001Can I have a motion to reconvene the public session? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thanks Con. All in favor? >> I >> opposed. We're back in public session. And we're going to start at uh section four, routine business. >> Sorry, my eyes are a little blurry right now. Uh I have the we have a the board secretary report for June and July of 25. the receipt and appropriations adjustments for July of 2025. For C, the treasures report for July of 25. D, the monthly transfer report of July of 25. E, the high school activities report for August of 2025. F, the food service management cost performance statement for July and August of 2025. G, the certified bill list uh, for September as of September 2025. the approval of minutes. Uh, regular session minutes for
002August 25th, the executive session minutes for August 25th, the regular session minutes for August 26th, and the executive session minutes for August 26th. Missia, can I have a motion to approve section 4, routine business items A through H? >> So move. >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Maker. Comments or questions from the board? Hearing none, we'll take a vote. Silene Bllestein. >> I I >> I I >> I motion approved. Moving on to section five, routine matters. We have a the enrollment report for as of September 19th, 2025. Uh we have no health report, fire alarm report, or crisis drill report. So, we're moving on to the superintendent's monthly report. >> Thank you, Mrs. Fitzwater. Thank you to members of the public who are here and thank you to all of our folks who are
003watching at home. Uh this is our first board meeting since we are officially back to school. So, welcome back everybody. I'd like to report that uh overall a very successful start to our over 3,000 students. It's fun to finally be able to say officially over 3,000 students here in Cinnamon and last time we celebrated the reopening of the memorial school to our littlest learners and it has been um a great transition to welcome them. Uh but for maybe a transportation hiccup or two, uh lots of gratitude out to all of the folks who made that happen, including our principles, our teachers, counselors, front office staff, and our transportation team and maintenance team who are second to none. Our sports are back up and running literally as we speak right now. Did anybody get the final
004score of the football game? No. Apparently, it was 14 to 14 when we left. So, uh Thursday night football. Um but congratulations to all of our athletes who have hit the ground running both at the high school and middle school and to our marching band as well. who is in competition this Saturday. I told Dr. Dalvio I would plug uh their successful home competition and they will be competing in West Windsor on Saturday if you'd like to go out and support the band. We are in the middle of back to school night season. Actually, we are kind of turning the the final corner here. A very successful back to school nights. Very well attended by our families which was great. Uh events have already happened at Cinnamonson Middle School, New Albony School Memorial and ERS.
005And we'll look forward to the high school back to school night next week on October 1st. And many thank yous to my board members who have been uh very present and very good at giving out directions. Uh so thank you especially uh Mr. Bramol, Mr. Spice, Mr. Miker uh for your presence at uh all of the uh back to school night so far. It's great to have you there. Such a supportive board. Uh while I'm doing some shout outs, I'd also like to recognize Mrs. Akon who presided over the Thursday night county school boards meeting. She is the vice president, but as any vi good vice president knows, when the president is not there to be available, good vice president shows up and runs the meeting and did a great job. So, thank you for
006representing Cinnamonson and the board. >> Thank you >> on that. >> Uh, since I'm also doing recognition right now, I I don't typically foreshadow some things that are happening later on the agenda, but I did want to uh take a little bit of time to recognize the folks um who are supporting our band through uh the company Rigs Distler, uh long-standing business in town. They donated, if you haven't seen it yet, a beautiful uh new trailer for our marching band to help haul equipment all up and down the state for their competitions. And if you haven't seen it, you can see it on social media. We just reposted it. So, thank you to the folks from Rigs Disser. We look forward to recognizing them publicly at a meeting in the future. Was this time last
007year that I first announced that the high school was collecting names and beginning to design a military wall. I'm happy to report that that military wall has been installed. It looks fantastic. And coming soon, um we'll be doing a ribbon cutting right around uh Veterans Day. Uh so board members should keep an eye out for an invitation to that uh where the names of all of our graduates who are uh active duty or um did serve um in Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines. We even have a spot for Space Force uh which we're looking to see grow and hopefully that spot there inspires some of our students uh to participate in our country's military. So uh looks great. Congratulations to uh Mr. Gorman who must still be at the game and his team. We'll look
008forward to the ribbon cutting there. Also foreshadowing and looking ahead, the water festival uh is coming next month on October 17th. So fourth grade parents, look out for your kiddos to come home and looking for help to design their rain sticks. And I guess I'll file that under if you know you know what's coming uh for our fourth graders. I'd like to recognize the folks on our steam team over at New Albany School. Mrs. Jones, Mr. Pup was instrumental in that and Mrs. Coker. and we had our first family steam night last Tuesday and that was a great success and thank you for your efforts on uh engaging our families in our steam uh program. My final update for this evening has to do with uh the referendum. Uh we've been using that term for
009the better part of the last year to talk about some of the needs of our district and I just wanted to update the public on sort of where we are as a board, as a referendum committee, as a series of subcommittees. So, um, over the last few years, uh, you've heard me talk about our growing population in town, and that growing population has certainly had an impact, uh, on our schools. Um, we've we've done some of the things along the way to try to address, um, our population and our square footage deficiencies. About a year ago, the board approved an ad hoc committee uh, to address these needs uh, possibly through the referendum process and conducted a needs assessment with all of the principles and the administration in all five of our buildings. Uh this
010needs assessment was put together. We went out for RFP and interviewed several architects and ultimately selected Garrison Architects to be our architect of record for the referendum and they were able to take our needs assessment and further conduct one alongside us to be able to put uh some project responses to the needs in our district. We still sit in that situation right now. Uh we have our standing ad hoc committee and we've also engaged several subcommittees uh with some more voices uh out from different aspects or different areas, different stakeholders in the community. So, we have a subcommittee that is committed to construction and finance and the symbiotic relationship between, you know, what it costs to build things and how to pay for it. Uh, we have a subcommittee that is dedicated just to our
011prek program. Uh, we have a subcommittee that is dedicated to our extracurricular and athletics program. And finally, the one that is dedicated to the community relations aspect of any time that we may be facing uh something that would have a tax impact to the public. So, uh, we look forward to certainly sharing more specifics as we get closer to formulating a question and ultimately identifying a timeline for, uh, a future referendum election. Uh, so more to come on that. And with that, Mrs. Fitzwwater, that is the superintendent's update. >> Thank you, Mr. Capello. Um, uh, Mr. Kflystein, uh, can I have a motion to approve section five, routine matters item A through E? >> So move. >> Second. >> Thank you, Miss Falconero. Comments or questions from the board? Hearing none, we'll take a vote.
012Mileen Blast. >> I I >> I motion approved. Moving on to section six, the student representative reports. We have the high school representative, uh, Miss Carly Trump. >> Good evening. The students of the month for September will be announced at October's board meeting. Congrats to the newly elected class of 2029. The officers officers are Kayla Quigley, Juliana Dela, Sanita Sun, Noah Bundy, Charlotte Leitz, and Evan Bevina. The fall sports team have started their seasons. The football captains are JJ Stro, Dom Delg Grippo, John Maniti, Jackson Machado, and Christian Maniti. The football team's record is currently 2 to1, and their next game is tonight at home versus Northern Burlington. The senior game is October 23rd versus Burlington Township. For cheerleading, the captains are Ryan Cartoni, Evelyn Souza Silva, Liv Rogeri, and Melissa Daniels. Their senior game
013is also October 23rd versus Burlington Township. The men's soccer captains are Luke Parson, Luis Lopez, James Kazowski, and Connor Hughes. Their record is 6 to1 and their next game is Friday versus Bordentown. Their senior night game is October 11th versus Haden Township. The women's soccer captains are Shila Moore, Norah Quinn, and Taran Hemanson. The record is currently 6 to1 and their next game is Friday at home versus Deli. The senior game night is October 24th versus Egg Harbor Township. The field hockey captains are Alli Yodas, Laya McDermott, Gabby Pacetti, and Ava Smith. Their record is 5 to3 and their next game is Friday at Hopewell Valley. The senior game night is September 29th versus Bordentown. For women's tennis, the captains are Sarah Delgreo, Tabitha Bickley, and Addison McMullen. The record is six to four and
014their next match is Monday at Haden Heights. Their senior match is Wednesday, October 1st versus Pomemyra. The men's cross country team's captain is Jake Wickerssham. The team had a great showing at the Battle of Ocean County Park. The team took second in the junior race with Ryan Scar Cacholi and Eddie Abu Adas meddling in seventh and eighth. Jake Wickerssham took second overall in a personal record. The women's cross country team's captain is Jenna Kerstein. The team showcased their hard work at Ocean County Park on September 13th where Jenna achieved a personal record. The women's volleyball team captains are Grace Morris, Sam Denowski, and Julia Harvey, and Lilia Kusio. The team's record is 5 to four, and their senior game night is October 9th versus Delram. Play Unified had their first has their first event this
015Friday. They're hosting an ice cream social with students to plan the year's events. Um for student council homecoming 2025 is planning is underway. The theme is now streaming. Interact club is currently working on this year's plans and activities. An National Honor Society has started the year strong helping freshman and new students acclimate to school throughout the building during freshman orientation and other events. The NHS will soon begin after school tutoring on Tuesdays and will help out on back to school night on September 30th. The marching band pirates hosted their home tournament of bands competition called Bands of Gold, which is held at Cinnamon High School Stadium on Saturday, September 13th. The marching band's halftime show this season is entitled Troy. The Cinnamon Seda officers worked hard this summer to prepare for a new school year.
016The team participated in leadership training and team bonding sessions, developed new initiatives, and planned engaging events. They organized and set up the Pirates Cove, CHS's studentr run store, to ensure it was ready to open with a fresh inventory and improved operations. September's goal is to recruit new members and continue growing the DECA community. Thank you. >> Thank you, Carly. And now we're going to have uh the middle school student representative report from Matthew Kenny. >> Welcome back to the 2025 2026 school year. My name is Matthew Kenny and I'm the student council leazison to the board of education. During my time at CMS, I participated in middle school, cross country, wrestling, baseball, and soccer. Outside of school, I play hockey, baseball, and soccer. Also, I love the Phillies and have a dog named Alabama. The
017student council election was held in June of 2025. The candidates presented their video speeches and the student body voted during their home rooms. The officers for this school year are the president is Evans Aerin, the vice president is Carter Shearan, the secretary is Riley Flack, the treasurer is Sophia Anderson, the board of education leazison is Matthew Kenny, the the home and school leaison is Vita Patel. Miss Pallet and Miss Green are the student council advisories this year. Last week, the staff of CMS welcomed families back to the back to school night, which was attended by more than 350 parent and guardians. Sports teams and clubs are just beginning their seasons and meetings. The boys a soccer team has a record of 1 and one which includes the season opening one and zero win at Delran.
018Kandi Souer scored the game's only goal. The boys B team is 0 and2. The field hockey team is 0 and one despite 28 saves from the goalie Hannah Farmer. The girls have two more games this week. The girls A soccer team is 2-0 and the B is currently 1-0 after a win over Pence Hawin. Lastly, the cross country team is amazing. 20 and two for their meets. Mattie Phy and Jimmy Mcuan both took home first place finishers this week. CMS had a number of changes to the everyday school year. In anticipation of growing class sizes, we now have four lunch periods and a 12 class period schedule. In addition, CMS also begun to use smart passes for the student traveling in the hallway during class periods. Our students have adjusted well to these new changes,
019taking ownership and creating and managing their passes. In addition, the staff have noticed a change for the good in the building as a whole with students in their travel in the hallway. We are busy planning back to school activities. Our first activity is sixth grade only bowling trip on Thursday, October 9th, as well as a back to school dance for the seventh and eighth graders, which is now scheduled Friday, October 17th. The sixth graders are getting used to the new schedules, and the seventh and eighth graders are diving into a new school year. Thank you very much and have a great evening. >> Thank you, Matt. Very good information from both of our student representatives. We're going to move on to uh the adults in the room, and uh we're going to have a presentation
020uh from Dr. Frank Goldberg, Mr. Nicole Arbles, Mrs. Kristen Meltchure, and Mr. Matt Perupka regarding the results of the spring 2025 NJSLA testing in ELA, math, and science. wants to re >> Thank you very much. Last month we talked about the high school graduation test, the NJ GPA as it's called, uh which was a test that was administered to 11th graders. This evening we're going to talk about the NJSLA, the New Jersey Student Learning Assessment, which was given to students in grades 3 through nine in English and math 58 and 11 uh in science. So, this presentation is going to be a little bit longer than last time, but this time I've brought some colleagues who are going to help deliver the message. Miss Arlesz, our new uh math leader, Mrs. Meltchure, our ELA director,
021and Mr. Perupka, our science director, to go over the results in their respective areas. Uh we have this presentation each year, usually in September or October. We're required to have it and we are you know sharing these results that are mandated by the federal uh every student succeeds act uh which was authorized around 20145 which mandates that students in grades three through eight and once in high school are tested in math and English and as I said a moment ago in grades 5, eight and 11 in science. The results we received the official student score reports uh two Fridays ago. We published them in Genesis for families uh three business days later. So families should have been able to see uh their sons and daughters reports on the 17th. The scores for the English and
022math uh portion of the test range from 650 to 850 and there's five scoring levels revolve around the concept of meeting expectations. Level four and five are considered passing. A 750 to about an 800 is a level four. About 800 to 850 is a level five. 725 to 749 is level three approaching expectations. 700 to 724 partially meeting and below 700 uh level one uh did not meet expectations. Part of the presentation process not just highlights the uh achievement levels of the students but also the participation rate in each school. Uh schools are expected to have at least 95% of their students take the assessment and we can see there for Rush the middle school and the high school uh the varying uh participation rates uh you know rush 99 the middle school 97 the
023high school 98.5%. We are going to show a series of line graphs that are going to show the uh percentage of students in Cinnamonson who are at level four or five. Cinnamonson scores will be in red because we're Cinnamonson red and black. And the New Jersey passing rate, the percentage of students in that grade in that content area for the state of New Jersey will be highlighted in green. and we're going to look all the way back to 2018, which was the very first year that the NJSLA was called. Prior to that, it was called the park test. We will see uh varying passing rates. Um New Jersey, there's make no bones about it, administers a rigorous series of exams. Uh anybody can go on the New Jersey Department of Education website under assessment. You
024can look at sample questions. They are they don't look like the way they did 20 years ago. Everything is multi-step in-depth uh very very involved questions. There are qu uh some of the tests the passing rate in New Jersey is in the teens. Some are in the 40s, the 50s, the 60% range. So we will hear from uh my colleagues in a moment. Uh but again, we're looking at the red, we're looking at the green. We're going to start with English, then math, and then science. So I'm going to pass the baton to Mrs. Meltchure, who's going to talk about our ELA results. Thank you, Dr. Guburn. Um, I'm going to begin with the students performance for English language arts at Rush School. We'll start with the third graders, our youngest test takers in the
025district. This is their first time seeing the assessment in and of itself. It's a huge task just to sit for one of these tests. So this year the passing rate in Cinnamonson was 53% for ELA third grade in comparison to the state's passing rate of 45%. Moving on to our fourth grade population this year 58% of our fourth graders passed the assessment in comparison to 54% at the state level. I do like to point out with this fourth grade cohort of students that if you were to go back just a slide uh a year ago 45% of them passed and this year 58% of them did. So a nice year-over-year trend for this cohort of students. Moving on to our fifth grade this year 64% of the students in Cinnamonson passed for ELA in comparison
026to 53% in the state of New Jersey. I do think it's not worth noting on this particular slide that in our multi-year look back that is the highest passing rate that the fifth graders have demonstrated. Now we go ahead to Cinnamonson Middle School, the sixth grade students for ELA had a passing rate of 63% in comparison to the state's passing rate of 56%. In seventh grade, the 24 to 25 school year, there was a slight dip there in the um passing rate, but the seventh graders still had a 58% passing rate, which edged out the state's passing rate of 57%. And the eighth grade class had a passing rate of 67% this year for English language arts in comparison to the state's passing rate of 57%. And the last cohort of students that take the
027test for NJSLA are the ninth graders. And you'll see that the trend in Cinnamonson um almost identically mirrored the trend across the state of New Jersey between the 24 and 25 school years. This year 61% of 9th graders in Cinnamonson passed in comparison to 50% at the state level. So, as these um evidence statements and results start to trickle in over the summer months, our administrative team spends some time just looking at some overarching trends, we do look forward to the professional development days we have planned for October and November when we can work with the teachers and really take um a closer look at some of the uh students strengths and needs. But just to highlight a few areas here, uh the students at Rush School, an area of strength across the board was
028defining words in context. And something that we're still working on with our Rush learners is the standards pertaining to comparing and contrasting. And this makes sense because the kids do have to navigate multiple texts at the same time as pretty young readers. So it is a rigorous skill um along with just more sustained writing. Again, we are emerging writers at the um intermediate level and just building those skills and the stamina to write lengthier pieces. And so, we are going to be working with some pacing guides and continued professional development with the teachers at Rush to make sure that we're allocating adequate time for both the reading and writing instruction to prepare students for the rigor of these assessments. At the middle school, a continued area of strength were working with words and context. So,
029it was nice to see that continuity and the middle schoolers did a nice job with theme and central idea. Um, an area of need that we're going to keep working on with our middle schoolers. We've seen this kind of mirrored in the past. Sometimes the students get someformational reading passages that actually have standards rooted in reading history or reading in the science and technical subjects. So, these tend to just be a little bit trickier to navigate. And so we will be working with um developing some paired texts for each of the novels in our curriculum that allow students to also work with reading history and reading science and tech throughout the school year. And as for the high school students, it was really nice to see that in every sub test and mode of writing,
030the students in Cinnamonson outperformed the state. and what starts as a need all the way on the left at Rush School, it's really great to see that by the time they they reach nth grade, it actually becomes an area of strength in the district. Um, and the CHS 9th graders also did a nice job with the science and tech subjects on their test. Um, the high school students will be working on how complex characters develop. Obviously, just as the text themselves become longer and more complicated, this is just a, you know, a skill that advances as well. So the teachers there will be working with released items in the New Jersey digital item library to just make sure that the questions we're seeing in our instruction mirror the kinds of questions they're going to see
031on the assessment. So overall just some nice areas of growth. We're always looking for ways to improve, but we're proud of our students growth um on a challenging test. Uh with that, I'm going to pass it off to my colleague in mathematics, the director of instruction, Miss Nikki Arbles. >> Good evening everyone. I am super excited to talk about our third through nth grade mathematics achievement and hopefully provide a little bit of context behind the data. We're going to start with our third grade. 67% of our third graders pass the assessment this year. 17 points above um the state level of 50%. As we move on to fourth grade, 61% of our students pass that assessment in comparison to 47% at the state. It's a 14 point differential. Our fifth grade students at Eleanor Rush
032School, 66% of them passed that assessment in comparison to 44 at the state level, which is a 22 point differential. As we move on to Cinnamon and Middle School, we see that 52% of our sixth grade students passed the assessment in comparison to 40% at the state, a 12point difference. As we move on to seventh grade, we see that 47% of test takers passed that assessment and compared to 39% at the state level. That is a difference of eight points, but things change a little bit in the data at seventh grade. is no longer a grade level assessment because about 4% of our students go on to take the algebra 1 assessment. So if we were to put those students back in with their grade level, that passing rate would be 49% and therefore 10
033points above the state level. As we move on to eighth grade, we further skew the data. Now we have about 19% of our students taking the algebra 1 or geometry assessment um in eighth grade. the remaining um 81% 35% of those students passed 14 pass 14 points above the state level of 21%. Again, if I were to put the eighth graders back with their grade level cohort, we're looking at a 48% passing rate. Now, as we move on to algebra 1, the majority of these students are nth grade students, but again, those seventh and eighth graders are also taking this assessment. 47% of those students pass the assessment in comparison to 39% at the state level. And if I was adding them in, it's only fair that I take those seventh and eighth graders out
034of the testing pool. I'm happy to report that when I compared their eighth grade scores to their algebra 1 scores, we saw a seven and a half point increase in passing rate. Then move on to geometry. Again, these are ninth and eighth grade students taking this assessment. 97% of those students passed that assessment, 41 points above the state level. It is a smaller cohort of student, but certainly a point of pride. And as Kristen said, after we compare the state passing rates, we then go in and look at the standards and compare how we did to the state level at Elanar Rush School. that 3 to five grade level number operation in base 10 and geometry are a source of strength. We need to help support our students in multi-step word problems and fractions. And
035we're doing that by identifying the curriculum gaps and expanding our use of visual models. So, we're going to incorporate manipulatives to kind of build that conceptual understanding. At CMS, we're going to look at those grade level assessments, sixth, seventh, and eighth grade level assessments. We see a real growth in understanding in the expression and equation standards um which is promising. Um our sixth graders need a need support in number systems and our seventh and eighth graders in mathematical reasoning. We're going to assist our students by a standardsbased calculator use which means we're going to roll I'm sorry we're going to scale back the use of calculators in order to help them with mental math and problem solving stamina. And we also have created um spiral review assignments that we're embedding into their weekly reviews. And
036finally, at Cinnamonson High School, these are our ninth graders that we're talking about in this particular slide. Our algebra 1 students show strength in linear equations and functions. Our geometry students, I could name a lot of things, but congruence, transformation, similarity. We need to support our ninth graders in nonlinear functions and modeling. Um, and if I had to find something for geometry, those good old geometric proofs that everybody loves, very demanding skill, a lot of reasoning with ninth graders. Um, our plan is to revise our pacing guides and we've created spiral review units to support our algebra 1 and geometry students. At this time, I'm going to turn the podium over to the director of science, Mr. Matthew Perupka. Thank you, Miss Arbles. Good evening, everyone. The NJSLA science test, unlike its English and language
037uh sorry, language arts and math counterparts, is only tested at fifth, 8th, and 11th grade. Uh it is very much a summitative and cumulative style test assessing years worth of standards. For example, at the high school level, um the test is composed of earth science, environmental science, biology, chemistry, and physics standards. essentially four years of standards given to students who've only had three years of science at high school, making a very rigorous and difficult test. In fifth grade, our Rush students uh had a 47% passing rate, which is our highest passing rate in our look back data. You can al also notice our growth rate has increased uh 42 to 47 5% compared to the state's growth rate of 28 to 30. And we've also increased the gap between the sentiments and passing rate and
038the um state passing rate. In eighth grade u for the first time since 2019, we've exceeded the state passing rate at 23% over the state passing rate of 19. The state average has not changed in the past three years. While Cinnamonson uh middle schoolers were able to increase their passing rate by 6%. and the 11th grade students are still above the state average at 33% compared to 31. Uh action steps will be taken to address the slight decline in test scores and the smaller gap between the cinnamonson average and the state average. So we look at the data and we decide what actionable steps we can take to support continuous improvement and growth and address areas in need. Um unlike the the ELA and math test, the science test does not offer a standard bystandard
039analysis. Uh we need to use scoring domains to disagregate the data further and address possible needs. The first three domains are based off content uh performance. The second three groupings are based off skill um and question style. Um the test is made up of questions from the science and engineering practices largely. Um, this is not a test that's fact and trivia based. You're not going to see which of the following is the symbol for carbon. Um, these style of questions typically make the student read a science passage, click through two, maybe three datas and gra data charts and graphs and then answer a series of questions at the fifth, eighth, and 11th grade level. uh which is extremely challenging considering that these science and engineering practices are also being aligned and assessed against years worth
040at least three years worth of science standards. Um engineering practices assesses students ability to read science texts, analyze information, make predictions and claims, identify problems, organize and analyze data and construct arguments um based off evidence. So looking at the data, how can we support our teachers and our students uh moving forward is we want to make sure that our assessments and our activities align with the state's vision for science, which is much more a way of thinking than a body of knowledge. We want to embed activities that give students a chance to read science texts, organize data, and construct arguments based off evidence in our already written curriculum to make sure we meet the state's expectations or rigor that they're going to see on these tests. We also have professional development planned for the fall,
041linking linking science and literacy. uh science uh articles and journals by nature provide students an excellent opportunity to work on reading comprehension skills as well as their ability to analyze information and construct arguments which will help both our language arts and our science endeavors. Uh we will work at professional development to make sure we analyze our current assessments and make sure they align with the state expectations. I'm now going to pass the podium back to Dr. Goldburn. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Uh and just again as someone who was a science teacher here at the middle school for a number of years, science test is based on three years worth of information. So our 11th grader, excuse me, our 11year-old fifth graders are being assessed on things they were taught in science
042in third, fourth, and fifth grade. So it is indeed a very rigorous, challenging part of the test. So, the Every Student Succeeds Act, formerly called the No Child Left Behind Act back in the day, said that you had to report the per uh student performance for English, math, and science, the passing rate, and then you also had to look at the different student groups that exist within your uh population, and if there's at least 10 students in any one category, we would report those results publicly. So for us in cinnamentson there are eight student groups. Um five are based on race. Uh two are programmatic and there's one other one. So let me explain. On the left hand side there's a bunch of colors going on. Same on the right as well. The left hand
043side is cinnamonson. The right hand side is the state of New Jersey. For racial background at least 10 students. This is for ELA. We had Asian students. that's indicated in blue, African-American students in red, Hispanic in yellow, white in green, and two or more races, multi-racial students in orange. On the right hand side, we see the passing rate for students in those subgroups statewide. In the left, we see those numbers in Cammenson. On the left hand side, you will see on the bottom there are four years worth of data. For the state, there's only three. The state releases this information each year in their board state board of education meeting presentation in December. So we are uh trailing a year there statewide. We look at the numbers in the state and the lines are pretty
044static. We look at the lines on the left in sentiments and there's some zigzagging here and there because some of these subgroups have 30 40 students in them. So if three more if there were 30 kids in a group, if three more of them pass, that's a 10-point jump. If three fewer pass, that's a 10-point decline. So some of these lines can uh uh move a bit from year to year. But we look at the lines on the left, sentiments and 76% of Asian students pass the uh ELA portion of the test. 64% of white students, 60% of multi-racial students, 42% of Hispanic students, 41% of African-American students, and we can see on the left and how those compare to the statewide trends that have existed historically over the years. The other three subgroups that
045we're going to talk about, the blue line is students with IEPs. The yellow line is students who are economically disadvantaged. The red line is students in the multilingual learner program in New Jersey. Economically disadvantaged means students who are eligible for free or reduced lunch. Again, four years worth of data on the left, three years on the right. We can see the statewide trend uh that has existed there. There's a bit of a contrast from the right and the left. For us, it's the multilingual learner students. Couple years ago, they called it English language learners. 10 years ago it was called English as a second language. Obviously there are um things that we will continue to work on when it comes to professional development with regard to our uh staff when it comes to meeting the
046needs of our ELLL students. What we can see there uh 45% of students who are economically disadvantaged passed the exam in Cmenson last year. 30% of students with IEPs none of the students in the multilingual learner program. So no doubt uh work to be done. I'd also point out that just you know for clarity sake all the previous slides that my colleague spoke of the vertical axis all the way to the left went from 0 to 100. We needed to zoom in a little bit because some of these lines were going to be smashed on top of each other. So some of them appear to be at the top but be mindful on the left that as high as it can go is 50%. Taking a look at math, we have the same uh five
047groups for racial background. 73% of Asian students, 59% of white students, 55% of students, multi-racial students passed, 35% of Hispanic students, 33% of African-American students passed the test. Again, this is Cinnamonson and math. We see the statewide trend on the right hand side. economically disadvantaged students. Last year, 35% of them passed. 20% of students with IEPs, slightly more uh 11% of our ML students passed the math portion of the test. Again, the statewide trends are there to the right as well. And lastly, in science, you'll notice that the orange line, the multi um multi-racial student line is not there because there were fewer than 10 students. So, we only have four lines now. Blue, green, yellow, and uh red. 40% of Asian students, 37% of white students, 19% of Hispanic students, 15% of African-American students
048passed contrasting on the right hand side and on the left again continued um work to be done with the ML students. Again, as Mr. said, an extremely languagerich test, lots of reading um are involved there. three years going back uh needing to work on the success for our ML students there. 15% of our students who were economically disadvantaged pass this portion of the test. 14% of students uh with IEPs. So in summary on NJSLA, there's only two slides left. Um work to be done, no doubt where, you know, there were 18 tests highlighted. Cinnamonson exceeded the state average on 18. That's the expectation. But when you have passing rates in the 30s, there's work to be done. No one is, you know, jumping up and down with 40% passing rates. So, no doubt there's work
049to be done. Work to be done in our professional development days, our faculty meetings, our department meetings, um the work that our directors do on ensuring that all the different standards are addressed in a logical sequence and time when the kids take the test in May. So, there's definitely work to be done, but uh good work um by our teachers, by our hardworking students, and our supportive families. Two slides left. I'm going to hand it back to Miss Arbles, who's going to talk about advanced placement uh results from last May. >> Thank you, Dr. Govern. As you can see, there are 17 different um advanced placement courses listed here. Um the advanced placement program is a nationally recognized program. Um students are enrolled in AP classes um and they have to sit for the exam
050and in order to earn college credit. Um Cinnamonson High School off also offers a dual credit program where our students we call it CAP at the high school um where our students can earn college credit by achieving a C or better in the AP or honors class. We have five different science classes, three different mathematics classes. We have two lang language arts classes, two world language classes, Spanish and French. And we have two history classes and three elective courses, music theory, um, psychology and computer science. A this year we administered 212 AP tests to our students. A score of three um is considered passing. The the college board says you are qualified for college credit if you earn a three. That would mean that they expect that if you were to take the college equivalent
051course, you would get a C or better. 82% of our test takers earned a three or higher. 174 scores. 61 of the scores were a four, which they say is wellqualified, meaning you would get a B or better in a college equivalent course. And 45 of those scores were a five, which extremely wellqualified. These are College Board lingo, and they would expect you to get an A or better in a college equivalent course. We had um a lot of achievement. Um the English language and composition course in particular had 19 students. 15 of the 19 students earned a four or better. Um the majority score at 47% was a four and their average overall score was 4.1. Calculus AB, it's near and dear to my heart. Um we had 14 out of 20 students get
052a four or a five. The majority of students got fives. 40% with the average score of a 3.9. At this time, I'm going to turn this podium over to Dr. Goldber. >> This is my eighth year doing this talk, and all eight years, Ms. Arbles's calculus scores were always uh highlighted as one of our uh highest passing rates. So, bravo to her. I know she's sad that she's not working with those students anymore. But um again there are other tests that had you know mean scores in the in the fours but if we follow that rule of 10 we only report if there were at least 10 students in them we are not able to uh to highlight them this evening and these all these same courses are offered this year at Camamentson High School.
053We did add one additional AP course this year AP government uh is running this year for the first time. So, we have uh another offering uh for our high school students uh in the 2526 school year. And with that, any questions from board members? >> Just make one comment. Seventh graders, I think I've asked you probably three times over your all of your presentations. What do we do with that seventh grade dip? And we're still working. It's been more than three times. >> But as Miss Arbell has said, there have been each year there is a cohort of seventh graders who don't take the seventh grade test. They take algebra 1 and those are students who have historically been successful on these state assessments. So they are now in that algebra 1 group which I
054believe it was 100% of middle school algebra one students passed the test. Um but they have worked you know under Mrs. Meltchure and now Ms. D Simone's leadership on you know working on some of the scheduling components uh for math and again two years ago that number was in the 30s when it came to passing last year it was 53 and then this evening we shared it was it was 47 48 whatever the number was. So >> but I do like that >> but the content the material continues to get more and more complicated with each year. So, >> I do like that each of you actually showed us the like what the highlights were, the low lights were. >> Okay. >> Any other board members have a question? >> I just want how does
055that compare to other states? I know we do. Our state, do they take the same testing or every state? >> Totally different. Okay, that's what I wanted to know. >> There was a time 10 years ago, no more 10, 12, 13 years ago when people were taking park, >> right? And then there was another test called smarter balanced and those different states all got in on that. Um but that went by the wayside and now everyone develops their own assessment. >> Yeah. >> All right. Thank you very much. [Applause] [Music] All right, we are moving on to section 8, correspondence. Uh, I know personally I've received a few emails from concerned parents um this month. All were responded to by the appropriate administrators uh and board members. Anyone else have anything to report? Just got
056a email. I think we all got the same email uh regarding special education and placement um reaching out for um assistance. So, >> all right. So, we're moving on to section nine, the committee reports. Uh we have one committee report this um this month the referendum subcommittee for construction and finance uh which took place on September 10th. Uh Mr. Bramal you want to report on that please? >> Thank uh the referendum construction finance subcommittee met via Google meet on Wednesday September 10th 2025. The purpose of this meeting was to discuss referendum projects and potential community tax impact. Mr. Mr. Capello re reviewed why each project is identified as a district need. Uh Mr. Garrison provided the committee with more background or rationale to the individual projects. Administrators shared their feedback as to why they felt
057all identified projects are important to the district. Uh the question was raised as to the project list if it should be consolidated. The decision will go back to the board referendum committee for further discussion and review and the next referendum subcommittee meeting has not yet been scheduled at this time. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Bramhole. U Mr. Mer, can I have a motion to approve section 9, letter A, committee reports? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you, Miss Aayakone. Comments or questions from the board? >> Hearing none, we'll take a vote. Miss Falconero. I >> I motion approved. And moving on to section 10, public comment. Members of the public are reminded that comment should be limited to items appearing on this meeting's agenda. There will be another opportunity during this meeting to
058comment on non-aggenda items. All members of the public wishing to speak on agenda items only should raise their hand to indicate their wish to speak. When called upon, participants should state their first and last name and address clearly for the record. In accordance with sentiments and board of education policy, comments will be limited to a maximum of four minutes per person and the comment period will be limited to 30 person 30 minutes in duration. And with that, is there anyone who wishes to comment on agenda items? >> On their two days ago, or should I wait? >> Okay. >> All right. We're moving on to section 11, personnel, certified, non-certified. Mr. Capello. >> Thank you, Mrs. Fitzwwater. Under section 11, personnel, letter A, seeking the board to approve items one and two, names listed in
059the agenda. Under number one, certified staff, letter A. And under number two, non-certificated staff, letters A through F for the board's consideration. Under letter B, transfers, there are five items for the board's consideration listed in the agenda. Under letter C, we have seven items for the board's consideration, and those items are listed in the agenda. Under leaves of absence, there are 10 items. Uh these leaves are listed by staff number, and they are in the agenda for the board's consideration this evening for approval. Um the updated list of teacher overloads is linked and listed in the agenda under letter E1. Uh under letter F. Um there are no advancements on the salary guide. Letter G. Seeking the board's approval on items one through Scroll to the bottom of the list. There are 17 uh for
060the board's consideration this evening. Those items are listed in the agenda. Letter H, mentor teachers. There is one mentor teacher up for the board's consideration in the agenda listed under number one. Skipping down to letter J. seeking the board's approval on J1 items A through H as listed in the agenda and there are no tutors for consideration. So that is the end of the personnel section. >> Thank you Mr. Capello. Miss Falcano, can I have a motion to approve section 11 personnel certified non-certified items A through K. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Kenny. Comments or questions from the board. >> Hearing none, we'll take a vote. Missing Black B. I >> I motion approved. Moving on to section 12, curriculum and instruction. Dr. Goldberg, >> thank you very much. I just
061want to say again because I don't remember if I said it or not, a big thank you again to Miss Arbles, Mr. Melture, Mrs. Melture, and Mr. Perupka for your your insights and analysis tonight. It was greatly appreciated. Uh under number 12, letter A, requesting board approval of the professional development requests. under letter B, field trips numbers one and two. Uh nothing under letter C or D this month. Under letter E, requesting board approval of the monthly suspension report. And those are the items this month. >> Thank you, Dr. Goldberg. Miss Eileen Bllestein, can I have a motion to approve section 12 curriculum and instruction items A through E? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you, Miss Icon. Comments or questions from the board? hearing. None. We'll take a vote. Mr. Fanero. >> I
062I >> I motion approved. Moving on to section 13, special education. Mrs. Llewellyn. >> Thank you, Mrs. Fitzwwater. Under letter A, contracts, seeking the board to ratify a firm agreement with care options for kids to provide nursing service for a student during the 2526 school year. Under letter B, student placements, seeking the board to approve the public and private out of district placements for the 2526 school year. And under letter C, consultant agreement, seeking the board to approve two consultant agreements this evening. Uh, one, educational translation services to provide translation services. And number two, Advancing Opportunities Incorporated to provide assisted technology evaluations and support services. And those costs are listed in the agenda. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Llewellyn. Mr. Kenny, can I have a motion to approve section 13, special education items
063A through C? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Maker. Comments or questions from the board? >> I have a a question just uh regarding the translation services for that. Um, can you tell me how often you use that uh the translation services? I know it says it's $135 an hour. I'm not against it. I'm just curious like how often you use those those services. anytime there's a a language barrier. >> So So it's as needed basically. It's not a full Okay. Correct. Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. >> All right. Um Mr. Falcanero >> I I >> I motion approved. Uh we have no policies uh this time. So we're moving on to uh section 15, business and finance. Mrs. Wilkey. >> Thank you, Mrs. Fitzwwater. Under section A, grants. Item number one,
064that the board approves the 2526 PA transfer request as outlined below. Item number two, that the board accepts the revised fiscal year 25 extraordinary aid in the amount of an additional $1,44. Item number three, that the board approves and accepts the fiscical year 26 ESA consolidated grant is allocated below. And item number four, that the board accepts the Peter R. Marsh Foundation grant in the amount of $1,550 under section 2B finance that the board approves the staff mileage reimbursements as listed. And item number two that the board approves the Hunter County Educational Services Commission of New Jersey to advertise for the lease purchase for school buses. Item C, operations. Item number one, that the board approves the disposal of one classroom speaker for an FM system for the new Albany school. Item number two that
065the board approves the following surplus sale as listed below. Item three that the board accepts with appreciation the donation of a trailer from Rigs Dysller and Company to the high school marching band under section D contracts. Item number one, that the board approves a sending tuition agreement between Cinnamonson Board of Education and Burlington County Institute of Technology as outlined. And B, that the board approves the revised receiving tuition contract for the period of September 2nd through June 30th with Riverside Board of Education. Item number two, that the board approves the general services contract with Camden County Educational Services Commission. and B that the board approves the general services contract with Mammoth Ocean Educational Services Commission both for cooperative transportation services as needed. And item three that the board approves a joint transportation agreement between Cinem
066of Ed and Mammoth Ocean Educational Services Commission retroactive to September 17th through June 18th. >> Okay. >> And that is it for business and finance. Thank you, Mrs. Fitzwwater. >> Thank you, Mrs. Wilkkey. Now, Mr. Mr. Bramhol, can I have a motion to approve section 15, business and finance, items A through D? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you, Miss Ione. Comments or questions from the board? >> Hearing none, we'll take a vote. Mine Blaststein. >> I motion approved. Moving on to section 16. Other business. Uh, we have approved our goals for the 2526 school year and so I need a motion to approve those goals. Uh, Miss Zikone, can I have a motion to approve section 16 item A? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you, Miss Mrs. Flystein. >> Comments or
067questions from the board? >> Hearing none, we'll take a vote. Miss Balano. I >> I motion approved. Uh moving on to section 17, public comment on other matters. Members of the public are reminded that comments should be limited to items appearing on this meeting's agenda. Excuse me, sorry, other one. All members of the public wishing to speak should raise their hands to indicate their wish to speak. When called upon, participants should state their first and last name and address clearly for the record. In accordance with sentiments and board of education, comments will be limited to a maximum of four minutes per person. The comment period will be limited to 30 minutes in duration. Pursuant to the Oakland public eating meetings act, the board will not publicly discuss or comment on matters involving personnel, litigation, negotiations,
068or attorney client privilege. The board may choose not to respond to comments made by members of the public during this portion of the meeting. However, all comments will be given appropriate consideration. Matters requiring follow-up will be referred to the superintendent for resolution. Please be aware that all board members retain the right to privacy and shall retain all rights against defamation and slander according to the laws of New Jersey. The board shall not be held liable for comments made by members of the public. And with that, Mr. Noiki. Scott Noiki, 8:30 Hilltop Road. Members of the board, at the board meeting in August, I spoke about the importance of my son beginning his day in the integrated kindergarten classroom. He deserved the sense of belonging to a classroom that included his non-disabled peers. A sense of
069belonging that all students deserve. And for the first two weeks of the year, he had just that. His peers saw him as part of their class, and he was flourishing. In those two weeks, his kindergarten teacher described him as happy, smiling, and engaged. She told us how he joined the morning routine, unpacked his bag with support, and used his talker to greet classmates. He participated in lessons, sang songs, and even took on helper roles. He lit up when he received praise and was clearly clearly proud of what he was doing. These are not small things. They are important milestones that show he can thrive in a classroom with his peers when given the right support. Despite this success, the district removed our son from the integrated kindergarten classroom, placing him solely in a segregated classroom.
070The district did not provide any credible explanation for why they were removing him from the integrated kindergarten classroom. They removed him simply because they could. Instead of building on the progress our son was making, the district chose to pull him from a setting where he was connecting with peers, learning routines, and gaining confidence. Tonight, I want to emphasize the personal impact this has had on our son. In those first two weeks, he was learning routines that gave him structure and independence. He was greeted warmly by his peers, smiled back, and even gave high fives. He joined class activities and showed joy when he was included. Taking him out of that environment has disrupted not just his learning, but his sense of belonging. For a child who thrives on consistency, routine, and positive reinforcement, this change
071has has been confusing and discouraging. The issues we have raised with you over the past few weeks are not merely administrative matters, nor can they be addressed simply by passing them along to staff. They implicate the district's core legal responsibilities under federal and state law, and as such, they require act active oversight and engagement from the board itself. They reflect significant they reflect significant non-compliance with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act. These failures do not only harm our son, they place the district and by extension the board at a at substantial legal and financial risk. When district leadership engages in practices that violate federal law, it is the duty of the board to intervene, investigate, and ensure that corrective action is taken. We
072want to be clear, we are committed to working collaboratively to resolve these issues without litigation if at all possible. However, continued inaction or reliance on administrative assurances in the face of clear violations will leave us with no choice but to pursue every legal remedy available to protect our son's rights and to ensure that the district fulfills its obligations to all students with disabilities. We sincerely hope that the board will treat these matters with the seriousness they warrant and and will exercise the level of oversight necessary to bring district the district into full compliance with its legal legal legal duties. Our request is not only on behalf of our son, but also on behalf of all families who depend on this district to uphold the law and provide every child with the opportunities they deserve. Thank
073you for listening and for taking seriously your responsibility to make sure every child in this district has the opportunity to thrive. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Whiskey. No wiki. Anyone else? Brittany Relvis Cinnamonson. How you guys doing? Happy summer. Some I've seen over the summer, some I have not. How's everyone doing? Um, so a couple questions. I guess I'm confused with this agenda. I got stopped at the door coming in here at 6:00 telling me the meeting's not till 7:00. The top of the agenda says 6:00 p.m. clearly. So that's my first question. Second question is there was a little blurb at the bottom of the agenda on Tuesday when I read it. Um that said that hold on, let me just get it out because I got quite a few tabs here. Basically,
074you guys are voting to approve us taxpayers $50,000 to hire a a communications firm to convince us taxpayers that our school needs to be bigger. Like, I I think that was convinced to us when you started throwing kids in trailers. Um, I've spoken on the safety of the trailers for I feel like years now. Um, I I don't understand. Teachers are giving swipy cards to kids to go as they please to a campus that is not fenced in that a dead body was found on a year ago. I mean, I've got questions. So, I'm just confused on why this item cuz it was brought up last month and was completely shut down by the board saying, "Oh, no. It's not on the agenda." It was on the agenda again up until I saw Tuesday. So,
075I mean, what is going on? You guys have an amazing production team here, right in house, that could make a video or a website. Like, I I don't understand what we're doing here. My second thing is great NJSLA. You guys, most of you know my kids don't take it. So, that doesn't represent my kids. But since we want it to represent our district so much, let's talk about it. Okay? There's 21 counties in the state of New Jersey. I bet you out of those 21, not twothirds of their whole tax bill goes to their school district. As much as we pay to our school district and our school taxes is most people's entire tax bill. Those numbers should be 20, 30, 40% higher than the state average. And I appreciate you saying we got work
076to do, but like let's not bamboozle these people and saying six points higher than a district that is down the street from me. Like what? It's why I moved here. It's why I pay almost $11,000 in taxes. Not for this nonsense. So please use our dollars appropriately. We do not need Laura Bishop. Communications is recognized as a leader in the education field for our expertise in campaigns to educate and motivate voters in advance of bond referendum. Guys, we're over. We're at capacity. It needs to be bigger. We've got to do better here. But let's let's be serious here. So, please, I don't know why this keeps popping in and on the agenda, but you guys are representing us and I really think the public should know about this stuff. But again, utilize these people in
077here. We can I have high school kids that can make you a video to convince us that our school needs to be bigger. How about the parents with kids in the trailer? I see so many people talking on Facebook, but nobody shows up here. Nobody. I will continue to show up and continue to speak and do whatever I can, but safety and security is number one. Maybe we should have thought about that four years ago before we started throwing trailers up. We knew what this this was happening. And I I'll say it again. We've got our special education department sitting in a brand new building. They don't see kids in that building. Why aren't they spread out through the schools? Why aren't our kids? Why aren't you >> stop calling them cottages? They're not. That's
078>> So please, I appreciate it. That's your time. >> Have a great night, everyone. Any other people from the public wish to speak? >> So personal. Why is it so personal? I'm not representing the district. I'm a little >> Any other members of the audience would like to speak publicly? >> Thank you. >> All right. Board comments. >> Uh Mr. Kenny, >> I do. Do you want me to go first, Ed? >> Sure. >> Okay. I just wanted to say thank you for coming out, especially the public, because it's really important whether we want to hear it or not. It's important for us to hear what's being said in our town, good or bad. It only will make us better. It's important for us to hear that. So, I do thank you for coming out.
079Um, I just have a a question. As a board member, and I'm sure all of us, we've been up here for a long time about the special education. I don't know if there's any way we can find out more about the inclusion process. Um what the district uses, how they decide that. As a board member, I'd love to and maybe everyone would like to just see our procedures so we have more information about that. Um I just think it would be better for us to be educated on that process and so that we know what's going on when we hear um comments. So I don't know how I could get that or share that with anyone on the board, but I think that would be great. Thank you. Thanks, >> Mr. Kenny. >> Sure. Uh,
080congratulations to our athletes as they compete in their fall sports. Thank you to Rigs Distler and Company for their donations in a marching band. Thank you to our student reps for their outstanding reports tonight. And for our presenters tonight as well, and thank you to those who shared their comments in the public's comment section. Uh, the next regularly scheduled meeting will take place on Tuesday, October 14th at 7 o'clock right here in the middle school cafeterium. More information can be found on the district website. That's it. Thank you. >> All right. And with that, we are going back into con executive session. And we may have an item. >> If there is an action item, it would be separate from any information listed in the agenda. >> Okay. >> There may be a singular action
081item at the end. >> Okay. Uh and uh with that, Miss Kate Bstein, can I have a motion to reconvene into executive session? >> So moved. >> Second. Second. >> Thank you, Miss Falcanero. All in favor? >> I opposed. All right, we're back in executive session. >> Thank you for coming out and have a good night. All right, board members, why don't you take a a couple minutes if you need to, and then we'll reconvene.