001Good evening. Good morning. I don't even know what day it is. Um, good evening everyone. Welcome to the September board meeting. We are going to get right to it. We are going to change the order slightly so that we can put the kids presentation early so that the parents can take them home and get to sporting events and all that other good stuff. Um, okay. So, calling the meeting to order. Pursuant to the open public's meeting act, notice of this meeting has been given by the board secretary in the following manner. Posting written notice on the official bulletin board at the Vorhees Township Public Schools administrative building on August 4th, 2025. Sending written notice to the Courier Post on August 4th, 2025. Filing written notice with the clerk of Vorhees Township on August 4th, 2025.
002And posting on the Vorhees Township website on August 4th, 2025. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Board secretary, will you call the role, please? >> Mr. Bryce, Miss Ktover, >> here. >> Mrs. Munan, >> here. >> Mr. Rosen, Mr. Mr. Rosner >> here. >> Mrs. Ruer >> here. >> Mrs. Stewart >> here. >> Miss Verie >> here. >> Mrs. Watson >> here. >> We have no executive session. Um, can I get a motion to approve the minutes of the August 25th, 2025 regular board meeting? >> So moved. Rudder. >> Second. Get over. Sorry, I'm a little behind. You're fine. was second or
003first. >> Online voting is open. >> This is the motion for executive session. >> Uh, no. >> I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm in the wrong one. Sorry. >> Yeah. Okay. >> We have to get >> right. So, we'll start. >> This is the motion to approve the August 25th. Yeah. No, you're all you're all good. >> Online voting is open for executive session. >> Thank you, Jul. Perfect. I have two abstensions and five yeses. Motion passes. >> Thank you. Um no comments but for welcome to the new school year. Um we look forward to it being a wonderful school year and the board as always supports all of its staff and administration and we are always here if you need anything um to support you during the year. Fire drills and safeties are on the
004attachment. Harassment, intimidation, bullying report also as well as suspensions. Um, we had a couple of we had three Oprah requests. They've all been closed out. Board secretary report. >> I have no report for tonight. Thank you. >> Awesome. Superintendent report and we are going straight to the Crescent School presentation. >> Thank you so much. I'm going to bring up Miss Morris, the principal of Crescent Elementary School, and she'll introduce her wonderful students and staff. That was the fastest starting I've ever had. Uh, good evening, President Watson, Dr. Hackett, members of the board, and Vorhees community. Um, I always look forward to volunteering to present at this September board meeting so that I can say we made it through the first two weeks. Um, and um, I also look forward to this because I love for
005the kids to be sharing what we're doing and we're always looking for ways to empower the kids. So, I'm we're kind of sticking with the same theme that we did last year. I don't know if any of you remember, but we had our safety patrol present last year. So, tonight I'm excited to welcome up uh, Miss ScumTO, our technology specialists, as well as members of our tech team. they are going to share with you what they do to help the the students as well as many staff members um because we need it also. So I'm looking forward to I hope you look forward to our presentation. I hope you enjoy it. >> Thank you. >> Scoot this forward a little bit. Hello everyone. It's different uh speaking instead of being at my little table over
006there, but um I'm happy to be able to talk about our tech team tonight. Our Crescent's tech team. So when I joined um Crescent staff as the tech specialist a few years ago, I heard the general concept of a tech team from my counterpart over at Signal Hill, Jamie Patulo. So she has her own tech team there and she was kind enough to invite me over to one of their meetings and see it in action. and I did and immediately saw the value of it, not just to the kids that are on the team, but to the whole school community. So, the kids that we have here tonight are our current to fifth grade tech team. They joined in January when they were still fourth graders. They had joined last year's um fifth grade tech
007team. So, basically every January we double the size of our team. We recruit. Um, I'll say that every kid that's been on the tech team has shown such a high level of responsibility and trustworthiness. Um, such an eagerness to learn, um, an incredible willingness to help. Uh, pretty much every time a teacher requests a tech team visit or I need help with a particular task, it's the norm for every single one of them to volunteer and to want to do it. and we have to resort to a name randomizer so that it's so that it's fair because we can't send the whole the whole group every time. So with that, I'm going to invite the kids up to introduce themselves and tell you a little bit more about what we do. >> Hi, my name
008is Karina Rudy. Once a week, our team meets in the computer lab during lunch or recess. Miss Gumto posts an agenda in our Google classroom that tells us what we'll be doing during the meeting. We'll either learn something new or visit other classrooms to help the teachers and students. Hi, my name is Brody Aguular. Every morning, video morning announcements are streamed live to the entire school and presented by fifth graders. But what people don't see is that there is always a tech team member behind the camera running all the technology to make sure the announcements go smoothly. Hi, my name is Dia Dave and in June we helped collect all of the kindergarten iPads. Then we learned how to reset the iPads back into factory settings and made sure all of them were charged so
009that they were ready for this year's kindergarteners. Hi, my name is Logan Coachorth. Last year, Grant and I helped Mrs. Kern's third grade class with the Google Slides project. The kids in that class had never used Google Slides before. So, we volunteered to visit their class during our recess time each week each day for a week to help them learn and use all the tools on the app. >> Hi, my name is Holly In. In December, we'll help recruit a new group of fourth graders to join our tech team. We'll talk to each class about all the things we do in the tech team, what skills we've learned, and how they can apply, just like last year's fifth grade tech team members did for us. Hi, my name is Grant Hedle. Our biggest project was
010creating a tech tips for kids website. We brainstormed kid-friendly tech tips, then learned how to use Canva to create the guides. All the guides were put into a Google site that any question student can go to on the iPad to learn new technology skills. On the screen is the tech tip I made about how to split screen on the iPad. >> Getting that up now. >> So, as Grant said, I got to move this up. So, as Grant said, um this is the website that they worked on. This is Grant's um tech tip that he did about how to split screen on an iPad. Um what's really cool, it looks like just a regular slide, but as you can tell, they did a screen recording of how exactly to do that tip on the iPad
011so that kids can just watch it. It has even the little green pointer that they can use. Um go over here and show you if I can. I got I've got my mouse here. Show you the homepage. I can't get to it. Chris, can you click home? So, this is the mix of some of the tips they have like our homepage. This is like you said on every kid's iPad to access. And then the last thing I just wanted to share here are some pictures I want to represent um last year's tech team as well. Uh they were the the originals. um it's cut off a little bit, but these are three um of our former members um collaborating together to work on their particular tech tip tutorial. Um we at one point had a
012broken computer that a few of them wanted to learn how it worked. So we disassembled it and that's them with a motherboard kind of learning the parts of a computer. And lastly, this is actually a picture that a um teacher emailed me um and just sang the praises of these kids. They went in and taught kindergarters how to update their own iPads and she just was so impressed with how knowledgeable and you know for fifth graders professional that they were in the classroom. So, thank you for having us. Wonderful. >> Thank you so much. We have some treats for you all. >> Thank you for all your hard work. >> Thank you guys. >> Thank you so much for helping us do that. [Music] I know it's trit, but I say this every single time.
013Always our favorite part of the job. You guys are definitely excused. You can leave. We will give you all a few moments before we consider before we continue business. >> Thank you guys. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Now take tips for kids. first couple weeks. >> I know. >> Hungry. >> Okay. All right. Back to you, Dr. Hackett. >> Okay. Thank you very much. Good evening, everyone. Can we just I know they're not here, but can we just acknowledge them one more time because Miss Gumto is still here and it just acknowledge the the work of the students and Miss Gumto. Excellent. That is excellent. I want to get access to those tips. Um I just like to begin by expressing my sincere appreciation to all those who made the start of
014this school year a success. First to our dedicated staff, and we have many of them in the back. I'd like to thank them for their incredible efforts over these first two weeks. Their professionalism, preparation, and unwavering commitment have been both inspiring and instrumental in creating a smooth and positive transition back to school. I also want to acknowledge our parents and guardians and thank them for their continued support and patience, especially as we navigated the fir beginning of the year transportation challenges. I'm pleased to share that by Friday, September 5th, the majority of those issues were resolved. And thanks to the collaboration of our um team and our the um understanding of our parents and of course our heartfelt thank you to our amazing students. Their energy, enthusiasm, and eagerness to return to learning have been
015truly inspiring. It's been a joy to see our classrooms once again filled with curiosity, engagement, and excitement. Together, we've set a strong foundation for what promises to be a great school year. I only have two announcements before I'm going to bring Mr. Mosquit's up for the NJSLA annual presentation and that is we have two parent workshops coming up. Our virtual parent workshops. First is Tuesday, October 7th at 7:00 and Miss Donley, our supervisor of special projects will present our harassment, intimidation and bullying. And the focus of this workshop will be distinguishing between conflict and bullying. And so our parents um the link is on the website and then you'll get a reminder the day before or the day of the workshop. And our second workshop will take place on October 13th at 7 PM. And
016Mr. Moscowitz, our assistant superintendent, will present that workshop. And the title is, "What is the universal screener for K3 students?" This year, the New Jersey Department of Education has required all districts to have a K3 screener to um identify students who may need support with literacy. So, Mr. Moscow will provide an overview of that mandate and what the district is doing to meet the mandate. So, I encourage our parents to please join those two workshops. And speaking of Mr. Moscowitz, I'm going to now bring him up to the podium and he's going to present our annual uh state assessment report and I think that people will be pleased with um the majority of the results. Mr. Mosquitz, >> good evening. It's hard to follow the kids and their technology because we all know they can
017do it a little better than us, can they? So, I want to welcome the board of education and the members of the teaching staff for our NJSLA 2024 2025 score presentation. We have quite a story to tell tonight. We are above all proud of our students, our staff, our administration, and our outstanding teachers. And we appreciate the board of education support. So, nurturing growth is like a garden of flowers. It's blooming flowers. At the start of the year, we shared a vision that our students are like flowers, each unique in color, in shape, and in the growth rate. We recognize that that with the right soil and the right water and guidance and care, our curriculum, instruction, and our support staff, they will grow. And today, I have to say, they indeed are blooming flowers
018that have grown over the past year. So, this slide shows our New Jersey performance levels. We strive for level four and level five. That is where we are showing our proficiency. We can celebrate like blooming flowers how well our students performed. Whent a little too far. We can celebrate how our students are like blooming flowers, how well they performed in comparison to the state average. If you look at the ELA range from 14 to 20%, we were above the state average. So you can see here, it's a little harder to go on that screen, but up here it's a little easier. 14% here and then 20 at the top. That's how the the ranges extended in ELA. In math, you are seeing math ranges 18% higher than the state average all the way to 61%
019better than all of them. So if you look here, you see that 61% in algebra 1 and you see that 18% in 8th grade. So you're seeing that continued growth that we are expanding our percentage in relation to the state average of other school districts. I'll always give you a couple seconds to look. There we go. We can celebrate the ELA level four and level five proficiency. We are above the state average and we are closer to the prepandemic difference. When you look, you're going to see that yellow represents the growth that we need to continue and the blue represents progress. In fourth and eighth grade, you can see that we were only 3% away. So, you can see in fourth and eighth, only 3% away from our prepandemic difference. In grade seven, we are
020only 1% away from our prepandemic difference. Look at grade four and five. Grade four and grade five at three and 2% from where we were before the pandemic. And then there is that slight gap from the year the pandemic number. So you see we're even in grade six. Some of asking ourselves, what is making a difference? What are we doing to make these flowers bloom? Well, we had a new ELA program that has a writing focus. We are using small groupoup instruction to meet the needs of our learners. We introduced benchmark assessments to analyze the data. Instructional coaches are doing model lessons in ELA and we are constantly reviewing the I Ready data analysis to improve instruction. What are our next steps? How do we continue to water these flowers? What can we do better
021to provide richer soil? We will continue to focus on grade three and our language engage the grade two win period to help reach our goal. Dr. Hacketta and I will do grade two and grade three walkthroughs. We will continue to look at the instructional coaches to promote that academic assistance with our reading wonders program. There will also be training on the new NJSLA adaptive platform that is being rolled out as a field test next month. So remember what I said before, the blue is showing significant progress. And look at all the blue in level five for English language arts. We had increases with students who scored level five in ELA in all grade levels except grade five. That is terrific and that's an incredible news for us to share. This means more students are exceeding
022expectations. So what happened to grade five? As you may recall, we have been watching this group for the last three years. They were in kindergarten during the pandemic. And at the beginning of the pandemic, they had to switch their instruction to virtual. I will share in a future slide some good news about this group that they are this cohort has improved over time. For this slide, you can see that blue means that there was an increase. We just spoke about grade five. So if I have my clicker, you're going to see that a change there needing improvement there. But however, I will show you that we have tracked their progress over time. And you will see that grade four went up nicely on this clicker in the middle. It was a nice increase in grade
023four for English language arts. Now we have to look at grade three at Crescent and Signal Hill at these two areas here. We will look at the BIM program to help us in grade two and to complete walks and walkthroughs here to address this. and we are asking our instructional coaches to support the teachers with the ELA. I'll give you another few seconds to look, but again you see a lot of blue. So as shown on this slide, this is mathematics level four and level five proficiency. You see level and four and five proficiency. Blue shows that growth. Look at the areas in blue. Look at grade six. 15%. I'll use my little red clicker here. 15% above their preandemic number. So we ask ourselves what are making all the differences? What is making the
024flowers bloom? We have looked at evidence statements for students in the NJSLA 2024 results and wanted to compare them with how they did with the standards that they needed to improve upon. We focused on small group instruction and benchmark assessment analysis. And at the middle school, we have a lead teacher, an assistant principal who worked on those evidence statements, and an assistant principal who's actually certified to teach middle school math. We looked at the small group instruction this past year during walkthroughs, which was effective, and there was a focus on the benchmarks of middle school. People may ask, what happened with grades three and five? If you look at grade three with a 6% and then they're in grade five 2%. Again, fifth grade is a focus that we'll address in a future slide. Grade
025three is the target for more information gathering. There are not at prepandemic scores yet, but they're getting to that area with a 70% um proficiency. So if you look at third grade, you see they still scored at 70% last year. We will continue to look forward and we will continue to gather information to find out how we can help these two grades. Looking at this next slide, this is the elementary school results for mathematics. You see a lot of blue. You see blue in third grade. You see blue in fourth grade and even a little bit blue in fifth grade. So you can see that more students are meeting or exceeding expectations in math. So where is our work? We know about grade five. As you can see that these scores are in relation to
026how they the students in the previous year compared on NJSLA 2024. in grade three. We know that there is a target grade and we do have more students at Crescent here that scored a little lower, but you did have the other schools in the blue either exceeding at ET Hamilton or at least increasing by 1% at Osage and Signal Hill. This is level five mathematics. Look at all the blue for level five. You're going to see students scoring and scoring higher at exceeding expectations. In grade three, students went down from the year before, but they increased in level four, resulting in a 70% proficiency. But if you also look at grade three, they scored 20% at level five. And if you look at all their peers, there's still some celebration here. When you look to
027grade eight, they did not do as well as exceeding expectations, but they overcame the eighth grade improved in their proficiency by having a higher level four score here, 35% from 28%. So here is our VMS ELA data. You have to be proud of this data. I will say that at VMS every grade in ELA scored above 71% with sixth grade achieving 74%. We are proud of what the progress has been made. So what worked there were lead teacher and assistant principal who was certified in English and they did targeted professional development with common assessments and those common assessments were analyzed. The questions on these common assessments focused on the standards and we use that information to inform our instruction. The teachers worked with the updated New Jersey student learning standards that have been updated in
028the last two years to make sure our instruction was aligned. We improved across the grade levels. And now I'm going to show you how grade seven and grade eight performed. So you see in grade seven we have another grade level breakdown. 77% in grade seven achieve proficiency. That is excellent work by our middle school staff. And here is grade eight 71 proficienc proficiency. Another great performance. So the VMS language arts department worked very hard last year in association with the vice grade level vice principal who is a English language arts certified and the lead teacher to make an impact. So, let's look at the VMS NJSLA ELA performance since 2022. Remember, blue is the growth. Blue is good. And if you look with my little pointer, you see that we did go even with 74%
029from the previous year, but you saw a 5% increase in grade seven and a 2% increase in grade 8. So we had significant increases as compared to 2024 and 2025. And for the last four years, we've gone up or stayed the same in grades six and seven. So if you look at grade six, you see significant growth each year and then stabilizing and in grade seven as well. For grade 8, we saw very high increase and then it dipped in 2024. But overall, you've seen some consistency with them getting a little better in the last year. For the most part, we've seen some stability. Here is our VMS NJSLA math levels. Let's see how they did in grade six. The teachers at VMS met with the lead teacher and the assistant principal and they talked
030about small groupoup instruction and again targeted professional development analyzing I ready reviewing evidence statements to inform instruction. We saw an 8% increase in this grade from the year before. The use of common assessments helped inform instruction and common and benchmark assessments are the road map that help us inform structure and we can see that in the results for grade six. Here is grade seven which showed a 64 proficiency scale. This was an amazing statistic because it was a 14% increase from the year before. Again, the grade level assistant principal being associated, being certified in math, coming right out of the classroom, bringing fresh ideas, and that lead teacher with stability over the last few years, helping them with the evidence statements to see where we needed to work. And here is grade 8. We know
031that 39% is a little lower than the other grades, but I will say the state average is much lower than what we've seen. And that is because we pull out our algebra 1 students. Algebra 1 students are taken out of this number. But we still had a 3% increase from one year to the next. So, let's look at the VMS math performance levels comparison from 2024 to 2025. And you see a lot of blue. So, let's examine the comparison of the math proficiency. Every grade has improved. You can see an 8% change in grade six, 14% change in grade seven, 3% change in grade 8, and we were even cuz I don't know if we can always get 100%. So you see, and fantastic algebra 1 over 90% for the last four years, showing incremental
032increase and having some stabilization at 99%. So other than that, the scores are continuing to climb. Our flowers are blooming. Our algebra 1 students are showing us that they have exceptional consistency over the last few years. So this is our ELA subgroup data. When you look at this slide, I'm going to show you how they improved in a later slide because you'll see colorcoded with blue where they increased from year to year and yellow where we need some work. But overall, you're looking at the total score. So, if I put my clicker over like grade three, that means districtwide total population scored 63% and that's how the subgroup scored in relation to that score. Same thing with grade four, 74% and how their subgroups scored in relation to the total group. And you see that
033as you go through. So I'll give you a minute to look at all the subgroups. This is how we are doing in relation to the total. We are going to continue to analyze subgroup data. We focus on the students through that small group instruction. And this is the raw data. So after this you will see a slide that has a breakdown of the data that is colorcoded. One thing I want to point out a subgroup is 20 students in a school. So if you go down and two students score a little, that's 10%. So we have to keep the subgroups with the we have to make sure that we know that subgroups are 20 but they can be more. They're not singly 20 but that's the lowest number that they calculate. So here is our
034math subgroup data. Again, the total number or population when I hover over into the first column is how many students passed totally the NJSLA and then each category and how they performed. So, I'll give you a minute to look The color-coded map is helpful because it'll show where we grew from one year to the next. So this is our subgroup for the English language arts. All the blue is when we increase from the previous year and that is something to celebrate. Look at grade four. If I hover over grade four across the board, you'll see that blue color. So, let's talk about what dropped from the year before. But first, we're proud of our IEP students because if you see the increases, you can see that four of the six grades in this column increased
035from the year before. If you go up and down, our target is the economically disadvantaged group here because you see some yellow in language arts, the African-American subgroup here, and the Hispanic subgroup. here. Please note that grade five, we will show their growth in a later slide, but you even see a little bit of growth in grade five here, but we see that grade five is an area of focus. If you look, you're going to see a lot of blue with the math subgroups and they correspond with the nice gains that we had in math. Look at all the blue. Look at the blooming flowers that we talked about at the beginning. We recognize grade five here in math, but we still had some growth there as well. Our target for math is our Hispanic
036subgroup here. If you look up and down and this proficiency levels shown in this slide, you can see this. So, I promised and as promised, I'd talk about the fifth grade and I was going to go over their progress. So, if you look at fifth grade math and their little journey the last few years, this is the fifth grade last year at the bottom in 2025 and is when up above is when they were in fourth grade the year before. You can see even though they are scoring lower than the previous grade level cohort, they are growing as a group. All schools saw increases in math from year to year. This shows their potential. You see all of them with also the district percentages increasing in math from that group. So that group from one
037year to the next show they're growing in math. And here is the fifth grade from last year with ELA scores as compared to when they were in fourth grade. This shows that there are three schools out of four that improved with the same group. Again, something to celebrate. Miss Morris at Cresen and her team will continue to get information gathering on some data on maybe what the root causes were for the decrease. But overall, a lot of blue, a lot of things to be proud of from a group from year to year showing growth. So this is just a summary of some of the highlights which we've spoken about tonight. The next few slides provides an overview of what has been shown in this presentation. The entirety of this presentation has to be placed on
038the website and this is for the benefit of those people that want to review it later. Again, some more highlights. We're proud of this year about the level five proficiency in math. How math proficiency improved at the grade level in elementary schools in grades three and four and even in grades six to eight. Middle school math proficiency saw gains from three to 13%. All grades showing improvement and even subgroup data math demonstrated progress. So almost across every category, some opportunities for growth. We have spoken about some of these opportunities for growth like third grade ELA and we're hoping that win and walkthroughs with data analysis is how we can approach this. The ELA scores that are not quite approaching pre- pandemic levels across all of the grade levels. We will continue to have the instructional
039coaches work with the wonders to support our staff to help that score. For number three, subgroups and ongoing efforts for the achievement gant will continue to do walkthroughs and focus on information from I ready and benchmark assessments to improve. So what worked? Why did the students do better? This is a listing of what we've been talking about during this presentations and how we've thought students have achieved their goals and these are all the things common and benchmark assessments walkthroughs and small group leaders and department meetings tracking that progress rigor and then data review. Next steps. The next two slides are summaries of the steps we will take this year. Beyond the areas and opportunities for growth, these are some of our next steps. data analysis, work with evidence statements, having our instructional coaches help support
040the staff and conducting walkthroughs. A few more next steps is I ready remediation and continuing to analyze information from I Ready lead math and EA L EA teachers at VMS will continue to analyze data with the assistant principles who are supervisors at the school and we'll continue to improve the implementation of the wind program in second grade. So we talked about flowers as a theme. This year's growth tells us what we already believed that every student can flourish with the right conditions. Some are still budding, some are beginning to bloom, and some are showing some vibrant colors already. As a team, we'll keep nurturing every learner because a thriving garden is one where flowers matter. So, I want to congratulate the students, the staff, the parents, and all the hard work they did in the
041past year. And I want to thank the board of education for all their support. Anybody have any questions? >> I have a couple. Um I I want to ask a point of clarification because I I may have been confused. Um you used the blue and yellow differentiating colors, but I didn't understand. It wasn't clear. Is the yellow were they supposed to be down? Those were instances of decreases but there was no minus. So >> we didn't we didn't show a minus. Okay. So yellow is like caution and those are areas where you have to have improvement. Blue is where we had growth or they were even. >> I just wanted to clarify that. Sure. >> Um and for the future can we just make sure um there's a lot of color blindness. Um and I
042think those colors are difficult to um to differentiate between for our public. The other question that I had is it it's very clear from um from your slides, I can't remember exactly what slides, but near the end um that when you did the subgroup analysis uh comparing to the below total population, the four groups of economically disadvantaged um African-American, Hispanic, and IEP populations fell below both in math and ELA. um to use your flower analogy, what are we doing specifically to address those groups um that is differentiated from what we're doing to help all of the groups kind of close the gap. So you named benchmarks, ELA instruction, instructional coaches, I ready data, but I'm going to assume since those gaps are much more significant that we need to have a much more targeted approach.
043Do you have any ideas about what specifically you're going to do for those populations? Well, I think this year we're going to have more data with the K to3 screener to get kids earlier in this analysis so we can help them as we go forward because we do have literacy tests that are a step above that we used than we used to have. So on the earlier end we're getting more data that the state is asking us to do for the other analysis. If we look at the depending on where we are, when we look at the Hispanic population, we we will continue to work with the ESL teachers to with curriculum um to make sure that they're addressing all the needs they meet monthly and they look at all this data on how the
044students performed not only on how they did with the WEDA assessment on the on their access test, but they're meeting and they're starting to track NJSLA data this year. So they are now starting to track NJSLA data on their students and I ready data to help when they come to them in small group each day. So we'll continue. It also always depends on on who um the subgroup and how we're servicing them. We're talking about general themes. I've given you two you know too specific and then those are as we get more um information from the data we also help them through that because the small group instruction is essential targeting them in their specific needs. So the other piece I'll say is that we also get trends from the evidence statements and testing. What
045that does is it gives you the actual standards that need assistance. And what the teachers are doing is they're getting presentations, especially at the middle school, on what those data points are, and they're trying to use them as a warm-up during the school day to address some of that as well. So, it depends because there's there's broad answers and there's more subtle answers to this, but it also depends on the population. >> You any other questions? Yeah, I have I have a couple. Um, first of all, thank you for the presentation. I appreciate the storytelling as you probably gathered. I would like that. Um, okay. So, one just point of I'm not clear exactly, but I think when you're looking at grade six across the board, I just want to clarify that is not longitudinal
046data. Correct. >> Which slide would you like me to go back to? >> Whenever you show six, seven, eight, for example, and you show the growth. Oh, so you mean tracking the same students, >> correct? >> We're the only ones that we've tracked in this presentation is the fifth grade. >> Okay. So, just for the future, I personally would like to see more longitudinal data. To me, it's not super compelling to say sixth grade last year was this and now sixth grade is this year. They're different kids. >> So, I think it would be useful for the public and the board to see more longitudinal data just as a point of of feedback on that. Um, the second thing I would offer is while I see that there's growth in proficiency in ELA and math
047generally with some gaps, I'm I'm concerned about what levels one and two. So, I would like to understand year-over-year how we're doing, whether we're static because I do see that in some cases we've got 15 to 20% of kids falling in the one and two. That's a lot of kids. So, similar to Mrs. Watson's question about how we're breaking out by subgroup, how are we handling um students that are testing in level one and two? What targeted approaches are we delivering to them to have them level up faster? >> I think >> gaps are going to my my hunch is those gaps get bigger over time. Um, and if we're if they're not they're not cured in K to eight, you know, by the time they're in high school, they're several grade levels behind. >>
048Uh, I will agree that longitudinal data might be better to look because you're not looking at just the time and place and how the scoring was, but you're looking at that core group of students and I understand that and we did a little piece of that uh to this with the fifth grade. Uh, I will say next year the data may change a little bit because the testing is going to change, but we will take that into consideration as we go forward. Um, we do see a lot of the same things I said to Mrs. Watson, tried and true to the to the group in level one, level two. However, they grow a lot quicker. They grow faster because they need some room to grow. So you're going to see that when they have level
049one and level two, we're doing the same kinds of things with trying to do the small group because they're at the lower end and enriching them there. We're going to look at their data on I Ready and we may see that they're one or two grade levels behind and that is an indicator. So then when they take their first I Ready test, which they're doing now, they have their benchmark, and then they're going to take their second I Ready in in January, and then we're going to see how much they've grown. The concern will be if those kids who were two levels down haven't showed enough growth. And that'll be a data point that'll have to be examined because the benchmark is where they are now. And then the second test is how they grow.
050And we want them to have typical growth. We want them to score in the typical growth range of an average student. Stretch growth is going beyond that and we only see 25 to we some we see between 25 and 40% that's for stretch growth. It's very I has told us that's a national norm. So we'll look to the children with level one level two. Don't forget this is grades three and up. So I ready is K8. So we'll look at taking that first benchmark test looking where they grew and looking at the growth data in the diagnostic too and then the instructional coaches have gone back and done targeted lessons based on that I Ready data. >> Okay, thank you. >> I have a quick question. Um, what percentage of grade 8 is in algebra
0511 versus the rest? Off the top of my head, I believe there was out of 300 children last year, there's probably about 120. >> That's my best my best answer not having it in front of me. >> Okay. So, so around half, right? >> A little less. A little less. So because I guess I guess that's a concern to me when we then look at those grade eight because while those algebra one students are really really you know really really proficient um that makes that other number I think even more concerning because I was thinking oh well if a lot of our you know if if most of our students are in algebra 1 little less concerning. So, um any any thoughts on that? And and are we tracking any data? Um or do we
052get any data from the high school on how how how our students are doing when they're leaving us and going on to high school and in high school math? >> Well, I think uh in the last few years, Dr. Hackett has worked very hard with Eastern to have more articulation between 8th grade and and ninth grade. Uh they communicate and uh that has been an important step in the right direction. to see how our students are doing. I do believe that they try to do some surveying of of parents in the future of how their children think they're prepared. So I do feel that there is more outreach to Eastern and Eastern has come back and accepted that outreach. Um as for the 39% it is it is a it is a significant less score
053but however we have to that the state average is 18% two years ago we were looking at that data last year so it is a state issue and is our issue as well but then you we're seeing we're scoring 39% as in relation to a state average that is in the in the teen range. So, we we have to keep working at it. The eighth grade has a monthly um department meeting. Part of my smart goal this year since I spent so much time in elementary school is to attend the eighth grade math department meetings to kind of see what strategies are working and how we can improve in eighth grade. >> Thank you. And then um I wondered if we had any data. I know that we last month we talked about um the
054students who are identified for um morning learning um those morning learning things that happen in the elementary school level. What percentage of those uh families are actually accepting that help? Um and I just wanted to check in if we have that data. I think that would be interesting into looking in some of the ELA data here and seeing, you know, how much we are actually meeting students where they are and able to provide that extra help that students may need. >> What I forgot to mention last time, Miss Verie, is that um if they don't come into the morning club, they can go into basic skills during the school day. So, that has been at least they're not declining a service in the morning and not getting help during the school day. Sorry, I didn't
055I didn't mention that last time, >> right? But we want to keep students in in the classroom as much as possible, right? Of course. And you know, there's things that they may list may miss when they go into basic skills. Basic skills is wonderful, but I I think um you know, we've talked about this before. You know, I feel strongly about um offering after school tutoring to kids that need it um and offering that as an additional option um for families uh who cannot make morning work. So again, um we are just getting the morning club started and what I can always do is ask the principles if they had a significant number of students who declined. >> That would be great. Thank you. >> Anyone else? Well, thank you so much again. We do
056appreciate your support. We can't do our work without you helping us. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. move. Correct. You don't have anything else. Okay. Audience participation. Anyone wishing to address the board, please approach the side table on the right and write your name and address on the login sheet. While the board is limited its ability to respond to the public on matters involving personnel, litigation, negotiations, and attorney client privilege. The board will now hear comments from the public relating to items on the agenda for this board meeting. Comments are limited to three, excuse me, to three minutes. The board will not take action this evening. You will be notified at some later time by letter, electronic mail, telephone, or the context of a later board meeting of any action the board does take.
057Hi, good evening guys. >> Hi. >> Uh Tro Saka, third grade teacher, Signal Hill Elementary, uh VTA Association president. So I just wanted to mention two things. uh one is that um at the start of the school year I'm not sure that the proper recognition is given for the teachers that come in before school starts and we spend on average probably 10 to 20 hours of our own time um setting up our classrooms and it's during a limited uh availability. So, we have to give up time with our families in the summer to come in for unpaid time to make the classrooms uh readily available for the students. We don't have any time to prepare for that before the school starts if we don't come in on our own. Uh we also spend several hundred
058dollars of our own money to set up those classrooms to look nice for the students. So, I just want to make a announcement and kudos to all of my fellow teachers that spend that time in the buildings um and that make the classrooms ready for the kids because we really are proud of what we do. Um the other thing I want to mention that was a great presentation even though as teachers data is something that we dread looking at because we just want to do what we love but data does give us the information we need. Um, thank you for asking the questions that you guys asked because as teachers, we ask those questions all the time. We want to compare our students from year to year and as a third grade teacher, second graders
059don't take um any testing. So, when I get my scores and they say, "Oh, third grade went up 23%." But we went up from what? Second grade didn't take a test. So, my third graders this year went up 23%. but they're a totally different group of third graders from last year's. So, we've been asking for that data for a while because that only makes us better as teachers. So, thank you guys for asking those questions tonight because I think that's important that we see that information as well. All right. Thanks. And I think I thank you so much for your comments and I think I speak on behalf of the board. We many of us have uh many all of us I think have students in the in the schools. We see the beautiful classrooms.
060We are greatly appreciative of all of the hard work and time and effort that goes into um getting those classrooms ready. Um we can speak offline about the cost that uh that it takes because um I personally don't believe that you guys should be coming out of pocket um for things that go into decorating and getting your rooms prepared and ready. Um I know some teachers have used some Amazon. I know there's lots of parents who are willing to donate lots of things in this district. Um, but let's make sure that we get you the resources that you need. Um, and I know that I'm not supposed to answer and talk, but I did anyway. Um, okay. Any other comments? Okay. Uh, yes. Oh, there are more. Sorry. Okay. Hello. Uh my name is Diana
061Nurvagandova and my son, this is our third child. Jonathan Bersan goes into the first grade to Crescent Elementary. So uh Mrs. Morris is our uh principal. Uh the question will be related to the sex education to younger children. My >> Can you move the mic up? >> Absolutely. Thank you. Yeah, the question would be rel related to sex educ education to younger children. Um my understanding New Jersey approved uh such education for elementary school. However, if myself and my husband would like to take that matter in our hands and into the Catholic school uh with our approach to educating to such a matter by ourself, if there are forms available to opt out sex education for younger children, for elementary school and perhaps through mid school too as we decide to approach it with our
062religious belief. >> Yes, there is an opt- out form. I it went out. Yeah. recently, correct? Yeah, you should have received the opt out form. Everyone has an opportunity to opt out of that curriculum. >> Could we please uh resend it perhaps in it's beginning of the year. >> Uh we have children in high school. So much going on. If we could please resend it. So if there is any um would be information necessary from us that we can provide or >> if you put your name on the signin sheet, we can absolutely make sure you have the link. >> Perfect. Thank you very much. Of >> course. Sorry, I'm like follow not following any rules today. Another Okay, moving to the business portion. As we move into the business portion of our meeting, we
063want to recognize that it may appear as if the board takes action takes action with very little comment and in many cases a unanimous vote before an item is placed on the board agenda. It is thoroughly reviewed by the superintendent administration. The superintendent then presents the recommended action to the appropriate board committee and works with the committee to ensure that the members fully understand the recommendation. Once the committee is satisfied, the item is placed on the board agenda for discussion and action at a public meeting. Board agendas are made available board members to board members several days in advance of the meeting, giving us ample time to review the agenda and have all of our questions answered. Further, we have kept up to date between the meetings on ongoing work of the administration and the
064important issues of the district. All of these efforts ensure that we are well informed and prepared to take action at our meetings. Moving to policy committee reports and action items. Um, Miss Branch Stewart, can I have a policy committee report, please? Sure. Good evening. The policy committee met on September 9th for over an hour. Dr. Hackett, Mr. Moswitz, and board members Julie Ketover, Crystal Munan, Julianne Birdie, and I were present for first read. The committee reviewed and recommends for full board approval new policy 1636.01 notification of promotion new job and transfer opportunities and new policy 5339.01 students on protection. For second read, the committee reviewed and recommends for full board approval the following revised policies. Policy 0173, duties of public school accountant. Policy 0174, legal services. Policy 0177, professional services. Policy and regulation 1570, internal
065controls. Policy 1620, administrative employment contracts. Policy and regulation 6111, special education Medicaid initiative program. Policy and regulation 6220, budget preparation, and policy and regulation 5516, electronic communications, and recording devices. This last policy and regulation, commonly known as the cell phone ban, is where the committee spent most of its time. As highlighted in Dr. packets commun communication to the community the community excuse me last week. This policy and regulation revision is largely in line with current district practices and comes after months of discussion, collaboration and feedback from community stakeholders, including valuable input from both teachers and students who participated in last year's pouch pilot program at VMS. The committee consensus is that this policy revision, which requires not only students cell phones, but also smart watches and all other smart devices to remain in backpacks or
066lockers during the school day, is in line with recent guidance provided by the New Jersey Department of Education and will support student outcomes by minimizing distraction, maximizing engagement, and improving the overall learning environment. For these reasons, the committee does recommend for full board approval revised policy and regulation 5516. Our next policy meeting is currently scheduled for October 21st. Thank you. >> Thank you. Can I get a motion to approve all of the items under policy? >> So move, Stuart. >> Second. >> You can have it. Rosner, >> can I can I just make a comment on my vote before we vote? >> Yep. Okay. Um, as a parent, I share deep concerns that have been raised about school safety and cell phone access. Um, every time there's another school shooting on the news, my heart
067breaks a little more. And this school year has sadly seen these same patterns of violence continue across the country. My concerns over school safety are why I've raised school safety measures in the past and pushed for stronger protocols regarding entrance to our schools to keep our children sta safe safe. Even still, the fear lingers that if the worst were to happen, my child might be scared or hurt and unable to call me. My own kids don't have devices yet, but in the coming years they will. I understand the comfort that comes from knowing they could reach me. But I also believe that our decisions have to be guided not just by the what-ifs, but the what but by but by what we know. We know that cell phones and smartwatches are a constant distraction in
068schools. We know that taking intentional breaks from social media and devices is good for our children's mental health and our own as well for that matter. And we know that stronger focused, healthier social interactions and reduced online pressures all help create a safer learning environment for all. I don't take this decision lightly, but I believe that supporting this policy is the right step for our kids and our schools, and that's why I'll be voting yes tonight. >> Thank you. I believe the voting was already conducted. So, those who have not voted, please do. Motion unanimously passes. >> Miss Ruer, Mrs. Ruer, can you please provide an academic excellence committee report? >> Certainly. So, the academic excellence committee met on Monday, September 8th for over an hour. It was Dr. Hackit, Mr. Moscowitz, myself, Julie Ktover,
069Monica Watson. We discussed um four things. We talked about the teacher results. uh the survey as far as building and grounds and the district's response um to have an action plan for how the teachers were feeling. We also talked about the accelerated math criteria. There's five factors that are all equal weight um for which children go into accelerated math. We had a sneak peek of all the NJSLA data and we talked about that. And then the last thing was we discussed the results of the student surveys from last year. That's all. Uh and we don't have anything that we're recommending voting on. >> Thank you so much. Can I >> uh motion to approve all items under curriculum of field trips? So moved monium second. Birdie >> online voting is open. >> Motion unanimously passes.
070>> Mr. Rosner, can you please provide a personnel committee report? >> Yes. Uh the personnel committee met last Thursday, September 11th. Uh in attendance, myself, Miss Watson, uh Miss Ruer, and Dr. Hackett. Um we discussed a confidential residency appeal hearing, which uh we will be voting on tonight. We discussed the food service staff evaluation templates. will be conducting an evaluation of food service staff and we're we are recommending that the uh board approve these the uh evaluation template, excuse me. Uh we discussed uh confidential resignation which we'll be voting on tonight and um we discussed the ratification of instructional associates. So, we have instructional associates start once they're hired so we don't lose them or delay start dates and we need to ratify them and so there'll be some on the agenda tonight that we're
071recommending and in the future. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Can I get a motion to approve all of the items under personnel? >> So moved. Ruer second. Cut over. >> Online voting is open. While we vote, I do want to um extend a congratulations to Mr. Rossi for his retirement. >> Motion unanimously passes. >> Frozen here. >> No. Yeah, he's not here. Um who is doing finance? I'm going to do this. >> Mrs. Manion, could you please provide the finance committee report? Yes. Um, we met on Wednesday, September 10th for an hour. Um, in attendance was Dr. Hackett, Danielle Kerry, and board members Richard Victor Rosen, Julie Ketover, and myself. Um, we recommend for approval all items on the 9:15 2025 meeting agenda under finance, transportation, and building, and grounds for vote. Um
072we discussed the solar update which includes seeking um additional proposals and presentations from select vendors. Uh we discussed the Mariotta field agreement. We discussed water testing in the administration building. Um there were notices posted. There's no hazardous findings and the system is undergoing normal periodic cleaning. Um the kitchen is operational at the VECDC. Um at the VECDC there was also anou that was migrated to a shared services agreement between Gibsboro and Vorhees um which has already been approved by Gibbsboro. We discussed the unpaid meal balances and an action plan. Um the township will provide advanced notice to the district if there's any future residential construction for capacity planning. And our next finance committee meeting will be October 22nd, 2025. >> Thank you for pinch hitting. >> Good job. Um, can I get a motion to
073approve all of the items under finance? >> So moved. Rosnet. >> Second. Stuart. >> Online voting is open. Motion unanimously passes. I get a motion to approve all of the items under transportation. So move verie >> second cut over online voting is open. Motion unanimously passes. >> Can I get a motion to approve all items under buildings and grounds? >> So moved. Bunan. >> Second. Rudder. >> Online voting is open. Motion unanimously passes. Public comment. Anyone wishing to address the board, please approach the side table on the right and write your name and address on the login sheet. While the board is limited in its ability to respond to the public on matters involving personnel, litigation, negotiations, and attorney client privilege, the board will now hear comments from the public. Comments are limited to three
074minutes. The board will not take action this evening. You will be notified at some later time by letter, electronic mail, telephone, or in the context of a later board meeting of any action the board does take. One day, I'll be able to do it all in one draft. Okay. No comments. Board comments. Mrs. Verie, we'll see. Mrs. Manion, I'm good. Cut over. I have a comment. Um, first, Mrs. Saka, thank you for flagging uh the issue about preparation from teachers. I really appreciate it. I remember uh helping my mom to set up her classroom for many, many years when I was when I was a kid. Um, and I want to say that I would I too would like to look at what you're spending. I don't think that should come out of any of
075your pockets. And I appreciate all the pride you put into your rooms because they all have such unique character. Um, so thank you for the work that you do. Um, I want to quote Maya Angelou. Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better. And I feel like that's what we've done tonight with the cell phone ban. And I want to especially honor uh Mrs. Branch Stewart's leadership of the policy committee. We've been talking about this for many months. Dr. Hackett has also supported us in getting stakeholder feedback from key administrators and the teachers have been wonderful in participating in our pilot and giving us really important and meaningful feedback about how things are working and what it's like to be in a classroom when kids are distracted
076moment to moment with their cell phones. We all risk the eyeire of our children by putting this ban in place. Uh it's a risk I'm willing to take because the data is unequivocal. Um for anyone who's read The Anxious Generation, it is clear that this is a massive, massive problem and I really want to applaud all of us for doing the right thing tonight. Thank you. >> Rder, any comments? >> No, I'm good. Thanks. Oh, sorry. I skipped over you, Mr. I was looking at you, Mr. Rosner, is staring at you and then I said, "Mrs. Rudder, sorry." >> Um, not to pile on here, but I agree with everything everyone's saying about the cell phone policy. I made a written statement, but ultimately I think it's about giving back to the school environment, not
077really taking away. Um, yes, the data suggests that, but also you're not, you know, in the hallways and bullying, you know, can oftentimes take the form of taking videos of someone that is dressed a certain way. So, that gets reduced and you have more communication, stronger friendships, better outcomes, paying attention in class. So, uh, this is something we've been talking about for a long time and I'm happy to see it go through. So, thanks everyone. All right, I will skip over and now Miss >> I'm so good. >> I'll just add that I'm also happy that that we tonight we passed the cell phone beyond. I want to say thank you to the hard work the the policy committee this board Dr. hack at the administration, the cell phone pouch pilot program at VMS led
078by Miss Ing last year, all of the feedback from the teachers, all of your hard work, and we're off to a great start from my opinion of the school year. Thank you everyone and good night. >> Awesome. Thank you. We have no executive session. Um, our next meeting date is October 29th, 2025. It will be at the administration building. Can I get a motion to adjurnn the meeting? >> So moved. Rosner. Second, Stewart. >> All in favor?