001e e e welcome everybody to Al to the flag United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible here pres Pres present present presid due to thank pres evening everyone we are live streaming here so the people at home the uh the city of Garfield our first Live Hope do any more of these events the idea is to get our tech department and our students involved and you live streaming um student events games meetings whatever it is so I we're a little that but uh but you know little bab said so so welcome if anyone's watching live uh this just shows this board transparency the board speaking with them over the past month so I'm going to speak a little bit little bit lengthy because I want to
002tell you how incredible my month has been here my few months has been here but my first month in September uh in Barfield so I I think uh if you canol with a few minutes um just about the incred things that are really happening in these buildings and around the city uh I'm not just saying that because up here it's uh it really is an incredible place I was sharing with the principals and some of the uh the other administrators that day walking around the buildings our students are behaved our students are engaged uh students talking me I went to what Walgreens and our students were on a half day all talking it was it really was a great feeling so are incredible I'm I'm so impressed I'm very excited to be here um our
003teachers our support staff our administrators are just doing incredible things uh I haven't had the ability to get everywhere i' I've done everything I can we're trying to you know make some immediate necessary changes if we see them especially with facilities up and uh you we've done PR great job central office Leo and his team um just kind of trying to get things together and I think one of the testing that is you know uh from our first football game to our our um dedication ceremony we had a light lighting issue right so uh we fixed that right away so I think it's just a great uh great sense of communication happening and uh just I always say the word progress and I hope you're all on St P that night but I have this
004is a great place to be those you been here few maybe two decades no one's talking about that's why people are saying why there's there's really little turnover here so just a stuff we have uh some pures to to go over um you know hopefully over those the next 5 to 6 months I was just talking to the board a little bit about some of those some of those reports that are coming and there's going to be some difficult decisions that have to be made but I think we make those decisions with with our our kids and their families in mind first and of course our extended town which our our faculty and sta I think everything here is just going to just sort and continue to sort we have some great FKS time to
005see hear from our students we're going to you know honor our student in the month we're also going to see our score score report um because I think it's important to do as early as you can because I'm very excited about some of the growth that's occurred here at some schools that made tremendous amount of growth uh and uh you know this won't do justice but we post yourself but I told get so this board can celebrate some of it um you know speak of the board leadership over the past um few months uh Mr Ramos and Mr Taylor uh you know just an incredible Vision moving forward to see on the agenda tonight there are some programs that are in place because this entire board when they met with me the first time said
006we to our families more programs we need to you know stop going everyone's pocket that's what you're seeing here with a couple of the programs that are on here for music the music program um you know we also you know obviously working with other things you know security was around talking about security giving you guys a security Report with him probably next month um we did get an audit and we contining to certain audits with regards to special education technology uh a few other things position control Finance all these things are important as a new superintend comes in also because it's been a while at at our house um and we're just going to keep it and get it in order so we can continue to great things for the the future of mareld fut
007Royal makers uh moving forward so uh again there's just some incredible stuff on this agenda um and some things that we also need to to highlight um and talk about first I want to thank the board office and Central officea for helping in my transition over the past few months they done an incredible job um um you know uh just putting the agenda together learning each other and learning the sport what their needs are um you also some of your rece the lead Water Report I want anyone nervous there's no issue with lead in the water um I know we probably got you know there's there's compliance issue that of Education have to follow in certain outlet outlet know certains um you know read a little high you have to be notified fortunately so and
008we sent that out so I'm also happy to tell you that we're do another round of water testing we're going next month by code we're also going to try to get brand new drinking fountains ones that have the bottle um the Bott sensors for in all the schools we're working on that to working on that trying some grants Etc uh I'm extremely excited that this board has supported Mr Al the athletic department GRE girls Cooperative here uh in the spring I don't if you're familiar with the cross it's the fastest game on two feet uh and you know our girls are very intense here right here so I can't see them out there uh just another incredible thing to bring to a city like Barfield that some people say oh this only happen in you
009know the more fluent districts District AFF it it's not sure it's not sure anymore specially with me here um our kids deserve more than the other kids have on the district so very excited support that tonight on um so you know really really looking forward to that uh we also have our field dedication ceremony few weeks ago thank you all for coming I want to thank High School administration Mr Alo everyone for together um just again incredible night what attestment what this board has done to that field um putting that together for the entire community of and City here in Barfield um really is I got to stand on it I was excited that I got to be part of very most point for me uh so just so thank you all again for coming
010um we're also now actually working on speaking board on trying to get the rest of field complete we have some lighting on the other side so that might be a little bit of a process but we're going to start that process um and possibly for see moving forward some concession funding out there the's going to have to get some policies for that approvals M forward we got that because you know ask people the TA a lot of people that weing outside there as well very active with that and we talking about that out there we have AR record working on you know maybe design out there chair chair M chair which is just an incredible thing for veterans not mil the respect for any man who sacrif sacrif so our kids our students can see
011that remember that every time support think we get more veterans involved in and I appreciate that as well uh School five or former School five I guess call the future School five whatever we want to call it that the demolition is almost complete there um and it looks like the bid openings are set for October 30th prob going um but that's an incredible for this town community um to see that you know we're going to be starting on that on that uh that project so we're really excited about that also wanted to mention that our next our December meeting is going to be on the 16th instead of the 23r mind we move to 23rd and I realiz that we're not open on the 23rd uh which is great I gu but we really can't
012be here for open um moving back to 16 for that I appreciate your support as well um two one more thing on here is an RTI position um that's on here uh that's a response to intervention this board has dedicated and has utilized a lot of monies with regards that when I first got here we were talking about Renaissance part of programed a whole bunch of different things moving towards some powerol systems and um working on some new curriculum modules working with that RTI and unfortunately um no one here has really been the absolute coordinator of that which has caused us to take a setep back a little bit um there have been some individuals chipping in since July and I appreciate that but that's really not how it works when people after school uh
013you know during the day working on some stuff as well so that's why that position is in there that position control position uh which for right now is just going to compensate that individual for moving forward the individual that is up for approval is highly qualified for that position it's the it's the it's the person that has been working with us now doing it uh and that's my recommendation I just want to let everybody know how important it is to to the district that this position goes through tonight um because we Tak steps money this Bo spent uh if you don't continue to to expand that role so I appreciate that support for that recommendation tonight as well uh and then finally we have um you know Matos is here what I asked them to
014do is do a brief uh you know presentation of what your sons and daughters eat on a daily basis and then this is their farm table program over here which I think you're going to be able to take some vegetables home with you right y um this is what the kids saw for the last month this is farm table month or what's it called Farmers Farmer Market Farmers Market month I'm sorry should proba known that um so again this is what your children our students are seeing in the elementary school so please take advantage of that and then after the meeting tonight uh you can on the way out I don't know if it's going be open rights over here you can actually go and M is going the future with a normal middle school
015lunch would be if you want to try it so take some home have a burger or something like that um so please I mean I appreciate uh Frank M was here thank you very much sir for your support uh I think it's important that you see if your kids are eating because there's a lot of rumors out there you know and we want to hear about that so we can dispel some of that but everything is in compliance um with the you know Department of Agriculture um you know things do not have the first level of sugar and it's never the first ingredients not allow products are weat that's why when your kids come home and say this macaroni cheese wasn't great it's not your macaroni cheese right it's weat macaroni cheese it's not your
016macaroni cheese right so course it's not the macaroni cheese when we were in school and the lunch people put a whole bunch of water in there it's not like that anymore so we just wanted to celebrate that as well so um so all those great things are happening uh that's 4.1 so I'd like to call up I guess for soon month that I'm sorry don't know how present okay so we have a present just moment so I'd like to um first call up Nicole balala she is our September student of the month Nicole is one of the most responsible reliable and dedicated students that I have encountered in my teaching career she's an incredible human being that shows compassion for her fellow students Nicole is a natural leader and true role model to her peers
017she is mature far beyond her years and her work ethic is unparalleled she puts forth a tremendous amount of effort in all that she does never want to settle for less than Perfection Nicole would seek feedback on her already outstanding essays Nicole works well independently and is able to follow through to ensure that any job gets done she accomplishes these tasks with initiative and a very positive attitude her intellectual curiosity and desire to acquire new knowledge continuously have led her to perform very well in my class class furthermore she has a fantastic sense of humor and always knows how to brighten your day with a joke it has been a pleasure to see her grow up over the past three years and I wish her the best in her future [Applause] endeavors thank you so
018much I'm very honored to receive this award and be recognized as September student of the month I would like to extend my thanks to miss tup who has always supported me and given me all her encouragement the past four years I would also like to say thank you to all the other teachers and administr administrators at Garfield High School for recognizing outstanding students each month and encouraging them to do their best because their hard work does not go unnoticed thank [Applause] you so I'd like to present you with this this is uh our challenge Point uh you're going to be the first recient of it from here on out our students of the month we something from the board you know for your dedication and as a gratitude for us on what you represent for
019our students congratulations thank you [Applause] congratulations M what's your higher uh education aspirations what do you hope to do what's your higher education aspirations I to after graduating from Garfield High School I plan to attend a four-year college and I'll continue my education um hopefully pursuing Finance Finance great and I'm looking into a ripo ripo awesome congratulations thank you [Applause] congratulations again um I'm excited to have one of our Wizards here tonight to do uh to say hello if you want to kind of get up so this is a new program um chess Wizards that is is uh available for no cost to our our elementary schools we'll try to get to Middle High School May at some point maybe have you guys out but um basically it's a s based chess learning program so
020the whole idea is to you learn some of those those modules of St while we create this in incredible chest team so we go to all these other fs and and all these competitions so uh we have a a video you want to talk first then a video go ahead thank you um uh superintendent TOMCO thank you for the board I'm representing chess Wizards my name is Ryan Williams and I am a fellow chess wizard if you guys haven't noticed um big on chess not on public speaking however you know I'm very excited about having chess in your guy you know the district with you and um we've been I've been working here for about 10 years and teaching chess and teaching for about 15 years and this has been one of my most exciting
021experiences so um I'm glad to be here and I hope that we can bring a very exciting nature to chess you know um not a lot of kids are searching for Bobby Fisher anymore so hopefully we can help with that and it's going to help with their their patience you know it helps with their thinking skills it helps with being able to make the right decisions and we hope to bring a lot of that here to the darkfield district so thank you thank [Applause] you chers the most successful after school program in the United States is ready to greet your students Lear and our exciting interactive classes make chess enjoyable for students of all ages our inovative safe after school chess progams are available at no cost to your school along with teaching the game
022of chess our teachers make student safety a top priority our CH love teaching students while creating fun and students lock in inspir interactive classroom form we've been in business over 15 years and have over 1,000 locations across the country our programs promote the cognitive emotional and Social Development of your students we also show children gracious woman and loser [Music] School principles just like you describe our programs as constructive safe and a perfect education solution for after school Child Care needs our experienced staff and professionals handles all educational aspects of our programs chess Wizards after school programs prove that child is more than simply placing kids at table at the of school students interact with each other in a fun and educational group dynamic parents ask there's a safe after hour rtion you will have the
023answer want to CH contact us today to start a chess Wizards program your thank you again so my hope is that only by our elementary we were doing in every school I me you know and when I first got here I said it's very important to be Equitable so hopefully all of our students take advantage some point please spread the word uh it's an incredible program at least try it right maybe chess isn't for everybody but you don't know if it's for want you try it and uh so please spr word thank you again for your time tonight and uh we for to partnership uh let me just segue into another thing that's on the agenda tonight which we work on over the weekend really about something called Music Makers um it's going to be
024a um composition type program that's going down to the third grades we're trying to boost the music program a little bit and have those students pick uh you know pick some instruments uh compose some music so again I appreciate the board um you know supporting that program as well pushing me towards the music area uh as part of my background as well my my familiar background um it's very important uh I know that we want to build that program here um and uh I I the board for kind of making that one of our priorities when you hired me uh so tonight is the first starl so we welcome that program as well also title money um also title money so uh I also want to recognize uh the middle school over the summer got
025something called the purple star designation uh which I did um I think we're probably going to have to uh expand on this a little bit one of the following months because I read an article today I was about this I must have missed it and guess our our media specialist in the middle school has been a big part of this and it's been around for a very long time so it's a little bit more in depth than than this little certificate that we have so I'd really like to spot this Mr President maybe next month or the month after the incredible work that we're doing here for our military families um you know purple star is a state sponsor program uh for military connected students and their families basically helping students transition to school developing
026programs that recognize the value of military service help connect students overcome some challenges as you know moving and different things making friends right and providing resources for the students so our Middle School was the only school I believe in northern New Jersey to get recognized so uh you I don't see Mr here tonight but congratulations just want recognize Middle School well for the hard work and we we'll make up for it next month congratulations a round of applause now we have government here so I'm very excited to hear you guys have you have a brief presentation as well right should be up there so I don't think you put does that you guys have that good evening everyone and good evening to everyone watching at home I'm Dara I'm Frank and we are the student
027government of Garin high school student government co-presidents um just to introduce ourselves we were elected last year in May the last Academic Year um and we started we started working on our presidency as soon as we were elected um we just wanted to sum up uh the the things we' had accomplished thus far um as September is ending and we just wanted to explain um how we got these things done especially especially with our advisor Mr Burns oh so I'll start the presentation take you take that out it's easier for just pull it thank you uh so we so we got start our presentation uh so one of the first things we did this year was our spirit me it was the first period week of the year uh so for Monday with the pajama
028day Tuesday with the color war on Wednesday we a villain versus superhero tshir day and on Thursday with the throwback Thursday where I can where our should dress up as their favorite day and then on Friday we had our uh first football game which It theme was purple Cloud so also our spirit week of Friday day was purple out and uh on the next line we have some pictures our students um those are pictures from different days so we have the col of War pictures we have the PJ day uh pictures we have the decades day pictures um I think the decades day is definitely a hit I think a lot of people participated that day there are many students that also made videos which got tons of views which was we think was great
029because our main focus is to bring the spirit of our students up and make them more involved in the school yeah and to add to that uh L of our students are social media right and all students from different schools they post uh videos on on Tik Tok uh like for from their base and so we wanted to do something uh that would be on the level comparable to schools okay I think that this is our main focus this year although we accomplished many things our main focus was being days cuz um many people we had in several years back in high school and we brought it back and I think it was it it was amazing we got we Soo almost um over 200 tickets um it was amazing the game was under the
030stars and I think the loved it it was great took a lot of planning and it took a lot of help from our team and a lot of hours to start playing this summer I just think it was amazing it turned out like even better than we expected yeah it was quite amazing uh we got a lot of positive Ops from the staff members and from the students body um it was really fun uh especially that was our first one coming so we kind of had to you know figure stuff out but I think we did a good job on their own and for our next slide we have a pet rally uh which was I believe it was first pet R outside on our new athletic complex which is very exciting um people head
031was very good uh we this job U we have pictures of our student body we have our L uh Athletics teams uh we have our some of our Administration members in the corner uh and we also have done a t between different RS that's the make I really think this event brought the school together this this was during our fourth block so we did um a lot of SPS to come out during the fourth block and um it was great music playing all these teams were coming out to the song we selected and it was just a great experience overall and also the was um the pep rally was right after our beautiful ribbon cutting um we did have the honor of doing the pledge there as well I honestly think it was an amazing
032experience and here's few pictures of the yeah was was I'm very thankful for this opportunity that me and had to be there for this initi of conf so for our next step we are holding election here soon there are three questionman representative left one sophore representive spot and one senior representive our goal is to although quality over quantity we do want to fill our team complet so we we have as much support as we need um we are planning future events um the gold which is engaging fense Foria students raising wareness of the W of student government and collaborating connecting with other student governments of other schools so yeah and the idea again is to have St government that is comparable to Student Government at different schools because you know wefi we the state of
033champion and we government that is pretty much changing right that's we want to give a huge thank you to wrap up our presentation to Dr TOMCO Miss Yano and Mr Taran and all the GS Administration Mr Alonso Mr Jeffrey and ghs coaches Mr Z and his security staff members Mr and other D staff and especially our students uh who have participated in our our our conf we're very thankful them and for electing us and believeing us thank you so much really you guys are group when I can't wa to we going to start to have some meetings but I'm very impressed with you uh I W Mr I think it was going the color uh color warwards day and just the spirit and the excitement was really was really cool be part of so so
034congratulations you know you're excellent job let's keep it up and let's keep moving the district forward thank you thank you we're also looking very forward to working with you yes thank you class with these new events and this new complex that you guys are now I think the the class very excited I think for the past years they've been really waiting um the homecoming and all uh events that we did and I think we got a lot of positive feedback hope we guys some constuctive feedback will definitely improve with time yeah I agree with FR um we did we I think that many of the upper class feel that we know they're kind of leaving when all stuff is happening but we just want to make make a better best experience for the last year
035and also for the freshman and we want to be amazing leaders so that our future have freshman our Student Government team so that they can take our positions when we [Applause] leave and now call Binger for our score report you made good evening everyone it's my pleasure to stand up here and speak to you about this spring 2024 newe student learning assessment results this is something we are required to do annually for qack and when we go through our qack review uh next year they will actually be reviewing this report with us in the district now Dr Tomo mentioned before that the presentation will be able to be viewed in full uh on the uh Go website it will be up there tomorrow I'm just going to highlight a handful of the slid for you
036there is about 35 total but you're only going to have to about so the New Jersey student learning assessment uh presentation covers three major subjects students are tested in science in math and Ela so I'm going to start with Ela and this is showing us race three four and five and what I like about this slide is unlike the ones previously where you have about 10 columns showing comparisons we can see here the percent of our students that have grown over the course of the uh of the year of testing levels one and two would be the neediest levels three are always where we're approaching proficiency but we want our students to be at a level four and a level five because that means needing proficiency or a five would be Advanced proficient and if
037you look at our grades from three through five uh through 9 third grade we are higher than the state as far as growth goes fourth grade we have grown more than the state fifth grade grade we have significantly grown more than the state as far as Ela goes sixth grade look at that we are at 17.6 where the state only had a growth rate of 5.6 8th grade 5.6 to 1.5 and Ninth Grade which we always know is a challenge with our freshman kind of going from that 8ighth grade to to the ninth grade to stay through 9.1 but I'm so happy to say that we went up 1% and an increase is an increase that's something to be celebrated so if we were to move ahead to math which would go from grades 3
038through 8 and Algebra 1 which is taken by our eth grade honor students as well as our nth grade if your following the group with the presentation in front of you so again we want to really focus on the fours and the fives and you can see Garfield went up a little bit higher for cares of State for third grade we did well for fourth grade fifth grade we're about even sixth grade tremendous tremendous ad 10.5 versus 4.9 7th grade we had 7.5 proficiency with state only had 3.5 the eighth grade we went up 11 where the state only went up four we did go down a little bit in algebra but that's something that we're really focusing and we're working on overall as you can see we are outperforming State and we are showing
039tremendous growth and it's something to be celebrated I know the schools are aware of these tards and actually have been having some little many celebration going on in their buildings so then the science is a little different science only goes up to a level four so levels one and two would be your lower three and four would be your proficient and your Advanced proficient and science only tests grades 5 8 and 11 that's is it so our fifth grade we're at a 9.6 showing percent of growth with state is only a 1.9 we're at a 1.3 and eth grade based at 3.2 and we actually went up 1.3 for 11th grade with st app went down so just so you could see where we're at we're required to make sure we have at least 95%
040of our eligible students taking the standardized test our Ela we reached 96.4% available students so we met the compliance you over the 95% you can kind of see the difference from 23 to 24 which grades went up which grades went down um we had a big increase in our third grade we had a pretty big drop in fourth grade pretty big increase in in fifth grade drop in 8th grade drop in nth grade so overall we're down about 13 eligible students from grades 3 through 9 for the ELA portion of the standardized test and then the same thing for the math we need to have 95% on my slide 14 if following so we did have exactly 95% of eligible students taking the test and as you can see the the population it's just about
041uh 21 higher in third grade you definitely dropped about 30 in fourth grade kind of up and down all along the grade levels for a total of minus 33 less students taking the test so minor minor changes with population and the same thing with science overall our elementary seems to be grown a little bit and then the eth and the nth uh the eth and the 11th gr excuse me dropped for a difference of 53 students taking the test but as you can see I can go through all this data but it will be on on the website tomorrow for your reading pleasure but I I would rather talk about celebrations than keep reading numbers to you because you could read numbers on your own so I am very very proud of the work that
042we have put in the past couple years in this District I know Dr tle mentioned RTI before we're getting programs like the chest now for steam because steam is embedded in what happens in the New Jersey student learning assessment so really it's more important about the celebration and if we look at what we're doing in ela and math our our level ones for the ELA decreased in average of 7% across the district with state only decreased 1% that that's a nice thing to see our level four and FES went up 9% whereas State as the only went up 3% so we are making jumps compared to what the state is doing with standardized test R 4 through 7 show a growth of 10% or higher for levels four and five over the 3 years of
043data that we've been tracking 10% something to celebrate and our students with disabilities and our economically disadvantaged students have increased an average of 5% in 2022 to on today's standardized testing for ELA and we have things to celebrate with the math as well levels one and two decreased in average of 8% across the district where the state only decreased 3% levels four and five increase an average of 6% compared to the state's 4% six and 8 show growth of 10% or higher from levels 45 from 22 to 24 and our students with disabilities and our English language students have gone up and out 4% in the past 3 years so I I would hope you'd agree with me that they may not be drying changes some of them are but definitely something to be celebrated
044we're doing something right we're going in the right direction and that is something that is a collective effort from it comes from the top down we have amazing Administration here who support our teachers our teachers are working with our students and giving them what they need to achieve I know my supervisors are in the classroom with those students it is a colletive effort everything that's happening here and everybody deserves to be celebrated for these notable achievements now you might be wondering like what are some of the things that we're doing and there's some new things but there things that we' we've done in the past and maybe you're now focusing on a more deeper dive with data we're measuring our lifetile and independent reading levels of our students and providing targeted instruction at the reading
045level so not everybody's being taught at one level we're teaching the students according to the levels that which they are starting as a baseline with the hopes that they will grow uh Dr Tom per menion before Renaissance Learning we're excited we have that kiing off for us here to help support math in laa we have albert.io which is a program we used at the high school U mainly with ap but we also use it um in other classes as well we have Discovery Education which we're using that embeds that science and that social studies and we also know that we all have those onetoone devices which completely benefit the learning environment that our students enter every day we've been embeding Math Science and Ela PD for our staff our supervisors uh we're starting something new
046this year they're conducting informal walkthroughs to ensure there's consistency among the Departments and the grade level with how the curriculum is being implemented and how te teachers are preparing students for standardized testing we've continued to create common assessments for all subjects across all grade levels and that's every subject even art and us it I know Dr T has used it before you treat everything equally we have extended day tutoring and enrichment as well as mentoring for our students response to intervention better known as RTI I can only imagine how much better that's going to get now that we'll have somebody there that's really going to help focus and pull it together and we continue to analyze our data not only from our state assessments but also our local assessments too to make sure we we
047are giving our students assessments that we've created that me or what they need to know for standardized testing and to monitor their growth now I would really like to take the opportunity to thank the Board of Education as well as District administration for all your support I know over the years we've put in a lot of new programs and sometimes you don't see both right away but baby steps as you can see there's a lot of good data here we have a lot of decreases in our in our lower levels and a lot of increases in our higher levels we are shining the state we are outpouring date which is definitely something to be celebrated am I out of time that's it thank you so we will continue to make sure we have professional development
048workshops for all our teachers throughout the year not just on professional development days we hold them during their grade levels and their department meetings we'll continue to implement digital and print materials from our students my department is constantly working with teachers to review curriculum we're actually going to a whole new curriculum and instruction program this year I'm very very excited about what that's going to do for our teachers um we've had a lot of opportunities in District as far as scheduling those for grade levels and departments to work together with Administration or even with our teacher leaders and I'm really excited to see about where the response to intervention program goes because that's what really gives our students everything that they need on their level so if anybody has any questions I'd be happy to
049answer them and I'm very very proud to presented this Workshop to you tonight thank you for listening excellent job thank you thank you add something Mr President I want to thank you uh Mr Taylor the board leadership and the rest of the board for supporting some of the stuff we've put in here since July first that's you know half day profession development days some of these Pro they change the calendar for um some of these programs uh our administrative team is joined an organization that's loaded professional development um we're collaborating more you know it's it's I know it's tough you you all are one nth of the population to you speak for the people in the city but um just that commitment you know for this vision is is uh is really important so I
050I appreciate it I mean I'm the new guy the but I think uh you know coming in with a little different set of eyes that support is is going to go very far here even some of these programs are RTI that we're putting in I know there's a lot of stuff on the agenda you all spend many many hours you know asking any questions and you know our meetings and everything going through Mr gber and all those other things but at the end of the day what we saw tonight the with the presentation with student government that's what this is about that's why you're all here right that's why you wanted to be elected uh and it all culminates these incredible scores some of these scores if you look at the treat and those individuals
051on on at home uh please look at the stat in just going to post probably tomorrow some there's there's there are grade levels that are in the 8S I mean incredible stuff incredible growth um you know if you Google anything with me you see I've always been with opponent and I'll say to the Commissioners that I've known in the past ones that they're standing right here we have to stop talking about aggregate scores you know we keep we keep talking about the whole you know fourth grade fifth grade it's impossible students in cities students in townships students in the same the same houses have different needs and different hurdles we have to stop as a society looking at aggregate scorts we have to talk about growth right I have four children myself I've said it
052before one of them is the best reader in the house and one of them is just not the best reader in the house right they were they were born up by the same parents they have the same ability to to succeed and some just Str a little more some don't it's the same thing with our kids any kid that shows growth is a success story for us so that that's the that's what I'm trying to change the culture not just here but but Nationwide that's the more important thing and if co co taught us anything we all know that that um you know life is precious and short we never know what's going to happen so when we look at scores like this we look at the growth and we concentrate and grow that's the
053important thing because our kids here have different hurdles in different towns in Bur County in Somerset County all the way down in Ocean County right so I I just think it's important it's the first time we're doing scores here and I know that a lot of people use that as rhetoric out the score the algebra scor algebra is a whole different animal you know kids take algebra 8th grade now so I mean you know it's you can't blame high school for from some of those scores it's just uh just different things so so I appreciate what your team has done and everybody forward to just moving the needle even more uh as we as we move on so so absolute progress Mr Bonnie I apologize I see you here now for for the Middle School
054award but thank you to you part of that as well so thank you for all your stuff there I know it's all but thank you very much um and just GL I talk so much tonight but I'm really my my first full meeting here with the students so just indulge me for two more minutes please um and I'm want home but you know give my 100 day entry plan we're we're a few days out uh we're almost at 90 days now I think for 90 something days so I've been here almost 100 days I plan having a meeting um I was going to have it next week or two weeks and I appreciate every putting together I just realiz it's a conflict we can't have it I will let the board know that is I
055all I'll try to make sure it's a night I think it's important what it's going to do it's going to lay out what I've learned about this Su place and where I think move forward and your support and you speak for the community so I don't to do anything on everyone's uh you know hearing what I I think we can do to move forward so U thank you again for letting me talk uh progress sorry good evening I'd like to give a brief overview of all of the facility projects that we have started since our last meeting a couple very exciting ones at our high school the agback in the child study team is in process um we also uh if you notice on the board resolution our verot cameras for the field we have
056them on order we have done everything from repairing lights outside um to getting Lights under the bleachers for safety at the high school we're doing a FL hole restoration uh at the middle school we have another HB repair in process um we were on the list and there was a 12 week wait we are getting to the top of the list so we're hopeful that that's going to jump to the top of the list we've also been working on a very important uh feature for the Fire supression Control and the jockey pump were on order and that is for the middle school project um School number four very exciting new gym floor installed it looks beautiful a new exterior sign uh for our Blue Ribbon school is on order we also repaired the trailer deck
057at that building and each um a few of the buildings we're going to be doing a new fencing area around the waste um system the garbage areas shed is also being ordered and the very exciting part is the rest of the schools that I will be naming are getting new cafeteria tables so districtwide all of the cafeteria tables will be new so that is very exciting number six again we did fencing uh new floor one of the trailers Auditorium stage drapery being ordered new shed FL hole restoration the cafeteria tables um I'll shorten it up seven same we school out we tried to do what we could in each school with the fund that we have cing area in for Waste storage shed flag restoration the cafeteria tables same thing at eight number nine doored
058the cafeteria the EC we did a major project of replacing the domestic hot water system so that was a a project that was really needed there Head Start didn't have a flag pole every building is supposed to have one head start now has a new flag pole and then distri just a small things that we were doing we ordered uh a lot of um things that the cafeteria would be uh they call them small which would be small appliances uh some new dishwashers and some other kitchen supplies and basically um the last thing was is I met with the architect which is friend from Solutions which Dro had mentioned and the four boiler projects that we had decided we are starting to work on so I will update you on the meeting of when that's
059getting started so that's it and I'm very excited that the schools are safe safer they have been painted they're clean and the children are excited and ready to Lear and I think it has started thank you great job staff uh M staff building great was great and appreciation presid right thank you um at this time um are there any comme Mee since the last Mee anyone no okay so then I'll move forward uh we did table the minutes 3.1 so uh motion go into Personnel 6.1 to by second by questions Mr Derek Mr keis yes Dr P hi Mr Meo yes Mr F Mr Gaba 6 Mr T 6.23 of the ref Mr Ramos motion to finance 81 .31 any questions any comments ice the bill it was not put up for payment so I
060don't have a bill in hand the last bill I had was from believe the last time did I contact I don't know that would be Dr question as direct Mr gerek hi Mr KES hi I Mr Malo I Mr bino I I'm sorry yes Mr Mr Taylor I Mr Ramos hi okay motion to go to education 10124 any questions Mr Garr Mr K hi hi Mr Meo hi Mr Cino hi Mr Gaba hi Mr K numb 20 and 29 Mr Ramos okay facility 12.1 12.6 motion any questions and concerns not loc Mr Garett Mr kis hi Dr hi Mr Malo hi Mr toino hi Mr daa hi Mr tayor hi Mr Ramos hi okay athletic 14.1 14.3 second BYO any questions please Mr Derek hi MREs hi Dr P hi Mr Malo hi Mr Vino
061hi Mr G hi Mr K hi Mr Ray hi lastly policy 16.1 motion all right any questions wasy two left in the year and I di all year one and I was on it last year and at this point to me it just looks like a politicaly several committies for this month and it's not very fair there's notic G oh I don't understand stop reading something that it's not just stay you're alluding to something that it's not something Mr dere no Mr kis yes Dr hi Mr M mrin Mr hi Mr J hi Mr Ros hi uh really quickly before we open uh the floor for public comment um just something I would like for our board attorney to read it for you public comment 19.1 carfield Board of Education recognizes the value of public
062comment on the educational issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to express themselves on school matters and Communications please be advised that the following guidelin shall apply members of the public who would like to address the board must state your name and address each member of the public will be limited to cering of no more than 5 minutes on the public comment no participant shall speak more than once um and as this is a public for public comments may not in any way be disrespectful vulgar or threatening toward any member of any of Board District faculty Administration or staff if any public comments violate these guidelines of speed will be asked to refrain from offering any further public comment regardless of whether they have time and name in addition the speaker may
063be interrupted and his or her privilege to comment termina if the speaker's comments are disruptive or otherwise violate these guidelines on G off Board of Education thank you and advance for your anticipating cooperation in this matter all right so at this time um I would like to open up the mic for a public comment um for your functional procedure uh state your name and your address and proceed with whever it is you discuss okay thank you for your time I'm Justin I live on 35 Lanta um I would just like to raise some some questions first I don't yes sorry can you get me now okay thank you so I'm Justin thank you for your time I live on 35 Atlanta I just like to raise concerns my first question is I don't know if
064I'm mistaken however it was very difficult to find out the location of this meeting I checked the g website and it is not posted all I saw was the link to the live stream and I had to find out through the go parents Facebook group I don't know if I was looking in the wrong place I was just like to um raise that raise that yeah cuz yeah no where where the meeting so what will address that with you we'll show you exactly where to look to get the exact meeting location design as posted is there additional yeah um my concerns regard the uh dress code uh for the high school um I understand the importance of the dress code and I do agree with it for the most part my only concern is the
065not allowing of the Garfield um branded t-shirts or the academic shirts um such as this uh life academic shirt as you can see here um my my concern regards the comfort of the official Darko shirts the uh material itself it is very it makes it very stuffy make it makes it very uncomfort it makes it very warm to wear in the classroom of 20 uh students um sitting next to each other uh I know last week the classrooms were getting up to 80° and wearing that polyester shirt it was very uncomfortable and so I was just uh wondering why students are not allowed to wear these wonderful um academic shirts or other shirts to show off other achievements or the graph Pride or the the know the sports shirts are allowed on the days the
066teams have gain but I was just wondering um why extend it towards the academic sh for example and my some of the other um compl uh concerns were the price of these shs um for one student the the shirts are around like $ 4ish and mo more most households in the district have multiple siblings and you have to get at least a couple shirts for the week so that's a couple hundred simply on the shirts and then for them to also not be of the best quality I don't I'm not asking for the best however the the polyester it is very uncomfortable and it is it makes it makes me not want to wear it um I I still do however and I know there are there are going to be patches that are going
067to be sold to iron on to a more comfortable material purple shirt that you have and I was just um thinking that those patches instead of being sold I feel like because we're already you know paying for this the package I feel should at least be given to some to students you show your ID you that you go to school for the package you should be able to iron on you should be able to have them however that is not the biggest um concern just go f else no thank you if you have any respons to that yeah we'll respond to it at the end all right thank you very much thank you for your time thank you for your time [Applause] next any good evening St Marcel 66 trory Barfield New Jersey louder I
068can speak you can hear me now yeah so I'm just going to give a little update on the um collaborating parents committee so that committee began if you remember I came a few months ago um with a proposition that we should have some sort of a districtwide ability to have the parents get feedback get feedback from you all and bring it kind of to close in some of the open loots that have been created and so myself uh Kathy and Nancy have at this point gone to all of the home um I'm sorry to the bachor school nights for all of the schools in the district we've spoken with all of the principles at each school and um we'll give you more information next month but we have had an outstanding uh showing the parents
069who are interested I think one of the key takeaways is that they see us as fears rather than intimidating and so they've been more than willing to collaborate to volunteer our email inbox we created emails we flooded with people in the first 24 hours of us posting it so there is some hope that parents are willing to parti and engag we also um hosted the booth one of the nights at the carnival and we'll give an update on the proceeds that we raed from our participation there so more to come next month um but just a little taste of the parent involvement out there in the community is Alive and Well thank [Applause] you anyone else um at this time I'd like to open up the for board comments wait yes very proud of getting
070up here our students get up it's very important that's why we're here that's why we're here as a board and administration um I hear your concerns uh we going to speak with our Administration I'll bring it back to our board committee and the patch thing is something I wasn't aware of it's something that you spark interest to me you know patch very uh and uh I I think the dress code you know I hate bringing the co postco dress code has been issu many districts um we trying to get back to some kind of normaly but maybe something that we need you know uh you know since we're all kind of new year or Le um maybe another committee to sit students student conference Administration and board and just kind of go over all that
071again and uh you know see where we're at our our policy versus you know some of the things that a little more comparable to What's happen report thank you very coms I just want to say [Music] happy to be part of his really uh to see something that has engag Community students Administration but the nice about people young kids future students of Barfield and they were excited to be able to walk there and see the newness not so contest like that and for appreciate and were fantastic um I know John was involved in that have that per Ro there and I forward to seeing a lot of activties both from graduation academic as well as and was very wellend and foring I sorry super understand and we Cate together uh and make sure we can
072continue that and I'm glad that the superintendent have met with you and Kathy and and Nancy a variety of different numbers of parents some 15 20 some others 10 so total I'm assuming probably somewhere about 35 40% this is awesome I'm so happy that the guys are getting involved is important that you guys are get involved that you tell us what we want what we like to see and what we can do for you it's it's your want continue to represent you guys it's my honor to be here but it's also you guys communicate your vision what you want to see at the high school and I thank you for your involvement it's a lot of work it is but Allah you make difference you make difference so thank you um I also want to
073take this opportunity to uh I see the uh the Improvement is is awesome great it's get there and it's Dr Tom Co we have to continue to move forward and that's the that's the mission we're going we're going forward Not Looking Back making sure that whatever we can fix we can continue to fix it as we go we can promise you the world but we can promise you that as we go forward we can continue to fix the issues that we are encountering uh thank you very much for your time also to say I forgot to mention Mr Alfonso he was also involved with the uh Athletic Complex as far as the inauguration of it great job and on a different note I see some fantastic food here uh I was at school 4 last
074week and the same setup was then at school 4 uh Mr mosio thank you very much for taking a real serious look at providing the Quality Foods that's going to to be not only nutritional but also instrumental in helping the development of our youth in this community and helping to educate them in order to see what the right foods are to eat because there's such a problem in this world today with food and processed foods and that you're going at another Step Beyond that and hopefully the students will take advantage of this and not go back to their old ways and eating a lot of processed foods and of course Miss Binger thank you very much for that very positive report um just really quick just wanted to touch on the um the chess Wizards
075and the Music Makers I think those are two very important things that are coming into the district um I don't I know that you know the Athletics get celebrated more often than not and understandably so you know that's what drives crowds but to find other avenues to success and to flourish and to tap into different areas of your mind and and what'll make you succeed or give you different ways of looking at things I think those are amazing I'm really really proud of that I have two things that are kind of on a sad note um I do want to recognize the district lost someone who was a a 26- year employee here Mrs Rodeo Debbie Rodeo um she was you know anytime somebody loses a wife a mom a grandma a friend you know
076someone who who mattered a colleague it it should be recognized she was a a very important part of this district from teacher all the way up to supervisor and uh does need to be acknowledged and I believe the services are tomorrow from 3:00 to 7: if anybody can go and pay their respects I'm sure plenty from this district will because she meant a lot to so many um a family in Garfield they don't attend the Garfield schools their their children go to the um why am I drwing a blank on this Charter Char the charter school my my apologies uh but both parents and on both sides mom's sister and uh dad's brother are all ghs graduates they have a a young son Greg one of three who needs a uh bone marrow transplant there's
077been a GoFundMe that's been put on several of the parent pages and stuff if you could seek that out if you can give anything obviously it'd be greatly appreciated mom actually quit her job and uh dad's early on in his career in this stage of his career with uh you know where he's gone with things um if you can't give anything just share it for other people that possibly can but they are you know Garfield High School graduates and Garfield School System um attendees so that to bring to bring some attention to that he's I I know the family not incredibly well but I know them well enough and he's uh he's absolutely a light of anyone who meets him so he's uh he's taking over the nurses at the hospital and uh anybody who
078sees him at parties they they love him so I just wanted to bring some attention to those too because they I felt they needed it thank you for your time can we get you better by the microphone we also run an Instagram page and we do have we have followers are increasing we can also post board com um I'd like to thank everybody for coming out tonight um I'd like to that like to thank the student government I'd like to congratulate our the month I'd like to thank our our that would um parents Comm um thank you everybody for coming out thank for everything that you uh put into the night everything that you all the POS things that you do District hopefully we can find something that you know some little ground for you
079understanding so you know uncomfortable Cod big guys doesn't work out well um as for that um I'd like to make a motion to I make a motion oh just a reminder um our farm farm table please take some of that we also have the uh the event where you can uh go and you can sample the food the same way your childhood and I guess Mr SLS and everything that is over here for everybody to take a look fil friends onl still have that okay Mr President I make that motion and wish everybody a happy colum this day pleas Inc