001Good evening and welcome to the October 17th Westford Board of Education meeting. Um, I'd like to call this meeting to order. First, I'd like to ask um that you respect a moment of silence, but also ask that you remember the family and friends, Miss Diane Ericson, who touched the hearts of so many West Milford students during her 32 years as an educator here, as a school counselor and a math teacher for our district. We stand for the flag. [Music] In accordance with the provisions of the open public meeting act, public notice of this meeting has been sent to board members, all district schools, town hall, county superintendent's office, the board attorney, key vision for West for TV77 and posted in the administration Cops of the board meeting and counter resolution are provided to all local
002media town hall township library and all district schools. Roll call, please. Mr. >> Mrs. Rana >> here. >> Mr. Sins, Mr. Ly >> here. >> Mrs. Dwire >> here. >> Mr. Bino >> here. >> Mrs. O'Brien >> here. >> Mr. Lockwood >> here. >> Mrs. Van Dyke >> here. >> Mrs. Rowan >> here. >> Thank you. Um first we'll have um Dr. Fernari's report. >> Good evening everyone. Uh the very first thing that we have on our agenda this evening is recognition of our National Merit Student Awards and I'd like to invite Mr. Stryens and Miss Johnson up to uh make those presentations. Um students when your name is called and you receive your certificate if you could please come around. The board would love to shake your hands and congratulate you. [Music] students hard
003work in high school and showcase their strong academic support. The academic honors for rural area black indigenous and Latino students are an opportunity for students to share academic achievements with scholarship and scholarship program. [Applause] The criteria for all the students include a GPS 3.5 T or earn a score of three or higher on a test and finally they should attend a school in a rural area where small town were identified as African African black Hispanic American Latino for indigenous we are the national [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Music] National [Applause] [Music] [Applause] world without [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Thank you. Um, you know, it's not often that we have the opportunity to have students at our board education meeting. We so much appreciate you being here and really want to congratulate on this year.
004Okay, we have a little bit of surprise in our office today. Um, we were visited by county OEM, the office of emergency management. Um, they had the opportunity to come and use our high school facility for regional training of um, groups of first responders. And these included New Jersey State Police, the SEA County Sheriff's Office, the SA County Office of Emergency Management, American Red Cross, uh the Federal uh Emergency Management Office, Region 2, and a number of others. Um, two gentlemen from the Office of Emergency Management who visited were nothing but complimentary to our district, to our facilities, and to the custodial staff and our head of operations who um really set things up and facilitated that um that program. had 122 participants on a very rainy Saturday afternoon. Um, and they wanted to come
005to present a plaque to board of education. And I'm going to just read to you. It says, "Pay County Sheriff's Office. Sheriff Richard H. Berdnick of Payic County, New Jersey, presents the certificate of appreciation to the West Milford Board of Education in appreciation for assisting the Payic County OEM with providing the use of the West Milford High School in support of the October 7th, 2023 statewide New Jersey workshop in witness thereof and sponsor has caused these presents to be signed and on this 7th day of October 2023. So this will be proudly displayed and congratulations again to the district for continuing our tradition of partnership with not only community agencies but now expanding to um far farther reaching people. People have come here and felt the West Milford pride and they will be back I'm
006sure. So congratulations to the districts. [Applause] Okay. The um the next item on my superintendence report is the uh sorry the HIV grade reports. Um annually schools uh go through a process where they they um grade themselves on a set of of rating indicators that the state has provided. And uh each school through their school uh safety andor culture teams uh are required to evaluate an implementation of this program with the uh implementing the anti-bullying bill of rights and it's for period from July 1st to June 30th of each year. um they use a self- assessment tool that's provided to us by the state and it has a number of elements in it and each element has several indicators and each of those uh are awarded points. So the schools have a maximum of 78
007points that they can earn for themselves based on this rubric. Uh the data that's submitted is also corroborated and backed up by data that we submit to the the state department through our county office through the student safety data system. um findings through the uh QAC monitorings, findings for investigations of uh complaints and non uh non-compliance conducted by the NJ DOE um and other sources. So this is an opportunity in a first stage for each of our schools to look back on the past year and rate themselves based on this process. Later on in the year, I'll be giving a report that is um the state takes this information and these ratings and they evaluate our self assessment and they corroborate and or alter the the numbers that that we provide. So I'm going to
008read to you the school and the self assessment. Now this is not what the state gave us. This is what we gave ourselves at each of the schools based on last year's data. Um, Apua scored themselves as 76 out of 78 points. Maple Road 78 out of 78 points. Marshall Hill 75 out of 78 points. Paradise Null 75 out of 78 points. Upper Greenwood Lake School 76 out of 78 points. Westbrook School 76 out of 78 points. Makipin School 74 of 78 points. And West Mulford High School 76 of 78 points. Um, again, I want to thank the administrators and your teams at each of your schools for going through this process. We do this on an annual basis to make sure that that we're really doing what we're supposed to be doing as far
009as the implementation of the anti-bullying bill of rights. And once again, I'll be back at the end of the year with the state's uh verification. And once we do that, that information will then be posted on the website. So, don't look for anything posted on the website just yet. That'll come later in the year. Um, that concludes my portion of the um the agenda and before I ask uh Mia to give her report, board members, do you have any questions for me? Okay, Mia, please. Hello everyone. Um, we ended September with homecoming week, which was a major success. From September 26th through September 29th, West Milford students showed our pride by participating in homecoming spirit week with fun event each day ending with a beautifully black and gold decorated homecoming dance hosted by the student
010council and PTSO. The fall pep rally was held on Friday the 13th. All the fall sports teams, the band, class council, color guard, cheerleaders, and student council did a great job raising the spirits for the Highlanders big game against Sparta. Pictures are now up on the highlander echo.com. The week of respect was held on October 2nd to October 6. Monday we were blue to stop out bullying. Tuesday we were wear your favorite sports jerseys. When Wednesday we spread kindness with notes from of gratitude for our teachers and staff and friends. Thursday students wore tie-dye to keep the peace. and Friday was black and gold for Highlander Pride. West Milford High School hosted the SAT Saturday, October 7th. If you have not if a junior or senior has not signed up for the SATs and still
011needs to, they can sign up and register for December 2nd. The deadline is November 2nd. The test centers are in Butler and Wayne. Moving to other special events, seniors were given a chance to make their mark on West Milford High School by painting their parking spots with the PTSO. This started on September October 15th and will take place again on Sunday, October 22nd from 9 to6. For more information, check the class of 2024 Google Classroom or have your seniors visit Miss Petra Solo in room 123. Another big moment for the seniors is the painting of the senior wall. Due to the poor weather, there is no set dates to paint the wall. They should listen to announcements and go out whenever they can paint. Another one for the seniors, get those memorable lines in for
012the yearbook. Senior quotes are due by Halloween. West Milford High School held the PSATs for sophomores and juniors on the 10th 11. Um, scores should be out the last week of October roughly. For the first year ever, Westford High School celebrated Hispanic Heritage Month, the week of October 9th to October 13th. Each day was something different and celebrated the beautiful Hispanic culture and history. This week is school violence week. We are spreading a awareness against violence in any form and pledged to be safe and do no harm. For underassmen and faculty members, picture retakes will be in the upper media center from 9 to 12 on October 18th. The last week of October is the Red Ribbon Week where we spread our miss mission to keep kids drug-free. Spooktacular will be here before you know
013it. An annual Spooktacular or trunk or treat event will take place on Saturday, October 28th from 4 to 8. This will be open to the entire community, so come out with your trunk or treat to visit Makapin's haunted hallways. Tickets are available on the district website, wmtps.org. We are collecting candy donations at the high school. Please be labeled student council or at the PAL. We also are still looking for trunks to participate, so anyone is welcome to host a trunk or hand out candy. More events in the works for next month. This year's fall play is Radium Girls. The show which is based on a true story takes place in the 1920s as the painting of luminous watches cause causes and dio painters to become sick. Come to see the show on Friday, November 17th
014or Saturday, November 18th. Tickets will be purchased ahead of time or at the door. Thank you. >> Um before I introduce Mr. Mr. Novc and our district administrators, I'd like to tell our students that you do not have to stay. Now would be your time to sneak out cuz I'm sure you might rather be doing homework. I'm not sure. Um, but you're always welcome and we congratulate you. We're very proud of you and keep up the good work. [Applause] And now uh Mr. Novak in his report. >> All right. Uh thank you Mrs. Romeo. At this time uh I'd like to invite the board to reorganize because we are going to have the presentation behind us. We have the first two rows available if you uh need a better uh spot to view. Heat. 3.
015in our setup. I don't know the best place for you guys to hang out here. Okay. All right. Uh before we begin, I just want to say um you know, thank you to all of our um administrators who who come out tonight and be part of this. This is the first time we've done this in a long time where um there's been more than just a few of us presenting uh presenting our uh test results and action plans. Uh trying to address the board. They can only hear this. I think right now this is being heard on live stream, but it's not being heard internally. So I'll try to speak I'll try to speak loud enough. We're doing things a little bit differently than we've done in the past. Uh we are going to present
016our uh test results for the 2023 school year. We are also going to roll right into our uh district action plans at each level which is why we have our administrative team. Our administrative team have their fingerprints in all we do especially the action plans and how to move uh how to move our district forward. So before we begin I just want to introduce all of them that are uh that are here. We have our elementary team Dr. Jared Fowler, Mrs. Jed Miller, Mr. Bill Ka, Mr. Patrick Lana, Dr. data source. We have got them all. Okay, we have our [Applause] [Music] time too. We have 14 slides. Um, I also like to introduce our uh middle school principal and uh district coordinator, K8, Dr. Mos, High School principal, Mr. Matt Shines. our district supervisor
017of humanities and language resorts, music and art, Mrs. Sharon West, supervisor of guidance of world language and also high school testing coordinator, Mrs. Karen Johnson. So, we're going to Dr. Mos and Mr. Johnson are going to with myself are going to go through our our testing results. Um, one of the things we want to also talk about differently, a little bit differently this year is in the past we present results and then we would talk about I would hear questions tell you like ask questions and then we would continue that discussion and that's something that we want to choose. That's something that we want to talk about. We want test results and the not just the results, the work that goes into this process of being living and breathing and part of what we do
018as you're going to see in our uh action plan. This is truly a labor of love and and the things that we have done I believe this year um you know multiple years building up to it. You're going to see more involved in our plan this year than you think you've seen in the past. Uh truly a team effort which is why I'm excited to see our our administrative team here. I'm going to stop at the intro so we can get to the slides. Thank you. Okay, here we go. So, welcome to the interesting presentation for 2023. This uh Mrs. Johnson and I going back and forth quite a bit in spare with us. All right, so first let's get a brief history on NJSLA formerly known as eventually first place in 2015 when New
019Jersey adopted parking partnership assessment college and careers. Then in 2019, of course, this was reconfigured to NJSLA aka New Jersey students learning assessment. There were no tests administered in 2020 or 2021 due to the pandemic. And of course, now we are in May of 2023. The testing from May 2023 again our testing was ELA rates 3 to 9, math rates 3 to 8, algebra 1, geometry, algebra 2, science grades 5, 8, and 11. That's all I got for you. Thank you very much. Of course, he was not able to make video for this presentation. All right. So, how do you define ELA math performance levels? Uh, level one did not give me expectations. Uh, so the scale for you to see next, of course, each level, the 650 to 699, of course, the exceeding expectations
020810 to 850. So, that comes home uh in the form of an individual student report. So each student will receive as long as they took the course ELA their mathematics assessment they will get uh an ISR get the super report with that scale score attached. All right and eventually as a parent we'll get to this later in the presentation. You have the ability to go on to a parent portal um through the state and actually check out not just your scores from 2023 but also looking at scores from previous years. They actually give you the data for that parent portal of how your child did previous obviously NGSLA format. So yet a cool thing to have obviously same thing of course for science again rates 5 8 11 the same thing in terms of the
021proficiency uh versus below proficiency again that 100 to 149 it does break out a little differently as you get to level three you can see with the 200 to 242 200 to 230 great that first game right there and level four in advanced proficiency again that 300 You're wondering, am I going to go line by line? No, instead we're going to look at the actual changes from again 2022 and 2023. Um, again, those crucial data points from rates 3 to 8, I'll start here. Um if you look on the right hand side right there the change in level one and two from 2022 2023 the minus 3.1 again we're taking that level one data right on this side here and again that level two data and you're getting the minus 3.1 is that a good
022thing or a bad thing you're asking yourself again keep in mind level one you're below expectations level two you're you're sort of approaching is that level three so we do want to decrease that category but Then we get to level four and five. Okay, 22 23. Same thing - 6.9. Our goal of course is to increase that category. Again, uh in terms of that level three, they're right smack in the middle, right? We we're essentially taking students in the middle portion of level three and we're trying to move them over just like we're trying to move level one, trying to move level two to three, three, four, and so on. We would love to have everyone in level five. Realistically speaking, level four is a great place to be. Right. So in ELA like Greg
023had said the level the first one in two levels went down which is what we want to see and there was a really significant increase in the level four five students passing by 12% which is again what we want. Same thing for uh 2022, 2023. In terms of the uh mathematics administration, we'll see the same thing. Bigger difference here is you're now getting into algebra 1 and geometry, which you have that mixture with middle school and high school students taking algebra 1 and geometry. So again, those numbers will be a little different, especially towards the bottom down here. But again, those changes, you want to see those decreases in the level one, level two categories. level four and five. We love seeing the plus sign because that's exactly we want our students to be overall.
024So again, we're looking at those changes again from 2022. Okay. So the math in place will alter one. You can see that there is a slight increase in the level one and two scores which is not necessarily what we want today. Um but the four and five scores remain kind of static which is okay. At least we did drop back. So it's a good thing. Um in geometry we can see both a reduction in the level one and two scores and a really strong increase in the level three and five scores. Algebra shows us the opposite. But there are two things to know about algebra. Number one, um double the number of students taking the test of taking algebra in 2023 as compared to 2022. So that doubling of the number of students doesn't impact
025scores. Um additionally, this is a group of students who in 2020 2021. We're taking algebra 1, which is the foundation for algebra 2. We all know that are improving high temperature. So you can see that there was a definite impact on that in their material results. So we can hope to see that switch back again next year. I just want to comment on algebra geometry at the middle school and algebra geometry at the high school. Um one of the parts here I don't want to get too far into what our action plans are. One of the things we've been seeing in our data over the years is that there's been a very large difference in the type of algebra or the way algebra is being taught at the middle school and the way it's being
026taught at the high school. So, one of the things that I presented um last month when we talked about our work with Conquer Math was that we spent significant time this summer working on course revisions so that algebra 1 is algebra 1. So that the course work and the um scope and sequence, the standards being covered at algebra 1 at the middle school level are those same standards that are be covered being covered at algebra 1 at the high school. Same thing for geometry. Uh so we we've had that and you referred to that um those cohorts of students who uh endured the the pandemic whether it was um seventh or eighth grade or sixth and seventh grade as um pre-alggebra algebra 1 or sixth or seventh grade math students. There was significant loss in
027prerequisite learning. Uh I know we we did a lot of what uh the state did in terms of moving students forward. So students went to the next level. Um in hindsight, we don't know. I feel like the data shows that that may have not been the best um the best move statewide or nationwide um with with you know the loss of prerequisite skills. So that's what we're seeing in our um groups that are taking these assessments now is is the culmination of significant loss of prerequisite skills for that coursework. So those are those are going to be we'll talk about that a little bit more when we we talk about our action plans of course science as well grade five again performing really well percentages are extreme plus 2.8 First time plus average grade plus
0283.34 and plus 5.5. All right. So how many success in 2022 numbers all the way 9. Uh you can see the uh numbers between the two years 210 obviously course grade n are just great students not to confuse you with a picture of classes with mathematics [Music] mathematics 165 171 275 45. Um so again keep in mind that students are taking um there's a chance may have taken just the ELA assessment versus math around six not the makeup portion of those numbers will not be identical for that reason. Um possibility that there could be any refusal as well for test that would change number two um overall. So for example rate 2022 to 210 211 there's a great chance something pretty mandatory as well the only thing I would point out is we tally those
029numbers um the numbers here total at 29 whereas ELA it was 41 that's simply because during retesting we retested ELA first we tested ELA first by the time we got to math Not all the students were willing to come again for another retest for the for the days that they missed. So we missed some of the the students on the retest of NJF1. Hence the student. >> Can you comment on why we test so few students now in algebra 2? >> Can you say that again? >> Can you comment on why we have such um so few students testing for algebra 2? >> Because it's nth grade students. It's not the entire student body. It's only the ninth grade students who are in algebra 2 that test algebra 2. Likewise, it's only the nth grade
030students in geometry who test geometry. >> Is this test a requirement for graduation? >> No. Okay. That's why students are able to refuse it. I some parents refuse it. Um and some students will simply just not take it in for the meetings. all of them are informed or invited or requested and they don't all have to retake. No, it's not private graduation and that's the reason some students aren't pushing but also if a student refuses to please keep in mind that that will hurt the school score district score overall. So refusals do count as a zero for the school. So that's the one thing you don't want to advertise. No, don't use because um that is going to screw us up big time. So, please, please, please um take the NJ life, you guys. Help
031us out and we're just community health. We're still on student testing of course with science as well. Again, grades 511 236 205 231 238 233. Okay, so now we get into just the comparisons again in the sense 2022 23 in terms of just levels one and two again go line by line uh which is showing you the actual just differences here create three uh level one 2022 12.4 comparison to the state at 20.1 so that good thing uh 13.5 versus 20.7 again good thing level 2 16.2 a little bit above the state at 15.5 and of course level 2 12.0 go under state. versus high school in level sorry grade 9 level one we saw a little bit of improvement students first one moving from 2022 to 2023 and when we got to level two
032we remain about the same which is very similar to what the state is there wasn't much change in either our percentage for the state we l behind a little bit, but it's not a big of course the scores of levels three and four again three approaching into a four is exactly where we want to be. So with going let's go with I don't know grade four this time grade four 28.7 above the state error 21 29 28 28 23 state average 21.3 then same thing below 440% above state 35.3 and level 441 uh at 36.5. So yeah, we do want our students obviously to be above level three, but again that's that's approaching level four and we had several students that were so close to getting to level four as well. If they if they
033move over this year to the 2024 test, you're going to see a completely different state average. In level three, we did see some improvements with fewer students running in the level three range. We are still lagging behind the state a little bit there. However, level four, this is where we saw a strong market movement and we are surpassing the state in the number of students and not level five exceeding expectations. All right. So, let's go five this time. 5.12 9.2 and 5.5 9.923. So just compare 2023 above the state average below below below below course below at this point below again those are the scores in the 800s getting up 50 level for those um but see that level four went up so much that from level some data as we're going through participating in
034the alpha one assessment grade math assessment plus math outcomes are not representative grading performance as a whole 2 and geometry students in grades 11 and 12 are not included and again percent once Again, mathemat [Music] level 9.1 state average 15.3 6.9 23 14.6 once again good things under state 25.6 below 24.9 then 25.4 23 [Applause] in math in one um we didn't see that much of a change um from 22 to 23 we brought it level went down a little bit but the state did as well so we're kind of chasing them in level two you can see that we increased that number a little bit but the state did as well just a little bit more than they did so we need to watch Um we're on that number a little bit better. So
035you only see this is where we saw some some good numbers at the end of the stage. We brought it down only a little stage for level one. And in level two you can see that we fell back a little bit on that which we want to fall back on that. We want that together. Um and we are close to the state now on level two. All right, comparison 22 23 administration to level 34 within so level 3 41.6 31.5 203 39.1 3.7 we get to level 4 20.8 8 28.9 level 42 23 9.8 So again, these numbers here, students have essentially quote unquote passports. This right here will be your state. Hey, can you go back to I just want to in 2022 our level one was 9% of our students. In 2023, level
036one was so that was nice to move the students up to level two. So our level two did go up while some of the students went up to two meaning that percentage of that student also a small percent drop down again this is where we increase those numbers of students. So then if you go on 3. So in again in level three you can see that we remain somewhat steady. In level four we also remain somewhat steady. Geometry there was um a level three which we want to see and then that large increase in level four which is a really positive thing. We're um not quite at the state level there but we're coming close. In algebra, we did have that increase in level three, but again, some of those students went moving up a
037level two. Um, and then in the level four, we did have a significant drop back, but if you look at us compared to the state, we are not that far from semi. That's a good thing. We have the spring 2022 23 percentages of level five. This is just level five exceeding expectations past course level four. So let's do it. So again in terms of the five categories here you can see that 2023 9.4.0 5.0 3.0 and raise 12.9. So there's not much dress here on the break into the into the box. We need to get um we haven't yet, but we can see that it's movement. So the goal will be great into the All right. Then just combining level four and level five, we get the 750 850 frames. So again, this would be
038uh where most I would say the public especially is interested in these figures. Um so right now looking at three things here um looking at 2023 53 452 44.5 over 40. All right. We start to see number 49.8 33.8 15.2 17.8 87 35 36 and 55 and comparing that obviously to the data from 201 [Music] because we don't have our school very much in here um where we are approaching in geometry and we are approaching here we have a little and for ELA same thing with the meeting expectations expectations level four and five between 2022 and 2023 sticking with our 2023 41.7 793 59.8 83.35 43 49 32.9.6 and you can see we increase in level four and five and we are very close to the state only by 1.3% that's very GPA the for
039that. Yes. Right. So, it's the same skill. So, we want to see this so that they can pass the graduation. Right. So, I made the statement before about pushing these students up because they are in level three getting them to a level four. That's what's in my head GPA. We need to continue to strengthen their scores and their skills so that we get the majority if not all of our students passing that time. This this actually is a very unique uh chart actually going back to 2016 all the way 2023 will jump in on this one as well. Um we're actually looking at our free lunch students section 504 English language learners special education uh and general education. If you you look at the graph, you'll notice the um this is going to be these
040are all rates. This will be 39 for ELA. This is proficient in advance in terms of present 2016. This is give you the same concept within ELA. And you can now see the number of students from 2021 all the way to 20 to 23. Very hard to see. walking. Great. I will not say much. Um in terms of at least 12 um the free reduced lunch for example% by 2% 32. I think the beauty of each category of pre especially English language learners special education you're actually seeing growth each category and I think what I really do like seeing here is actually the English language learning especially just a little overflow waiting for the waiting for the lights on uh just a little overview of of what you're looking at. So if we go back
041to you know majority of the control slides that you see you know what you're comparing from year to year is same grade not same students. So when Dr. is presenting uh grade three from 41.7 or sorry from level five or level four 48.6% to 42.4 this group of students is actually here. Okay. So this is grade three and then oh sorry that's over here. So the grade three is now grade four. So the the the numbers you're looking at are you know we we present this this is this is state um this is the state template that we use uh Dr. Fenori and I are sharing with the board on Friday as I mentioned this is this is our first night talking about this um this slide that Dr. Matlo presented. We took these from
042our uh LinkedIn reports. These are reports I've been talking about for years. We're sharing this complete packet with the board on Friday where you'll be able to see what we call cohort analysis. That's really the strength of what we do and the strength of what we do when we work in our action plans. So in this presentation, you haven't seen comparison of same students, different grade. you've seen a comparison of seeing grade different students. So when you'll see these navigating reports, you'll see what the actual growth looks like in the individual students because that's that's really the power of of what we do and then how the action plans are going to um create that change and have that impact. Um in essence of time, we're presenting the the the state template and what we're
043going to present. We added action plans to the end, but this is just the starting point of the conversation for what you're going to see. uh moving forward >> and that's going to be a hard copy in our >> uh I I'd like to share a PDF if possible. >> If you if you want if you want paper we can make sure we have >> I have to find [Music] so we'll get a we'll get a we'll get a little who wants PDF and who wants paper. we can we can do that. So what what you'll see in that document that that's where we pulled some of these uh some of these graphics from just to demonstrate some of our uh individual subgroups some of our um cohorts. I know it was a question from
044the board to to see um a longer period of data not just 22 23. I would love to share that because if I uh when you look at the longitudinal data in Lincoln, when you look at the growth that we had from 2015 to 2019, it was it was significant. We made significant gains. We were celebrating our work when we began with link and the process of really looking at data and looking at data teams. Then we were derailed uh with with the pandemic and we're we're in that process. Um, so we have two years of data that we're able to present tonight. Efficiency of our program. I'm going back. [Music] I got the same thing here with preview section 504L learners, special education as well. This course would be for 2021, 2022, 22, and
04523 school years uh for each category. focusing on each other 25% 37% 36% 19% 11% 5%. All right. So, now get on to how we doing. So, some changes here. Elementary mathematics actually is probably the brightest spot to talk about tonight. And looking at grade 353.6. 6% average in terms of that meeting and exceeding expectations to 45.9 hours average grade for the same 52.7 44.4 and then m 40.5 and for science actually is very impressive first ever students have exceeded um in the science assessment 28.5 at 26.8 I got all credit to give a shout out to the entire district testing team because one thing we did especially the elementary testing um portion of May is we stack our schedule. So instead of having our kids test every single day ELA mathematics science and testing
046done right now we move back and forth back to original classroom instruction. We staggered to the point where it was ELA one week off week. Math then took place off week and then we tested science. We purposely actually put math nights at the end of that assessment in May to give our teachers more time uh to get ready not just for more of that content especially as they're going to the conference uh throughout the year last year. So this made sense. This is working um as these scores continue to increase year after year. Um and last year just to bring that up that presentation that um that we were that we did um where we took our Lincoln scores and we actually predicted our scores. Um yeah, these are actually within maybe one or two
047points of what Lincoln predicted back in January. We got those scores um again those predictors uh gave us back in January 2023 for that assessment which is kind of cool. also know with grade three and four to me this is one of the I guess the most exciting parts of the slide. Uh as many of you know I I talk about it often where we talk about action plans. Um here's a quiz time. What grades did we start conquer math training? >> Three or four and four. So grades three and four started that process a full year earlier than everybody else. So we started conquer math training with grade three and four two years ago. Last year was their second year in the training for standardsbased best practice instruction. And then these are result results
048in grades three and four. Grade 5 to stands out because the students who were in grade 5 experienced that conquer math process, a deeper adherence to our NJSLA standards of of you know the conquer math process that you all saw and witnessed last uh last month in our presentation. Uh so to me this was very exciting. I know it kind of looks like oh you know you picked out the best and you put on the side of the lightsaber. Well, yeah, we did. But to me, it's more exciting because it's the culmination of a lot of hard work that goes beyond this room. And that's why I'm glad the administrators are here because this wasn't just an administrative idea of bringing in something like blanket. This was sending our entire third and fourth grade staff
049to a training facility, committing to change, and then following through on it. So, that's why I'd like to point that out and be and be very proud of it. And the you said you used the Lincoln to project where you'd be with the percentages on this. Those students that didn't take the assessments would would they have increased scores, decrease scores, how would they have done based on the students who didn't take NJSLA who did not take we have uh we have that that data. Um in the absence of an NJSLA score, we don't have that comparison. uh we know how they scored as cohorts. We know the we know what the predictive data gave us and as Dr. mentioned was pretty close. So we have that we have that data they you know they fell
050within you know fell within this within this range but what I'm asking is you mentioned there's several students who students who did not take the testing if those students had taken the testing would have helped or were pushed down is it are we missing to use the phrase the honor students or are we missing kids who are in the I don't believe there's a pattern I don't believe there's a pattern that I'm aware of that we've identified to to the nature or the background of the student who uh who ops out or does. Sometimes it's just sick. Sometimes it's vacation at that time. Sometimes it's not coming in for the makeup. Sometimes it's um you know, we had a lot of opting out following word. We had a lot of optouts following that because it
051was, you know, returning to school and then families not wanting to sit through standardized testing. So um so we had a lot of that type of thing. You know the last time we had that I guess that level of opt out was when we first had park and there was you know significant um you know national movements and and that type of thing that um that we you know that we saw happen here as well. Um so again to answer your question I don't think it's that there was a pattern. It's something we can look at but I don't I don't believe there was. Right. Can I add a follow question then? Um, do we know roughly how many students opted out or didn't or didn't take the test for whatever reason? >> Single digit
052single digit percent I mean obviously it was the first grade but >> we can we can share that number. We we have that we just don't have it prepared for for a slide tonight and I don't know the numbers off hand but we have that idea and we can we can share certainly share that with the board when we share uh cohort analysis and some of the other uh other more in depth uh in depth material. Thank you. As we mentioned earlier, the growth in ELA um versus the growth made by the state is impressive in the numbers of students passing the percentage of students passing in geology. we grew by 18.7% where the state only grew by 10.5 um and we also showed better than the state in the number of students. So those
053are all those resources presentation will actually be on the website assessments of course by NJ assessments here what's mandated what isn't um parents I mentioned before you that opportunity to look have previous tests through NJSLA. Um, all you need is of course your ISR sheet that you just received back in September. Uh, in terms of the code you put in for that portal and the New Jersey score report guide actually will break down each assessment for you and actually in there. Um, you'll find again which is very useful to actually see what the test looks like. What did your child think in previous years? Um, what does a multiple choice test look like in mathematics versus ELA? those passengers are reading how of course they're answering those questions as well in science too. So uh
054those practice guides are there not just for educators also for you the parent to check out again from elementary course um there's not achieving um [Applause] here I think our lows were across the board which is this year um so Um my first question is you see 17 tests at the same time. >> So there in terms of there testing last year home room um the home room period first is attached to it. So they're essentially testing at the same time. Um but in terms of the actual ELA mathematics case like those are maybe different in terms of games. >> No. Yeah. The whole middle school test at the same time they all test on the same days. They all test days. So as a parent um I just said I was on the schedule
055last year. I was that was changing the communication is key. So this year you can let us know ahead of time what the schedule will be and when we can prepare our children to take this test. Also as parent um I was upset about Chromebooks um and please make sure that all Chromebooks for all your students that are testing that day. So that the question for me seven years all testing at the same time but if at the same time we might have enough these are just ideas and things last year. So these are just ideas of mind moving forward for this year and I know it's a new team so it's exciting to meet teams and do new things. Um but there were just some things that were along the route that I didn't
056record that day, you know. >> So some some of the things you're going to see in the uh in the action slides directly relate to the things that you asked for. So as I open this uh presentation, you know, we talked about this isn't the this is the starting point for our discussion. um in the past it would be we talked about it here and we talked about it again next October. Um that's not how you raise test scores and that's not how you move a district forward. So that's that's the discussions that we've had. It's very symbolic that we have our administrative team here tonight and that's really the purpose of it is this is an all-in um an all-in moment for us and talking about culture and talking about how we change how
057we change culturing. We talked about culture the other day so jog my memory. Um I really know the Disney team and you know >> so sorry you can jump in in a minute. Um so we we talked about those things that there's anal component to test taking. There are environmental items to test taking. Those are some things that we're going to make sure that that conversation not only is t taking place behind closed doors with administrators, but is brought to our staff and is brought to our families. Dr. Matt Loen, Mrs. Johnson and I are going to be recording a a video to send out to everyone relatively soon where we share um we share the the testing discussion and why it's important for the community. Um so we've got a lot of great ideas
058to to get this conversation into West Milford homes and not just at a board meeting. So that's that's something you'll see a flavor of throughout the uh action plans. >> My last thing is um last year they needed extended time and come back the following day and have their extended time. So ideal testing for me was okay last year. It was very different last year from the year before. So um this year is not only last year and I'm really excited and I thank you guys for all the work because there are but for students to start a test that need extended time and then to go through that same period of the morning and then go there in fact the next day on that test again is not ideal. Um John actually didn't have
059an extended time happen on the same day last year who was supposed to have happened on the same day. um even science it would have happened that way. But let me explain the one piece that you spoke about the schedule change that was done in a sense proactively even though it was done late stages in the game to do exactly what the math teachers requested which was give the students more time in math. So that schedule was changed around. It was put out but I'm sure that there was some confusion added to that. So I understand that. Um, we also last year pulled out the algebra students and the geometry students which made it different and like we tried to make tweaks that would make it a little bit better, but I know that Mr.
060Matlas and I have already been in conversation about planning for this coming year and how to fix the things that were hiccups for us. So, we understand and we'll take the things that you shared into account as well. Uh and you and what you were saying you're saying that you're this is not the last we're going to discuss this that there's going to be an ongoing conversation in the industry. >> Is there going to be like updates to the board letting us know where is where >> I I believe and you know speak with Dr. Finari and the administrative team that there's a place for this discussion on every education committee going forward just in terms of update check-in where we're at, what we've accomplished, ideas, what we hear from the community, that sort of
061thing. An open ongoing discussion. This isn't just about administrators with ideas. This is about the whole community. So, so yes, answer your question. >> So, this way we're going to know about the act. So, you're going to receive this um you're going to receive this lengthy um lengthy navigation [Music] than we're presenting here tonight. I'm assuming that after reviewing that that we're going to be talking at it at uh education committee and then potentially bringing that discussion to the whole board through you know whatever other process we have right Heat. Heat. Good evening everyone. I'm speaking on behalf of my elementary school colleagues who I just across the room. We are moving into some slides that we will share our action plans for that we just took a look at together. We're going to start
062with mathematics and under the direction of the director of education, the district teachers are continuing in their standard based best practice professional development with Nancy Schultz with math. We are in our third year of our standard training with Nancy. Elementary principles also attend that grade level training with Nancy. So that can very important to reach teachers as well as our ability to assist teachers across a particular grade level with any needs they may have as they um continue to to implement best practices. This year we begrun our math implementation after a year-long process that um teachers and administrators participated in to choose new math materials via committee based um approach. We brought our P, our training and our new materials together over the summer as groups of grade level teachers worked together as well as
063with Nancy Schultz to create a um to create our K5 math curriculum. They worked with her um on site at her facility. um and grade level principles as well. We're in attendance for the curriculum writing, sitting at the table with the teachers, engaged in discussions about additional manipulatives we may need or other materials that we may need to truly um implement the curriculum in in the best way possible. Um and being a part of of writing as as a principal is also um very exciting. Kind of brings many of us back to our administration in the first place. Teachers facilitate IR assessments for students in grades one through five. This diagnostic assessment provides data for the teachers and identify students who are performing below grade level expectations. It creates a path for them which is
064a student individualized action plan. Students can then work on efficient skills via activities and games until proficiency through IE trying to keep it brief. Um the exciting part is that it's uh it brings our schools here represented five different schools. We we were using the Lincoln National Assessment. It gave us good predictive data as as Dr. was mentioned but it didn't give us a unified path in between assessments and that's what the ready diagnostic does the real power of the diagnostic is not the assessment it's the my path you know so the student is called my path we we talk about it as student individualized learning plans uh it's it's giving a unified approach to practice and engagement with standard uh standards in need of improvement to every student have their level which was the
065goal of Lincoln but developed unevenly because we didn't have a single resource for every teacher in every grade to use. So that's that is something I'm going to uh keep talking about as we as we use it over the years. Teachers also have PLC time to complete grade level team analysis to identify what we call as what we call students by name and by need where they're talking specifically about students at a grade level and sharing what those individuals what those individual students need and how to facilitate individual students learning. ELA. >> I'm going to comment on that and you can count that double for what you're going to say in ELA. So with the data team, I I mentioned earlier um the excitement we had when we shared results in 2018 and 2019 that
066we had steady gain in our cohort analysis from the 2015 to 2019 school year. And that was because of this was our first move when we started talking and getting serious about test scores. It was started with the grade level data team. We trained our staff in data team analysis and things called data carousel and looking at uh item analysis looking at the NJSLA results. We trained the entire district. We brought in a speaker named uh trace Dr. Tracy Severs who is well known throughout the state for this type of uh for this type of work. We trained everyone on how to look at data and how to have these meetings. Then we brought in the link tool. Uh what you're going to see on Friday, our link navigator report. Our individual staff members receive
067as well. The teacher gets a report similar to what you're going to see for their class. So for the next ed committee, I'll prepare a couple different grade level samples redacted from names. I think we we've been begging Lincoln to do an incognito view uh where they can put fake names. Um we have some resources that do that, but um if I can't get if I don't have a fake name report, I'll redact student names just so you can see a sample of what the teacher's view is of this of this data. So you count that for what's at the end of the next slide as well. >> Thank you, Mr. And in addition to those reports that teachers have on individual students, they now have this high data to additionally inform their discussions with
068grade level teachers about students cycling in ELA. Um the district literacy committee is dedicated to researching, reviewing, and recommending ELA program placement for the 2425 school year. They will also collaborate with the director of education to engage with a sustainable and meaningful professional development provider. A similar approach that we used in mathematics this past school year. Teachers again facilitated the I assessments to students and again similarly enough for ELA. This diagnostic assessment provides this great data for teachers. It identifies students performing below grade level proficiencies. It creates that that learning path for them. Students work on those deficient skills until proficiency time is built into the school day into the ELA block as well as the math block for them to do this work. Again, teachers have that PC time to use all of their
069ELA data to identify student needs and that component that Mr. Novak was was speaking about before. Um something else that's not necessarily on the slide, but is a huge component of raising our test scores is all the elementary schools um will be rededicating themselves to preandemic practice of engaging our PTA or PTO, our care community, all of our teachers as well as our students in motivating exciting test culture to ready students to do their best and to help them to feel proud about doing their best. That's something that, you know, again, pre- pandemic, um, all schools did every school year. Um, it looks a little different in every school and has a cute little catchphrase that's slightly different in in every school. Um, couple of my recent favorites were donuts stress the test. And we
070had lots of donuts everywhere. Did all the things with donuts or rock the test with lots of electric guitars and um, blowup guitars. we we would have celebratory assemblies and really hype each other up. Um so again, that that's part of creating that culture to get the community um excited again and to help them understand that truly having our students perform to their best ability is at everyone's edge and certainly something that we would all love to see them do. And before this is elementary question it's middle of October so is question the same amount of irony [Applause] and how many [Applause] has three windows. So we did our first similar we abandoned the link benchmark assessment in place of ready and it's much more userfriendly and data for our um again user friendly and
071individualized and creates that working package we tested twice with two different assessments Our first window closed. releases our first >> our first blanket window uh sorry our first I rating window closed for the diagnostic the Friday before our um professional development day because that was when we had our ready trainer came uh come in met with everybody who administered the assessment worked with our staff and how to look at the data worked with our staff and how to assign uh how to assign the my path how to how to judge as the students work with it to you know maybe adjust starting points if student had a bad test that day. There's a way to there's a way to identify that it's something we didn't have in um something we haven't already >> and so
072on our per class if you know depending on >> anywhere in the at the younger grade levels we were giving it over the course of more days but for shorter amounts of time >> and feedback from students feedback from students and staff is that the Um the kids really enjoyed either. Um the platform builds in breaks and builds in you know builds in periodic um brain breaks for the kids and they they got kicked out. So it was a much more userfriendly program than they were used to with the with the link benchmark assessment. We just had October October 9 to see how utilize that data to drive instruction. So they've been really efficient. >> Yeah, they had their their data from the first implementation for when the trainer came back. So they were able
073to look at real student data while she was instructing them. Um so that was it was more meaningful to that in order to put what she was saying in actual student results >> and not only individualized but it even you know groups the students in instructional groups and drives resources to work on instructional groups based on a variety of content. >> So basically take every student and do that at their level. So we won't just be focusing on a student who has a learning deficit and hoping to close that gap. We'll see every student further on trajectory of their own learning path. So we see all scores then increase. I also wanted to speak to a question I think was really um I can only speak for for paradise and all this um but we
074had one student last year did not take. So the number of students who did participate at the elementary level is is nominal. Um but we do know exactly who they are. But but in my case of three grade tested I only had one student who did test how you just >> I can again only speak to my school. I'm sure my colleagues in China. My teachers were very pleased at the results. in many cases they they saw that they were higher than they anticipated. >> Everybody else feels that way. >> Yeah. I mean I think it's predictive on a on a grade level standard that they just start. So we have to keep that in mind and so that's you know it's built in that they should be seeing growth from point A to point
075B to point C and and that's how the assessment is is satisfactory. Right. So it some of the data even though a child is scoring below grade level they give a predictive analysis of where they if they're continue on the same continuum where they should score on an NJSA kind of uh um assessment you know five tier assessment um profile and they say you know they should score when testing 25 miles hour now by May it should go 50 miles an hour >> right again for power the power again of of I ready um so what we didn't have with Lincoln when a student took the Lincoln assessment each student in class all had the same questions they were all at the grade level standards so the um feedback from staff often was that the
076assessment at the beginning of the year was very frustrating for students because it was um at their at their grade level or not at their at the um standard expectations for their um current grade. What I already does is it adapts. So if a student scores the first four questions wrong, it lowers and tries to find their level. >> Yeah. Um so the students find more success with the diagnostic. And as they test, um you know, if they get the four score wrong, they get three in a row correct, it adjusts back up again. And then they find their sort of find that sweet spot and that's what they get then then get assessed on or tested with or prepare and practice with because with the my path uh is that they're able to work
077on those and identifies where they're at. And our hope not only at the elementary level but our bigger hope at the middle school and high school level is that it's helping to rebuild some of those prerequisite skills that I mentioned earlier that we're missing in some of our um higher levels. So, if we have a middle school student who's a sixth grader testing fourth grade and math, this is going to help. So, they're going to continue getting on grade level instruction in their coursework with the supports we have uh from their teacher and and the school system. Um, but then this additional tool is going to address some of those underlying missing uh prerequisite skills. Uh so we we we um recently we were exposed to uh a quote from from you know in math
078conversations about um accessing um using the math you know to access the math that you don't know and that's something that we think is going to work through the the ready my learning plan. It's it's very difficult. I mean we talk about all the time it's hard hard work to be a a teacher in in 2023. Uh I think we've given them a tool that can help them work on some of these um missing standards while also going on with their um on grade level work. If I can chime in on that also um the fall administration of the IR um gives the teachers an idea of proficiency in a particular grade level. Um and so to kind of go back was just saying and what Mr. Kane was just saying in conversation with my
079fifth grade teachers, for example, they were very pleased that a huge majority of those students tested on their fall ready as proficient in grade four, which means they learned all their skills last year and they now can progress beyond grade level skills. And the reason why we are so excited about that is in previous years having gone through and endured I think that word used earlier endured the pandemic what we were finding was there were many holes in students prere and sales from previous grade levels in multiple grade levels in some cases because of of the way that we had to kind of uh endure the pandemic. So, we're starting to see that now that we've been in school again, that students have really learned the skills that they were expected to in a particular
080grade level, now we can just move forward. Um, so that's what I mean when I say they were very excited to see a large majority of their students, just as an example, my fifth grade teachers were like, they're all in grade four because they just started grade 5, so they wouldn't be in grade five necessarily. You'll have a handful who are who are gifted potentially or who may understand some fifth grade skills. But um you know the third week of school in September for fifth graders to be proficient grade four. Yes. Very excited about that. [Music] Let's talk. Sorry. Thank you, Mr. Let's talk about back in school. actually appreciated the fact that when the back slides went there there was this off 28 days in as the principal principal supervisor before that teach before
081that um in 28 days I had a staff that is creating the opportunity to make school the best school in this county and not all of New In 28 days, every staff meet with me in an academic committee on their own time to discuss how do we improve our test scores at the school. We discussed our ready talks about targeting professional development. The one thing I'm actually going to throw out there is it's not just about ELA and math. Our history department for example is more than capable of promoting writing for content. Our science department is very capable of promoting writing as well. One of the things I want to focus on at math is actually point here interdisiplinary ring. It's not just an ELA math teach responsibility. It's all all of us together entire
082staff. All right. If we work together make this happen. I can guarantee you those scores go up cuz we're all in it together. third law articulation meetings. Something else we discuss are it's not just a grade six and grade seven and grade eight both grade six should be working with grade seven ELA history science or mathematics student should be working again from a grade six standard point getting ready for grade seven and then a grade seven staff should be working with grading and vertically articulating those content areas to then get them ready ultimately for western for high school. When I say high school, I said West for High School because that's where they should be going. So, my job, especially within the first 28 days as your principal, is to make sure they go to
083West for High School by backing up Mr. Shri and his staff. All right. They're going to be doing that. So, PCTI, watch out. All right. Um, those navigator reports will be of course given to you. Um we find this to be extremely helpful because this breaks down our special educations which is our 504s. Today as well we uh actually the past two days we held cluster meetings. If you don't know what those are basic basically grade level meetings where our teachers are coming in we're meeting to discuss students that need help. It's that simple. All right. Students that have a response to intervention plan that teacher is seeing those action plans from the previous year. So grade seven teacher looking at this grade six plan. How can I help this kid in the grade seven?
084Once again, articulating from that grade six plan to grade seven ultimately making a course. The environment again, the SEAL concept, right? Social emotional learning. You keep hearing about Matthew School before coming in. you know, is seal back with uh this is a school and again shout out to the entire staff and community um coming together to make sure our kids are not just learning, they're having fun. Have you been to the bonfire? That's all I say. The activities that are taking place after school. All right. The AIM Club again, our staff staying after hours again to help our students from the months of November until NJSLA event. All right. We do have late bus line Tuesday through Thursday 3:30 your kids instead to get that healthy. All right, we have again mindfulness clubs, gardening clubs.
085So all that you're thinking and I know this has to do with testing a lot because if I can keep a child near school for that extra hour to get those extracurricular activities to get their mind into test mode. Absolutely. Let's do it. targeted instruction we mentioned before with PD again it's not a bad thing for a history department for example to work with once again learn right literacy for history program like that at the same time it's not a bad thing for our mathematics as we're seeing some proper math utilizing quite new skills we're asking for problem curriculum development what do we need so for example I have a lot of things that are coming out later this year after the first 28 days um to especially announce the community because again uh there
086are programs that our teachers are creating to have here and we cannot wait to be able to last as I mentioned for the intervention meetings as well that that really is the the foundation point here looking especially today with our staff grade six and seven especially students that were in that level three category what what needs were there what standards were there where they're missing and that's for those navig [Music] point of view especially speaking with our mathematics teachers when your child is taking an IR benchmark/ assessment they are getting a diagnostic they now have this result this result you're thinking what does all this means well I already bounce versus Lincoln they've decided Now, let's take it a step further. We're going to give you a learning program based on the level you are
087at, and of course, whatever grade level you may be in because believe it or not, a seventh grader may not be a true seventh grader. We have seventh graders that are still in sixth, possibly a fifth grade level. Um, that plan is then to bump them up, all right, into not just their grade level, but to exceed exceed those standards as well. Everybody is going to do that is for each assessment you take, we're not talking about benchmark. We're just talking about the lessons they're thrown at you in math and ELA, they're taking those standards you're in. All right? You're now doing those lessons through I read and you're improving each time as you take them and you're now strengthening yourself. Again, let's say you don't do so well in this learning session. They take
088you back and tell you. So, it's a constant reinforcement of not just that one lesson, but those statements. All right, that is my plan. I'm going for that. Thank you. [Applause] Surprise slide here. Um so we will see if some of the plans work for Dr. M just referred to uh one of our um action items. Uh this is the um NJOE uh competencies to go along with you know this social emotional learning. So it is a quantifiable um it's a quantifiable aspect. It's not just about you know Dr. I referred to school culture and um school character and that sort. It's not just about those events. It's about the things that we see uh each and every day that we look for in this quantifi self awareness, self-management, social awareness, responsible decision making, relationship
089skills. This is part of of what goes into or goes along with our New Jersey student learning standards. When we talk about it's not just to add another piece to a slide. It's something that we can see something that is quantifiable. Uh I'm going to take over. Um many of you know I've been I've been deeply involved in in um K12 mathematics for the last uh for the last couple of years it seems. Um, I'm just going to uh talk about so many of the things that we've uh that we've talked about before in this room is the fact that we've been all talking about conquer math and how that has in in my opinion and the data supports it has made an impact. Uh, our middle school and high school teachers have engaged in
090this same coursework or in the same training for best practice standards based instruction as our elementary uh teachers have. um we you know now through year three we have a wide range of teachers at at different levels. So it um you know teachers who maybe taught us primarily geometry the first year we began this maybe their course load changes in scheduling now they're they're more um they're more involved in natural one that will be in them in geometry for math. we made those adjustments. We have teachers from um middle school and high school who are in different math training than they were in previous years. So, making sure that their needs are being met to match the content that they're uh that they're working with. Uh Dr. Mal refers to his presentation uh vertical articulation.
091So, one of the things that we've done that has been tremendous, I referred to it earlier, was about the idea that algebra 1 in West Milford is algebra 1. It's not macro algebra 1. It's not high school algebra 1. It's algebra. Same thing with geometry. So we have our middle school and high school teachers of algebra 1 and geometry working together. They work together over the summer to work on those binders that we saw last month. Uh and we believe that you know working together through training, working together when we have when we go to the conquer math facility, it's not the math teachers go on this day, the high school teacher going up. They go together. So copper one training is inclusive of those people. So they're training together, they're working together, they're they're
092collaborating together. That only is going to produce better far better results in algebra 1 and geometry going going forward. Again, I'm ready. Uh at the middle school, we provide for all students in grade 6, 7, and 8 for both ELA and math. I'm not going to keep going on. You got it. Okay. conquer maps on the curriculum binders. You saw those on on review. That's a living and breathing tool that these uh that our teachers have and you know it uh at the very core of the process. It keeps them on track with the standards that are uh expected at that grade level or in that course that are also going to produce a better NJS level result if they're working daily in that uh in those standards that are going to be on the
093assessment. Uh that's not teaching to the test. That's teaching to the state standards. The state the test is based on the state standards. So the better we are at addressing those standards, the better our results are going to be. And that's at its core what that what that process is a little. >> Yes, here I am. My job is to say something new and add to what, but there's so much great information that's already been shared. Um but even downtown you're going to notice obviously in this life we're starting to see lots of things coming together lots of similarities hopefully um we are continuing of course in the LA and then at the high school jumping ahead of myself here with continued standards based best practice professional development um and all of our professional development
094plans these three items are baked in for teachers that we are actively working on these things across here um in 2023 we have a standards update and uh JSLA and standards also math 2016 was the last time these standards were updated. So this is a lot of information we're getting ahead of that this year implementing them in lesson plans unpacking them now when they are we expect to be implemented fully in 2024. So you guys have that um implementation as we said should lead to differentiated instruction. Um we talked about my path we talked about um the adaptive nature of the I assessment levels up levels down addressing student skills exactly where they are. I do want to add to the discussion though that they do address five domains. One of the the one of
095the domains is phonics awareness vocabularyformational text and literary text. So you could have a student who is at a grade level informational text but still is struggling with vocabulary in sixth grade level. So it really breaks that information down and helps the teacher have a really very clear colorcoded picture of where students are and they can actively address those those standards. Um and of course then uh the NJ competencies that we just shared incl this is actually a year two goal for us in the English department. Um we talk a lot in English and humanities about addressing the needs of the whole child. Very important that we look at the whole child whole picture. Academics are important. Um the social emotional pieces are very important. And we want to create an environment where students feel
096safe and comfortable and know how to interact with one another and begin to remember how to um engage with each other in community. Um grade 8 to 9 high school math and articulation. getting back to the articulation spoke now aligning sequences. Um I already said about that but there it is again. So those are all our problems as we transition Mr. Sh. Um you're going to see a lot of their um similar items for mathematics. But I want to address something that's not um that's not on the side because I um I do hear in the back of my head our previous STEM supervisor asking why is there no slides about science? As we know, um, science is also a tested area, grades 5, 8, and 11. Uh, the action plan for, uh, the things
097we're doing for our science standards, um, are very similar to the things that we're we're doing, um, for for math and ELA. We do not have, uh, we've we've we were begging link to create it, and we were um, we do not have access to it in Ready with some sort of tool to to address those standards. Um, prior to uh leaving us, our our previous STEM supervisor um helped implement a replacement for our K5 um science program called knowing science. That is a program that was directly related to the change from um you know the old science standards to next generation science standards which became New Jersey student learning for standards for science. Mouthful, I'm sorry. Um but that has helped align our uh science curriculum at K5 to you know as I mentioned
098with our process with conquer math to um um greater to provide greater instruction and a greater adherence to the grade level standards at that time. Um that is also something that she implemented in the middle school and the high school making sure that our um uh that our courses were aligned. It was there was a lot of great um pain in in that process. Um the reason I bring that up the previous STEM supervisor is that uh personnel item number five, we have an opportunity to um fix that. So, I'm not going to not going to get ahead on personnel, but I want to um you know, that's also part of our action plan. Um so, I'm very very excited about that. Um so, without further ado, I was kind of buying time while Matt
099was making up here. All right. You said it was everything I was going to say, but um it's not in high school and you should know each other that way because Mac beats the high school. Um he's speaking with the math teachers. Um one of the biggest um issues was masters coming up from math to high school they're not ready or they're not ready to be. So by uh allowing them to work together um it won't matter now is if you're taking algebra acquer [Music] and um they're basically paced the same way right now. Um so that's refreshing to hear because test test scores are tied to high school right so we need to get those kids uh coming in even our accelerates on the grade level so they can they can um do well
100in high school as well. So um something that the teachers have been asking for and thanks to getting that implemented um is they're very active. Um, so like I said, when you come to high school, if we get algebra one in mathematical school, then they go into geometry, they should all be have the same level because all those lessons based at the same same time. Um, we have ready in our resource uh center math classes. Um, we're looking to expand that to the rest of the rest of the classes and get them um same way as the elementary schools are. Um basically the same the same other things department data analysis and the link because you know every kid by name by me. Uh and also touching on the uh the high school. Uh we
101have tons of clubs tons of things. I was just at night I I always make a point to speak to freshman parents just to tell them how much we offer and kids do better when they're involved in school. It's a sense of belonging. So we've currently just added uh Mr. my house went like this and dragon school club that we started. So, um we're always adding things the kids ask, we get a teacher to run it and then and then so there's there's plenty of things for them to do um social emotional learning and always looking to um change things for testing just um by the time the kids know that basically they're they're they're fried. They're done. Um, so we're looking at next year we'd like to maybe test freshman, sophomores, and juniors and
102give the seniors a college visit day. Bring those kids in, test them, seniors go on college, excuse us for them, and test them. We need to do something nice after school, make it a half day schedule, etc. So, those are things we're talking about um to kind of help them out with testing. when the testing comes up in the spring test maybe do some sort of field day thing or barbecue something like that to kind of reward them and u it's it's their time each time. So uh those are things we're looking uh to you know to add to kind of be creative to um kind of change that. So, I'm just going to jump in one lesson. Um, with algebra, one geometry, we talk a lot about um working with our middle school and
103high school staff to to streamline and make sure that everyone's on the same page. There's also a discussion about placement. There's also a discussion about assessing prerequisite skills before students are uh placed into an honors algebra 1 and honors geometry or an eighth grade algebra 1 class and a seventh grade pre-alggebra or a sixth grade pre-alggebra. So so those are things that we are looking at very carefully in terms of prerequisite uh expectations before entering into those courses. Uh but that's a song for another time and you know I don't want to I don't want to expand that. >> Thank you for uh pointing that out. So that is a um process that we began at. Uh I does not provide a high school platform. Um we uh we contact I worked with our I
104Ready rep and they gave us access to certain courses. So, uh, we have rostered and I I piloted with the we had no intention to do this, but, um, I I was able to pilot with the math program earlier during our first window and we were able to get, um, you know, so we have some our, uh, courses that are mathematics foundations or some of our resource centers at the uh, at the high school where uh, students may or may not be below grade level expectations. That's the recommendation through I Ready. So we are giving diagnostic assessments to those students and access to the to the my path uh to to use in their uh coursework. >> What you were just saying that we're using what are using that to determine if kids are on
105our >> so that discussion shouldn't be um at the high school. No no ask the question. Not saying don't ask that question, but um >> we're talking about fifth grade. We're talking about fifth grade, sixth grade data to determine so our problems I say problem is not the right word. Um where we're seeing a discrepancy if I go back 20 slides where we look at geometry algebra one scores across the district, they're not indicative of our student body because we have students at different ranges. So, our eighth grade scores are not indicative of our eighth graders because we have so many students taking the algebra one assessment. If we had a better process, which is a reveal, if we had a better process for who was taking algebra 1 in 8th grade, those scores may
106have been better. So, it's possible that students who were taking algebra 1 at the middle school should be in eighth grade math and would have done much better as a freshman in algebra 1 if they had those eighth grade prerequisite skills. So, there are standards, sixth, 7th, and eighth grade standards that students leaprog when they get into a seventh grade algebra 1 or a uh eighth grade geometry class. some students are capable. Um, so we have to be very careful about who we leaprog and who we say can miss a whole grade level worth of standards at grade seven. Not that those elements aren't in algebra 1 and and uh geometry. But again, I think it's it's careful. Like I said, that's why I said it's a song for another time because that's a that's
107a much bigger conversation. I have that conversation daily with our math department. I can't get through a hallway or through a classroom with hey, you know, if we do this. So, it's it's a um it's a conversation that I've been deeply involved with. I know Mr. Strings, Dr. Matos, Mrs. Johnson, not you. Um we we deal with it. Uh we we deal with this discussion daily because it is a guidance. It is a principle. It is a principle. It's a teacher um reveal when we look at the when we look at the data. So, it's it's a it's something we know needs work and we're doing that work. >> Is is that because you're trying to correlate the the maths in high school? So, now we're trying to bring back geometry up to really geometry.
108We're finding out that these students maybe not ready for the high school level. Absolutely. So I think we had a um we had a couple compounding developments. The process for adding more students to 7th grade algebra and eighth grade geometry. That's an honors track. They also the process for 7th grade pre-alggebra and eighth grade algebra 1 coincided with the thing we all want to talk about which is the pandemic. So that was a bad time to implement this type of change. Uh so and I think at the at the core with the the way the world it wasn't just west Milford there was a lot of compassion. There was a lot of you know doing everything we could to get students to the finish line in that year that we shut down and in that
109hybrid year. And I think in our good intentions with the you know moving kids on and getting kids to the finish line in those years there was some prerequisite learning that was lost and it's happened was across the board but in mathematics it was compounded more because the next step is so dependent on the step before it. So that that really that's the long answer to the yes that I gave to at the beginning. So that's what that's what we're looking at. So it's about assessing it's about ready is just one you know multiple measures you need you need multiple measures to place a student in courses so it's teacher recommendation it's grades it scores on the NJSLA both the L and math there's you know there's there's indicators on on both angles there's the
110I ready diagnostics there's the body of work that we have there's also the competencies what they call readiness readiness indicators. We call them readiness indicators, completing homework, getting the class on time, all those all those things, those things matter. Um, so when we create a picture of a student, it's not just one single factor. It's multifaceted. Your turn. It's my turn. >> Right. It's my turn. This is the last. Okay. So again, without being redundant, I'm going to try and add some new things to my previous slide on that and again addressing at the high school level the 2023 NJSLS update um and the LLJ competencies. Um but I do want to jump down to the department data analysis and Mrs. Romeo brought up a great point about the NJGPA. Um on the first days
111of school, uh all of our 9th, 10th, and 11th grade teachers looked at the MJ GPA, having stated tables and looked at the areas where we had the greatest need and identified what those review cycles look like so that we could all get familiar with how to get all of our students where they need to be for the NJPA. And to your point, those are the same standards. Very similar blueprints for the assessments themselves. The NJSLA flows right into the NJGPA. So it's essentially looking at the same things. All of that flows together. uh trying to make those as detailed as possible again articulations sequence very very important and those are going to be great conversations we are looking forward to joining back in that again I ready again you're using some of our students
112that are performing below grade level for our students uh then I'm going to jump back down to the department data analysis again looking at those release items at the statement tables and the navigation reports that's the data that we have because those students did take benchmarks last year So we have all that data that teachers have been looking at um looking for things like looking for instructional guidance looking for those areas of need. We have lots of data in that warehouse that we use for at this point for those. So again all those things together one more question for you about correlating math in middle school going forward on the same levels as they go forward. Are we doing that same thing with the humanities and sciences and things like that for English? >> Yeah.
113>> Yes, definitely. That's what we align those sequences um all the way through all the way through our standards in ELA spiral then go up and get kind of wider and deeper as we go on. They're not as sequential as they are now. So we're able to address those routinely year over year which is I think sort of benefit of the >> I like to piggy back on that question. So Dr. Mlo was tying in and I know the district I work in did the same thing with the history uh the history and the English language uh uh ELA. Are we doing something comparable to that in the high school as well as far as the the writing and the English and then the math and the and the science? That's they're all tied into
114I mean I'm assuming they're all tied in together as well as writing and the science. Correct. And so they're all the the staff at my school are all working in tandem to help human right. Correct. Right. There's very specific type of writing that goes on in science and I do know our previous supervisor tried to address that with um lab reports science notebooksformational writing certainly writing history mentioned learns those are activities and those are writing a focus that we have for history as well um we definitely like to continue conversations with um we're working right now with professor Ruckers actually who um is sharing with my high school department how some of the writing at Roberts has changed in their initial um course they were part of students today it's become a little less analytical
115and a little bit more student centered they're calling it so we're going to patch him to the next department meeting and I'm going to ask the M teachers to actually join us in that discussion as well so that he can share what those differences are and kind of see what writing goes so we're you know through my round table in LA I'm able to really bring those resources to our math teachers Enjoy. >> Beautiful. Thank you so much. You're welcome. >> Good graphics. That's it. This is a this is a phrase that we learned when we started with the data analysis forward course work back in 2015 is that if we're all pulling the same rope, we can get to the goals that we goals that we need. Uh I know with math we've worked
116uh math and ELA we've worked very hard. Um, but I think this is an area that is going to see you'll see the biggest improvement in terms of again very symbolic to have all of my uh all of our administrators here tonight. So, I'm forever grateful for for your participation in this discussion. Um, I know I speak for math because I've been so deeply involved in that, you know, with our work with our professional development. We're we're, you know, trying to foster the idea that you have to, you know, math is something you learn in your hands first before it's something you can grasp in your uh grasp in your head. And that's something that our parents are going to learn. This is a segue into math night. Tomorrow night math we have our parent
117night K5 where our trainer the famous Nancy Schultz I keep talking about conquer math she's going to come and talk to parents about exactly the things that I've been talking about. So again I thank you if there's any any further questions. >> All right so you did segue into my question and I'm the principles are here as well. Um the one thing I did not see in the slides was about parents involvement um family involvement or and I don't mean having the parents become educators. and uh but providing support as far as materials um uh tutoring um uh resources um and understanding whether we get the PTAs, PTO's, PTSOs involved in just promoting um education and and helping their children and and their schools become um better learners. And I don't know what can be
118done. Um I don't know if it's already been done if I'm just re you know reiterating what is currently being done but any resources or any um you know any any other outside influences um you know to help the families out because if the child's coming in wellfed well you know well prepared um and feeling safe and I know ESL is a part of it and school you know school safety is a part of as well. Um I think it's got to be I the teachers, the administrators do a fantastic job, but it's also got to we got to make sure our parents are on board with this as well. >> I I agree. Um that's that's a lot of the the tone of of what we were talking about in terms of the discussion
119starts here tonight and it it continues. This is the starting point uh in the work that we're talking about with you know when I say making making videos silly videos. It's um you know >> Wait, you know Star Wars or anything? >> Well, I can't I can't keep him out of >> Oh, I know. >> Star Wars. >> Um but uh you know, it's going to be very informative. We're going to be launching um a spot on our website to directly address these types of uh resources that we have. The conversation begins or begin here and part of that starts with tomorrow night. We're doing you know par night. It's the first time we've done that as far as I'm aware in the time that I've been here a very long time for, you know,
120a parent night to talk about a program to bring in the the um professional development for math to talk directly to parents about that's her topics for tomorrow night is how can you better support your child at home and it's not just about testing. you improve test scores by teaching the right things and teaching the way that you know teaching best practices and that's that's all the work that we're doing. So, so yes, the the parents are very important. Uh Mrs. Miller referred to you know so many of those things that we've had in the past and those symbolic things like you know preparing for testing but it's not just about the weeks before testing. It's not just about preparing, you know, who's cutting up the oranges to to send to school to give the
121kids a little boost. That's important. Those are things that we have to we have to really embrace and and improve and encourage, but also arming parents with this discussion at home about the importance of testing, the importance of reading every night. You know, those are things we we talk about and our elementary principles are are, you know, really really pushing our staff members in middle school and high school. reading every night, practicing math. Those are things that even throughout all the debates over the years about who does what homework, the the constant has always been you need to read every night, you need to practice math every night. And those are the things that we're um going to do better with bringing it to to the home. We have to build a academic culture across
122the district that's in the homes in the classrooms. >> Right. So back so parent teachers conferences are coming up in a month. I don't know if there could be some sort of material materials available for the parents because they do >> I share every year um through a school messenger a school messenger announcement with uh parent questions you know preparing preparing parents for how to go into a parent teacher conference giving them questions to ask. We we are also um planning on distributing the first I read results at that time. So our uh teachers who have participated in that diagnostic will be armed not only with you know grade reporting which is the tradition of uh parent teacher conferences but also with I ready diagnostic and this discussion >> and maybe something along the lines
123of how can you know like a little beyond it or something I mean I'm not my how can I rephrase this I don't parents want hard copies or everything's electronic these days but something where they say how can I help my kids school and have like the top 10 thing, you know, something along those lines or have, you know, a banner or something about, you know, helping their child get get through, you know, to grow academically, to grow and and be the best student that he or she can be. I don't know if that can be done, but I mean, I I would like to see more of you really incorporating the parents in in them involved in that as well. you know, it could be, you know, could be subtle. Doesn't have to be
124in your face kind of thing. So, I you know, I don't know if the principles have ideas. I'm just throwing it out there. I'm seeing the river real see what sticks one more. Uh, thank you very much for administrators. Great job. Very impressive. Um, it's maybe jumping down a little bit. We have a sort of hard objective as a district what we're trying to accomplish here obviously higher test scores and things like that but is there a number that we can look back on a year two years from now is that we hit our goal. So what uh what happens at the building level that we don't um or the building level and the district level is we talk about um you know we we gave you action plans but there's a more specific action
125plan that we talk about where we look at you know the um a great most need in one building might be different than the other building. So and I'm not I don't I'm not pulling out anything in particular. I'm just giving an example. If Maple Road needed um work in fifth grade and Marshall Hill needed work in third grade, it's not any indication of any data available. It's just me throwing things out and that's building plan action that our principles would take and then they would you know work on a specific goal and and talk about it. So we do um assign specific number target goals for ourselves and for and for our staff for the things that we do. Um, the other great thing about tonight, but the other piece is it says individual
126goal for each student like where that goal should be for each child and it provides the teacher the resources to get that child to that goal. So, not only looking at goals from a macro level, but we're looking at it from a micro level student life. And uh, Dr. already mentioned when we approve district goals, how district goals set the tone for the work that we do. So, every staff member in this school district has a professional development plan. Uh they typically have a minimum of two goals and they relate directly to the to the district goal. So obviously all our math teachers are you know working hard at addressing our district mathematics goal while um you know non-teers of math are looking at content goal and often social emotional learning goals. So we have
127we have that triple down of what our district objectives are and it relates not only to professional development plans, principal professional development plans, schoolbased professional development plans and then also know we don't want to talk about allow SGO student objectives. So um they are part of an evaluation system that nobody loves. However, that there is a kernel of um uh I guess a kernel of meaningfulness in STOs. If you disconnect it from the public relations part of it with being a a a staff um evaluation tool, it it helps staff members hone in on a specific goal and see measure growth. And just because I feel left out, I guess we're not ready at least and see are you making or making money with your millions of fans watching the advertising. I did get I'm
128not going to tell you cuz I don't want to tonight. >> Yeah. I'll tell you I'll tell you something. I'll tell you some of the perks we got before I >> with that as the trustees and the admin take their seats. I do want to tell a story that directly relates to um Mr. L's question. Um a few summers ago, I witnessed a conversation on a local beach um of many teachers from one district that had already for many years. Um you guys can come back as um and these teachers were in different buildings with different principles from the same district. And I heard and really took note of what they were saying about how their principles handled their ID scores so differently. And the one educator that was um whose principal was took it
129very serious saw more accolades and had um more presentations at the end of the year with more awards because their scores went up. And so the other teacher was asking that teacher, "Well, what did you guys do differently?" And she was saying, "Oh, we had to meet with about all of our students and have actions for every kid. It started with the ones with, you know, IP before I arrest and we went to every single kid." And so I don't know how often they met, but it was just an interesting conversation to watch educators say like, "What did your building do different that mine didn't do?" And I worked just as hard as you did. Um, but it was really about how the administration took it serious and supported it differently. Um, and so take
130that with whatever you will, but it was very interesting conversation to watch teachers have, you know, um, who were passionate about this entire thing and they both really liked identity. So, I'm excited for it. Thank you so much for this presentation. Everyone that had a part in it, thank you for being here, administration. Um, I know that I can speak for the board and say like we're really pleased in this. Like we want better test scores. We want to move up and, you know, and be the best that we can be. So, I'm very excited about this year. Um, and thank you for everything that you do every day. >> Thank you. >> Can I dismiss the administrators? They have work in the morning. Well, before before they get dismissed, um I want to just
131say thank you so much for the administrative team, not only being here to support this presentation, but you're living and breathing the plans that are that were presented tonight in a very meaningful way. As you're speaking, I know that you have all of your staff members and all of your students in your minds. I can you can feel that. So, thank you so much for taking the time to come here and sharing what you're doing with us because that this is the way to make improvement. This this is a this is a full team effort. That last slide said a lot. So, thanks so much. [Music] [Applause] And you can see all of our elementary principles again tomorrow night at uh family math night. So, uh thank you all. [Music] [Applause] Thank you, Mr. Novak.
132Um, next on the agenda, we have special reports and correspondence. Mr. Schultz, >> I just have the September 19th workshop regular meeting minutes and the September 19th executive session minutes. >> I'd like to make a motion to approve the following board of education meeting minutes. September 19th, 2023 workshop regular meeting. September 19th, 2023 executive session. Second. >> All in favor? Uh any questions or comments? All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Okay. Um my president's report. Um I would first like to let the board know that I met with um our new field service rep. Um and I have some business cards that I will um give to you later. Um >> good night. Um and uh Miss Mitchell and I discussed uh doing a board assessment. So I will be um sending
133that out uh within the next month before the next board meeting. And um we had a great conversation just about our past of how we've done our goals and all of our um the trainings. And also um I was able to really learn and I'm and I love that I still get to learn every single day. Um but really what school boards offers to us as board members um and I've heard many of you discuss it in the past about um you know becoming certified board members and taking the trainings and um just excited to learn more about that. So um Miss Mitchell is our new um service rep and she's available um to all of us for questions. So as I said I have cards here and I will get them to you. Um
134to um okay, sorry. To the public, I just wanted to mention um I've received a lot of emails lately, um I'd like you to know that if you send me an anonymous email, I'm not responding to it and I'm not forwarding it. Um, if you send me an email uh with from an email address that you claim with your name and um that it's a concern of anything in this district um I forward it to the superintendent who then u makes sure that it is responded to either by herself or the appropriate staff members in whatever way will handle whatever the situation is. Um I just wanted to make that announcement. Um, the next announcement I have, I received an email uh from the friends of uh the Wallish Estates. Um, they have a big
135uh presentation this Oh my gosh, I'm sorry. Trouble finding the email just um they have a big presentation this weekend coming up with a turkey tray. Um, all kinds of information will be there. It's a fundraiser for the historical barn that they're working on. Okay, here's the email. I'm sorry about that. Um, the weekend of October 21st and 22nd, the East Coast Research and Discovery Association, which is a metal detecting club, is having a fundraiser for the Friends of the Wall Estates. They will be hunting um, and they're bringing really great stuff for the public to see and to witness. um as historical events. Um they'll be bringing their traveling museum to the barn and we'll be sharing artifacts of the Revolutionary and the Civil War and from the Native American Indians. They're providing a
136free dig for children. Um they're also having a Vietnam era war stuff, war information, and a Vietnam group that will bring a vehicle or two and have a tent set up. Um on the second day, Bill Barrett, who's a certified blacksmith, will have a demonstration that he's putting on on Sunday. And um there's going to be a lot going on. So head on over to um the Wallish Estates. And as I said, um all this does relate to education. It's exciting for our students involved and that love history. Um the tricky tray is throughout the weekend and all the proceeds go to the Red Timber barn which is the oldest structure on that site dating back to the early 1800s. Um if you'd like more information um you can always email the Wall the Friends
137um of the Wallist Estates and you can Google them and find their page. Um the last thing I had was just to say I'm excited for tomorrow night for family math night um which is before the Highlander funding committee night also um the education foundation it's now called sorry about that I have to change that in my brain um and that oh and I have one other um very important and part of my report which is to ask Mrs. Lockwood for um an announcement. >> Thank you, Mrs. Romeo. So, Miss Helawa, who we hired um to aid us in the superintendent search, has given me an update. So, I wanted to update everyone on some upcoming dates and get some information out there. So, coming soon, the website will have a link to a page
138that's dedicated for the purpose of the superintendent search. All updates and information will be posted on there. Um, that should be upcoming very soon. Um some key dates October 18th to the 30th um should be um opening up with online input surveys for the district staff, families and community members to fill out that will um be available and I think that information will be disseminated through messenger. Um correct Dr. Mary. Um, and then 11:14, November 14th, uh, Miss Helawa will be coming into the district for the day. She'll be doing in-person input sessions for the district staff and then she'll be doing an evening input session for families and community members. Um, I'm sure that time will be posted at a later date. And then just to update on the posting um for the position
139will be posted on 124 December 4th. It will be advertised and posted um via um NJSBA website, social media, and other advertising sites. And that will close on January 5th, 2024. And then um we'll go ahead and start with all the hard work we're going to have next year in um interviewing and putting that pool down and hopefully having a candidate for approval and a start date of July 1st, 2024. So just wanted to update everybody on um the superintendent search. Thank you, Mrs. Lockwood. And that concludes my president's report. >> Yeah, I just have a question. Yes, >> Claire. You said it it's going to open on the 18th. That's tomorrow of December. >> Yes. >> The website you said >> the surveys. Yes. >> Because I know some people were asking about >>
140Yes. So the online surveys should be opening up tomorrow and they'll be running through 10:30. >> Okay. >> Till October 30th. the website will probably have a link to those once um that's up and running on our website >> and that will be in our at our Westminer wmtps.org or site >> school the district website district website. Okay, there'll be a special link that just takes you to this. >> Perfect. Thank you. >> Well, and uh on the announcement front, is there a possibility of maybe announcing it through Honeywell that this survey is available? >> Well, that's what I just asked Dr. Fernari. Yeah, >> yeah, the messenger. >> Cuz I didn't get added to that group. I'm not saying add me. Please don't add me. I don't need to know about snow days or
141anything, but I didn't know that was changed. >> I think the board won >> group to be on because you'll know things that are going on at this. >> Well, I think we'll get ours through Dr. Fenari and um Miss Heler for the board. This is just really for the community and everything. And um ours would be separate. >> Okay. I thought I was thinking the West Milford messenger. Oh. >> Oh, no. Messenger. Yeah, >> messenger. >> Okay. Um, that concludes my president's report. And, um, next is public comment. Um, all speakers will have 5 minutes to speak until a period of 30 minutes transpires. Before speaking, please state your name, group affiliation, and address for the record. Members of the public who've requested to speak prior to the meeting will be recognized by the
142chair first. After speaking, all speakers are asked to sign the register provided and give their full name, group affiliation, and their address. All statements shall be directed to the presiding officer. No participant may address or question board members individually. All speakers are expected to have read the statement within the agenda regarding the regulations concerning public comments. Members of the public are reminded that they are legally responsible and liable for their comments. Mr. Schultz, do we have anyone that would like to speak? >> Not for the first session. >> Okay. Do I have any speakers? >> Yes. [Applause] >> Here. >> Where's the mic? You can give her yours. You can take my work as well as you. >> Okay. Well, thank you. I appreciate it. I'll write my name on here, too. So, hi everybody.
143Dr. Marissa Goff. Um, I actually just wanted to ask some follow-up questions, things that were listed on the agenda for tonight. I just needed some clarification, but I also wanted to um talk to you a little bit more about the free and reduced lunch, which seems to be a common theme for tonight, especially because we were talking about the NJ NJSLA testing. Um, so first of all, thank you for that presentation. someone who is not an educator, I greatly appreciate coming in and learning about how everything kind of ties in together, how different programs, how different um things for extra help all ties into these scores and scores is directly correlated to how we receive funding for our district. So, someone coming from the outside in, it's really nice to sit here. Even though it
144was a very long presentation, it was informative. So, I do appreciate that. So, speaking of free and reduced lunches, I've been kind of going back and forth with myself, with my PTA, um, with some of the parents, and even with the Highlander Education Foundation, and I've been trying to find a way to streamline it for parents because from personal experience, when I first saw the um, application, which is 10 pages, well, not the application, the packet that comes with it is about 10 pages long, coming from a parent where you get about 47 flyers in your child's folder every single today. Needless to say, I didn't look at the free and reduced lunch packet last year. So, over the summer, I actually took a moment to look through it and I saw in one of
145the pages which I brought with me that there's a link that brings you to the parent portal where we find out transportation. Every parent goes on there in August leading into the fall where they have to find out what teacher their um student is assigned to, find out their transportation route. So, they're going on that website in August anyway. Well, on the lefth hand side of that menu is where you can find the food services and there's that link with four questions for the free and reduced lunch. So, I can tell you right now 99% of parents don't know what's on there because yes, it is in this packet which I printed out. So, this is this is what we get sent home with us. This 10page piece of paper which I know is required
146by the US Department of Agriculture. I know this has to get sent home with us. However, the application, physical application that goes to Tracy Lynch, I believe, is on the last page. It is four questions. So, having it available, I know it is on the board. Um, I know it's on the West Milford website. It is about four steps in order to reach that link. I think having something and again I made this during my lunch so this is very rudimentary but just having two steps screenshots how you get to it what the link is just say it's the link where you find out your child's teacher it's four questions I know just like having um for testing can't make it a requirement but highly encourage it because I know that there are two schools
147I believe next year where we are losing title one funding I don't even think parents know that this free and reduced use lunch is directly correlated to our title one funding and if I have it written down here correctly that is the title one funding is things like foundations academic clubs family literacy nights so that's just with the title one that's not including the others so having parents know that maybe something you know outside of your having like how we have your week of math tomorrow maybe having an educational session for parents outside of board of ed meetings that are 7:00 at night and explaining to them hey you fill out these four questions online which took me all of 30 seconds to do. Maybe we can capture a few of those students that maybe
148they didn't think qualified for and maybe we can get back some of that title one funding. So, that was on the one side of the um free and reduced lunch. I want to see if there's any way we can let residents know how we can maybe just fill out that application, not make it a requirement, but strongly encourage it. The other question that I did have um that Dr. Matlo actually brought up in particular was about I think you call it the ESSER grant. I always call it the ESSR. I think that just sounds more fun. Um, but I wanted to ask a little bit more about clarification, not just on my end, but a lot of parents that came up to me at a um at autumn lights uh last weekend or the weekend
149before. Um, the common trend that I'm finding in the board of ed agenda is people are missing where it'll say like academic clubs, after school activities. People were coming up to me and saying, "Well, why are you trying to save programs that are going to be lost by the ESSR grant when after school programs are funded by PTAs?" So, I think there's a miscommunication where parents are automatically assuming that all after school activities are funded by PTAs, which in some cases, yes, you have it listed on your board of ed agenda. There are one or two listed tonight that will say funded by PTA or one that was funded I think by student play efforts, but there are a few that are listed that with ESSR which I know was September of 2024 we're going
150to be losing funding for. So, I just think as a parent, as someone as a um director of the Highlander Education Foundation, I think I would like to see a clear picture of what programs the list, what programs in particular are funded right now by ESSR so we can have an understanding how many students are going to be impacted. You know, is it just four gamers? Is it just mindfulness clubs? How many in particular would be lost because of that? And I know a big one in particular go to is encore which I see parents all the time on RPTA page are always asking how can I get extra help from my child and not the ELA and I know Encore is one of them and that is also funded by the SSR. So I
151think just as a parent as a member of the community I think some of these things need to be a little bit not transparent cuz I find you are all very transparent. I want to say that has to be more in layman's terms for someone like me, like so many others in our community that are not educators. It might just go right over their head. So that's my two cents for tonight. Thank you. >> Somebody else is speaking. >> Thank you, Dr. Do we have another speaker? See all of the time? [Music] Well, I actually didn't want to post public comment, so I'm glad that we didn't vote yet. Um, we have signed up for the second part. Um, does anyone go to if I speak in the first section tonight? [Music] [Applause] the rules
152of public com. >> Any opposed? >> I resend my motion to close. >> Thank you. We have a second. >> Okay, cool. Um, so you don't have to say orever you can choose to or whatever. Um for the second portion she see for meeting who want [Music] Um, I first first want to thank you all for serving on the board and it's been a rough few years and I really appreciate all the effort you put in and um especially this program tonight. It was really very informative and um I really I truly really appreciate that. Um you probably don't get a lot of thank you. So I um I'm speaking uh today um about concerns for the current West Milford School curriculum K through 12 and policy 5756. Both of you both are addressing issues
153of transgender and parental rights. I'd like to share some definitions to make sure we all have the same understanding. These definitions come from USA back stop work. Transgender is an umbrella term for people who gender whose gender identity expression is different from their sex assigned at birth. Cisgender describes individ individuals who whose current gender identity is the same as the sex they were assigned with at birth. Now, I'd like to share with you some facts uh with you all. I have a chart here. According to um the USA facts.org, 1% of the population is transgender. 1.03% of the population declares none. 47.7 of the population is male and 49% of the population is female. 97.5% that is 97.5% which is most of the US population identifies as cisgender than male. According to the above facts,
154the current New Jersey State Board of Education guideline curriculum K through 12 makes absolutely no sense in introducing transgender for LGBTQ plus throughout the curriculum, especially in grades K through 8. I believe those who wrote the guidelines in curriculum K through 8 wanted to show fairness. I really do believe that. and inclusion. While trying to show the fairness and inclusion, they introduce their personal feelings rather than the true fa fairness and inclusion of all students. Families have different feelings about gender dysphoria and gender identity. This should be left up to the family unit to discuss. If students if a student is struggling with anything physically or psychologically, it should be brought to the attention of parents. This is a parental right. This is not the responsibility of our educators nor the state board nor the
155educ uh nor um the of our of our governor. Children are taught to be kind to one another in and out of school. On the whole, most children are kind most of the time. There is a school anti-bully policy. You're well familiar with it. It's hib harassment, intimidation, and bullying. This policy is written for all students. This is an allincclusive policy. This policy protects all students. No students should be harassed, intimidated, or bullied. This is a good policy. protecting all students of all walks of life. Our schools and our communities should be encouraging our students to find their talents and pursuing them through math, science, English, art, music, and physical education. Our children are the next generation of mathematicians, scientists, writers, artists, musicians, proathletes, electricians, Finnish carpenters, plumbers, and so much more. In conclusion, my
156plea to you, board of education members, the superintendent, and the director of education is to repeal policy guideline. It's a guideline of 5756 like many schools in the state of New Jersey have. Some schools that have repealed 5756 are Manolapin, English Town, Marble, Middletown, Hanover, Holtzeneck, Lacy, Homedale, Howell, Lafayette, Milstone, and Sparta. My other plea is asking those who write the New Jersey state guideline curriculum and those who write the curriculum for our West Milford schools to go back to the drawing board to come up with a K through2 curriculum that concentrates on academics and unites and uplifts and encourages the students to find their talents and pursue them with excellence. Let HIV be what protects our children who are from all different walks of life. Let's get back to teaching our children pure math,
157science, history, English, music, and art. And let's continue to be teaching our children always to be kind, to be encouraging, and to be sinking their talents, and to always be learning. Thank you very much. I really appreciate your time. >> Thank you. Is there anyone else that would like to speak in public comment? >> Seeing none, I close. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Any opposed? Um Dr. Fenari, do you have any updates to the agenda? So board members, I'm going to direct your attention to um under education. Uh number five, we have one field trip location that is being removed and that is because the the business in question is no longer um open. Uh that's Sunrise Coffee House in Bloomingdale. Yeah. And then also and that was let's see on page my
158page correctly I'm sorry page eight if you look at under personnel item number 17 we have uh one individual who has uh declined to become a sub with us because they um they actually secured a permanent position elsewhere. Uh, so we're removing um Virginia uh Valentin Villain. I'm so sorry I mispronounced the name. >> Yes. Yes. Okay. Those are the only two changes I have to the agenda. There is a hand carry motion under education as well that um Mr. Schulz provided to the board on the table. >> I move to approve the agenda. All in favor? >> I. Any opposed? All right. Mrs. Lockwood, education. I make a motion to approve agenda items 1 through 11, which includes hand carry one under education. >> I think you second it >> twice. Um, any questions
159or comments? Seeing as now then we'll go to roll call. Mr. Schultz. >> Mrs. Lockwood. >> Yes. >> Mr. Guino. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Rico. >> Yes. >> Mr. Sidowitz. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Dwire. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Van Dyke. >> Hi. >> Mr. Lippy. >> Yes. >> Mrs. O'Brien. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Romeo. >> Yes. Um, personnel and student affairs. Mrs. Vand. >> Yes. I'd like to move items one through 2000. >> 2000 1 through 36 >> 36. >> Questions and comments? Seeing as none, we'll go to roll call. Mr. Schultz, please. >> Mrs. Van Dyke, >> yes. >> Mr. Sidowitz, >> yes. >> Mr. Libby, >> yes. >> Mrs. Rano, >> yes. >> Mrs. Lockwood, >> yes. >> Mr. Gorino, >> yes. >> Mrs. Dwire, >> abstain on number five and no on
160number 24. >> Yes. The ref. >> Yes, sir. Yes. >> Uh, Mrs. Mrs. O'Brien. >> Uh, yes. >> And Mrs. Romeo. >> Yes. Um, with that, I would like to, um, congratulate Dr. Beltzer. Um, if you'd like to speak. Congrats. Welcome. I don't want to take up much of your time, but I wanted to thank you for this opportunity, uh, the board and the district leadership, and I look forward to working with, uh, everyone at West Milford to help students and staff succeed. >> Thank you. I'm glad you attended tonight to see our math scores and you have a full grasp of uh, of what we're looking at and uh, I'm I hope you're creating some action plans while you're sitting there. Um, good luck. Thank you very much and congratulations. Great. Six, Mr. Greeno.
161Operation >> I'd like to move items uh 1 through five under operations and finance. >> Questions and comments. >> Yes, Mr. On number five, it looks like we're making a donation um of older I guess computers. Has there been any attempt to sell these? We used to have I remember we used to sell old equipment and brought in a little money for us. >> I think this stuff that we have here is all pretty obsolete and we're getting rid of that stuff. I don't think this stuff has any value. It's pretty old. >> And we can't use it for anything else. >> No. Okay. >> If I if if I if I'm right, um Upcycle LLC is a company where they take uh uh students with autism and other disabilities and they and and it
162becomes life skills for them. So, it's not just giving it to a company that's not, you know, it's just a company. It is a it's going to help those that are needing life skills and and and work skills. Thank you. >> Thank you for sharing that, Mr. O'Brien. >> Any other questions or comments? >> Seeing as none, roll call, please. >> Mr. Corino, >> yes. >> Mrs. Rakano, >> yes. >> Mrs. Lockwood, >> yes. >> Mrs. Dwire, >> yes. >> Mr. Sidowitz, >> yes. >> Mrs. O'Brien, >> yes. >> Mr. Lippy, >> yes. >> Mrs. Van Dyke, >> yes. >> And Mrs. Romeo, >> yes. like to move item number six under operations and finance. >> Second question. >> Mr. Corino abstain. >> Mrs. Roano. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lockwood. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Dwire.
163>> Yes. >> Mr. Sidowitz. >> Yes. >> Mrs. O'Brien. >> Yes. >> Mr. Lippy. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Van Dyke. >> A. >> Mrs. Romeo. >> FB. like to move items 7 through 10 under operations and finance. >> Second roll, >> please. >> Mr. Corino, >> yes. >> Mrs. Rano, >> yes. >> Mrs. Lockwood, >> yes. >> Mrs. Dwire, >> yes. >> Mr. Cidowitz, >> yes. >> Mrs. O'Brien, >> yes. >> Mr. Lippy, >> yes. >> Mrs. Van Dyke, >> yes. >> And Mrs. Romeo, >> yes. >> Mr. policy. >> I'd like to move items 1 through 19 under policy. >> Second. >> Questions or comments? >> Mr. Sidowitz. >> Yes. >> Mr. Lippy. >> Yes. >> Mrs. O'Brien. >> Yes. >> Mr. Gorino. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Rakano. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Van Dyke.
164>> Yes. >> Mrs. Dwire. >> Yes. Mrs. Lockwood. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Romeo. >> Yes. >> Negotiations. Mrs. O'Brien. >> I like to move item one under negotiations. >> Second. >> Questions or comments? >> Roll call, please. >> Mrs. O'Brien. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Romeo. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Rakano. >> Yes. >> Mr. Sidowitz. >> Yes. >> Mr. Lippy. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lockwood. >> Yes. >> Mr. Gorino. >> Yes. Mrs. Dwire. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Van Dyke. >> Yes. >> And now to committee reports and news on um parks and w. >> Um we had our September parks and wreck um committee meeting almost a month ago. Um so I got an update from Dan Kjaki. The two things he wanted me to speak about tonight were that both travel and wreck basketball registrations
165are open and um at the beginning of November there will be a limited number of those veteran flags you see around town still available for sale but um there's a still a limited number of polls left. So there's a limited number of flags that can go up. So, um, be on the lookout for that if you're interested in a flag. >> Thank you. Um, PD, Mrs. Dryer, and Mrs. We haven't had a meeting. Nothing to schedule yet. Okay. Thank you. Um, superintendent's round table. >> Um, one of the things we actually spoke about at last month's superintendent round table is actually moving the dates of the round table in the new year. um because the update I'm about to give you is almost obsolete at this point and our next uh meeting is Thursday. Um
166but a couple of the um things that were brought up were you know the beginning of school there were some transportation issues. Um many of them have been ironed out at this point in the year. Um again they were talking about um late late buses and um Dr. Fernari has sorted that out as well. Um they listed all of the no homework days um districtwide. Um we talked about I Ready, which we've heard about adnauseium at this point. Um um the one thing that they did suggest um that I thought was um interesting is uh departmental PR um a way to highlight you know history department or what's happening in science or some of the elementary programs. Um we see a lot of athletics and arts um being highlighted but not necessarily our academics which
167are also really strong in our district that maybe um the public doesn't realize. Um, so we talked about a district newsletter or even putting it on the Hometown Pride Facebook page. Um, and um, that was really it for the superintendent round table. We do have it again this coming Thursday. >> Thank you. Um, school boards as well. >> So the meeting was September 26th. Um, they talked a lot about workshop. Um the Manchester Regional High School Board of Education actually got a board certification. So they presented them with a plaque and honored them. Um there was the program was actually in regards to finances and Mrs. Francisco happened to be there presenting and taking Q&A along with some other business administrators. um Wayne um I believe Woodland Park. Um one big thing that they did
168talk about was the NJSBA connection. I don't know if anybody has heard about this, but they did give a flyer. Um they did ask if we could talk about it amongst the board and it's through NJSBA. You can um access it through your uh sign in when you sign in. And I'm just going to read verbatim on from the flyer what it exactly is. It's a groundbreaking memberonly platform designed to connect, engage, and empower its members. The innovative digital space serves as a dynamic hub for collaboration, knowledge sharing, and networking, providing an unparalleled resource for school leaders across the state. Um, they seem to be really big on pushing this. And you do have to sign in separate. There is a link. Uh they did send a QR code that I can forward to everybody
169to make it easier so you don't have to dig it out on um the um web page, but uh once you sign in once it links your accounts and you're good to go. >> Thank you um Mr. Corn New Jersey School Boards. >> Excellent plug there. I appreciate that you uh brought that up because that was a project that the school boards association has been working on for years. So, I'm sure it's going to be great because most of the programs that they do are great and definitely help us as school boards. Um my report is thank you so much, Mrs. Romeo, for bringing up our new representative, Kelly Mitchell. I'm looking forward to I think the bigger discussion is what offerings does school boards have for school boards and uh for newer members or
170members that don't know much about the school boards association there are plenty of offerings that can be our continued education to make us stronger. Uh on the 28th of September there was a negotiation session for uh training and that was a full day session that Mr. Lippy attended. I attended uh on the next big item is on October 23rd to 26th is the workshop in Atlantic City. If you have signed up, you're going to have a great time. You're going to have a great learning experience and great opportunities to see what is happening around the state with uh other school districts. So, take that networking opportunity and run with it. On February of February, excuse me, that's a little far ahead. On Friday, November 17th, there is a no doubt, there is a training session
171that's a leadership conference titled Everyone Moving Forward Together. And the conference brings board members and district leaders together to develop and improve communication and relationships with each other and the educational systems they serve. So, if you're interested in that, go on to the website, sign up for it, and enjoy what that's going to offer in terms of uh communication skills. Uh, and the last thing that I'm going to bring up is along the lines of certification that was brought up before that boards have the opportunity to earn certifications. And it's not so much about the glory that comes with it. It's more about the threshold that it has and the ability to push ourselves as board members to better serve our community. So, it's something that I'll reach out to the board with and in
172terms of the requirements and discuss that further, but I look forward to speaking to everybody about that. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um, legislative. >> I'd like to bring to the board uh board's attention the following. New Jersey lawmakers are preparing tweaks to the state's school funding formula months after inflation and a white caught housing market spurred outsiz cuts to state education aid for a third of the state school districts. The contours of the reforms remain blurry and lawmakers do not expect to approve the legislation until the leg next legislative year session said uh Senator Vin Gobel chair of the Senate state uh state Senate Education Committee. The policy would include provisions to address categoral categorical aids to districts transportation and extraordinary special education cost which are provided independently of the state's funding formula. And
173the formula has not been touched since 2008. The lawmakers defray twothirds of those costs with a one-time appropriation of nearly $103 million. The districts are expected to face even larger cuts in the coming budgetary year when New Jersey completes the phase out aid to overfund districts that began when New Jersey moved to fully implement its 2008 school for funding formula in 2018 under legislation known wy as its bill number S2. It's unclear what changes legislators are seeking to make to the school funding formulas that will govern how much aid individuals districts receive from the state. Nor is it clear whether they will make other allowances like allowing underfunded districts to exceed the 2% cap on property tax increases meant to keep districts at full funding. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Technology oversight. Mr.
174right now. >> Have you got anything, Pete? I I don't I don't remember the last time we had a technology meeting. >> We're just talking about [Music] um I'll give the township board and um the joint committee meeting between the board of education and the township. Um we haven't had another meeting. We're scheduling one. Um and so we're still reviewing um feasibility studies. um or still looking into the feasibility study. Uh next is West and Milford Municipal Alliance. The alliance meeting was on October 9th. Um it was discussed about the well the wellness family festival which was very well attended. So it was thankful for the rain. The rain helped a lot. Um the there uh Debbie will be meeting with Janice Garage to discuss uh programs through the youth leadership grant. The um alliance
175is uh scheduling a fundraiser. It's going to be pickle ball. There's going to be a pickle ball tournament and that's going to be on Saturday, April 13th, and the the details are going to follow yet. Um Debbie will be attending uh the Pate County 4S NJC uh to discuss resource services for our community and she will also be at William Patterson University this Friday for the teen summit um which Mr. Doerty will uh does the uh heroes and cool kids will he be attending with you or yes. >> Oh and the kids too. Okay. the students and um >> the students and Mr. Doerty will be part of that as well. >> Can you say that again? That so is that the um the state county teen summit? >> Yes. Okay, cool. Um and then
176the one right before that, Mrs. Vani and JCDC. >> Yeah, that was the same county to discuss resources and services. Was that program? Um so um basically um West Milford Parks and Wreck which is where under uh the West Milford Municipal Alliance falls under their um jurisdiction so to speak. Um, an email came from Kathy Beredto who runs the NJ the NJ4S which is through the New Jersey CDC. Um, and uh, Community Development Center is what CDC represents and the acronym 4HS. It it has there are flyers. I I have some in my bag. um have to do with discussing uh I want I and I actually did discuss with her and her staff uh services and resources pertaining to youth mental health, bullying, suicide and substance abuse. I know uh Dr. Fernari has you
177met with them or you had went to a meeting with them. >> Yeah. So um sorry NJ4S was a presenter at our September uh superintendent round table for the county. Okay. and um their programming is is pretty amazing and I know subsequent to that I brought the information back and Dr. Res made a contact with NJ4S uh leadership and so we're we're looking to form a partnership. So their office is in Patterson. They have a staff of 25. So they've kind of established their um programs and activities in that part of the the county. And now, of course, they're reaching north and they're actually going to do a presentation tomorrow at Highlands Family Success Center, but they um they're reaching out um very vigorously to various community members in different modalities. And uh the the
178goal is they want to do presentations in schools. They they want I they actually would like to even come to board of ed meetings to do a little presentation as well. So, it's all in the works. It's um it's a very youthful vigorous group of individuals that um really are trying to make a difference especially in the area of youth mental health and these sub substance abuse uh suicide and bullying and it's all free. I I also attended the um Island Success Center open house and saw many of our staff and many of our PTA and PTO um presidents uh representatives were there. It if you haven't been to the success center, it would it's a great it's a great idea to go. They have so many resources for our community at this point in
179time. Uh, and they're very open to to letting everybody know what's going on there and open open to help. So, um, I would highly recommend you going. They have a pantry, clothes, there's so many things that are needed, especially this time. >> Okay, great. Um, CPAC, Mrs. Lockwood. >> Yes, I'm going to start and then I'm going to hand it over to Mrs. Ricardo. I just wanted to announce the next meeting. Um, so there's going to be a parent caregiver meeting virtually on October 30th at 700 p.m. And then the next CPAC meeting is scheduled for November 15th, 700 p.m. at Paradise Null School. And now I'm going to hand it over. >> Wait, before you go on, can you explain a parent caregiver meeting? Who would go to that meeting? What does that mean?
180That's just the that's they've been having that um for years. It's just where the they come up with the agenda. So the parents andor caregiver >> meets as a group without um school administrators. >> Okay. I'm sorry. I thought that was like a discussion. >> Thank you. >> Okay. And Mrs. Shano, thank you for covering for me. I totally appreciate it. >> Welcome. Um, I had the privilege of covering for Claire while she was at the city county school boards on um, September 26th. And, um, I think every board member should attend a CPAC meeting if you haven't had the opportunity to do so. I gleaned so much from this meeting. I told Claire I would cover for her every month. Um what was I think maybe what made this meeting so beneficial to me
181was it was the introductory meeting of Dr. Resza and Miss Prochniaak. So, um they kind of went over like what CPAC was, who they were, what their goals were, and it was a really cool, um opportunity for the special education comm community um to kind of figure out, you know, where where the programs were going. Um the overall theme of the evening, I would say, was communication. um special education community really wants um ongoing and consistent communication from their teachers and their case workers um and their CSTs and um communication before their IEP meeting so they're not going in blind. Um so it really was a beneficial um meeting. I actually spoke to some people who were in attendance afterward and they were really optimistic um about the future of special education in West Milford.
182Um so Claire, if you ever need another person to cover for you, I'm happy to go. And again, like if if anybody else has the chance to go, it was really um as someone who doesn't have a special education student, I didn't understand necessarily um the struggles or the obstacles that they sometimes face. and as a board member, I feel like I need to know that. So, it was a great opportunity for me to do that. >> Thank you. Um, old business. Anyone have any old business? Well, >> uh, probably earlier in 2023, there was the possibility of getting an energy audit for our EIP projects. And I know that the state not very uh good at following through on items. I was just uh hoping that I could bring it up again to maybe
183prod the department of energy to provide that audit if that's possible and that's my whole business. >> I'm sorry, Mr. Yes, I think we do an energy audit um last year. >> I know we did have one for the EIP. It was an audit to make sure we were hitting the savings as part of the EIP. So, that was part of it and they confirmed it's part of their audit that we were hitting the savings that they promised us. >> So, that was the we had done last year. So >> a hot dog is what you're asking for. >> But really, don't they have to do that? Don't we have to do that now because of the the loan the grant approved? >> Which which grant >> for the EP to make sure that we
184are getting that money every year? >> They give you they give you that option every year. You don't have to do it. It's an off it's offered from the EIP. Once you don't do it, you basically you're saying you're you're having the savings. you're pleased with the way things are going and then you don't have to do it anymore. >> So then Will is right this year. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Do we pay for it again? >> Yeah, it is. But there's a costing you incur. I'll I can talk to Mr. Kelly about it. >> Can you put that on the agenda for um next month's community meeting and then we'll discuss it there? We we need to cover. >> Yeah, that's good. Teamwork. Thank you. Uh any other old business? move to close business.
185>> Second. >> All in favor? >> Any opposed? No. >> New business. >> Yes. Right. >> Um it was just mentioned shortly, but I just want to take this opportunity to thank those who came out from the education community to our open house at Highlands Family Success Center um for public's information as well as yours. If you don't know, I am a case manager through CFR, Center for Family Resources, which is uh Highlands Family Success Center is also falls under the oices of Center for Family Resources. And um it it was al it was it was mindblowing because the people who came really did not know what we are about, what we do. It's like a gem that's at hidden in plain sight is what I call it. Um I this is my second year
186working there and it's a phenomenal place. It's open. It's free for the community. Um it it's not necessarily just for families and it doesn't mean you have to live in West Milford or PT County for that matter. And what we also do is we do kind of I would I I don't know if the word would be outreach, but we support families um those who are homeless, those who you know lost things in a fire, those who need assistance, and we collaborately work in helping um families with needs and for for people of all ages. And it was like Mrs. Van Dyke said and she attended um it was just so nice and I and and and Mr. Novak came out as well and I appreciate that that he took the time out of of
187and everybody's time that they came out spent you know more than an hour and I did my little too long of a spiel so to speak but um it was wellreceived and we also put up a board and we asked them for suggestions as to what they would like to see at our center and that kind of ties in with what I was asking Mr. Novak about maybe help doing some working with Highlands and helping out families with helping their children become better students. I mean, we're not there to educate, but we're there to support and I think it's a collaboration and it's and and it and we don't care if you come in and your penny list or you got a gazillion dollars. We're there to help you out. We're there to support and
188we do programs for kids and adults and seniors and we do a lot of stuff and I just it behooves me that we're not it's not as in my opinion this is Debbie O'Brien that her opinion only it's it's not well attended as I think it should be but uh we do like science nights we do we do so many things that that tie in with curriculum >> you still do the uh homework health and and those types of programs >> um well homework home We can um you you would have to talk to the to Mrs. Sarasini on that one. Um I actually I was um I'm I am a teacher. I do have a teaching certification. I was one of the homework helpers helper. So um and if that is offered um there
189there will be plenty of people to help with that. And again everything's free of charge. So you you don't have to you don't have to worry about any costs. >> Thank you. You're welcome. U Mr. strike. >> Thank you. This is not a very thoughtful question, but has anybody heard anything about the tattoo for this year or is there going to be a tattoo? >> Yes. >> Yeah. So, it was just sent out. >> Yes. Yeah. I can forward you the flyer. >> It's a program that everyone should get to. >> Yeah. We're not getting matching tattoos on our skin. It's a program uh of music at the West Milford High School. You're not going to get getting >> and the tickets are on the tickets are on sale. >> The tickets are on sale.
190>> I actually thought Mrs. Dwire was talking about me getting another the tattoo. I'm like, what? >> Any other new business? >> I move business. >> All in favor? I. >> Any opposed? Um, all public comment. All speakers will have 5 minutes to speak until a period of 30 minutes. the first. >> I have to do a second one to see if there's anyone else that wants to speak publicly, but we did have that speaker speak in the first. Thank you guys. >> Um, so before speaking, you will please state your name, group affiliation, and address for the record. Members of the public who have requested to speak prior to the meeting will be recognized by the chair first. After speaking, all speakers are asked to sign the register provided they get their full name,
191group affiliation, and their address. All seats should be directed to the presiding officer. No participant may address a question to a board member individually. All speakers are expected to have read the statement within the agenda regarding the regulations concerning public comments. Members of the public are reminded that there they are legally responsible and liable for their comments. Do I have anyone that would like to speak publicly? Move >> to close public comments. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? All right. and Mrs. Lockwood, executive session. >> So, at 10:03 p.m., I make a motion to go into executive session for the purpose of discussing negotiations, hips, and matters of attorney client privilege. The >> the exe the executive session minutes will not be released until such time as the privilege or
192confidentiality is no longer applicable. The board will be in executive session for approximately 30 minutes and no action will be taken. So Terry second. >> All in favor? I. Any opposed? Um so just so the public knows we will adjourn from our uh executive session meeting. Have a great night. Thank you.