001I know nobody wants that Robin Lan Bus St it's just so far out there off of hope you turn you turn off of Cooper hope and it's like the first little yeah it's there little we're live so we let Lisa sit we'll go ahead all right want to call to order I'll call this meeting to order at 6:32 do the pleas Al to flag United States ofer stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all Mr Davis here Mrs re here Mr here Mrs alen here Mrs Hanah here Mr Golden here Mr julo here Mr Jones M here so we need a motion and a second to approve the Action meeting minutes of the September 28th 2023 meeting as present all those in favor opposed all right we're going to go into
002executive session motion and a second motion 633 give me one second so I can tell um Mr Cunningham to come and shut us down [Music] thank you all right you're going to mute [Music] foring are I'm unlock I don't think sometimes the kids come down to the [Music] front go thank you very much for everyone joining us uh we've already opened our meeting earlier at 6:30 for an executive session so we're ready to cck up with our presentation all right our first presentation going to be for our student role models positive behavior for students of the month of September I'm guessing that's why some of you are out here at smil what these what these little words POS behavior supports schoolwide approach uh for Behavioral supports in schools encourages all the characteristics that you you
003guys are trying to teach at home uh it it encourages uh good relationships between peers um kind of the golden R we all try to live by want treat each other right um but it does have an evidence-based practice to it's an evidence-based research it is a it is a system of supports and rewards and encouragements uh that help us have a better climate and culture in school and what we want from that is that our students enjoy School more they enjoy School more they come more often they enjoy it more they attended their studies more uh and so and so they so they do better it is a win win win tonight we get to uh select and and reward and applaud and thank uh a group of our students for being exemplary uh
004models of that behavior that we're looking for and awarding them certificate as a student so with your all right so on behalf of the board Mr Murphy Mrs bright and myself if you hear your name come on up students of the month um student of the month we have Samuel Church congratulations Nathan Negron Jen Marshall J Taylor sop Sterling Nicholas Adams Nelson Alonso Liam Simpson [Applause] con [Applause] [Music] [Applause] angelum ariela Ione [Applause] Char David Plaza S isab [Applause] Alvarez Miss anybody we all right congratulations [Applause] everybody congratulations to all of our students of the month and thank you all again for coming out uh we're going to take a short pause if anyone would like to take their kids home to start their evening rituals we totally understand you're more than welcome to stay
005enjoy the rest of our meeting along with us the sisters mat I got atast hello congratul thank you got it thank [Laughter] iation will be just as fun probably not as cute ofs Mr Gold is it okay for me to get started absolutely okay great um for those of you who don't know me my name Isa Bley cber I'm the supervisor of curriculum and instruction here at Berlin Township I'm here tonight to present our 20203 state assessment results so the results of the tests that the children took in this I'll go through um and point out some things that I've noticed and then if there's anything you want to talk about or point out as well feel free there me as I hit the wrong switch oh I hit the so we'll start with a
006little bit of an overview um in the spren of 2023 there were four state assessments that the students participated in the children in grades 3 through eight took the njsla in ela and math the students in grade five also took njla I'm sorry five and eight took njla and science are special education students that have a cognitive disability that excludes them from the NJ SLA What's called the DM the dynamic learning math and then our multilingual Learners is which is what we used to call our Ells who participate in ESL class took What's called the weda access 2.0 so we will go through each of those we'll start with the WEA access the access for Ells 2.0 is a test of English language proficiency so there is no actual passing score although the state recommends
007that if a child scores a 4.5 or better they can be released from their program with multiple measures so we are looking at their listening speaking reading and writing in English these are children that can have any level if they have just come to America we would consider that a level one no English up to a level six which is reaching proficiency here are the results for our Ells um you'll notice there are no individual scores up there because our population was so small I wanted to protect students privacy so they are in grade bands um entering would be our level ones that's the blue working up to expanding the purple you'll notice we have no reaching or bridging because if they had scored a five or a six they would be released from the
008program so this is typical this is what I would expect it to look like we had 23 total children in the program last year as of now we are at 38 for this year yes did we have any that were uh graduates from this program in this time period yes we had one yes so of those four that are in purple one of them was above a 4.5 and was R um the dynamic learning Maps again a very small population of children so I kept off as much identifiable information as I could um these are for the students with cognitive disabilities whose IEP States that they should be excluded or are not capable of participating in the njsla these children also learn daily based on an individual plan and different standards we had nine children
009participate eight of those children were in District and one was an out of District placement again no traditional passing score just to give us some information okay now we'll get into the good stuff NJ SLA Ela and math this is the the one you've heard the most about there are five performance levels the top two are passing so we're looking for a four or a five when I talk about passing our scores look something like this in ela we had approximately 40% of our children pass and by passing a four or a five out of five and in math we had about 25% on the graphs you're looking for the green dark green or light green is is passing taking those same children we had 418 students participate and breaking them down by grade level
010Ela is on the left math is on the right one bar for each gray level a higher bar means there are more children in that class and what we are looking for is as much green on the bar as possible the numbers are the amount of students that scored in that range so I can't see all the little it's third fourth fifth six seven correct okay third grade is doing the best on both B I'm sorry not third fifth grade that's that that's what you're looking for well that's that's an interesting yes interesting take Mrs re because by number of children who passed fifth grade is doing the best but you'll well actually their bar wasn't the highest either so by percentage they probably did pretty well yeah we'll get there on in a slide
011or two but that is what you're looking for the most as green as possible what's the brown on the bottom I thought it looked Brown too my apologies next it looks like they do stronger Ela than math I think that's Statewide what math program do we use GO Math on that M this is those same charts for Science and just because nothing can be easy right science has four levels instead of five so you'll notice there's no blue on these graphs because there's only one two three and four there's no cuss there and again the top two are passing we only have a fifth and an eth grade for science because the test is given every three years in grade bands so what did children learn in third fourth or fifth grade is tested in
012fifth and then what they learn in sixth seventh and eth is tested in eth and it continues into High School 9th 10th and 11th so putting all of that information those last couple slides were counts of children this is now percentages so the percent of the class that passed in each subject the purple are the ELA the orange are the math and and the pinkish maroon looking color is science okay so there were some pretty clear things that jumped out at me I I mean I'll talk about what I see if you see something different you please let me know but those were the areas that caught my attention they seem those numbers feel low to me and I felt like we needed to dig a Little Deeper to see if that was necessarily the
013case I wanted to know if 6% in fourth grade math 12% in sixth grade math or 16% in eighth grade math is typical is that what the state is doing as well or is that simply where we fall yeah so what I'm seeing is okay last year do we know how the fourth grade performed yes we do second to get there because then that would be fifth grade for this year and if you see like that's a really big difference just between those two grades yes it is and even third grade and to know what how those fourth graders scored last year your brains are going all down the same path that mine went on so I'm happy to go that way for you um this is how Berlin Township students did compare to the
014state so the purple bars are the state and Berlin Township are the orange so what we would hope for is that we are at or above the purple we want the orange to be higher so those three areas from this slide that we just talked about are right there now a couple things jump out here first being for science we were pretty close right so that might be a test problem that might be a change something that was what John was explaining to us this demonstration right but something changed with the way they tested it or what they learned in science versus the test yeah yes so in middle school science they give you all of the Middle School standards and you place them at the grade where you think they go and then they
015test them in eth whereas in every other grade they say like in third grade we're gonna learn this so the test is is the same type of test but the material they have to remember from three years previous um the state the state the state was at 19% we were at 17 so we we're right hanging in with the state that doesn't concern me as much anymore however those other two areas we had looked at um still kind of stick out in addition to those two I notice those two and my brain then went to exactly what you were talking about before is I see math four math 6 ela3 and ela4 Ela is up or four is up there twice right so the children that were in fourth grade appeared twice in the bottom
016of our data this is not to discredit those bars that are real high I am so proud We have those right but those aren't the ones I need to work on these are so I went Where Mrs Hannah and Mrs Reed's Minds went I was like well okay well let's see how those children did last year maybe it's a cohort of children that we need to talk about and not necessarily A teacher or a test right so this is our information from 2022 and 2023 2023 is the blue bar so what we are looking for is a blue bar higher than a purple bar to show growth that class we were just talking about is right here so they are our current fifth graders the purple bar is when they were in third grade our
017Baseline year the blue bar was last spring when they were in fourth grade and now they are in fifth grade so so they grew got so in language arts on the left you'll see they grew what looks like a significant amount I don't have the exact numbers it's probably in the 20s right but in math they did not which could come down to co and when they were learning to read well my guess but then you would see the same thing at the state level oh that's true that's what do you know what standards specifically in fourth grade that they were struggling with yes our scores were we performed before below the state in most of them if not all a lot of the standards they give us a breakdown of each standard yeah um
018so this is telling me that group of children who are struggling in math in third is still strug they dipped in fourth in math math specifically so they struggled a bit as a whole but math is really now where I need to put my focus right so I I had a some tough conversations and I mean I think our brains go to the immediate like did you talk to that teacher um and I did and she at first said I think it's co and she talked a lot about trying to fill gaps and when we got to the root of it she said she didn't get through the correc so not that that's an excuse but that's a good reason so now we need ways to make sure we are pacing to get through the
019curriculum so keep that in mind as we progress I'm going to talk about some solutions we have for that um before we leave this slide I also want to point out the other area where I saw that kind of dip and growth came um in what's now our ninth graders so they aren't ours anymore so I'm happy to report it it's giving us a very clear direction of where we need to go as far as Improvement they dipped in ela they did the opposite yes they did in math they did better but in ela they did worse I have a question about math also um does only one teacher teach math or there how many teachers teach math in fourth in fourth yeah there's one that teaches General and one that teaches special oh okay
020classes four starting in fourth grade we switch classes so in third grade the children go to one teacher and spend all day with them starting in fourth grade okay because in my district we what we have like we other fourth grade teacher that's why but I'm Ela but we have partner teachers um so like I teach Ela and writing and my kids go to another math but more than one person teaches math that's why I was curious understand no so from fourth through sixth grade children have three cours a day with three different teachers they have an Ela teacher a math teacher and a Content teacher who splits science and social studies once they get to seventh and eth grade they have four cores Ela math science and social studies okay I not finishing the
021curriculum that impacted every kid yes like every kid in that well yes and it's part of why they didn't finish the I don't know if you could know or say this is part of why they didn't finish the curriculum because they were too busy trying to catch them up on the Bas SK the teacher they were missing yes yes yeah that's what the teacher so will there be something put in place to monitor to ensure that the okay yeah if you wouldn't mind holding that I got it com 100% two slides ahead of me yes um this is our um free and postco data to give you an idea so um in 2019 that was the year before Co those are the the plotted points to the far left of each graph that's where we
022were by grade level we didn't have a test in 2020 or 2021 so the next year we took a test was 2022 we're now looking at that row so you can see there was a steady decline in all areas Prett and postco and I don't think that's a surprise to anyone what is now interesting is we are on the up swing of that right so if we can focus our attention and let's forget everything preco and focus our attention on what happened since Co so we are looking from 2022 to 2023 and it looked like this so most of the GR in seven of the 12 test areas it is going up yeah that's a little more than half yeah there are five test areas where it's going down of those five two of them
023were still above the state average which again brings me right where I need to focus right I mean I think we all see where those are right fourth grade okay and this is I'm sorry this is the current last same fourth grade teachers from year they the same from the year before I thought some of the fourth grade teachers didn't they move up from 2022 to 2023 is different teachers but from 23 to this current year are the same teachers I thought they had changed from 22 to 23 when they moved to jaet correct okay correct so my next question was did the state Trends look that same way did all of the schools have seven out of 12 trending up in about five cing down and the answer was no so Berlin Township is
024on the left New Jersey is on the right that we are looking at Ela passage rates pre and postco so you'll see in all of New Jersey steady decline down through coid and then spite turned back upward after I I will point out though if you go back to the L the last Slide the ones we're going up in we're going up more than they are yes we are so that's a good sign I I I think um it's I think next year's scores will be very important because then we'll have three consective to look at it's hard to pick a trend with only two points um but it's this is what we've got right so we're we'll work with what we have here's that same information for math again nothing too surprising in fact
025the state has just slowed their decline it really isn't yeah it's like barely going up really they're going up slightly but in our ones that are going down there exactly like the one especially the red line on that one way down where like the purple line is just continuing I it's purple it looks purple yes you're absolutely correct yep you're talking about um and even the blue line is kind of just slightly going going down at the angle that it had been and that's the one that we talked about was decreasing but was still above State average that's blue line yep um from there what we wanted what I thought we needed to do is dig into which kids are passing and which aren't and why and see if there's a trend that way we
026can't pin it necessarily on one teacher or one class even though we see where we need to put our areas of focus let's see if there's some sort of Trend in subgroups so this this is our subgroup data now at the size of our district if there was a subgroup with under 10 children in it I left them off the chart so if you see a blank on the chart that means there was either less than 10 children in that group or no significant difference in the stats so we'll go one column at a time if we're talking about gender our females generally outperformed our males in language arts not too much in math as far as ethnicity I could not find a trend there was a whole mix happening in ethnicity I think it's
027important to to mention to to everyone that uh while Dean is definitely diving into the data and every ways that that you should reporting to the board by these subgroups is required yes that this was not necessarily her decision to look oh yes yes this um presentation that's requ yes contains everything that is required so we can say um for our review that yes I've presented to you everything that the state has asked me to yeah thank you um by economic status now follow this one because it's counterintuitive but are not economically disadvantaged students did perform higher than our disadvantaged students so that sounds backwards in your head but it makes sense not disadvantage outperformed disadvantage which is kind of what you would expect it's exactly what I would yep exactly and then by disability
028so we are talking about children with IEPs and 504 plans got a little worried when I got to this column I there are a lot of areas here where you'll see 0% IEP where no children who had an IEP passed in that subtest that means in science no not one single black student passed eth gr science correct that includ my that includes my son well keeping mind 17% of our children passed so and yes yes but I'm glad you're making those kind of connections yeah so when I saw this I um I called a meeting with the child study team and we had a discussion about what might be happening with children with IEPs that seems to stand out I I didn't know if that was a problem in past if something had changed we
029had a 2% passage rate for children with IEPs on the test um first thing we thought of was how did they do last year last year we had an 8% passage rate so we did decline as far as that subgroup um and the child study team immediately wanted to know if they grew because these children have IEPs for a reason they need um something different than maybe their classmates so some of them might not get a four or a five 20% of them and 24% were in the three category so that's solid I'm okay with right it it's not as worrisome um on average they gained five points in ela and dropped five in that and are we comparable with that with the state do you have the record for I don't have I don't
030have the state information on that I can certainly dig deeper or wait until the performance reports come out um yeah I'd also be concerned curious I know you said that 8% increase from last year oh last year opposed to this year only 2% how did the kids with IEPs perform last year are up the kids with I so I'm sorry let me let me the graph kind of thing yes so CH looking at only children with IEPs last year 8% pets this year only two so that's excluding everyone with a across the board in every grade hold district is there grades where they were worse than others kind of thing from the year before or I should say like if they're in fifth grade this year or last year but they were fourth grade year
031before there are but the number is so few it would give away personal information but you know that I do you can at least make the change yes so I can tell you it is we're talking four students two of them are speech okay so I know who they are I know what their services are but I needed to have that conversation with the child study team to make sure I wasn't missing anything because that is not my expertise and when I got to talking with the child study and some of the special ed teachers they talked very specifically about postco there were so many gaps I needed to fill them in and it started to sound just like what I had heard from that fourth grade math teacher so same kind of problem I'm
032not getting through everything because I have to fill in all the gaps and so now we see where maybe our problem is um it might be spread it might be a little bit hidden but I think it's the areas where teachers aren't completing the curriculum for whatever reason because the children need something different or because they don't feel they can move on or they can't for some reason so Mr Golden as you were talking about we do have some solutions that we'd like to propose um moving forward using this information so the first one and it's kind of a biggie is at JFK we have an annual School plan um I don't know as a board how much you know about this process but basically that means we have a state representative that we now
033meet with regularly to make sure we are staying on Pace with everything we need to do her name is Caitlyn Allen she's very very nice and she's been tremendous in addition we've started a leadership team at JFK of teachers to make sure everyone is staying on track we have set five goals for ourselves as a school and they have been approved by the state you can see them written there in blue um we had a reading a writing a math a social OT and then one that was our free choice and we chose attendance good luck this year everyone's been sick and guess what the one we're already behind on all these they've been sick three times each already and it's what not even two months so we're we're tracking our chronic absenteeism we're tracking
034our reading and math scores and this year we are tracking them monthly because in the past we track them three times a year and by the time we C on we were too far behind to catch up so we are tracking monthly the first of every month Mr Murphy and I meet and we are answering them into the system reporting them to Caitlyn Allen and then we can make changes from that the staff at JK is all very aware so it's it's helping us get that conversation started um in addition it came with some money so we purchased some programs that to help boost those areas and we purchased the trainings that go with all of the those programs and we began an after school tutoring program so um for those of you that have
035children at JFK you might have gotten the letter already similar to what we call Extended RTI at DDE we went through the data we found the children who work performing up to grade level at this point we send them an invite to come stay after school and get small group tutoring with one of our teachers and we grouped the children by ability and by grade level so that hopefully they can can Target a little extra and get some extra skills to kind of boost this up um this school year we offered it to 70 children and we had most of them say that they wanted to come um in the end we did have to make groups a little larger than we were hoping for because we didn't have as much staff as we needed
036to run the groups so we had to combine some groups here and there but um we have the data ready and we have a plan to release kids from the program as they meet grade level targets that are listed there in blue when they meet those targets they can be released from the after school program and then the teachers can focus on those children that still really need it in addition because we were focused on that fourth grade class that's now in fifth grade we needed to put a little attention at DDE as well so the DDE extended RTI has a fifth grade math Focus this year you'll find groups that are centered around fifth grade math specifically and the DDE school goals are about aligning our assessments to increase the rigor to match njl
037now how come we can't get the same kind of criteria dve that we did at JFK like where you have the lady that comes out so that is provided based on our scores from the year before so the 2022 SC JFK was in the bottom fifth percentile of was and DD was correct so the state has identified them as a school in Le so that is where the additional funding comes as a focus to create that after school that makes sense yeah now I have a question I know before especially like you have to be on the classroom for your DD students does that not exist anymore it does it's called extended correct it does exist it's not just a general homework help for everybody anymore it's targeted they have to reach out to you
038I have a student personally that can use that extra help that no one has reached out to me um it is part of the RTI program but not 9p that doesn't make sense though us they usually don't offer RTI to correct keep out of the keep them from progressing into an no and I understand that so last year we had room so we opened some for children with IEPs but this year same as J we we were hoping for more rooms and had budgeted for more rooms then we got volunteers correct and by volunteers I mean we pay them right now the small groups that are supposed to be targeted instruction are larger small groups correct like how large 10 still small and what size was it initially supposed to be trying to the progam
039if you don't have to staff what do you do you do the best with what you have we can't force people to take that on after school you would expect that at the beginning of the year there will be a lot of children in it because they've only taken that star test once we only have one Benchmark score as we give get more and more information and more data and start releasing children we'll narrow down who really needs to be there um we can also take teacher recommendation once they're in that small group this child really doesn't need extra help they maybe just tested for and we can start retesting um but at least we'll have data at least we'll know what direction we're going in we'll know specific children if they're on target or
040not all year instead of and you'll know what's working and what's not and how to fix it sooner rather than later we also um in some cases the teacher is a teacher from from that grade level but in other cases it's purposely not so that the kid is learning from a different teacher maybe the teacher they have doesn't have the same type of style as them and a little extra boost from someone else might help so we did move some teachers out of the grade level they teach all day for the after school program Tuesdays and Thursdays are going to be reading support and Wednesdays is going to be math so the children were invited to certain days based on their scores and their needs some children were invited to all three some children one
041or two can I ask why it is there's two days for reading and one for math even though our reading was better than our math yeah I was thinking that because our except for in that one R level right so our reading was better but so was the stat our reading was better than our math but we were further from the state in Reading than we were in math okay so the state as a whole generally does worse in math so we did consider that we didn't have as many students score in need of intervention on the star math as we did in Star reading well and if you can't read you can't do math either I mean I hate to point that out math you can do if as long as you can read
042numbers for the most part you can't read their problem all strugg in ela but in math is their High one yeah every all five of them so I I get like you can be stronger in one and not the other that's why it's kind of funny to me that or ironic money but that Ela is higher but yes but it's it's high everywhere yeah are there any other questions I can answer for you how did you come up with the percentages on like math goal 85% of the students will be on grade level why did how did you come up with 85% yeah so last school year we sat with that lady Caitlyn Allen and we went through every students's Benchmark at the end of last year and we looked at where they started and
043found realistically how many we had meet grade level that year and we we chose a number between that at 100 and the state has been the state representatives have been amazing I mean they are so helpful and so knowledgeable I mean I haven't sat in on all the meetings but I was in for a couple of the introdu meetings and um constant Outreach constant followup I mean they really are remarkable and they help Dina and Mike to kind of set those realistic parameters yeah and will we be getting that support until we get at least very close to these numbers how does that side work that's a great question we're released from the program based on our NJ SLA scorts so these are our goals to make sure for us as a district that we
044stay on track but it's those njsla scores that will eventually get us off of being monitored So in theory we were told in April that we were going to be placed on this annual School plan and it was based on the test scores from the year before 2022 it was already April of 2023 at that point so we were just about to take the test again and hadn't done anything that they would require right we've done what we think we need to do um so they made it very clear if you test this year and you are no longer in that bottom category you could be released right now and if I recall one of the things too is because there's now a testable grade another testable grade at the elementary school that increases our
045odds because now we have something to compare to so the likelihood that maybe we won't fall into to this moving forward there could be a good chance did I interpret that right when she was speaking on so in 2022 JFK only went to third grade that cohort of children we had been talking about was in third grade at that time their test scores weren't wonderful we got placed on this plan then we moved fourth grade to JFK so now JFK has two grade levels worth the children that can get us out of being monitored that third grade class that got us in was in fourth grade they were still ATK right so you wouldn't expect we are exactly where I would expect us to be this year they're no longer at JFK so we have
046two Fresh classes of children and if they perform typical to their state peers we wouldn't need to be monitored um by Caitlyn any but I me well in a better spot because they have so many more testers so JFK only had that one grade level testing so they were weighted so heavily I mean that was a lot of schools would not have been in the situation where come the year coming out of Co first test of year coming out of Co they only had one grade level being tested unfair to those graders quite Frank and there was also that attendance criteria which if you remember during the year that they were tested that was a year where it was like you have to St like there were so many variables that not have really been
047pulled in as a consideration I think that could be part of the attendance problem too is because now people think that as soon as you start start showing symptoms right I went back to my pre-co ways you don't have a fever you're not thrown up you're going to school you got to live with it do you have any data that shows um it would be not really be for us I gu most for teachers that how how often a kid is absent compared to their test score so they can see if there's a correlation there yes so we have what's called onour analytics and it does all of that for us okay um I've never looked at the correlation I would assume there is one but I don't I've never done the um the study
048okay however um as part of the ASP our goal was to be under 18% chronic reaction and we are already at2 you know and it counts remember keep in mind it it counts all of JF so ones that are brand new in the district every cold well I feel like the little ones are even worse now because they were anywh building it up our highest um the younger the children the higher The Chronic that's because the older the kids the parents just want to get them out house teenagers are a pain so overall I just I just want you to see big picture that we are making positive progress we have found and identified those areas of need and are working toward making changes in them and what I really look forward to as being
049here next year to give you that three data points postco to see really what's happening for us does anyone have anything else you'd like to talk about or questions for me so for fourth grade are you somehow modifying how the pacing is to make sure they're able to reach all of the points in the pacing I'm not modifying the pacing because the pacing was based on the model curriculum which tells us that if they follow that pacing we should be okay what I am working on is making sure the teacher keeps the pace of the curriculum yeah the only problem is if the teacher hits a point where the kids can't do that then that'll totally and we've talked about I think that can be addressed with differentiation right it just because the whole class
050can't move forward doesn't mean the teacher can't right it can still progress to the next skill because if we stop every time the class isn't 100% getting it we we'll never get through it but if we push through it then you might have a lot of kids that especially in grade teach fourth grade as well and everything is a build on everything is a build on it's not simple addition subraction it's multi-digit it's no longer single multiplication it's multi-digit multiplication it's long division so like I find myself and we are like very stringent at my school about faing like they don't mess around but like I there are days where like we can't move on if you cannot do this like we have to sit here and spend like three doing I'm not say I'm
051not saying she shouldn't do that but at the same time they has to be aware and in their minds that this I mean this is what it is if that's the reason they're giving me I'm going to trust that that's the reason I've looked at the teachers in fourth grade observations to see their performance scores and they're performing well they're they're good teachers yeah so what I just need them to teach everything they possibly can I think but like I just want to P you back off what I think you were saying is like so making revisions to the curriculum maybe they don't need to teach lessons 2.1 all the way to 2.1 maybe they can do 2.1 and 2.3 like that's where I I am allowed and our district is allowed to go like
052well these are like something took you longer is that something absolutely there's there's things that are in programs that we purchase that are not in the stand you need to them out if you're just doing the book you're G to do way you're going to find out too late and that's you know I always want to AR on the side of that is what happened and we don't want that because that really compromises those kids' ability to even attempt fifth grade if they don't have this concept right and it's going to take them some time to catch back up right so if that group of children just did not have the math you know math wasn't their strong Su in third it's still not in fourth it's probably not going to be in fifth we
053just need to get them as close to grade level as we can and with growth each year so on that growth chart when we were talking about two 2022 and 2023 a bar that's exactly the same doesn't mean we haven't grown it means we've grown one year's growth in one year's time because they're taking a different test the next year so to see a bar show growth means they've gained ground not only have they learned a years they've learned a years and then some so um I don't have as many concerns as far as that I do see that we are growing and that we're gaining ground in the majority of our area and we are doing like curricular modifications in terms oh yes yes and the broadcast came out today um about the new
054new ma standards for next year so yes we are constantly making modifications and we will be again this year in time yeah just to set that teacher up yeah of course teacher and think of where teacher that automatically why it looks like that and know and being for grade and that's why such a huge benefit is because she was in the classroom for so many years um it's a huge benefit to have that like she understands and she respects what they're going through she's been in the same boat having maybe some of those different convers um they're not pretty but you try to to make it as productive as possible right thank you you're welcome you're welcome thank you so we're a motion in a second to open the meeting to the public despite not
055having any public and we're going to be discussing only agenda items I have a motion everybody all in favor see no public of Us close motion second all right let's find the superintendent report that's me that's you all right I think that V and I and I have had a couple of conversations about the about the data that's that that has been very uh enlightening I think she did a tremendous job and uh that that really has been the focal point of of leading the district missions and the district goals uh as the data comes in to be tarting that I think I so just to highlight one thing in that presentation when you look at data three times a year you're it tells you certain things when you look at it every month it's
056very different because there it's the opportunity to make adjustments the opportunity for really good conversations between teachers with teachers so I I think that is a that that's a that's a very uh strong highlight there I appreciate that uh the things that you circled on your slides were not the things that we were doing the best in we we like to P ourselves on the back and that's always nice to do but the most important thing is to Circle where we have to go and and what what has to get our attention because those are the kids that that need our need our help the most so I I AP you for doing for for not not trying to make it all unicorns and Rain saying here's where we got Roll by S so very
057much appreciate that uh everything else that uh was in my was in my update from last week um in I don't want to jump over just did the so y so Safety and Security all those drills were conducted I was present for all of them except for that sa that shelter in place which was um actually a drill that we were able to count which was truly a shelter in place on September 8th at DDE um but I was present for all of the evacuations and then the um lockdown and the fire drills um they all went really really well obviously getting back in from the fire drill I can it takes a little bit longer with those little ones um but they all got out really quickly and efficiently it was nice to see
058um obviously Eisenhower they've been doing these things forever those kids were great um bus evacuation drills we obviously have kids that like to just try to jump off the bus um so you know we s a couple back and say do it again um but they're always fun it's always fun to get out with kids um monthly reports I believe were uploaded on the portal for review I didn't hear anything from Joey specifically about any of not being turned in but if you guys know different let us know um harassment intimidation and bullying this is the instant report this is just a notification at this point as Dr pelli was telling you guys got hard copy this get um discussion item so uh we do have some policies and bylaws for some second readings these
059were on last month if I remember correctly yep so item one is to approve the second reading of these policies and regulations can I have a motion and a second motion any questions on those now that we all right Mrs orente yes Mr Jones yes Mrs Helma yes Mrs Juliano yes Mrs Hannah yes Mr Davis yes Mrs Allen yes Mrs Reed yes Mr Golden yes all right two is just to approve our use of facilities for play more sport social club they're going to use the Eisenhower gym uh dates of October 17th to November 15 6:45 to 9:45 for basketball um obviously if we have anything that would have to take place during that time um we would get the president so we would say sorry out a day um so we need a motion
060in a second motion uh any questions Mr Jones yes Mrs Helma yes Mr Davis yes Mrs Hannah yes Mrs yes Mrs Julian yes Mrs alen yes M Reed yes Mr Gold yes all right three is just to approve our scho volunteer so this is the previous the Advan approval um as you know the process has changed a little bit that it doesn't need to be in person so we're actually getting a lot more um done which is going to cause a lot less issues when all those school events come up can I have a motion in a second motion second any questions all those in favor I oppos or perfect moving along 10h is a field trip they're going to the new New Jersey State Museum and planetarium on December 5th this is for 8th
061grade um this is educational purpose there can I have a motion in a second motion any questions M Juliana yes Mr Jones yes Mrs Helma yes Mrs or yes Mrs Hanah yes Mr Davis yes Mrs Allen yes Mrs re yes Mr Golden yes 11a is just to approve the following cpen positions for the 23 24 school year um we had a resignation of one of our staff members that was the student government lead so now we have Mr tro who was the assistant advisor he's going to take on the actual advisor and um Mrs biss is going to step into that assistant advisor once we have the contract the salary guides from the contract I'll go ahead and we'll revise these again with the correct number but then we're not issuing contracts and reissuing contracts
062and all that craziness so we will re-approve with the appropriate rates but at least they can start their duties because they're approved at that advisor can I have a motion to second second any questions Mr Jones yes Mrs hel yes Mr Davis yes M Hannah Mr Juliana M yes M Alan M Reed yes Mr Golden yes all right B is to approve the following paid sck Le for a staff member is employee 1305 it's paid using sick time from January 16th to April 16 of 2024 can I have a motion to Second motion second any questions Mrs H yes Mrs or yes Mrs Julian yes Mrs yes Mr Jones Mr Davis yes Mrs alen yes Mrs Reed Mr Gold yes all right uh 12 we don't have anything for curul instruction already had her five
063minutes of f today um great job by the way um jump into my section so 13 a to d is the financial reports for August and September we're all caught up if you remember in our September meeting I was kind of stuck in July with wrapping up some GRS and things of that nature but we are all caught on track um with all of that so a motion in second to approve August and September Financial reports for 2023 um Mrs yes Mr Jes Mrs Helmont Mrs Juliana Mrs Hannah yes Mr Davis yes Mrs Allen yes Mrs Reed yes Mr Golden yes all right um 13e is to approve payment of the bills our finance committee did have a meeting this evening they reviewed all of the bills and sign off match them up with Bill
064can I have a motion second questions Mr Jones yes Mrs Helmont yes Mr Davis yes Mrs H yes Mrs Oran yes Mrs Juliano yes Mrs Allen yes Mrs Reed yes Mr Gold yes all right 13 F is to approve our September 2023 uh from source for teachers um the rates are listed below for each designation motion and second motion any questions I mean all those in favor oppose um motion for J is just to approve cafeteria dispersements for the month of September we didn't have any and that's because they have a new billing quarter portal through um reimbursements so we'll have payments starting in October for reimbursement um can I have a motion second on that one all those in favor opposed um care we have H uh care dis is for the month of
065of September this is um primarily summer salaries um summer snacks summer trips summer summer summer summer um so that's why it's a little higher can I have a motion in a second motion any questions Mr J Mrs Helma yes Mr Davis yes Mrs Hannah yes Mrs Juliana Mrs oriente Mrs Allan yes Mrs Reed yes Mr Gold yes 13 I is to approve travel and professional development for a few of our staff members there um I have a motion in a second second any [Music] questions Mrs H yes Mrs or yes Mrs Juliano Mrs yes Mr Jones yes Mr Davis yes Mrs Allen yes Mrs Reed yes Mr Golden yes all right J is just to approve um out of District tuition contracts these were both actually in the budget one is for a grade 11
066student um at the cback school of the de and another one is for a Haden height School District um special student grade 12 plus um so that just means that they are over um they it's they go to school until they're 21 um so that 12 plus means that they are Beyond um the first year what I guess typical senior year um again these were all budgeted can I have a motion in a second motion okay any questions Mrs or yes Mr Jones Mrs Helma yes Mrs Juliana yes Mrs H yes Mr Davis yes Mrs Allen yes Mrs Reed yes and Mr goldon yes 13k is to approve the memorandum of agreement between the Berlin Township Education Association and the Berlin Township it should actually say Board of education um I will update that and
067it'll be written right in the minutes for the negotiated agreement for the period of July 1 2023 through June 30th 2026 we had a discussion on the details of that in our executive session so we just need a motion in a second any questions Mr Jones yes Mrs Helm yes Mr Davis yes Mrs Han yes Mrs or yes Mrs Juliana yes Mrs Alan yes Mrs Reed yes Mr Golden yes and L is also something that we discussed in um executive session it's a settlement agreement for a placement of a student um we need to obtain equal de approval from the county office for this placement I have a motion in a second second any questions Mrs Helma yes Mrs Hannah yes Mrs orian yes Mr Jones Mrs Juliana yes Mr Davis yes M alen yes
068Mrs Reed yes Mr Golden yes all right perfect old business I don't believe we have any old business business um new business committee updates BTA obviously we just Prov memorandum of agreement there are some um final um adjustments with language so we're pretty much close to wrapping that up uh the BT PSA the principal and supervisors Association um that contract expires June 30th so we'll be going um to start negotiations with that group um after the new year uh Finance we met like I said before um we reviewed the budget report they reviewed the bills we reviewed the revenue report report um we're getting our tax levy um Revenue our state aid Revenue always starts in September so that's coming in um out of District discussion was regarding the out of District placement for that
069Naples placement we briefed them on that that was not in the budget so um we'll be just eyeing our budget on on certain areas and and going from there uh no current funding information or concerns um final expenditure reports for all of our grants have been submitted um by their designated deadlines uh reviewed the bills list and then Assa accounts were collected from the schools and the child stud team that determines our state aid calculation and how much money we get for state aid um they've all been collected with the collection date of October 13th which was the deadline my Transportation report is due 11:15 I'm in the process now kind of comparing between my transportation software and our student software um to make sure everything aligns make sure I'm not missing any spit numbers
070or dates of birth um in order to upload that um also I sent a request to Camy County ed services um a couple of the board members Express um getting a late bu for clubs um at Overbrook just because we can't provide one and we have a lot of kids that stay after for um you know it could be tension it could be homework help it could be Student Government it could be but they don't want to wait till 5 or 5:30 for a sports bus so we did go out to see if they can bid um a run to see what that would cost and to see if it's even a viable option so that's it on my I think I can shut up school boards um New Jersey schools I haven't seen anything
071really that there is the conference this week we didn't sign up because nobody's gone for the past couple years you guys just need your training um we can visit it again next year when we have a seated superintendent and decide if anybody wants to attend but um and Services Commission no updates they're pretty quick um P Kim yes so um October the 10th we interviewed new board members two vacancies um we had five candidates I believe believe it or not I don't think we've ever had that many which was nice to at least have pick and um we picked two and they they were approved by us pending of course their background check so um next thing we did was we had the hi self assessment which was done um per each school which I
072kind of root down here um the high school hi self assessment we got uh High School self assessment was a 70 out of a 78 um the district was a 72 out of a 78 um the high school was of course the worst out of all of them but I have a feeling it's just because you got the older kids that tobly do the work so um they're using the PBIS in the whole District um now it's not just being done at over Brook and that's the positive reward system that they're using and it seems to be working it's hutting down on a lot of their problems that they've had in the past um we also went over njsla um spring 2023 assessment presentation and I actually have it here if anybody wants to he
073this I have the presentation right here if anybody wants to take a peek at it before we leave um you're more than welcome so we have a lot of working on to do as you will see in that presentation they're still working on curriculum getting a l to what it's supposed to be and there there's a lot of work that is going to have to go into that um let's see then we had our site council meeting here with me I got on my phone um it was October 17th the site Council just to remind you what it is it's parents teachers administrators board members um that all come in it's usually maybe like anywhere from five to 10 people you sit around the table and Mr Lee runs it and he goes over like
074specific things to BR which is I probably learn more about Overbrook there and I highly recommend parents getting involved I tell this all the time um actually one of our parents did go that to so it was me and her representing herin so that was nice to see an another parent there that I knew um we went over the more' parent newsletter Mr Lee's going to create that and um he wants to send it out weekly he just sent out his the new one so if you aren't on his reminds get signed up because you'll find out more about what's going on in school um the newsletter came up with the following things that we wanted to make sure was in there the attendance policy the athletic web page the code of conduct like links
075to all the stuff so the parents can look it up and have like access to their fingertips um club and activity descriptions uh the lunch menu project success which is their tutoring program after school um 21st SCH Century Scholars and the high school website link and they did did just redo their website there so the the trick was not to have to click on so much to get to one thing so I I can't remember exactly how many clicks they didn't want it to be more than like three clicks to get to one thing so that was one of their things they were trying to do I found it easier to use at least um Chromebook finds we went over because they're going to now starting um to do Chromebook finds because some of the
076kids were just thring their books around and wring them so now there's um a letter that'll be issued um and it'll be sent home with the student when there's a chomebook find it also be put on Genesis I believe if he said um we went over the PSA T testing which was today for the 10th and 11th graders that's why the nth and 12th graders got to go a little bit late um they went in at 910 well they caught the bus at 910 had to be there at 9:45 uh we went we went over the Renaissance and the PBIS student rewards uh we discussed both programs and how the students can earn points and rewards for doing the right thing and they can earn points just for getting to class on time like they
077earn them like just doing what you're supposed to do every day so it's not like they have to do something like outrageous to get these points um let's see Staffing they also went over the staffing issues short on bus drivers short on long-term Subs short on full-time teaching staff there's a couple staff members they're they're still struggling to get on how they're trying cross the board exactly um we're also are also exploring options to maintain um instruction throughout the year I know they had joury set up as an elective for instance and they've been on a uh online program but our German teacher that is going to be starting soon so they're actually have a physical teacher in soone take German will actually have a teacher which is I think a good thing um we
078went over question questions and answers if a parent wants to join the site Council they just have to get in touch with Mr Lee let them know and when I tell you it's from 6:30 to 7 7:30 he is done before 7:30 like it's not one of those meetings that goes well over 7:30 so if you're afraid of it being too time consuming it's really not and he's only doing two meetings a year now was so the next one I believe is in February I don't know the exact that that's we got I don't think anything for SCH but we're just talking about electives and trying to find things for electives something my head that um if you have a student in in the Middle School um they are starting to do an electives um
079course storing advisory so the kids are kind of selected in group and then they kind of rotate but um it's like sign language it's chess it's um there's there's so much and it's so exciting um to see that there's going to be an additional offering for the kids to kind of dabble for a little bit in something to see if there's something that they that kind of Sparks them I love it so excited to bring up I sent out an email the other day about theack training that that Pine Hill's putting on it'll be at their Media Center on Wednesday I'd like to get a head count if anyone's planning on attending so I can give it to them they do usually provide dinner to everybody um so they like to have a decent head
080count um and anyone that wants to go is welcome to attend I think Scott and Lisa both attended meetings before there with me um I don't know if anyone else has all edible I need question everybody Wasing it's gonna be held by Terry Lewis she's gonna be the one training on the qac but kind of what the board's responsibility is in qack which is kind of nice because I mean I've been board for eight years and there's only certain parts of that I so yeah sometimes they're board they will need a board member to come in and speak on a certain like policies and think that you guys are responsible like your main um tasks you know so it'll also get counted towards training um and towards your training and if we wanted to be
081a certified board we have that so many people trained in things and this will count for it um so if you could send me an email whether you're going to come or not would so I don't have to reach back out to everybody by like all right nothing else all right so let's do public comments again we all public but um we're going to go ahead and open the meeting to the public for discussion of subjects any can I have a motion second 8 would you like to turn yourself into public nothing else to say talking can we have a motion a second then to close the meeting to the public seconding so we're gonna go into executive session so at this point you can be exced I'm gonna let Mr Cunningham know to come
082and down huh of course you can that was the question was asking if you could ask a question yeah my mini bus is that you use that for um um the county the county school no we just transport our um our own student population to Kennedy and I so like students that need e on the bus or need some extra help to figure out yep yes and then we do have for over Brook yep that's for our certain a certain population that on our on okay right let me know thank you thanks guys 20 [Music] hey we're live live we just had an executive session we are going to add a motion uh for approval tonight it's going to be listed as 20a we're going to make our adjournment 21 um so the motion I
083need a motion and a second to resend the submission of the Berlin Township superintendent of schools contract to the executive county superintendent of schools for the county office review and approval I have a motion and a second to resend that submission motion uh Mrs Juliano yes Mr Jones yes Mrs helou yes Mrs oriente yes Mrs Hannah yes Mr Davis yes Mrs Allen yes Mrs Reed no Mr Golden yes all right motion carries um at this point we're going to adjourn our meeting we have a motion in a second to adjourn the meeting motion second okay we adjourn at 9:42 thank you you I just have a couple signatures for you if you don't