10.14.25 Board of Education Meeting

001Notice is hereby given of the regular meeting of the board of education of the town of Westfield in the county of Union, New Jersey at 700 p.m. on the evening of Tuesday, October 14th, 2025 in cafeteria B of Westfield High School, 550 Dorian Road, Westfield, New Jersey. The purpose of the meeting is to transact the regular business of the board and to transact any other business to come properly before the board. This is to advise the general public and to instruct that it be recorded in the minutes that in compliance with chapter 231 of the public laws of 1975 entitled the open public meetings act the Westfield school board on Thursday October 9th 2025 caused to be posted at the office of the board of education located at 302 Elm Street Westfield New Jersey and

002delivered to the Westfield Leader NJ.com the Westfield Library Town Clerk of Westfield Tap into Westfield and patch.com a meeting notice setting forth the time, date, and location of this meeting. Patty, may I have a roll call, please? >> Rob Bonaccio >> here. >> Kent Diamond >> here. >> Brendan Gallagan. >> Charles Galinus. Laya Morelli >> here. Sonel Patel >> here. >> Kristen Sonic Schmeltz >> here. >> Julie Steinberg. Mary Wickens >> here. Uh >> Ila, would you lead us in the flag salute, please? Uh we will move to board announcements. Uh Leila, would you like to start? That's okay. >> Sorry, I thought I had we had to start with one. Okay. My first announcement is Red Ribbon Week. As part of our ongoing commitment to student health and well-being, Westfield Public Schools will proudly

003participate in Red Ribbon Week. Observed nationally from October 23rd through October 31st. This annual initiative serves as a powerful reminder of the importance of living drug-free and making healthy informed choices. Throughout the week, our schools will integrate targeted educational activities into the curriculum that highlight the risks of substance of substance use and promote positive decision-making among students. Planned activities include interactive lessons, collaborative projects, and schoolwide efforts that empower students with the knowledge, tools, and support they need to make safe and healthy choices. My second announcement um is that schools will be closed on Monday, October 20th in in observance of the valley. Schools will also be closed on November 6th and 7th for New Jersey Education Association teacher convention. This event serves as a major professional development and networking opportunity for K through2 public school

004educators across the state >> uh Mary >> project playground on Friday October 10th both Wilson and McKinley schools formally accepted $25,000 grants from the Westfield Foundation to support their playground enhancements. The schools are now collaborating with design teams to develop plans that include new surfacing and inclusive, universally accessible play equipment. These grants are part of a major round of funding from the Westfield Foundation. In its first quarter of 2025 alone, the foundation awarded more than $120,000 across multiple local organizations with a clear emphasis on accessibility, equity, and strategic community partnerships. Thank you. Westfield Public Schools will observe Safe Schools of America Week from October 19th through October 25th, next week. Throughout the week, our curriculum will place a strong emphasis on the importance of school safety and emergency preparedness. In collaboration with our school resource

005officers and school safety officers, students will engage in a variety of activities designed to build awareness and readiness. These activities will include safety drills, informational sessions, and interactive workshops focused on emergency protocols and the vital role of school safety personnel. This initiative aims to create a secure and well-informed school environment where students feel safe and protected. Thank you. Sonel, >> the next PTC general meeting, teacher council general meeting will take place on Wednesday, October 15th at 10:30 a.m. The PTC serves as the umbrella organization for all 10 Westfield school PTOs. Monthly meetings bring together PTO presidents, the PTC board, district administration, and board and our board of education representative Kristen Sonak Schmelz. To discuss districtwide initiatives and updates. For more information, please visit the parent teacher council tab on the district website. October is fire

006prevention month and Westville public schools participated in fire prevention week from October 6th to October 10th. Throughout the week, members of the Westfield Fire Department visited our schools to teach students important lessons about fire safety and prevention. Students learned how to stay safe and prepared in case of an emergency through engaging presentations and hands-on demonstrations. We extend our sincere thanks to the Westfield Fire Department for their continued partnership and commitment to keeping our students and our community safe. Thank you. >> The next regular public meeting of the board of education will be on Tuesday, November 18th in Cafeteria B at Westfield High School beginning at 7 p.m. The meeting will be livereamed via the district YouTube channel, which viewers can access on the board tab on the district website. The complete agenda will be available

007on Friday, November 14th, 2025. Uh and with that, uh before we get into uh the report by district administration, uh we are uh we are pleased to uh recognize someone today. Uh on behalf of the entire board of education, it is my great pleasure tonight to recognize Grace Mus, a Westfield High School senior who is a semi- finalist in the 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program. Grace is among more than 16,000 academically talented high school seniors nationwide who were named semi- finalists in this prestigious program representing less than 1% of US high school seniors. The semi-finalists enter the competition as juniors by taking the preliminary SAT National Merit Scholarship qualifying test which serves as a screen of program entrance. Grace is among the highest scoring entrance and is eligible to continue in the competition for a

008national merit scholarship. You've already done that. Grace, please come to the front of the room to accept a certificate [laughter] of recognition. See, she's so smart, she knows to come up. He is perfect. Uh to accept a certificate of recognition from our superintendent. And please uh come on up to the stage for a photograph. Congratulations. [applause] Okay, congratulations. >> Thank you. >> Oh, good. Uh we'll now move to our report by district administration. I'll start with Dr. Gonzalez. Yep. Um thank you. So this evening uh in alignment with our dis with our district's uh ongoing commitment to providing safe and supportive environments. Uh I am pleased to report that each of our schools has completed their annual anti-bullying bill of rights self assessment as required by the New Jersey Department of Education. This comprehensive assessment

009evaluates performance across uh eight critical areas including prevention programs, staff training and reporting procedures related to harassment in intimidation and bullying commonly referred to as HIB. Throughout the school year, our schools have placed significant emphasis on strengthening anti-bullying practices. From refining schoolwide programs to providing staff with targeted professional development, we continue to enhance our ability to proactively address and respond to HIV. The 2024 2025 self- assessment highlights both our areas of progress as well as those requiring continued focus requiring our dedication to cultivating a positive and respectful school climate for all. Upon approval by the board this evening, the district will uh submit their self- assessment ratings to the New Jersey Department of Education. At that time, the New Jersey Department of Education may make adjustments based upon statewide data and final grades are expected

010to be released in the spring. Once issued, these results will be publicly posted on both the state and district websites and will serve as an invaluable guide in f shaping future enhancements to our HIV programs. A summary of our district scores are included in um item B under governance in tonight's agenda. October marks a meaningful time of uh year for reinforcing our school climate initiatives throughout the district and aligned with goal number two of our strategic plan. Earlier this month, our schools participated in week of in the week of respect held uh from October 6th through 10th with elementary students engaged in daily announcements, spirit week activities, and classroom lessons focused on kindness, empathy, and respect. Later this month, we will observe school violence awareness week scheduled for October 20th through the 24th. And these

011observances serve as powerful reminders for our collective responsibility to foster safe, inclusive, and supportive learning environments. As we move forward, I encourage all members of our school community, students, staff, uh, and families to make respect a daily practice. Together we can ensure that our schools remain not only uh centers of learning but also safe and welcoming spaces where everyone feels they truly belong. Thank you. That concludes my report this evening. >> All right. Um we also have um have up for a report today. I guess I'll just turn it right over to Dr. Bolton for uh for our assessment presentation. >> Hi everybody. >> Hi. >> All right. So, thank you so much. Thank you to the board of education and Dr. Gonzalez for allowing me to allowing us to address you this evening about

012the NJSLA and DM scores. from last year. When I say us, I'm speaking of myself and our English language arts supervisor, Liz Riley, our math supervisor, Liz Delandro, and our science supervisor, Techhead supervisor, all the way in the back, Tom Patterson, who's only wearing one hat this year, or maybe two. No more acting principal. Right. So, so we really honed in on the this data. Okay. So, just to give you an overview of what we're going to be discussing this evening, we are going to be talking about New Jersey student learning assessment data from last year in last spring. Students took these assessments. Um, they took them in the areas of English, language arts, and math. We're going to talk about student subgroup performance and we'll get into a little bit more quantitative analysis of

013those scores provided by the supervisors. And then we're going to talk about the dynamic learning maps which is an assessment that's taken by some of our most intellectually impaired uh special education students. And then we'll wrap up with next steps. Okay. So this is the slide everybody hears every year. So I don't know that I need to spend too much time on it. Students take NJSLA in grades 3 through nine in language arts. In mathematics they take it in grades 3 through 8 in algebra geometry and algebra 2. Uh, New Jersey student learning assessments are also taken in grade science in grades 5, 8, and 11. 11th graders just love this test because they combine it with the SATs and the NJ GPA. And like I said, dynamic learning maps are for a specific subgroup

014of students in grades 3 through 8 and 11. Okay. All families in mid mid to late September should have seen in the parent portal the individual student reports. These individual student reports provide families with a breakdown of their students performance in the assessments that they were administered in NJSLA. So if they log into Genesis parent portal, click on documents, it's right in there. The these student reports provide families with a a true breakdown of the scores and the performance level. Scores are broken down into five different performance levels anywhere from level one not yet meeting grade level expectations all the way to level five exceeding grade level expectations. Science is a little bit different. When Mr. Patterson's addresses the the board, he'll explain how science is only broken up into four performance levels and uh

015it's the the assessment itself is different because it's science. Subgroups are disagregated throughout the total population. Once we get these scores, they're broken down by the various subgroups. Uh some of our representation or percentages of representation in the Westfield community are here broken down by e economically disadvantaged students with disabilities, multilingual learners. You'll see an asterk next to some of these numbers. Those some of these subcores won't be represented. If there is a student population in a particular grade level that's less than 10, we don't present those scores for pretty obvious reasons. statistical anomalies that happen when students when there's such a small group of students and uh the possible possibility of being able to identify individuals in that subgroup. We have subgroups of white students, Hispanic students, black or African-American students, and Asian students.

016So, in this in this table, um this is a table that we also presented last year. You'll see the overall performance of our students in the various levels and the average scale score on these assessments for each grade level. This is in language arts and math. I mean, I'm sorry, this is in language arts. And then you'll also see in the last column total numbers of total percentage of students who met or exceeded expectations. That's a level fours and fives. So, as you can see in this table, clearly represented, Westfield continues to do incredibly well, particularly against the state average. In this table, Westfield's represented in blue. The state average is represented in black. And this is English language arts, a year-to-year comparison from 2122 school year all the way up until last year. As

017you can see here, um, exceeded expectations is in blue, met expectations is in green, approached expectations in yellow, partially met in orange, and did not meet expectations in red. Um, pretty consistent performance from year to year overall. So, here we're going to break into our subgroup performances. What I would encourage anyone who's here or watching at home, go on to the website, dive into these tables. They're really hard to see in a in a board presentation like this. Um, these tables are represented again the same colors representing the same performance levels and percentages are included in the bars. English language arts for Hispanic, Asian subgroup, black and African-American, white, and special education. and five students with 504 plans. This table represents a comparison between our performance in a grade level in 2024 of scale score

018and fours and fives um levels fours and fives compared to 2025. And then you'll see the percent change in the right hand column. And it's interesting, Liz Riley is going to come up and speak to you about the some of the work that she does in analyzing these scores and and what it's interesting when you really dive into these scores. When you're looking at year-to-year comparison, um it's hard to make judgment about these percentages because on a surface glance, you say, "What happened in this particular grade level?" But then when you dive deeper into the actual assessment, you see that these are moving targets that the questions that are being asked, the question types, the standards that are being addressed from one year to the next are vastly different. So comparing one test test tested

019year in one grade level to another tested year in another grade level is a really hard thing to do. So after these scores are published, what we do is we take a deep dive and we talk about this every year. We have structures in place in our school district that allow our administrators and our teachers to work diligently on analyzing not just big broad aggregate scores, but also individual student scores. And this is where teachers and supervisors will look at things like this evidence statements report that shows you, again, it's hard to see, but on the bottom of this report, you'll see the standards. And in this report, these standards are are sequenced from left the least difficult questions to the most or I'm sorry, yes, from the least difficult to the most difficult questions.

020We're Westfield performance. And again, this is just a sample report. Westfield performance is represented in a green dot. State average performance is represented in a blue square. We look at our comparisons to and the relative distance between when we see areas or a particular standard where we're close to the the state average. One of the things we do first is say well how many questions or how many students were asked that question with that standard. So there are reports that we get from Pearson from from in the NJSLA that tell us how many students experienced that question or that particular or questions related to that standard. And in some cases we'll pull up these reports and it will say 400 students in a grade level got this question they experienced. So that's a good measure

021for us to say okay does this does this now make sense? In some cases, we say, "Wow, this is really close to the state average, and only nine students had a question related to that standard." So, not a really great measure, but again, tables like this allow us to take a deeper dive into what kids are experiencing. Supervisors also break down these scores into areas of strength, areas of growth, and recommendations. So, um, and I say this every year, but this happens even before I get a chance to send them an email saying, "Okay, it's time. We have to start putting together the the board presentation for NJSLA and DLM." And then they immediately respond back. We we've already been doing this. We're on it. As soon as the scores were released, we started breaking

022these things down. [snorts] So, again, this is a sample of something that is brought into those meetings, into those PLC meetings, into those grade level meetings and department meetings, and shared with teachers. Um, so when we take these scores, we break them down, we find areas of focus and points of emphasis and use them and apply them to the curriculum work that we're doing in our classrooms. And I'm going to at this point in time turn it over to the person you really want to hear from, who is Liz Riley, who's going to kind of dive a little bit deeper into the qualitative analysis of the scores. >> Thank you. Hello everyone. I am going to try very hard to keep this short. You know me well enough to know that I can talk for

023a very long time. If you had told me when I became the supervisor of ELA that I'd be the one diving deep into data, I don't necessarily know whether or not I would have believed you. But I have to say it really has been an exercise that has supported all the work that we do across the level. So for elementary, you can read this slide. You can read what our what our strengths are and what our supports are. However, what I really want to do is highlight how the data supports everything that we are doing as a district with our MTS MTSS work and our intervention work. So our third grade, fourth grade, and fifth grade data has us hovering right around the goal of what we would want to be with regards to MTSS.

024The percentage of our students that our that are performing at a four and a five versus the percentage of our students that are not. We are hovering right at that line which is actually really really exciting because our intervention program that we have been working tirelessly on for the last three years is now targeting the support that students need and using data in order to do that. And NJSLA is one of those data points that we can use to triangulate what do kids need. So yes, we see our areas of strength. Yes, we see our areas of support. But what I'm most excited about within the data is what do we have in place that is actionable because of this data that we are seeing which is really great. Our elementary continues to perform incredibly

025well. Our foundation that we are building for our students is super strong from um from at all grade levels. So we'll continue to work on some of that vocabulary work that you see up there. But overall with elementary, I think that we once again we see really strong numbers as we have in the past. All right, intermediate school. So intermediate school, we know that traditionally and historically our sixth grade students, our scores generally decline with that transition to sixth grade, the amount of minutes that they have. What I'm happy to report is that that decline is decreasing, which means that what we are doing is working to to minimize that decline that we are seeing. The other thing that I'm happy to report in addition to what you see up there is as a cohort

026from sixth grade to 7th grade to 8th grade, that cohort improves each year, which is really wonderful. I know on one of those slides, seventh grade showed a decline from year to year, but when I go into the data and I look at the cohort, those seventh grade students performed better than when they were in sixth grade. So, yes, it's year-to-year, but we also look at that cohort data as well to really look at what we're doing. Um, I also want to take the opportunity to address something we're doing in ELA at the intermediate level, which is a focus on the joy of reading. So we have put a large emphasis on independent reading at the intermediate level trying to bookend the beginning of the week and the end of the week with time to

027read. We're investing in classroom libraries. We're investing in the space that kids are in so that they are surrounded by books with access to books. So while that's not a data point that is something that is dry being driven by the data. We know that students are not reading as much independently. So what can we do in addition to all the curricular items that we do in order to improve those scores in even more? Um and we also now are in our second year of Ireie which is another data point that is much more actionable than NJSLA because it's immediate for teachers. So that that data work that Dr. Bolton talked about we're now bringing into other data points that is immediate which is also really wonderful and working and then we have the high

028school. So the high school one of the things that you will notice and that I feel like I need to address right away was that decline in the high school numbers that we saw. So we did we did see a decline from last year's 9th grade to this year's 9th grade. So this is where if you had told me I'd be digging this deep and being able to really understand these numbers the way that I do. So one of the areas this year that we did not perform as strongly on were standards with regards to reading literature and being able to analyze how complex characters with multiple or conflicting motivations develop, interact, and drive the plot or theme. as well as analyzing how authors structure texts through pacing, flashbacks or parallel plots to create effects

029like tension or surprise. So those two standards in their own are incredibly there's a lot in there and a lot to unpack. When I look at that standard, that standard was last year was the fifth most difficult question that students saw this past test. it was the most difficult question that students saw. So when we look at our our performance on a standard that we're showing is a standard where we're not performing as well, it's very interesting. I know five doesn't sound like a lot, but when there's only 24 questions, five is a tremendous amount. So looking at that, okay, last year we performed a little better. Well, that question was was easier than it was this year. And what does that mean for those test results? The other thing that I looked at is

030the easiest question that was on on the NJSLA last year. The state average was 70% or 77% and we performed at a 90. Okay, wonderful. This year, the easiest question on the NJSLA, the state average was a 62. That's 15% lower. And ours was 75, which is once again about 15% lower. So when I look at what was asked and what that test look like, these two things really tell me that, you know, we we can't compare year to year. Now, that doesn't mean that we're going to take the results and we're going to sweep them aside, but it gives us a little bit of insight as to why those numbers may have been the way that they are. There's no doubt we have to emphasize our writing this year after looking at the data

031that that needs to be an area where we provide students with more targeted feedback with regards to their mechanics of writing and their sentence structure and their clarity of their writing as opposed to their ideas. So there's two separate areas to look at there. So, um, overall, once again, I say this every year that I am incredibly proud of every ELA teacher, every elementary teacher, every high school teacher, but I'm also really proud of their ability to look at the data and learn from the data and use that data in conjunction with other things that we have now that we haven't had in the past. And I think it's really creating a robust picture that we're able to make instructional decisions about and move forward. So, thank you very very much. You're welcome. Okay. Thanks,

032Liz. Um and again the these making relative comparisons for these assessments, it proves um a worthwhile endeavor to dig a little deep to and not just stay on a surface level and say, "Oh, what's what's happening here?" Um is there a problem? When you dive a little bit deeper, you get some context to the numbers. Um, and also something that I probably should have said at the onset of this presentation, um, but I'll say now is this is this all of these assessments are a picture in a photo album of assessments for our kids, right? Our kids are taking many many curriculum based assessments throughout the year, screening assessments that teachers are using that data to work off of. Um, they're and they're being assessed in all different types of ways in pencil and pencil

033and paper. um demonstrations of understanding through speeches and and projects and and challenging tasks. So these assessments while important and we do gather a lot of information from the data, they're one picture in a in a photo album of assessments. So that being said, moving on to math um math comparisons from um 24 to 25 school year. I'm sorry, this is the table of just our performance on last year's math assessments in NJSLA. Again, Westfield in blue, the state in black. You'll see the scale score in the first column, and then the percentage of students who performed at each performance level. And then at the end, in the last column, number of students, total number of students, the sum of the students who performed in levels fours and fives. Again, really strong performance. Something of

034note, um, 63% of our eighth graders in Westfield took algebra 1 or geometry. and if they're taking an algebra one or geometry te uh course, they have to take the algebra 1 or geometry assessment. So, you're looking at a a smaller group of students who are still taking math 8 in grade 8. This is broken this same table broken down by algebra and one and geometry. Algebra's 2 is not listed in this table because the n of number of students of that were enrolled in algebra 2 taking this assessment was um did not reach a threshold that we could record. Then again, year-to-year comparison from 2122 to 2425. Same colors, same chart, same performance, very consistent performance. Um, year-to-year comparison. Again, once you break it down into algebra 1 and geometry from year to year,

035the chart gets really small. This is where I encourage families um to jump online. This this um presentation will be posted online for everyone to view. If you really want to get in and scrutinize these tables and charts, um go to the Westfield Public Schools website. Subgroup performance in grades 3 through 8 in algebra 1. Again, if there's an N of under 10 in a particular subgroup, it's not going to be represented in these charts. This is our Asian subgroup performance. black and African-American white students, special education, and students with 504s. Again, comparisons from 2023 24 to 2425 of levels fours and fives. This shows their comparisons between scale scores which are pretty similar. And then percent of change in the last column. Green represents we went up from year to year. Again, this is

036not cohort comparisons. These are between group comparisons. Um the pinkish red represents a decline and blue is no change. [clears throat] And this is where I will turn it over to our math supervisor Liz Delandra. Evening everyone. So as you saw in that last slide, we have some a lot of green which we love to see, right? Um and also like where we did have those declines. we take a little look and as Liz was describing go a little deeper into all of this and see where where our struggles are and do some more detailed analysis. So in grades three through eight we have been seeing a steady increase in growth over time from the students still recovering from pandemic effects within mathematics but it's slow and it's steady and it's going in the right

037direction. So we just want to keep that moving. Um, and I account that to a lot of the intervention strategies that we've been putting into place since we added math interventionist two years ago to the small group instruction stuff that we are moving into to the universal screeners that we are implementing. So all these small changes are making strides in the right direction. One clear example of that progress is the current is the seventh graders in this report. Their cohort just last year alone had an 8% increase due to the interventions that we put into place. So that gives you a snapshot of where we're finding some really strong um results from our actions and the teachers have been amazing in trying to find ways to meet each of those individual students and and work

038with them to make connections to their real lives. So as we had mentioned like you can obviously read a slide so we won't go into the deep depths of that but what you will notice um in the areas of strength they may sound familiar because a lot of those are consistent strengths from last year. So, it's like, all right, we're holding our own. We're maintaining it. Um, and as Liz had mentioned, the tests vary sometimes. So, the fact that in elementary we're seeing the exact same strengths is an interesting counterpoint to the argument, but it we see what we are seeing in ELA, additionally in math, and you'll see a couple examples of that as I go through. In terms of the area of support, these are actually different areas from last year. So, we

039have moved some of our weaknesses hopefully into the middle of the pot, moving them into the right direction, but now we've got some new ideas to start exploring and expanding on. Um, in terms of addressing the concerns, we are continuing to use all of our modeling and reasoning techniques. In fact, the areas of support that we're showing are not the modeling and reasoning questions on the assessment. That's not where we're seeing our weaknesses. We're seeing it in like a small niche area of the standards. The I Ready screening tool has been very useful in identifying students earlier in grades three through five. And this come this year we are implementing the universal screener for number sense to try to address kindergarten through 2 grade weaknesses at an earlier level. Identify those students, get them the

040interventions they need so that they'll be back on grade level standards or ready for grade level standards. Moving on to the intermediate level, as um Dr. Bolton had indicated, the themes that you're seeing here are representing the math six, the math seven, and the math eight coursework because those standards align, our algebra students will not be reflected in this particular slide due to the large percentage of our eighth graders moving into there. In the areas of strength, it's worth noting that um the first of those three reasoning is a was an area of weakness last year. So now we have moved that back into the strength category. So it's a positive improvement with all those instructional shifts. In terms of the areas of growth, several of those were taught after the testing window or they

041had started before the testing window and we finished it after the testing window. So that's something that we're going to continue to look at is like where in the curriculum should these things be moved to to help support our students. But every time we change one thing, the state changes another thing. And so we constantly go through this routine. In addition, um, starting in September, we started using the new state standards. Now, while there only small tweaks along the way, we will see how they are reflected in the upcoming tests. And now that the test is adaptive, it's going to be a whole new ball of fun that we will be working with and trying to address. Um, so as you can see, some of those addressing concerns are the interventionist, the I Ready screening

042tools. We are also doing the small group instruction initiative throughout the district. So these are the students that will be receiving those services as we move forward. In terms of the high school, we're only talking about algebra and geometry. Remember the eighth graders are included in these numbers. And there are a few seventh graders actually included in these numbers. So 63% of eighth graders took an algebra or geometry. So you have a smattering of seventh, 8th and 9th graders in that data. The strength that you are seeing are consistent strengths that we have had. The only additional component is that third one where it's talking about the degree of difficulty that's related to a particular grade level expectation. That was an additional component of the standard that was embedded into this past year's test for

043the at least the version that we received. In terms of the areas of support, those are new. So where we shifted last year, this is a new set depending on the particular standards and and where they were. Um, in terms of addressing concerns, we are continuing to run the workshop program. So, we do have that as an additional support class for students. We still have the math resource center being available to students during every single flex period. The high school principles were able to provide that with the scheduling with the change to block. We've also have teachers offering office hours every day during the lunch block. So, there's a lot of built-in opportunities for extra help. And one last additional resource that the math department put in forward is the new algebra 1 course. It's

044the algebra 1A to help build in prerequisite skills into a class. A student has a double block of math during the day so that they have math every single day, even with the rotating drop to support those students with deficiencies that you may be entering high school with to try to remediate while continuing to move forward with the curriculum. So overall, we have some positive results. We love looking at the data, the math folks that is. Um, and as the as the teachers go through this, they're getting more and more creative with how they address it in their classrooms. Thank you. Thank you, Liz. Okay. And now science. Um, science [clears throat] is just different. Students are only tested in grades 5, 8, and 11. Students are only tested in grades 5, 8, and 11.

045Um, the performance levels are not there's not five levels of performance. There's four. The assessment itself as as as it's constructed is scored is comp is a completely different methodology. Um, students can receive partial credit for certain things or lose credit for certain things. Instead of getting whole right answers, they might be getting partial points. So it it um it is it and all of those things in in aggregate result in the change in the numbers. So as you can see in this the this table the scores of Westfield um are in blue and again state averages in black and those performance levels are different than what you might see on a ELA or a math test of students who are proficient or advanced proficient. But again the relative to the state averages that distance

046between state average and and Westfield performance is similar if not if not uh greater. Science performance year-to-year comparison is actually there was a a performance increase this year in the number of students who were advanced proficient from the previous four years or three years. our subgroup performance. Hispanic subgroup, Asian subgroup, black and African-American subgroup. And again, it's just a matter of numbers in in the grade level that we can present the data for. white subgroup, special education and students with 504s. And now I will turn it over to Tom Patterson. Good evening. having a good time. In science, our students are doing very well. Thank you. [laughter] Actually, let me take this out because you know me, if I go off book to talk about science, we'll be here all night. So, elementary science, one

047of the things that we're proud of is we showed uh even more strong growth this year. We had a 10-point increase over the average scale score and relatively fewer students at level one. We have more students that are now meeting or exceeding expectations and uh I think that's a result of just real instructional progress and some of the changes we made years ago. The teachers becoming very comfortable with them. Uh students are doing very well with pattern identification relationships and we want to deepen that by really continuing to to hone inquiry and data interpretation. Something that is typically uh you know something you don't see a lot of at elementary school but we're going to look at pushing more into that. Um, one of the things that we're going to be doing soon is is

048refining our curriculum and reviewing the foundational resources we use to al number one align it a lot closer to the intermediate school science program where you've probably heard me talk about open sed before and then uh also keeping the instructional practices that we've been developing in districts in all the classrooms things like CER uh that framework and hands-on activities to make sure that the students are always engaged with reinforcing and keeping doing those things to just continue the momentum going and uh to really deepen their their critical thinking ability as they go off into intermediate school. Speaking of intermediate school, uh the results are steady and they've been that way for years. Uh when you look at the data closely, you see that it represents, you know, strong modeling and argumentation skills, something we work

049on in our classrooms, but you know, we're we're trying to get more students to break out of that near category. Um, again, we see a depression in the raw scores compared to the elementary and the high school. And this is something that we talk about, my my science colleagues across the state, we talk about because they're seeing very similar things. Uh, and we have a hard time explaining it because of a little bit of a lack of access to some of the u some of the assessment items, but we're really confident in the resources and programming we use. And you know, one thing that occurs to me is um you would think that we would be doing exceptionally well in the intermediate area because that is the one area where we have officially adopted the

050state's model curriculum. So we're following the state's model curriculum, taking the state's test and what Westfield and other districts who have also adopted the state curriculum are not seeing a large jump in the scores and you say okay that's very interesting thing and one thing to consider is this assessment was developed before the state adopted the model curriculum and the science test is very unique. So maybe maybe that's a correlation uh but you know correlation does not uh necessarily mean causation. So, uh, it's I'm I'm very, um, proud of the work that the intermediate school teachers do. This time last year, I talked about them presenting at the science convention. They're going to be doing the same thing. And, uh, Westfield continues to be a lighthouse district for instruction at the intermediate school with the

051open science open SIED program in the high school. I mean, if you looked at the high school results, they're very, very strong. We're continuing this upward trend and we've risen over 5% over four years. And that's a real testament to both our teachers and our students. Um, we have more science students in the above category in the sensemaking critiquing, which um, I'll be honest with you, it's not something that we specifically go out there and target because the belief is that if just providing good solid science instruction, it's like the rising tide will raise all ships. And I think we have evidence to support that. Uh basically we're going to continue our focus on a clear progression of skills reinforcing vertical articulation because in in high school as you know everything's siloed. So making those

052connections from one course to another is always very very important and having these authent authentic like hands-on lab experiences in a new schedule is something that we're we're finding we're finding our way through. And um what we're going to be looking at in the in the near term to further improve our program is realigning or possibly realigning or at least examining how our students progress through the the program really to focus on that vertical articulation and make sure that we are building on understandings and skills and outcomes as they go yeartoear and we prepare these students for college. So overall, I'm very proud of the work that our teachers do and I think our students are fantastic. Thank you. >> Okay. And I might add I'm very proud of the work our supervisors do. >>

053Okay. Last last piece is the DM dynamic learning map for assessment. Students who take the dynamic learning map are in grades 3 through eight and grade 11. The they are students who possess some of the most significant um intellectual disabilities and we typically do not have enough students to report out on the data in district who sit for the the assessment. The assessment is um rooted in standards that are aligned to New Jersey stand New Jersey standards. Um they are called the essential elements for language arts, math and science which are alternative academic achievement standards. So there's there's alignment, but these standards are significantly modified. Next steps, as we've already discussed and the supervisors have gone through with you, our next steps are to meet with our teachers, unpack all of this information, develop plans

054for both groups of students and individual students, um, communicate with families in the best ways that we know how through teacher conferences and email and, um, and sharing sample work and, um, and sharing our screening. That's another thing that parents will be seeing pretty pretty soon within the next by the end of the month parents will have access to I Ready screening data. Um new state law students in grades K through three will have access to the screening data. We're going to make it available for all students who are experiencing a K through 8. So that'll be in the parent portal in Genesis. And that is our presentation. Any questions? Yes, Bren. >> A couple questions. Uh the first, since you mentioned that the state keeps changing the standards, so you can't compare one year

055to the other. I'm not going to ask you to explain the state's logic on that cuz it's not there. But uh do you agree with the cut scores that are being used uh to determine what meets grade level expectations, exceeds expectations, and so on? >> And do they align with what Westfield's expectations are given given the same data? So here here here's what I'll tell you. One, the standards don't change. The standards are the standards. The standards stay the same. How many questions are asked about a particular standard is what could change. So if students experience, you know, five questions about a really challenging standards versus five questions that prove to be a less challenging standard, that's what impacts scores. Um, >> do I agree or disagree with cut scores in terms of the levels?

056That's a that's a really complicated question too because even the levels change. So if you look at these scores from a different grade, it's all of these scores are are normed, right? So, for example, a level five in third grade math might begin at run would might run from um 801 to 850 where a level five in algebra 1 might be a 790 to 850. So the all of these scores are subject to the norming um controls that they go through and the the the statisticians that run all of that work. So I don't know if it's whether I agree or disagree with it. Um do I think our students perform extremely well? Yes. Do I think anecdotally if you were to talk to our teachers and say does this make sense the way we

057perform on these assessments versus the way students perform in school? I think it would make sense and that's some of the work that we do is try to triangulate these. So looking at one data point in a sea of data points isn't going to tell you a lot. But once we can take these data points, compare them to common assessments, compare them to screeners, compare them to the students experience in the school day, now we're starting to paint the the picture and fill the photo album. Okay. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions? Just curious, um, you you had the four-year trend going back. How I'm curious how the results compare to the pre-COVID years. >> Yeah. So, that was the slide that I showed last year. And, >> um, I probably should have just

058kept it in there just for for um, you know, funsies. But, um, >> so the we are at we are either at or beyond pre-COVID levels. >> Perfect. >> In in just about all areas. Yeah. and that that actual metric that's why I included that that um that slide last year to demonstrate that point. But um yeah, we are we're we've rebounded completely from something that was significant and and had an impact a negative impact on our on our students learning. >> Thanks. And we probably asked this last year, is there a way to compare to like districts instead of the state? >> We do. >> Okay. >> We we certainly do. We get reports from a couple of of vendors that we interact with who will compare us to like districts. That's not typically

059something that you would present in a in a board report or put in a slide deck just because >> it's um >> but you have it in your >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Um just for my own curiosity for the high the high school science test is that just biology and chemistry? Are they talking physics too when they take that test? >> Yeah, I mean we're talking about You want to jump in? It's a little bit of everything. >> That's a broad take the course. >> Even if that's okay. >> It's a whole whole lot of everything >> and our kids do great. So, >> that's tough. All right. All right. Um, and then the question for for Liz Riley, uh, the curriculum. Did we talk about the Ruckers program that they were using? Is

060that kind of one of the assessment tools that helps with this as well? >> Ruckers and JTS >> the Ruckers. >> Remember that we were good. So the Rucker program that he's talking about is we were accepted into the early reading grant three years ago. This is believe it or not year three where we are working with the state of New Jersey and Ruckers University to develop our early reading literacy program and screeners and everything. So that's K3. So ultimately that all of that work we're hoping we're going to see some some benefits in the later grades. But one of the benefits of that is that because of all of that work when the state law came out that we had to mandate we were it had to be that we had to screen every

061single student in grades K through three and report out we were already a year ahead because we had already done that last year. We had already reported out we had already uploaded all of those reports. So that work that we're talking about there also is what's driving the changes to our intervention program. So those students that are being as identified as needing for the intervention piece additional support, we are targeting that in a way that we haven't done in the past. So it's more fluid. It's more um it's a shared responsibility between teachers and interventionists which is also another piece of it where everyone owns a little bit of what is happening with that student and the communication has in um we've really put in place communication tools especially in conjunction with communication with child

062study team. So even if students are not um an a student with a special ed program, we still are bringing them in as experts so that we can have that conversation. So that's the that's the NJTSS grant in Ruckers. >> Thank you. >> No problem. And and that grant that grant has also enabled us to if we talk about data data literate teachers and and uh really diving deep into the data. These are non-tested grades mostly that are impacted by that grant in grades K1 and two that are not experiencing NJSLA, but they are diving deep into the data of these screeners and making decisions and form forming small groups of uh instructional groups based on that that data that they're getting. So, um, it's it's been an incredibly helpful grant to be a part

063of. >> Cool. Thank you. And I don't have any math questions, so I apologize to Liz. [laughter] >> Okay. Any other question? Yes. >> For for the alternative test, the DM? >> Yes. um for students who are repeatedly not passing or you know um not meeting expectations is it an option to how does that work is there is it is there are there I know it's um our most uh cognitively impaired but yeah >> is there an option um to take that if students are not able to pass >> so I don't know that it would be based on your performance on the NJSLI okay I think that's more of a child study team decision based on the the the current levels of performance of the student and the severity of their disability and what's

064most appropriate for their program. >> Right. That makes sense cuz like you said, it's a snapshot like a moment in time. >> And you're you're you're also as a district capped at the percentage of students that can engage in a DM for for those specific reasons. They're saying this is not for everybody. This is for our most significantly disabled students. you want to tell them the alternatives like the portfolio. >> So that's that's N so that's NJGPA. >> So NJGPA >> that's no I don't think that's was the question. >> Yeah. >> Thanks. [laughter] Any other questions? >> I have I have just one. So, it's come up in our curriculum committee and it's also as mentioned hint at in the presentation that this test may be shifting yet again to something that is more

065adaptive and I know a letter went out to parents not too long ago about a sort of test run of sorts for lack of a better way of putting it. If you would if you could just elaborate just a little bit on that for folks who might be listening. >> I'm glad you brought it up. So, yes, from that was a letter that was sent out in principal newsletters this past Friday. Um from October 27th to November 14th, the state has generously bestowed upon us the the um privilege of field testing the new NJSLA and NJGPA. So that is typically going to take about three sessions. Three there are three sessions. There's a reading session, a writing session, and a math session. There are going to probably typically would take about three days of testing.

066um not three full days but three different days of testing. Um principles will be in contact with their individual schedules. This is going to be a little bit different of an experience from typical NJSLA or NJGPA testing. What we've tried to do over the past few years is really try to organize the schedules that stu schools are engaging in in this testing. So those windows for fifth grade are similar across school the schools not fifth grade is you know the beginning of the month and another fifth grade and another school is the end of the month and it's kind of harder to keep track. Um we've tried to organize that in our typical testing schedule. This this field testing is going to be a little bit different because it was sprung on us in late

067August early September. So I was not going to ask principles completely upend field trips and concerts and whatever else to so we're kind of fitting this in where we can. Um, this is a practice run for us for something that's going to be taking place in the spring and that's the way we're treating it. Not not low stress. We are not going to stress teachers out. We're not going to stress students out about this, but it's a practice run for a new testing company and a new test. Um, that hopefully we get some good lessons learned. Um, we will not be getting any data from that field test. So, we're not going to get performance reports. We're not going to get standards and evidence statements and all of that. So, we will just engage in

068what we've been told we're required to engage in and then um be ready for the spring assessment. So, more information for families to come about the individual schools schedule for testing for field for field testing. Okay. >> And with that, >> all right, we're good. So, I want to I want to thank you and and the supervisory team for coming out for spending time with us on this. Um, a major takeaway for parents out of this in addition to crunching the numbers is that, you know, the assumption sometimes is, well, we have a set curriculum and we're just going to just keep banging at it every year the same thing over and over again. But even in response to just this, you know, the message that should come clear is that our teachers are constantly

069looking, constantly reviewing, constantly evaluating, not just in this in response to one test, but throughout the year. Um, and that takes a lot more work than than on top of the regular teaching day-to-day. So, thank you all for for doing that and for uh for putting our kids first. Thank you. And speaking of putting students first, uh, we will begin our reports. We'll start with our high school student representative report. Ben, thank you. Since the last board meeting, many exciting new things have taken place at WHS. On Thursday, September 24th, back to school night took place. WHS was excited to welcome many new and returning parents to the school. Many clubs, sports, and organizations were well represented. The day after was club day held during the common lunch block. This year's club day was arranged

070in a slightly different format. Instead of having club members staff tables out in the court courtyard, clubs were instructed to set up their posters on the wall of gym 5 in a gallery walk format. Despite the change from previous years, the gym stayed packed from start to finish, signaling another successful club day. On October 3rd, SJA sent out a schoolwide newsletter to recap September and communicate important information regarding the pinkout activity period to students. Last week, October 6th through 10, the community service club held a toiletry drive for families in need and the student assistant counselors Sachs held a week of respect spirit week. That Friday, SJ held one half of the sacred senior sunrise sunset tradition. Seniors gathered on Keller Field at around 7:00 a.m. to grab a bagel breakfast, take photos, and enjoy

071the sunrise to symbolize entering their final year of high school. At the end of that school day, members of the SJA board gave graduates of the class of 1975 a tour of WHS. Yesterday, the girls volleyball team won 2 in their annual pinkout volleyball game against Monroe. They raised tens of thousands of dollars to go towards resources for breast cancer patients. Finally, the play has started the rehearsal for their fall winter production of Blue Stockings to take place on November 20th to the 22nd. Regarding the new schedule, the SJA continues to work with Mrs. Offenders to address any issues, including on students wearing their lanyards. Some students are saying that dropping a class has made homework more bearable and days shorter. Others contest that the longer class periods make a heart of focus. There was

072a previous concern that a rainy day would cause too much congestion during lunch. However, the auditorium was opened up and successfully reduced overcrowding. Students are also reporting positively on the implementation of office hours. Looking forward, SGA's annual student staff pinkout volleyball game and activity period will take place on Friday, October 24th. During the 55minute activity period, a student staff volleyball game will be played and broadcast to this whole school, while classes that are not in the gym will decorate their doors and write cards to patients undergoing breast cancer treatment. Starting October 20th, SA will hold a spirit week where teachers will give raffle tickets to their most spirited students. Raffle tickets will also be given to students after purchasing $1 bracelets sold by the SA and community service club members. Raffle prizes will be courtesy

073of the SJA and local businesses and winners of the raffle will be announced during the activity period broadcast. Finally, the SJA will be holding a bead competition that day. Beads [snorts] are given out at beads are given out at the start of the day and students will play rock paper scissors with each other to gain their opponent's beads. Those with the most beads will be called down to the gym to play rock paper scissors for a grand prize. The halls are already a buzz in anticipation of the UN upperassman homecoming dance to take place that same night. This year's theme is go pink. Although students are not required to wear pink, the gym will be decorated pink for the dance that night. Also on Friday is another round of SJ run tours, this time for

074members of the class of 1970. Thank you. >> Great. >> Thank you, Ben. Um, move [clears throat] to the board committee reports. We'll start with curriculum instruction and programs. Kristen, okay. The SIP committee met on October 6th to review three areas of curriculum work. special education instructional resources, world language and multilingual learners, curriculum revisions, and updates to the visual and performing arts program at Westfield High School. Dr. Michael Weissman, Alex London, and Kathleen Neshwa presented a comprehensive overview of the new instructional resources pro proposed to support students with disabilities across grades K through 12. The team emphasized that these specialized evidence-based programs are designed to meet students individual learning needs when traditional classroom supports are insufficient to help them meet their IEP goals. Among the resources presented were Number Worlds, a math intervention program for

075below grade level learners in a self-contained elementary program, Wilson reading systems and just word just words structured literacy programs based on the science of reading and Orton Gillingham principles to support students with dyslexia and read 180, a blended learning reading intervention targeting all components of literacy for middle school and high school students. Additional programs include Teachtown, a whole child special education tool addressing adaptive behavior, life skills, and social communication, and SMARTS, an executive function strategy curriculum proposed for high school study skills course. These special education program resources are being recommended for the board approval on this evening's agenda. The committee also heard a presentation from Enrique Pink on proposed revisions to the world language and multi-learner curriculum. In world language, the committee reviewed a plan to expand Spanish instruction to include grades K through 12,

076aligning with the most recent New Jersey student learning standards for world languages. This expansion will build on the district's existing K through I mean sorry uh grades 3 through 5 program and provide students with earlier exposure to language learning during the critical period of for acqu for acquisition. The updated ML curriculum was also presented for grades K through 12 including targeted documents for lower elementary grades and newcomer students. The revised world language and multilingual learner curriculum are being recommended for the full board's approval on this evening's agenda. The final presentation was led by Shauna Longo and focused on the visual arts and performing arts curriculum updates. The committee reviewed updates to a range of high school courses in music, visual arts, theater, and dance. A specific re revision was highlighted in grade 7 21st century

077communications course where unit 5 has been reframed from social media acting to communicating in a digital world to better reflect current communication skills and digital learning practices. The revised VPA courses will be put forth for the full board at the November meeting at the November board meeting. And I actually forgot to look up when SIP is meeting, but we will be meeting in November before the board meeting. [laughter] So I forgot to look that up. >> Excellent. >> November 10th. >> There we go. [clears throat] >> Thank you, Kristen. Uh, next, Brendan for finance and facilities. >> Yep. >> Finance and facilities met Friday morning uh for about two hours. uh start with when I report on every month, our healthcare costs. We're watching them. Uh September is usually a bad month for us because

078we get claims from procedures that happened in July and August. Uh this year or this September was the worst month we've had since we self-insured. Our claims were slightly over $2 million, which is a significant jump from previous years. Um we do have reserves uh that will cover us for that. We're not at a crisis point yet, but Patty is meeting with Etna and Brown and Brown representatives later this week to take a deeper dive into claims and figure out what's causing certain increases. Um, but the district and certainly the board has no access to employee level data. Any conversations that Patty has would be we have one employee that had a surgery. Uh, we have one employee that gave birth. Those kind of details. Um, but we're looking into it. We do have stop-loss

079insurance on each employee. So if any one employee or family group, I forget exactly how it's broken, uh cost us more than 250,000, we are covered for the rest of that, but we are responsible as the insurance company because we're we're self-insured uh for the first 250,000 on each employee. So we are watching that. Um next, we talked about uh an optional technology insurance policy. Um, as we as the board got an email a little over a week ago or a little over a month ago from a parent concerned about the cost of replacing a Chromebook that was damaged. And then at our last board meeting, we had a parent come and mention the same thing. Uh, Patty and Brian's offices went through seven or eight different options for policies and we are going to

080be presenting an option to parents that will start I believe January >> or earlier. We're still working it out as the exact month, but uh we're we're getting there. >> The the latest would be January, >> right? But the cost of the policy would be $40 a year and it would be prrated for this first year. Uh so if we start in January, it'd be $20 or $ 199.99 per family. Um but more on that to come and there will be a signup form. Again, it will be an optional policy. Uh but details will follow. Um, next we talked about a proposed SOP uh for professional service providers, meaning the cycle in which the board would review uh our service providers, meaning lawyers, attorneys, lawyers, accountants, architects, engineers, auditors, all of those services that we

081contract out. Right now, it's on a review cycle of whenever we feel like it. And we'd like to formalize that into a more rigid structure where all of these contracts are reviewed every year. Every provider is reviewed uh through the finance and facilities committee with input from other committees and then every 3 to 5 years we would go out and solicit for new providers or see what's out there. uh anybody that is currently providing a service would obviously be welcome to participate in that process and the board wouldn't be bound to make any change but we would want to pursue pursue seeing what's out there on a more rigid structure. Um and then lastly, the bul really the bulk of our meeting was talking about uh the bond construction and different methods to roll that

082out. And one thing we're seriously considering in the district is project labor agreements. um legacy. Our construction manager recommends uh using PLA's for projects over X million dollars uh instead of across all of the construction. Uh small things uh furniture assembly, technology, installations, those kind of things should be done through state contracts and co-ops, not through uh specific construction contracts. Um, Legacy is going to prep prepare a draft for us of what that contract would actually look like and then we will have a real robust conversation about the specifics of implementing it, but the committee as a whole agreed with the concept of proceeding with investigating it at a much deeper level. Uh, it's not something Westfield's ever done before, but that's not a reason not to do something. And then our next meetings are

083before our next board meeting. So any questions comments concerns crickets [laughter] >> hearing hearing none but crickets um let's uh move to a report by policies personnel and governance I think that's Mary >> thank you the policy personnel and governance committee met on Thursday October 9th from 4:00 to 5:30 um I was there with Sono Patel, Robert Bacio, Leila Minarelli, Dr. Gonzalez, and Dr. Greer. We started by reviewing updated job descriptions with Dr. Greer for various coaching positions at both the intermediate and high school levels, including freshman, varsity assistant, head coach, and associate coach roles. The committee also asked the administration to create a new job description for junior varsity coaches to make sure we covered every level. These job descriptions are being recommended for approval on tonight's agenda. Um, as referenced in last month's

084report and in light of the recent and heartbreaking tragedies involving students on bicycles, we wanted to take another look at um, policy 8681, which covers school walking and biking to focus on how we can include the ebikes and related safety programming in the policy. Um, no immediate changes are being made, but the plan is to update it later this year with a more complete approach, especially for the intermediate and high school levels. Building on a conversation we had earlier in the year, which supports our goals with sustainable Jersey for schools, we also talked about anti- idling effort efforts around our schools. Um, we had a lengthy debate on idolling. Um, to move forward, we are proposing that the board adopt an official resolution and take steps like sharing educational materials with families and staff and

085making sure every school has no idling signs at drop off and pickup spots. We're also already using Zonar software on our buses, which helps monitor idling time. The committee recommends putting the resolution on the November agenda, so nothing for tonight. As for board goals, we reviewed all the suggestions that have come in from the board um regarding our self-evaluation in individual members um and samples from other districts. The committee recommends sending all of this to our um NJSBA field service rep for feedback before we finalize anything. Um lastly, we talked about possible revisions to the 2026 2027 school year calendar. We are still in the planning process, so there's no action tonight, but the goal is to make any final decisions by January. And our next meeting is scheduled for November 13th before the next

086board meeting. Everybody seems to be adding that. Any uh questions or concerns? >> Brendan, nothing. Crickets. >> Oh, we got lots. >> Okay. [laughter] >> Thank you. >> Excellent. Thank you very much. Um, just just building off that very quickly, I mean the on on the issue of bike safety in particular, our our schools for the last few weeks have been engaging in bicycle safety courses uh and assemblies, especially at the middle school level. Um, and our teachers have put a lot of time into integrating those things not just as as just regular assemblies, but also uh as part of the curriculum. And that's some of the things that I know Mary was referencing that we're looking at. Um I want to make sure um we focus a lot on the kids and what they

087need to do for safety purposes, but we are also parents um and we can do a lot in our uh in our capacity to support the work that our teachers are doing uh to help ensure the safety of our students uh and to be good examples for what they're doing as well. Um so you know just please as we you know I don't think anybody wants to talk about future tragedies. Um, so to the extent that we can all just take a little time, make sure that we are being supportive of what we're seeing, you know, that's that's going on in the curriculum and and our students, you know, sometimes it's easy to look at these assemblies and say, "Well, it's just an assembly. We we we could have spent it doing this, that, or

088the other thing." you know, the the level of importance and and the level of reinforcement for your for your children is is is is really there because if if they sit through the assembly, they get some ideas and at home they're not seeing that reinforced, they they begin to think that, you know, what was the point of me being here to begin with and that's not the message that we want to send um for for students looking at the safety. Uh and it's also a good time for us to reassess uh how we do things. Um you know, look, we're all busy. you know, our kids are going all kinds of different places. Uh, but there's no place we have to be that fast that we can't just stop for a second and make sure

089that we are getting where we have to go safely. Um, there is no broken leg or or injured child or worse that's worth not being that isn't worth being a few minutes late from wherever. Um, so just please take the time to to kind of think these things through and and uh if we all work together, I think we'll we'll ensure better safety. Um, and with that, um, I'm going to move to recognize the public. This is on agenda action items only. Uh, during this portion of the meeting, district residents and staff are invited to address the board of education on agenda action items only. Uh, for reference, these are the items marked, they're colorcoded at items 9 to 13 on the agenda. Uh, there will be a comment period at the end of board

090action to talk about things that are not uh, up for action today. So, if you're not sure you have that, just hold on uh a little bit and and we'll get to the public comment for that. Uh we ask a courtesy to allow current students or staff of the Westville public schools to speak first. The board request that individuals sign in and state their name, municipality of residents, and group affiliation if applicable for the record, the specific action items they are commenting on, and ask that all remarks be directed to the board president or designate and not to individual members or staff. The board asked that members of the public be courteous and mindful of the rights of other individuals when speaking. Specifically, comments regarding personnel matters are discouraged and cannot be responded to by

091the board. Students and employees have specific legal rights afforded by laws of New Jersey. The board bears no responsibility, nor will it be liable for any comments made by members of the public. If a matter concerning a district staff member is of interest or concern to a resident, the matter should be referred to the responsible building principal, superintendent of schools, or the board of education, either by telephone, letter, or email. Although the board may not respond to items raised during the public forum, all public comments will be considered. Please note that if any member of the public becomes disruptive during the meeting, the board president may terminate the participant statement. Continued disruptions may result in removal from the meeting or adjournment of the meeting. Each speaker's statement will be limited to three minutes in duration.

092Okay. Seeing no one for agenda action items, I will close that portion of public comment. Uh and let's move to board action. Uh first, I'd like to ask uh first I will move uh to approve the minutes of the September 16th, 2025 regular board meeting and executive session minutes. Do I have a second? Kent. I think we can do this by voice vote. Uh, all in favor? >> Any opposed? Any abstensions? That carries. Uh, next to the governance section. Uh, Kristen, I'd like to ask the board to move items A and B under the governance section of tonight's agenda. Can I get a second? >> Second. >> So, we can vote. >> Rob Bonaccio, >> yes. >> Kent Diamonds, >> yes. >> Brendan Gallagghan, >> yes. Charles Galinus. Leila Morelli. >> Yes. >> Sonel Patel.

093>> Yes. >> Kristen Sonic Schmeltz. >> Yes. >> Julie Steinberg. Mary Wickens. >> Yes. >> All right. Next, we'll move to the personnel items on the agenda. Mary. >> I'd like to move items A to U under the personnel section of tonight's agenda. Um, is there a second? Kristen, sorry. Dr. Gonzalez, you have. >> Yes. Uh this evening we do have uh one retirement uh and that is Rob Anderson. Rob Anderson has been an employee of the Westfield Public Schools since September 1996. Known to everyone, Rob brings quiet leadership, reliability, and a strong work ethic to every task. Rob is the kind of person you could count on to get the job done. No complaints, no shortcuts, just solid, dependable work. He has a natural ability to step in wherever help is needed, always supporting

094his team and setting an example of professionalism and pride in his craft. With nearly three decades of experience, Rob has been an invaluable asset to the district. His knowledge, his calm approach, and his willingness to do whatever it takes to support the schools has left a lasting impact. We're grateful for all that Rob has done for the Westfield School District, and we wish him nothing but the best in his well-earned retirement. Thank you. >> Rob Bonaccia, >> yes. >> Ken Diamonds, >> yes. >> Brendan Gallagghan, >> yes. >> Charles Galinus. >> Leila Morelli, >> yes. >> Sonol Patel, >> yes. >> Kristen Sonic, yes. >> Julie Steinberg, Mary Wickens, >> yes. >> All right. Next is finance and facilities and the growing legendary diamond donation report. >> All right. I'd like to move items A

095through M on the finance facilities section. But before I ask for a second, I'd like to highlight some donations which will bring to date the total of $133,369. We have six donations we want to call out. First, Edison PTSO donated $1,159 to purchase a poster printer for the EIS staff workroom. Special thanks to them. Secondly, Michelle and Rob Fischer donated an upright piano, a Young Chang PE118 Pramburgger signature series, estimated value of $2,500 to support the elementary music department of W. Thank you, Michelle and Rob. Third, we had an anonymous donation of $500. Donation will be split equally to support the instrumental music classes of Mr. Stanton at WHS and Miss Gant at EIS. So, thank you, Mr. to Mrs. Anonymous. The fourth, Franklin PTO donated $3,6924 to purchase padding for the outdoor basketball pose

096at Franklin Elementary School. Safety, I like it. Thank you. Fifth, Lewis Lopez donated a Scarlet 2i2 audio interface. Estimated value $170. A Blue USB microphone, estimated value $120. and two Dell monitors, combined value $160, plus a tableau tabletop microphone stand, estimated value $40. And all this was to support the modern music program, Adis. Thank you, Mr. Lopez. And lastly, the Wilson PTO donated a whopping $71,4840 for the purchase and installation of playground equipment, inclusive orbit spinner, or rocker, and rubber surfacing for the Wilson playground. Thank you to the Wilson PTO and we'll be out there. Any questions or comments second? >> Oh, may I have a second, please? >> Kristen, thank you. >> Rob Bacio, >> yes. >> Kent Diamond, >> yes. >> Brendan Gallagghan, >> yes. >> Charles Galinus. Laya Morelli, >> yes. Sonel

097Patel, >> yes. >> Kristen Sonic Schmeltz, >> yes. >> Julie Steinberg, Mary Wickens, >> yes. Okay. Next, we'll move to the policy section, Mary. >> Okay. I'd like to move items A and B under the policy section of tonight's agenda. And before I have a second, we're just these are first reading by the SIP committee due to Strauss Esme updates. So, uh, one is statutory curricular requirements, which is a mandatory policy, and student sun protection, which is also mandatory. >> Can I get a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Kent. >> Rob Bonacio, >> yes. >> Kent Diamonds, >> yes. >> Brendan Gallagan, >> yes. >> Charles Galinus. >> Laya Melli, >> yes. >> Sonel Patel, >> yes. >> Kristen Sonic Schmelts, >> yes. Julie Steinberg, Mary Wickens. >> Yes. >> Uh, and finally, the

098curriculum instructions and programs portion. Kristen, >> Kristen, I'd like to note that it's A through E. >> I got that. >> Yeah, >> I saw it, but I did almost miss it. [laughter] >> Um, I'd like to move items A through E under the SIP section of tonight's agenda A and B speak to the curricula and resources that we discussed in the SIP report. CS the board to approve some field trips. D asks the board to approve student teachers and interns and E asks the board to approve the nursing service plan. Can I get a second? Mary >> Rob Bacio? >> Yes. >> Kent Diamonds. >> Yes. >> Brendan Gallagghan. >> Yes. >> Charles Gelinus. >> Leila Morelli. >> Yes. >> Sonel Patel. Yes. >> Kristen Sonic Schmelts. Yes. >> Julie Steinberg. Mary Wickens. >>

099Yes. Uh, I will call the board's attention to the notes for the record. Uh, there is no unfinished or new business submitted in time for this meeting. So, we will move on to liaison reports. >> I have one. >> Kristen, you have a couple? >> I do. >> All right. >> Okay. So, I have one for the PTC meeting. Um, on September 17th, the PTC held its first in-person meeting of the year. Julie and I attended alongside um Dr. Gonzalez and Miss Ernst. Some highlights from the meeting include that the PTC is focused on raising $10,000 by the end of 2025 to support the PTC scholarship and the Cuthburn Cuthburnson scholarship. Um the special education committee held its back to school night at Edison on September 9th. It was a successful night for all those

100who attended including breakout sessions for parents to meet with the child's study team. They also have two more events coming up in October and November. On October 16th, the special education committee will be hosting an informative session entitled Legals ins and outs at 700 p.m. at Edison. And on November 20th, they will be hosting a parent social. The breaks committee hosted bike and walk to school day at the elementary schools on October 1st. It was a beautiful morning full of lots of smiles and energy. Dr. Gonzalez, the six elementary principles, and I all got to walk with different students that morning as part of a raffle event that um was hosted by the breaks committee, and I can say it was really fun. Uh lastly, across the district, PTO's are planning a wide variety of

101events to engage families and support schools. Recent and upcoming activities include book fairs, back to school nights, fall dances, author visits, a mom's fundraiser, Chipotle fundraiser, mini family photo sessions, back to school picnics, and fall festivals. Um, the next PTC meeting is actually tomorrow and it will be held virtually. And then just to follow up on the different things the PTO's are doing, um I got to meet with Roosevelt on October 10th and something that I'd like to highlight is Roosevelt's 100th year celebration will be coming up in the fall of 2026. So that's um an exciting event that their PTO is working on right now to plan for. And then on September 17th, I had the honor of filling in for Mary at Jefferson. And I really do mean the honor. I left that

102meeting very energized. It's fun to go to a school that you don't typically go to. Um, and see how blessed we are in Westville to have such dedicated and supportive parents. Um, so that was a great night and they have their fall festival coming up this Friday and that if if it does rain, it will be the following Friday. So, I hope you all have fun. Mary, >> first thanks to Kristen for filling in. >> Good. I'm glad you had fun. I'm glad. Um I just have a few events. I went to the reccomission meeting at the beginning of this month. So they have um things coming up for um families in town. Uh Saturday, October 25th. They're having a trunk or treat at Brightwood Park. Um, you need to pre-register on the website on

103the recreation department website. And also for uh Westfield boys, grades 1st through 5th, they're having a me and my guy dance um on November 2nd. Uh so it's an adult and any Westfield resident boys are invited to attend. That's registration uh had opened on October 1st. Uh again, it's going to be held on Sunday, November 2nd at the Westwood in Garwood. Um and just for um people watching, they have a lot of great programs for workshops for kids and youth programs. Um I know November 6th there's going to be workshops uh with Lego Masters coming up. All of this is is on the website you can pre-register for. um usually for a fee. Um and they also have it for uh teens, the Legos coming up. Thanks. >> Any other reports? Um I will give

104one plug. I'm the leazison to the high school PTSO. Um generally Ben covers most of what's going on at the high school, which I which I greatly appreciate having the backup there. Um but for the high school PTSO, the the uh the parents who are part of that organization uh spend a ton of time driving and supporting uh the the activities that the SGA and the students are planning, but also uh spend a lot of time planning and funding uh teacher appreciation gifts and a lot of the uh a lot of the traditions that our seniors are going to experience. Uh if you want to know what's going on at the high school, if you want to be involved, please do sign up. Uh there is a PTO newsletter that is sent out on a

105weekly basis. uh but they need your email and your support to uh to make sure that you have all that information. So uh they work very very hard. They spend a ton of time uh on on all these activities. Uh you want to talk about unsung heroes. Um but uh please do uh sign up and uh and stay informed about what's going on at the high school. Um and with that I will move to public comment uh the second portion of public comment. During this portion of the meeting, members of the public are invited to address the board of education on any topic. As a courtesy, allow curtain students and staff of the Westville public schools to speak first. The board request that individuals sign in and state their name, municipality of residents, and group

106affiliation if applicable for the record, and asked that all remarks be directed to the board president or designate, not to individual board members or staff. The board asks that members of the public be courteous and mindful of the rights of other individuals while speaking. Specifically, comments regarding personnel matters are discouraged and cannot be responded to by the board. Students and employees have specific legal rights afforded by the laws of New Jersey. The board bears no responsibility, nor will it be liable for any comments made by members of the public. If a matter concerning a district staff member is of interest or concern to a resident, the matter should be referred to the responsible building principal, superintendent of schools, or the board of education either by telephone, letter, or email. Although the board may not respond

107to items raised during the public forum, all public comments will be considered. Please note that if any member of the public becomes disruptive during the meeting, the board president may terminate the participant statement. Continued disruptions may result in removal from the meeting or adjournment of the meeting. Each speaker statement will be limited to 3 minutes in duration. Go for Good evening board. >> [snorts] [clears throat] >> Good evening board. I won't be before you long. Sorry. A masterpiece, a marvel. The only thing sad is that it's so very true. These are quotes that been attributed to our 28th president Woodro Wilson about a movie called The Birth of a Nation. The Birth of a Nation was a silent film that released in 1915 and it takes place in reconstruction and it depicts white actors and

108blackface committing deplorable acts. It is also describes the Kucllex clan as the saviors of the nation and protecting American citizens and American ideals from those who would want to change it. President Woodrow Wilson in an unprecedented decision openly endorsed the movie and had it publicly screened in the White House being the very first movie ever screened in the White House in in on February 8th, 1915. Most historians agree that this movie and the president's endorsement of this movie is solely responsible for the resurgence of the clan in 1920. Woodro Wilson, a white southerner, identified deeply with these ideals and the deep-seated prejudice that he believed against black people being inferior throughout all of his presidency. He was a staunch believer in eugenics, an outspoken white supremacist even before his presidency. When he was the president

109of the of Princeton University, he openly discouraged and actively made it nearly impossible for African-Americans to be admitted into his institution, believing that there was no way that any of them would have been able to attend. After World War I, after World War I, Wilson vetoed a racially equality law which would allow non-European nations to have equal say in world affairs. He was the only person in there to be able to veto it because there was no way that anyone of an uncivilized world would be able to leave and lead responsibly. He also was responsible for resegregating the government, something that has been integrated since the presidency of Ulissiz Srant and was stayed in stayed there until the presidency of Truman. Now, why am I bringing all of this up? I'm bringing all this up

110because I was raised in this town. I attended McKinley Elementary right around the corner. I went to Edison Intermediate and I graduated as a Blue Devil in 2005. I love this town and I would want nothing more than be able to raise my children here. According to the 2020 census, Westfield is 78% white and 2% black. myself despite being that 2% I never in my entire life living in this town have ever felt any sort of racism, bigotry or discrimination because that's not what this town stands for. Ultimately, what I am proposing is I am proposing to change the name of Wilson Elementary School. The morals and the values of an overtly racist son of a confederate slave owner does not align with the histories and values of Westfield and our elite school system. Can

111I keep going or [music] no? Okay. Now, you're probably asking me what will we change the name to? Now, if we move on to the final part of my proposal, one detail that I neglected to say is how I made it to Westfield. My grandmother, Patricia Anne Fagens, was a daughter of a World War II veteran, a civil rights warrior, an olymp an American Olympic swimmer, and a Westville native for 50 plus years. She was also one of the founders and executive director of the Westfield Neighborhood Council on Kakiola Place for many years, which served and educated numerous youth, adults, and senior citizens in Westfield every single year. She was also an active warrior in the civil rights movement, including marching with Dr. Martin Luther King. And after his death, she had several brunches with

112his with her his wife Ketta and how they can continue his legacy in Westfield, which led to in 1987 her co-leading the Dr. Martin Luther King Association and their annual program that they have every year, which is responsible for awarding thousands of dollars in scholarships to Westfield students. The many accomplishments and qualities of this woman is way too numerous for me to be stated in the short time that I have. But if you ask five people in Westfield about Pat Fagens, one of them is sure to know her. She unfortunately passed away and and just 2021 due to a complication with CO. Now, finally, to avoid any sort of confusion on what I am proposing, what I am proposing is we change the name of Wilson Elementary School to be renamed Patricia A. Fagan's Elementary.

113Now, I understand that what I'm proposing is a radical change, and I know that we can be uncomfortable with change, myself included. Wilson Elementary School has been around since 1935, but this change is vital for growth. And without radical change, we would never have gained independence. Without radical change, we would never have had the laws that we have now that protect us. >> I'm sorry. There is a way we we do have a bit of a time limit. So, if you can just I didn't want to. You were >> I have one more sentence. >> Yeah. No, it's fine. I appreciate it. Yeah. >> Thank you. One more sent. There is a way to honor the past while changing the better for the future. Our children here in Westfield deserve it and there is a

114way that the we can honor the past. So, thank you. Thank you. All right. Um, seeing nothing else, I want to thank you for sharing about your grandmother. That was that was certainly an inspiring story. I appreciate that. Um, and with that, I will close uh the second public comment. Uh, and I will make a motion to adjurnn. May I have a second? Ken. Uh, all in favor? We can do by voice. Any opposed? Any abstensions?