00175. The Ottabon Board of Education transmitted notice of this meeting scheduled at 6:30 in the Ottabon Junior Senior High School Media Center to the Retrospect newspaper and the Burrow clerk and the posting and by postings on the Ottabon Public School District website and at the main and the the main and the Pine Street entrances of the junior senior high. May I have a roll call, please? Mr. Amy Davis absent with notice. Steven Wilson is absent with notice. Sarah Coolen, Alison Lipsky, >> Mark Gaddy, Bill Wilson, he's absent with a late notice. Um, Danielle D. Franchesco is absent with notice. Alison Cox, Andrea Robinson, Jonathan Max. >> Thank you, Mrs. Ronis. Uh, tonight we do have a need to go into executive session for the reasons as noted on the agenda. Uh, may I have a
002motion? Okay. All those in favor? >> Opposed. All right. will be approximately 30 minutes. And uh we'd like to call the meeting back to order, please. Uh, may we stand for the flag salute. Thank you. Uh, we do not have our student representative with us. It is July. Uh, and there's no spotlight program. So, our fun of our meeting is not here tonight. So, I apologize, but but the meat and potatoes, our presentations are coming. So, um I'd like to uh welcome uh Mr. Burke to the podium to give us the NJ GPA. Hello everyone. Can you guys hear me? Okay. Yeah. Okay. Is that good? That's good. Okay, cool. All right. So, um, hi everyone. This is the NJ GPA um, uh, presentation for this year. So, NJGPA stands for New Jersey Graduation Proficiency
003Assessment. We're required to give this presentation to the board with days of receipt of the scores. At this point, the parents in the community have already received uh the results of for for their own children. So, just before I get into the the results of this assessment, let me give you all a little bit of context. So, we are required to have all 11th graders take the NJ GPA. Um, and this is uh an assessment that measures both math and ELA. Um, what it does is it gauges graduation readiness. So, they take it in 11th grade. So, the results that you see today are for next year's seniors, the class of 2026. Um, while we're talking about the data, it's important to keep in mind that the mathematics section is aligned to geometry and algebra
0041 standards and the ELA component is aligned to grade 10 standards. So, when we hear this whole thing about it's a graduation assessment, uh it can be a little bit nerve-wracking. And um what I'm getting at is if a student doesn't pass the NJ GPA, we have other pathways that they can take to to graduate. So uh the first pass pathway is to pass both the uh math and ELA section of the NJGPA. Uh the second pathway um they can if they have taken the NJGPA they must take the NJGPA to qualify for the second or third pathway. Um they can take a substitute assessment. So that would be the ACT, the PSAT, the SAT, ACUPPLACER. Um most of our students they achieve this through the PSAT. um we give um our students the PSAT
005every October and then those who still haven't met that requirement um they do a portfolio. So they work with a teacher and the teacher helps to guide them through um developing a portfolio that demonstrates that they have the skills to be ready for uh for graduation. Okay, so let's get to some of the results. Let me orient you to what it is that you're looking at. So on the left side uh so this is math on the left side you have uh this year's results 2425 on the right side you have 2324 in blue it is graduation ready in orange it is not yet graduation ready one of the things that you're going to notice is that we saw a 14% increase in graduation readiness for our students students. Um, the thing to keep in
006mind about this, and we talked about this a little bit in committee, is that this is not cohort data. We're talking about two different groups of students. So, this group here, these are the the students that just graduated. These are the students that will be graduating next year. Oh yes, you're right. You're right about that. The um the numbers, what happens a lot of times is they actually get um they get rounded up or down. And so sometimes that happens. Sorry about that. Um and let me just go back to this. That's a that's a significant increase. And one of the things I do want to point out too is that, you know, we talked a lot about the um some of the things that we're going to do to improve instruction. And a lot
007of our teachers, they really stepped up to the plate in the math department. They did a really nice job of um making sure that they weren't just teaching the standards. They always do that. But they in addition to that, they did certain things to make sure that, you know, while they understood the content, they were also familiar with how that content would look on the assessment so that the assessment itself does not become a distraction. Um you know, you want to make sure that the student can actually perform the skill without that kind of a distraction. Here's the ELA results. So again on the right you have uh 23 24 and then this is the current one. So um basically what we have here is for this year we have 87% are graduation ready and
00813% have not yet uh are not yet graduation ready. Ultimately they stayed about the same and I'll dive a little bit deeper into these numbers in a moment. So this kind of breaks it down a little bit more. Um so math we have the uh the comparison here. This is a comparison to the state right? You know we we can't just look at this data in isolation. Uh we have to compare it to other you know to the state is really what what the state gives us when they when they report it out to us. So um what we have here is um this column here is the state scores right this is the district scores and what you're noticing is that for uh for math in 2024 we were at 51% and the state
009was at 55% graduation ready. So we were four points below um the state average. Now uh the state did go up a little bit. We went up a lot more. So we went from 4% below to 8% above. That's a significant swing for us. ELA um we went from six points above to six points above. We basically stayed just about the same. One of the other things that we're required to do is to report out on subgroups. Now, one of the things I want to point out first is this little footnote down here. There are a lot of groups that we can't report out on because there aren't enough students to report out on them. Um, once we go below nine, we can't report out on out on that group. So, in this column here,
010you have um graduation ready for Hispanic or Latino, white, economically disadvantaged, IEPs, 504s, female and male, and then on the right, you have not graduation ready for th that those same groups. Um I'm not going to read all of those numbers to you, but the this uh presentation, I believe, is available for the board to view. Is that correct? Right. Okay. Same thing for math. Same groups and then the same groups that were we're not able to uh report out on. So, one of the things that I want to um talk about are some of the next steps. So, um those students that um did not pass the NJGPA and um they have not yet satisfied the requirement through the PSAT or another assessment, we will give them an opportunity to take the NJGPA again
011in the fall. And then uh at that point, once we get those results back, those students that still haven't passed um will start the the portfolio process. As far as the alternate pathways, um we have a significant number of students that um have not that that have met the the graduation requirement through the PSAT. Um the in this forum, I don't want to report out on the specifics of those numbers because some of those numbers are lower than that nine threshold. So, I'm reluctant to say that. But in committee, I'm more than happy to give you some of those specific numbers. But there's a significant reduction though in in a lot of these numbers. And then of course any students that uh still need it, we will guide them through the portfolio process. Um some
012of the other things that we're going to continue to do because we saw a lot of success with this this year is uh exposing students right to not just the standards the way that we teach them but also how it is that they're going to be assessed. Um we've also um our our midterms and our final exams. When you take a look at them, they actually look like the NJ GPA, NJSLA. It has the same kind of formatting because it's a digital format. So again, just making sure that the students aren't distracted by the technology or the wording of questions or things like that because we want them to have as much success as possible and we we don't want that to be the thing that really holds them back, especially when they really know
013the the information. Um, and then you know some of the other things we had we had a lot of teachers do a lot of good work with um not just ex having the students see what they're going to see on the assessment but also giving the students the opportunity to talk about it with each other. This is a critical piece because, you know, when we talk about math in particular, I know we think of like, you know, 1 plus one equals two or whatever it is, but um I know there's more to it than that. Um but there's also a lot of writing in math. So um a lot of the teachers, you know, they what they were able to do was scaffold up to writing in math by allowing the students to have a
014dialogue about it. They'd put a problem out there in front of them and say, "Okay, you've solved this problem. That's great. Now, I want you to be able to explain it to your partner or to the group or to the class or whatever it is. So, they're actually talking about the math. And what this does too is, and we've talked a little bit about product productive struggle here, but in this engaging in academic discourse, it's forcing the students to bounce ideas off of each other. This is a rigorous activity for students to engage in. And I really do think that um you know, we've seen pretty good gains in mathematics. Um I I do think that uh our staff should be commended for for the work that they've done. Now that said though, one of
015the things that we also have to keep in mind is that, you know, this is this cohort, right? So, you know, we have to take a look at cohort data and we'll take a a deeper dive into that in committee. Um but ultimately, you know, for right now, we've seen good growth and I think that that this is an opportunity to really um celebrate the hard work of a lot of our staff members because they did a lot of good work on this stuff. Um, that's basically the end of the presentation. I told you all be short. Um, questions, comments? >> We do have that information. I don't have it at my fingertips, though. That's certainly something we can get to you for sure. Oh yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So, yeah. So, students with um 504s,
016IEPs, um for the most part, they take this assessment, too. Um we're only allowed, I believe it's 1% of our students to be exempt. Um before we have to, you know, fill out a lot of paperwork, basically. Okay. Any other questions or comments? All right, I'll take that as my cue. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you, Mr. Burke. Appreciate that. Um, at this time, we will have our second presentation of the evening. It's a strategic plan presentation with Dr. Scott Oswald and Miss Allen. It's not easy being short. Here we go. Bring it down. Um all right. So, thank you um this evening. Thank you for allowing us a few minutes here to go through the strategic plan. As all me most of you, many of you participated in at least one of our
017community sessions um for the strategic planning. So some of the slides you're going to see tonight you have will have already seen but I tried to summarize them um and summarize the process of strategic planning. So I'm going to start just by looking at um the benefits what is strategic planning the purpose its benefits um and then the essential question which we really use throughout the process to drive our conversations. Um, I'll talk to you a little bit about the process we went through so that you understand hopefully um that it is um a real kind of rigorous process that involved uh quite a few people here in the community, not only with um not only in completing surveys um and giving us feedback, but also in actually attending some of our open sessions, our
018open forum sessions. Um I think the first night we did one of the sessions, it was about seven degrees outside and I think we had about seven people here. So that was a little bit um underwhelming but the next time um I think we had next two sessions we had over 50 people each session. So so that's quite impressive. Um your community is not that large. 50 people is a good turnout um for that. Um so strategic planning is just a a very thorough and a disciplined process of kind of looking at where you are today um and where you'd like to be and determining what that gap is. So we do a a bit of a gap analysis in there. Um and part of that is the strategic plan itself will help us to
019establish priorities um for the district for the next several years moving forward. It will help guide decision-m um and then one thing that I think is the most important although it's the third bullet and I do believe in general in education we don't do this well. Um and that is providing focus right we can't keep chasing the next best thing. We have to know what good instruction looks like as Mr. Burke talked about. Um we have to know what good decision-making, what good school culture looks like. um and really work hard to achieve those things rather than kind of the next best thing. There will always be a next best thing that comes along in education. Um so we set goals, we decide on actions to achieve those goals and then the next step which
020is really up to the administration and the board is how do you mobilize the resources needed to take um the actions that that are in the strategic plan. Um so a benefit of strategic planning in general is uh when you do it every four or five years you create a cycle of continuous improvement. um we never stop improving. We should the only thing that should be constant in education is that continuous desire to improve and do better. Um it can help and certainly will help for as a tool for decision making making and again provide that focus. Um and you will see this question a couple times during the presentation. Um but if we're here together four to five years from now, what would the district or the schools have accomplished that resulted in positive
021growth and would make you feel most proud of the Ottabbon schools? Um so that's one of the questions. um that we kind of allowed or we we used to help drive our discussions. So this is the process that we went through. Um the first thing we do there's five stages to the process that we followed. The first thing is examining existing data that really falls on me. Um so I pull all of the data that I can that's publicly available. I ask your superintendent and and Mr. Burke, your curriculum director for uh some data that might not be publicly available. Um and then we kind of comb through that data to decide where we really need to focus our attention. That's often academic um attention but it can be other areas as well when you
022look at um school climate various data that's available for school climate. Um so we examine that. Um by examining that the disagregated data we can not only tell um not only how the school in general is doing, how the students in the school in general are doing and in oftentimes and in many schools the school overall looks like it's doing pretty well. Um once you start really digging into some of that disagregated data, a different picture emerges. Um one thing I'll go back to Mr. Burke's presentation. Um, I think the number was 94%, but you have like 94% of your economically disadvantaged kids successful in that assessment. That's almost unheard of, right? You should be I mean your your numbers in general are very good. Um, they're excellent. Um, that number is something you should
023hang your hat on, right? That's not something that you see very that we see very often. So, that's a great um number and and and congrats to the staff and and everybody um in the district for that. So, we examine that data. We look at different um data points that are available not only academically but also in terms of discipline and attendance and all of those things um also help to inform um inform our direction around school culture. Um the next step in this is engaging the community. We did surveys. There were custom surveys for students, staff, families with students in school and then community members without students in school. So we sent out those surveys. We did receive about 1,400 responses. the student side. We start grades four up with students in grades four
024up um taking the survey. Um and we got a lot of good data from those surveys. Um we did some community forums. Those were the dates of the community forums. Um and that provide just a very structured way and a to arrive at a consensus driven means for gathering that community input. Um diversity in voice is important there. So we intentionally mixed up the groups. Nobody got to sit with who they walked in with. Um, so we mixed up those groups and really um I think were able to uh successfully hear from many many people in the community that came out uh in person to share their thoughts with us. Um and then focus groups. So I met with several board members. Uh many of you were on uh the call or one of one
025of the couple calls that we did. Um met with students. So I went into each school um up I went to Mansion and came here and we talked to students. I talked to students um board members, staff members and then family members. Um, the next part is often the hardest and that is when people say things that that we or you in the district know to not be true, you have to be able to embrace what they say even if you know it's not so, right? Um because the important message there is although what people believe to be true might not be accurate, it is what they believe and there's a reason they believe it. Um, so oftentimes that reason uh revolves around communications. So we take a look at embracing those findings and not
026hiding from them. Uh and then after that we establish some goals and actions. So the strategic planning team uses the information that we collected in all of those previous steps to really begin to decide where we should focus the attention of the district for the next several years. Um and with that we develop a mission and a vision statement. Um or we look at the mission and vision statements if they exist and and revise if needed. You'll see that in a second. And then finally the next step, the last step is after this evening and I know Miss Allen has already started with the with the administrative staff on this and that's taking the plan and executing it. Right? So the plan is really good. We can put it into a nice um shiny notebook.
027It can sit on a shelf. It will do no good. Right? It has to be a living document that people use um and that drives the initiatives over the next several years. And that's why it is so important that not only we get the community involved but we get the staff members involved as well. Um so that we can begin to really develop a plan that is um certainly achievable. Um here are some of the outcomes of the work that we did. So developing a mission and a vision. Um a strong mission statement is a concise phrase that basically sets forth what the organization does, why you exist. um mission and vision people oftentimes mix up and they'll they'll switch them back and forth. Um but the mission statement often isn't too fancy and it
028is not um it's not really very forward thinking. This is why we exist. That's why the mission that that is what the mission statement is supposed to say. Um and then the vision statement is that forward thinking that that forward-looking statement. Uh again a short statement that describes the future facing goals and ambitions of the schools and of the the community um in which the school sits. So the mission and vision statement that came that we came up with the mission statement of the Ottabon public school the Ottabon school district offers a safe collaborative community where students and staff belong and connect through personalized learning and exploration. Um so we worked uh hard on that statement. Uh a group of us got together on the day that we did the action planning. Um there are
029several members of the the group that did not participate directly in the action planning. They participated in the mission and vision statement. Um and we thought the language in this mission statement really focused on um allow us to focus on what is important that the school district does, why it exists. The vision statement, the Ottabbon School District strives to be a place where students, families, and staff are empowered to envision an optimistic future through engaging learning opportunities and enriched experiences in an inclusive and welcoming community. So in there you have engagement. Um, first of all, you have empowerment, which is very important for students today. Um, having our students walk away from any grade level, but particularly high school graduation, you know, their their final year in high school with a vision of an optimistic
030future for themselves. They know what they want to do. The learning that has taken place here has been engaging um and that they have had opportunities to enrich the standard learning that takes place in most schools. Um certainly offering that u or achieving that inclusive and welcoming community takes us back to that mission statement um where you offer that safe environment for students where they feel like they belong. Kids who come to school every day and don't feel like they belong will never achieve at their highest level ever. Right? So that is um I think throughout this process we believe that to be one of the most important for students to learn they have to be here. For them to be here they have to feel like they belong here. Uh this is the essential
031question again that we used. If we're together four to five years from now, what would the district of schools have accomplished that resulted in positive growth and would have made you very very proud or most proud um to be a member of the Ottabbomb community? These were our four strategic areas of focus. Um providing rigorous student centered teaching and learning opportunities and related supports that meet the broad academic needs of every child. We know that every child is different. Every child has different academic needs. Um, even our accelerated learners, our learners, uh, you know, our students who are in honors classes and AP classes have different needs. Um, and they also need some support along the way. Um, going moving down there, ensuring that every student can envision an optimistic future after high school regardless
032of chosen college or career pathway. upper right there. Cultivating an inclusive environment where every child feels they belong by building a positive relationship oriented climate prek to 12 to support the social emotional health of every individual in our schools. So you have to the academic goal in the upper left um that looking ahead to the future college and career planning in the bottom left. In the upper right you have that the school culture piece and then in the bottom right we kind of doubled down on that building a positive school culture building positive school family community partnerships. Um and the in that goal um or that area that strategic area of focus um there was a lot of discussion about um not only working within the Ottabban community but also reaching out to the Mount
033community and doing so um earlier and and more often and more intentionally. Um so we took those kind of areas of focus and sort of highlighted the most important language in each of those and kind of picked out the most important language and then really focused our goal development on that language itself. those those phrases, those words, making sure that we captured those as we began developing goals. And I think the next step step here um before I turn it over is going to be kind of categorizing each one of these. As I said, the curriculum instruction in the upper left there, the words underneath have not changed at all. We just sort of labeled them. Um success and options after high success and many options after high school was another important goal. um the
034inclusion and SEAL piece, making sure that um students felt included in their school, they belong here, and they had the tools, the social emotional learning tools to be successful. And then finally, we know that the most successful schools really um hinge on active community engagement. So, we have some plans around that. And at this point, I'm going to turn it over to Miss Allen, who's going to talk about the goals and objectives themselves. >> Thank you. So those four goals that were established through the group came down to these are the same things that he had had just written in a slightly different way. The rigorous student- centered instruction and support to meet every child. Empower the student to explore the possibilities and look at futures beyond high school encompassing all pathways. Cultivate inclusive relationshiprich
035climate where every student feels belonging and supported socially and emotionally. and to build strong collective partnerships among the school, the families, and the community. So that was just a summarized piece. Those are our four overarching goals. Each goal was then broken down into three strategic objectives that would help us satisfy that goal. So the first goal we broke down to be expand the access to highquality preschool programming so that it's more available to more students. Obviously, it's been a goal of Audabon for a while and something that has definitely been echoed in the community and in our strategic planning. Ensure seamless and supportive transitions for students between the schools, strengthening the alignment, meaning the curriculum, the resources, the common language, the instruction both internally and with Mount Ephraim and to increase student participation and success
036in advanced placement programs, fostering interest and readiness starting at grade nine. So overall, ultimately, we're saying that we're going to cultivate a stronger, more equitable K12 educational continuing, resulting in improved overall student achievement from early childhood all the way through graduation, smoother assimilation for the students from sending districts like Mount Ephraim and significantly increasing the participation and the success rates in our honors and our AP programs. also helping our students, our graduates be better prepared for post-secary challenges and opportunities whether they be college or the career paths. Priority goal two, which was the optimistic future beyond high school encompassing all the pathways, we broke that down into three strategic objectives. Develop diverse student centered pathways to ensure readiness for post-graduation opportunities, including college, career, and other options. Integrate comprehensive preK12 career exploration and mentorship to
037increase student exposure and readiness. Engage parents, staff, community partners, and alumni including recent graduates who share real world pathway experiences and insights. So ultimately we're looking to uh ensure that the students are equipped with the knowledge, the skills, the confidence, the success to navigate all that's available to them postgraduate and using our community and our families to help us expose the students to the different careers and the pathways and other options after high school. Priority goal three was with our social and emotional. We have three strategic plans, three strategic objectives here. establish a common language regarding school climate and culture among staff, parents, and community. Each of our schools has a good working um program, but they're very different in each of the buildings, and the parents aren't always as well versed. So, that was
038something that came out about trying to enrich that and and um make stronger across the buildings and the community. Cultivate a safe and supportive school environment for all students and staff. Prioritize building strong relationships and mutual trust between students and staff. Ultimately, Ottabon Schools will cultivate and sustain uh I can't even say that safe, supportive, and inclusive environments where all the students and staff feel valued, respected, connected, psychologically secure, and fostering greater well-being, engagement, and readiness for the teaching and the learning and some of the higher level things that we want to achieve. Priority goal four, strong collaborative part partnership among the school, the families and the community. Our three strategic objectives, integrate collaborative practices across all Ottabon and Maui from schools to enhance instructional effectiveness and resource sharing. Establish clear and accessible pathways for
039community members and organizations to contribute and engage with the instruct educational initiatives of the school district. embed meaningful parental parental engagement as a core component of student learning and school culture across the schools. So ultimately we want to create a more cohesive dynamic resourcerich and collaborative supported educational system. This network of support spanning interd district collaboration, community partnerships, and deep parental engagement will result in enhanced instructional quality, stronger and more holistic student support systems, increased community investment in the schools, and improved overall student engagement, belonging, and achievement. >> All right. Um so one thing that we did as we went through this process uh we met with like I said we did a lot of surveys. We sent out surveys. We got many many responses to the surveys. Um we shared at each one of
040our uh community meetings we shared survey data with everybody. So everybody got to see the survey data as it came in. Many of the community members that participated questions about the data. Couple people asked to dig into it a little bit deeper. So we did that and followed up at the next session. Um and then at the very um end of the process back in March, we met for a full day here in this room with a group of teachers uh a couple of community members, teachers administrators, few community members. Um I think a board member also participated in that. Um and one of the things that we did was watch probably spend about 20 minutes watching a video um on five essential ingredients for instructional improvement um and for for in school improvement in
041general. Um and the video features Pedro Aguero. If you are familiar, Pedro is a professor at um very well known kind of a leader in this space for many many years. Uh but to really see our schools improve, we have to have a coherent instructional guidance system and instructional model. Um development of professional capacity of the faculty that goes back to professional learning. um strong parent community school ties, relationships within the community. Talked about that as part of the plan. A student centered learning climate where students are the reason we are here every day and students help drive the decision making. Plenty of opportunity for student voice there. And then leadership that drives change to have all of these things in place and not have the leadership in place that can help implement them. So
042we looked at um these we watched this video. I think most people that watched came away kind of understanding holistic role of the strategic plan and the holistic piece that it can play in improving the school district. So we took that and we build out some action plans. Um so the action plans teams of teachers, administrators, community members, members of board of education were involved in that. What we've talked about so far are sort of the goals and what we want to achieve as part of the community plan. We have not talked about how so the action plans are the how of the what that we've already presented. The priority goals and the strategic objectives should remain static throughout the the life of this plan. The action plans themselves. There will be a year or
043two where you're not going to meet all the goals. That's okay. We will roll into the next year. We already talked to Miss Allen about that. Um the plan and the plans that we develop are usually a bit heavy. So there's going to be some time uh there's going to be time at the beginning where there may be an objective or two that's not met. built into the action plan. Some of that flexibility is also already built into the action. Sorry. This is what an action plan looks like. I know you can't read that. Um but the action plans are really for the use of the administration um and the teachers within the district, the staff within the district, but the action plan itself really lays out not only the objective that we're trying to
044achieve, how we're going to achieve it, who's in charge of it, what some of our benchmarks and measurements are going to be, and then the timeline. So, can't really see it from here, but some of the action plan timelines are going to start at the beginning of this upcoming school year. Um, others might not start with two or three. Um, so those are all intentional. Uh, you're not going to achieve everything in year one. So, this plan really is it is it is a fiveyear plan that we have done. We have completed action plans. We'll take you out. There may be some things in five years that you're still trying to catch up on and tie up some loose ends just to make sure that by the end of the five years you have met
045the goals the overall goals. So the administration started together in this room with some and we looked at the data from the strategic plan. We looked at the data from some surveys from the teachers at the end of the year. Where are the buildings strong? Where do you think the buildings need some improvement? Where is the district strong? Where does the district need some improvement? All the administrators took that data, looked at it along with this, and then we handed out the strate the action plan. We talked about those four goals. Each goal had three strategic objectives under each. Under each strategic objective, his example, no, I don't get to go back. The example had five activities listed underneath each that each of those um objectives. So it ends up being a lot of activities,
046things involved. So we went through that and said, "Okay, what things are we already working on? What things are already in place that we've started maybe this year and we're continuing or we want to expand? What are things that we need to start to explore? What are things that we can't even begin to think about doing this year and we have to push till next year because we have too much on our plate? Trying to do too many things, diversify too much, just sets us up for failure. So some things are already in the works. So from that, we came up with this bullet list of things that are on our radar for this year. The first one is expanding preschool classrooms and securing more space for further expansion. As the board knows, we're already
047well underway with that. We have open an additional room this year. We already have plans to take over the rest of the Autobond Park building minus the library. That'll give us three more bu rooms after that. But that will still not satisfy our universe. So a few years down the line, we may still need to look at something else. But we are actively working on that. So it's a goal, but it's a goal that we're looking to continue working with, but we're definitely on that. Build articulation time for the teachers between buildings and grades. Require new teachers to do peer observations. This is something that uh Mr. Burke and I had talked about prior to the planning. It just very nicely played into it ended up being one of the activities that was talked about
048with collaboration and trying to build those relationships and the trust between teachers. We want to get some peer observations going down the line. We'd like the peer observations to be something that's more than just the new teachers. And we've already started some conversation with the union about what does that look like and how do we frame that and how do we make sure that everybody's really embracing it and enjoying the joy of this seeing each other be successful. It's not a observation of in any kind of critical way or assessment way. It's just to really celebrate each other's successes. So we've very preliminarily started the conversation with the union about that. expand AP offerings and advance courses uh and encourage student enrollment in those. Um the board is happy to see that we got some
049of our AP data released. We haven't done a presentation on that yet, but we have some really nice data that hopefully you looked at in last week's weekly wave. Our number of students taking the AP courses, our success in our AP courses is definitely going in the right direction. We don't think we're done by any means, but the last piece is also important is encouraging students to take them. The classes are there. There's things offered, but they're not taking them for a variety of reasons, which we've been talking about in committees. Everything from seniors have their 120 credits before they even get to senior year. So, do they want to stay for a full day and take these high stakes courses? And I need to leave and go to work so I can do a
050half day and go get a job to be able to pay for college as opposed to taking an AP class. So, we're looking at all of those things. started on some but exploring some other ways to encourage more students to enroll in those things. We're going to begin having conversations with students about the different career options. Where are their interests? What do they know about? What don't they know about? We have plans for seven, eight, nine for this year and 10, 11, 12, the different grade levels, the different grade bands. We also down the line want to expand it to K5, but we have to pick a place to start. So, we're starting just up here at the junior senior high and starting with surveying the students and trying to get some information out and
051some exposure. Uh, explore certificate options for students. This is everything from the preschool. Uh, if we have some of our seniors that are done early, getting them preschool certified, they could go down and be aids in those classrooms or the babysitting and the different types of things like that. There's some nursing opportunities as well that they could do and first aid certifications and we're starting to it's actually something that was already started before this year. Establish career fairs and college fairs been an initiative for a couple years now. We think it's coming to fruition this year. We already have a couple scheduled. Obviously can't do enough in that realm. Gauge parent and community interest in being school resources. Finding out from the community who's willing to come in and do presentations for us or hands-on
052types of demonstrations. also who's willing to host students in their sites to come and do shadowing or do walkarounds and things like that in the community because we really want we see that we want that community partnership back back and forth. Uh collect information from alumni. It's something that's dropped off over the years. We would like to build that bank back up. So, we're starting with the kids that just left seeing what we can do to build up our database of our alumni to be able to get them more involved in the school after they're gone. Comprehensive list of and culture climate programs across the district. I said we have multiple already in um use at our different buildings. So we want to research, find out the best ones, see what we could use as
053a universal lacrosse instead of having roar at mansion and second step at preschool and something here and something there. Uh create a safe place for all students and staff. Um this is your your psychological, your mental and also physical. We're creating safe spaces or um sensory rooms at each of the buildings. Some have already had them, others didn't. So we secured space in each of the buildings to um have sensory rooms and just quiet place when students need to go and have a calming time. Build professional collaboration between schools and with Mount Ephraim. In some schools this is more active than others. The preschools are already doing collaboration with Mount Ephraim. Um some of the grade levels have mixed back and forth, but we want to continue to expand that. We did sit down uh
054the superintendent of Mount Ephraim and I sat down with our school calendars and compared them. They're not identical, but they're similar. We made some decisions based on things to be able to have some similar days off to maybe have some collaborative professional development opportunities available and create student opportunities between buildings and with Mount Ephraim. And again, we started that this year and during one of those planning happened between the principles for two or three more already for next year for seventh grade, for eighth grade, for some high school things. Now, we also want to do it between buildings. Um, and I think the board is aware that even right now we have every student that's going to be new to the district received an email from Mr. Miller asking them to come in in the
055summertime. Bring your Chromebook if you're from Mansion. If you don't have a Chromebook, you'll get one when you're here. We're going to teach you how to log in. We're going to show you where all the summer work is. We're going to show the parents how to get into the portal. We're going to take you around the building and give you a little tour. We're going to give you the handbook and go over some things that you need to know. We're going to show you a locker and how to work a locker because up until now most of you have never stood in front of a locker. Seventh graders use them. Most others don't, but at least they're getting that opportunity a little bit and it's one-on-one with Mr. Miller going around and getting to know
056now you have a relationship with your principal as well. So, this is something that that we are pushing for this year. We know that we've stumbled more than once in the beginning of the year with students coming new to the building that don't have Chromebooks, don't have schedules, don't have So, we really did a lot of soularching over that over the year to try to make sure we're putting things in place to not have those issues. So, it looks like a lot. It's 13 bullets. Um, as Mr. Oswalt said, you know, we accomplish them all, that's great. If we don't, some of these are just saying begin and explore. They're not things that are going to come to full accomplishment by the end of the year. But we feel like as a district, as an
057administrative team, we feel like these are all things that are very doable. Many we already have in place. Many we already had on our minds to do. And a lot of this plays in with something else that we already know we have to work on, which is productive struggle. That was another thing instructionally that we knew is a highlight. So all of these things played into that. When we started getting more into some of the other initiatives, we were afraid it was going to maybe start to take away from some things that we're already working on. So, we were very cognizant of the fact that we have five years and we don't want to put everything on year one. It's nice that oh, I want to do this and this and this and and and
058money is also obviously an issue with some of the things, but we think that this is a very fair way to start. We're very very happy about some of these initiatives and really getting them off and having a way to really track. As uh Dr. Oswald said, it's it's about focus. It was really nice. I've been here for a year. The board was talking about wanting to do a strategic plan all this time and it really is nice. We have so much more focus now on some real tangible goals and and objectives that we didn't have. It was always pie in the sky and I would like to and I'm add so butterfly now I want to do this and I want to do that and now we have this document that's really going to
059help us pull that all together. The next slide says, "Thank you. Do you have any questions?" Oh, there we go. Thank you, Dr. Oswald and Miss Allen. We we just recognized that we wanted a culmination of everything that went on this year and recognize it as a board. We know that we do not have audience, but hopefully they're listening and and looking at home. Um but just to uh there was a lot of effort that went into this and a lot of people to say thank you to. >> Yeah, there are um this is it's a it's a community that really came out for this um and there there were there was a lot of participation. So I think a lot of Many many people came with great ideas. Um they were not afraid to
060share them. Um but I think at the end one of the reasons that we do that whole consensus building process is some stuff gets pushed aside and some you know some stays on the table. So So my recommendation would be when you're five years down the line is that you start this process again and again start I think some of it's not so data point out so great but all of a sudden you know not always school. Can we develop a school and a culture in the school? All the data is yours. This isn't so much that Sandy heard me talk about this for the last two years, but I've been wanting this for two years since I saw a presentation. And it is one of our goals to bring the community and parents and
061stakeholders all together. And that was a big goal. And wouldn't it be awesome if we did one book community who I know you've already looked into it a bit and thought it was a lovely idea. Thank you, Miss Litzky. Thanks again, Dr. Oswald. All right. Um, now we're going to be moving on to the superintendent and district report. Miss Allen, sorry. I know you've had to hear from me for a while, but I have two things I wanted to cover. Uh, first of all was the superintendent spotlight is a video message that I started doing. I published it on Facebook. I also sent it out to the entire district. Um, didn't send it to the board, did I? I probably should have done that, too. But it's on Facebook. I'll make sure I send it
062to the board. Um, I had I I had a thought of doing a newsletter since I got here and I never had the opportunity to actually do one sit down and I felt like a lot of times when I was trying to build a newsletter, things were already covered other places. So, that clearly wasn't the way for me to get out the things I wanted to get out. Um, in one of my training sessions as new superintendent academy, they talked about different ways of getting the word out and one of them was videos. And I thought, well, that's that's kind of more my speed. I made sure I slowed down and I talked slowly. Come on. You have to admit I did a good Nothing like here. I very >> I It's three minutes that
063I probably could have done in 90 seconds, but I made it a full three minutes. Um just to talk about that one happens to be what happens in the summer because everybody always says, "Wow, summer must be great at school. You sit around and just have lunch with people." And I'm like, "We work more in the summertime than we do in the entire school year. You have no idea." But nobody really knows if you're not in school. So, I tried to do an overview. That was one easy start topic. Um, I intend to every seven to 10 days have a video come out. I'll post it on Facebook. We're going to have a place on the website for it. Uh, but I just think it's another nice way for the community. If you think things
064you can email me, the board I sent to the staff and things also. Um, topics I want to go on year round. I think this is a nice way for me to have any hot topics and things just to be able to three minutes or less. You should all be happy. Three minutes or less. That's my my uh window. One other thing that came to light this week when we were talking with um facilities and talking about some spending. We were talking about the referendum and the great work that was done on our playgrounds, Havlin Mansion, um the resurfacing of the tennis courts. You know, we have some really, really nice facilities. The town appreciates them. The community appreciates them. We appreciate the town and the the supporting the referendum and making them. But we're
065now had a couple of complaints from community members about um misuse of these grounds that the Havlin playground sometimes has some older students hanging out on it at the evening hours and sometimes into the late night hours and clearly they're not there to go down the slide at 10 o'clock at night. Um we have had reports of skateboarding happening on the tennis courts and as we all know how upsetting it was to have to have them um resurfaced for a second time. We really don't want to see anything happen to that surface. Uh they are in fact school um school district uh facilities, school district grounds, school district facilities, but we've always had them open to the community. The community has always had open access to them and we don't want to change that. However,
066when they're broken and vandalized and destroyed, it's the school district that has to pay to fix them. And we know that money is not something that we're have an abundance of. We haven't gotten our money tree planted just yet. So, um, we're really a couple of different things. I'm looking to the community to help us with this and making them aware that all of those facilities are to be closed at dusk. There's signage out there. Um, reassuring that there's signage available. Um, I intend to have a meeting with the mayor and with the chief of police to see if there's anything that we can do together as a community. We don't want to necessarily lock them or have them to be off limits. They're beautiful tennis courts. We want them used for tennis. The playground
067is a great place, especially when you're picking up the kids after school or you have a couple hours when it's beautiful out, but we just need to know that they're being used for the proper reasons and the proper uh supervision is happening at those times. So, um this will be one of the topics for one of my next superintendent spotlight is to go over some of the different facilities and some of the concerns that have been brought by community members. And I want the community members to know we appreciate them. I'm not here at nine o'clock at night to know what's happening on the tennis courts. So, it's nice that people are letting us know and looking out for things and we want to make sure that they're in the great condition that they are
068now for years to come for both the students and the community to be able to use. Um, that was it. That was my >> That was your three minutes spotlight. >> Yes. >> Thank you very much, Miss Allen. Um, all right. Moving on. I'd like to ask for an approval of the board minutes from the June 11th executive and public session meetings. >> Okay. Um, roll call, please. Sorry. >> Bill Wilson, >> Mark Addie, >> Sarah Cen, Alison Lipsky, >> yes. >> Jonathan Max, >> yes. Andrea Robinson, >> yes. >> Allison Cox, >> yes. >> Motion pass. >> Thank you, Miss Rumies. All right. I just want to say thank you to Amy Davis, Miss Davis, for not being here tonight because now I have to read this whole thing. Yes, she's very good to
069us. Um, all right. So, um, at this time, the board recognizes the board of education recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to express themselves on school matters of community interest. In order to permit the fair and orderly expression of such comment, the board has set aside two portions of the this board meeting for public comment on any school or school district issue that a member of the public feels may be of interest to the residents of the school district. For the first portion, this portion, public comments are invited on matters pertaining only to the agenda for tonight's meeting. For the second portion, the public comments are invited on all matters pertaining to the school district. Participants should announce their name, address, and any
070group they may represent if applicable. The board reserves the right to limit public discussion. Public discussion of a topic topic will be limited to 15 minutes and individual speakers will be limited to three minutes. No participant may speak more than once on the same topic until all others who wish to speak on that topic have been heard. Please reference bylaws 0167 of the Audabon Public Schools Board of Education manual. The board uses this public comment period as an opportunity to listen to citizens. Not all issues brought to the board meeting will be resolved at the particular meeting. Complaints stated or actions requested by the public may be taken under advisement by the board of investigation by the board for investigation. Discussion, actions or disposition at a later time or date. The public comment sessions are
071an opportunity for citizens to share their opinions and remarks with the board. It is not a question and answer session. The board may or may not respond to public comments at the time they are made and is under no obligation to do so. The board does not endorse public comments, nor will the board be held liable for comments made by the members of the public. Any individuals who may be the subject of public comments, including district employees, shall retain all rights against defamation and slander according to the laws of New Jersey. Is there any public comments on agenda items only? All right. Thank you so very much. All right. We will move on with the rest of our meeting. Um at this time, I'd like to recognize Miss Lipky for governance, our governance chair. So,
072we met in June uh after the June board meeting and we also um met in July and so we've had two governance meetings since the last board meeting and a lot of work has been done and there's a lot going on. Uh the first that we will talk about is the mansions. uh code of conduct um mansion school code of conduct nothing has changed from last year and we are submitting it to the board to approve it. Nothing has changed. It was excellently done. Um the Ottabon Junior Senior High School. Now, that was one that no changes were made and the term it can be squishy came out where we were giving we as a board agreed to let the administrators have some leeway to figure out some of the issues that were having and
073what were the best solutions for them because they already had a lot of um discretion and we trusted them and they wanted the time to really look at things and figure out what would best moving forward and there I believe there have been a lot of very progressive and um progressive changes that I don't that I believe will be very helpful. First um the in the code of conduct I believe is the dress code. In the dress code there are some changes. there's not going to be any changes to midrifts and things of that nature. And um I know I particularly very much did not want to see us going back to an age where females were treated very differently from males. So, we have the language and this is for males, females, and non-binary
074students that No, I I'm sad that Amy's not here because she was really looking forward to me saying this. We are not You are not to expose your genitals, your breasts, your chest, or your buttocks. that if any of your clothing is exposing your buttocks, your breast, your chest, or your genitals, you are not allowed to wear said clothing and you will have to change. Underwear is not to be worn as outerwear clothing. And although you can have any type of religious or cultural head covering, you cannot wear winter caps, bring caps, anything that's going to shield your face because it is a safety issue. And we need to be able to see the faces of the people in the school so we know that who you are and that you actually are students at
075the school. And that is why you cannot be wearing brimmed baseball caps, you know, ski masks, anything that's covering a portion of your face or all of your face because it is a safety risk. So that is in there as well. There also is a lot um because the code of conduct at the high school is much more punitive in nature. Um there have been some substantive changes where there is restorative practices. So instead of it and sometimes children all people need to learn from punitive when other forms of discipline or instruction have failed. We also recognize that people learn from recognizing their mistakes and making recompense for them or trying to do something better for someone else or the community. And so in all things there are restorative practices so that if you are
076in loss of good student standing you can go to the administrators and do um community volunteer work and I believe it is two hours of volunteer work equals one day of logs. So you do two hours of community service, one day gets taken off of your loss of good student standing. We also have if you were caught with drugs or being intoxicated, that is huge. You lose I think like 180 days of loss of good sta of good student standing, which means that you can't be in sports, you can't go to dances. There's a lot of all the extracurriculars are lost to that student. But if you do a mutually acceptable drug treatment course, then the administration can drastically reduce the number of loss of good standing days that you are losing out on. Uh
077so it's a variety of things like that. There was a lot of thought put to it. You'll see that the numbers might seem weird because we're not doing in 5 10 15 20 which we've done in the past and In many cases, we're doing seven, 14, 21, 28 because we're talking about weeks and so we wanted and that's a full week and we wanted to make sure that was very clear. So those are the changes that have been made. I'm sure some people will might have some questions about that um or some concerns, but this we tried to make this as comprehensive and the administration tried to make this as comprehensive possible. Um and the governance community, we went through pretty much every line of it, making sure that we were all in consensus and
078changes were made uh to make sure that it wasn't as punitive and that it have a lot more of the restorative practices that we wanted to see because it's about the whole child in this as well and that you don't just get punished. There's ways that you can come back, right? I won't do my Rocky Balboa speech about it's not how many times you get knocked down, it's how many times you get back up. But there it is. No, I could do the whole thing because that's my favorite line in that movie. Um, so that is so nothing changed with Mansions code of conduct, but there's been some substantive changes with the Audabon Junior Senior High School's code of conduct. Um, tardiness. That's another thing that we have changed and I believe and I believe
079everyone here believes for the better where a lot of students because five tardies equals an absence, they were getting dinged pretty hard on those absences and were facing, you know, possibly not even being able to graduate or to metriculate to the next grade. So, we have now changed that and Once again, built in is restorative practices as well for latenesses. So 10 unexcused latenesses equals a Saturday detention. 20 unexcused latences equals a Saturday detention. And 30 unexcused latences equals Saturday detention plus 14 calendar days of loss of good student standing. Um each additional 10 unexcused latences will result in an additional Saturday detention and an additional 14 calendar days of loss of good student standing. Um, and if you wish to have an opportunity for attendance recovery, that will be available. Um, and you the
080students can contact the administrator and ultimately um, it would probably be volunteer work or things like that. That same type of thing, two hours of volunteer work equal uh, the removal of one day of loss of good student standing. Um, but All students should be wary that this is not a free pass of I'm going to just do as many latenesses as I want and then I'll take a Saturday detention. I don't care because any student who's been tardy to a class 18 unexcused times in any given year may lose credits for that class. So it's a may obviously the administration will look at reasons and things like that and work with everyone but that is something we are still taking your education seriously. So this isn't a free pass. Um then we move on
081to policy 5430 which I would like to thank Miss Robinson for bringing to our attention I believe over a year ago. Um, and thank you to Miss Cox as our seasoned and veteran board member who let us know that this has been something that's been mentioned for the last 20 years and no one ever could find a way to address it. And that is the class rank, grade point average. and the fact that if you are in band, choir, or other extracurricular activities or um elective classes that you get dinged a little bit because they don't have the same weight as honors and AP and therefore if you're taking them and the way it all gets divided down, you get a slightly lower grade, you know, a slightly lower percentage in your GPA for doing
082more. which just seems ridiculous and um unfortunately though it is very complicated. Um and I believe that I know Mr. Leb had contacted multiple schools over the last year and everyone is aware of this problem and no one has really figured out how to fix it except you lucky people. So Mr. that this is something that because Miss Robinson had brought it to our attention and then we on the governance committee because we had this is we're in charge of the policies said hey let's get the administration in here let's start looking at this how can we solve this Mr. um took a hold of that and he ended up tapping at least 10 different people who as he said were smarter than him in this area and then showed us a variety of how
083they ran numbers so the cows came home and how it would change and how it would what was good and what was not. Ultimately they have created a process that when you look at it it doesn't change much right everyone kind of goes up a little some might go down except every time they run it the reason why it is is that importance is because those little minor dings only really affect people in the top 10 and really it's only the top five of any given in class, but usually those top five are the ones that have been making choices to make sure that they are in that top 10, top five. So the reason we are not implementing this for all grades immediately in the high school is because everyone who is from grade
084uh class of trying to think 26 to 28 have all already made their decisions. They chose their courses. They chose what they were going to do based on how the system is. And at this time since those choices have already been made for us to change it now for them would give a disservice to those kids who worked within the system and this was something that they took into account when they made the choices they made. So for classes 2026 through 2028, the system is staying the same. However, for incoming freshmen, the class of 2029, the new system is going to be put in place. It will it doesn't there will be an explanation given. It doesn't change your GPA that much. You still have the grades that you have. It just in the ranking
085your ranking is going to change and that will be explained to any certification program. Um, advance any advanced education program, any college or schooling or anything like that as to what it is. Every school sends it in anyway that says this is how we do things. So you're an Ottabon, a 90 is a B. It isn't an A. You look at other that have a 10point scale, a 90 is an A. Whenever you're sending your transcripts to colleges or other things like that, it's always explained, you know, this kid might look, they might say B, but their number score is this. It's a 90 or 91. And then this is how we do our ranking and how we do our GPA and grade point average, class ranking, grade point average. So that'll all be explained.
086It's not going to change any of those opportunities, things like that. But Now we can truly, as has been shown by the strategic plan, have really foster a community of students who can explore other opportunities, can be in band, choir, you know, color guard, some, you know, art classes, things of that nature, and try different things and become a more well-rounded person without sacrificing their GPA and class rank. So that is the change if you want to see it's it's in that policy. It explains how they think it out. But literally a lot of people went over this. They tried a lot of different calculations and then they just kept coming back to this one and it really showed that it was a pretty good stable statistic that they could use. And it really weirdly
087the only major changes are generally within the top 10, but those are the people that are obviously very much like hello. So, we have that. Um, we also have in rule 7441, electronic surveillance in school buildings and on school grounds. Um, there were some questions because and also cooperation with law enforcement agencies. There's a mutual um memorandum of agreement that is signed between the school district and the Ottabon Police Department. That is something that is done every year. Um but in dealing with electronic surveillance in school buildings and on school grounds, we had a concern. We wanted to make sure that, you know, the police who have access to it can't just randomly turn things on, scroll, look back, do all sorts of things, possibly be we just wanted to make sure that everyone was
088safe and not anyone could just be peering in um and what it could be used for. And essentially, this is if there is an active emergency, like we're talking like a an active school shooter, god forbid, can hurt. Um the police have access and can what's happening live. They can't go backwards. They can't manipulate. They just see what's happening live because that's what they need. They need to see who's where, what's happening, and that type of thing. Any type of emergency. So, that's all that they can see. Um, and the tardiness regulation kind of mimics the uh policy so that we don't have a discrepancy between our regulations and our policies. So, there were there's a lot of big changes, but I think issues are being addressed and particularly with the class rank and grade
089point average. This is pretty huge and you know for us it seems like it's only been about a little over a year but hearing from Miss Cox that this is something that's been going on for a couple decades. Well done. So, and do you have anything to add? Uh just real quick, um there are some more policies that we have to go. We're getting through most of them. I got a little behind. We have a couple more to go. I think by the next month we'll have them all wrapped up. And yeah, I just wanted to say again that it was really nice working with the high school administration. I think they came with a lot of ideas. Um there was a good lot of back and forth. U some of our concerns they were
090g coming back with what their concerns were. We didn't understand logs as much and and the value of it. and we went back and forth and and I think that we um two months ago had an extremely productive session and then they brought back to us everything they said they were going to and we got through a lot of changes that last summer we didn't think we would get through and this summer we did them in like a month. So I just want to thank the high school administration for helping so much with that. >> That was I think everyone agreed it was very productive and it was really nice to have that collaborative energy Thank you. >> Well, thank you for that comprehensive report, Miss Lipsky. Um, does anybody have any questions on non-aggenda
091items? All right. Um, at this time, may I have a motion for items one and two, please? >> Okay. Does anybody have any questions or comments regarding uh the uh items on the table? Um, Sarah, I don't want to misspeak, so I'm going to actually pose this to Miss Allen if you don't mind. But um in terms of the class rank policy, there was also a change about access to class rank. And since that is a change that some students will be surprised by, I just wondered if you could explain that a little bit. So uh it was something that Mr. Leb had brought uh to the attention of the group that a lot of students are stressed over. It's been a a po point of anxiety for students looking at. They're already calculating. We
092talked about it freshman year. they're already figuring out what courses to take and not take because they're very concerned. Um, class rank is important, but not that important. We really want to take it off of the spotlight. It's not that it's to be hidden. Uh, parents can have access to it. All they do is send an email to the guidance counselor and they'll they'll give it to them. Uh, but we really just want to take it off of the spotlight and try to get students to be more interested in their accomplishments and their achievement and less worried. And it's again, it's a trending thing. There's other school districts that don't talk about it at all. We had a big conversation about a lot of schools don't do a validictorian saludiatoran anymore. Some places just do
093top 10. Um I know I volunteered also in my ch children's district. I get to see their class rank on their senior transcript or sorry their last transcript of the year only. The students never have it in their portal. It's in the teacher portal and I mean sorry parent portal and only on their final report card. It's not something we look at marking period by marking period. But I mean I see it already. My daughter is a freshman and she's obsessing over it and all upset and looking at her GPA and comparing it with it. This whole comparison thing is just getting um concerning. And again, we're not saying they can't have it. Obviously, the parents can get access to it so the kids can have access to it. It's not that. But we don't
094think that every time they open Genesis they should be looking at it or it be a topic of conversation as much as we've seen and heard it. >> That if a student really wants to see it, they just have to have uh their parent or guardian um contact the guidance counselor and they can see it with their parent. Uh and just as Miss Allen said, if a parent wants to, they just send an email to the guidance counselor and they can you can get that information. Um, and I believe also Mr. Leb had been trying to get it so that it's as you get as accurate of what a class rank is as far out into the senior year as possible. And so the final class rank is now going to be coming out at
095the end of the third marking period of your senior year because obviously that's where it's really impacting because that's are you valid Victorian? Are you are you in those top 10 things like that. So it has been they believe that that's they can get that done and so it will be the end of the third marking period and that is going to be the um last rank that is going to stand for when students graduate. Well, that we know of that's doing it. It wasn't something that was um being discussed at this time. Oh, go ahead, Mr. Wilson. No, Mr. Wilson. >> All right. Um, sorry, M. I just wanted to say I fully support the idea of shifting the focus. I I like that idea of of trying to get away from rank and
096more on accomplishments and and and um student enrichment and, you know, being part of the community and all the other things that that school should be about. Um, so I really like that that redirection focus. I also really was pleased to see finalized plans here on a couple we've been talking about this tardiness and class rank for a long time and it's just great to see that on the agenda done and I know there was a lot of hard work by a lot of people that aren't here right now. Uh, Mr. Lev I'd seen some of those early spreadsheets from him. You know, he's pulling information from uh, a lot of other districts and I know him and his team were working hard on this. So just thank you to them and everybody who was
097involved in the process. uh to have something at least in terms of progress made on this. It might not be the final plan, but we got something that is an improvement. We'll just keep keep working. >> Thank you, Mr. Wilson. Um I two things. Um I there was I know I've been on the board for a very long time, so this is not anecdotal. This is actually what did happen. Class rank it changed on the graduation field. We we were passing out um uh awards and one person's name was written on the envelope, but it was another person who was to receive the award. So, I'm glad that there is a definitive that was awful. Awful from a mother and a board member. It was awful. Um no, and I knew the children, all of
098them. So um so thank you uh for that. And then um I mean this with policy it is such it is one of the things that the board does and it's not glamorous. Okay. But it is very necessary and thank you for uh your um stick tuitive uh uh personality um to to get things to fruition. And it may not be perfect but we are perfecting it as we go along. So thank you very much you and your team your committee members. So >> this is a school board. Um all right so uh we do have any other questions? Okay the motion is remains on the floor. May I have a roll call please? Miss Ron, >> Mark Gaddy, >> Sarah Coolen, >> Alison Lipsky, >> yes. >> Jonathan Maxon, >> yes. >> Andrea Robinson,
099>> yes. >> Bill Wilson, Alison Cox, >> yes. >> Motion passed. Thank you. All right. At this time, I would like to recognize the operations chair, me. Um, uh, and, um, we did meet on July 1st. Our next meeting is August 5th. Our uh many discussions were on the tax levy. At that time, we had not heard anything. Um preschool, we were currently working on things that won't cost money from that we had anticipated from the tax levy incentive, uh such as cleaning out the boiler room, obtaining quotes for projects that we had anticipated, upgrading of the Wi-Fi, and a wall was being removed. Um on the agenda you will see uh that we had discussed keys no rate increase at this time. How but we've heard what everybody had been saying about the um
100payments and how to obtain them in a much more expeditious fashion maybe more um electronic and not so antiquated. So uh we are implementing a new online payment system called Jackra Rabbit. uh discussion uh for new hires and salary requirements for them. Some of them you will see on the agenda. Um Miss Ron Casease's contract has come back from the county for approval. That's on the agenda. And uh increases in cafeteria pricing for the 2526 school year as listed on the agenda. Um, and then other items that are definitely on the agenda, not from our meeting, are the May board secretary report, cash reconciliation report and transfers, the June bill list, the June safety drills as they are listed, two agreements for services, an approval of a transportation entities as listed. No, nope. As you
101can see, that is cutting and pasting. So, forget that. done. Um participation in a title three consortium with Lindenwald uh IDAB grant for the two 202526 school year as listed and two service agreements which I've mentioned twice. That's all I have. Anything miss? >> Yes. So um items number 12 and 13 talk about Rally and CL. Um, again, I'll I'll do some information about them in a superintendent spotlight, but real quick, uh, rally is something that will be used. It's free to us. It's being sponsored by the Flyers. It's something that will be used at Havlin and Mansion, and it's really about, um, healthy screen time for kids. It's showing them how to use screen time. I'm so sorry. Gotta get my daughter from chair. Um, it's about how to use screen time for brain
102breaks, for uh movement, for whatever, even during a classroom. So, we're using these Chromebooks and we have the kids on these screens all the time, but they're sitting and looking at screens. So, this is a program and initiative by the Flyers about the importance of physical movement and things like that. It uses their camera. It's roadblocks. They have little skins and things that they can win, but they're going to run and jump and try to grab coins and whatever. and it's a two or three minute thing that they do during a class time and then they'll sit but it's like a brain break which we do and things like that but there's others lessons and things just about being healthy. Um and again uh flyers are sponsoring it so we'll have a lot of flyer
103sponsorship. We'll be having some um pep rallies and things. We'll have Gritty come and visit Ottabon and and be doing some things like that. It's a new initiative. We're one of >> Gritty's coming. I need to know when >> I just got a new gritty t-shirt animal. >> You will know. Um, everybody heard that. Um, so yeah, and and it's we're on the ground floor of it. We're very excited about it. We're trying to get I have Mount Ephraim should also be doing it. I've given them all the information and it's free. So, um, very excited about it and going to do that with the younger grades. Playful is something we've talked about a few times. I was going to be able to go over some of the uh for students, it's on demand access
104to certified coaches that helps them now navigate the challenges like friendship, stress, academics. For families, it's tools and strategies to strengthen connections at home with family coaching on the horizon. And for educators, there's coaching for teachers and staff and supports for their well-being as well as for the students. Again, this is an initiative we plan to use for 6 through 12. I'll have plenty of information out for the parents. It's something the parents are welcome to opt out of if they are um concerned about that. It does give us access to a universal screener which will help us identify students that are in need of some support to make sure that they're getting the counseling. Right now, kids get counseling when they put their hand up and say, "I want to go see my counselor."
105Unfortunately, there's a lot more students that that that need counseling and just aren't willing to say anything. So this is another avenue for us to be able to find out who it is that needs help and help them. In addition, the platform is all done for the teachers. Everything is done for them. They ask for 20 minutes a week of time in the platform doing lessons. Like I said, there'll be a lesson about friendships, healthy friendships versus not healthy friendships. Um what test grades matter and which ones don't. How to get good sleep at night, why good sleep at night matters, your nutrition. Uh this is available on the Chromebook. It's a web- driven thing. It's also available through phones. the kids have access to it at night. Um it's uh even though we are
106promoting healthy sleep, it is available until 1 in the morning. Unfortunately, a lot of our teenagers are up at midnight stressing out over upset over my friends are bullying me on on Instagram. They're, you know, their stories are talking about me. They're putting together images of me that aren't me and they're freaking out and they have nobody to talk to. And this will give them access to somebody to talk to. It's a human. It's not AI. It's trained individuals that are available to them many hours of the day and night. Again, a lot more information will be coming, but we do have those on there for approval. So, I just wanted to give a quick oversight on what those two programs were. Uh, so does anybody have any questions on nonaggenda items at this time?
107Okay. If not, um, may I have uh a motion for items 1 through 13, please? Any questions on agenda items? Sarah, >> for um item number 12, the rally software, you mentioned that um it's kind of utilizing the camera in order, you know, to show when the students are jumping. So, I guess the question that came up in my mind is if that would require um any kind of additional parental approval. You know, I know that there's already policies, certain things that parents have to approve in terms being taken or shared of their children. Um, I don't know anything about like if these images are stored in a system, if it's just it's not pictures, it doesn't take their likeness. Again, they make an avatar, but their movement personally makes their avatar move on the
108screen, but it's never taking there is currently none of our elementary schools have the cameras even activated. So, as we started looking into this program, um, technology has been working with us to figure out exactly how we unlock and close again and to make sure it's not something that students have free access to at all times. Do they? I thought he told me that they didn't have access to them. Okay, we're working with technology for those things. But >> um and then on number 13 for the CLA agreement, um I know that there are certain um parameters like if a student were to say that they were suicidal or selfharming that Clayful then um gives that information to the district to follow up on or in some cases might follow up with the police as
109necessary. Um, but I was just wondering if there's anything that triggers like an HIV kind of action. Um, like if there's a bullying complaint that's made, is that something that's reported back to the district? They they have a whole um tier system like with many things. So, anything first of all, we get data from Clayful for any and all concerns and complaints or counseling sessions, coaching sessions students engage in, they're categorized with topics and we're able to track the data. So we know that we have a lot of seventh graders dealing with anxiety and a lot of tenth graders dealing with grades and things like that. So if there was bullying and things like that, we would be able to see trends and patterns. They definitely give us the feedback directly. And just to be
110clear for I know you and I have talked about it, but for others, if a student makes any um comments about self harm or it's not that they contact the district, they contact uh the police or the authorities right away for the child to get they also let us know that they contacted the authorities. But some programs and some other districts have had concerns of, oh well, we let the principal know and they didn't. No, no, they're not letting the principal know to get somebody. they will handle getting somebody in touch with for the child for a wellness and let us know afterwards so that we could follow up. If it's something that doesn't require an immediate intervention, they do contact the school district multiple ways to make sure that we're aware and they will
111follow up to make sure that we've gotten the information and we followed up on it. >> Okay. I I imagine that in Clayful's terms that they go over limits to confidentiality and things like that. Um but I think that it's worth, you know, if there's going to be an orientation for the students about, you know, the service being available that something that's made clear about those limitations of confidentiality because sometimes people might be talking about bullying but they have no intention of actually reporting anything and then you know if it feels like it's taken out of their hands they might yeah they have a really nice rollout program for both the teachers and the students um to get them oriented to it. was just in the beginning stages of of professional development for that here
112for the district. Um, but they do have a lot of things in place for that. >> Question. Miss Lipky, you have question. >> CLA is program that's going to be doing introducing the universal screener and it's going to be three times a year. Okay. And that's going to let us know, you know, Kids in the green area, they're they're good to go. Normal little issues here and there, but nothing worrying. Yellow, there's some concern and red is like intervention needed. Okay. All right. Thank you, >> M. >> Um, I just had a question about Clay. What kind of data will be collected to determine if it's successful and whether we should do it again. >> I don't know all the data points just yet. Like I said, I know the main ones were telling us
113about the areas of concern, the number of kids that are reaching out for counseling, the number of lessons that are used, um how much they're accessing the site outside of school like we could see the hours. Are they doing the lessons just during school? Are they going online after school to participate in some of the lessons, the coaching or the lessons, whichever things they're reaching out to. So the usage will be one of the biggest things that we'll be able to see what kind of issues and things are being um sought out. Is there more in the beginning of the year and the end of the year? But we don't have any data right now. But the universal screener in and of itself is going to be a huge piece for us. >> So will
114there be a threshold of if 50% of the students use it, we'll do it again or like will it >> I don't have any of that yet. still go through their their onboarding and and see >> work towards >> having some >> so we want to have a universal screener no matter what so if it's not with them it could be with somebody else but I think a universal screener is an important thing many districts have it it was almost an initiative a few years ago the government to be able to make sure that you're finding the kids that need it but yeah we'll do some different things to try to evaluate the effectiveness of it and whether or not it's >> fiscally sound to do it That's that's good to hear. And also I'd
115like to say I feel like my um my prayers have been answered. Keys system >> and um >> it is you you was I was explaining to somebody I saw this on the agenda and said I feel like I was the >> I was the butt of the joke at one night and and but um have we ever had any experience? Is Jack Rabbit tried and true? Is there do we know any experience? So happy. Maybe Deb can can help. it seemed like you were gesturing toward de uh some extra info, but um folks that make payments like to receive receipts for tax purposes or whatever for this type of thing. So, does this also provide that? >> So, uh we haven't had our onboarding process yet with Jack Rabbit because we have to get
116it board approved first. But, um for your first question about how did we find out about it, we did a survey with school districts that offer before and after school programs and uh just re regarding pricing that's where it started from and then in that research we discovered that there were the these um online payment systems. So, I had um the keys coordinator, Sarah Urban, um look into the ones and what works best with our system um and Jack Rabbit came out as being the user friendly. Um and will will support our needs for our district. Um, as far as um, what I do know is each parent, excuse me, will have an app on their phone. So, it will probably be recorded already there with your with your payments that you have made. So,
117um, basically the parent would already have that information. I'm I'm just right now thinking that that's what would be able to get but as we get into the system we would know better. >> Your operations did a great job. Everybody involved did a great job. >> And also with Jack Rabbit there are people um there are people that still like to write checks I I i.e. you know um so so they do a lot of them had to where you had to go all online. Um and that I know Sarah said there are parents that do like to pay in a cash and check. So um this will give the option to both. The only with that just so you know if you do pay online there is a service fee. I think we've all
118have experienced that when we use it in restaurants. Um that will be charged back to the parent. You know the school district will not take on that fee. Thank you. Anyone else? All right. At this time, we'll have a roll call. Miss, please. >> Okay. Sarah Coolen, Alison Lipsky, >> Jonathan Max, >> yes. >> Andrea Robinson, yes. >> Bill Wilson, >> Mark Gaddy, Alison Cox. >> Yes. >> Motion's passed. >> Turned off my mic. I thought I was done. Um, all right. At this time, I'd like to recognize Miss Robinson as our educational chair chairperson. >> Um, the last education committee meeting was on June 24th and the next one I think is going to be on July 22. Yeah, July 22nd. Um, we had a presentation about the NJGPA scores and were uh pleased
119with the results. Um we heard about the 10 juniors and five seniors who earned the seal of biiteracy. Um we got an update on the pacing guides at the high school which are going to become standardized and really useful documents for providing institutional knowledge as courses are passed down to other teachers. Um we heard a little bit about the July 8th um admin workday and what the team building that was taking place. Um we talked about the summer assignments and saw some updated summer assignments. And then on tonight's agenda, there are the facilities requests, lots of band meetings, and athletic practices, um, out of district placements, conferences, uh, clinical practice experiences for people who are coming in. the comprehensive equity plan, the IE rates, um, a couple other contract things, and that's it. >> Yeah.
120No, I just wanted to um echo I did forget about that seal of literacy. Um, that was a very exciting u piece of data. We uh have always tested the Spanish five students and this year the we had some students that were just um stellar and so some of the teachers had asked and reached out to Mr. Burke and said what are the options of us testing some of the juniors that are in Spanish 4. So that was a new thing that we had done and they scored amazingly well. It was um very exciting. The teacher came down happened to come down to guidance the day that I was in there meeting with uh Mr. Howy and she was like just bubbling over so excited over what this was. So I think in September she
121wants to come and do a presentation to the board about that. She wants the board to understand a little bit about what what it is, what it does for them. I mean it's it's a credential that they're going to get at graduation. We want to make sure we don't lose track of these juniors that will have done it a year prior. But it's kind of a big deal and like I said we have it both French and Spanish. We had students getting the seal of biiteracy. So, it's really a great thing and we want to part of the conversation we had then was do we do much for our, you know, our current bilingual students and making them understand all the doors that that could open for them. So, it was an area that we
122decided to take back to guidance and make sure that we're doing more to really educate our students once again about there's pathways that are open to you if you have um some skills in this area. If this is something that you have a knack for, there's a lot you can do with it. A lot of times we're not, you know, pushing kids in those directions. Thank you, Miss Alen. Does anybody have any non-aggenda item questions? Miss Lipsky, >> was there any discussion? And listen, I am giddy over summer work. I think it's awesome. But was there any discussion about why only honors and AP students does this actually count? Because If we're talking about academic rigor, I don't understand and I don't feel there's equity if it only counts and only AP and honor students
123have to do it because they have a grade that's going to count. But yet, and it's not a big grade, right? It's not that big a grade because >> sometimes for right for some of it, other times it isn't, but somehow apparently and I understand you don't want to upset a kid or give have them starting on the wrong foot because they didn't do the work but also um I'll use the kosher way to say this fool around and find out I believe is a common phrase in Philadelphia which is right over the bridge and I'm just understanding from an equity perspective I think that all students particularly college prep students should also have to do that and it they should it should matter and just saying we strongly recommend but yet the honors and
124AP students are going to get a big ding if they don't do it. I just that >> it's being doesn't seem fair. >> We have an answer. It was talked about. It's being implemented in tiers. Last year it was just AP and honors was was recommended. This year it's honors and AP is required. College prep is recommended. Next year the plan is for all of them to be required. We just didn't want to go from not having it to having it. Plus, it allows us time to work out the kinks, what's working, what's not working, the waiting of it, things like that. There was still, even with this one, it although we thought we rolled it out with very clear instructions and expectations, some teachers enforced it a little bit differently. And so, we found
125some inequities in how people were in uh what grades they were going to use for it. So, we want to we didn't want to roll it out too fast. It was AP the first year with honors mostly doing it or being, you know, required. It wasn't everybody required. It wasn't uniform across all all honors last year. It's uniform this year and next year we have every intention of making it required for CP as well. But once again, equity fail because AP students now did they're going to get the ding. They have to do the work. It's required of them. They're already having to do extra work. as an AP student. And as I said, sometimes the grade is counting for 20%. That's not equity. That's not fair. When so, you're already going to have to
126do more work because you're in an AP class. But now in the summer, you have to do the work. Oh, and if you don't, you're going to get a ding. And now it's okay. You honor students, you're going to be doing more work during the school year, too. Now, you're going to do more work during the summer because otherwise you're going to get a ding. It seems to me if we're going to roll it out, you roll it out with equity built in. Which means if you're not prepared to be able to have everyone have to go and do it and it matter and count, then no one should have it matter and count because what that and that's also doing a disservice to the CP students who have to wait three years before we're
127saying, "Hey, what you doing during the summer and your education actually matters and is important." Because what we're saying is doesn't matter for you guys. You matter AP, you matter CP, you know, you matters honors. That's how it kind of looks like. So, we're going to make sure those grades, but then from the students, they're saying, "Hey, I already do more work. I'm already making sure and I'm like the high achiever and now I also get a ding if I don't, but you know, cool." You know, and I've had I've seen students say, "Well, screw it. I'll just take college prep classes because I don't want to do anything this summer at which I just wish there had been equity. Thank you. Anyone else? What we're on non-aggenda items right now? >> I think this
128might still be part of that. So, um speaking in the summer work, that I asked in committee but didn't fully get an answer on. So, I'm still a little confused. So, the honors student, honors and AP students are required to do this work for a grade. However, the schedules are not complete yet. So, especially like seventh grade students coming in don't even know for sure what classes they're being placed into. And I think technically no one knows for sure until they're actually until they actually receive their schedule. So, we're saying you're required to do this work for a grade, but you don't if you're going to be in the class or not. >> Saying that first of all, students never get their schedules until late August. So, it's not that I mean there was never
129an intent to give them their schedules. It was what are they being recommended for? What courses are they being placed into that is something that if they haven't already had it communicated, I knew that they were putting something in place. Mr. Burke, do you know for sure how that was communicated or if it was communicated yet? I know that Mr. Leb was working on that. Yeah, I haven't followed up with them. Um, the schedule is planned. I mean, it's it's almost done. It's it's to the point of doing conflicts and things like that. And I know that it's going to be by next week out for teachers for some things. So, it will be uh we thought that by the first week of July that everybody would have that. And I said, we've talked about
130it um about putting things in place. It won't be them having their schedule. It's just about knowing what what course they're being scheduled into. What what if they were recommended for honors, things of that nature. Um, majority of them knew. There was only some that were supposed to be questionable and those I think that he was supposed to address it, but I'll have to follow up with him tomorrow and I'll get an answer for you for the weekly wave by Friday, Thursday, whatever. >> I did have that concern too. So, I know that the students are kind of told this is what you're recommended and the students say these are the classes I want to take this year. They've met with goes, "Yeah, that that should be good or whatever." But I also know, as
131Miss pointing out, there's times when you're told you're going to have these classes, and I'm not talking about when you're going to have them, what your schedule is, but then all of a sudden, oh, it just didn't fit or it didn't work. You don't get that class. Well, if it was, you know, an AP science class and you just did all this work for it, um, don't you think that be some some some students that are rightfully angry and then that they should be put in that class because they've already done a good chunk of the work of it. >> Yeah. >> Because of scheduling conflicts. >> Yeah. Because Yeah. Or a small school. Yeah. So, a lot of times like you have to take a video course then or you can't do it or
132something else happens. So, that's what I'm saying. And particularly as you're moving up in the rank. So, you're not seeing as much in seventh and eighth and ninth. But then when you're >> Yeah. So, like Yeah. My kid had a video court had to do it online because it wouldn't they couldn't put it in. So she actually was overloaded because she had to do it online. But that's my concern particularly because once you generally you see it s 10th 11th and 12th it's you get one class one period and particularly in those higher levels of honors and AP where they kind of have that trajectory they already have an idea of what they want to do and what they want to study and then you're kind of out of luck. Okay, thank you so much.
133>> Any other non-aggenda questions? All right. Um, moving on. Could I have a motion for item one in education? >> Second. >> Okay. Anybody have a question on that? All right. Miss Ron Casease, could we have a roll call, please? Alison Lipsky, >> yes. >> Jonathan Max, >> yes. >> Andrea Robinson, >> Bill Wilson, >> Mark Gaddy, Sarah, Alison Cox, >> yes. >> Motion pass. >> Thank you. All right. And now, may I have a motion for items one through? >> I'm sorry. Thank you. Two through 14, please. Any questions on the agenda items? >> All right, seeing none. Roll call. Miss Ronis. >> Jonathan Max. >> Yes. >> Andrea Robinson. Bill Wilson. >> Mark Addie. Sarah Coolen. Alison Lipsky. >> Yes. >> Alison Cox. >> Yes. >> Motion passed. >> Thank you. All right.
134Now we will move to human resources. Um just for everyone's uh I we have an addendum. It would be um six items and I'm going to read them. Number 36 is a motion to accept the letter of resignation effective June 30th, 2025 from Kate Wilson, English teacher at Audabon Junior Senior High School. Number 37. Motion to move the first year tenure track 12 month supervisor of curriculum and instruction contract for Samantha Costel for on or about September 2nd for for the 2025 school year in accordance 2028 negotiated contract between the Ottabon Board of Education and the Audabon Administrators Association. a yearly salary of 96,000 pending the completion of all Ottabon Board of Education and New Jersey Department of Education requirements at the recommendation of the superintendent of schools. Number 38. Motion to approve the first
135year tenure track reading specialist agreement for Sandy Steedel at Mansion Avenue School at step 12 MA + 30 full-time 1 effective on or about September 2nd 2025 for the 2025 2026 school year in accordance with the 2024 2027 negotiated contract between the Audabon Board of Education and the Audabban Education Association pending the completion of all Audabon board of education and NJ Department of Education requirements at the recommendation of the stu superintendent of schools. Number 39. Motion to approve the first year ten retract teacher of mathematics agreement for Michelle Hand at Audabon Junior Senior High School at step 10BA ba full-time 1 equivalent one effective on or about September 2nd 2025 for the 2025 2026 school year in accordance with the 2024 2027 negotiated contract between the Ottabon Board of Education and the Ottbon Education Association.
136pending the completion of all board of education and New Jersey Department of Education requirements at the recommendation of the superintendent of schools. Number 40, motion to retroactively approve 40 hours for Kelly Kelly Stenton to complete administrative duties for the Ottabon Preschool at the negotiated rate of $30 per hour from July 1st, 2025 through August 28th, 2025 with executed time sheets at the recommendation of the superintendent of schools. And finally, number 41, motion to approve Ro Hudson as a nurse assistant in Ottabon Junior Senior High School Nurses Office at a rate of $200 per day not to exceed $8,600 with executed time sheets for the 202526 school year to assist in screenings and other nursing responsibilities. All right. And now I have to read our report from our committee meeting last night, which is always the
137night before the board meeting. So we met um our next meeting would be August 19th. We discussed a list of job openings which are current and anticipated. We talked about the tax levy hires. They're on the agenda and new hires on the agenda. Uh we um had a mention or in the early stages of a rubric for the administrative assistance. Uh we reviewed superintendent goals pertaining to HR comm the HR committee and we had a screening a preemptive screening um on the uh superintendent spotlight the threeminute video uh which will be on is on Facebook and that it would as Miss Allen said uh 7 to 10 days is her uh desire. Uh for the next one it will be on strategic plan. On the agenda we have uh a total now of four resignations.
138We have an employment contract, a total of seven new hires, two employees moving from part-time positions to full-time positions. Uh which is something that we as a board have always been looking for. If it makes sense, we do it. So, we've done it with two a long-term sub, two student technology assistance, three FMLA requests, a revision for the um uh summer the special ed ESY staff members, a list of the academic coaches, additional an additional substitute teacher, three recommendations for summer work for our employees, a list of skip committee members for the junior senior high authorizing an affirmative action team to conduct a needs assessment and develop a comprehensive equity plan for three years at Mansion extracurricular contracts for the 202526 school year um and volunteers uh the skip committee members evening activity chapoons a
139breakfast proctor gardening club Paul's club a staff member to provide training a list of the safety team, a yearbook leaison and a volunteer and a list of the SEAL HIV interventionists. We also uh looked at job descriptions as listed in the agenda. So, any question? Oh, Miss Allen, do you have anything to add? >> I know there's a lot many new hires on there. We still have more to come, but it's been very exciting. It's been a um we're excited to be this early in June and filling this many slots. We were able to get our um ads out there early and move quickly on our interviewing process and we're getting some really really great candidates on board. We're very excited about that much. Um does anybody have any qu any questions on non-aggenda items?
140Okay, seeing none. Um, may I have a motion for items 1 through 41, please? >> Motion. >> Second. >> No, I second question mark. >> Okay. Uh, any questions on agenda items? >> Um, sure. I'm gonna go. >> Miss Koulen was first. Sorry, I'm going down the line. It went boom boom boom. >> I just raised my hand. >> You just have to raise your hand. >> Unless Miss Coolen wants to acquies, but >> No, I I'm not going to. So, >> um I was just wanting some clarity on the tax levy situation because I saw that like there was some something was sent back for revision. I think we saw in the weekly wave. So, we have three items on here that we're approving, but they're paid for by the tax levy. So, before
141we approve them. I just wanted to get some clarity on where that stands. >> Uh, sure. So, on Friday around 4 o'clock, we received a phone call from the county office stating that um the state um reviewed our tax levy, which we broke down all of our expenditure line items. Um, that they that some uh they needed clarification and some changes on language. Um, so that had to be done by July 18th. Um, I submitted it today at 4 PM to them with those changes. So in total, nothing changed. It was just clarification on um the spending of the of the funds. So everything is approved. >> It is approved because they hadn't actually given me approval before. >> Well, they gave um they gave an approval letter um said pending final approval. Um and
142we weren't only the only school district that received this phone call. There were two other school districts that received the same phone call that Oh, yes. I'm sorry. The advice from the county was from before the the approval that we could move forward with all of our um expenditures like like no funds would be taken away from the school district of the million. >> Thank you. >> You're okay. Okay. Um, Miss Robinson, you were this the second hand. I >> with the class advisors at the junior senior high school. I know there was some talk of like rotating or having that advisor move up with the class. Is that do you anticipate that happening after this year or to be entirely honest I don't remember where that ended? I know he had it put together
143that they were rotating and then there was a meeting with him and the union and I think they were going to wait another year. So I don't know. I haven't actually reviewed what the actual ones are right here that are on this. I think the plan is this year they're staying put and next year they're doing it, but I can't swear to the plan is to still do it. I just don't know when it's being effective. If it's effective 25 or 26 27 or if it's 2728. I know it's not effective 2526. >> Okay. >> Is that confusing enough? >> Uh, no. I think I understand that. Um, okay. My next question was about volunteer extracurricular contracts and how you determine who is a volunteer and who gets a stipend >> the contract or it's
144budgeted for then it's a stipened one. If it's not then they have to do it as a volunteer. >> Okay. And that's just someone choosing. >> Yes. Somebody's volunteering. Okay. I'll do it. Yeah. I want to do a debate club. I know it's not in the contract. I'll volunteer and do it. Maybe next year when there's budget you can try to get me in the budget. But until then, I'll do it as >> doing it. >> Yes. >> Good faith. Okay. Um and then my last I think it's my last question is what is the social emotional learning h interventionist? It's number 30. >> Oh, it's something at mansion. I asked Miss Smeltzer about it this year. It's um it's like a counseling type session for students who have repeated concerns with getting along with
145classmates. So, they have them stay after school and do some activities. Is that the best way to word that? Look, I got lots of nods from from Miss Martell. How come it's only a mansion? >> Uh I asked that it's, you know, something that we incorporate. It's the behaviors are seen more at that grade level. They incorporate it more into the school day at other places. I had asked her why that was something that couldn't be done during the school day. She said that she didn't want to pull people from particular activities and there was the ability to use the uh grant to do it. So that's how it's not funded through the district. It's funded through the municipal alliance grant. >> Okay. Sound like something she's piloting. >> Is this new then? >> Last
146year I think was the first she did it. Last year two years it's been around. Okay. She didn't want to pull students from activities or she didn't want to pull the adults because it seems that everybody listed is a guidance counselor. >> Yeah. >> So they wouldn't >> Well, they would be >> they wouldn't be pulled from class. >> No, but they' be pulled from the things that they're doing just to do one-on-one with a kid. They want the kid to stay after school. They want it to be again not punitive, but yet it be a restorative thing. They're going to stay after school instead of staying in detention. You're going to stay with guidance counselor. We're going to work through some activities to correct behaviors that we're seeing. almost like an alternative detention, but
147it's not detention. It's working through some type, >> but detention is paid at like a $25 per hour rate where it is, but I think it was 25 and this is a $40 hour. >> I thought anything with students was $40, so I don't >> It's not our We're not paying it, so it wasn't Okay, >> Mr. Maxwell, >> shout out to um everybody involved in the interview process for specifically the uh new supervisor instruction. I had no clue that Miss Cost was interviewing. This is somebody that I went to grad school with for two and a half years. We were in every class together. I actually saw her at um county administrative meeting yesterday and when we were walking out. She had no clue I was on the board here. She's like, you know,
148I I have this exciting opportunity maybe. I'm like, oh, what's school? I'm like, look at that. But again, I I I there was an opening and I was in Miss Allen or Mr. Burke's shoes. I a knockout hire. Can't say enough good things. I think that this person has um the real potential to take when it comes to curriculum instruction um in this district. So great hire. Excited to see you know what she's able to do she starts. Nice job. >> He can watch our >> I'll I'll watch on LinkedIn. See Thank you, Mr. Max. Anyone else? I didn't look at this side of the room. Anyone else? >> Mr. Wilson, come on. >> All right. >> I It just >> Go ahead. Go ahead, Mr. Wilson. >> Um I'm curious. Did you say that
149we did this um the one that Andrew's asking about counselors at that was last year was the first year and has it been proving successful in terms of increasing behaviors? I I would suggest you had mentioned that that's suggest >> I got Miss Martell telling me I keep forgetting to turn my microphone. That's part of our our strategic plan is there are some really effective things happening at buildings, but they're not necessarily always happening across the buildings and we want to do more to communicate those things across. So, I'm really trying to push Miss Smeltzer to share the wealth with some of her things that she's come up with to, you know, do a lot of the changes that she's done at Mansion and really try to get that above and below in feeding into
150Mansion and as they leave Mansion. So, this is one thing that maybe we can bring and expand up to here. if it's paid out of the grant. Yeah, absolutely. >> Is the municipal alliance specific to uh the early ed elementary? It can be across district. Okay. Thank you. All right. Any other questions? Motion, please. For items one through, >> you already have a motion. >> Oh, I have motion. May I have roll call, please? Sure. >> Thank you. >> Andrea Robinson, >> Bill Wilson, >> Mark Gaddy, >> Sarah Coen, >> Alison Lipsky, >> Jonathan Max, >> Alison Cox, >> yes. >> Motions passed. >> Thank you. All right. Uh, we're going to move on to the So, just the Yeah, there's nothing. Okay. Um, special representatives CC County Educational Service Commission and they didn't have
151a meeting this it's usually Stephen it's usually Stephen but I looked on the website just to see and they didn't have a July meeting so I'm I'm feeling good that there's nothing to report um I wasn't sure if you had any in inside skinny but the next meeting is August 6th at 5:30 Um, the last meeting was June 4th. Um, let's see. Mr. Max, >> thank you. Mr. Wilson is not here for AEF. Does anybody did anybody participate? They don't. Thank you. Um, Audabon outreach. >> Thank you, Mrs. Cox. Um, members attended a couple of functions at the end of the school year um including sixth grade graduation um the high school graduation as well and then fourth of July parades of plenty. So um for the fourth of July there was Mr. Gaddy, Mrs.
152Davis, Mr. Steven Wilson, myself um Helena our soon to be senior student rep and Miss Robinson as well um attended various parades in various ways and I'm pleased to announce that miraculously we are still an award-winning board of education. We won the trophy for uh best parade theme. We're not quite sure how uh other than the fact that the parade theme was about community service and as board members some members of the public think we get paid. We do not get paid. This is completely volunteer on our part. were elected to those positions. But we think maybe that was why we won. Plus, there's not many people in the parade and there's only so there's so many awards to give out. So perhaps perhaps de facto. And just a disclaimer, I am a part of
153the Ottabon Celebration Committee. I had nothing to do with the judging or awarding in any way. Although I did accept our trophy at the fireworks event. So our trophy from last year is missing. I have no idea what happened to it. So, this one we might want to secure a little bit better, but there you go. >> Um, in terms of upcoming events, I'm really not aware of anything before the um Ottabban Police Night out, which is the end of September. Um, and then the the Lions uh do their annual um Halloween parade on mischief night. Um, but I haven't been aware of any other kind of events in the community for us to attend. If anyone becomes aware of any, please let me know. I'll put it on our spreadsheet and information about that.
154Still no word on like the third Fridays or anything like that. So, um, unfortunately less opportunities built into the community this year than we had past year or two. That's a really great thought. I do have a contact with mount from celebration committee so I can always see, you know, if they have events coming up that they're aware of or or things along those lines that we could potentially um have a table at. Like we're at Ottabon Day. I know Mount Mim does their also sometimes it's hard to even have one table covered, but you know, you never know. That's good. Um, all right. Ad hoc committee, Mr. Gaddy. Okay. And our board member orientation committee, Lipski. All right. Are there any board comments? >> I wanted to mention the AP scores. They were amazing
155this year. Something we can really be proud of. Um I just I think they should be highlighted because they're the pass rate was incred or five was really really high. Thank you very much. Of course, we always want to celebrate our children and their accomplishments. So, that is a wonderful accomplishment for them. Um, ELA got a perfect 100%. All the kids got a three, four, or five who took it. That's >> AP pre-cal. It was the first time it's ever been offered and all but one student passed it. We do something in September. Somebody said that >> we should talk about that. We want to acknowledge those students or anything like that. I mean, I thought there was a recognition. Somebody somewhere said that they thought we'll talk about that at some mentioning about um
156the language literacy certification and yes um and wanted to make sure that it was out. I do know I I know we have a new French teacher, but Madame Geel, I know the students that at least in her French three this past year, we're all talking about it and how they were looking forward to taking it and things like that. >> Just very briefly, I want to acknowledge that it has now been a complete year that Miss Allen has been with us as our superintendent and um having been on committees with you and everything that the board as a whole, I just really thank you for your um willingness to give time and effort um to meet with the committees on a monthly basis which had not been happening before. I know that takes a
157lot out of your schedule with your family as well. Um but I think you know we were talking earlier and um Mr. Wilson mentioned the productivity like hey something's got accomplished and I really think that's because the meetings have been happening with regularity that they have been and so just really you know thank you for that for dedicating yourself the way that you have this past year >> good continue um so I I have a reminder our retreat is Monday night 5:30 this coming Monday. Riveting. Okay. Bring your thinking caps and bring your the Yes, bring it all. Enthusiasm. Um we will have dinner. We will have dinner in the half an hour and we'll actually begin the business at six o'clock. And um thank you to every I just want to thank you to
158everybody who marched in the parade. I But you still were a part you you um definitely um were uh >> Yeah, I I my my grandchildren enjoyed seeing you all. I was just going to say they weren't throwing stuff at you. You were throwing stuff at them. The tables were turned. All right. So, any other comments from a board member? All right. So, we're going to turn our meeting back to the public. Is there any public that has any to say before the board? And again, the the everything applies as in the first petition. Your name, your name, and your affiliation. Come up to the podium, please. >> Uh, good evening. My name is Ryan W. I live on uh 133 South GO Avenue. Um, I come here today to address a few concerns brought
159up at the last board meeting about the Ottabbon speech and debate team. For reference, I'm one of the two students who approached Mr. Leb to create the team with Mr. Duza to be the adviser and I've been highly involved with the club since inception in early 2025. Concerns and suggestions are vital for the success of any club team or organization, and I wanted to come here tonight as someone who has been incredibly involved in the creation of the team to address those set concerns. For starters, an issue that was brought up last month was the integration of the word speech in the club's name and the lack and the quoteunquote lack of speech. When a student starts their debate, they must speak to the judges and or crowd and lay out the foundation for their
160base argument and what side they stand on in their opening statements. Speech is an integral part of our um is an integral part of the art of debate. It is what states the tenor and the sides of a debate. For the 2024 2025 school year, we were more focused on defining leadership within the club to lay out the groundwork for next year. With that, we held captain debates between students in a Lincoln Douglasesque format to define who would be leading our team next year. At the beginning of every captain's debate, the debaters had to speak to both the crowd and the judge to lay out the main point of their debate, thus giving a speech. Going into the next year, we can absolutely expand on the speech aspect. But for the 2024 2025 year, we
161were focused on defining the leadership in the five months that we had. The second primary issue brought up at the last board meeting was the HS speech and debate entering competitions for the next year. And to answer that, we are absolutely are. At the tail end of of the school year, we were in the process of reaching out to the president of the South Jersey Debate League to have Ottabbon be entered into the debate competitions for the 2025 2026 school year. We are very excited to be entering this as well as members of the team. This is only this is one of the only opportunities at the school like this. We should have more information going into the school year, but to clarify, we are aware of its existence and are in the process of
162joining. I appreciate your time tonight allowing me to come and represent my debate team as it is something that is very important to me and I thank you for any concerns that you may have had. I hope that I was able to clear them up. >> Thank you, Ryan. one of our candidates for our uh junior class um board member uh board representative just coincidentally since I believe certain things were directed directly to comments I made uh when I talk about speech obviously anytime you debate you're using spoken langage But there speech and debate and I was talking about when you have speech and debate there are there are actually competitions that are speech competition dramatic interpretation prosetry and impromptu and they also do debate and so I was bringing it to Allen's attention that
163there is a specific speech and debate in New Jersey that does speech and Douglas debate and I was not sure if Mr. was aware of it. His intent was to have speech components as well as conduct. It was not that you don't do speeches. Obviously, you do because you're speaking and I say this as someone who was part of the speech and debate Jersey as a high school student but didn't do this debate and did it as dramatic interpretation. and then went on to college. And so I was just asking Miss Allen, what was the team doing speech and debate generally that is debate and poetry and not just that if he wanted any could I'd be happy to help as a parent. That was what it was. Not that you don't actually do speeches.
164>> Anyone else for coming on behalf of the club? Um, it's good. You put a lot of work in the ground. Uh, you're passionate about it. You sat here for two hours. I watched you waiting to to speak. And, uh, I I commend you for for having that uh, you know, tenacity and fire and ability to to speak publicly. I look forward to hopefully your candidacy. Thank you. It's just the nature of the flow of the the meeting. So, all right. We do not have to go into closed. No. So, um, our next board meeting, well, our retreat is July 21st, but our next scheduled board of education meeting here would be Wednesday, August 20th at 6:30. So, um, can I have a motion to adjourn? Second. >> All those in favor? >> All right.
165Thank you. Enjoy your night. Be safe.