001there has been adequate notice of this meeting provided by the Board of Education in the January 9th 2023 and January 12th 2023 notice in the as press and the co-star setting forth date time and location of this meeting similar notice has been posted in the bur Hall the Bri website and the Burl clerk has been Mr Becker Dr Mrs Jones yes Mrs mcdevit Mr Milano Mrs weed here Mr vital here Mrs Walsh here Mr Walman [Music] hereit States [Music] and if someone make a motion for the approval of the minutes I'll the motion I'll second Mr Becker yes Dr de brosio Mrs Jones yes Mrs we yes Mr V yes Mrs Walsh yes Mr W yes and presentations this evening uh the New Jersey SLA presentation evening everyone know my name isor instruction I started
002here officially very so today um and I here to present to you our um scor n njs l um that our students took in the spring of 20123 there's quite a few slides to go through so questions end certainly happy to answer them for you so the ersy department of has all public schools in New Jersey 3 through 11 participate in the stage assessment and questions that are given area ly Ma and one Al and geometry and our students partipate in all asps of those t for so those are talking about we also had students in science and gr 5 they also took to them reported five levels for BL and math four levels for science so you'll hear a lot about exceeding meeting approaching meeting and not yete so we as District are aing
003for and with our students so that is where we are for our students to so these are some of the things talking about tonight right into it so there's a couple I know there's a lot of numbers up here and but this first slide show our and we compar to the state is at the very very top and the state is so you can see um you can see here is these right here are for all of our grade levels all together this is seven and thir grade so we definitely do want to talk about and celebrate our um strengths with our students we also want to look at areas that we need to hone in on and work with our teachers and our students and we'll get into that as the presentation goes on
004on this next slide you can see um a little bit more how we compare to the state by level so overall we had the state was 51% of the students were meeing or exceeding and in in we were at 77% so that is good news we were above where the state is we always want to do that but if we look here so if we look and most of our grade models there's a pretty good discrepancy um we're higher than the state but if you notice here in grade three that's a little bit too close for us we certainly want to look at that fourth grade Cort now previous previous year and maybe work closely on what is going on in that area that students looking closely curriculum and talk more about this slid on
005just to give you an idea of where we are so here we look at mathematics and in area mathematics again higher than the state we were 77 with meeting suceeding of students overall and in the state was 51 so one of the um so if you see here again um one of the areas that is not um for public knowledge is because we in Geometry we had less 10 students and if there's an area or group whether it's our race or class size less than 10 students beity reason but I can't report that all of our geometry students seeded so that's you just won see that Public Presentation but we look again and we can see some discrepancies but we can see again we did much better than um did over here this over here
006is algebra um so you can as students did extremely wellar and then grade Sade and then again we do see that our current fourth grade um is an area of place that we want to look to strengthen what is going on with our students there and Target them more appropriately here grade eight for algebra we had 93% we exceeding for meaning um 35 the state and 8th grade was 40 to 18 grade was 37 to 34 it's another grade level that we are looking to um work a little closely with that's our current eth grade and six grade was 35 State 58 forade 40 for the state 61 44 and3 46 so again a little bit closer than we would like to see so we'll talk what we're moving forward these are the science scores
007grad five and eight and ourth grade um fth grade um 62 of our students get met exceeded um and 8th grade 46 of our students that areed overall 54 of our students um of our students that areed and only 23 so one of the things that we look at that does seem a little bit low 46% than half but if look at only 18% pass so when we look at that educator like is it the kids or is it the T I do we do know that is reworking the science um test very closely because of the scores that have come out the past couple of years around science so we are Happ our students did very well espe so that is good news for us that and here is overall if you look across
008the board um for our class our classes with all of our 77% 51% [Music] 61% compared to 23% so that justes a general overview of what how our students perform the next part of the presentation I'm sorry so bad so so this is the district demographic are required by the state to report on certain groups um of students within our school district so because some of our um groups of students are less than 10 you see we are not able to again like for the geometry reasons St so some of the areas that we will report and in um so this is for sub is divided and and so you can see where we the numbers are and then have and then it's a little bit cly what we want to to here approaching and
009so many of them were homeless passing so when we look at that as Educators and school leaders and teachers we can really delve into the data and look at the standards and really look exactly where they work proficient and work very closely with those students so the teachers have access to this data as well we're working really closely with them to help the teachers work with our students and small groups to maybe get those scores up a little bit higher so here is the for mathematics you can see again the this is our [Music] science and this only one because of the amount of students that took then this is some interesting this is and one of theie really celebrate is there's of equity and one scores here if we look at the female students
010over here and the males are over here so this is 49% and 49% for many expectation and then start suceeding with 30 and 26 so that's very close and that's really good news School leader because sometimes you do see a great discrepancy between boys and girls um in education in different subject areas and that we don't see it here is very it's really good it means that our teachers are teaching as as possible across the curriculum especially in when we look at math we see similar scores um again pretty close we have the the girl at 47% the males at 54% is a little bit lower at s and a little bit higher at 12 we kind of laugh not necessarily here so that's another good point one of the things that we want to
011look here we do have 35% of the females in our school we're just not quite meeting expectations so again that's important data for us to consider as we move forward we have science and see similar as as the final category demogra by program program special ed so we have our students um in special ed have I and we have our students that have 504s and also students that have plun and students but those two are supressed we don't have students in that category we look at our next [Music] slide this section right here this is our students so you can see that 37% of them our me expectations 26% are exceeding this grp here is our specialed are students that currently have I and right here we have 35% so this is an interesting bubble
012that we want to look at because we have so many students post I were really looking at each individual data like there were a couple students like point or two away from Reading expectation so we're going to talk about a little bit at the end of like what we can do to really work with those kids right there they just needed that little bit extra push of instruction and these students over here this is our general population and how they so% meeing subps students and when we look this I look at this you celebrated course C we want to celebrate that we had 57% of our fin four students meeing but we do have a level right here 3.5% of them not so what could we do to increase scores there and then again here
013is our special population 27% here and then over that not approaching and then we had 42% that and then sorry right here is our approaching 20% is meeting and then we have 4% exceeding that's really to be celebrated too because sometimes we think our social students you know might not but they really are and we want and then here our general Ed and our general Ed numb were 11% exceeding matics and 6% and last science all either approaching at 40% and then 30% and 30% for meeting anding our special ed students um right here 29% we're not meting 50% were approaching meeing and 4% exceeding and then for our general population 33% sorry categories and 4 efficient and 14 were adved so what does all of this mean so we like of course look at
014last year but we really want to make sure that we're taking consideration start so we're going to take very quick look at the past few years of dat that we have and you'll notice the the break and time because the last time before our students took the test was 2018 2019 then we had the break 2020 and then we back to it 21 22 22 23 so before I present this I just want is to make sure we certainly know that we are celebrating all the fluid that's going on for me but I do think that it makes a lot of sense that we look back where we were and where we want to be so when we look at these umph this so this is this is four five six seven and then these
015are all of our gr so if we look at very general terms and we look at this last column you can see in 2018 this is for seing we had 85% then in 21 we were at 82% and we at 76% so still very very good but certainly there is dip and we want to as a staff really think about that what what could caus that absolutely reason um you know we think back we had several months were no students were school then the following school year in 2021 some students were hybrid some students were home made was very disconnected the education piece for many families so we absolutely look at that but we also do want to look at some of our other areas of concern we're reducing some of our levels that Here
016and Now current grade so at 95% at 71 big drop that we and then again current they had very big at 73% down to 47 last year so we are working on it we are working together with the teachers to make sure that we're figuring out what's going on there is it curricular instructional grings like what we look at to so that'sa and then here's M and again you can see the levels and we do see again you know some of a drop at 71% overall 64 and then 59 and then we have another that we have only on which is our current rate eight you can see that some of those scores are cly lower we like to see our albra one student usually would perform pretty well that EX in area so again
017just some dat for us to kind of ponder think about where we've been and where we like to be and the last slide here is our science and again just gr levels we did very well science overall so [Music] that2 that's [Music] good5 [Music] science this is most important part presentation so we have all this data and we are certainly a very bment District as we should be but I think one of the things that is so important for us all to take away just a piece of the time this is one piece of data that we have about our students and our school of instruction curriculum we are very fortunate here that we do have other platforms that we use for data to collect data about our students and what's going on in the
018classroom and we take all that consideration and we use we use summative data in the classroom informative data teachers ongoing throughout the day weeks units U teachers OBS teacher observations we um pieces to this so I really think that we want to make sure that we are cogent of that this is just one area we want to celebrate the good we want to some of the questions that we use as administra team to guide next how we use tool to address areas in need of improvement or enhancement how can we best use the tools and platforms that we already have most effectively and have to provide additional resources and support to meet the learning needs of all our students so those our foring questions pretty much with everything we do revolving around instal leadership when
019we to help our teachers so some of the ways that we are using this um this data is first and foremost we have our address Group compath which I know all of you know that we use for our curriculum curricular units we use for planning purposes we have already used quite a bit of our professional development time the direction of posture myself to delve into what these units look like how we can improve them are we linking them to assessment are assessments rigorous enough standards covered the wonderful thing about this platform talking about is it's just so data Rich you could just really use this PO like we got a rical with it because there's so much there um so we are working closely with our teachers PD during PLC times during individual meetings to
020make sure that they really know that they have this valuable tool what can we do to put our instruction PL the other platform that I this not use linkoln and to go through all the data points that we would have was so time consuming and it was important work and we had to do it was very T and very tin link is just an amazing platform I just every day I find something do with it it delts into groups grade levels individual students individual assessments goes right down to the standard of what a teacher really pull down in to make sure that the students are getting exactly what they need so this is just is a kind of just a little clip for you of what teachers would see and this I thought was really
021interesting to show this a link it has three benchmarks Benchmark a b and c and a is given in the fall B is in January and C is at the end of the year so the D that you're looking at right here this is Benchmark and these are individual students so a right here this is what was given in the in September and they use the same type of language just La meeting exing approaching so the yellow is um approaching and the orange they use bubble and nla doesn't say bubble but we like to really look CL our bubble those are really really close to passing and la and end so we really love this dat because you can see how it progresses across very good into the these are so it's a really interesting
022indicator to show where students are a couple times throughout the year so this is a platform that our teachers have worked a lot with and we continue like I said there's so many pieces to it so we're just continuing education with that so that we're using it to the best of our ability their ability this just gives you another example of what blinket gives to us um reports this right here this is AIC standard standard and then it goes to the question the number of question what the question was and what the students how they scored and so a teacher can pick when they give an assessment they can go through and see exactly which questions the students didn't get right and then the computer will group it for them so when we will talk
023about T Construction I'll talk a little bit a couple minutes they know exactly grp right there so they're not kind of going through the right there it's a really amazing tool instruction the other platform that is new to our district this year another really amazing now our students in karten through fifth grade of the areas of I'm sorry fourth grade for bla and Ma and then 5 to8 we also have the science and social studies component the wonderful thing about L is similar to link diagn test they take the beginning of the year but they continually work on so we call itag when we talk like it's SM enough to know where you are actually adjust to the students level as they work so unlike Lincoln which they take three times a year I Exel
024they take continually they can take practice teachers can um assign stent skills and standards so if there's a specific skill CH help with they can that to them when they do small group work individual time with them they for homework they on I know you can't see this is an example of a class you can see how students fall over the place you know just to give you all an idea of what our teachers are dealing with this is one class you can see like they're all different so our teachers certainly have a challenge of reaching each student but with all these tools it does make that just a little bit easier and this is an example of how um one student where they would tell them what they need studer and they click on
025that and that would give them practice in that like very specific skill so operations foll to that so what are we doing with all of this so in a very short time and like I said I feel like been here for a long time writing it's good work um we've really thought about all this data that we have and what we can do to make our school better make our educational program more proficient and more efficient and more Equitable for all of our students so some of the things we've already started our teachers have um been in professional development in the multier system of supports which be another acronyms is nothing new to the state of New Jersey it is a little bit new to here really what it does is just make sure that
026we are working through the tiers of instruction so in a very simple terms there's three tiers tier one is our general education population which is all of our students regardless of what uh label they might have the disability they might have all our students are first general ed students and they all receive tier one high quality targeted instruction in the classroom some of our students might need a little bit more we call that tier two and those are our students we start to identify with this data okay so they didn't pass nsla and now we really need to work Clos with them but in one area not just m different where so those are our tier two students tier two instruction should and does happen in the classroom with small groups but it also can
027look like an intervention is pushing in intervention is calling out and then we have three which is that that most intensive level those are students that really need the most support that they just continually come up from all these data points that they just are in need of more support in the area of reading Ela writing and those students would definitely be flaged for intervention either again an intervention is out but the classroom teacher is still responsible for giving that high quality instruction across the board and work small grp they just need that little extra the other piece is we're helping our staff to really look at our students from a much wider lens which is academic um I think a lot of you know my background is in counseling and I really do feel
028that we can have students learn effectively if they don't feel safe if they don't feel comfortable if they don't like being in school so that is first and foremost that we want to feel good about to be the best on our and when we look at a student that might be startling academically it might not be an academic issue and we need to figure that out so that's where we have our counselors our CST working closely with our staff to make sure they understand that part of their their children class um this is poster apply for the high impact tutoring Grant withj um which is a competitive Brant we have not yet found out if we haveed it yet we should have known by now but as more other very they didn't all the applications
029so the unfortunate part of that is it was supposed to start at the end of October um we don't know if we received it yet we hope that we do because one of the pieces to it I'm sure but one of the pieces was either um they first recommended to use outside tutor tutoring companies we didn't really feel like that was the way that we wanted to go we didn't know who it would be so we were able to some of our staff actually apply to want to do this which is wonderful so supp a couple days her office and really went through all this data and what kids can benefit the most from this extra tutoring within the school day or after school or before school and we target four or five primarily in
030the areas of M right now so fingers crossed that we get this grant because I really think that that would be another level of support for our students in addition to everything else that we do here professional platform toget students supping what we talk St platform another piece that was pretty major was information ofcs which are professional learning communities subject are discussion ande that meaning instruction so that is something that wasn't Happ consistently before and now is our teachers have embraced it they send an agenda every week sometimes give them a Tas Ure myself might St in team members might go in to talk to them it's just professional learning time they collaborate with each other and talk about these things that need to be discussed look at assessments look at data what's exp so
031that has been a really important shift for our teachers Prof [Music] development earlier while uring our s the rig and outcomes we have created scheduling committee to look at instruction are and we have a goal of increasing our communication and collaboration and making sure we're as transparent as possible our parents about about the data about how students are placed um all of that so that's a really important piece that parents feel that they are part of what goes on here at school and understand the why know as a parent that's really important they understand why things are done the way they are and this is just an example this is a um this is your parents know that this is the state report that parents several weeks ago through the mail that explain stor to
032them and at any time the parents can also talk to teachers myself they have any questions and what they they ENT thank you for bearing with me I know it's a lot of slides I think it's really important inform me for everyone to know and before we close any questions yeah first of all thank you especially appreciate the fact that went you know historically back before you asked about a long time um first time actually and looking at what you sawal you know study of those youy um only question is have you coordinated with we you coordinated with similar sending districts for compar that's a really good question not yet it was just made public and the districts this probably this month is usually because I know have mentioned in mad I think we did
033it last night but that will be a pretty big part of what happens next it's almost like everybody kind of waits to see you know what what's going to but but we don't have that data yet because it has been published until official at the board meeting like tonight they they can men sure absolutely yes are requ post it should happen after their board meeting go up tomorrow and then other districts that are presenting during the month be but we will have those collaborative conversations well districts work pretty closely together so yeah it is and it's an interesting comparison you know to see um and you know definitely collaborate with administrators even on um uh October 9th you know there is some when that was one of our days there is some collaboration among sen
034districts in that matter the curriculum you know through the county there a lot of collaboration in November um 15 is they just approved teport today but State finally approved the new bla ands today officially will they did like last week but now they're public so that is going to be like a a community um conversation countywide of what we're going to do with the standards and how we're going to adjust our curriculum so I know like I'm looking at Kristen she and I will be at that meeting together sending district will probably work really closely together to kind find we're doing since we're all had more collaboration I think of the last few months than I've ever in all my years in it's exciting I think that was science science science yes science did I
035did skip a year right in 20 one year might have been newer standards first year new science test so the kids took it right and that does happen too during the um some school districts are just randomly picked to take field tests and sometimes like you'll see that your child might have an extra day of testing and it's just a field test we don't really know which one is but that do happen prob at the you're showing us what action with this indry um and the um mtss um I really like that taking a close look at sometimes it is an AC kids you know sometimes it is um an emotional situation problem so I'm glad that you're talking that [Music] thank you everybody how forunate we are that Chris and working so closely together
036so oober to together and share so we don't have any other questions um we're g to move on to visitors business uh visitors committed to comment on agenda items only at this time uh please name and address so we're GNA we move on to correspondence none no one sending [Laughter] [Music] us all right so um we'll move on to committee reports then District Operations okay and uh representative to manisan Joe is not here so we'll move on to curriculum and programs there is no report and Human Resources Joe's not here and so we'll move to policy thank you um policy committee met yesterday October 17th attended by missra Miss Adam trus um as well as myself Dr Rio and and joined us as well have conflict um we have three items on the agenda the
037first is that signifant progress on the board dos policies there is a delay TR another few weeks toiz them but they are making progress have section Z through 200 and they all draft policies are searchable right now that that platform uh operational um we also discussed policy 2460 which is special ucation and specifically um we are researching modifying current restriction that prohibits use of electronic mail to request uh formally request an intervention some quickly and say be look at how other districts have adopted this policy um and this this little background if a parent is making a referral or request for um investigation for special education services for the student um that typically is required to there has to be timeline that starts once that requests made and there there's a concern that it comes
038in by email when does the clock start so we discussed you know there be a process to print that letter out um because currently we only accepted either in person via mail or fact and so electronic mail U final piece which took the majority of the meeting we were joined by Phil Mastro owner of stra Esme stra Esme is a service that we use for um policies they review state federal uh statutes and regulations and advise School boards on policies that they need to need to have this concerned um not not only policy 5756 transgender studs but also just in general as we discussed last meeting we had questions as that service provides us with um sometimes quarterly sometimes more frequently updates St these policies they have an internal classification of whatever the policy is
039U mandatory recommended or abolished that's an internal classification and so we ask for more clarity in know summarizations so that we're very very clear on which parts of the polic were actually mandated by the statute and which parts are coming from guidance which may not be we did touch on policy 5756 in particular and Mr mccastro gave us a historical riew of that policy and explain um how the policy evolved from the legislature enacting the statute having it signed by Governor Christie and then how the doe commissioner um govern Murphy put forth um guidance which informed this policy uh we are putting policy 5756 modification to it forward for the second reading tonight uh which keeps a majority of the policy in place but does include a change to address a concern that was raised
040by community members that as a matter of practicality as a uh student as we have develop the confidentiality plan with the student that we are to involve the student's family in that process so that policy would be up SE T questions community relations Sal ad so it's been a very busy month here uh we've had some great um experiences with our students um had a great walk to school day it's really nice to see the drop off L really short that day but I did have gone smoother too um so that that was a really nice event for everybody um we had Fire Prevention Week recognition of that with their youngest students fire department came over with fire truck did a great assembly for our students over in the part um on the other side
041of the school uh our fall enrichment program is underway thanks to PTO we have really great offerings for our students and you know many of them are fully subscribed so we're very thankful for PTO for helping us uh run that program um I did send our Halloween letter out to give parents an idea of what the expectations are for Halloween so people should be looking for that uh we have parent teacher conferences coming up the letter will be going out shortly for parents be able to sign up for parent teacher conferences you know I encourage parents to take advantage of the time to have that dialogue um and to you know gain an understanding of how their children are doing and how we can work together with parents and I hope to see many parents
042here for parent teacher conferences uh we had a really great PD day on October 9th revolving around a lot of what you saw here today um it was a very full day um not only looking at Ela and map and and I say this quite frequently you know that all of us support those skills in our students it's not just our Ela and our Math teachers so we also engaged in you know deide looking at and providing time for teachers to really learn that platform better we spent a lot of time in the other content areas really of digging into our assessments uh how well are they aligned with standards we compl some assessment matricies and we'll continue that work as as the year goes on um to ensure that in all of our subject
043areas that's support our student skills that we are you know raising bar and providing an appropriate level of challenge um as Miss Pierce said we are waiting on word from the high impact sharing Grant the date is well behind their timeline in terms of what they planned and you know it's surprising to me that they're putting money out there they don't expect people to ask for it so you know my only concern with that is that you know will uh will they be in a position similar to what they do with the RS right where they put money out there and then they don't anticipate how many people are going to apply and all of a sudden what you thought may be available if the pot is a lot smaller than what you thought so
044that's my only hesitation but we hope to hear good reads on that within the next month or so um and and lastly as as Miss Pearson also mentioned the state did finally adopt the newa math standards um doesn't seem like there are significant changes in those but certain areas where you know if you've been following some of these issues publicly are not a surprise you know in Anya a little bit more explicit on terms of things like bonics um you know and things that are tied to science reading and then in math interestingly enough um an introduction of data analysis younger age which I think also reflects where we are as a society it's very well present so we will be certainly getting up to speed on those as well taking theary steps to adjust
045back well look you know I think you know as we were pointing out tonight link it is relative new tool here Rubicon is relatively new tool here is a new tool here right so just really digging in these platforms and starting to use them as constructively as we can we'll also go long way towards helping us move our students forward um keep in mind also boards supported to more interventionists this year so that is also very helpful and we will you know certainly maximize their time this um so F have any other questions promise we'll move on to reports and so we move on to action items itation inant curricul thank you [Music] I'd Mr Becker yes Dr cambia yes Mrs Jones yes Mrs G yes Mr vital yes Mrs wol yes Mr wal yes
046and next we have District Operations Mr Becker yes Dr Gia yes Mrs yes Mrs we yes Mr Vali yes Mrs Walsh yes Mr W [Music] yesy like request the board um approve policy 5756 for second um at this time I'd like to actually policy yes discuss um we have to have a second discuss so my concern uh even after the meeting Y is just that the wording uh that we included still does not flow with the guidance um and I could open us up to be susceptible um because it it just kind of go against the guidance the guidance that we provided but our our board attorney is the one that came up with this word she's she protects us against against these sorts of things so I don't I don't I understand that but
047I mean even in the meeting yesterday when we spoke with uh yes yeah you said that that could possibly us up for my my recollection was that um there wasn't the inconsistency between part of the the guidance that second language that we had a Dy that we had a duty to inform that the guidance says the district does not have a duty to Legal obligation to inform and we are saying as a matter of practicality that our policy is for when when we're trying to in the student's best interest create confidentiality policy that we will include parent and Miss Adam explained if those are not E Systems I've been we will said that's probably part of the process also it also starts that provision by saying you will only report it as it will not
048be reported unless Allowed by law something like that that's what's being litigated so that's and the part that we have says and it doesn't say that would mean are included included in what and supporting the student and then right below it it says the school district shall keep confidential a current VI of perspective students transgender status so if it's saying it would keep it confidential after plan okay so the part that is is highlighted last I think what we talked about was that this is this is going to be an evolving thing and there's probably going to be changes moving forward especially once the litigation pans out and I guess the state takes a stand one way or the other or the I mean the guy from very clearly said the the language that we
049presented could open us up he said any change polic yes he said does he think it would happen maybe not but I mean that to me but his but his role his his role is not to give us advice legal advice to how we can stay protected that's matters well I to to me I think we this this is my opinion I'm one board member I would suggest we do this and then we modify it as necessary depending upon what happens in the court I I don't see a reason I don't see a reason to to postpone this I don't think it's going to one way or the other I I think we we talked about this for quite some time we want to have this in there what we decided together we wanted to
050do I don't think tabling is going to uh going to change that other than just not having the scenar which further delays you know the community concern that the parents are his you know he he's coming he's coming at it from a point of view that he doesn't want to sh he payes to provide a service for us he doesn't want us to come back and say that he's either not providing the service for us or he's gonna open up Str as make a litigation from us saying that he well you said that if we put this in there that we weren't going to get sued yeah so that's but that's not his but that's not his prerogative that's why we have our own gr not representing us she is and when we talked about
051what's mandated what's not that they always recommend that the board makes modifications solation with attorney I was working with they want I didn't a change but I'm working with theard somebody [Music] inter distri St notif that's from the I'm sorry what does it what does it mean it means there's no requir no legal requirement for the school based on what it's saying saying there's no legal requirement that the School District staff notify that's that is that's not it's to me it's the same thing affirmative duty is legal the only way you arise for Duty [Music] with could someone do that yeah I mean you can this is a this policy language is something that the board adopts but it's based this language specifically was based upon the I think these two expressions something okay I
052guess I'm not saying it the same way but that's because I am so I mean if I look at something as an affirm doing means there's something that mandate you do them so that's why I'm saying legal is it accurate to say that guidance say are not legally required to re form but our policy is consistent with that but our policy does give us the flexibility for practical a confidentiality to I think the uh I think that the policy the additional L that you're talking about recognize the practicality but it doesn't demand that apparent says that the idea the idea is to work with the student in their interest and conect their safy wellbe by trying to work with them and you know with the family eventually it doesn't to me it I understand I
053understand what some people's concerns about policy so yeah so when it's when it's interpreted in so many different ways here to me then we need to work on it to make it less on interpretation are you is your concern that legally we're not protecting myself or is your concern the actual policy itself um I think both well those are two very different things right so one one in one instance you have a problem with the advice that based on what we talked about that our attorney is giving us and the other you're against the Poli so those hold on there those are two different things one requires you to rewrite the policy the other requires you to go against it you disagree with now to postp right so that would be the first because I'm
054not saying that to me the way it is Rewritten near the way the language was changed does not go along with the rest of the DI I I hear that you're saying that but I guess I don't understand it because there's only one attorney here and she she she did not write that she agreed but in her but in her opinion it is congruent with the letter of the policy that it's not it does not disagree with the other parts of it that's her interpretation based on what we asked her to put into I know you didn't no no I'm saying I was trying to accommodate what you wanted to accommodate but with the practicalities of what you have the school applying to your own but in no way should this be interpreted as a
055provision that says a parent must be notified that's not what it says to me and that's not what I intended to first so I understand if you're saying you're confused by what but that wasn't the intention because that's currently not what the law said but you me the sentence it's the sentence where it says advise to work with the student and the student house M that would mean both not the student and then with the family or however it's decided upon by the counselor and the administration which is what we would all hope occurs to me and me and with together you know I mean and that kind of with the confidential guidance that Tes it it doesn't seem to be the same one is saying there's no legal responsibility and we have our policy
056that's not consistent can I the rules question so we're a board of committees the committee has recommended this policy for second read and it's the motion to so that when you finish discussion on that motion then you'll vote on the postponement and then depending on the outome of that'll either vote on the policy or that's how proed um I just want to I mean we've been talking about this policy for some time now and um and so I think that when we first started talking about this policy we thought about I I think about the student I you know I I think about a child walking in into a classroom guid's office um coming to an adult here and sharing something very personal something uh private um you know these are this is a very
057still in this age day and age is still a sensitive um topic when we're talking about anything related to transgender lgbtq any of that it's it's a very sensitive thing you have a child coming into talk to an adult shares this type of information either they want to change their name or they're thinking about this and so when we first talked about this we said that okay the the policy back then the way I understood it said if the the conversation took place it stay there because uh the teacher the adult was not allowed to go and share that information with the parents um or anyone else we felt that we needed to change that because we didn't want it to just stay there we didn't want that child to go home and then that's
058it and just for that adult to have to to have that it's difficult for that adult it to to be told this type of thing where do they go with it so then we talked about okay what happens next let's let's put some next steps in place because we're responsible for that child so let's put some steps in in place and we talked about okay so let's let's write it where let's change the language where then um that teacher or that adult has to go to the superintendent you know to let the superintendent know and then the superintendent will then meet with the with the um with the the the counselor who's a professional who's trained to work with things which children and these type of things like this so we put that in place
059we changed the language um and I think that we all felt more comfortable because we just weren't leaving the kid you know with with you know no direction and so um then guidance comes out and the guidance says and it's changed over the years and yesterday we saw when when Phil uh Castro gave us that um evolution of this policy um and said no you're really not supposed to tell the parent I understand that because sometimes children are so afraid to have this conversation with their parents so then that puts us in a position of oh my gosh do I tell the parent and this child is afraid and they're going to go home and and who knows what's going to happen when they get home that's another thing we got to think about um
060so then we went back to the drawing board Sean has done a lot of work with this we've had a lot of conversations about this so then we try to word it in a way that and we looked at the guidance but we try to word it in a way that we that's why we put the word advised the principal or designate is advised not that they must they're advised to work with the student and the students's family to create an appro rate confidentiality plan regarding the students's transgender or transitioning status we're just trying to create a safe place for this child it comes back to the child not politics or anything like that it comes back to this one child that has shared this information with an adult that they trust so instead of
061just leaving it there we we're trying to create a safe place here in where elementary school for this child and we're bringing we want to bring in the parents to to be a part of this conversation and it just doesn't end there we're still going to be a part of you know not being B but you know the count the the guidance counselor uh Mrs postra the even the nurse if if need be we're we're we're still going to be working with this child to to help them na through this um I think that for me I mean that's that was my understanding about this I keep going back to the Chart now this page where it says the second page that Ted was referring to this is verbatim from what the state Advanced which
062is and it says here parental consent is not required it's not saying you don't have to do it it's not required but you can still do it as like I'm I'm not an attorney but it's not saying no you're you can't do it at all absolutely not it's not allowed it's saying it's not required you know so I think that right there when I when I read that okay it's not required but on the other page we're saying we're advising don't I can't agree that that one says you have to accept what the student the parent doesn't have to agree in terms of what the student identify fact that the parent doesn't agree for that the student has the ability to so that has to do with the actual decision in terms of gender and
063that's where parent consent is not okay I think you're referring to the father of that thank you there's no affir Duty for any District toy student's P for the students transtion and and you know I think that um and the Educators and and the room will understand this when a student comes to you and confines you know and it could be anything um and at that moment you you you make a a decision you know especially if if the student is saying that they're afraid to go home or they were afraid when the student says that then there are things that we that are in place that we need to do um but so I mean there there's been a and that's why I make sure that our policy allows uh the adult uh could
064possibly be getting that information better to make the best decisions for that no very clearly our policy does not say that our policy does not that that that policy requires to go that's why we changed this months ago because we had a concern that no staff member in this school should be should be charged with holding that secret and witholding that information from a student's parent we have guidance counselor we have administrators to go through specific training to be able to prve them the proper support to be able to figure out what the next step I should never be a see the teacher other staff member and it's just gentle parental unawareness or as a concern I know we like to say is it something we're hearing about that parents are concerned about this policy
065not at all so we're changing it because we feel that grou wor people are concerned I haven't heard it other than I'm confused as to how it's elevated to a portion of our community and yet the administration isn't hearing it I'm not hearing it but some is is this a community concern a third of the community who showed up and so I have to imagine that he's not only one that that is Raising this has that ever come to the administration did they show up and not speak at there were quite a few people here right I'm not sure what the reasons for here I could give a ton of I'm just concerned that we have not bet it this properly based on the actual Community concern I I hear what you're saying we everything
066Mall just said is exactly where this language came from we we've spent a lot of time going over this and the the entire the entire concept around this was really to support and and to say that we haven't fed this enough I don't think is AC because we we've been nothing but from mon um the policy um and you know to your other point you know this is a very small school and we've got a lot of young children here I I don't think that fact that Stacey has hasn't heard someone directly ask her if there's an issue with this particular thing I don't think that that is going to dictate how we how we have a policy I think there's there's concerns about this is obviously a very charged issue right where we're mandated
067by the state to have this policy yeah see I me personally I don't I don't have people I don't want to do it for me it's not a charge issue I'm just reading it to me you would change a policy I think with Kur where Kurt's going you would change a policy if you have a lot of people that are expressing concern over the way it was wording and if that's not there and we're changing the wording and the wording seems to not FL with the guidance for the rest of the policy I I don't to me it this is another change which may be appropriate it may me something that conern but I'm just not hearing and and like Julie it's not a chice so I guess I'm still having trouble reconciling whether or
068not our problem is with the policy or with the way it's written from a legal standpoint because I'm hearing two different things here and I I'm not sure how to I'm not sure how Drive there's a number of problems with the policy and and as I said going to to take this we are elected representatives of this community and I think fundamentally I guess the question is you you think families and parents have a right to be informed and have this information the benefit of their children or not and you can vote Yes or No publicly what you that you should information should be going to parents or not that's the fundamental problem the policy is not it's not about the parents the policy is about students and to me the policy is being changed
069and the wording is not focusing on student I just don't I don't understand why we're not just focusing on what the student means it's providing and we we did we made changes earlier based on the students needs and how we can them the buing maybe it's philosophical think schools better that's a debate that's not what we're debating that's a Val and I almost tend to go back and forth and someone PR with you on that is not what this policy is is defining any other subject if I go to teacher and say Hey I want keep this secret that teacher is not obligated to keep secret any other so yes I believe the parents right to know the condition or status what have you stent is this is one specific one where they say it's
070something that the student expresses privacy then we're to follow if you're broadening that to the whole subject of hey I have a secret that I'm tell you I to tell you that's we're talking about we're talking about sure maybe we help go back discuss this about what that confidentiality plan looks like why we do it why it's student interest it's it would be individualized for the student and I don't think my own belief is that adding that sentence doesn't change what your Administration is going to be doing whether it's in there or not in they're going to meet with the student they're and the two of them are going to meet with the student and and discuss with the student what this students wishes are as well as what the practicalities of living uh in
071a different with a different gender identity in a small community in one school and that try to work with the student to facilitate having a confidential but supportive plan that doesn't put them at some risk of home so that I think they'll be doing the same thing the initial discussion about this was because the discussion was repealing the and that I did advise against because even though it's not technically a mandated policy in the language it does reflect the laws and there's litigation going on and you don't want to put another Target on your Bel so that was the facilitation of the discussion on how can we recognize the concerns of the committee that you raising about working with the family and not excluding return so but I don't think that that puts any different
072responsibility than your Administration already have just the point of record we did not recommend or suggest well that was the discussion based on the newspaper articles about whether really was necessary I didn't say you recommend it I said that was how it came up based on all the location where districts either repal mon so in since you work in a committee structure and V on the table to table it what would that look like you know moving forward sounds like more numers one go through it really well You' have to you have to decide when it's going to be postponed furthere whatever work in executive committee together on can't really work in executive committee on a policy no it would have to go back to committee it would have to go back to the committee
073and the policy committee would have to one one quick question do we have the um we don't have the original part you said it was changed it wasn't that the other change is not in that se completely just and students that's besides the change seems to sounds like school's decision know there's no affirmative Duty that's school that's not say I don't know seems that's only that sentence at the bottom would you think it should so so it's got to be it sounds like the intent is coming from a higher body us that's not what it says so oh oh believe me I realized that the department met was very ambiguous in the way they because they could have said you may not unless the student can put bold language they didn't because that's why there's
074litigation because they're not quite sure how it should be interpreted in terms of the statute itself and then the NS that came in I would and that's for instance a parent who says that you didn't tell me yeah no that's that's the whole debate that's what's going on that's what's being liated it's going to be but not us should yeah well that's I think that's what they intended to say and in a way not but I'm not surprised [Music] like you can revise anything about the policy but that specific sentence comes from the GU so depending if you're trying to change meeting then you may or may not be subject to what is it meaning and you said it's the same interpretation as which me a well I think it's based upon the idea that
075it's up to the student as to both the gender identity and how it's shared or what is shared so that's why I think they made this langage saying thus you don't have any duty to report when you hear this from the student to the parent but they they didn't go so far as to say what they could have made clear that's that's true I mean and that's why there's litigation by both sides because some want to include it some don't want to follow all some say is no stat requirement for any school district M notify I don't think that I would have no problem with that because I think it means the same thing to me but um that's not what we're talking about right now yeah I just want to be clear on that
076if that's something you want to talk that would be a whole separate meeting discussion and another first reading second reading later meeting that's already in your poliy that's that's already Carri that we're talking about today is we've already passed out but to me what Ted brought up the idea that could a family sue us and adding that and the suing his family does that t worried about suing us for not telling yeah that's that's to do I'm I'm conc I'm concerned about the difference in interpretation no affir that school say St dep yeah they took that that sentence that directly from the statute doesn't say one way or another that the state department but it's but but then again it's guidance like when we spoke with um Mr nastor yesterday and the way I understand
077a guidance is guidance we can accept it or not [Music] change you're not F when you're reviewed AED or whatever they're going to be looking at that if somebody challenges that they're going to say well the agency is charge with administering the schools has this guidance you're not following so that's a RIS but you're right it's not a law it's not a regulation which is what I think Ted is saying that it's not because correct me if I'm wrong Ted you're saying that the way it's that it's written it almost sounds like a law he says it's n [Music] understand I just just sounds District decision that's sounds and that is something that we commit will definely take that up [Music] another [Music] com no well had a question about that table how does that
078table vote sued the up and down vote it does because if the table is successful then matter if it's not successful then the matter is Ved so what we're voting on right now isie and on the and then is unsuccess [Music] then this is on the table yes Mr Becker uh with confidence that the committee will come to conclusion Dr de no Mrs Jones Mrs re yes Mr V yes Mrs wal Mr wal motion so now I'd like to make a motion to put forth items D1 through D6 yes Dr Mrs Jones yes Mrs Reed yes Mr Mrs W Mr W yes and at this time we have visitors business visitors are permitted to comment on agenda and non-agenda items at this time please state your name and can I speak hi everyone um I
079didn't expect uh to have a comment tonight my name is Jessica Waka I'm an employee here um at the B school and um I've been listening to your uh spirited conversation about this policy which I think if I'm hearing you right is really about whether or not it's in policy to uh inform a child's parents or include their family if they come out to an adult here at the school um I just want to share that as a member of the lgbtq community plus all of it um I did not come out to my parents until I was 37 they don't speak to me anymore my sister doesn't speak to me my brother doesn't speak to me and I am a full grownup who is educated and able to advocate for myself and live on
080my own Spirit of the laws are to protect children because if parents if children felt comfortable telling their parents first they would and at 37 years old when I fell in love I can tell you my parents or my family were not the first people I told because I didn't trust that they would take it well and based on all of the events that happened after that they didn't so for children who have to go home to a family that may or may not support them or think that they have other things to do I think that putting it in the policy for the purpose of um one man and a I think we're talking about the same meeting that in January I was at um I'm sorry I didn't speak at that meeting because
081it was very difficult to listen to um and I just think that if a child's coming to tell somebody at the school and they didn't tell their parents first there's a reason and putting it in the policy that you have to tell the parents is just really not necessary I think that the idea of coming together and speaking to the officials at the school to support the child is wonderful and perfect um but putting it in the policy to have to tell the parents is unnecessary and not safe or smart thanks thank [Music] you thank you for tabling it because I think that try also trying to uh have it and then like push it through uh that's a pretty important thing that is being litigated on in a lot of places so to do
082it today um I think would not be giving it uh or doing your own due diligence to uh see how it plays out when right now there's really not a reason based on nobody else hearing it or or administration at this point at least one other board member heing in the community that there's no rush for it hello my name name is Kimberly Dreer my address is 404 Morgan Parkway and this is my first board meeting so um it took so much to get here I'm really glad I got here but um I feel nervous standing up here I apologize if things aren't as smooth or um as I'd like them to be but I for me when I was sitting here listening to the debate um there there I feel like there for me
083that there's separate issues like there's the issue of what the policy is daating okay and that you know can be voted on or debated in a different like forum and then there's the issue of putting in this statement that addresses like a parent a community member's concern and I first want to say I appreciate that when somebody stood up and gave their concern that you gave it a legitimate consideration and trying for it but whether I agree on their policy or not not I don't think that that matters what I think is a little bit disturbing for me is that if this language were to be approved it sounds as though you are placating the parent and saying you know the parent reads that and thinks okay like I would be informed I I have
084knowledge I I my school district is going to bring me into a meeting and like whether it's about this topic or about drugs or alcohol or some other like very serious topic that parents expect to understand and know about their children I feel like this language makes the parent feel as though they would have um like um the support of the school in that when in reality they don't legally it says that they don't right and what I'm hearing from um the the board attorney is that the school cannot tell the parents so if this language goes in the way that it sounds like the way I heard it at least I feel like it's not transparent it doesn't it's like trying to like appease somebody but it really is not effective in anyway and
085appeasing them because the law is the law and to me I feel like if you are going to reconsider the language it should be considered in a way that is very very transparent to explain to the parent what the right of the child is as opposed to trying to make them feel better that they would know or be involved in some kind of um plan I hope that was clear thank you and um I guess there's just one more one more thing um for me as I I stated before I'm this is like my first board meeting I have a 5-year-old and um I'm starting to become more and more aware of like how the school oper oper Ates and how different um types of Education um facilities operate and how decisions are made um
086but I don't think it's safe to say like if you're not hearing about an issue from the community that it's not really important to the community because for me I'm I'm I'm I think tonight I really was being more aware of this policy than I had been in the past I guess you know I I I don't think it was a Charged issue for me but like maybe I thought I had a right as a parent to know what was going on with my child and I really didn't realize or understand that in this particular case there's law that specifically says that they would that that the school would make sure to keep confidential If the child wants it to be confidential right so I think that there's could be a lack of awareness especially
087with like the new parent or the the parents of the younger people or that the parents that are like working and aren't able to like make it to these types of meetings so um I appreciate that even though that one person stood up you're at least trying to make that concern like a real concern and not and I ask that you please don't dismiss it just if there's only like one or two people that say something but um anyways I appreciate that part thank you thank you please sorry I have one more thing sorry I had a terrible terrible experience at drop off and um it was rectified um but I feel like even though there's lots of communication about the drop off um it continues to feel very very like chaotic for for me
088and my family I have um like a 22-month-old baby and um like I'm having to like move the car sheets around or whatever but it's really like I told my husband like I like the baby on that side I don't want my 5-year-old on that side I want to be able to like reach over and make sure that that baby like you know or whatever like so for me I was like okay you know I don't love the idea of people like opening the door and then here's my baby and then I'm trying to get out and and it obviously causes like problems so I've tried other Solutions like um parking on um like Avenue walking over here and and different things like that and it just seems like kind of a chaotic mess because
089like we' have to walk all the way halfway down to go across and then come all the way back up here and my child's like oh I don't want to walk and I have to carry him so for me it's just been like really really hectic and chaotic and I know that school needs to start on time but I'm just kind of expressing maybe some frustrations that other parents might be feeling that it's just this is a difficult situation it would be nice to have um maybe an update as to what may maybe happening with the parking over at the um municipal building I know like that was where I used to park to drop my child off and it didn't seem like it was that chaotic so as a parent it feels like all
090of a sudden something that was working is now um taken away and and it for me it's just not working very well so just laying out there and I hope that maybe um we could get like an update status update as to if that situation will be rectified and that we can um drop off on the other side for the younger children I just want to clarify that the town passed an ordinance that prohibit parking in that lot now so they the town took steps to close that lot for people to park their place to school so I don't want to sound ignorant but I do live in this town but like was I supposed to vote on that like I I'm sorry gotp a they had decided a town council meeting to close that
091Municipal lot to anybody who was not doing business right I understand it wasn't the school's decision right like I I feel like um there was a communication and I I apologize I don't I meant to like get it ready but um it felt like the communication said like oh we're working with the town to see if there's like a way we can maybe I maybe that was my hopeful think okay I don't know okay well anyway def off the table okay so in terms of like the way that the cars come in right here is there any analysis as to how that's working I mean is it working well for everybody mear Mr and I out there every morning um I think it's gotten much better um you know and and really what we're finding
092now is you know um the doors are open we pushed it back 10 more minutes to and H monitors to try to provide people with more time to drop off um people are taking advantage of that I still think we have too many people showing up like right at 810 812 and trying to like get in at the last minute The Home Room Bell is 85 the door is Clos at you at 84 you have one minute to get to I just want right now actually can you explain that can you explain that for me like if my 5-year-old comes come she's in here no kindergarteners are held in here with the morning monitor these U cones are put out so they know exactly where to line up and wa with their teacher and like
093I said we pushed it back 10 more minutes hired morning monitor so that we could get more people through the line uh when we are out there at 8:15 when we go to close those doors there's really nobody left so everybody is dropped off between that 8 and 8:15 we have some stract once in a while we had six kids who came in after8 today so I would say it is working quite well at this point and I encourage parents I remind them the doors are opening up at 8 so you know it's not just 810 to 8:15 right so if you feel like you need a little bit of time sometimes we're out there I go out there right at 8 o'cl and there's nobody out there yet you know but our doors are
094opening and kids are healthier so you know if you can get here earlier and you want to avoid the rush I would say closer to 8 the better that's when it's Le crowded um and then you know the kids are in here supervised until they're walk down to their homes at 8:15 but this morning at 8:15 when we closed the door there was not a car dropping off okay well it's good to know you know because I I know that you extended the the morning time but um I guess I just thought it was going to be busy the whole time and I'm usually on the leader end I'm not going to lie and S stand up here and say I'm not I'm like so what I can do I'm rushing I'm rushing I'm doing
095my best I'm doing my best I have a fiveyear old right but okay so I mean um I think for me like I will definitely work on trying to yeah I just know from observing when the traffic is light it's lighter earlier and I still feel way safer than people doing K turns in that e side L morning um and this has been working you know okay and thank you for extending the the time so it's not just that five minutes I appreciate that and I will take advantage of it see you at eight tomorrow I think it's important to note real quick that uh despite the topics whether it's pick up and drop off or [Applause] [Music] transgender we we really do a good job as a board the community and I just want
096to show my appreciation to the board members for that it means a lot to me it helps discussion as well as community members let alone community members and teachers so thank the cility of it helps a lot and I'm confident through that and with the players we will get to an end that meets the best needs of not only students but the the [Music] all right payment of the bills motion 2066 Mr Becker yes Dr D brosia Mrs Jones yes Mrs we yes Mr vital Mrs Walsh yes Mr wal yes motion car and then secretary certification that and so discussion old bus so I was gonna say this earlier but so um I wanted to talk um to the community about um we've had last board meeting we had uh parents come out and express
097concerns about the playr and so we've been discussing we've met about the playground we've been discussing it and so um last board meeting um our would vice president um Joe Lance and I were talking about and so and we were talking about what are our options for this and um so he talked about um he suggested which I thought was a really good idea was to create an Adon committee so um we discussed it and um then I met with um Mrs postom and she thought it was a good idea so what we've started doing was um we are going to create a playground committee and so this committee um will involve um Administration it will involve teachers which um Miss postra has been working on selecting teachers that are knowledgeable and experienced uh with
098working with the younger children and um and so we are asking um and we're also going to have board members so any board member that is interested in being part of the the committee uh if you could send me an email and um I'm going work on that uh and also uh I'm asking I would like parent involvement and so if there are any parents uh that are interested and joining the committee um you can send me an email um if I could have the email by Friday um only because we're trying to get moving on this uh that would be great so any parents out there that are interested in joining our playground committee uh please send me an email um and a letter of interest um we review it and then notify which
099parents are selected I mean of course I would like to have all parents involved but uh we'll be selecting a couple of parents um but we wanted to do this because we thought it was an opportunity for um to involve are people from different people from our real learning ums yes Mrs Jones has also reached out to the PTO and I believe as well to see if they have Representatives who would be interested um and you know I've gotten great response from our staff um mely who's our occupational therapist on it couple of PE teachers some of our younger age teachers so I think just looking at you know a wide variety of of stakeholders and getting input um will certainly help us make the best choice for this project and so any [Music] comments
100be all inclusive all so all right so thank you for that and so now we are going to we will be having an executive session um this evening um we will be discussing um board and [Music] I'd like to make a motion session second