to share that with you all, and certainly as soon as we have the results, we will share them out again here at a board meeting. Yes, sir. yeah i'm glad i'm glad i'm glad you mentioned it
033because i see a couple of woodrow staff members here so if i mischaracterize any of this someone please uh jump up and um and clarify and so you know whether it's you karen or anyone else in the audience it has been not one issue driving this. It feels as though, and Ashley's coming up here and I'm going to ask her to say a few words too if you're comfortable with that, Ashley. So it has been almost quite literally a different pipe, a different issue each time. So I believe at this point that we've had three instances in which school was either dismissed early or started late. I think twice we dismissed early and once we started late. A couple times it had to do with an American Water city pipe, and so we've been working
034really closely with the Office of the Mayor to address that. In another instance, it was one of our pipes that led to a bathroom overflowing. There was a more recent incident in which a pipe burst or something leaked, but it led to the tiles collapsing in on one of the administrative offices, and I saw the pictures, and they're horrendous, and we were in the mayor's office. That day, trying to escalate this and go through the rapid response motions. We haven't had this severity of challenges with Woodrow's building to date. So this is relatively new. It's not to say that building doesn't have challenges. It clearly does. But this is new in terms of like having to let kids out early. So, Ashley, is there anything you want to add or? Okay. Okay. And look, we're
035going to be working through it. We've got more people devoted to it, and we're hoping to stabilize the situation. So we'll keep you posted. All right. So do we have another question? Yes. Hi. I think that's a totally fair and spot-on question. And look, my initial thought is that... We're always assessing in the work that we do, and that is our core function to kind of assess needs and address those needs, and whether that's training or whatnot. You know, I think in this case, given the challenges, maybe something more formal is in order. And so I don't think Dave Brown is here, anyone from our facilities team is here, but I think we'll put our heads together and see if we should do something a little bit more formal. But they've been in the building
036pretty nonstop over the last couple weeks. Thank you. I feel for you. I feel for the staff there. We've got some really dedicated staff, some new staff. I think I saw our operations manager walk into the boardroom. We have a new family and operations coordinator, and that's not the way we want them to experience their first couple weeks of the school year. And so, look, that's on us, and we've got to figure it out. We've just been, as soon as something comes up, we've been addressing it as quickly as we can, and that's all I can tell you, and that's not enough. But the last incident, the second it happened, I literally walked down Market Street and marched into the mayor's office, and we huddled Pat Keating and some of the other folks in her
037administration into a room and stopped. So we need to be more proactive, and we need to be more comprehensive. And you know what we should do is actually have our team sit down with the staff because there's actually a teacher meeting being scheduled and just share with you what we know about the building. Because right now we're just working really closely with Principal Miles and I think in part Rodolfo, the operations manager. And I think maybe we should just have a broader communication with the team and kind of give you a state of affairs. I think that's something that could probably be done. Ms. Vida. So it's actually what I shared earlier. The district is taking the lead on this. We are now supplying all of our kitchens with water coolers. It already started. It
038started the first day of school. And we did that in abundance of caution. There were no elevated levels. This was actually the last board meeting, so maybe you had missed it, but I had alluded to it earlier in this board meeting. So we are now supplying water coolers to all of our kitchens. Okay, I think specific comments like that, let's take offline. At the end of the day, they're still going to use tap water to wash hands and other things. They're just not going to be boiling hot dogs. They should be using water coolers for that. So let's take that offline. Yes, ma'am. Oh, facilities managers. All right. So the last thing before I jump into the highlights. So at the end of last school year, we ran an application and selection process to hire
039a new reorganized facilities department leadership team, and that goes to the point of continually assessing our needs, and we felt that we needed to reorganize the team to better address our school's facilities needs. And look, at the end of the day, the headline here is that we received feedback from members of CWA and other staff that the process felt and... arguably was predetermined and that those who were hired were basically notified in advance that they were to be hired and that specifically the criteria in the job description didn't actually meet the necessities of the job itself. And so this is just feedback we heard directly from a number of different staff members and we did our own investigation and we agreed. And so we are now reopening up this process. And this is the timeline.
040And so we redid the job descriptions. We're reopening up the process here. All CWA staff have been notified of these changes through a series of town halls. And so I just wanted you all to know that we're going to ensure the facilities department is set up for success and that there is trust in the leadership. And so this work is being led by our chief operating officer, Aname Pelamore. A couple members of our team are here. I see Karen over there, but certainly Dave Brown, who's the interim head of that team. We are working to rebuild some of that trust. As I told our team when we were first going through the motions here, right is right, wrong is wrong, fair is fair. And so we wanted to just open up this process in response
041to the feedback we heard from our hardworking staff. All right, so to close out with a few district highlights, back to school nights, Wednesday, so tomorrow at all the elementary and family schools, and then Thursday for the high schools. Hope to see some of you all there. I want to congratulate the CEA members that attended the NJEA-sponsored Rosetta Stone in Spanish. This program was designed to support staff towards learning conversational Spanish and to foster better appreciation of communities that do not speak English as their first language. So I see a couple familiar faces here from our team. There's Nancy Holmes there on the far right. This was an annual surprise kind of announcement and award from Walmart. So this was the Walmart Wood Wary on Clements Bridge Road and their team joining Forest Hills Professional
042Development to present their Teacher of the Year to the Teacher of the Year, Karen Perla, with a new iPad and a $500 gift card to spend on school supplies. If you remember, Ms. Perla was not only her Teacher of the Year, but she was the District Y Teacher of the Year. Cream Sumner and Bonzel did a food bank earlier this month with staff and families. So they came together and worked with the food pantry. And here are a few pictures. Excuse me, they worked with the Food Bank of South Jersey. Cooper's Point Reading Oasis. So United Way of Greater Philadelphia in southern New Jersey, along with some local businesses, joined us at Cooper's Point Family School at their library to celebrate the new Club Connect Reading Oasis and literacy resources. So there was a donation.
043to support the district to ensure that kids are reading on grade level. I think I saw a number of you all at various backpack giveaways. I want to thank the generosity of Cars for Kids, South Jersey Writers Group, and our central office staff who contributed. We were able to give away hundreds of backpacks filled with school supplies to start the year off right. The second to last slide was the fathers walk your child to school day. So that was just the other day, Friday, September 23rd. Our chief academic officer, Andrew Bell, was there to represent the district. And we had a great, great turnout as we have every year for that event. There was a Subaru event earlier today. I guess the pictures aren't ready yet, but it was literally just a few hours ago,
044and we worked with the Subaru team to give away 1,700 brand-new award-winning science books to district students, and we were joined by the Subaru CEO, Tom Dahl, and a number of other Camden elected officials. Sorry, we don't have the pictures up. And we have five individuals we want to recognize who will be retiring, and we'll read their names off on stage. All right, before we read the retirees, someone just mentioned to me that a number of people are here with specific questions about Camden High and the SDA work that we announced a while back. And so I just wanted to share with you all that. And we've been alluding to this. That process is moving pretty quickly, which is really exciting. And the commitment way back when has been at least $50 million being invested
045in Camden High. Over the next couple of weeks we are looking to tighten the screws on that plan have some conversations with Alumni and other community leaders. There will be a meeting tomorrow at Camden High for Cameron High alumna alumni at 530 And so we'll share additional details there at that meeting. There's no specific Set of information to share during this board meeting other than to say I believe in the next two to three weeks We will have a pretty concrete plan to be able to disclose and it's all really exciting and I'm very much looking forward to having that discussion. I would like to say Mr. Waseem has joined us this evening and also in district highlights I see this eliminated me but Yorkship had a community back to school day. We gave away
046300 book bags. School board had a table there and also Yorkship school. And we had a very good turnout. Thank you. Sorry about that, Ms. Burley. That's okay. If this time is that, would you recognize the retirees? Good evening, everyone. We are so thankful for dedicated employees who... Give beyond what what they should to help our children they come out of their pockets and do whatever is necessary to Make sure our children are fed make sure our children are clothed and we are so thankful for their dedication and we want to wish these individuals the best in their retirement Carmen Arce for 25 years Gilda Cooper for 26 years Anna Ramos for 26 years Edwin Sanchez for 23 years and Clara West for 27 years. And we certainly, like I said, thank them for their
047dedication because you have to love what you're doing to spend that many years in a school district with children. And we wish them the best and Godspeed. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Atwood. At this time, I'll turn it back over to our superintendent. And I will turn it over to our BA and board secretary to present the business office agenda items. Good evening at this time. I'd like to present the business agenda items numbers 1 through 29 Questions comments. I know we've had opportunities to discuss before All right in accordance with the powers vested in the state district superintendent under title 18a I hereby approve today's superintendents agenda items and business office agenda items And I'll turn it over to our general counsel for public commentary portion rules for public comment The Camden City School
048District welcomes the attendance and comments from all members of the public at its meetings. This public comment period is your time to be heard on the agenda items in this meeting. Each person who signed up to comment will have three minutes. You will be notified when your three minutes are up. You cannot yield your time to another person. When it is your turn to speak, please remain at the podium and address all of your comments to the acting board president or the superintendent. Please conduct yourself in a respectful and courteous manner. For anyone whose comments or actions either harass, intimidate, or threaten the safety of any person, we will provide you with a warning or immediately end your comment time. Also, if you curse, use vulgar language, or make personal attacks, we will provide you
049with a warning or end your comment time. We will not interrupt you during your three minutes of comments. Members of the audience should also not interrupt the speaker at the podium. If you have any questions, please ask your questions during your three-minute comment period. After the public comment period is closed, the superintendent or his designee will address your questions to the extent provided by law. Thank you for your understanding. First speaker, Helen Ferrante. Good evening. That's loud. Tonight, I am here to discuss numerous facts about our school district. The first fact that I am stating is that we as a district are not fully staffed with teachers and paraprofessionals, yet we non-renew teachers at the end of last year. At the beginning of this school year, we were told by the central administration that all
050teacher positions were filled, including in the high schools. I believed for the first time that we were starting school with all of our students having teachers in Paris. But unfortunately, this truth was short-lived because as of right now, we have vacancies throughout this district, especially in our high schools, Camden High and Woodrow Wilson. We have students who go all day long with a schedule full of substitute teachers. Now, even some students do not want to come to school. This is the harsh reality of some of our students that attend these high schools. So my question is, how are you going to come up with a solution for now to help these kids get the quality education that they rightfully deserve? Source for Teachers is not the proper way to educate our children. I've mentioned in
051the past about finding a new substitute system that works to no avail. Some of these people come into our schools with very little knowledge and training on how to teach a lesson, let alone operate and manage a successful classroom. What are you doing to make sure that the substitutes are reliable and appropriate for our children? The second factual evidence, and I know that you already touched on this, but is the bad water that is filtered through our school district. Now, I see the pictures of not being tested signs throughout the bathrooms or the new sign that states not safe drinking water. It is ludicrous to say water has not been tested or don't drink the water, but it's safe for everything else. What is the time frame for the district to guarantee clean water for
052our children to use? How is this district handling the water safety issue? When will the water be considered drinkable for our students and staff? The third fact is the filtering of our traditional public school students to the charter Renaissance schools. Children, by law, must be placed in a traditional public school setting unless the parent decides differently. Why was this allowed to go on throughout the summer and may still be going on currently? My other issue is the fact that the Camden enrollment webpage has not been updated with the current information on school report cards. This shows that the charter schools are performing better than our traditional public schools, but you clearly can see that is not the case. Our traditional public schools have moved up in scores through true data, not the unknown data that
053the charter Renaissance schools produce. How can charter Renaissance schools have true data when they have not been here for that long? In conclusion, I would like to know the solutions to these issues quickly so that our children here will be receiving the well-deserved quality education that their suburban counterparts are currently receiving. As of now, all I see on the horizon is a path to destruction that needs to be rectified effective immediately for the success of our traditional public school children here in Camden. Next speaker, Lorraine Miller. Good evening. I'm Lorraine Miller. My subject is on the enrollment. Tonight, I am here to ask questions concerning the one enrollment for Camden School District. I had an opportunity to read an article, It's Not One Camden as Enrollment Plan Reflects Lessons Learned by John Mooney on November
05413, 2015. The article mentions that Camden enrollment system will be simple and clear with the only preferences being given to siblings and to those who want to stay in their neighborhood schools. It has been reported that parents wanted enrollment in the traditional neighboring public school, but it didn't happen. Some families were transferred to charter schools. In the article, the superintendent acknowledged that the new enrollment system is only meant to prop up charter schools and the new hybrid Renaissance schools. I do see a problem with the way Renaissance schools neighborhood public schools and it should read Renaissance charter schools. I would like to know the full details for student placements and how special needs students were placed in the charter schools. The superintendent claimed that any family that wants to stay in its neighborhood district school
055would be given first choice and there would be no involuntary placements. I don't believe that it is the case. Another big change was moving ESL and special education students to different schools. I strongly believe that it was wrong to group together these students when they should be mainstreamed in their neighborhood school. Now you have siblings in different schools and transportation issues. Using public schools as the center of the community, you can bring a variety of services and support to children, youth, families, before, during, and after school, and on weekends. Now the family unit is torn all over town with the different schools, and it is a hardship for the family to get to the new school. What was the rationale? In summary, I surely hope that these actions are not preying, P-R-E-Y-I-N-G, on these individuals
056when in fact we should be praying for strength to regain local control and respect for these families. Thank you. Kevin Waters. Good evening, everyone. First, I just want to strongly, I'm strongly confused about the focus of education in Camden. And, you know, I'm not normally confused about a lot of things. I want to believe the district is zeroed in on making sure that all schools rise. That's really what the conversation has been about. However, there currently are a number of vacancies at Woodrow Wilson, because that's where I'm at. Now, these appear to be, similar number of vacancies that were there last year and the year before. Okay I was under the impression again that all schools rise so how is this possible if the teacher current teacher vacancies remain at this list at this level?
057Will the district embark on an ambitious promotion to hire new teachers? We lost two extremely critical instructors at Woodrow Wilson in our history and our CTE program. Vital teachers in those two particular classes. Will those two particular classes be refueled? Woodrow Wilson, again, is still devoid of a vocational component to address those students who are not, nor do they want to attend college. Again. What is the intention of the district to see that those students also rise? Woodrow Wilson still is without a librarian. What is the intention of the district to make available a much-needed librarian? I sometimes go into the library where students are asking, can I borrow a book? Can I use the computer? But there really is no one there to sort of help them out. Now, I remember the explanation from
058prior board meetings, but I'm also aware the board can make the decision to hire a librarian if they so choose. The board does make those types of decisions when needed. So I'm just kind of looking at this as educational disenfranchisement. So I hope that's not really the underlying issue. Now, we know there has been a propaganda campaign to infuse a narrative of failing public schools in urban areas, even when those same schools, like Woodrow Wilson High School, send students on to college each year. So how do we account for that type of achievement? Okay, I'll tell you how. Excellent teachers at Woodrow Wilson High School. However, we need more. I am concerned that the expansion of charter schools in the city is ominously grown unnecessarily to short circuit regular public education. Now, we got the
059message of manufactured choice. However, the choice we really need, however, the choice you say we need, does not account for the lack of needed resources to the regular public school. I just want to end by saying, I hope that... Keith Benson. Good evening, folks. One thing I noticed, I didn't get a chance to make it to the board meeting last month, but one thing I noticed was when one speaker who got up last month, I think it was Mr. Morton, got up and spoke and talked about how great of a job the superintendent and the board was doing. You guys let him speak for five minutes and ten seconds exactly. I timed it. So when someone from the community has a concern, at three minutes, you're ready to shut them down. Part of the reason
060why you have public portions the way that you do is because our board sits so silent and there is a fracture and trust between the people sitting out there and the people sitting up there because of concerns that we have. There is no one who represents us. How many times do we have to say it? Brother Cole, you've been here for about a year now. I haven't heard you say one word. You have students come up here saying I don't have ink and printers. You have students saying that I don't have teachers. And we can see nothing. So what choice do we have? At three minutes, you're shutting us down. We're all adults who care about our kids, who care about our communities. How would you feel if it was on the other end? I
061don't think so. The folks who don't live in Camden who are sitting up there, if you decide you have concerns about your board of education, what goes on in your educational system, you have the right to vote for folks whose job it is to represent you. The least you guys can do, and Brother Barford mentioned this last month, the least you guys can do is hear us out. That's just being decent. Next, moving on. The superintendent last month also said he wanted to see the return of local control sooner rather than later. And the superintendent conflated the issues between state takeover of a district and local control. Under a locally elected board, even though the district is under state takeover, we can still vote for our Board of Education, and our board will represent the
062concerns of our community. But instead of that happening, because we took it to court, the district, I believe, paid an attorney to actually stop us from getting that right. Mr. William Tambusi, who happens to be George Norcross's personal attorney as well. So why would someone who says, I want to see the return of local control sooner rather than later, actually pay to stop the residents from having this? A locally elected school board. Now, he would still have ultimate authority because it's an advisory board. The only reason why we paid or the district paid to have someone fight us having the right to vote is because the superintendent wants you guys or wants a board to sit there quietly. And that's exactly what you guys are doing. You guys are not looking out for the community
063by sitting there quiet. Moving on. I fortunately got my doctorate degree. Thank you. Thank you. So part of my dissertation was how the community, their community perspective on all the redevelopment that's going on and the state-imposed, we'll call them renaissance schools, but they're really takeover schools. So how the community perceives all this development along with these sort of forced or imposed schools. Thank you, Mr. Benson. Your time is up. thank you mr benson your time is up please leave the podium and just for the record last board meeting i decided that i wasn't going to hold anybody to the three minutes i did not cut one person off so everybody that spoke had as much time as they wanted to nobody i told your three minutes are up that was a That was a decision
064because there weren't that many people on a speaker list. However, on a night like tonight where you have 20 people on a speaker list, we have to respect everybody's time. And therefore, with 20 speakers, I decided we do need to hold people to the three minutes so as not to delay the board meeting unnecessarily. So it wasn't just for Brian Morton. It was for everybody that spoke. Next speaker is Vida Neal. Good evening, advisory board and Mr. Rehannaford. I just want to start off by saying what Dr. Benson was saying is true. Youse people don't represent us. And half of you aren't even in good standards in the community. If we had our way, you wouldn't be here. Now let me start by saying that, because some of youse people got seedy backgrounds. See, because
065that's what I do. I dig up dirt. Some of youse got seedy backgrounds, and you shouldn't be there. Okay? Now I'm going to start off with Aramarin. The food ain't got no better. You know, after attending a football game, I could say that Air Mark gives a grade A hot dog or hamburger to the visitors, and they give us kids grade D. Gray hot dogs. They're not even, they're not even, you boil them in a contaminated water. You want to know how I know? Because I broke into three of your kitchens. And it wasn't hard to do due to the fact that the nasty people are cooking the food with the doors open. Flies flying all around. I came on up there like I was an employee. I'm telling you what I know. You better
066clean it up because I'm about to call the ACLU and the Board of Health For Yous. Because you're feeding our kids crap. Now that I've dealt with Air Mart, let me deal with this transportation issue, Mr. Rehannaford. See, because somebody's been using my name in your district, going around calling all the principals. Oh, give me the list you gave Ms. Biden. First of all, I wasn't given a list. Concerned parents called me up and I went to the school and I found out that some of our children are walking 4.1 miles He has transferred all the children from the Fairview area the Pollock town area and the Centerville area to East Camden to the very far end Now you lied to the media and you said you was giving bus tickets, but that was for
067the high school students Grades one through six are walking parents are paying $15 in seven cab In a Spanish cab, honey, they be lined up at the schools like they're giving a cab giveaway. We know if them kids miss more than five days, they're going to have to deal with what? But yet you're strategically making it so that the parents don't have a way to get the kids to school. I'm mad. I am mad, and I think you need to correct the situation. Make it ASAP, please. You need to hire a couple buses. Because I ain't never heard of a kindergarten or first grader getting on a bus to go to East Camden by themselves. So in this situation, bus tickets won't do. You need about four or five buses. And another issue I want
068to talk on while I'm here is definitely the fact that you keep going to the news media telling them stories that aren't true. I mean, the Village Advocated, we got bus tickets for the kids. Yay! They're on the front of the newspaper like this. Yay! But two days later, you transferred all them ESL and special needs kids from the following schools, Cream, Sumner, Yorkship, and Wiggins, to the Caddo School, all the way out of East Camden. Now, first of all, it's no effect that when you take a child out of their community, the safety issue goes with them. Thank you, Ms. Neal. Your time is up. Next speaker, Mangaliso Davis. Next speaker, Monique Ragsdale. Good afternoon. Monique Ragsdale, PTO president, Camden High. I like that presentation you gave. You were speaking of the issues that
069we're dealing through now. It reminds me of democracy, voter suppression, and it's also educational. When you spoke on local control, you know that as a district, you can submit to our municipal court the paperwork to have us form an elected school board. And since you support elected school board, and if you really care about the students and you really care about the parents, I would hope that you would do so ASAP. The transportation is an issue. Along with VITA, I had calls. Even the day we were welcoming back students at Camden High, my phone was ringing on issues with the transportation. Children not in their schools that they attended the previous years were the one enrollment that enrolled them out. I heard a lot of them got their notices late, so I guess they were
070sent out maybe a day or two before school even started. The vacancies was also another issue I was concerned on, and mainly for our seniors who need such classes as French to graduate. You know you need two languages before you graduate high school. I think we spoke on those vacancies earlier, and if our seniors don't have that French class, that's why in Camden High the Spanish is overcrowded. Often, I do have a proposal for you. I know that we do a lot and we give away a lot of money. We have our after school sports and programs and I know that we pay from the district for our schools to participate. So if all the kids and the children and the students would like to participate, maybe when you welcome in the doors for the
071Renaissance and the charters, maybe they can pay a fee for our athletic department or our band department or any after school services to participate in those sports. Also, I did meet with my parents and they do have a concern about the concession stand. I wonder why we're the only district who has Airmark who is contracted out to run our concession stand. You talk about parental involvement, you talk about transparency, that's something that the parents can do that they feel so that they're helping out the school and also for our students to get community hours. Can we please have the concession stands back? Mangalisa Davis. Mangalisa Davis. Okay, I just was looking for you, Madam Chair. I did say jobs, but I got to augment here. I'm angry, but I'm not mad. I just found out
072something a few minutes ago, Madam Chair. Why is these water fountains in this school on? Why is these water fountains in this school on? When I leave out of here, they better be turned off. Now, you already got a report that was released in June. Now, I met with the superintendent, and he's supposed to notify the parents. What the hell is going on? Mr. Davis, don't curse. That is a hell is not a curse word. It is. Don't define it. It is. Don't do it again. It is. Don't do it again. Hello? What is hello? Now, just there. Don't take up my time. I won't. I got you on my list, too, but I ain't got time for you. I won't, but just don't do it again. Now. Mr. Paymore, I'm talking to the chair.
073Now, you were supposed to do something when I talked to you, and it hasn't happened. Then I walk in this school, and the water fountains are still on. Now, you're not supposed to use the water coming into these schools with air mark to clean the food. You're not supposed to do that. Now, don't act stupid, because I talked to you about that. Now, I'm... I'm mad about this here. You're supposed to turn these fountains off. You identified this school for the testing that the DPA did. And you thought because it's a new school that you would get away with it. There is no acceptable level for lead in the body of children or human beings. The governor took three months to make a decision whether he was going to do testing in public schools. He's
074an idiot. I don't know. Google the... phone. Y'all sit up here and you tell me you care and you there representing the kids. Why are they being exposed like that? It would never happen out there where he got his children at or where these police live at. And I got to come up here and beat up on stuff and tell you about something. You're educated what? You know what Malcolm said about sitting around. Now there's a report that came out. The DBA came in and did testing of schools and they did samples. And this school right here was on it. And you got lead coming through the goddamn fountains and the fountains still on. What are you waiting for? You're not drinking this water. And they're preparing the food with the water out of the
075sinks because the automatic flushes have been broke more than a year. And we fought to have these things put into the schools 10 years ago. Y'all going backwards. They fired so many people, they don't even know who's running the gods on ship. Now y'all need to ask the superintendent, when is he going to shut that down? And when are you going to tell the parents? Thank you, Mr. Davis. Your time is up. I understand that, but we have 20 speakers. Thank you, Mr. Davis. Mr. Davis. The superintendent made a water quality presentation. Mr. Davis, I usually wait until the end to respond to comments, but given your raising issues of student safety. So this is a newer building, and it has newer pipes, and it also has a water filtration system. So like our other
076newer buildings, the water fountains are functional, and they are let free because of those two reasons. Okay. As you stated, Superintendent, right is right, wrong is wrong, and fair is fair. Like we said, four years straight, again, staffing concerns in comprehensive high schools. God knows well what's taking place in the other schools. And, again, I'm concerned about what is you going to do in reference to making sure our students have proper staffing in their classrooms. Schools have started. Like you said, at Woodrow Wilson, you've had the issues dealing with the... the facility issues, and then you have the staffing. And our children are in these classrooms with substitute teachers, which at some point parents should be notified about that. Because, you know, it's parents' right to know, right? That's part of the No Child Left
077Behind requirements. Parents' right to know that their children are being taught by certified staff. So, again, how are you going to deal with that? The point about our substitutes. How are substitutes being taught to even teach whatever content they're supposed to be teaching? Because there's no curriculum. I'm asking my son, what is the substitutes giving you? the classroom as far as instructional work. So when you when you want to compare test scores like what you're doing and it's some confusion even in reference to that because you got all the grades level together so we don't know if most of those ones who are scoring higher the lower level grades or they're on the higher level grades. So that's kind of a misnomer when you want to compare the master and the test test scores and
078test results. So again when our children have the opportunity of participating in PARCC. How can you rate them when, first of all, we don't have the computers in the classrooms, because that's another concern. Back to school night is coming up Thursday. I guess it's fortunate that it didn't happen after the board meeting because then I really have the exact documentation. But I already know because I'm talking to my sons in reference to what's not taking place in these classrooms when it comes to technology. So again, you're talking about instruction. You're talking about moving, using more digital to replace textbooks. You're not clear on that because the point is, again, They're not bringing on homework home. So if you got subject and each time our math classes we talk about language arts We talk about major
079subjects. That's a concern superintendent So I would ask what are you going to do about that? And I would think that human resource would do more of a recruiting at the beginning of the school year or the middle of school year and set away to after the school year one of the things I'm still not Understanding is how can you cut staff? During the summer time and then you still opening up school shorter staff I would think that you would be bringing some of those individuals back so we can have a full class full of school full of teachers so again talk about the How what is the ratio of digital technology that's being used to teach to teach the curriculum And I also, like we're saying, knowing that we don't have the technology in
080the classrooms for these students to be able to follow instruction. So, you know, can you talk about those things when you get a chance? Our next speaker, Sarah Joslin. Well, we're coming up to the big test. Will the schools pass the recycle test? I know there's been a lot of training going on, and we're looking forward to seeing those results. The prize is $3,000 per school, as we don't have to spend if we fail that test. I'm hoping that our children are also being asked about... maintaining a clean community. I noticed when I came in today that the hedge in front of this school on the side towards the street, completely full of trash and litter. This is the kind of impression that we give at the school because that's what the public sees, that's
081what I saw. Now I know that there's a small store across there. This is a city problem. This is something we need to do with community engagement. People need to put trash in its place, which is not on the ground. We need to be teaching that in the schools, and we need to have the parents and the board among the citizens in this city to be demonstrating that as a public action. The Bridging the Gap has been successful at Rutgers-Camden. 50% increase in the freshman class. And that includes over 40% increase in both the African American and Hispanic students. So the opportunity has been presented. The focus now is on supporting the students so that they can increase the retention for freshman year. Well, that means those kids coming in need to be prepared to
082do the college work. Now, I understand that there were certainly more students that took the AP tests in Camden last year than the year before, but the ones that were successful in getting scores of threes and fours is still very dismal. We're talking about, you know, 1% and 2% type of success rate. We need to be sure that those AP classes that are being offered are at a level that allow the students to be prepared to be successful on the test because a score of 3, 4, or 5 allows them to get college credit. We need to make sure that we're offering the type of experience that goes with the name of the course. I hope the board will take this in a favorable way. I like your social studies and science curriculum. Now it's
083up to are we implementing it? Are those students in high school each getting their tablet for the sciences? Are the K-3, is there a computer for every student that is supposed to be doing the new K-3 literacy when it comes time for their turn? We need to be preparing the students and having the appropriate resource. I recall that last year, one of the four-point action plan over my concerns about libraries and libraries being open was that there would be student volunteers in the library so students would be able to check out books. Thank you, Ms. Johnson. It doesn't sound like that's happening. Next speaker, Gary Frazier. Gary Frazier. Next speaker, Sean Brown. Good evening. I want to be somewhat repetitive on something I've been saying for the last three years and in part echo some
084of what Dr. Keith Benson Jr. said earlier tonight. Every day I'm on social media. I get texts. I have conversations with people about education, whether it's my own children, family members, neighbors, the grocery store. I see some of the board members, central office staff throughout the week, throughout the month having conversations about how do we assure that our students are getting the best education as possible. And my first year on the board in 2010, I walked into the board, unlike most new board members, having been a public member that went to board meetings for many years. So when I went there, I kind of already knew a lot of people's names. I had relationships with a few people. And in my first year, It was no secret that I didn't like the superintendent, Dr. Young,
085and she didn't like me. The school board president went out of her way at times to prevent me from speaking, from asking questions at the work sessions and at the public meetings. One of the things that happened from that was it just made more people in the public kind of encourage me to keep asking questions and keep trying to get to things. But one of the things I learned in that experience my first year when I was a school board member from 2010 to 2011 is that facts and figures and science and data aren't persuasive tools for people who have an interest that's separate from it. So, for example, if your primary interest is to hold on to power, and there's data that goes against you holding on to power, then you're going to ignore
086that data or stifle it in order to be able to retain and keep your power. If your interest is to have a greater political office so you become politically loyal to the establishment, even when you at times disagree because you want to be able to advance, then it's going to have an impact on how you act in the current position. But one of the things that I learned that... and a lot of people gave me advice on this, and maybe I wish I listened earlier, was that me asking hard questions and me getting applause from the audience and me having zingers, like we heard last night in the presidential debate, although it might feel good in the moment, it's a temporary victory that didn't ultimately result in the change in schools for 12,000 students that
087went to the school district. I heard Ms. Minear got an award this weekend, and she gave... Dr. Benson, you'd appreciate this. She gave a really long speech. And one of the things that she said in the speech, she said, you know, you might not hear me speak at the meetings, but there's a lot of things that I do throughout the month to help kids get a better education, right? So the work that's being done in East Camden, it may not rise to the level of what my expectations are. It doesn't, right? I'm being honest. But... People are going to be able to use power in a way they think is best to do what they think is best We have one issue vacancies one once you vacancies have been talked about a lot and payback
088We'll talk about it at the end I'm really curious to hear about that. We need support from the community on and the other one which is in the superintendent's report Thank You mr. Brown is up. Okay Gary Frazier So yeah, I think writers right wrong is wrong We have issues when we talk about our water. I think it's imperative that we continue the process of keeping our parents actively engaged in it so we don't have rhetoric running around the district to what's true, what's not true, what may be false, what may not be false. The water issue is a big thing. You know, when I was on my national campaign run, I got a chance to learn a lot about TPP, fossil fuel, and of course about quality of water life issues. And I think
089that we don't spend enough time in our community talking to our residents about these things and how important the water and the quality of life water is to them as well as their environment so that they will take more of an active role in being, you know, actively involved in having clean and safe streets. Another thing I wanted to touch topic on tonight. You know, I did hear from a number of speakers some of the issues that we are having already our first, second, second full week in the school. And I think that, you know, when we continue the process of having open dialogue and opening the doors with those individuals who are concerned about these issues, when they offer their feedback, I think it's more so to the point of recognizing their passion for
090what they are doing as opposed to just cutting them off and not hearing them out. People are passionate about issues and they take these issues very seriously and I too would take the issue of water in our city very seriously. On another note, I would say to this body here in terms, because of course you guys know I'm working very hard in our community for community schools in the city of Camden. And I think that's also something that we need to start to raise awareness of. Because when I look at what the community schools are making up in our city, I do see them as being what our urban... school what our what our neighborhood schools used to entail but i think the difference today is the ability that allows for the parents to play
091more of an active role in their child's education opening that having that open door policy by doing the needs and assessments in the community continuously i don't care if we do it on a redundant basis but continuing to go back because you might only get to five or 10 parents at one structure, but then in another setting, if time is provided, whether parents aren't at work or if they are not doing anything, they could be more actively involved. So I think when we continue to do the needs and assessments in the community to find out exactly where our residents are, where our parents are at, I think we could do more of a better job. you know with that bridging that gap because we say it's about our kids and we say you know ultimately
092we all have the same folks in mind that we want a high quality education for our children so i would um just end on this that i would encourage this body to develop more of an active uh role that will be more inviting for the parents to come in and weigh in on these issues because i can tell you i'm having fun you know just being out in the community and being able to connect with uh more parents who wouldn't necessarily want to be involved in the educational process one way or another. But if we are talking about moving Camden forward, if we are talking about all these great things that are happening in the city of Camden, I think it has to continue with allowing an open door policy with those parents of the
093children who attend those schools, all schools for that matter. and i will continue to advocate surely um for the safe the safe corridors program um to be lifted off the ground we talked about this last year i know we've begun having dialogue on it again this year but you know i still am going to be a strong advocate for those children whether they are in our public schools in our charter schools they are our children they are out there on those corners on some of our most dangerous corners at very early hours in the morning so i would ask this body to really take a look at that, getting ourselves really at the table to get this off the ground and allowing our parents to play an active role in this process, especially in those
094areas, so that our children can go to and from school safely. Thanks. Sean Miles. My name is Sean. I'm from Parents for Great Camden Schools. And we go around and we get information from parents and what they think will make a great Camden Schools. And I have a few parents right here, you know, who I asked a question and they gave me the answer. I have Gloria Acevedo. I asked her what makes a great candidate in school. She said her kids go to Wiggins. She said the school needs more, asks people not to park in the middle of the streets at Wiggins School while they're picking up their kids. I had Keisha Johnson. She got kids that go to HB Wilson. She loves HB Wilson. I got Krista Nash. I asked her. She said she
095needs more parent involvement and parent support groups. And I have Jasmine Manguel. She got a child that goes to Davis School, and she needs more security and supervision during and after school hours and on recess. You know, that's just something to look at. You know, we talk to all the parents. All right, thank you. Next speaker, Mario Perez. Can you move the mic up so we can hear you? Thanks. Yeah, I have four kids attend the city schools Yorkship I met you there before the superintendent and Morgan Village I'm here in behalf of parents for great cabinet schools. We go around the neighborhood to speak into parents and Voice their opinions on what how they feel about the schools A parent Edith says please add preschool to the Camden enrollment website One parent, Carla, says
096MedEast needs bus transportation. And Glenn says that her daughter goes to Freedom Prep. It's a very good school compared to public schools because of teaching. Thank you. Next speaker, Janetti DeJesus. Hi, good evening. My name is Janetti DeJesus. I'm from Parental Great Camden Schools. And I have a few cards. First is Brenda Lee's. Vets, problems giving kids medicine, no crossing guards, no police patrol. The next one, David Hatch, more tech programs. My next parent is Cannon. What makes a great Camden school is a drug-free school when all the kids come together and have fun when they know they're protected. In my opinion, that's what makes a great Camden school. Next speaker, Jennifer Perez. Good evening. My name is Jennifer Perez. I'm a parent for parents for great Camden schools. I also have three cards from
097parents with their concerns and compliments about the Camden City Schools. First one is Tracy Holmes. She says that the school system needs more activities for five-year-olds for Mastery McGraw. Pamela Underdue, Camden Charter is a great school in her opinion. And Carmen Serrano. Her concern is children are not given books. They're told their parents need to supply the books for studies and supply laptops or computers due to financial difficulties. Some families can't afford them. They need to issue books. Other concerns are some schools don't have libraries, and some parents would like the 100-book challenge back. Thank you. Desmond Benson. My name is Desmond Benson. I'm also a Parents for Great Cameron School parent advocate. And I had the Wigan schools this past week. And one of my parents, Brenda Carabello, said that the Wigan school teachers
098was great. Her kids was learning. I had Ms. Ramos. She loved the school and how organized it was in the morning. And I had Ms. Jasmine. She would like to see more involvement with the community, with the school district. Thank you. Brian Morton. Brian Morton. Mayor Kahn, are you speaking? Yes. Okay. Good evening. I'm going to talk about something a little different. After hearing tonight, and I hear that month after month, I just want to make two recommendations to the board. Number one, there's obviously a lot of frustration and tension about quote unquote minutes taken away from a couple years ago. And I know three minutes is rough for people to get out their whole message and to express their passion. Obviously, I think before it was like three minutes and two for the superintendent
099report and the other report, at least taking consideration. Another minute or two might go a long way if nothing else other than perception and giving people the chance to express themselves and the opportunity to at least know that there is some kind of compromise or giving on the board's end. That's number one. But let me say something also. Board, I want you to hear me on this. If the board can find in their budget a position for a mediator or negotiator. Most of you are educators, you're great educators, and you have people here that are passionate about what they're talking about. But, you know, a lot of times, you know, a lot of times what I've done in the past, and I'm looking for a job I can't take another thing on, but you need
100somebody who can negotiate and be a mediator between the board and help out here. I've been hearing some of the same complaints for the past two, three, four, five years, and some of them can be resolved fairly easily. If there's somebody who just focuses on that, superintendent, you try to meet with as many people as you can, but you have so much on your plate, you really can't put the kind of attention you would like to have on it. And same thing goes to the rest of the board as well. So I want to just make a suggestion about a negotiator. I've seen this happen to other boards across the country where now, you know what, a Mongo that comes down or somebody else, a Vita, you know what, if they know they have somebody
101that has some undivided attention with them that can kind of walk them through some things and bring resolve, I think it's going to calm things down. And you know what, a lot of people in the community don't want to come out because they don't want to hear the arguing and the fussing and the fighting and the friction. So maybe if some things they start seeing resolved and things being answered, I think it might go a long way. My three minutes are up, and I approve this message. Thank you very much. Kelly Francis. Members, I was approached, I believe it was about a week and a half ago, by a parent who has a student in one of the charter schools. And he told me that that particular charter school does not close for Dr. Martin
102Luther King's birthday. And he said he believed that there are other charter schools who do not close on Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday. So I wish, I would hope that someone would look into that and see if that's true and why that is not happening in the city of Cameron, in the Cameron City School District. I know the traditional schools close. and honor the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King. So I would like some information as to if this is a fact and why are they not closing on that holiday. Another thing, I would like to know just how much money that we are being reimbursed. From the students from outside the district that are attending our our schools How much are we being reimbursed? by the either the school district where they come from
103or by the parents for their tuition, so if you could get me that information for the School year, I believe is 24 2015 16. I'd appreciate I know we have a lot of out-of-district students attending our charter schools and renaissance schools. So if you could look into those issues for me, I'd appreciate it. Thank you. All right, that ends public comment. Okay, so a number of people, starting with our first speaker, Ms. Fronte, raised vacancies, so I just want to share some additional detail there. And as I mentioned during the presentation, we are in a better place than we were the year before, the year before, the year before that. That's not to say it's perfect, and I want to make both points very, very clear. So right now in the district, there are 19
104teacher vacancies out of 875 positions. That's roughly 2% that are vacant. And last year at this point, it was a significantly higher number. It was in the order of around 40 to 50, maybe even up to 60. And so as a percentage it was higher, as a total number it was higher. And so progress is good. We also have 19 more vacancies than we should. And so that is the reality of it all. A number of those vacancies were generated by staff who retired or resigned right before the start of the school year or during the first few weeks of school, first few days of school. And that presents really big challenges in terms of now us having to scramble to find Highly qualified certified teachers in those positions, and I think somebody made the
105suggestion of why don't we start earlier? We absolutely do and this is Over the course of the year we are constantly trying to search for folks in the most proactive way possible Which is in large part why we were able to start the year with approximately 2% Vacancies which represents improvement there was a number of comments specifically about our comprehensive high schools, so I want to share out those numbers So Camden High has 61 teacher positions and there are two vacancies, one of which someone referenced, I believe Ms. Ragsdale is a French teacher, and we're working through that. At Woodrow Wilson, that number is higher and it is six teachers. And that is unacceptable. We need to do better. Half of those vacancies are driven by staff who just recently announced they are leaving. And
106so, again, that presents a very unique challenge for us. I will say for the CTE vacancy, we just recently put out an offer, and we're hopeful to fill that vacancy very soon. And so we're going to continue working at this. And a number of people, at least I remember hearing you, Ms. Fronte, mention this, that Source for Teachers is not the solution. And I agree with you. Source for Teachers is a contingency plan. It is not Plan A. It is Plan B. And we don't want to use Source for Teachers. We're using them less now than we were last year. And also remember that we use Source for Teachers more to fill classrooms for teachers who are calling out. or on leave than we are for vacancies. So call-outs actually drive the need for vacancies
107more than anything else. Clean water came up a number of different times, so let me just unpack this issue further. And if we want to hold a town hall on water, we're happy to do it. And I mean that sincerely because this is a top-of-mind issue. What I've said over and over on the issue of clean water is that... Camden is actually a success story so far and we have more testing to do and we need to be as transparent as possible and until we see those results at the most recent results, it's it's probably premature for me to say that but I want to give credit where credit's due because it was the work of Mr. Davis and Mr. Jones and others who more than ten years ago Pushed the district and I believe
108they took it to court to provide water coolers at all of the schools and that is a huge mitigating factor and it was their Activism that led to that very important mitigating factor to be put into place and so we want to now take that work and we're standing on their shoulders and elevate our efforts and We're providing water coolers in our kitchens as well. That wasn't happening before and now it is We weren't testing every single site before, and now we are. Frankly, that is a matter of state law now, and we're happy to do it. And again, we will share those results. Specifically for this school, because it's a newer building, the pipes are actually copper pipes. They're not lead pipes. That doesn't mean, however, that this building is immune from lead because
109the city pipes could actually bring lead into this school building. And I want to remind you all again that when we did the test over the summer, which was not a comprehensive test, it was not every school, it was not every single point of dissemination, but at no building, including this one, was water that's consumed, where water is consumed, were there to be found elevated levels of lead. Ms. Miller, you referenced families who are forced transferred to charter schools. Would love to speak offline if you have specifics of that. To my knowledge, that has never happened. We won't allow that to happen. We don't force transfer anybody. At the end of the day, the transfer process is one that is driven by families, and we work with families, and they always have a guaranteed seat
110at their neighborhood school. You mentioned some issues with the website and data. Again, in an offline conversation, if you believe that in some instances we have not provided the latest data or apples to apples data or whatever the issue may be, we're happy to address it. Mr. Waters, you mostly referenced the vacancies. You cited CTE and we just put out an offer there. In terms of some of the work to create better access to the library, I'm going to pass it over to Katrina McCombs, our Deputy Superintendent. So just really quickly, and I don't mind staying afterwards to go into detail, but specifically at Woodrow Wilson, we don't have first dedicated librarians across the district. And at Woodrow Wilson, even though we don't have a dedicated librarian, there is a plan that is in place.
111Teachers can still take their classes to the library to conduct research, to work on whatever it is that they need to, but also in the absence of an adult. because we have a fantastic family operations coordinator and also an ops manager at Woodrow Wilson. Their offices are actually in the library and per principal Miles, they are working on getting some technology pieces in place, but in the meantime. There is still access to the library and also the family operations coordinator can cover for any students who come to the library without an adult. So there is access to the library. It's not a dedicated librarian. We did not place student volunteers, Ms. Jocelyn, to your point, in place yet. It's the beginning of the year, but that is something that we are still looking into where
112it would work and where it would be a good fit for the school. But there is a plan in place at Woodrow. I'm sorry, say that again. It's mr. Waters. I've said this before of course, of course like under a blue sky We would have a librarian and we'd probably think of 17 other positions to add to Woodrow Wilson it at the end of the day becomes a day a game of trade-offs and so we can As a matter of just budget and dollars being finite We can swap out one of the class one of the electives or some other class or some other position to bring on a librarian And so that's what it comes down to. It's a zero sum game. And now at the end of the day, we're talking about kids.
113And so I don't want to be glib about that point, but it's also reality. And so we sit down with the school leaders and we sit down with a number of other stakeholders to the round tables I mentioned, and we try to make the most informed decisions possible. And so we're trying to allow for greater access to the library, as you just heard. And I think that once the Building gets settled. We've had some real issues there again But especially with our new staff that have come on board to support in operations will be able to facilitate that access We've got some work to do but you know, that's kind of the reality of the overall staffing allocations Hey miss Vida. All right, let's move on. Let's move on Mr. Mr. Benson so There is
114not much upside in me engaging you on the issues that you raise because they're so sensitive and they're so real and they resonate with a lot of people. But here goes. I would say that our Venn diagram overlap in terms of what we agree upon is local control. Where we differ is that you believe that through the courts there should have been a publicly elected school board. And you mentioned that I conflate those issues, and I actually don't think I do. I think we just have a difference of opinion. I'm putting more of an emphasis on power to the local community, whether that power manifests itself through a publicly elected board or one appointed by the mayor. At some point down the road, sooner than later, I do believe the city will come to some
115resolution there. So yes, we did. take our council's guidance through the court process and it wound up where it wound up. I still believe what matters more than whether these board members who are incredibly committed and you may not see every single or hear every single conversation but they are deeply deeply care about our kids and our staff in this city. Whether they're appointed by the mayor or they're elected to me I have to work with any board member. no matter how they arrive on this stage. What matters most is that there's power in this local community. And just the other week... Given we have a new commissioner of education in the state of New Jersey because I've been impressing upon our current or I should say now outgoing Commissioner Hesby About local control. I
116renew the conversation with Miss Kimberly Harrington and she'll tell you the same thing About how we can move things faster here in Camden then the way things played out in other municipalities and that will continue to be a priority for me and You can either take my word or not. It's up to everyone in this room. Miss Neal, I thought the hot dogs on our side of the field were pretty good over the weekend. So you said the visitors' hot dogs were better than our hot dogs. I got some hot dogs at the Woodrow game. I thought they were pretty good. That was two weeks ago at the Woodrow game, actually, not this past weekend. Sorry, I thought you said that the visitor side had better hot dogs than the home side. Okay, that's that's
117what I heard All right We'll take offline as to whether or not Aaron Marks serves a better hot dog at football games to students and they do it to students In during the school day, so we'll we'll figure that one out I had a pork hot dog and a beef hot dog. The beef one was better. They were both good. All right, let's move on Oh, you also mentioned some transportation related challenges. So I wanted to say, you said a student that lives more than four miles away doesn't have busing. That shouldn't be happening. Please connect us to them. We just increased the New Jersey Transit bus tickets for students that live two miles away before it was two and a half miles away at the high school level. So it's the special needs students
118that you really focused in on. And I just want to make clear that that process is one that happens every single year where programs are consolidated. So if you have a program at one school that has two or three students in it. Ma'am, please stop interrupting. So I just want to make clear that students that were resituated, it was due to this consolidation process because it becomes untenable to have multiple special ed classrooms of just one or two or three students. And so we want to consolidate them. And so we then have to figure out busing to the extent those students are moving school buildings. I will generally say that we have a real... busing challenge. And it's not just for district schools. The same goes for Renaissance and charter schools. And so there are
119new stricter federal regulations on busing that have made the commercial driver's license, the CDL, test a lot tougher. And we just don't, across this entire region in South Jersey, we don't have enough people with commercial driving licenses. And so right now the failure rate went from 33% to 57%. in a very short in the last year and so we've talked we've talked about across the state and so we've talked about if there's some effort or we can work with other school districts maybe with the county to train folks on how to pass the test in general just kind of source a pipeline of bus drivers right now we actually have a bus driver shortage and that's part of the challenge we're not getting a lot of our routes filled and buses are showing up late
120it's totally totally unacceptable and I'm by no means excusing it but that's one of the the challenges that are coming into play here and I see a lot of hands up so the bus challenge is not just specific to special education students it applies to all students Ragsdale you mentioned local control as well, which I touched on the vacancies where I touched on concession stand Happy to continue to have the conversation our concession stand plan still stays the same want to work with you all on the uniform plan So look forward to continuing that conversation Mr. Barfield vacancies we touched on Miss Jocelyn, thanks for sharing the updates on the recycling test and number of the other items you touched on Mr. Brown, restorative justice, still seeing some students suspended at high rates. This is
121the year where the data will really, really be significant because it's the first time we'll have last year's baseline data and this year as a comparison point. And our goal is to reduce the suspension rate, hearing good things anecdotally at our comprehensive high schools. Across the board and even at the comprehensive high schools. We don't yet have enough data to really draw meaningful conclusions yet It's still early in the school year, but we look forward to keeping everyone posted to our families toward the end who listed very specific and kind of almost transactional questions and issues we took notes and We can maybe follow up with you separately offline Mr. Khan pastor Khan You mentioned that we should have someone that goes and speaks to community members at events like this. We actually do have
122someone. We have a whole team that helps out with this, but Sheree Perry specifically helps out in these settings. So if you haven't met Sheree, she's wonderful and you should get to know her. Mr. Francis, the charter that you said closed, or you referenced closing on MLK Day, if you could share that with us offline, we'll figure that out and get to the bottom of it, because that shouldn't be happening, and we would love to investigate that further. You asked a question about students that don't live in Camden that attend Camden schools. We'll have to dig that up. I don't think that's a big number, students outside the district who are enrolled in the district, but we'll follow up with you. There you are, separately, okay? Mr. Barfield. Right, so with regard to the substitute
123teachers, there is a protocol that's in place at each of the schools, and it is definitely not perfect. We acknowledge that it's not perfect when you don't have a teacher in the room, but as our superintendent explained, there are many varying reasons that may happen, emergent and also reasons that are otherwise. So we do have a protocol in place where teachers, and if teachers are not available to do it, then school leaders have to designate someone else that makes sure that the substitute lesson plans are up to date, that they are in enlivenment. alignment and pacing and sequencing with where students should be in the curriculum and that those plans are kept. Usually they're kept in the main office but they can also be kept online so that they can be given to the substitute
124teachers so that they do have something. It is ultimately also the school leaders responsibility to make sure that instruction is occurring so on their learning walks as they're going through the building what helps is that they are closely monitoring also those classes that have substitute teachers. I did the same thing when I was a principal. You know when you have a sub, you know when you have stronger subs, and you know when you may have subs that are not as strong, and you, as a school leader, do what you need to do to make sure that you provide that support, you monitor so that you can give feedback. And there is a way in which if substitutes are not effective, then school leaders can make recommendations for certain subs not to come back. to our
125buildings. So there's a process to kind of monitor and check that, but there is a protocol in place to do what we can to maximize the best possible outcomes for subs. Again, it's not perfect, but those are things that are put in place to help the situation until we get our teachers back in place. Look, so on technology... We did another audit over the summer leading into the start of the school year, and Ms. McCombs, feel free to jump in here as well. We're almost at a one-to-one ratio device to student, and so it may not always feel that way. But we have a lot of devices, and sometimes the challenges in deploying the devices has to do with bandwidth in the building and kind of other infrastructure-related issues. But we do have a lot
126of devices, and when I go and visit our schools, I see our kids using those devices. So it's not as though they're completely just... gathering dust. Now, to the extent you have specific questions about a specific school, you now have a great resource in those schools, which is the ops manager. And the operations manager is actually the person responsible to ensure that there's great access to technology. And I would suggest that if there is a school or two you have in mind, to go and sit down with the operations manager. And I can talk to you afterwards as well, but just to complement what Haymon was sharing just now, I can give you... Andrew, when he did his presentation, he referred to the fact that in our new social studies and science curriculum, sorry, that
127we are using the digital technology there, but there are other digital resources. There is a one-pager, and I can go through each of those with you in detail with the programs that we are using that are accessed online, like Thing Through Math. There's a whole list of them, and I can give them to you with exactly what their function and purpose is in the classroom right after this meeting. Mm-hmm. You're welcome. Out-of-district students, so non-Camden-based families who are coming into Camden to go to any of those school types. Is that the request I just want to make? Okay, got it. Any other board member comments? You want to say something? All right, so I believe that we are now going to go to closed session, so if there's a motion to go into closed, and
128then we'll come out and adjourn. But we pushed the closed session to the very end, so... Good evening. At this time, the board will go into closed session to discuss the matters of personnel, confidential student matters, union contract, and attorney-client privilege. At this time, I call for a motion to go into closed session. Motion to go into closed session. Second. The motion was to go into closed session by Ms. Muneer and second by Ms. Atwell. We are now going into closed session. Excuse me. May I have a roll call, please? Ms. Atwood? Yes. Ms. Cassidy Blackshear, Mr. Rito-Brino, Ms. Dorothy Barely. Yes. Mr. Joshua Cole. Yes. Mr. Muhammad. Yes. Ms. Maneer. Yes. Ms. Felicia Reyes-Morton and Ms. Martha Wilson. We're now going into closed session. We'll be returning for approximately 30 minutes from now. It'll
129be 8.30. 836. Actually, 836. Good evening. At this time, we are coming out of closed session. I'd like to have a motion to come out of closed session. Motion to come out of closed session. Second. Okay. Thank you. All in favor? Yes. Aye. Aye. May I have a motion to adjourn the meeting? Motion to adjourn the meeting. Second. Second. And at this time. At this time, the meeting has been ended for the evening.