001Good evening everyone. Good evening. Check. Hello. Hello. All right. Here we go. Good. Moving on to our agenda. First point, call to order. In accordance with the open public meetings, NJSA 104-6. Uh, adequate notification of this meeting has been provided by advertising in the Courier News and posting notice in the Board of Education Administration building and district schools and filing notice with the burough clerk. I hereby call to order the regular public meeting Tuesday, September 23, 2025 in the Lincoln Middle School Cafetum, 400 Denellan Avenue at 7:02 p.m. This meeting is broadcast live. For details, check www.denellonsschools.org. Moving on to item number two, uh, roll call. Mr. Pepe, could you please call the role? >> Mr. Anderson, >> present. >> Mrs. Condit >> present. >> Miss Ibeck >> present. >> Dr. Gendrono >> present. >>
002Mrs. Howard >> present. >> Mr. Senoi >> present. >> Miss Shy is not here. Mrs. Shep is not here. And Mr. Walker >> here. >> Okay, we have a quorum. >> Wonderful. Moving on to item number three, executive session. The Denellan Board of Education will now adjourn into executive session to discuss items that fall within specific exceptions to the Open Public Meetings Act CJSA 104-12B. The confidential matters discussed by the board during this executive session include items related to individual privacy, collective bar, collective bargaining agreements, pending or anticipated litigation, as well as personnel. any any discussion that does not need to remain confidential will be made public as soon as it as it is practical. Minutes of the executive session will not be disclosed until the need for confidentiality no longer exists. All individuals who
003may be discussed in executive session have been adequately notified. Action will take place after the conclusion of the executive session. May I have a motion to move into executive session, please? >> Move to go to exec. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I opposed. Okay, we'll be back uh in about 25 minutes or so, around 7:30. Ready? Okay, we are back. So, looking for a motion to come back into public. >> Move to go to public. Seconded. >> All those in favor? >> I >> opposed. Okay, moving on to item number four on the agenda. Uh, the pledge of allegiance. The flag is over there. Please stand. >> 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,
004with liberty and justice for all. Will you all please remain standing for a moment of reflection and respect for our troops serving throughout the world, our troops who have served and our troops who have made the ultimate sacrifice in the name of our United States of America. Thank you. Okay, moving on to item number five, approval of minutes. Looking for a motion to approve uh 5A, which is the um our minutes from the A August 26th uh meeting. >> Approve 5A. >> Seconded. >> Open for questions or comments. >> Last call. Okay, Mr. Mr. Pep, could you please call the role? >> Mr. Anderson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Condit, >> yes. >> Mrs. Ibach, >> yes. >> Dr. Gendrono, >> yes. >> Mrs. Howard, >> yes. >> Mr. Sinoi, >> yes. >> Mrs. Shep, >>
005yes. >> And Mr. Walker, >> yes. >> Motion passes. >> Fantastic. >> Moving on to item number six on the agenda, uh, the appointment of student representatives. Should I turn it over to you, Mr. for us or Mr. >> Okay. So, uh let's go ahead and approve. Uh looking for a motion to approve 6A. Um go ahead. >> Yeah. Move to approve 6A. >> Second. >> Open for questions, comments. I just want to welcome uh Douglas Gordado Crian back to the the board. He served as the student representative to the board last year. We're very excited to have him back this year. >> You're here. >> Well, wait. [Applause] optimism. Let's go, guys. So, any last questions, comments? Okay, Mr. Pepe, please call the role. >> Mr. Anderson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Condit, >> yes.
006>> Mr. Ibeck, >> yes. >> Dr. Gendrono, >> yes. >> Mrs. Howard, >> yes. >> Sorry. Um, Mr. Sanoi. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Shep. >> Yes. >> And Mr. Walker. >> Yes. >> Congratulations, Douglas. >> Oo. Now, congratulations, Douglas. the agenda item number seven, student recognition. And now I'll turn it over to Mr. Ross. >> All right. Thank you, Dr. Jendano. So, we're very excited today to have our first student uh recognition of the 202526 school year. We're recognizing some really special students who scored uh perfect scores on their spring uh testing or who uh passed the access testing, which is the assessment for multilingual learners. Um, we're very very proud of our students who achieved that. And we also have two uh special recognitions that we'll save to the end um that I'll let
007Mr. Lynch um speak to as well. But getting things rolling, let's bring up Mr. Tenant from Faber Elementary. [Applause] We don't have the banners over there, but that's okay. Yeah, there we go. Awesome. Awesome. So, can I uh first I want to bring up uh students and then I'll tell a little speech about them. Uh Braden Marcel, where's Braden? Braden here? I don't see him. How about Dylan Pñena? Dylan? No. Dylan. Okay. Jose Gonzalez and Christopher Roas. Come on up, Christopher. Congratulations, Christopher. Awesome job, man. So, Christopher, stay right here. Come on up. This way. Where are you? Dylan certificate. Braden not there. That yours. So this past summer I was lucky enough to go to Ireland and I went with my son um celebrate some of my childhood. But one of the things we
008did was we went to the west coast, the Aaron Islands. and bringing my son on the Aaron Islands for the first time, he really experienced what it was like challenging not knowing a language. Um, they speak Gaelic there, uh, Irish if you want to say, but learning to just do directions, learning to order in a restaurant, learning to walk down the streets was a huge huge challenge for for him and myself um, and hearing people talk to us and not understanding a word. Um up here we have two gentlemen uh that came into our schools learning a new language, navigating a new culture and facing challenges that I can I went for one day. They did it every single day. Uh they didn't quit. They showed up. They put in the work day in and
009day out. Uh and now they've met the standard and passed the access test. Uh they're exiting our ENL program because they've proven themselves the readiness to be in the favorite classrooms and put their best foot forward. Uh what comes with this is is just promise. They have the skills, determination, and the drive to really, really do something great for our school. So, Faber could not be more proud of them. Please clap it up for our boys. We want to do a picture coming up. [Applause] Um, our ask certificate is uh for a student who scored a perfect score on the math and JLSA. I I you know I the discipline the focus what it takes to to do that I have I have absolutely no idea. I never you know experienced anything like this. It's
010just absolutely amazing to score a perfect score in math. I'm sure I'll be calling him about 15 years now. I do my finances just absolutely amazing. Paulo Tran come on up. Pictures. Pictures. Pictures. [Applause] Mr. Tobin, come on up. Clap it up for Mr. Tobin, new principal at LMS. All right, thank you for being here tonight. We have three students at Lincoln Middle School who scored high enough on last year's WEDA access test to be considered proficient in the English language. Our first student is Dylan Triggeros Hernandez. Come on down, Dylan. Our next student is Brian Sik Torres. [Applause] >> And the third student is Juan Barbosa Ramirez. [Applause] All right. Our high school principal, Mr. Paul Lynch. [Applause] All right. Good evening. We have a number of students. All right. We have a number
011of students that we want to recognize. As Mr. attented. We have one student who through the access testing tested out of our ELLL program. She's a fantastic young lady at the high school. Uh she also plays tennis and she has some of the best hair at the high school. Elelliana Gil, hold on. [Applause] Now, we're very proud of these students. Uh we have a number of students who scored a perfect 850 on the ELA portion of NJGPA. NJGPA is the high school graduation requirement in the state of New Jersey. And it's fantastic that the students worked their way through it. They weren't just happy answering the questions knowing they were going to pass, but they worked all the way through it doing the essays, doing the questions, and in the end there were seven of
012them with a perfect 850. So, we're very happy. So, when I call their name, please come on up. Josh Osborne. >> Congratulations. Isaac Gomez. [Applause] Freya Meyer not here. >> Elliot Moore, >> Megan North and Brian Filic. >> The last [Applause] And we have two other students to recognize from the National Mer merit scholarship program which is when students take the PSATs back in October. We get a list of students who to score exceptional scores on the PSAT and we have two students this evening rec recognized as commended students for their scores on the PSATs. They are Jackson Gendero >> and Josh Osborne. [Applause] All [Applause] right. So, thank you to the administrators. Thank you. Congratulations, students. We're going to take about a five or eight minute break or so right now. So, the step
013and repeat is here. Parents, we encourage you take all the pictures that you want. We'll leave it here. It's also two-sided, so there's uh on the back as well. Um and then we'll get get to the rest of the meeting after that. But congratulations everyone. Big round of applause for everyone today. Oh my god. Now we get the junk mail. >> Exactly. Exact things like this really like yes but you're a freshman and he's like yeah but so by junior year you're my SAT should be he's like trying to >> but it's like you know >> yeah and like he's taking he's taking an AP class as a sophomore he's taking AP computer science principles Our school pays for the AP test for the kids. Like there's a lot of I feel there's a lot
014of like nuggets in our district that you can't listen to the 10% of like sludge on Facebook. >> I don't even Yeah, I know. I can't I've been tapped out of >> like people only when they have stuff to complain about. The feedback is like people experience like depression because like everybody's lives look so much better than it's like >> and I don't know my my youngest son he's eighth grader at the moment when he went through fever and that was like in the >> he was really struggling with reading and they was really good at getting him the questions he needed during quarantine >> and eventually leading to Um he he declassified at the end of sixth grade like he didn't need his anymore but like I feel like everything was done with like
015diligence you know >> and like he didn't even know actually was like sometime in like sixth grade it came up and he's like wait what's that paper I brought home from school I'm like oh yeah music. Are you sure? That was know where you And anywhere I think I don't feel like reading Seventh grade. Our first year Actually funny number ready. You know, So, what was I wasting my time doing? >> Scrolling on Tik Tok and looking at videos on Instagram. >> It's true. >> You know, I feel like for our children, >> they don't like they'll feel that catharsis. >> The research is there. The research tells us what it's doing to your brain, your short term, your working memory. Having near you, >> yeah, >> is already damaging your working memory. >> Even
016if it's down, >> this preser But it's great because they know it's distracting them especially by middle and high school. >> Hello. Okay. And we are back. Uh okay. So uh moving on to item number eight uh present remarks. I have a few uh words to say. So welcome back. So we are about three weeks into 2025 2026 school year. But with this being the first board meeting since the start of the year, welcome back to school. We have a great year planned ahead. For those joining for the first time, the Denellan Board of Education is the governing body of the school district. We donate our time out of a deep compassion for our students and work to make decisions based on what we believe will best help all of our students be successful. The
017board meets about once per month here in the LMS cafeterium for a public meeting that covers school district updates, an update from our student representatives, student recognitions, and important presentations. Our agendas are posted prior to the meeting on the Denellan School, excuse me, district website along with past agendas and attachments. I invite you to join us in our monthly discussions. So, since we uh since we last met, uh couple of things. What uh do we do here? We had some new staff orientation introducing our latest additions to the school community. We had convocation with the broader school community which included keynote speaker Todd Nesloney who was a passionate advocate for students and staff and helping others tell their story. Um we had back to school night at both DHS and Faber great successes. Uh don't
018forget to sign up and participate with the PTO and back to school night at uh LMS is this Thursday night. And um all of our fall sports teams have had their first games or matches. Go Destroyers. Uh I said this last time and I want to reiterate it. I want to shout out uh for the wonderful improvements that we've had uh since we since we met last since the end of last year. A lot of great work has been done uh to get our schools ready for this year's start and so many improvements. Of the many improvements, I'm particularly excited to see the openings of the new art room, a new steam classroom at Lincoln Middle School, among many, many other improvements. But this means that we now have an art room and a STEM
019classroom in each of the three schools covering K through2, which I think is impressive. Looking back just a few years ago, we weren't even close to that. And I'd like to give a great big thanks to Mr. to Ross school administrators, teachers, and staff for getting us prepared and getting us going. Staying healthy, healthy kids means healthy schools, which means a healthy community. Bottom line, we encourage you to take the common sense, proven precautions like washing hands well, covering up when sneezing, keeping sick kids home, keeping up with vaccinations to minim minimize the spread of infectious diseases that can really impact our school year. Monthly celebrations. In September, we recognize Hispanic Heritage Month as well as National Suicide Prevention Month and Rashashana. In October, next month, uh there will be a number of heritage monthly
020celebrations uh for German Americans, for Italian-Americans and Filipino Americans. There are individual day celebrations in October on the 10th, World Mental Health Day, World Inclusion Day, on the 11th National Coming Out Day as well as uh Yamapour and Diwali. And I mentioned these celebrations uh to underscore how important diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging are to our lives and the world around us. With diversity, we're able to welcome and appreciate different views and perspectives and how that makes our lives richer and stronger. Equity is important so we are all playing on the same field by the same rules. Inclusion is key so there is equal access to opportunities and resources for everyone. And with belonging, you feel you are part of something, a group, a community where you are accepted, valued, and comfortable. You fit in
021and are an important part of the whole. These things have an unbelievable impact on our community, especially our kids. Open, honest, and genuine communication that is respectful, positive, supportive, fair, and most of all, kind, goes a long way in strengthening a community. Again, welcome back students and parents forward on to a great year ahead. Thank you everyone for your time and listening. Moving on to the superintendent report with Mr. Ross. Thank you, Dr. Jendano. I'm going to start with the presentation. So, let's get that set up. I know that's good. Yeah. Yeah. >> Wow. was just like sounds good. >> All right. So, tonight I'm going to just provide a little bit of an overview on the middle school scheduling changes uh for the 2526 school year. This is not uh uh covering every change
022that exists um at middle school from last year schedule to this year. This is really going to focus on the elimination of the honors designation of the courses um in the subject areas etc. So I'll get to all the details and talk about sort of some of the rationale and next steps. Um so this presentation is posted on the website. though it is publicly available. Feel free to refer to it uh while I'm presenting um or after the fact. There's basically six kind of um who, what, when, where, why questions um that are addressed in this presentation just so that everyone understands sort of uh the purpose of the presentation and also what it what it does um address. So what were the scheduling changes? Why did the changes take place? How will students be
023supported through the changes? When will the changes be reviewed and assessed? And who will be involved in assessing the changes? So the what of this, what were the scheduling changes? Um and as I mentioned, honors classes and we we spoke about this at the last board meeting um were eliminated for ELA social studies and uh science. The designation honors existed in seventh and eighth grade science classes, seventh and eighth grade social studies classes, and the ELA classes in language arts and writing in grades six, seven, and eight. The honors designation was also removed for for math classes, although uh separate math classes are still uh in the schedule. They're just not called honors anymore. Uh math 6 honors is now called pre-alggebra 6. Intro to algebra 7 honors is now called intro to algebra 7.
024and algebra 18 honors is just called algebra 18. So those were the actual changes uh the classes that were affected. So why did the changes take place? There are a couple of primary drivers for this. The first um and I spoke at length about this at the last board meeting was really equity and opportunity. Um honors courses, you know, from a a disproportionality perspective um included zero multilingual learners and zero students with IEPs. is all of the honors classes that were offered at the middle school last year um had no students who were MLS and no students who had IEPs. Honors courses um were also uh disproportionately uh represented in terms of economically disadvantaged students and Hispanic students as I as I uh put the numbers there. And we also had movement from non-honors to
025honors classes that was very very limited. So, if you were a an incoming sixth grader and you were placed in a non-honors English class, for example, the opportunities or the likelihood of you moving from sixth grade to seventh grade honors was rare. Um, we did have students that did it. Um, but predominantly it was essentially a track that you fell into that you were then kind of destined to remain in. Um, based on the data that we saw and students in honors courses often had more opportunities than students in non-honors courses. The sort of primary example of this is the science fair and we know that only honor students were invited to that which is not a suitable practice for a school district. Uh scheduling improvements also came in as a part of this conversation.
026Um by reducing the number of different classes in a very small school, it makes scheduling much easier. Class sizes are much more balanced this year. Last year there were classes of 28 and 29, sometimes 30. Um and this year we have I think one class of 26. It's a social studies class. Uh everything else is under 25 24 and thereabouts. Class makeup is also more more heterogeneous. It allows for more peer-to-p peer collaboration and support. Um so we don't have uh makeup of of class of students who feel a certain way about themselves and then another class of students who uh feel a certain a different way about themselves and sort of the all the expectations that come from the adults in the spaces as well. Um, so the the the more heterogeneous mixing has
027uh has been a very positive thing. Um, and so in our short experience with it so far, honors classes also coupled with new art and STEM classes allow for a better flow to the student day. So students are now they just have a better flow to their day in terms of the classes that they're taking and the experiences that they have. Um, so uh then the last primary reason is the culture of expectations. class culture and students own expectations of their abilities is really something that is a a real primary driver as we all know. Um especially those of us who are parents or educators. If you've been in an environment where uh there's a lack of self-belief, there is uh often a uh a related lack of performance or a lack of outcomes. Um
028and when you can flip someone's self-belief and sort of self-efficacy and um self-concept, right, that really does often lead to better outcomes. So the goal here is about raising the floor and also supporting the students who are at the top. Um and uh we believe that this these changes will will do exactly that. So how will students be supported through the changes? There's really two primary drivers of this. The first is a multi-tered system of supports. So we uh in when I arrived in the district, we started to talk about assessment. assessment was not something that was um really understood or well used in uh in Denellan public schools. Now we have I think a pretty rich culture a richer understanding I would say. Uh we're well on the way to really understanding what assessments
029we're taking, why we're taking them, and what we do with the data. Um we have very strong PLC's that we're structuring this year. Um where we're going to continue to talk about the data that's been gathered. Um we have interventionist um for the first time we added this position at the middle school. So we have someone who's dedicated in their position to do uh data crunching for and with uh staff members uh push into classrooms where we might need additional support even at the tier one level and then also pull students out that that might need um additional support or additional enrichment. Um the differentiation that occurs in the classroom is obviously far easier when you have smaller class sizes. We also have our classes are now supported by an in-class support model um for
030students with special needs for multilingual learners um and also our interventionists will be providing some of that support as well. And uh one of our focuses that we started last year is small group instruction. And the way that really this has kind of a a significant effect on this is that the traditional model that you think of of kind of the the w uh teacher in the front of the classroom from Charlie Brown um is a totally undifferiated experience for students where everybody's hearing one thing in a small group lesson uh after you know a 5 to 10 minute uh introduction. Uh teacher is able to pull pull small groups of students based on assessments that they're given. This is a very common practice at the elementary level um and less common as you sort
031of move through towards high school. Um but it is something that we started to focus on last year and something that we're we're we're very much doubling down on this year along with the tiered system of supports which will be uh supported in a number of ways. We have a lot of staff development and additional resources that we are investing our time and energy towards. The first is the New Jersey Inclusion Project, which as I've shared before is a three-year partnership with the New Jersey Department of Education, where we have uh coaches from the Office of Special Education and uh uh an outside group who are going to be working with our staff. There's an absolute ton of professional development that staff members and administrators are going to have access to. And uh it is
032the the building of the understanding of how two certificated staff members or three even work in a productive way with each other. uh to support students in a classroom. So that kind of inclusive model is something that we've built our classes around especially at the elementary level when we basically changed the way our multilingual learners were experiencing you know their instruction and intervention as well. Um and now that's a focus both at Faber and the middle school which are the two um the two schools that have been accepted into the inclusion project. We have new ELA curriculum in the middle school. Um this is part of our uh our overhaul of ELA curriculum K8. We're using curriculum uh we're using uh core resources from great minds. Um wit and wisdom was introduced last year in
033a full implementation in grades three through five. At K2 and 68 the program is the same program but it has a different name. It's called arts and letters. and our 68 ELA teachers received uh three-hour introductory training on the new core resource on Thursday. Um it is a very non-fictionheavy uh resource and our curriculum is has has been rewritten to support that uh that non-fiction uh type of approach uh in addition to literature so that students both have uh an understanding of kind of the reading strategies but also have background knowledge which is uh really sort of the the essential way that that students learn how to read and you know uh improve their reading comprehension. We're doing instructional walkthroughs. Um this is something that I'll I'll talk about later on as well, but um
034in the last since last Monday, we've the administrative team has done over 50 instructional walkthroughs. Many of those have been at the middle school. Um we are using a tier one uh instructional walkthrough um chart uh sort of battery that that we developed um that looks at the type of in um instruction that's being provided, the type of assessment and the type of differentiation that is visible in the classroom. We have a lot of committee work and we also have our team meetings and our PLC meetings which are led by our learning experience leaders. Um Miss Drapkin led the committees I ready to inspire power of data and assessment and the Denell interior system of supports last year and those committees will continue to be supported this year. Our team meetings at the grade levels
035are really designed for grade level teachers to discuss uh the strategies that are working um to support students in their particular uh grade. uh and our PLC meetings are really a deep dive into uh understanding what data is being collected, what the data means, and then uh what strategies can be used to improve student outcomes and then a check-in to see what worked and what didn't work and then sort of adjusting and continuing from there. And the last thing that we're doing is uh again tied to one of our our core initiatives this year uh core priorities which is about staff feedback. And so uh we made this change uh in consultation and discussion with uh with staff and uh that means that we really need to understand their feedback and their experience as we
036go through this to ensure that we have the right supports set up. So we started rounding last year um we are continuing rounding uh and we have 30 and 90day check-ins with our new staff members as well as you know conversations at faculty meetings and all of the other kinds of ways in which feedback is gathered. So the when and the who in terms of assessment and review. Uh the changes will be reviewed by staff and administration regularly throughout the year uh through the various meetings and committee structures. As I just mentioned, students will also be able to provide their feedback. We've heard a lot of informal feedback from students about how much better they feel their experience has been in a lot of cases. Um just having, you know, their friends in the classes,
037having smaller class sizes, just having it be more mixed up in a way has been a really positive uh thing. uh the student council and um the middle school uh student voice group uh will also be another avenue for feedback. And then parents will be able to provide feedback directly to staff um as they always have um and the administration as they always have and then also through participation in the schoolwide title title one stakeholder meeting process. We ran this process last year. Um we had a couple of parents who are involved in it. Um this is part of our requirements for schoolwide title one status um at the middle school which is this is our first year uh fully implementing that and uh that means that there are quarterly meetings where there's data that
038is discussed about academic performance and also um behavior and conduct and uh that is a sort of crossunctional stakeholder group that includes the administrators uh parents students staff members um and I think a community member as well. So there's a lot of opportunities uh for feedback both in sort of the regular formative process of just like my kid is having this experience or my kid is having that experience. Um obviously everybody in the district is open to those that that type of feedback. All of that feedback begins at the teacher level. So if parents have concerns or questions about their child's experience, they can certainly always reach out to the teacher first and foremost. Um and then uh subsequent conversations can be had with the administration and uh you know we obviously want to make
039sure that this works for all students and uh you know know uh know you know know exactly sort of where we want to go. So continuous improvement cycle which is something that we talk uh I I mentioned and I I sort of discuss with staff during convocation. This is really the way that we address all of the initiatives that we um are looking to uh to bring into the district. What are we doing that's working or and not working? What will success look like? So, you know, what sort of success criteria are we are we considering? The buildings have goals. The departments have goals and there are particular outcomes that everybody's trying to strive for. Um and next meeting or December I'll uh if we have there's been there's a lot of presentations but I
040will provide a district goals update that that explains some of these things as well. Uh how do we know if we're successful? So what what metrics do we actually use and then what do we do if we do achieve success and then uh what do we do uh if we have not uh what steps can we take in order to get there. So just some final thoughts. Um you know the work that we're doing uh is certainly researchbased practices. Uh I just named a couple. Collective teacher efficacy is probably the most significant um uh effect size of any uh educational practice. Um this is really based on the work of John Hattie um whose kind of seminal work visible learning is really you know widely cited in education. It's a meta metaanalysis of um instructional
041practices and school-based practices that can affect um positive student outcomes. So, collective teacher efficacy is really like what it means simply is that we we do things to try to make all teachers better and teachers engage in practices that try to make their collective efficacy uh better. And that's that's really central to what we do. All of that, the meetings, the PLC conversations, the committee work is really about supporting staff members. Our staff, especially, you know, in changes and uh when when new things have come up, they're very responsive, very responsible uh to uh to the things that are asked of them. They're also very good uh at providing feedback and very clear about that, about the kinds of things that they need. Um, and in my rounding conversations this year, I've gotten really good
042feedback. Um, some positive and some areas of growth of of the things that we're implementing. So, that collective teacher efficacy piece is is really central. Right? We need teachers to be able to address individual student needs. We need them to recognize how to differentiate materials or their instructional practices, etc. Response to intervention is the tiered system of supports. Building self-efficacy is really about student success. Um and that sort of self-v valueue piece that I spoke about comprehensive instructional programs for teachers is really what we're doing especially in the ELA uh uh programming right now and then feedback which I've spoken at length at um and still we know right change is hard uh no implementation is perfect on its first attempt um and there are lessons to learn and uh and that means that we'll
043actively seek feedback from our stakeholders so I'm excited about this um I think the staff is very excited about this I know the administration is very excited about this. I know that there's a lot of trepidation um in sort of understanding, you know, what the changes were and not knowing exactly what it was going to look like. I hope that this provides a little bit of clarity. Um really for me, I think the the biggest amount of clarity will be um in the student experience. So, are students experiencing school in a positive way? Do they feel supported? Do they feel like they're making progress and and learning at an appropriate pace? And if we can get that feedback from students and find that that's largely true for the body and and we can pull our
044our academic outcomes up, um I think that's really where where the the proof is. Um just as a as a kind of caveat to this whole thing, um the middle school uh outputs have, you know, been um significantly below averages uh below state averages, below average in terms of our our demographic profile. um and uh the model that we were working with um you know needed to be improved and I think that this is a really strong uh step in the right direction. I think it's um invigorating to a lot of uh staff members and certainly to the administrators um and uh I think it's uh it's definitely something that we're excited about as I said. So thank you. I'm happy to take questions from board members or comments. Um just thank you Mr. Ross.
045Um just to comment that it is this presentation is posted on the district website. So for members of the community that have questions hopefully if they couldn't make tonight's meeting they take some time to review the the presentation that you just gave. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> I was going to say pretty much the same thing. I think now that there was a yearning for information as to more about this in detail and now with the presentation as well as I think the time with on YouTube can it can also be listened to back again. That's that's great background for folks to to for them to understand better what it is. >> Great. Thank you. >> Uh just a quick process question because there's a lot of things that we're implementing to really increase
046performance for our students. How quickly are we going to see kind of the results or or things because as you noted in the uh last meeting we saw some of the scores that were not really up to par for the average and um when can we expect to see like the feedback and some implementations actually reap some benefits from that? >> Yeah, I mean it's it's you know it's it's hard to predict. I wish I could say it's going to be this spring or next spring or whatever. I will say a couple things. The first is next meeting you'll see the NJSLA results from the spring. So you'll we'll have a a baseline um which is uh as I said there's a lot of room for improvement. Um we do collect a lot of data
047that is uh that is assessed throughout the year. Our link benchmarks are um aligned to uh they're supposed to be predictive of NJSLA results and so we we should have data about we'll have ready data and we'll have link data um to compare against last year um and you know the year before that I think was the first year of implementation. So we will have a a better sense. Um you know academic outputs are always a lagging indicator. Um so they're they're they're not the the most um uh they're not the most formative of assessment tools that we have and you know at at hand but obviously the goal is to build the structure so that we you know we have a very strong foundation at at the elementary level and you'll see those scores
048as well. they're they're excellent. And then we get to the middle school and there's a drop off. And there's maybe there's a lot of there there are a lot of reasons for that, right? But we know that we can't solve all the reasons. What we can solve is the teaching and learning side and the curriculum core resource side. And so if we can really positively impact that and also work on, you know, a positive school climate where kids want to come to school, they want to take these assessments seriously, you know, we can have reduced discipline issues and conduct concerns and those sorts of things. That all contributes to, I think, an environment that um can certainly eventually lead to greater uh uh higher academic outputs. >> Thank you. >> Yep. >> I would also
049like to add thank you Mr. Ross for this presentation. I feel like it helps clarify a lot of questions as you had mentioned. Uh change can be very unsettling and I feel like this helps really uh you know helps the community understand this this change this and the purpose of it and and it's it's good to hear that the class sizes also have demonstrated a nice uh reduction there too. So thank you. >> Absolutely. Thank you. >> Okay. All right. Thank you all. All right. So, I will continue my uh my report with just a couple of of items. We have, I believe, two uh additions to the agenda that was posted uh on Friday. And I think is it that both changes are in the staff list? >> Yeah. So two two staff list
050changes. The first is we're very very excited to um to announce the hiring of our new district security coordinator. Um Mr. Chris Young. Uh Mr. Young is a Denellan resident. He is a parent in town. He uh has a a 27-year career with the Piscatoaway Police Department. Um and he recently retired from that position. um he went through a formal process that involved a number of administrative and staff stakeholders and came out as the successful candidate and he will actually beginning be beginning in the district on Thursday. So we will for the first time have a fully enacted um security staff of three individuals. Um we have uh Sergeant uh Levelville from uh Denellan Police Department. We have Antoine Ferret who is our district security guard. And now we'll have Mr. Young as well as
051a district security coordinator. So that's uh very exciting for us. We're also uh the other change is the hiring of of a new instructional coach. Um we had an instructional coach position which was a 612 instructional coach that was vacated by uh Miss Ashley Powell who became the assistant principal at Denellan High School. Um there was a long process of searching um with performance tasks etc. And our uh successful candidate is uh Carrie Johnson and she is um on tonight's agenda as well. She's got um I think 15 years 16 years of experience in uh New York City, North Planefield and in Piscatoaway as a high school teacher, middle school teacher, and as an interventionist. So um we look forward to her joining the team as well. Uh just some facility updates. Uh Dr. Gendrono
052mentioned uh changes at L at LMS. um the middle school uh art and STEM rooms continue to have furniture and um resources delivered. So they are they are still a work in progress, but they are they're getting there. They're they're sort of beautiful rooms that will be very very functional rooms in about a month or so. Um but kids are in those classes. There's a dedicated space to those to those rooms. I know the Mr. Paluso and Mr. Howard are very excited to have a dedicated instructional space um and you know materials and all the things are are um are being uh delivered you know uh over the next month. Our new counselor offices at the middle school are also uh fully functional up and running. So our counselors have two beautiful spaces that our
053facilities team uh was able to carve out of existing uh rooms in the in the building. And so that's been fantastic. And the middle school faculty room is also still a work in progress. Furniture was delivered. Um the bathroom is being finalized and will be set up um I believe this week. And um there are a couple other things that have to be added to, you know, the the final the final finishing touches for it. Um but again, huge kudos to the facilities team for for their work on that. Uh we had the opening of school um which was uh which was a very smooth opening. Um we have uh there's been very very positive feedback about the first couple weeks of school from from staff and from students. Um the uh faber traffic pattern
054has uh been a a particular point of note as it is each year uh usually for bad reasons but I think this year for good reasons. Um the there is a shift in staffing where we were able to flex individual staff members times to come in a little earlier and open the door for for some kids starting at 7:50 and that has alleviated a lot of the the the sort of uh bottleneck that occurs in the horseshoe. So we'll be looking at some other things to do to increase safety. Um, we've talked about uh installing uh semi-permanent or non-permanent um uh speed bumps um to try to just alleviate some of the kind of zipping around the horseshoe that that folks might do if they're in a rush in the morning. And also our contractors
055um just to ensure that they're driving safely. Um and then we'll continue to monitor and make sure that that everything is good in that in that space. Um back to school nights. Uh we had our first two back to school nights. We were very pleased to introduce our wacky waving inflatable arm tube guy um at the Faber uh back to school night on the 18th. Um middle school is the last one on the 25th and I know Mr. Tobin has uh been working with his staff very closely to ensure that that's a really positive event. One of the really significant improvements that we made with back to school night this year is that we are now offering live translation to uh up to 24 um Spanish-sp speakaking individuals um who uh would prefer to listen
056to a live translated um presentation from their administrators. So we have Beatatric Gimenez who is our community parent involvement specialist um has a microphone and we have these these packs basically and we give the pack to the parent. the parent has a an earpiece and we provide live translation. When Miss Gimenez uh spoke uh at the two back to school nights, we had another um Spanish- speaking staff member translate for Miss Gimenez. Um and it's just been it's it's incredible. I wish we could do it for 100 uh parents or 200. We're limited right now by the number of devices, but I know that that's helped build a connection and ensure that people are really hearing the information that we're sharing. Uh goal setting. I talked a little bit about goal setting through the uh
057scheduling presentation, but um we have six priorities and I'm just going to talk about them, you know, regularly and kind of provide updates. So our our six priorities for the 2526 school year are the first one is PLC's, professional learning communities. We have learning experience leaders which are uh staff members at each building who have received a a a solid amount of training on uh how to lead PLC's, what their purpose is, how to facilitate them, what the use of data is, etc. as well as um some curriculum tools and AI tools as well. So those folks uh have have rolled out PLC's. They've now been rolled out um both at uh in the beginning of the school year and then now also at the first uh the the meeting uh at the building level
058and PLC's are really designed to uh talk about student data and talk about how to intervene on student uh learning based on the data that's collected. So exciting uh times ahead for that. our tiered system of supports. I've talked quite a bit about um the interventionist team has been meeting in the first two weeks of school to uh outline the MTSS process that will be followed at uh Faber and at the middle school. Um and just sort of what the protocols will be, what the data sources are, what information is available about student performance, how it's looked at, when it's discussed, that sort of thing. So, the interventionists did a really wonderful job. Um very proud of their work. Um and they've been a really supportive cohesive group for each other as well which has
059been great. Um instructional walkthroughs uh instructional improvements is a third priority. Um we have uh over 60 walkthroughs um since last Monday when this process started. Um our administrative team will be doing five walkthroughs uh at least five walkthroughs per week. Um and walkthroughs are short. They're five to seven minute data collection of just seeing you know what the practice practices are. a couple check boxes and and a notes section. Um, and the goal of the walkthroughs process is we will be meeting monthly as an admin team and we'll be discussing what we see. And so as as a group when we have let's say 200 walkthroughs to um to talk about the data of if 150 of them had small group instruction as the primary mode of instruction, that's good. That means that we're
060that there's a lot of small group instruction and we can capitalize that on and push on that. Um and similarly if there are other good practices we can address those and try to you know build more consensus around those. Uh curriculum implementation uh we've been very heavy with ELA uh training. Our K2 folks had training today and our three folks have training on Thursday for uh wit and wisdom. So that's been a a real focus area. Our fifth area of priority is attendance. Um and this is really looking at chronic absenteeism. So now we have automated reports that are being sent to the principles each week. Um in my uh bi-weekly meeting with the principal group, we're discussing the percent of students who are uh currently at at sort of on pace to be chronically
061absent. Um and again, we want to really this is all about proactivity. So, it's really about uh providing intervention for students who are not making it to school and finding out why that's the case, what that data actually tells us. And our chronic absenteeism as a district hovers right around that 10% uh marker. We have very heavy spots as every state every school district in the in the state does. Uh kindergarten and prek are very there's a lot of absenteeism at those grades. Um, so Faber's numbers sometimes can get skewed a little bit, but uh, but again, we want we don't want students to think that they should be absent 18 times during the school year, right? We want them to be in school as much as possible. And so talking to them, building that
062culture of of being present is really essential. Um, and then the last of the priorities is feedback. Um, this is uh staff member feedback and student feedback. Um so as I as I discussed rounding is a primary uh target of ours that we'll be using heavily this year. Um student voice groups for for on the student side. We also part of this process is also recognition. And so it's understanding what people's feedback is and then also understanding uh ways to celebrate our staff members and our colleagues and people that are doing good things for each other or for students or for the the district or the building or whatever it might be. Um, one of the tools that we use for that is a program called Highlight, which we introduced last year. Um, during the
0632425 school year, there were 339 highlights that were given. And so that means a staff member said, you know, uh, I'm going to send a highlight to Dr. Gendrono um, for building relationships. You know, Dr. Jendrono did this did this thing. Um, you know, there was a student crying in the hallway and Dr. Gendrano went up and comforted the student and you know took him over to the water fountain and got him got him some water and then he he you know walked away happy whatever it was. So we had 339 for the entire 2425 school year. This year we have 203 already in in uh the you know this is the third full week of school. So there's a there's a you know there's an embrace of the tool there's an embrace of the
064process. you know, there's a there's always cynicism, skepticism around some of these types of things, right? But I think that, you know, we all feel great when someone says you did a great job or you get recognized. And this is a this is a very public within the school district um type of recognition uh process. And so uh I'm really pleased to see the use. Uh we have a lot of people who are sending highlights that that didn't send highlights last year. We have people who are being recognized and thanked for their amazing work. um that uh that really deserve it. And so it's a it's wonderful to see that. So part of the goal the goal setting process is that we have uh really significant dashboarding that we're using internally uh and the administrative
065team which I will talk more about when I have the opportunity to share. But each of the buildings has uh very specific academic output goals and also very specific SEAL goals um which will be measured uh monthly at our admin meetings and then quarterly as a full recap. So there is a again it's a very progressive uh deliberate way of addressing progress towards the goals that we're setting. We also have uh goals in the area of operations that Mr. Pepe is in charge of um and that's really around sort of customer service in the business office. the purchasing and requisition process um and you know obtaining feedback about how to improve the operational uh efficiency which we have which is obviously goal three and then the last piece of of the goal setting work is
066really our work with the labor management collaborative um and I've talked about the LMC before but we have a meeting um set up next week to discuss kind of next steps for LMC we had the two great trainings in August and uh we're hoping to get October uh to be the kickoff for are school-based meetings uh for the labor management collaborative. And again, just as a recap, that is a uh a meeting that occurs between administrators and staff members in a building where they talk about issues in a really structured, constructive, positive manner. Um and talk about who kind of has ownership and feedback and opportunity for decision-m within that process. And then, um you know, how you sort of work through that to to find solutions. Um not every problem is solvable and not
067every problem uh that arises uh allows a consensus or requires a consensus. Um but there are a lot of issues that we talk about in schools that are ripe for that type of thing where there might be uh you know I mean too much on the administrative side um sort of directive uh orientation rather than really a much more collaborative mindset where there's a lot of really good input and um ideas that could be gathered from the folks who are really living in the classroom level themselves. We have four grants that are still open. They were supposed to be uh decided upon on September 15th. Um so those are for literacy grants. We will keep everyone posted on those. Um I mentioned the inclusion project. So I don't need to speak more about that. We
068have a big facilities project that is pending right now. This is the prek uh expansion. We have an updated uh timeline. We had the uh the pre-bid walkthrough with three contractors um who attended today. We have a questions period and the bid opening is going to occur on October 17th. Our construction schedule, assuming that all things sort of go well, is about a 14-month process which takes us through December um and has construction starting sometime in the winter uh of of this year. This is a tentative timeline. Um so, you know, this is all subject to change. This all also depends uh is dependent on the the bids that come in. Um so as I think you're aware we had about a $6.5 million project um when we started. After redesigning the project uh it
069climbed to about a $7.5 million project and we don't know necessarily where the bids will come in but at certain at a certain price point we just will have to say this is not a project that we can fund. um we do not want to deplete our capital reserve for for this. We certainly can't take out more debt or anything like that. So, you know, if bids come in at $11 million, we say thank you, but we're just not going to do this project. If the bids come in more in the high sevens range, then we've got funding that we can uh we can attribute to this and we can move forward with the project. So, that's going to be a learning process that we're going to have to go through over the next month
070or two. Uh we had on September 10th the PTO potluck dinner which was incredible. Um I want to thank the PTO members who came out, the PTO leadership for organizing it. Um and uh and also Beatatric Gimenez or CPIS for for really kind of helping to run the show. Um so Maria Bartman and uh Dr. Rebecca Janjano um just did an amazing job with it. We had was 40 40 families or 50 families. >> Yeah. Um the food was incredible. Uh the conversation was great. It was just a really positive community building event. So uh thank you to everyone who came out and thank you especially to those who helped organize it. We had class officer elections at the high school on Friday and we have a new senior class president who is Queen Emil.
071Um and uh Mr. Lynch spoke to Queen about becoming the second rep um to the board and she is going to be interested in doing that. So, her first meeting will be in October and we'll appoint her at that time. Um, our 27 class of 27, the current junior class president is Caitlyn Wallace. Uh, the sophomore class president is Samara Mangaroo and the freshman class president is Colin Reynolds. Um, we have uh we've been using school links as our new uh college planning um platform. This replaced Naviance this year. So the district used Navvian for a long time as did many as have many districts uh across the country. School links is a much lighter tool. Uh it's a much more studentfriendly tool. Um the feedback that that I've gotten from the students and from
072the staff members is that kids find it much more engaging which is good because we want them to engage in the the process of you know what happens to them after uh graduation. Um and so you know we'll provide more updates on that. But the senior the senior class has been trained in how to use it. The junior class will be trained in sort of the spring, but all students have now access to it and they can start playing around and, you know, going on virtual college tours and, you know, doing that sort of thing. It's school links. Yeah. With one L in the middle. Um, and then the last thing I'll I'll mention is just the the school board's uh conference which is uh after our next meeting uh in October. It's the 21st
073or something like that. 20th >> 20th to the 23rd. Um we the district does have um a presentation um we put in two um two applications uh uh submissions and we are presenting on the work that we've done to support um multilingual learners and their families in the district. And so I'll be presenting with Miss Drapkin and Abby Franklin um from the middle school. I'll also uh have the opportunity as well to present with some folks from NJ DOE and NJA on uh the new uh state evaluation work. So um so that'll be Tuesday which will be a fun thing to do as well. With that I will move to the enrollment report. Um the enrollment update is on the website and is available. Um, but as of uh the most recent update, we have
074now uh 1,412 students including our prek expansion. Um, we have 605 at Faber, 313 at the middle school, and 410 at the high school. And from last meeting to this meeting, uh, we're up 26 students, and a lot of those were pending enrollments and things like that. So, we don't we have fewer than 10 pending enrollments at this point. Um so we're going to end up around 1415 to about 1420 or so um probably for the next little while unless we get another bump of students. So just for historical context um in 201819 we had 1,286 students. Um in the 2021 school year it dropped to 1228. Um and then when I arrived in 2223 school year there was 1320. So, we're about 100 students up from from that. And uh we also, you know,
075we know we we did implement the re-registration process for students in grades six through nine. Um which I think was a very helpful process. We certainly learned some lessons about things we need to do better in terms of communication. um and kind of starting that process earlier. But that's also been a helpful process to kind of just create a a drag net for the students who are attending the the the district and the type of paperwork that we're being provided to ensure that registrations are legitimate. That's the end of my report and I will turn it over to Douglas. All right. So, good evening every everybody. It is my pleasure to see everyone here again and continue being the student representative for the 2025 2026 school year. I look forward to continuing working together and
076continuing to contribute to our community as much as possible. To start the student report for the month of September, I will highlight some things that have gone on at Dunelan High School. We had our class elections that were held and the candidates selected are getting started with their teams to assure a successful year for the cla for their classes. We also had a representative from Princeton University yesterday Monday 22nd where students had the opportunity to hear more about what the university has to offer and also ask questions to decide if they are interested in attending. Also, yesterday was picture day and students were getting ready to look neat for their yearly picture. Clubs are having interest meetings and getting started so that students are able to spend some time after school doing activities they like
077and getting involved in their community. Um, as we had in the beginning of the meeting, we had seven students who receive a perfect score on the English portion of the NJ GPA, which is a graduation requirement. And we also had one student who exited the ESL program due to outstanding scores on the access testing. I think that's great since that shows how much our students are putting the effort in their classes and how much they are trying to do the best that they can so that they can have a brighter future. Um, students continue to adapt to the new school year, but but I have no doubt that everyone will have a successful year going ahead. To continue with the student report, we have information we have information from Lincoln Middle School written by Sonia
078Diaz, an eighth grade student. In her journey to recognize the events for the first two weeks of school, she wrote, "The middle school students are now adjusting to the new year, our classes, and our teachers. Many middle school students, middle school students are also joining fall sports like cross country which has their next meet on Wednesday. The cross country team also had their first win the past Monday. The returning students are also getting adjusted to the new principal Mr. Tobin. Students are also noticed the changes in their lunches as we are seeing the changes in food quality. Some examples are the fresh fresh fruits and vegetables as well as more options than seen in previous years. Middle school students are also getting adjusted to the new ID test test taking format. There are many mixed
079opinions. >> Moving to favorite elementary school, I was able to receive a list of updates from the first weeks of school for favorite elementary students. They have launched environment environmental enrichment classes across all grades levels featuring aquaponics, hydrophonics and outdoor planters giving students handson handson experience with sustainable growing systems. Favor is now connected with rocker climate groups. Selected fourth and fifth graders will join a student advisory group presenting and discussing our aquafonic systems with students from another schools across the state. Girls on the Run officially began today. This empowering program for girls in in grades three through five combines physically activities with lessons in confidence, social emotional learning, and healthy lifestyle habits. Also, their Harry Potter club is bringing magic to STEM. Students explored the world of Harry Potter through hands-on exper experiments, including one
080wand making potions and creating edible mythical creatures. In just a few weeks, we'll be introducing our broadcasting club led by doc but by Mr. Damiko, sorry. This club will give a students opportunities to build creative teamworks and communication skills through real world broadcasting experiences. I want I want to add to what Mr. Ross also commented about the new uh the schoolings tool. I feel that for the high school level that tool is way better than Navians and that will also give us a lot of new uh ways to apply for colleges easier since is easier to use than Naviance and also the way that it connects with common app is more efficient than Navian and it will just give students a better chance on getting more applications out to colleges and hopefully that will bring
081up the number of admissions to colleges for students. So, I think that was a good change. So, this concludes the student representative report for the month of September. Again, it is always a pleasure to be able to communicate the events happening throughout our district. I look forward to seeing everyone of you next month. >> Awesome. Thank you, Douglas. And I just also want to thank thank you, Douglas, for your uh your leadership and support, especially of our um Spanish speaking students. Douglas is super involved in Project Connect at the high school. And the the goal of the group is to provide studentto student mentoring um for students who are new to the country or new to the school or new to the town. Um and you know, Douglas's nickname is the mayor um because he
082just goes around and and says hello to everyone and welcomes everyone and and that that feeling of community is a really important aspect of of that. So really appreciate that. So that's it. Thank you all. >> Right. Thank you, Mr. Ross. Thank you, Mr. Sing. Um I wanted to just uh ask a quick question or mention just a comment. Sorry. Um so the enrollment report, we're up 100. That that tracks with the demographics report pretty nicely. >> So if you all remember, we did that a year ago or so, or a little more than a year ago, actually. And that was a commission study that actually, you know, predicted how many students to expect. So I think the report is still on our website. So yes. All right. Moving on to item number 10, public
083comments on agenda action items only. So, the board invites public comment from members of our community in accordance with board policy 0167 on agenda action items to be voted on only. Public comment sections are intended to provide an opportunity for members of the public to express themselves on school matters of community interest. The board and administration will take notes during public comments, but will not provide substantive responses to questions or concerns raised by individual speakers. If necessary, the superintendent may provide a brief response after the entire public comment period is completed. The board appreciates and welcomes feedback from the community, but is not at liberty to engage in a back and forth dialogue with members of the public during this portion of the meeting. Prior to making your public comment, please state your name and
084municipality. Please note that all statements must be directed to the presiding officer. Please come to the microphone at this time if you would like to make comments on agenda action items to be voted on only. Prior to beginning your comment, please state the action item to be voted on that you would like to comment on. Last call. Okay. Uh, moving on to item number 11, education discussion items. I will turn this over to Mrs. Howard, the chair of the education committee. >> Thank you. The education committee met on September 15th at 6 PM. Present were myself, Miss Ibeck, Miss Shyf, uh, Dr. Gendrono, Miss Drapkin, Miss uh, Dr. Mr. Santaniello and Mr. Ross. The um education committee discussed a number of items including an update on the district's goal setting work for the 2526 school
085year. Items on tonight's agenda for approval, including a number of policies, regulations, and bylaws recommended for first reading, acceptance of a student to continue at DHS for 12th grade as per policy 511, a survey that will be administered at DHS this year, and a books donation that is in the operation section for approval. Um, we also discussed a wide range of prof staff professional development occurring throughout the district. An update uh an update on grants that have been awarded and applied through uh applied to through the NJ DOE, information about leveling changes at LMS, and a variety of other items and confidential matters. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mrs. Howard. Moving on to item number 12, education action items. Looking for a motion to move um 12 A through G as a block. >> Move
086to approve items A through G as a block. second. >> Open for questions or comments. >> I just had a quick question. The um the boys soccer team is going on a field trip to Miscataway. Is that that's during the school day? >> Oh, it's >> it's a it's a to the the it's a Rucker soccer game. They're going to a Rucker soccer game. >> Nice. Nice. Nice. Oh, that's that field. Yes. I for I didn't know that was what it was about. >> That's that's why it sounded familiar. >> That's great. Okay. That should be a great experience for them. >> I was also going to just add uh so um item A is for the first reading of those three U policies for statutory curriculum requirements student protection very important and substance abuse.
087>> Oh right and code of conduct sorry code of conduct as well. So, um, questions, comments, last call. Okay, Mr. Pepe, could you please call the role? >> Mr. Anderson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Condit, >> yes. >> Miss Ibeck, >> yes. >> Dr. Gendrono, >> yes. >> Mrs. Howard, >> yes. >> Mr. Sonoi, >> yes. >> Mrs. Shep, >> yes. but abstaining from D3. >> And Mr. Walker, >> yes. >> Motion passes. >> Oh, wonderful. Moving on to item number 13, personnel discussion items. Um, I chair that committee, so I'll go ahead and give that report. So um on the 5if on the um 15th of September um the education committee uh met um in attendance were myself uh Mr. Anderson, Mr. Shep and Mr. Ross and we discussed a number of items including updated
088job descriptions that are on tonight's agenda for approval, staffing information for the current year, details about the sitebased teams for the New Jersey inclusion project, an update on the negotiations between the board and the DAA, and a number of confidential items. Uh, thus closes my report. Moving on to item number 14. action items uh for personnel. Looking for a motion to move uh 14 A through Oh my goodness, I didn't write this down. A through R as a block >> motion. Motion to move 14 A through R as a block. >> Second. >> Open for questions or comments. I just want to point out the uh the two job description changes. The only change in those two job descriptions is the code uh reference that is in the beginning of whatever the section is. Um
089other responsibilities was incorrect and so that's now been updated. >> So um just to clarify too, I think we're on the on R28 for school boards. We can still vote for ourselves. Yes. >> Right. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> That's correct. >> All right. Just making sure. And uh I did also want to just add um in section R kind of along the lines of what Mr. Ross what you were saying earlier about the supports I I don't know if this is a record but 43 PD uh approval like travel approvals approvals for travel for for professional development like that's great. >> Yeah. I mean it's it's the beginning of the school year. There's a there's a lot that sort of blocks in here. >> Okay. Um, but we I will say that uh we
090have to be careful about staff travel as we move forward, especially given the uncertainty around federal funds in the future. >> So, we're trying to tighten things up um and our processes for um out of district professional development because we are providing a lot of indist professional development. But yes, I mean for the the first meeting, we've got lots and lots of training and it's all very much aligned to the the principles that we've established. Yeah. >> Yes. That's wonderful. Wonderful. >> Any other questions, comments? >> Yes. I had a question about um A2 uh the substitute coordinator. What are what are the job descriptions? >> The substitute coordinator is a position that was created in I think in my first year and I think it was the 22 23 school year. maybe at the
091end of the year or maybe it was the the very beginning of the 23 24 school year the um the district had been using ESS for daily subs and if you recall I think our filler rate was like 10% or something like that um and we decided that we would bring the process inhouse um we advertised it internally for someone to basically be responsible for placing all of the approved district subs in openings and that's what that person does and So, um, you know, Miss Lebliner has had that position since its inception. She gets up very early in the day, looks at all the openings, contacts all the substitutes, works later in the day, um, to ensure that there's coverage, you know, when available. And our our fill rates have been probably above 80% every
092every single day since then. >> Any other questions or comments? That's call. Okay. Mr. Pepe, please call the role. Mr. Anderson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Condit, >> yes. >> Miss Ibeck, >> yes. >> Dr. Gendron, >> yes. >> Mrs. Howard, >> yes. >> Mr. Senoi, >> yes. >> Mrs. Shep, >> yes. >> Mr. Walker, >> yes. >> Motion passes. >> Okay. Wonderful. Wonderful. Wonderful. Okay. Moving on to Wow, I got pages here a couple times. I know it's operations, but I only get the right number right. There we go. >> Thank you. Thank you. Moving on to item number 15. It's a hell of an agenda um on operations discussion uh operations discussion items. Uh the operations committee report. I'll turn it over to Mr. Walker, our committee chair. >> Thank you, Dr. Dr. Gano,
093the operations committee met on September 15th. President were myself, Miss Condit, Dr. Gano, Mr. Pepe, and Mr. Ross, excuse me, a number of items on tonight's agenda. No, I'm sorry. Uh, we discussed a number of items, including a number of items on tonight's agenda for approval, including policies, regulations, and bylaws for first reading, donation and disposition of certain property, and acceptance of the funds from the NJ DOE for the preschool facilities expansion grant. updates related to the district's preschool facilities expansion grant, updates on the many internal construction projects occurring throughout the district, security improvements and actions that are ongoing, and a variety of confidential matters. That's it. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Walker. Moving on to item number 16, operation action items. Looking for a motion to approve 16 A through V as in
094Victor as a block. >> Move to approve items A through V as a block. Second >> open for questions or comments. >> I did want to just call out uh for item number Q uh 16 Q which are the donation of history books um by um Ms. Susan Kosal, I think I said that right, Kosal. And um these are uh I think the value of the books monetarily I think is roughly around $2,000. I think the actual intrinsic value is way way way way much more than that as it is a pretty I wouldn't say complete but a very very much a great set of of history books as as I understand it. >> Yes. So, uh, Miss Kosel is an academic. Um, she's a high school graduate, um, a DHS graduate of 1976, class
095of 1976. And she, we don't have a full accounting of everything that she's donating, but it is books, historical artifacts, photographs. I mean, it's uh, she's she's got an amazing collection. some of her works have gone to the New York Art Museum or other um libraries and things like that, but she did really express an interest in being able to give back to the to the district and to the school. And so um we're happily accepting the donation. We have to figure out what to do with it. Um uh it's going to live in classrooms. It's going to live in public spaces within the buildings. Um but um we're very glad to have been able to do that for her and I think that we'll make very good use of it. So, any other uh
096questions, comments? Last call. >> Okay. Uh Mr. Pepe, go ahead. Please call the RO. >> Mr. Anderson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Condit, >> yes. >> Ms. Ibeck, >> yes. >> Dr. Dano, >> yes. >> Mrs. Howard, >> yes. >> Mr. Saoi, >> yes. Miss, excuse me, Mrs. Shep. >> Yes. >> Mr. Walker, >> yes. >> And motion passes. >> Wonderful. Moving on to item number 17. Uh, the policy committee report. >> Okay. Then there is no policy committee report. Um, that's a short report. Moving on to item number 18. Uh, topics for uh the board as a whole. Uh, action items. Uh so looking to approve 18A uh in the policies therein >> approve 18A >> second >> open for questions or comments. Sorry it's bylaws >> bylaws. Yeah that's okay. So just an explanation
097these are just like the other most of the policies and regulations that are listed on the agenda. These are recommended updates based on uh legal changes. Um these four bylaws in particular were um outlined by Strauss Esme, our policy provider, as um being in need of updating because of either changes in code or changes in law or something like that. So that's why they're uh recommended here for first reading. >> Wonderful. So any questions, comments? All right. Uh Mr. Mr. Pepe, could you please call the role? >> Mr. Anderson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Condit, >> yes. >> Ms. Ibeck, >> yes. >> Dr. Gendrono, >> yes. >> Mrs. Howard, >> yes. >> Mr. Sahanoi, >> yes. >> Mrs. Shep, >> yes. >> And Mr. Walker, >> yes. >> Motion passes. >> All right, moving on
098to number 19. Uh, old business. Any old business you guys want to stir back up? Since it's kind of on the cusp of old and new business, I'll just say NJSBA is coming up October 20 to 23. I'm not sure which one which category to put it in, so I'll just do it right in the middle. Um because it's old, but it's also new. So, and um Yes. >> Can I add something? >> Oh, please go ahead. >> Sure. Just just want to clarify for the board members because we just had a deadline of me asking you to let let me know who's going and and not and we kind of pressed you on that. I do want you to know that there are still any of you can still go if any of your
099circumstances change who aren't currently planning to go and I just need to know as soon as possible if you are going to be able to go so I can see if I can still get a hotel room. That's all. But you you know just because we passed that one step doesn't mean you you can't go at this point. You all can still go. Well, the registration is still open for like it's covered, >> right? We have a a group registration for up to 25 people. So, there's plenty of space, >> right? So, if you want to hang out and, you know, pull an all nighter on the boardwalk, that's fine. But, >> but so um any other um comments on that? It's very informative and it's a great time to learn about all the different
100things. I'm excited about all the presentations and I think is it is it Joe Thyman this year? >> Yeah, Joe Thyman is the keynote speaker uh for for this year. And wasn't there a local band also playing or choir? >> I don't know. I'll have to go look back in my >> there are a lot of student groups that are performing. I know there's a there's a group from Planefield. >> Maybe that's what it is. That's plain >> arts middle school. Elementary school. Middle school. Yeah. >> Yes. It's an awesome event. >> So, all right. So, moving on to item 20. New business. Any new business? I have some um so you null to kind of just give background here mentioned that this month is suicide prevention month. >> Yes. >> Um as a result
101of that New Jersey every year holds a suicide prevention conference. Uh so in attending that earlier this month we were able to go to some breakout sessions and one was really surrounding youth and how we can support them. um but specifically how we can support them digitally. So, uh just it was something that was very interesting, so I wanted to be able to bring it up if it's not on the radar already. It's um an app called Safeen NJ. And it can be installed on phones, but it can also be installed on Chromebooks. And this app, it has a couple different features. One of the big things with it is that it does have the ability for anonymous third-party reporting and there's an entity that's available 247 to filter through this. Um, but one of
102the things that you know in the mental health world we know is that a lot of what we become aware of especially with our youth comes through third parties first. Um, so the app allows for that but it also has a lot of areas for resources. So, second floor, which I know our staff refer youth to here, um it has information and accessibility for them to connect with second floor. Um and a bunch of other resources. One of the things because of course I had to ask um was about cost and >> uh the awesome part about that was there's a grant out right now that allows it to be free for districts for the next two school years. >> Wow. Um, so at least in terms of investment it was low, but it was
103something that, you know, they spoke a lot about. They've had some success. It's in a lot of districts already and caught my eye. >> That's great. Yeah, thank you. We'll definitely look into it. >> Fantastic. And as we were discussing, I also was reminded there was a um NJSB school board's uh event that's coming up. I believe it's in October. It should have been sent to your your uh your board accounts for there's like a what was it the I think Mr. Zitimer as well as the gentleman from Bush Law will be there to talk about like how strategies or ways to approach some of these topics that have been coming up across school districts. And it's it's a SBA sponsored event at the Pines Manor in in Edison. So there's two parts to it.
104If you if you would like to join for dinner, there's a buffet that will be there. You have to register to be able to go, but it's um free dinner for for board members if you'd like to go. That's at 6:00. Um I forget the actual date. It's in October, but um can talk about the detail later. But then 6:45, I believe, is the beginning of the session. So, if you want to just virtual in, you could uh join there as well, but you still have to register. I I have to go back. I didn't I kind of just was remembering it as we're going. I didn't actually write it down, but it's um it's in your school board in your um inbox, but it has to do with topics um that are current current
105that are current that other districts have been uh engaging in. Yes. >> So the the session is called uh so it's Tuesday, September 30th, difficult decisions, school policies and practice. Uh the session will focus on policies that spark the greatest discussion in school communities from curriculum choices, student rights to safety protocols, technology use. Um it's Mark Zitimemer and Jonathan Bush. Um yeah, >> sorry about the >> and I can I'll forward this I'll forward this to everyone so it's at the top of your inbox. >> Yes. Sorry, I got the dates wrong there. But Mr. Zunmer say Mr. Zimmer is there who's and that's uh he's from the the law firm that we that we use for our uh you know part of our attorneys. So um I'm actually going to try to go if
106I if I can possibly go >> and you're welcome to Oh, go ahead. If I could just add also the uh recent guidance from a state uh from the state um uh commission regarding cell phone use um in districts and some guidance to districts as well as uh families to res limit or prevent uh social media um introduction to to children. Um so know that that was a recent guidance um that maybe we can also consider in future. Okay. Okay. Thank you. All right. Any other any new new business things you want to bring up? Okay. All right then. So, moving along to item number 21, president's remarks. I will forego. I think I've said enough. Um and moving on to item 22, public comments on any issue or any topic. So the board invites
107public comment from members of our community uh in accordance with board policy 0167 on any issue, any topic. Public comment sections are intended to provide an opportunity for members of the public to express themselves on school matters of community interest. The board and administration will take notes during public comment, but will not provide substantive responses uh to questions or concerns raised by individual speakers. If necessary, the superintendent may provide a brief response after the entire public comment period is completed. The board appreciates and welcomes feedback from the community, but is not at liberty to engage in a back and forth dialogue with members of the public during this portion of the meeting. Prior to making your public comment, please state your name and municipality. Please note that all statements must be directed to the presiding
108officer. Please, excuse me, come to the microphone at this time if you would like to make comments on any issue or any topic. Okay, anyone? Last call. Okay, moving on to item number 23, executive session. The Denellan Board of Education will now adjourn into executive session to discuss items that fall within specific exceptions to the Open Public Meetings Act, CJSA uh 104-12B. The confidential matters discussed by the board during the executive session include items related to um individual privacy, collective bargaining agreements, pending or anticipated litigation or end or personnel. Um any discussion that does not need to remain confidential will be made public as soon as it is practical. Minutes of the executive session will not be disclosed until the need for confidentiality no longer exists. All individuals who may be discussed in executive session
109have been adequately notified. Action will not take place after the conclusion of the executive session. Uh may I please have a motion to go into executive? >> Move to go to exe. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I >> opposed. All right. We will see you guys next time in a month. I think it's October 5th 14th. >> 14th. October 14th. Same bat time, same bat channel.