Bridgewater BOE Meeting 08/26/2025

001You're good. >> Oh, it's okay. I did my best. Feel free to I did, too. >> All right. I'm going to call the meeting to order. in compliance with the open public meetings law of the new of New Jersey. Notice of this August 26, 2025 meeting of the Bridgewater Ryan Regional Board of Education was posted electronically on the Courier News on on the district website and provided on January 8th, 2025 by sending an annual written notice to the Courier News, Star Ledger, Bridgewater Township Clerk, Rarenburg Clerk, and by posting on the bulletin board in the Harmon vade administration building. Please join me in the pledge of >> allegiance. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands nationy for all. >> Mr. Lumsky, could you please call the

002role? >> Mr. Lee >> here. >> Miss Lan >> here. >> Dr. Lee >> here. >> Mr. Pepe >> here. >> Mr. Walker >> here. >> Mr. Sanger here. We're going to start off today with the superintendent's report. >> Oh, it is. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Singer. So the uh the major topic that is on really all the administration's uh mind that includes us sitting here at the table as well as principles um and it filters down obviously to teachers and anyone who works in the district is uh the status of construction projects. Um I'm happy to report to to the public to the board that we're making progress. um we're going to be ready for the first day of school, but in certain areas, it's going to come right down to the wire. All

003right? And those certain areas where it's coming right down to the wire, and uh Mr. Lomsky and I were were over at these schools today. Um it's going to come right down to the wire at Bradley Gardens. All right. They had probably the the most intensive uh renovation of some kindergarten spaces, as you know, as part of the referendum. They're not just renovating kindergarten spaces, but they're also um changing the dimensions of a few rooms to accommodate the hallway that's going to go to the cafeteria edition. So, it was more involved there and um happy to say that we passed our inspections today. Right. Right. So now they can button up the ceilings, get things going. And um and and look, I I really want to applaud our faculty, our principles where I I don't

004mean this to poke fun at me, but uh primary school teachers are so dedicated um to their spaces, to the rooms for for kids. And and this is torture for a kindergarten teacher to not be able to access their classroom until like Thursday when we invite all of our staff in. So, I appreciate their patience. We've told folks over and over, it doesn't have to be perfect. We just have to be ready for kids and we can get those bulletin boards up and anything we need to do um you know, in in the meantime. But, uh but I but I'm really grateful for for the uh tone and tenor of all the communications with our faculty, with our principles. Um because as we know when we go into construction projects whether it's a municipal project

005or on your home right we know that that projects always finish ahead of time and under budget right that's so well well yeah there's 10 weeks and and the problem is and and we know it's no different than our homes. You're ripping open walls in a building that was put up 60 years ago and you find things that you don't expect to find a lot of times and and uh a lot of times that that's uh esbestous which was a common building material uh used in in these parts 50 or 60 years ago. So >> yes, right up the road. So So anyhow, we're due to to be complete Basselone Field is the other project that's coming right down to the wire. We received a go-ahead from the contractors that they're going to be ready

006for the home game on Friday. So, so we're good to go. Um, and again with that, I know that the band can't get on the field to practice, the football team can't get on to field to practice until Friday, but um, I think once we see the finished product and we get past this little hump, people are going to be happy with how things look. So, before I hand it over to uh, Mr. Moriello for for his um testing report part one. It there's really been some great news that I shared with the board of ed. We pushed out locally via media outlets and um few things. One were the testing results that that we've received specifically over the summer. we receive our AP results and that's going to be highlighted in in this report

007and we're really moving towards uh towards an excellent place um the other testing reports um that we'll go over this evening but also due to the efforts that we've put in place over the last four to five years US News and World Report came out with their yearly high school rankings and Bridgewater Raritin jumped 36 spots and and That's that's a murial rise in the rankings. And there's no other school in Somerset County that had anywhere close to that. And and we always say, right, it's it's the boring things that get you where you want to go. But look, four years ago, and and I applaud the board of education, our administration, and and the team. Look, we knew that there were learning gaps after CO and those learning gaps still remain, but you know,

008through the curriculum office, through our principles, supervisors, etc., we really honed in on where those gaps were and and you see the rises in the state testing, right? So, so that's one one place that helped us in these rankings. our AP enrollment and scores. We opened up more pathways for kids um and and they've been been uh utilizing that. And finally, and and if you look at the matrix and how these scores are are reported, probably the largest area and that had the most profound effect on on our ranking was our graduation rate. and and uh we had said now remember the the data for US News and World Report is actually two years old. So it's 2022 23 data right that's reported and and that's where you are but the graduation rate at least

009two years ago we went from 90 or 91% up to 94 and and that's that's significant. Now we we've pushed that up to 97%. We which should help us in the future. So, I mean, it's it's working with all our kids, helping them get across the line, look, we say over and over, every student who enters these doors and and when we open them on Tuesday to everyone, every student has their own set of challenges. Whether you're at the top of the class or the bottom of the class, um whether you're you're regular student or special needs student, everyone's got a mountain to climb. And although the view may look different from the top, it's it's our sacred responsibility to help those kids get to where they need to go or want to go and

010and I think a as as a collective we are doing a much much better job in that and it's being reflected in in these um again in in these metrics. So finally before I hand it off to Mr. from Morello. Um, our motto and and I know it was uh created under the old administration was one and all. And and look, we didn't come up with it, but I take that to heart. I I think it's a good model. One and all. That means everyone everyone's got needs and we've got to make sure that we have programming for the 100% of kids that walk through our doors. And uh you know we're we're taking a lot of steps to to ensure that and I'm sorry I have to backtrack. And uh one of the other

011areas that that really helped us and we'll see the results on this um presentation is how we work with our ESL students. All right. That's another metric where where we made significant gains. So with that I'm gonna turn it over to Mr. Moriel. I'm just gonna go back there and watch. Sorry. Thank you very much. >> All right. So, today we're going to be reviewing the NJGPA and the access scores from last school year. And this is a little bit of a of a is it is it not coming through here? There we go. Um, so it's a little bit of a bittersweet uh presentation because this will be the last presentation on the current version of the NJGPA. Um so uh within the last two weeks the NJDOE announced that the NJGPA and the

012NJSLA will be changing um not only uh platforms and companies but we'll also be moving to an adaptive version. Um so that will be in effect for this upcoming school year. Um so they haven't released much information other than that. So we don't have much other information. So there are some trainings that will be available in September. So as we get more information we can share that. Um but really that's kind of the information that we know now. Um so this will be the last presentation on the current NJGGPA and then in October when we do part two of the standardized uh testing presentation that will be the last presentation on the current NJSLA and then will be the adaptive uh versions moving forward. And like I said as we get more information um we

013will share about that. Um so the purpose and context um of this presentation we said are to look at the two assessments the access and the NJGPA. Um this is a required part of our state assessment reporting based on statute. And these results in addition to sharing the uh results here the results are used by teachers and administrators continually to uh review our program, our curriculum, our instruction um to identify best ways to support all of our students. Right? One and all. Kind of like Bob said before. We really do look at individuals um on how we can best support all of our students. But before we do get into those two assessments, as Bob had mentioned, the US News uh high school rankings uh recently came out once again in the last two weeks.

014It's been a busy last two weeks um in in testing areas. Um so Bob had mentioned that we had moved from uh ranked number 108th uh top high school in New Jersey based off of last year's 2024 ratings up to number 72 based on the current ratings. And the rankings are based on really three components. AP, both participation and achievement on the assessments, the graduation rate, and standardized testing performance, which is based off of NJSLA and NJGPA, in math, English, and science. Um, so the NJSLA and NJGPA, we're going to be discussing that in much more detail throughout this presentation for NJGPA, and then in October for NJSLA. Um, so here's just kind of a brief summary of some of the um, AP and graduation rate over the last couple years. And what's interesting, like

015Bob had mentioned, the 2025 rankings are actually based on data from the 2022 2023 school year. So you can see that highlighted in purple. So we actually have the data really for the the next two years um, essentially. So we can although we can't predict the rankings because we can't predict how other school districts are also changing um over the years we can look at just our initial metrics and you know what we can see um where we were and where we're going. Um so looking overall at AP in terms of uh students enrolled in an AP course um number of exams that are taken and uh interestingly the percentage of students who take an exam who score a three plus on the exam a three four or five which is considered college credit in

016many universities. um we're seeing most of those metrics increase year-over-year um and even increasing into next year when we're projecting the number of students um who plan on uh taking an AP course for next year. You can see that higher than uh the previous years before. So, we're hoping to continue that increase both in participation um and even though more students are taking exams, we're actually seeing a higher passing rate with those students who are taking exams. So, it's great to see that the students who are taking uh the exams are being successful. Um also looking at graduation rate Bob had mentioned we had moved from 91% prior to 2122 to 93% to 94% based on this rankings and then when we look at the rankings for next year um that moves up to 97%.

017Um the reason why we don't have an official number for last year 2425 right the state is still reviewing some final appeals so it's not a finalized number for the graduation rate but we do expect that number to come in right around 97% consistent with where we were the previous year. Um so basically although we can't predict rankings for the next couple of years, most of the uh components that the rankings are based off of are improving consistently over the next few years. Um so we're hopeful to see also improvements in those rankings. All right. So now, excuse me, uh we can take questions on that now before we get to the actual um assessments. >> I'm sorry. I just I just had a very quick one. >> Absolutely. looking at the number of students

018that are taking an exam and it's up to 743. Um I know that our class size is under 700 um per class at this point. So it just seems to me like that's a substantial portion of eligible students. In other words, students that are eligible met the prerequisites for that AP class are taking AP classes within our junior and senior year and maybe our sophomore year too. Yes. um just seems like something that is impressive >> and that's been a big focus for the last couple of years at the high school is really trying to identify students, you know, who would be successful but maybe wouldn't necessarily think of themselves as taking an AP class. And a lot of that is through that AP potential. Um so now that we've been doing PSAT for a

019couple of years universally for grades 9 through 11, based on those scores, um College Board calculates like an AP potential. So the pu uh the probability that if a student uh were to take an AP course the following year, the likelihood that they would be successful by getting a three or higher on it. Um so we get that information and we share that directly with the with the students and we send letters out to students um saying based on your PSAT performance, you're likely to be successful if you were to take these AP exams next year. Um, so I think just by doing that, um, really has kind of, you know, allowed for more opportunities for students who maybe could have had the opportunity but chose not to, but maybe seeing that, you know, they

020they can be successful are taking more advantage of that. >> All right, so moving on to the NJGPA. So this is the New Jersey Graduation Proficiency Assessment. Um and this is really designed to measure students uh proficiency uh graduation readiness in terms of English language arts and math. Um all students in grade 11 uh were assessed in March last year. Um the ELA component of the NJGPA is aligned to the grade 10 ELA standards and the math component of the uh NJGPA is aligned to both algebra 1 and geometry standards. And the results are really categorized into two areas. um either not yet graduation ready or graduation ready. So, the New Jersey graduation proficiency assessment is a state graduation requirement. All students must take the NJGPA in order to graduate. Um if students take the

021NJGPA but don't meet that minimum score, if they score not yet graduation ready, um there are other opportunities to help students meet those graduation requirements. Uh the first one is to look to see if any if the students have met a designated cut score from any of the substitute competency competency tests. So that's the PSAT, SAT, ACT, ACUPPLACER. Um and what's interesting is that by the time the juniors take the NJGPA in March, over 80% of them have already have a banked passing PSAT score, so to say. Um, so that means really as long as they take the NJ GPA, then they have access to use that banked passing score for PSAT. Um, so it's interesting to see that most of our students kind of have already met that requirement prior to even taking the

022NJGPA. Um, if students uh don't have a passing score on any of the PSAT, SAT, um, and substitute tests, um, students, uh, will retake the, uh, component of the NJGPA that they did not pass in the following fall in October. Um and then there's also a portfolio appeal that students can complete to meet the graduation requirements. So getting into the data, we'll start with English language arts and we'll go through everything with English language arts and then we'll go through the same process with math. Um so this is the percentage of students who uh scored graduation ready on the English language arts um NJGPA uh last year. So this is last year's 11th grade students. So 89% of the students in Bridgewater Radaran High School uh scored graduation ready compared to 81% across the state.

023If we look at how that compared to the previous year um really very consistent both in Bridgewater, Raran and the state. Um so there's a 1% difference in the percentage graduation ready both in Bridgewater, Raran and the state. Um sometimes when you see that similar trend um here and across the state, that could be due to the actual test itself. Maybe one or two um more difficult questions one year compared to a previous year. Um that could cause kind of that similar trend happening um you know AC across here and across the state. But for the most part very consistent in English language arts over the previous two years. If we look at the breakdown by gender, you can see females slightly outperforming males in the English um about by 5% more females scoring graduation

024ready than males. That's fairly consistent with what we've seen on some of the other assessments um across the the previous years. If we look at the distribution across ethnicities and races, um you see some uh ethnicities and races slightly outperforming the overall average, some slightly underperforming. But one thing I did want to highlight is that these bars are for the most part closer together than what we typically see for NJSLA for for most of our other um assessments. So it's really nice to see a little bit more consistency really across all ethnicities and race in their English language arts performance um on the NJGPA for our 11th graders last year. If we look at the distribution across different programs, so special education, uh, 504, English language learner, economically disadvantaged, um, you can see students in,

025uh, some of the programs like special education, English language learners still underperforming the overall average. Um, but for some of these areas, we'll actually go into a little bit of comparison to over the last couple of years um, to see kind of how that performance has changed over the last couple of years. Okay, now we'll move on to mathematics. So the mathematics component of the NJGPA. So in Bridgewater Raridan, 79% of the 11th grade class last year scored graduation ready and that's compared to 58% across the state. So Bridgewater Raridan significantly outperforming the state average um in mathematics. If we look at the two-year comparison, um you can see Bridgewater Raridan the previous year was at 74% passing rate. This year 79%. And one thing I want to point out is this isn't growth so

026to say because this is not the same students year-over-year. This is looking at the 11th grade class from last year is the teal and then the orange is the 11th grade class from the year before. So these are different cohorts of students that we're comparing. So we're not looking necessarily for growth. We're really comparing two different years of students and their overall performance of graduation ready. Um, but within that you can see a 5% increase last year over the previous year for our 11th grade class. And over the state of New Jersey, we saw still an increase, still a similar trend, but that was 3%. Um, so not only is our achievement level higher than the state, but our increase was also higher than the state increase over the same time period. If we look

027at a breakdown by gender, you actually see the exact opposite of what we saw with ELA with males outperforming females by 5% by the same amount there. Um, so interesting to see that. And that's consistent with what we've seen over the last couple assessments. Looking at the breakdown by ethnicity and race here, you do see a little bit more difference between some of the bars than what we saw with the English language arts uh between some of the ethnicities and the races with some ethnicities and races outperforming the overall district average and some underperforming the district average. So, we see a little bit more discrepancy with mathematics than what we saw with English language arts. Looking at a breakdown by programs, similar to what we saw with English language arts, um, special education, English language

028learners, economically disadvantaged, underperforming the, uh, overall district average. Uh, 504 slightly overperforming the district average. Um, what we wanted to do is highlight just a couple areas, a couple subgroups that we noticed some significant increases in. Um, so if we look at just the black African-American students at Bridgewater Raridan over the last two years. So the teal is last year's 11th grade black African-American students. The orange is two years ago 11th grade students black African-American. Um, so you can say once again different cohorts of students and but you can see in ELA um the increase went from 67% graduation ready to 92% graduation ready. So a very significant increase um in ELA and similarly in math going from 42% two years ago to last year's 65% being graduation ready. So in this subgroup significant increase

029both in math and in English language arts. We saw even more of an increase with our English language learners like Bob was suggesting earlier. Two years ago only 9% of our English language learners in grade 11 were meeting with proficiency, right? Were considered graduation ready. Um, last year, once again, different students, different cohort of students. Last year's 11th grade, almost half of our students were uh graduation ready in English language arts and about a third of our students were graduation ready in math. So, significant increases um for our English language learners as well. And then finally, our economically disadvantaged students. You can see an increase in English language arts from 68% uh graduation ready to 77% graduation ready. and a really nice increase in math from 29% to 50% graduation ready. So although some of

030these numbers are quite where we want them to be, we don't want to end up at 50% graduation ready, it is a significant increase from where we were in the previous year. And so we're kind of cautiously optimistic to continue these trends, you know, into the future. Um although we won't have a same NJGPA test to kind of do a comparison with. So uh we'll see what happens as we get the information about the new NJGPA. Okay, now we're going to move on to the access test, the WEDA access. Um, so this is administered each year to all students in the district, K through 12. Um, all of our multilingual or English language learners, um, take this assessment between February and April. Um, really the purpose of this test is really to give us a

031snapshot of their English language proficiency at that time. Um, it's assessed in four different areas: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. It is required by federal law. Um, and there's really six different performance levels that can go anywhere from entering um the English lang uh the English language all the way up to reaching which is level six our English language. So here you can see a snapshot um across all of our different grade levels. Uh before we get into the actual data, I just want to highlight a couple things. There were a total of 338 students who took the assessment uh throughout the district and those 338 students spoke a total of 37 different languages. Um so that's really, you know, a highlight of the diversity um of our population in our community. Um and both

032of those numbers are up slightly from the previous year. And if you're looking across the grade levels, you will notice that there is no grade eight. Uh there is no bar for grade 8. Um grade 8 did not meet the minimum reporting requirement. Whenever we have less than 10 students in a certain area, we're not allowed to uh display the results for confidentiality reasons. So that's why we don't see grade eight listed there. Um, as you're looking across at the bars, the bars, the total bars represent a total number of students. So, the higher the bar, the more English language learners we have at that grade level. So, you can see the higher bars really exist for kindergarten through grade four. Um, and then they kind of lower a little bit. Um, a lot of

033the reason for that is once students exit the program, they no longer take the assessment. So students who start in our district and in kindergarten typically exit by grade four by the time they end primary school and then do not continue. You wouldn't see them for grade five and beyond. So that's why we see more students in the elementary grades compared to the upper grades. If we were to combine all grades together, so all 338 students, this would be the distribution, the snapshot of the English English language proficiency. Um, so you can see most of our students, about a third of our students are in that level three and about a third of our students are in that level four. Um, and 62 students out of the 338 were approved to exit the ESL program.

034In order to exit the ESL program, students need to score um, a minimum 4.5. The actual score is not a whole number. It's a decimal. Um, so within that four um, you have to be kind of half the half of the the bar of the four would meet that criteria as well as all the fives and sixes. um so a 4.5 and meet curricular measures within the classroom. So 62 students did meet that. Um so they will not be taking the um access uh next year because they would be exiting the program. Looking at the three-year comparison of uh our access results. Uh so once again not necessarily looking at growth because some students may be uh taking the access if they haven't exited the program multiple years but we get many new students uh

035who start in one year and then students who exit wouldn't be included so it's not the same cohort. It is kind of a mix of of of different cohorts. Question Barry >> there is a process to exit midyear. Um, so those would be mostly for students who might have either been very close and and had opportunities or kind of special special cases. Karen may be able to speak a little bit more. >> I can add to that. Um, we can we do the access test at the end of the year is when you're required to do it, but you can actually give the WEDA test to students halfway through the year. So sometimes you have students who are, you know, kind of right on the edge. And by the way, you're not just exited for

036your WEDA access scores, but we look at multiple measures. So you, you know, get feedback from teachers, we look at other assessments, but um we likely will retest a certain subgroup of students this year who are, you know, right at the exiting point. So, yep, we can do that halfway through the year. >> Yep. And that's actually, if you're looking here, if you look at level five and level six, why you see so few students scoring in level five and level six, that's because once students meet that 4.5, they no longer take the test again. So there's no opportunity for them to get to that five or six. And it's um not as common to have a student go from like a level three or a low four directly to especially a six. That's a

037big jump for one year because if they go from a 35 to a four five, they're exited and then they have that never have that opportunity to get that five or six. Um but just looking across the last three years, you'll notice level one, level two, level five, level six, very consistent across the three years. Um, and really the biggest difference that we noticed is between level three and level four. Looking at this previous year, you can see about 10% less in level three and about 10% more in level four. So, we had more students scoring in level four this past year um than the previous couple of years. Remember that level four could be 4.5 or higher, not necessarily um but more students in that category, which is also why we had more students

038exit the program this past year than the year before. If we look at breakdown by gender, you can see really no significant trend between uh females and males um across the the proficiency level of the English language proficiency level. Very similar. If we look at breakdown by race and ethnicity, um we'll see that English language learners um Asian English language learners um more of the the students from the Asian English language learners are scoring level four or higher compared to Hispanic or white English language learners. And then if we look at a breakdown by program, um really special education, uh you look at the bars look very similar to economically disadvantaged, which also looks very similar to our overall um ratio of of students, um showing that really the program really isn't significantly affecting the

039results um for English language proficiency, which is nice to see. So from this really what are our key takeaways? Um so overall looking at NJ GPA as in similar years comparing to the state Bridgewater Raridan High School um outperformed the state both in math and English in terms of percentage of students scoring graduation ready. Um we really saw a nice increase in a lot of those uh smaller populations in those subgroups. So black and African-American economically disadvantaged English language learners. Last year's 11th grade students in those subgroups performed significantly higher than the previous year's 11th grade students in those subgroups. So, we're hoping that that will be a trend that will continue. And then, uh, looking at the access, really the biggest thing that we noticed was an increase in the the percentage of students

040scoring in level four, which could be possibly that exiting, uh, level. So, level four, uh, went from 28% two years ago to 39% this past year, um, level four or higher. Um, so it was nice to see that increase um, for that English language proficiency. Um, so really actions moving forward really specific to NJGPA. So any student who has not yet met the NJ uh the New Jersey graduation requirements, so scored not yet graduation ready and did not have a passing score on any of those uh substitute uh competency tests like PSAT, SAT, ACT, ACUPPLACER. Um there are options uh and opportunities that the high school will be reaching out to any students who are in this situation. Um one will be retaking the NJGPA in this October taking the ACUPPLACER um within the school

041system in the school setting PSAT. So when we provide the PSAT to 9th, 10th, and 11th graders, any 12th graders who haven't met the requirements would also be taking that PSAT because that could be a way to meet those uh that graduation requirement. We also have the portfolio, which is something that they would do in the context of the school setting. Um and there are also classes um both in English and in math really designed to help students meet those graduation requirements through any of those means that are listed there. So I'd like to thank you very much and offer it up to any questions. Other questions? It's a >> question I never considered. The 37 different languages that our students speak who took the access test. Is that is the test the same for

042each language? Are they tailored to a language that a student speaks at home? >> Right. So the test is based on English language proficiency. So it really doesn't it's not based on the home language. So the test would be the same really grade level bandbased is what it is. Just uh one other note on that just compliments to the teachers who are obviously getting these results and delivering the test also because as I understand it the access test can take a number of sessions just for one student and uh takes a good deal of time and effort to administer. So thanks to everyone making that that happen. Yes, thank you to that because there are the four different domains and typically they would be assessed over four different days with those domains and then um

043yeah so it it does it's a little timely but that's why they state also gives us a large window to do that assessment in >> Mr. W. >> Uh so thank you for the presentation. Um, out of curiosity, I know a large number of students got three and above, but out of curiosity, like you know, what percent maybe got four and above on the AP? Because I know for a lot of colleges, right, you know, most of them, 99% of them, if they take AP credits, they need to get a four or above. So, I'm just curious what that number is. >> I have I can share that number with you, uh, Jeremy. So, this year, 35% of our test takers scored a four, 38% scored a five. That's 73%. In 2024, it was 36

044and 35. In 2023, it was 35 and 30. In 2022, it was 31 and 36. So, the percentage of students five years ago who scored a four and five was what, six percentage points lower than the results we're seeing now. Again adding to the idea that no one ever loses rights or access by inviting other people to the table. That's the important part. >> Can I just also add two things? So the first thing is that this is going to be in the testing the next testing presentation will have more information. Right. >> Yeah. So on the next and part two AP is actually a part of that. So we'll be going in much more detail. We'll go into much more detail in the next one because that was information released you know after this

045information was released and we have like a certain amount of time to do these reports. Um that's the first thing but the second thing I want to just add to what you said Mr. beers. And that is exactly right. Like we expanded, we opened up like opportunity for students who previously would not have taken an AP course to take them. And what we're seeing is that they're successful. And so that's really exciting to think that there's this whole other group of students who are now have access to something and and our scores aren't going down because of it. They're they're able to do it. They're being successful. So that's really exciting. Can I I just want to comment on that real quick. Um and say that a three is not even if it's not accepted

046at the college, it's not being unsuccessful. >> Um and and it's not a comment on what you said. >> No, it's it's considered pass. No, I think the threes are great, too. It's considered passing, right? And even when you're earning like the capstone for a seminar and I mean that's what they're looking for. They're looking that you've taken I don't know what it is like seven AP courses. Five. I was close. Five. And you have to pass. And passing is three or above. So it's >> But the reason I bring this up is because a any kid that takes an AP course is already more prepared for that course in college if they don't get that four or above. And colleges are now looking for kids that are taking AP without regard to whether or

047not they've gotten a three, a four, or a two for that matter. They just want to know that you're challenging yourself in getting into those harder classes. Am I right? >> Absolutely. So, a three is successful. That's included in my success. >> I mean, I look I I I won't talk about my kids specifically because she'll get angry. Uh but like but uh like there are kids that I I don't want kids to not take an AP course because they think that getting a two or a three is is a waste of their time. Like it's it's very much not. like you are getting the higher uh level coursees and you're getting the higher understanding and that will serve you better in the future. >> Dr. Lee, I think you had a question. >> Yes,

048I am very happy to see the improvement that we're making uh thanks thanks to the the hardworking uh district uh teachers and staff and all. Um when we look at the US news ranking, uh we always got to be careful how to interpret that, right? So we want to understand also what's the fluctuation and is that is that uh is that a consistent improvement that we're actually seeing that benefit our students that looks like from our data showing internally that is the case. Um but since we're looking at US news what is our what are what is what is our ranking change the year before? Do we know that like now like this year went up 36 spots right? >> How about the year before? There's 108. >> Yeah, >> there's 108 there before. >>

049Yeah, 108 to to 72. >> How about before 108? What is that? >> I mean, if we want that it was in the hundreds. We can look it up. We've never been this high. >> That's great. So, the reason I'm asking is those rankings they fluctuate and we we got to understand that with uh the understanding of of how to interpret that data. >> I I'm going to push back on that a little bit. >> What's the push back? Am I >> here's the push back? because >> what's the fluctuation of that? >> Okay. Am I allowed to answer? >> I think I finished my question. Thank you for doing that. >> Okay. Thank you. So when you look at the metrics now, obviously when when you're competing against other schools, you have to see

050how they're doing as well. So it it's like any competition, but when you look at the metrics that they value in US News and World's Report, we're trending in the correct direction on each one of those and we're continuing to press those. And I would just say, you know, just as an aside, hey, it's good news for the district. Can we just enjoy the good news? Can we say, man, this is a nice result. Let's celebrate it a little bit. Let's be happy. Yes, our teachers, administrators, everyone worked towards this. Board of Ed supported these programs. Let's be happy and say, "Hey, we get to take a little victory lap and then we get back to work." >> I think that's exactly right. And uh that's what I I said at the beginning of my

051paragraph just now. We also remember that last year at some point I think there was comment about how our ranking has dropped. That's why I'm saying we got to look at those data with understanding of the fluctuation in the ranking itself. But I agree with you our our district have made great progress. That's more evident by uh Dr. Marello's report more so than the US News. But >> right so what we would say is we're always look and this is the same as I just said for kids being exited from the access testing. We're never looking at one test. Like we spend a lot of time looking across many different variables and we look at all different data points and so when we see multiple different data points from multiple different places right trending in

052the same direction that's when we start to celebrate. So um so yes we we are excited about this. We're excited about our progress >> for the reasons that you mentioned and for the reasons that Dr. Marella has shared. Thank you. Right. >> And from what I think was mentioned before, some of the indicators are lag are lagging indicators. So some of the growth we've seen don't even take into account. I'm not sure if it's that way for every I'm not sure what goes into US News and World Report exactly, but it sounds like some of the things may be even might improve even more based on some of the more recent growth we've seen. >> Yeah. >> Hopefully. Knock on wood. >> And that's what we look at. And even when we looked at the

053data here, all of this was copied off of other presentations. So, this is data that we're constantly looking at. We're not waiting for US News to come out with this. Um, so we're constantly looking at at all of this as well as our NJSLA and our NJGPA data and results. Um, even with NJSLA, like as we talk about that for the next part two of the presentation, um, we kind of get our preliminary results in and have conversations with administration. Um, so with the the results that come in here, this is really meant to be the highlevel overview of performance, but then when we have conversations internally with administrators, supervisors, principles, we really dig deep into all of these numbers, dig down to individual students, individual teachers um and look at that um, you know,

054at a very granular level. >> Um, I have another question as well. Um, so I've noticed that if you stay on this slide here, that there's a really large increase in not just students taking AP exams, but also um, you know, students that are enrolled in an AP course. >> Um, so like how has the district kind of adapted to the sharp rise in enrollment? Like have we seen class sizes increase a lot as a result? Is it still manageable for our teachers? What is that kind of looking like? And what are s sort of the strategies you guys have to deal with the large increase in enrollment? >> Yeah. >> Well, luckily with an increase, it's really just shifting from one course to another. So instead of a student being in an academic or

055honors version of a class, they would be in an AP. So it would just shift the staffing to maybe having an extra section or two of the AP version of that class compared to the previous year. Um, so it's really not, you know, not not impactful in terms of in terms of that. Um, so I'm I'm going to respectfully disagree uh about using caution or like considering this a potential blip on the radar in terms of the progress this district's been making. I mean, we're looking at test scores, but those test scores are a result of programs and initiatives that have been put into place that have been followed through on such as like we talk about the Bright program and we talk about expanding um our uh gifted and talented programs to all of

056the schools and all the ESL to all of those schools. and we're now seeing a result of work that has been done over the years. And not only am I going to celebrate it wholeheartedly, I just want to commend administration and all the teachers and staff that have put this in motion over the years because it's really an incredible incredible job and something to be proud of. >> Thank you. Thank you, Jen. And you know, just to to add on this, although we're focused on AP scores, and that's the the uh the uh slide that's that everyone's looking at the the bright program and the structured learning labs that we have at the high school. And and I've got to say, I'm grateful that the board of education supported these initiatives because they cost money,

057right? You're allocating resources to those areas. They've had a profound imp on our student body. Right? If you if you were to look at, right, a a 91% uh graduation rate versus a 97% graduation rate, right? So, we climb six percentage points. It doesn't sound like a ton, but wait, a graduating class of of 700. That means you're in the neighborhood of 40 kids a year that you're getting across the line who were not getting across the line. And and if there's one statistic that goes back a number of years and and I'm grateful that the board, you know, followed our lead in putting this in in a short amount of time, uh it's had a profound effect on kids. And think of the difference in in their lives. Now they have a diploma, you

058know, and and whatever their future holds, whether it's community college, college, uh workforce, etc. So, we're continuing to work on those programs. Plus, the structured learning labs where right when when a young person is struggling in their classes at school, they get tutors. We we pull them out of study halls and they get they get tutors to make sure that they don't fail classes. I shouldn't say to make sure most of them make progress and we do our best to to do it. But but those types of supports as I said for all learners probably had the most profound effect on some of these numbers. So thank you and and look it was a leap of faith for everyone at this table u three four years ago when we said look we have to do

059all these things and I know uh Dr. Jones's group uh you know uh did a did a whole audit of the uh ESL program and and we went forward with those recommendations and and you see it in short order. So, it's team effort. It's team effort. And a lot of those programs at the Bright program, I correct me if I'm wrong, are new, right? It's not like they replaced something >> before that wasn't working great. It just didn't exist at all is my understanding. >> Correct. A lot of those kids were out of district. >> Yeah. I like to compliment the staff in this in doing what's best for kids. This has been a very strategic initiative, you know, and you presented to the board, but you didn't present it to say, "Hey, let's try

060this." You said, "Here's the data." You took the data that was presented then and use that data to say, "Hey, how do we help everyone and make sure we have an access to everyone?" I mean, the increase from 804 to 909 for AP enrolling courses just and that's not even on the data yet in the New York report and neither is a 97% graduation rate. So, these are trending in the right direction. I mean you can look back the few befores I think we were at 91 in 2020 2021 if I remember correctly. So there is a definite trend and and to get above 98% you're going to be that it's going to be in very small incremental moves in the future but we're still looking at each and every student whatever the program is

061and that's the important thing we're doing it for everybody and I thank you and the d it's been data driven decision- making you know and what's best for kids so and I thank the administration for taking that deep dive presenting it to us because it you know we didn't we did it with supported fact so that's important thank Yeah, I have one I have one more question. Um, so I guess if you go to some of the slides where like we discuss students who are not meeting some of the requirements for the NGPA. uh like in our district, what are the more common ways that we've sort of been finding ways to help students like appeal for graduation like and like more specifically I know you mentioned like portfolio appeal like what exactly is that?

062>> Yeah. So, so most students who don't meet the um NJGPA there are many students like I said who already have a passing PSAT score banked. So, they actually don't need to pass the NJGPA to meet the graduation requirements. they just need to take the NJGPA because really the rule is everyone has to take NJGPA. There's no ifs, ands, and buts about that. But once you take the NJGPA, then that opens up all those alternative tests which include PSAT, SAT, and many of our students do have passing scores on those. So, so for many of our students, it's not even an additional step. It's take the NJGPA, they already have the passing score, they're good. Um, >> Jason's nicely saying that we did have we went back and looked at this. So we had some

063students who actually had already met the graduation requirements with PSAT or SAT and then they did not actually they would have been in the group of kids who did not do as well on the NJ GPA or didn't take the NJ GPA even though they have to. So then they would have to take a makeup um because you know it's how seriously people take things when they've already met the graduation requirement. So, >> but anyway, >> yes. And then for students who still haven't met it, um we do have classes um we offer everyone taking the NJGPA again in October. So, all of our seniors who haven't met the graduation requirements would take the NJGPA then they would also be taking the PSAT again. Um and at this point, students are knowing that this is

064they now need to meet the graduation requirements. So, there's a little bit extra desire to make sure to to be successful um on these assessments. Um then and then students still not meeting it, we offer the ACUPPLACER which is a test that we can uh offer within um just really our own school. We have those classes that I had mentioned that really start off by preparing students for that ACUPPLACER assessment um to be successful on it. Um and then what the portfolio is is for students who really haven't met any of these other assessments um after multiple attempts. Um the portfolio is for mathematics. It's like four questions um that have to meet certain requirements for certain standards in reasoning in mathematics and modeling in mathematics and hit different standards like algebraic functions, geometry. Um

065and students, it's a multi-part question that students need to um complete. Um and then we grade based on a rubric that's kind of like a almost like a a county or state approved rubric. Um, and then students need to have a passing score on that on each of the four assessments in order to meet that requirement. And then we submit that to the state and they hopefully approve it. >> And that's a small percentage of students on the portfolio. >> Very few, very few for portfolio. So single digits usually, >> right? >> Those are all my questions. Thank you. >> Anyone else? >> Anything else, Mr. Beers? >> Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mariela. >> Thank you. >> Uh we're now up to the president's report and um just want to very quickly welcome our

066staff back into the buildings uh this week. Right. >> Tomorrow, >> Thursday. Okay. Well, welcome back. We've missed you. Um and I want to thank the administration and all of the staff that has helped with curriculum and other problem programmatic uh issues over the summer. I know that our administrators and staff have been very busy. Even when school's out, they're still working very hard. Um, and we talk about we talk about rankings and we talk about quantifiables. Um, but really it all starts in the summer and it all starts with our administration. It's a top down thing. Uh, so just want to thank you for all the work that you guys put in over the summer. The board also put work in uh this summer and that's reflected in the board goals that are up

067for uh vote today as well as our board norms which we'll talk about later on. And lastly, um, Mr. Beers, uh, uh, informed the board that, uh, our very own Kieran Massud uh, at Hillside uh, has won the Somerset County or was named the Somerset County Teacher of the Year. Um, so congratulations, Miss Massud. Uh, we look forward to celebrating you at the Somerset uh, Votech uh, cafeteria uh, in May. It's a it's always a great event and um, it's going to be such an honor to have one of our own be the one that uh, gives a speech there. Mr. Walker, you had something to add. You look like you have something to add. No. All right, that's it for me. Thank you. Uh, we are up to committee reports and up first is

068the academic committee and I am informed that Mr. Pepe is going to give that. >> Yes. Thank you. Uh, so the academic committee met virtually on Monday, August 18th at 5:00. In attendance were Mr. Jooshi, uh, Miss Hassuna, uh, Mr. Singer, and myself. And from the administration, Dr. Jones, Mr. Beers, and we were joined by Mrs. Madia and Mr. Moriella. Uh the first up on the agenda was a review of new curriculum revisions and projects. The committee reviewed curriculum reports detailing summer work specific to new and revised curricula and curriculum projects. Reports included objectives, ration, completed tasks, plans for implementation, and costs of the project. Dr. Jones explained that stage one of the curriculum is linked on the district website and is viewable by the public. Uh this stage includes pacing, essential questions and understandings,

069skills and content, core and supplemental resources, standards and mandates. Supervisors work with teachers to ensure that district and CUSAC requirements are met. Any questions on that topic? Dr. Jones, am I correct that the if that the most recent revisions would be available if they were passed tonight? >> Thank you. Right. Secondly, we reviewed the required mentoring and professional development plans. The committee reviewed the district's PEDP or professional development plan which is aligned to district goals and includes professional development uh professional development structures and focus areas for the 202526 school year. The committee also reviewed the required mentoring plan which is aligned to professional standards for teachers and requirements of state statute. Any questions on that? Right. Third, we took a quick look at the intercolastic athletic schedule for the fall and the band schedule and

070the uh we reviewed and had some quick discussion on that. Everything looked good. uh we talked about how it's likely to change a million times based on the weather and uh facilities and a million other reasons, but the initial draft looked great. So any and that is on the agenda tonight for approval. Any questions on that? Right. Number four, we had a attendance discussion. Dr. Mr. Jones reviewed high school attendance expectations, including how excessive absences can result in loss of credit and require an attendance contract and attendance appeals process. Detailed information regarding absenteeism, absence verification, appeals, tardies, and loss of credit will be clearly outlined in the high school's student handbook. Any questions there? Yes, I >> have a question. So, about the attendance, uh, what if the child is sick a lot? Like, >>

071what happens there? >> I think that wasn't the most of our argument arounding that, but I'll turn that over to Mrs. Jones because she I'm sorry, Dr. Jones probably has a better answer than I can give. Um if a student is sick often it can still count towards um loss of credit even if it's like excused by the district because um you know if you accumulate so many absences it can interfere with your ability to be successful in class. And it kind of aligns with our other policy that we have on promotion and retention that we went through where we're saying students have to actually attend a certain number of days per year um to be promoted. However, the the point of this isn't really to take credit away from students, right? Because we're working

072towards a place where we're trying to make sure our students graduate in a timely way. So, what actually happens is it's just flagged earlier. It's communicated with the parents earlier. there's an attendance appeal um process and really you're like completing an attendance contract where you have somebody who's working with you to ensure that you're um doing the work that you may have missed and that you're attending school regularly and sometimes we have students who are chronically absent due to illness and and it's all year long despite us trying to work with families that can also happen but it's unusual. So this is really put in place um so that we can intervene prior to a student really losing credit. That's the purpose of it. >> So what's a cure for that? If the student, you

073know, we have like a way to help them. >> Can I just add if if a student has a a catastrophic illness, >> right? A major illness, that's something different where that that student is placed on on bedside instruction, >> right? >> All right. And they get home instruction. So, we want to make sure that we don't conflate those two matters, right? Anytime a student has a serious health health matter where they're going to be hospitalized or what have you, obviously they're never going to lose credit. And we provide services to keep them up with their studies during that time. That's why you see on your your uh on your attachments on a monthly basis, you see a bedside instruction list. Um, so that that's >> and things are dealt with on a case- by

074case basis, >> right? And unfortunately, really, and I'm just going to say this because maybe people will listen to this. Um, we had a problem last year with attendance at the high school with students who were kind of taking advantage of the law as far as like taking religious holidays. So there are many many religious holidays and um there were students who were really um celebrating every religion. And so what happened was we actually were flagged by the state and the state sent us multiple emails telling us that we had over 40 students who had over 20 um state excused absences because religion is a state excused absent which is different from district excused. Um, and so we really do want to communicate the seriousness of attendance and the importance of being in school every

075day because in addition to it being important for that individual student, by the way, these were primarily our high performing AP students who were doing this. Um, it actually ruins instruction too because whatever you have planned for the day when you have cohorts of kids absence and and I guess for me the most disappointing piece of this is that when we contacted parents there were many parents who actually supported their students just you know taking off all these days without like to explore religion which isn't the same as you know um observing a religion. So we we really want to stress that we value attendance and we hope then that the community will support us in that. I think that attendance is very important. I think having structures also very important in our education uh

076being there in attendance is of important part of structure. So I just want to make sure that the kids who are sick and have a actual reason that they are having difficulty to attend they're taken care of. Does this policy currently automatically trigger like uh the support such as home instruction or stuff like that support system? >> It's more procedure versus policy. We we deal we deal with issues as they come to us. >> Right. This right this is not a policy. This is just pursu it aligns with our policy. It's the procedure. So, as soon as you're flagged for excessive absences, you automatically receive an attendance contract and then, you know, you'll begin working with someone to support you. But again, if it's illnesses and they're legitimate illnesses and you're being successful in a

077class, you're very unlikely to ultimately lose credit, but we still have to follow the process. >> And there is an appeals process is what >> there's an appeals absolutely referenced before. Mhm. >> I mean, I I I've had a kid who had 10 absences and I got a letter right away and my first thing is to call the school and find out what's going on and is this really an issue. Um, >> right. It's really part of good communication. >> No, sounds good. It's good to hear that there's reassurance >> to enforce the structure as well. Thank you. >> Anything else on that? Right. Next on the agenda was a policy review. We took a look at a policy and regulation uh 5230 regarding late arrival and early dismissal. The district's late arrival and early

078dismissal policy and regulation were compared to the current stresses me version. After that review, it was clear that the options provided by Strauss Esme had previously been reviewed and adopted including an option that allows parents to provide a note for a student who drives to or from school. the district policy uh current policy aligns with the current practice of the high school and the committee decided a change to the policy was unnecessary. Any questions on the policy review after that, Mr. Beers provided an update on the transportation study and the two recommended options and Mr. Morello informed the committee that a new test and testing platform she mentioned just a few minutes ago is being piloted by the state in the fall and implemented this spring to replace the NJSLA and NJGPA. Uh districts were

079notified on August 13th, so 5 days before we met. I'm sure there'll be more forthcoming. Uh any questions on either of those topics? All right, we adjourned at 6:54 in the evening and our next meeting is still to be determined. >> Thank you, Mr. Pepe. Up next is community relations with Mrs. Lachman. >> We met on August 19th at 4:30 p.m. In attendance was Superintendent Beers, myself, Mrs. Sunna, Mr. Singer, and Mr. Pepe. Um, we discussed transportation analysis, which is that we discussed the potential bus options for when uh the district changes over in 2026. And we discussed multiple scenarios and our the bulk of our our discussion was about how it might affect the community and strategy in terms of communicating with the community about that. Uh next we discussed uh BOE resol the

080BOE resolution uh regarding resolution 250. Um and the committee took the suggested resolution under advisement. Uh we discussed both the objective of resolution 250 which is the statewide initiative and the legacy 250 which is our local municipalities initiative. The committee had no recommendation at this time. Uh next we discussed the softball fields. Uh we talked about the cost and the potential for mutually beneficial opportunities. This proposal is currently under attorney review. Um last we talked about uh the SRO agreement that is on the agenda uh which is also under attorney review unless something has changed. Um and that was all I had. We adjourned around 5:30m and the next meeting is to be determined. >> Yeah, I have a question. Uh, so as you know, I introduced that resolution to a number of different communities.

081Uh, supposedly resolution celebrating America, patriotism. Uh so I'd just like to understand you know what was the rationale behind not supporting America's 250th anniversary and the resolution. >> Uh well well it's not that we don't support uh America's 250th anniversary but it's not being celebrated until July 4th uh 2026. So the board felt that we had plenty of time to discuss potential ways that we could participate in community events. And seeing as you know I'm the community liaison with the town council, I had reported back in March on this topic and I will continue to report to the board as more events and information becomes known. But you know that's pretty much how the committee discussed it. >> And and then as far as information on this topic like as you know we we have

082a gubanatorial election coming up. So there is going to be there are going to be new people in the DOE starting January 1st and we can be assured that New Jersey Department of Education is come going to continue to push out programs and things like that that that different districts can latch on to. So, um, you know, we're going to continue to look at that and, uh, and, uh, you know, it's it's kind of something that that's, uh, in its infancy, but we'll look at what works for our district as we go along. >> Um, I want to understand the process. What? So when something is in the committee, we uh we would recommend action, right? So we can I mean I I don't know what does what did what did the committee recommend? >>

083The committee recommended that we take no action that there was no action that we were supporting doing. So basically the committee recommend to take no action about this res this resolution. >> Uh yeah well you know like I said um the anniversary is the the celebration of the anniversary is scheduled for July to 2026 but if you if we're being like historically relevant like our actual involvement in that particular point in time in history wasn't until the following year anyway. So I mean we have time and there will be community events and opportunities where we can participate as a board but you know we're not going to affect academics which is what was written in the proposal and again like I said we have plenty of time also you know like the rest of us

084would love some input on how we communicate you know this sort of opportunity uh that celebrates the history of our towns, our collective towns being Bridgewater and Raritton. Um, so you know, we've got time. >> If it's a time matter, so would this come up again at a later meeting? Like I said, I will report on activities in the community as the liaison to the town council and you know and I have reported on it and I and I have discussed it with town council with uh my leaison partner at at um Bridgewwater municipality and I'm sure that you know our our rep our rar representative >> yeah to that point I got a uh I got a message from our council leazison on us just a few hours ago saying that is just starting

085to think about applying for some grants, some opportunities, some some things that can come some things that can come together that they would like to do in town. I have a little bit more to say about that in the liaison report, but not too much more because it's still coming together. So, I think a lot of these are still a lot of these plans nationwide and statewide and in our communities are still kind of forming. So, I think that I mean it's great. I'm I'm thrilled that I get to live through this next year, I hope, and uh see these uh c celebrations. Um, but I think it's still kind of coming together and I'm sure that I'm pretty confident that our our teachers, especially our history teachers, are going to not let their their

086students be unaware that this is a major anniversary coming up in our nation this year and and next year after it happens, >> guys. So it looks like the committees think that this is a little early to discuss and then maybe it will come up at a later time because as as uh uh Michael says that it's relatively early hopefully like the next few meetings we'll continue to discuss this topic uh in terms of formality and content. I think you know uh as lealayons to the municipalities that we will you know report to the board as events and opportunities come up to participate in in this project which is you know not just local but it's also you know county and statewide and as we do that I'm sure that as a board we can

087work collectively to contribute um I don't think this is something that we should expect over the next couple of weeks. This is something that is taking place statewide uh over the next year. So or so less maybe eight months, whatever. But but I think we have plenty of time and and I've been assured by Bridgewater Municipality that we have plenty of time to participate. >> Can I just say one thing? Um, you know, I understand the point about maybe it's too early, but I don't think it's ever too early to celebrate patriotism and to celebrate the fact that we're going to experience the 250th anniversary. Uh, listen, I think as a proud American myself, uh, you know, this is something that I believe we can do. I think hopefully, right, as a consensus, we can

088all agree that, you know, love of our country is something that's great. Uh I the reason why I propose this ahead of the school years is because I think setting up a lot of our American history courses maybe um maybe encouraging some of our teachers to do something interesting uh regardless of whatever class they're in is to celebrate the 250th anniversary would be a great idea. Um and the intent of this is this isn't a policy. It's not going to change anything about our academics or about what we're teaching. What it's gonna do is it's gonna encourage the celebration of American patriotism. So that's what I think >> we pledge allegiance to the flag before every meeting. Okay. I think we are like strong representatives of patriotism and and government and all of that. But

089once you start like recommending how the district is going to behave, that's that's an administration role. It's not our role. We reviewed the policy. We gave a recommendation and and honestly like I I I'm excited that that you were excited to recognize it because I've been talking about this for three years but but but but the resolution that you presented doesn't represent the whole of the board. >> It also usually when the board does a resolution it's to affect change at some level. It's not for performative reasons. It's for effectuation of change. When we did it previously, it was in opposition to the NJGPA as a graduation requirement. Uh because we didn't think that or not not that I'm sorry, it wasn't NJPA. It was the um >> financial >> it was furpa as a

090graduation requirement. We didn't think that that was necessary and put a burden on our dis on our district. So we we wanted to affect the change of not having that. when we did it for school start times, it was to effectuate that change. This isn't looking to effectuate any kind of change and I think it's just uh it was superfluous in in my personal opinion in in that regard. Um, I I also think that uh suggesting in any way that our staff is not going to uh teach citizenship, which is part of the NJSLA, uh teach the history of the American Revolution, which is part of uh our standards, uh to to teach uh love of America is is uh untoward and inappropriate uh at this or any other level. Uh they don't need encouragement

091to do that. They already do that. Uh, and even if they weren't already doing it, it's in our standards. So, I don't think that there was anything of substance in this. Um, I celebrate America in my ways. Uh, I follow and adhere to the Constitution. I follow and adhere to our state and federal laws in every way that I can. I fly a flag on my property. That might not be for everyone else, and that's fine. to suggest that there's any one way that we need to um do a celebration like this is is inappropriate amount. >> So I just want to clarify what I said. I never suggested that our teachers are not I'm not sure how that came to be. What I am saying is we should be encouraging more of it especially

092things related to the 250th anniversary which I think is something that's momentous and something worth celebrating. And that's what the resolution does. This resolution is meant to celebrate the patriotism. It's meant to encourage teachers beyond what we are already doing to continue that tradition and to do that especially this year, especially as we start the school year. So that's why I introduced it. And that's all. A as a parent with kids in the district, I'm thrilled because I get to see my kids participate in patriotic activities every year. And I'll take the recommendation of teachers on how patriotism and Americanism is taught in school or whatever it is that that you're trying to achieve in this resolution. And obviously the administration's recommendation since, you know, they they do develop the curriculum Are there any other

093comments or questions? All right, we're up to finance, facilities, and transportation with Mr. Walker. Thank you, Steve. Uh, we met on August 19th at 5:30 here at the Wade building. In attendance was Mr. Pepe, Miss Lawren Lren, Mr. Singer, Mr. Lomsky, Mr. Beers, and we had Mike Archer from the transportation consultant owned remotely. The first item on the agenda was the 2627 transportation update. Mr. Archer, the transportation, presented to the committee a brief analysis of the district's current transportation routes and two potential options for the new 2627 school year. Changes instructional time, start and dismissal times were discussed. Mr. Ash will present to the full board at the September board meeting. Is that the 9th, Bob? The 9th. September 9th. Thank you. Just wanted to add that there. There was no recommendation at this time.

094Any questions? Um, next one was the business agenda review. The business administrator, Miss Lamsky, review the b the draft business agenda items for for the August 26 board meeting at consensus to approve all the action and was the recommendation. Any questions? Next on it was the SRO agreement which is the school resource officer. The business administrator shared a proposal proposed SRO agreement from the township Bridgewater Township which reflected a 28% increase when compared to the prior year. The consensus the recommendation was the consensus was to approve entering into an agreement with the township and negotiate the cost to the cost to the district. Any questions? Uh policy updates. The committee reviewed the policy changes as suggested by Strauss Esme for the following mandated policies and regulations. Policy 0173 duties of the public school accountant revised.

095policy 0174 legal services and it's a it's a mandated policy and it was revised. The committee supported the policies as it is for the first reading on the agenda this evening. Any questions? Um lasting agenda some other matters. Mr. Pepe inquired as to the status of the water fountain grants that were the board approved by the at the July 29th board meeting. Um Kevin stated that that the one grant was submitted but no response at this time and the second grant will be submitted um to the but to the deadline by the deadline of August 29th. Mr. Walker asked about the staff the electrical school bus grant to which the business administrators responded that the district has not has not been notified of any awards to date and there is another grant opportunity funded by

096the New Jersey state of New Jersey which the district plans to explore and there is no recommendations at that time. Any questions on the other matters? Seeing none, our next meeting date is September 16th at 5:30 p.m. We had joined at 6:30 0. Kevin, there's an extra zero on there. I didn't catch before. Any questions? >> Thank you, Mr. Walker. And now we turn to the last meeting of that particular evening with personnel. Uh, and Dr. Fondre, you giving this one? >> Sure. Yeah. >> All right. that I'm filling in for uh Mrs. Kalistry. Uh the personnel committee meeting was last Tuesday, August 19th at 6:30 p.m. We met virtually. Uh in attendance were Mrs. Kalistry, Mr. Jooshi, uh Dr. Lee, Mr. Singer, myself, and Mr. Beers. The um first thing we looked at was

097a draft of the personnel addendum for tonight's meeting. Uh this is a busy time of year for personnel. there's lots of uh action happening and so there was a lot on it then and there's even more on it now. Um we're ready to move into the the school year and uh have our positions filled and uh ready for the students to come back next week. Uh the committee supported the action items. The uh next item on the agenda was recording of board meetings policy 0168. this policy. Uh there was a first reading in June and the committee discussed the proposed revision from the first reading uh that was suggested at the June board of education meeting. The committee discussed uh both the original language from June and the revised language and the committee supported the

098language remaining the same as what was presented for first reading in June which is on the agenda for tonight. Uh then we also discussed Strauss Esme policy alert proposed changes. These are ones that were uh generated from Strauss Esme based on uh law or guidance changes and there are a number of different policies. Uh the the ones that were there were 1620 which is administrative employment contracts. um 0141.3 board member number and term for regional school districts which also includes abolishing uh 0141 which is our current policy as the language is included in the new one uh 0143 0141.3 um 0143 board member election and and appointment uh 1636.01 01 notification of promotion, new job and transfer opportunities. That's a policy that's recommended based on a new law. And then the recommendation to abolish a

099policy that's no longer necessary. 1648.15 recordkeeping for healthc care settings in school buildings CO 19. So that's the abolished one there. Uh any questions on the policies that uh we had discussed? All right. Uh, next on the agenda was a transportation analysis update. Mr. Beers provided an update on the transportation study. Uh, no action was taken by the personnel committee. Uh, summer hiring update. I provided an update on summer hiring. The schools are staffed and ready for the new school year, which is great. We're very excited uh to welcome the new staff members. We had our new staff orientation this week. Uh great group of new staff members joining our great existing staff members at all of the schools throughout the district. The committee supported the action items on the personnel addendum. Elementary enrollment and

100staffing update. Uh I provided an update on elementary enrollment and staffing. The district is staffed in accordance with applicable policy. I reviewed the primary school enrollment that fell within policy but outside of the desired class ranges as noted in the that board of education policy. no action was taken. And then uh for other matters, there's one other item that's a personnel item on the uh on the agenda, the evaluation rubrics. Each year, the evaluation rubrics that are used for certified staff have to be passed by a board resolution. There's no changes. So, this is the same exact rubrics that the board of change um had approved last year. And so, that's on the agenda as well. We uh journed at 7:46 p.m. and our next meeting date is in October, October 28th. Any questions about

101those last items? >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Fonder. We're now up to the open public se comment section. I'm not up to that. Excuse me. We're up to liaison and delegate reports. Are there any leazison and delegate reports, Mr. Pepe? Uh yeah, real quick from from the Burrow of Raritan Council. Uh I just learned this. The burrow is applying for a 2026 county historic partnership program grant. Um they're looking to do a project that again I don't have a lot of details. That's sort of a walking tour of some of the historic sites and locations in in uh around the town. They thought it might be something that the schools could either participate in or benefit from. and they wanted to uh reach out to the administration which they plan to

102do at sometime time soon. So uh just be on the lookout for that. Um one other note from the last council meeting, the burough council took up a resolution. This is tangential to the schools from the Panther Athletic Club to hold a bonfire at the old Washington school site which is part of the uh their homecoming festivities. Apparently that's a traditional spot for it uh which was approved. So again, that not a request from the district, but I thought I'd uh let the board and the administration know. Any questions on any of that? >> Did they do they have a date for that or is still preliminary? >> They mentioned October. I think it was early October, but I don't know what I'm not sure if they had a date lockdown. >> Thank you, Mr.

103Pepe. Mr. Walker. >> Yeah, I was going to just as we start the school year off, NJSBA is starting to kick off all the functions and everything. So, your county meetings are on there for Somerset County, but you can attend them all. Also, workshop is coming up October 21st to the 24th. Um, I don't know if I'm on the Yeah, we have a few presenters who will be presenting in the room there. Mr. Beers and Mr. Moran. It's I think you're 2:30 on Tuesday the 22nd, I think, is your time. Am I correct? >> I don't know. >> I think I think you're by the way, I think you're 2:30 on the 22nd. >> Thursday morning. >> You're not Thursday morning. The law so the law form Tuesday at 2:30. >> Tuesday at 2:30. Okay.

104That's what I thought. So, and um also there are there are >> Dr. F. You're printing that in two. What day are you? Do you know? >> All right. Oh, yeah. There's three people in the room. I I apologize. I only got the heads up on YouTube. I didn't get Dr. Fonder, too, but that's great. >> He's part of a panel. Oh, fantastic. So, um also, there are mandate there are trainings you can take there. Those trainings, if you do take them, need to be board approved and then Kevin has to register for them. Correct. So if you're looking to do that, we have a couple more meets before then to get them approved. So just something to think about. >> Yes. So it so the point being that if it's an October 21st um

105workshop and you want to do something then you should probably have it in by September 29th, right? >> At the very least. >> Yes. Correct. >> Yeah. So I'm just trying to that's what I was saying. So but looking forward to a workshop set up. We have um Joe Thyman coming as the keynote speaker. So those jersey Jersey quarterback. >> Thank you. I mean Bob knew he's about he's about he's a little little older than us though isn't he? So that's that's all I had going on. >> Just to that point it's not exactly a liazison report but I did recently sign up for the gov three class which is being presented uh live and virtually I think September 17th and I think they had a series of gov one gov two gov three. I'm

106not sure about C4, but if anyone needs to take any of those, they are um being offered by NJSBA in the next throughout September. So, you might want to take a look at that if if you need it. And thank you to Kevin for signing me up so quickly. I think it took about 45 seconds when I sent the email. So, much appreciated. >> Can I ask you a question real quick, Barry? Um if you've gone through all of the segments of board training the required do you just start back over at >> so once you go through gov one and two and three your first year first term then you go four gov four needs to be every time you're reelected >> but I find gov four interesting every year because that's the legal

107update and that changes monthly you know if you see what's going on I mean honestly the new decisions that come out and things that come on that's monthly I'm sure Bob you get ASA does a pretty good update and you all and BA's association too. The the legal stuff changes monthly with us for the major the operations but for us also too. So that's usually pretty good. >> Cool. Thanks. >> They used to do it at one of the county meetings but they don't do it anymore. >> We usually get them at county meetings. >> We used to We haven't done it in a while. They changed the last couple years. They used to do the they used to have one county meeting where gov one, two, three, and four were offered. >> Oh. >>

108They don't do that anymore. So it was done >> and it's virtually online. Is it Is there a cost to the online version? >> No, most of them are free. Most of them are free. Yeah. So like if you do them in person at the conference usually cost >> Yeah. So yeah that's where it goes. >> Oops. Sorry. Any other lesson on the delegate reports? Um I understand that the the deadline for uh the delegate assembly submissions is coming up in is it September? I think I >> we got an email about it. So just be aware of it and if there's anything that you want to uh suggest we need to start talking about it next month basically. >> Um >> all right if there are no other leazison delegate reports we're really up

109to public comment this time. Seeing none individuals and or groups are invited to present their concerns comments and requests to the board of education at this time for any matters in accordance with board policy. Members of the public are allotted one opportunity to address the board for a maximum of 5 minutes during this period of the meeting. Please be advised that a video recording of this meeting will be posted on the district's website and we ask that you state your name and municipality for the record. >> Hello. Hi, Laura Crest, president of the Bridgewater Education Association. So, uh, happy unsummer because that's kind of what I'm feeling today after being in school. Um, so I think it's awesome news just watching all your your report and I want to say that we have some pretty

110phenomenal staff members in our high school and you know they all deserve a shout out and I also want to say though that this wouldn't happen if we didn't have the stability coming out of the Wade building because it starts on top and comes down. So I feel like over the years to somebody's point here I think uh Michael or Barry you made the point that we've been working on these things for a long time. So right the administration has to work at doing what's best. The board has to follow suit and then it has to be implemented correctly and I think that this is all welld deserved and it's great to see that. Um, I want to give a shout out to all the primary staff in the district because they're always awesome. But,

111however, those that are working in Hamilton, JFK, Bradley Gardens, and Van Holton, they've had quite a challenge working in that construction and getting it together and I really feel like they're doing a great job. Um, it's going to be great when it's done, but right now, let's just say it's a lot of work, but they're up for the task. And you know, the thing about primary school teachers is they really want their rooms to look great and they're really dedicated to what not that we're not dedicated as eighth grade teachers, but they're especially dedicated to making that room feel like a home for those students. And our teachers do a fabulous job at doing that. So, shout out to them. And you know, shout out to the four principles, too, because they did a good

112job keeping in touch with the people that were affected and the buildings. And I thought, you know, it I'm not going to say, you know, it's a great situation, but I feel like people tried to come together. Um, glad that we have a contract. We'll be voting on that shortly. We were going to do it a little sooner, but because in those buildings they're really working to get their rooms together. We're we're going to vote on the eth and the ninth. Um and um the best news of all that is I never have to negotiate another contract. If I'm up here and I do, something went seriously wrong in my life. Okay. All right. And uh the last thing I want to address is uh the talk here about celebrating the uh fourth you know

113the 250th anniversary of our country which then I thought my god I was in the 200th anniversary parade as a brownie at 8 years old. So you were brownie too Barry in the marching in the boy scout parade. What was happening? All right. So, what I want to say is that like I don't know if you're all aware, but we do we um in social studies, I'm a social studies teacher. We cover 911. We spend a couple of days talking about 911. We celebrate Constitution Day in our classrooms. We talk about Veterans Day and then we also I know I talk about D-Day. um even though it's not in my curriculum and I don't think I'm the only teacher that does that and I'm sure every teacher would like to participate in something but you

114know what Mr. Beer said was 100% right. When you get a new administration that comes in, you're going to get like it doesn't matter whether it's Chitterelli or Cheryl, you're going to get new stuff that comes down and how you're going to do things. And so I think to plan like right now might be too soon just because you have we have no idea what's coming next honestly. But I don't think anyone was is opposed to doing that in any way, shape, or form, celebrating our country. And it really does happen quite often in our classrooms, whether you teach American history. I don't teach American history, but we still talk about those things as we teach in America. Thank you. Any other public comment? Seeing none, I'm going to close that portion of the public

115comment. We're up to item number nine, the approval of minutes. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Are there any corrections made? >> Seeing none, Mr. Lumsky, please call the RO. >> Mr. Lee, >> yes. >> Miss Lockan, >> yes. >> Dr. Lee, >> yes. >> Mr. Pepe, >> yes. >> Mr. Walker, >> yes. >> Mr. Sanger. >> Yes. The motion passes. We're up to personnel 2604 through personnel 2606. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any questions or comments? Seeing none, Mr. Lumsky, please call the RO. >> Mr. Lee, >> yes. >> Miss Lan, >> yes. >> Dr. Lee, >> yes. >> Mr. Pepe, >> yes. >> Mr. Walker, >> yes. Mr. Sanger. >> Yes. The motion carries. >> We're up to curriculum 2606 through curriculum 2615. >> So moved. Second. >> Dr. Lee, >> I

116have a question uh more for public information about the dual enrollment program. Can you talk about it so that people who may be listening can you know learn about it? >> Which program? >> The dual enrollment program with TCJ. the the dual enrollment program with TC&J. >> Yes. Um we actually have a dual enrollment program with I think it's now five colleges. I'll have >> Keen TCJ RVCC here. Yes, >> that's five. >> Right. And dual enrollment is really um ways for students. Is that right? >> Yes. >> All right. um are ways that students are they're taking a high school class that also they can receive college credits for. And so we have partnerships with different universities. They have to approve, you know, the curriculum that's taught. We have to make sure it's aligned

117both with what we do and our state standards and also with what they provide. Um there's requirements and sometimes the requirements are different from school to school with their um instructors and the people who are able to teach these courses but at the end of it students can earn credit. You know they pay it's it's a very small fee too. So it's it's a good deal because it's not what you would pay in college for a comparable course. So >> that's what it is. >> Thank you. We also talk about the uh >> oh just one second. I have a comment on that before you move on. uh emails were sent to all high school students and their parents uh about the dual enroll program. Uh so any high school parents that are impacted by

118that should uh have information who they can contact for that. I think that if we can communicate in more ways that will help right because I really appreciate this effort that that our u district has put in to partner with this wonderful institutes to provide opportunities for our students. >> My mic is not on >> right and it's also in the course of studies. So you know if students are looking through it we also have the courses identified there as well. >> Can we uh uh I have a actually a question about this. So when they for example go to TCJ it's kind of far right how do the students >> no they they take the they take the courses here and so that's why the >> does the professor come to >> No no

119no it's one of our teachers so they have to approve our teachers and often it's I mean and very often it's a teacher who has met a certain requirement so it might be that the teacher has a masters they might need a masters in the content area versus in education so and it is different from one school to the next but there are teachers who are approved. We have to submit who they are and they're approved to teach the course. >> So students are studying in our own campus and correct able to accumulate college degrees. >> That's right. They get credit both for high school towards graduation and for college transfer >> curriculum 2615 lists the teachers that were approved >> right >> in BR. >> Yes. I I this sounds great. I feel like

120I know that uh Mr. has said that the students might have received the communication but this might be useful information for kids of lower grades to know because they may not have learned about it or learned about how it works and but if they do they can plan ahead for their later years >> and we can take that under consideration. >> Thank you. >> I suppose the same works for the RVCC one as well. >> Absolutely. >> They are studying on our campus. Yes, they're studying the campus credit from obviously the >> dual credit courses are always taught on the high school campus. This is nothing new. It's been going on in high schools for well over a decade. >> But it's a great effort by the administration. You've expanded this program quite heavily the

121last couple years. So kudos to you all and and it actually these are actually if they pass the class they're guaranteed credit those universities unlike AP is not a guarantee. Sometimes it moves you up. So this is kind of a nice thing isn't it a little different. and many New Jersey universities accept it even if it's not their specific school. So if you get the credit out of TCJ, you might still get to use it up, >> Monontlair or Keen or whatever. >> So again, we're expanding our capability for our students for everybody. Thank you. >> Great. And I just want to add because this kind of fits with the presentation earlier. This is another area that we've definitely been growing because we were I think behind other districts and three years ago we only

122had 31 students who were scheduled for dual enrollment courses and now we're projected to have 154 students this year. So it's another area that we've been focusing on to develop the partner partnerships and expand access. >> I think that's great effort. I would like to commend the administration for achieving this. Thank you. Any other comments or questions? Seeing none, Mr. Lumsky, could you please call the RO? >> Mr. Lee? >> Yes. >> Miss Lockan? >> Yes. >> Dr. Lee? >> Yes. >> Mr. Pepe? >> Yes. >> Mr. Walker? >> Yes. >> Mr. Singer? >> Yes. The motion passes. We're up to business 2619 through business 2627. >> So moved. >> Second. Any questions or comments? I would like to thank the Miltown School PTO for their water purification systems and the soccer netting as well

123as for table chairs. The Crim School PTO for Scholastic dollars that'll be used for cushions and for paperback books and for rolling carts which are ever so helpful as well as the shade structure that uh the Crim PTO is providing at Crim Primary School. um which will also be utilized by uh be our carers and PTO and other events. And finally, the Eisenhower PTO for their six outdoor umbrellas and umbrella stands. Thank you all. Uh all these PTOs u our district would not run as well uh were not for our PTOs, I think. Any other comments or questions? Seeing none, Mr. Lumsky, could you please call the role? >> Mr. Lee? >> Yes. >> Miss Lockchran? >> Yes. >> Dr. Lee? >> Yes. >> Mr. Pepe? >> Yes. >> Mr. Walker. >> Yes. On all.

124Recuse myself on business 26-25. >> Mr. Singer. >> Yes. Motion passes. We're off to special services 2606 through special services 2608. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any questions or comments? >> Seeing none. Mr. WKY. >> Mr. Lee. Yes, >> Miss Lockan. >> Yes, >> Dr. Lee. >> Yes, >> Mr. Pepe. >> Yes, >> Mr. Walker. >> Yes, >> Mr. Singer. >> Yes. The motion passes. We're at other 26 02 and other 2603 >> for which I'll entertain a motion. >> So moved. >> I'll second the motion. >> Thank you. Any questions or comments? >> I do, >> Mr. Lee. Uh, thank you. Uh, I just want to indicate that I'll be voting no on resolution 2602, which are the district goals, and I hope my fellow board members can join me in voting no

125as well to the board goals. Um, I think a lot of these district goals, while they are intended to move the district in the right direction, there's just too many things that I think went unressed with these goals that makes voting in favor of them for me impossible. and that's why I'm going to be voting against them despite some of the well-intentions that a lot of these goals do have. Um, obviously one of the big concerns that I have about these goals is that they're not specific or measurable enough. Uh, they set essentially what are zero expectations of the district and the employees. Um, it's impossible for us as a board to evaluate the performance of the district without targets that are measurable that we can compare the district's performance to. uh whether that that's

126in relation to perhaps other districts or our own historical performance. Uh for example, you know, when we look at climate and culture, we talk a lot about a lot of different metrics. Uh but we don't really talk about, you know, how we use them, you know, in terms of indicating the purpose of the metrics, what maybe these historical results look like, and most importantly, you know, what kind of targets do we want to set for ourselves uh for some of these metrics. Um, the way I think about it, it's kind of like saying you're going to set a goal for yourself to, you know, save money, but you're not making a budget. And I think that's kind of the wrong approach to setting up these goals. Uh, another concern I have is that I think

127the goals do fall short in terms of trying to find ways to adapt to and respond to the really rapidly evolving technological landscape that we're in. Um, I think the goals do briefly mention expanding the use of technology services, which is good to see, but I don't think they address really important issues like, you know, the rise of artificial intelligence in classrooms. You know, how we can be using technology to responsibly improve some of the efficiencies of our operations and how our classrooms operate. uh with technology that's changing around us every single day, I think it's very important that we are dedicating more time and more attention to the changes, making sure that technology um is being used responsibly in the classroom in a way that benefits our students. Uh finally, I think while the

128focus of the district has been on expanding a lot of our gifted and talented programs, and we've had some success, particularly at the higher levels, one of the big concerns that I have is that this dramatic expansion of our gifted and talented programs could lead to a dramatic increase in enrollment that could potentially overwhelm some of our students, our parents, and especially our teachers. Um, and I'd like to see a little bit more of a stronger focus on making sure that, you know, while we do increase equity in these programs, that we're also not leading to dramatically high class sizes or large class sizes that would, you know, potentially adversely affect the quality and the rigor uh of some of these programs. Obviously, this isn't the case in all of our classrooms. We've s seen

129some great results in terms of our AP uh students, but it's an issue that's been brought up in the past where for some of our gifted and talented classrooms, we've seen large classroom sizes that have led to parents being upset because obviously that affects our teachers, it affects our students, it affects our parents, and I think that's a pretty big issue that we should be focusing on. Uh so that's why I'm going to be voting against the district goals. Uh talking a little bit about my view on the board goals. Um although I do intend to vote yes, I think there are more meaningful ways that we can find a way to strengthen our role in the district uh by changing the board goals uh to work a little bit better for our stakeholders particularly

130because you know the people of Bridgewwater you know they've made it clear that transparency is a very important issue to them right it's a backbone of good government. good schools. And I think our district needs to do more to make this district an open one that'll hopefully encourage more public scrutiny and criticism in the pursuit of making our schools work better for our community. And I think that these goals have the opportunity to go further in pursuing the public transparency that our constituents deserve. Uh, you know, during that meeting, you know, I was proposing releasing some of our committee meeting minutes to the public. You know, I talked about, you know, having more information related to board governance available to the public. Um, having newsletters, right? Uh, making sure that we have more opportunities for

131our residents and constituents to have a voice at our table. And although the ideas were not adopted, uh, I'm obviously disappointed. I kind of appreciate the board considering some of these ideas, but I think that the board goals uh have more room for improvement in terms of responsibly promoting transparency, and that's why I'm planning to vote for the board goals, but I'm still going to be voting against the district goals. So, >> I I don't want to get into a back and forth, but I do have to say this. We keep on throwing out this lack of transparency as if there is something we're withholding from the public. That is a fantasy. I'm going to say it's a lie. There is nothing for public consumption that we withhold. Nothing. Our budget process was transparent from

132start to finish. These reports we give constantly update us on on on student achievement. We can look at class sizes and all those things. We're just pulling things out of pure cloth here. So, I I don't want to have a debate back and forth, but our administration and this board has been nothing short of transparent in every way, shape, or form when it comes to the business of the board and the business of the district. Thank you. >> May lock. I'd also like to add that I believe that we've been very open to criticism over the last year and previous years. Um, but what I would like to say is or you know I would actually like to apologize for not being here. I had other priorities in life that I I had to pursue.

133Um, but I have worked with the board every year on this initiative and every year we all have our opinions on the matter. Um, and you know, we move forward and and I just want to thank each and every one of the board members that that did attend and and were here for the entirety of the meeting to talk about this subject, including board norms. uh because I think you know uh a lot of what is brought up in public can often be shared and maybe summarized or bullet pointed a little bit, you know, like perhaps just share that you're not going to, you know, approve it with a little highlight. But I don't know. I I feel like this is like a little out of control. uh and and maybe we should, you know,

134send an email out with how board norms works. >> Just a a quick comment on the specificity or or lack of specificity in the district goals. Look, I've never run a school district before, and looking over the goals, I'm not sure how most of these qualitative topics, finance, facilities, communication, community outreach, engagement. I'm not sure how you put a percentage on that. Maybe there there there's a way to do it. I can't think of it. I have run a classroom though and so like when I set goals for my class usually it's in response to the needs of the students and or something that they're struggling with or something I think we can do better with. I I don't think I'm ever judging success or failure by sitting down with a calculator and typing things

135out and doing some notations and coming out with a 7.2% a little bit short of where I want it to be. So much of it is qualitative. Man, they didn't really understand that concept last week, but now we've worked on it and it's getting better. Man, the behavior last Friday was was out of control. Like, no one could settle down. We're really going to work on that over the next week moving forward. And knock on wood, I got a new class starting tomorrow. Hey, it has gotten a little bit better. I can't put a number on that. I can't put a figure on that. mainly because I'm teaching and even if there were a way to track it, I'm not sure if I could take the time to do that. So again, I'm not sure

136maybe there is a way at the district level that you could that you'd want to do some of those things, but I I I can't think of it and I'm not sure it might be appropriate in finance or if you're running a business, but in education, I don't think that that quite fits. Um I think you just have to feel it. And I I know it's that's a little bit difficult to not have that if you're looking for it, >> but that's that that's just my take on that. >> Thanks, Mike. And and and you know, any number you put on these, it's going to be arbitrary because you have a different cohort of kids coming up, right? We see where things are trending. And u the idea that we're not looking to improve in

137places, right, you're right. we're we're looking for improvement in these metrics each year, but to say, "Oh, it's going to improve by 5%." Well, like I could I could write a goal right now and say, "Hey, AP enrollment is going to go up 7% next year." And we can all pat ourselves on the back. You know how I know it's going to go up 7%. I've seen the class rosters. That's going to go up 7%. So all that work w was done last year to get these kids. So everything's kind of arbitrary and and and look I I keep on saying and it's not to poke fun at this but this is a 30,000 foot view right how we do these things I mean this is up to individual buildings and individual people and that's

138not under the perview of the board. Now, if you want us to focus in a different area or or look at a a a different uh you know, different anything, hey, we we can take that that advice. But what we're not going to have individual board members saying, "Hey, I want AP scores to go up 10% next year." I mean, that's just pulling something out of the sky. >> But thank you for the feedback, >> Dr. I hear our fellow board member and and uh Mr. Beers uh in your understanding of what smart goal is. So smart goal stand for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bound. >> I think for a goal to have a time bound is important. And I think for a goal to be specific is important. I think for a

139goal to be somehow measurable is important. I feel like I feel like a lot of us here talk about how smart goal doesn't work. But when I hear about your argument, I feel like there's a misunderstanding of what smart goal is. I feel probably Let me finish. Let me finish. Let me finish. >> I totally understand. No, I I just can't listen to this. >> I understand 100% what a smart goal is. And there is there are qualitative measurements. We just showed them to you. >> No. >> Okay. >> I I'm sorry. But please don't insult my intelligence by saying I don't understand what a smart goal is. That's offensive. >> May I ask you what does measurable mean to you then? >> Okay. Hold on a second. We spent what is in my estimate

140way too much time at the last meeting having this conversation. We spent probably an hour. No, we spent two hours in the meeting, but we spent about an hour talking about um smart goals and measurable goals and how certain board members wanted to see goals set. But I need to remind people who might be disappointed that their specific goal didn't get through or that the way that they want to measure a goal didn't get through that each individual one of us is a singular board member and we don't run the board. The board as a whole gets to vote and last meeting the board as a whole discussed this for an interminable amount of time and moved on in agreement at that point. maybe not eight to zero, but as a majority of the board.

141So to rehash it at this point when we've already had quite a lengthy discussion of this specifically on smart goals as well, I don't see how that serves a purpose, but that's just my opinion on that. >> Can I finish what I started that was cut off by Mr. Beers? >> You did ask him a question. I feel like we pro probably should brush up on what smart go is. I think there's more training we can do about this. I feel there's a misunderstanding what measurable means. It doesn't have to be a percentage number. A goal is a specific post. Having a direction without the post is in my opinion a direction, not a goal. I think that the goal document that we have in front of us, there's a difference between how the district

142goal is and how our board goal is. Our board goal is in formality of a specific smart goal. I do not see why our district goal cannot also be in that format. It helps why I'm advocating for this because it helps it helps our organization efficiency. It helps us serve our students better. So that's why I'm advocating for it. >> Um I'm gonna push back on that. >> I'm sorry. >> I I apologize. >> I apologize. >> Are you done? >> Yes. >> I'm sorry. Sorry, Dr. Lee. >> I I think it could have the exact opposite effect. There's a lot going on in this district. There are classrooms that's that are still not open. There's construction that's happening. People are trying to set up classrooms. They're not even in yet. And we're going to

143put I mean our goals range across every aspect of this district where we're to send out a memo tomorrow to every to every teacher and every staff member a percentage number that they need to improve by or their department or their area needs to improve by. I don't see how that helps. I think it's going to add stress at a time when a lot of things first of all I'm not even sure any district does that anyway. So I I'm not sure I think it would be a little bit out of the blue. But even if they did to start it now when we have grade shifting at the end of the year, new programs roll rolling out, construction going on everywhere. Even if you did want to do that, I don't think this is

144the right time for it. Even if there were a way to do that. Thanks. >> Can I immediately respond to that? You know, I saw tonight where we actually saw some of the measurables or the actions happening tonight, the increased um dual enrollment. We went from one to five now in the past year, two years, I'm not sure. You guys can help me with that. We saw a graduation rate, which was a plan moving forward from 91 to 92 to 94 to 97. uh we've seen the HIV and the SSDS report being reduced over the years. There are lots of areas that you know if you would actually you know you pay attention to the reports and the you go deep into it you can see the items happening you know and things happening do

145we need to put numbers to that I don't know but I can tell you I would imagine the administration ask their ask for improvement of the staff and in those areas that but that's their job not our job to put those numbers on them and I think we are constantly strategically looking at what's best for all kids and we have moved this district. We've moved the meter in this district in the last four years quite a bit. So, I'm very proud of where this district is and I'm I'm going to support the goals as they are. And and there comes next is the action plans come out, right, Bob? Is that what next? You you'll come here for with action plans, which is the spec spec species specific specific. >> Thank you very much of

146it. I appreciate all the help there. Mike says it Mike has a great voice by the way. >> No, you had it right. >> You know, but he he says it so much better. But and those will come forward next and see where they go and they will report it out on a quarterly basis by Bob and his staff in the different reports and what we do. So I'm very happy where it is. I'm going to support the goals where they are. >> Dr. Go ahead. >> All right. First I want to thank Michael for you know expressing your opinion. I I hear you know when you mentioned you know percentage might not be the best measurement right. I agree with you on that actually. But a measurable goal doesn't have to be always a

147percentage. So how to measure it? That's like Mr. Walker said our our goal setters sets how to measure it themselves. Just tell us what is the goal. How to measure doesn't have to be percentage, right? As long as there is a indicator just like our board goal. As long as there's indicator that we can indicate success. >> That's all. I I hear what you're saying. I just want to make sure our staff are not coming into work every day saying, "Oh, I got to meet my number or I got to meet this indicator." I want them coming in and serving our students and teaching our students and serving the community. And I I think we have that same belief. But that's why I worry about that. But thank you for your for your comment. I

148appreciate it. >> Yeah. I I just I I'd like to make the goal like let's let's like actually acknowledge the the board norms because I mean one I I can't let this statement go. I tried. I I don't who are we going to restrict from access to opportunities? Are you going are you going to sit there and handpick them yourself? I mean, did did you see the same presentation I saw and the success that our district is having right now? And we're going to sit here and nitpick over some standards that you want to have to make sure somebody's meeting goals. This is this has gotten to the point where like it's pontificating and like, you know, either vote no or, you know, vote yes. Like like you were in the meeting. I wasn't. I

149read I I I I heard from administration. I've seen the presentations. I'm I'm pretty sure that we at least most of us on the board can feel confident that administration knows what they're doing when they set their goals. So, I just I I would like to move on because it's actually there's some things that that were said that were that were actually insulting to the district and into and to teachers and and I'd like to >> go ahead Dr. Lee. I think it is important to understand that this board is here to support the teachers, appreciate their hard work and to make sure from procedure and policy standpoint that they're well supported and well on track. I don't think there's any negativity coming from this board. So that's why not only are we voting, we're

150also giving our reasons to vote certain way so that there's no misunderstanding of any negativity that was mentioned. I think that uh given the reason that that was that was provided, everyone here strives to provide an environment where our staff is supported, where our teacher uh are supported, where our students are best served. That the intention needs to be recognized. >> Well, I was just going to quickly comment on the transparency comment, but Mr. Lee is um not here to hear it at this point, but we're going to comment on it anyhow. Um one of the things that was discussed at the last meeting was uh making the minutes available to the public. I want to make it clear the minutes are available to the public because we read the minutes allowed at this meeting.

151There's not I mean so to suggest that doing it this way is not being transparent is is uh as Mr. Beerus said before a falsehood. Um I do believe that we are transparent in so many ways. Uh are we perfect? No. Is there room for growth? Absolutely. But we've done everything that we can to be as transparent as we can, including discussing uh budgeting 3 to four months before the budget uh was even put together this year. uh letting the the the public know what the trans what the uh budgeting problems were early, letting the public know what referendum projects are being done and we report on that monthly. Um so I just wanted to to note on that if there's nothing else, Mr. Lumsky, please call the role. >> Can I make another comment?

152>> I I just Go ahead, Dr. Lee. >> All right. Thank you for the opportunity to speak again. I would like to use the opportunity to explain why I'm voting, how I'm going to vote. I think that uh we have a district goal that's that's good direction that I do support. I would like to see it serve our district better by being more specific, measurable so that we can hold ourselves accountable on how we do. That's reason I'm going to vote no. not that that I disagree with the direction we're going, but rather I would like I would like us to do it better and being able to deliver the best we can and hold ourselves accountable. Thank you. >> Mr. Lky, could you please call the role? >> Mr. Lee, >> no. On 2602,

153yes on 2603. Mr. Lan, >> thank you again for uh all the work that you did on this. And yes, >> Dr. Lee, >> no to 2602. Yes to 2603. >> Mr. Pepe, >> yes. >> Mr. Walker, >> yes. >> Mr. Singer, >> yes. And I'm correct that a simple majority of on these passes. So, the motion passes. We're up to policy 2601 and through poly 6 policy 2603. >> So moved. >> I'll second the motion. >> Are there any questions or comments? >> Go ahead, Mr. Lee. >> Microphone. >> Thank you, Mike. >> No problem. >> For policy 0168, I just have a few questions. I'm sure I've answered that asked them before, but I'd like to get some more clarification, I guess, on them. Um, you know, why specifically maybe were my proposed

154revisions rejected by the personnel committee for second reading? >> The personnel committee considered both different policies and this is the one that they recommended. >> Why? >> This is the one that they found was the better of the two readings. We I don't need to go into this any further. We have a a committee process where a committee reviews policy and they make a recommendation. If you don't like the recommendation, you are free to vote in any way that you want. >> I don't think that was answered. But maybe going on to my next question, you know, in the language they talk about board consent. How would that be expressed with the new policy? Is no one answering my question? >> If you'll give me a second to actually bring it up, I'll be happy

155to do that. >> I wasn't prepared for this question. mean the bottom of the first page >> toward toward the bottom. >> Sorry, one second. Mike, you're welcome to go ahead if you want. >> Oh, no. I just would that be by resolution would be my I it's the only way the board could provide consent, I imagine. >> Where where are you looking right now? >> The last full paragraph or the last paragraph on the first page. Mr. Lee, you can correct me if I'm wrong. Um, under the electronic recording subheading. >> Yeah. So, where does it say consent? >> Second line. Access by the p access by the public to electronic records not be removed >> without the express consent of the board. >> The board. >> Okay. So, a request is made to

156the board and the board would then have to vote on it. >> So, would it be in the form of a resolution? >> It would be in a board vote. There would be a resolution made by the superintendent to remove it at that time, but that's subject to the next line. >> Mhm. >> Which is that it may be removed after 5 years upon notice to the board. >> So that's without consent. >> Got it. I guess that's a followup on that. you know, with the new policy, you know, the superintendent, can he basically give us one month notice and as he wishes, remove anything that's older than five years under the policy without a resolution? >> That is how that reads. >> And then I guess after 10 years, he doesn't have to notify

157us. He can just remove it. Is that correct? He or she. >> That is correct. That is how that reads. So my question at the end of the day is why can't we just keep all of our records public without these arbitrary timelines? As long as we have the controls in place to make sure that if we need to we can remove them. It feels unnecessary that we're setting these timelines. I'm not the person I'm not the committee here. So I'm not going to respond to you on each thing. This is how this reads. If you don't like it, you know how you can vote. This is what the committee recommended. This is not what Mr. Singer recommended. This is what the committee recommended after discussion on both options >> and there. Sorry. >> And

158and just to be clear, like we we've discussed this for a while, but if you had these questions, you could have sent it to the committee chair and gotten an answer in advance rather than at board business. I would like to say I'm disappointed by the decision of the committee and as a result I would like to make a motion to amend the policy resolution to my version um to state that to remove the language that says except as set forth by this policy electronic recordings older than 5 years may be removed from publicly available district sources subject to one month notice to the board to the extent such records are otherwise archived and retained by the district for a period of 10 years. I don't think the language is necessary and I think that

159it doesn't go far enough in terms of protecting the public records and I would like a second if anyone would be honored to do so. >> Can you read it again? I move to amend the motion on policy resolution 2601 by stripping away and removing the following language from the proposed policy change. Except as set forth by this policy, electronic recordings older than 5 years may be removed from publicly available district sources subject to one month notice to the board to the extent such records are otherwise archived and retained by the district for a period of 10 years. Second. >> Do we need any comment on this? As Mr. Lee has already made his part clear. >> Dr. Lee, >> I'll make a comment. Uh I'll explain why I seconded it because I think that

160I'm in this committee discussing this. I have uh uh raised the question about the the specificity specificity of how notification is done. I think in the committee that I was convinced uh that uh notification in the form of a resolution wasn't going to be the norm but after hearing this uh uh conversation here uh sounds like sounds like the resolution would be a good way of of notifying the board. So I'm having second thoughts about whether we should add that specificity into our uh language like Mr. was uh suggesting and I would like also this whole board to have opportunity to express their opinion by second this motion so that we can all discuss and vote on it whether you would like this version or not. >> Any other comments? >> Seeing none, Mr. Lumsky,

161could you please call the role on the uh motion to amend policy Z policy 2601 with regard to policy 06 0168. Mr. Lee, >> yes. >> Miss L. >> No. >> Dr. Lee, >> yes. >> Mr. Pepe, >> no. >> Mr. Walker, >> no. >> Mr. Singer, >> no. The motion does not succeed. point of information. >> Yes, Dr. Lee. >> So, we're now going to vote for this policy without amendment, right? >> That's correct. >> Okay. >> Are there any other policies that anyone wants to comment on? >> Yes, I have some more uh policy 0174 legal services. Um, I do think there are some more opportunities to strengthen transparency and especially the scrutiny of our district's operations, especially when it deals with things like procuring legal services from our board attorney who at

162the end of the day represents the board. And I think it does make sense that the board should have a say in scrutinizing some of her legal bills, understanding whether or not we do or don't need certain legal services from the attorney. And that's why I'm also going to be proposing amendments to this policy revision, which I think will help support these goals. Um, so I'd like to make a motion to amend the policy to include some of the following language. In >> in accordance with the Open Public Meetings Act, NJSA 104-7, the board must adopt a resolution permitting any expenditure of funds for litigation which is not covered by the district's insurance policies. and another section that states that legal bills shall be submitted to the district monthly. Such bills will be presented to

163the board at the next board meeting for review and approval before a warrant is drawn for such services. >> Did you send this? >> Uh, wait, there's a motion on the table. Is there a second? >> Can you read it again? I want to understand what you're talking Of course, it's a motion to amend the existing legal services policy 0174. In accordance with the Open Public Meetings Act, NJSA 104-7, the board must adopt a resolution permitting any expenditure of funds for litigation which is not covered by the district's insurance policies. And then the second section would be legal bills shall be submitted to the district monthly. Such bills will be presented to the board at the next board meeting for review and approval before a warrant is drawn for such services. >> I'll second this.

164But I feel like this is actually very long to to have a discussion here. >> Has this been discussed in the committee? >> Has Mr. Lee's amendment been discussed in committee? No, we have not received Mr. these proposed amendment >> in this case. What should we send this to committee to discuss this? >> Well, first of all, you've you've made their second. >> I did so that we can discuss this. >> Okay. So now you're entering into your comment portion. >> Yes. >> Go ahead. >> And then I I I mentioned why second so that we can have this discussion. But sounds like we didn't uh have a chance to deliberate it in the committee yet. Maybe we should to discuss this amendment in the committee. >> I can amend my original motion to send

165it to committee. You already have a motion and a second. Are you going to withdraw your motion? >> I can make a motion to send it to committee. >> No, you can't because we have a motion on the table right now. >> Yeah, I will. >> I can amend my original motion. >> Your original motion was to amend the >> policing. We're discussing this amendment. Can I can I speak? >> Since we're discussing the amendment, >> are you going to withdraw it or not? >> I think it's fair. >> I think you can withdraw that. It's a yes or no question. >> Okay, I will withdraw that and I will send that language to committee for consideration for a second reading. >> You can send the language to committee. >> Okay. >> But we will

166continue to vote on this as first reading. >> Okay. >> Anything else? So just to be clear, there is no motion to amend. We are simply voting on policy z policy 2601 through policy 2603 as written on all policy changes. >> Mr. Lumsky, could you please call the role? >> Mr. Lee. >> No on 2601 and uh no on policy 26. Oh wait, sorry. Uh, sorry. Uh, no on policy 0168, no to 0174, and yes to 0173. And then yes to the rest as well. >> We can do that. >> Yes, >> Miss Lockan. >> Yes, >> Dr. Lee. I'm holding yes with understanding before the second reading that some discussion and amendment will happen in the committee. Yes, >> Mr. Pepe. >> Yes, >> Mr. Walker. >> Yes, >> Mr. Singer. >> Yes. The

167motion passes. >> We're up to old business. Is there any old business? Please pass these things. >> I have old business. Um So, uh, this past weekend I, uh, >> Sorry. Could you please pass those down? That'll be for >> Thank you. Yeah. Great. >> Uh, so this past weekend I was driving by the um football field and I saw the field hockey team out there doing a car wash, which was really exciting. And and not just because, you know, it's a they're doing a great job washing cars, but it's just exciting to see the facilities um going through this transformation. uh that that you know we're starting to see like life kind of pick up back in the area and that you know the the district supports the goals of these girls being out

168there and also the the cheer team was out there and uh and I just wanted to you know acknowledge that it's really coming along. It's it's really great to see. Um which which sort of leads me into the the second thing I wanted to let the board know about. Um, so on on July 19th, the uh class of 1995, we gathered for our 30-year reunion, which if you haven't done it yet, is definitely an experience. Um, but you know what I what I was kind of excited to te to talk about was that you I mean I've already mentioned it a million times, but you know our class was the first freshman class at this like newly emerged school and um and we were rivals and and and and in the beginning there was like

169a discontent um within the community and people arguing over the necessity to combine schools. Um and there's an article out there that I had shared with administration. It it really took a tremendous amount of effort by administration and and the two student councils at each high school. And even when we started our first year, we had we had two class presidents because we had just that strong of a leadership. Um and you I bring this up because you know we're going through this transition and this transformation in our district 30 years later, which I think is remarkable. and and it and it took work and and discussion and maybe some disagreements along the way, but I just think, you know, the changes that we have made a and what we're continuing to do is just

170going to affect generations to come and and and clearly we're already seeing that demonstrated in in what we had seen in uh the earlier presentation. So, I just wanted to take that moment to share that school spirit and also to let you know that there will be a small group of class of 95ers at the first football game this Friday. Yay. >> Is there any other old business before we get to the board norms? So, at our last meeting, the board reviewed the board norms, made some changes. I would ask that board members review them and then I would like to have one singular one executed. So I don't care where we start from, but we need to um What's that, Mike? >> Um no, that's it. I I mean unless anyone has anything that

171needs to be added to this, but the board did discuss this already and did review this already. Uh and I did send this out to the board last week asking for any comments and I got none in response. Um, so unless there's any reason uh uh if if there's any concerns, uh I would appreciate if you could all uh execute a copy of this and then we'll compile it together uh and then send out the executed copy. Um I will go ahead and read the board norms as discussed by the board uh so that it's because it's not a uh resolution. uh this is simply for how the board uh believes that the board should act. Um and so at all times we need to be respectful and don't interrupt a speaker. It's something that

172I struggle with and uh I think that we're all trying to do better with it. Uh and I will uh try to keep people uh doing that as well. We need to keep confidential items and information confidential. We need to not disparage anyone affiliated with our school. We need to follow the chain of command as set forth in our policy. We need to respect the consensus of the board and move on. There will be no surprises, celebrate our students and staff, and keep students the focus of all board actions. Those are things that we will do at all times. What we will do before a meeting is read the agenda and all attachments, including committee minutes, in advance. We will submit questions, concerns, and ideas to administration by 4 p.m. the day of a meeting

173to the superintendent and the board president. We will give the administration a heads up any on any items that may arise during a meeting but are not on the agenda. We will run old business and new business items by board leadership. There will be no surprises to administration or board leadership. We will let the board president know if you'll be late or absent and let committee chairs know if you'll be late or absent from a meeting. That's all before the meeting. During the meeting, we will articulate and ask prepared questions with the public and fellow board members in mind. We will signal to the board president to speak and the board president will acknowledge the next speaker to allow uninterrupted opinions with time in mind and we will respect consensus and move on that is

174during a meeting and then after the meeting we will have one voice a common voice and respect results. We will maintain and respect we will maintain respect and civility. We will continue collaboration with each other. We will respect the operational time of staff. We will follow up if needed with committee chairs or the board president and we will maintain decorum outside of meetings. Those are all things that we will do after a meeting. If any board member feels that another board member has violated any provision of this agreement that that board member should personally talk with the offending member in an attempt to resolve the issue as soon as possible. If the attempt fails, the board member who feels that another board member has violated this agreement shall bring the matter to the attention of

175the board president. I ask it says here that we the undersideed members under signed members of the board of education and superintendent agree to abide by these agreed upon norms. With that in mind, I ask that we all sign this and I'd like to have it in one. So, if I'm going to start with Mike, please, and then we'll move on past that. >> 26th. >> Is there any other old business? >> While we're doing this, is there any new business? Seeing none, uh we need to go into close session. Whereas discussion by a board the board is required on matters that are exceptions to the requirement that a public body hold its meetings in public and whereas the topics for discussion are personnel superintendent evaluation. Whereas it is expected that the details of the

176discussion may be made public as soon as the issues may be acted upon publicly. Be it resolved that the board enters into the close session at this time. >> I'll make a motion. Second. All in favor? >> I. >> Anyone opposed? Motion passes. We are in close session. We will not be acting upon anything. We will not be taking action when we return other than to return the meeting. >> Thank you all for being here. >> Lucy, >> can we have a recess for for 10 minutes or so? >> Sure. >> Lucy, I'm not sure. Was your name spelled incorrectly on this? I I I I might have missed. I just wanted to give you a heads up in case you looked at it quick. >> Oh, yeah. >> I apologize.