001good evening everyone we're ready good evening everyone I like to call the order to order the regular meeting of the Bogota board of education for Tuesday April 25th 2023 please land for the flag salute the United States thank you the New Jersey open Public's meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of the public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provision of this act the Pagoda board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time please tear off posted in the Pagoda Borough Hall communicated by letter to the record power with the clerk of the borough of Bogota and posted on the Pagoda Board
002of Education website for fun Mr solvers Alvarez you see her but we'll get back to her again Mr Alvarez president Mr Chavez president Mrs Cruz president Mr Navarro president Mr solivo Epson Mr Ortega Miss ruckett president Mr Miranda President we have the Quorum Mrs Alvarez recording in progress okay now I can hear you guys good evening all right Mrs Thomas we are getting the Roll Call your prison all right thank you and for the record uh trino olivo had a personal matters to attend to also present on superintendent Damian Kennedy board attorney William sukis School business administrator board secretary irvonne epsil assistant board secretary Elizabeth Ruiz and tonight we have no student representative I like to open the floor to hearing a Citizens and agenda items only do I have a motion motion okay if
003you'll have a second second John Mr Ortega any board discussion all in favor um any opposed is there any member of the public who would like to address any items on agenda only please state your name in street address you have five minutes you have a motion of Clone hearing close hearing of citizens on agenda items only motion Mr Chavez do I have a second Navarro Mr Navarro any board discussion all in favor aye thank you moving on none opposed okay moving on to section 3.1 of our agenda superintendent's report please provide your superintendent report Mr Kennedy okay first of all I got a couple of things I just wanted to point out some agenda items uh six uh dot five box style bullying presentation this is something that we're going to be doing over
004the next four weeks in May uh that is going to uh be a presentation with this company uh with different topics surrounding bullying and helping parents to navigate and provide practical tips when dealing with their children's day-to-day lives uh we're going to be offering it in English one night and in Spanish the next night my understanding that is after the four weeks we will be able to post all of the presentations on our website but if you're able to log on it will be virtual um 7.8 the Bea contract uh this has been put to bed the staff and the Bea voted on it and it passed um with flying colors so that will be finalized tonight congratulations to the negotiation team and the Bea for getting this done also uh eight point eight is
005the sale of the bond this is part of the referendum this is authorizing um Irfan to submit a rating request for our district and then also for the sale of the bonds in June with a closing in July also 8.9 this is for the rod Branch where this is something that just came out from the doe it will provide 40 per capital maintenance projects so we're looking to um apply which that's what this grant is and that will be for some building facades uh electrical I believe but also uh man traps in each build and that would be where you can uh enter the building but then you have to be buzzed in the second door so people don't have to wait outside uh also 810 is the approval of the 23-24 school budget I'm
006about to do the budget presentation but again this is with a zero tax increase to the taxpayer also 8-17 the approval of a lease agreement is on the agenda tonight this is leasing office space on Palisade Avenue next to 7-Eleven this space will be used as our Pre-K offices our Pro our program has outgrown the makeshift offices that we've been using uh and what this will do is put Pre-K all in one space with its own secretary and everyone involved with preschool also attached to the offices is apartment spaces that we will be leasing as well to create our 18 to 21 year old transition program at the moment right now after students graduate we have to pay for them to go out of District when you add that all up with cost of transportation
007and tuition it could be over eighty thousand dollars this would save us some significant money in the future and then also I just wanted to note that on this agenda even the last agenda two of our veteran Math teachers Mrs Frye who's been in the District 25 years and also Mr Sterling who's been in the district 35 years are retiring so they're going to be big holes to fill we will be doing much more on the retirees in June but I did want to mention uh Mr Sterling uh because over the last four years being the Bea president I've dealt with him up close and personal uh dealing with him during covid uh was uh made for delightful working with someone uh who worked with the Bea uh to to Really when districts were fighting
008uh we were excelling and working together and that was a big depart a big part to Mr strong so I did want to thank him publicly for that but in June we will get more into that and at this time I'm going to go into the budget presentation everyone should have a budget in front of them Frank I just need um posting it says disabled participant screen sharing all right here we go I want to go attack all right everyone can see that at home right all right this is the 2023-2024 budget presentation uh Board of Education president Frank Miranda vice president bissy ruckett trustees idalia Alvarez Robert Alvarez Jose Chavez Susan Cruz Marco Navarro trino olivo and John Ortega also finance committee was uh Jose Chavez Robert Alvarez Bessie and Mr Miranda all right
009board drive a budget drivers and these are some of the things that we talk about every year staffing needs curriculum requirements Capital maintenance Capital Improvements salary and benefits special education costs student IEPs and legal mandates unfunded mandates and security maintaining our schools so our district continues to enhance our intervention services through RTI the main objective of RTI is provide evidence-based interventions to identified students at the earliest opportunities in a timely manner with Fidelity with valid data so it's very important for us to recognize and identify students as soon as we start the school year and then provide them with the necessary uh interventions to help them progress all right but there's three things that we believe that we have to our priorities for the long lasting benefits for students learning um one students must learn
010to read proficiently by third grade because the ability to read affects everything in and out of school and there are several studies that show that students that are functionally illiterate have poor life outcomes two students must Master basic math facts and procedure fluency in conjunction with conceptual understanding and number sense like early reading there are many studies that have shown that students who struggle with math in early grades still struggle in fifth eighth and in high school math if these issues are not addressed by eighth grade students truly struggle in algebra thus the goal is to get students as prepared as ready for algebra one as possible to ensure eligible one access and three improving early student behaviors within the classroom environment it's important to support young children with challenging behaviors from a path leading
011to adjustment problems we are currently applying for a school-based mental health Grant to assist in building a tiered system of mental health support in our district Universal screening and progress monitoring it's important that all the kids are taking the same tests so that we all have the same Baseline and data line for each kids students who are at risk may need further diagnostic assessment to determine accuracy and also determine with specific skill needs support our district will be budgeting to pay for Universal screenings in math and Ela we'll be making purchases to improve tier one instruction which is direct instruction in the classroom with the classroom teacher and reading and math but also be purchasing evidence-based interventions and math and reading for tier two and three supports as well this is usually when the students
012get pulled from the classroom or the teacher pushes in to help we have also budgeted for the behavior K2 intervention and will continue our high school mentoring program for students at risk as well through title IV currently we're providing intervention support to students during school after school and during the summer with our Esser funding we're looking to transition to school-wide Title One in the year 24-25. building professionalism the district plan professional development around District needs many of these needs fall into different types of categories professional development some needs are as a result of covet such as learning gaps in Reading Writing and math other PD needs arise out of implementation where students teachers need to be trained in specific programs or interventions some PD is necessary for new staff while other PD is planned to
013deepen teacher knowledge and specific content area with the available funds through title 2A Esser and ARP the district now has the ability to plan for an APD in several different areas and categories one of the most important PD criteria that we have tried our best to apply is to plan PD based on research and evidence-based programs and strategies keeping abreast of academic peer review research and skimming through academic journals and forums as a requirement to ensure a strong evidence base the district level research also Bridges The Divide between Academia research and School District practitioners planning for the future right we've entered into beliefs with St Joe's for our middle school students we are working with professionals to put the referendum into action now the rod brand we are looking to create special ed programs to
014keep more students in District that 18 to 21 transitional program expanding technology capabilities and resources safety measures one-to-one Chromebook initiatives and insurance equity and inclusivity inclusivity throughout the district for all students so just talking a little bit about our certain subjects New Jersey New Jersey student learning standards and math right this school year we piloted spring math and peer assistant learning strategies both very similar in several classrooms and the results have been very strong the reason why we implemented these class-wide interventions is because they're very efficient and because they address computational fluency which coming out of the pandemic was a serious Gap these gaps are narrowing and we will will be implementing these programs school-wide at the elementary level our math challenges lie in the middle school math algebra and geometry these students in those
015courses did not complete the major standards so the pacing must be carefully planned collaboratively between the math department and the curriculum director also in the past these haven't been normed assessments and progress monitoring for students in math for grade seven and up but we will do so next year to carefully monitor student progress and also provide intervention support as needed by the data we have also identified constraints in our algebra class time and pacing to properly and thoroughly instruct algebra students need more instruction time we will be breaking our algebra curriculum into two full years most new algebra students will receive Algebra 1 part 1 and 8th grade and finish Algebra 1 part 2 and 9th grade Ela we are looking to revised our K2 phonics fundamental reading program based on the new standards coming
016out we are currently training on all our K2 teachers in the University of Florida literacy Institute foundations all K2 teachers will have common language and program for Word level phonics and instruction curriculum writing will be collaborative in nature since the scope and sequence of the word reading must be systematic we will use General funds to pay for curriculum writing and timeout of contractual hours we will also Sunset the reading inventory which provide Lexile scores for grades 6 through 12 and purchase star Renaissance reading for those grades which will share student progress lexiles grade level reading and other content specific information we will continue to provide interventions to eligible students through RTI after school tutoring and expanded summer programming instruction this is funded through the ARP and Title One science we'll be changing our approach to
017science instruction that more closely aligns with the njsls science ngss standards this year we've had several collaborative meetings but there are science teachers discussing the results of last year's standardized testing and also start strong teachers now are are now more aware of the rigor and question types within the testing however we also want to address the instructional approach within science we are partnering with Raritan Valley Community College and their ngss workshop series to help teachers with their science instruction they offer five-day summer Institute and corresponding five-day workshops spread out throughout the school year for teachers this will be sending teacher these workshops with title 2A and our funding then we will be setting aside curriculum right to help the better develop better unit plans that align with the njs ls and ngss approaches social studies
018school districts are statutorily required to include instruction on Amistad Holocaust genocide diversity equity and inclusion and the contribution of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and the contributions of the lgbtq plus individuals and persons with disabilities in the middle school and the high school 21st century life and careers our district is both partnering with the South Bergen Joint Commission to collaborate on curriculum writing as well as working internally to customize the curriculum to our district specific needs through posted curriculum writing opportunities many of the elementary financial literacy stands will be incorporated into math and social studies lesson as into disciplinary lessons there are many existing connections between social studies and math that easily and authentically connect to the 9.1 standards at the middle school level the 9.1 Financial literally stands are covered and a standalone cycle
019taught by our map or social studies teacher at the high school level we will update and revise our current curriculum to meet the 2020 standards in our Standalone course financial literacy 9 through 12th graders meet the NJ doe graduation requirement for K-5 our district will incorporate interdisciplinary units and lessons into Ela art music and media and PE to meet the updated vpa stairs both elementary schools also host week of the Arts in May that focus on the vpa standards for 6th through 12th grade our district finally now offers dance and theater electives we believe this is a major accomplishment for students interested in vpa Opportunities prior to offering dance and theater The District already offered art music media and art classes as well as directed by student choice Comprehensive Health and physical in accordance with
020the the new law our K-5 students have 20 minutes of daily recess incorporated into their schedules they also still recover from weak they also are still receiving weekly 160 minutes requirements through 80 minutes of PE 40 minutes of health and 40 minutes of Social and emotional learning Wellness to address the newer mandates yeah here's some the standards they align with the topic the mandates cover objectives and age levels appropriate suggested activities by grade level World Language District provides Spanish instruction to all students in K in grades K-12 some high school students may elect to stop taking a foreign language after completion of the required two years phase six students receive instruction by a certified teacher of Spanish on a weekly basis for 44 minutes per week seventh grade students receive a Spanish as a cycle
021course with 44 minute periods Spanish is offered as a mandatory World Language as well as an elective in the Junior Senior High School eighth grade students have the opportunity to roll in Spanish electives and then transition directly into ninth grade Spanish our current scope and sequence allows students to meet the novice High comp let's see competency requirements by the time they meet the World Language requirements in high school our district has been particip are participating in the Seal of bi literacy program since 2019 this school year we have submitted 16 students for the co by literacy and NJ smart all students meet language proficiency levels in Spanish passing the aappl world language assessment so right here is just a chart of our summary of revenues and the difference from year to year um last year's
022budget was 31 million 0.655 this year's budget is 34 million two five two uh the big change was this year was from the state aid we received 3.3 million dollars more this year uh that was very helpful in our budget this year this is just a little chart that we have to do practice that up on the screen or no yeah and people like that's on my screen now I guess right this is just a pie chart I'm breaking down the Revenue Services all right also year to year summary of Appropriations uh we always like to just talk about some of the when some of the things go up higher what we were able to do with that major State uh increase was to fold some of the teachers that we hired during covid to
023give us the uh extra Services we needed our art money will be ending very soon I think next year the last year that we can use that funding so we were able to keep the dance teacher we were able to keep guidance counselors and a social worker and put them into our operating budget without losing them uh some other areas that we saw was uh more money to our power and AIDS our guidance Department because they received another guidance uh counselor uh uh some of the co-curricular activities based off of the contract and Athletics appropriation pie chart all right and this is just a budget summary uh salary increases right we just got done with the Bea but we still have the BAC central office and the maintenance and custodial workers that will be in
024negotiations or new positions or increase in general budget due to expiring our best grants the one full-time nurse four full-time positions from our brand guidance Council social worker basic skills teacher and a full-time dance teacher also a full-time social worker and fiscal specialist for the pre-school expansion ground project projected benefits increase this year will be 3.183 over this year's cost continued implementation of the district Chromebook initiative we're going to be re replenishing about 15 percent of our Chromebooks also district-wide educational software two gigabytes dedicated internet for all buildings cyber security computers for additional staff curriculum writing and development extended day week and year program new textbooks and online purchasing mental health program Class III officers for each school building Middle School building lease and the esa police purchase and then capital projects all funded by
025capital reserve without withdrawal it infrastructure upgrade complete installation of private fiber Network among all buildings high school and steam building envelope projects Bixby class floor renovation and then replacing three old smart boards in Bixby Steen and the high school and what that comes out to is for the average assessed home at 263 000 and 891 there will be a zero tax increase with this year's budget that concludes my presentation if there are any questions forgive me for this question um or not Transportation on the on the Appropriations how many children do we have out of District we are tentatively adding eight eight eight more so what would that make us total I mean it depends on the location and the costs and things like that no how many how many total children would that give
026us out of this trick uh around 30 30. all right give me I'm using my calculator I just saw something and then a question that building for the net for the 7-Elevens that's designated for all Pre-K I'm sorry say it again the building now that's at least for the 7-Eleven is that designated for all the pre-cases no that is just going to be for the preschool offices and then for the 18 to 21 year old program in the back transportation is not obviously just out of school district it's probably all the sports as well of course is that all included yes what also be is that busing or is that okay everything okay just making sure I saw a million two I said Jesus okay perfect anyone else have any questions I had a question
027about um Spanish so World languages it you said that the kids need to take two years and then after which have successfully passing two years they can elect out a seventh and 8th included in that two-year no so seventh eighth grade um seventh grade is the cycle year eighth grade is a I'm pretty sure it's a half year um elective but they get credits in ninth and 10th right so it's it's a it's two it's ten credits in Spanish in in a world language in uh High School okay anyone else you're all good satisfied all right uh moving on to resolution 4.3 approval of minutes of March 14th 2023 work Action meeting on March 28th 2023 regular public meeting Open Session um do I have emotional approve 4.3 motion Miss rocket second Chavez all any
028board discussion Mr Irfan Mrs yes Mr Alvarez yes Mr Chavez yes Mrs Cruz yes Mr Navarro yes Mr Ortega who lights abstain as that was absent is this record yes Mr Miranda yes motion Kerry there's no policy portion this evening moving on to 6.8 which is the approval of agenda item 6.1 through 6.7 you have a motion to approve resolution 6.8 Wilson John Mr Ortega do I have a second Mr Chavez any board discussion Mr Irfan Mr Sullivan yes Mr Alvarez yes Mr Chavez yes Mrs Cruz yes Mr Novar yes Mr Ortega yes Mrs record yes Mr Miranda yes motion carried moving on to the Personnel portion of the agenda 7.6 approval of agenda item 7.1 through 7.5 do I have a motion to approve 7.6 Congress Mr Alvarez Mr Chavez that a second yes
029any more discussion uh yeah I don't want to say I I will I agree with Mr Kennedy I will definitely miss Mr Sterling's next go around he made life on negotiation committee very pleasant so he will be missed for that and for his math teaching thank you Mrs ruckett I too was saying was very pleasant um honorable stand-up individual fair and on all sense of the foreign transparent and at least from my experience uh worked really well and definitely and definitely in the best interest of the taxpayer the school district's children and the staff very fair and I hope that whomever follows that lead knows that have big shoes to fill and that more than just negotiations it was really a more uh even Keel appeal for the entire District it was a pleasure he
030educated us on many fronts definitely a pleasure absolutely thank you for that Mr Sterling um there was no board discussion roll call or Mrs Alvarez yes Mr Alvarez yes Mr Chavez yes Mrs Cruz yes Mr Navarro yes Mr Ortega yes Mr record yes Mr Miranda yes motion carried on to 7.10 for approval of agenda item 7.7 through 7.9 is their emotional proof 7.10 Mrs rocket do I have a second John Mr Ortega any board discussion Mr Irfan Mr Alvarez yes Mr Albert yes Mr Chavez yes Mrs Cruz yes Mr Navarro yes Mr Ortega yes Mr Rucker yes Mr Amanda yes motion Kerry thank you moving on to the finance portion the agenda resolution 8.7 approval of consent agenda items 7.1 through 7. I'm sorry 8.1 through 8.6 is there a motion to approve resolution 8.7
031Moshe Mrs okay so that was Mr Chavez second any more discussion Mr Irfan Mrs Alvarez yes Mr Alvarez yes Mr Chavez yes Mrs Cruz yes Mr Navarro yes Mr Ortega yes Mr Rucker yes Mr Miranda yes motion thank you answer 8.20 approval of agenda items 8 18 through 8 19 is there a motion to approve resolution motion oh yeah 8.8 through 8.9 19 I'm sorry my era I'm going to re um the Mega Men that we're we're a proven resolution 8.8 which covers 8.8 through 8.19 820. I'm sorry 8.20 which is something um Mrs Alvarez you gave me a motion do I have a second second Mr Navarro any board discussion Mr Irfan Mr solvers yes Mr Alvarez yes Mr Chavez yes Mr Scrooge yes Mr Navarro yes Mr Ortega yes Mr record yes Mr
032Miranda yes motion carry building and grounds we got to get busy coming soon but there's nothing on this agenda next on is the committee reports are there any committee reports this evening nope uh really quick just so you know um a portion of the and I'm gonna say this for the record in somewhat because every time we go to a ballpark or a program or a sport everyone's asking when are we breaking ground so just for highlight um the some of the survey has transpired around it already right Miss Kennedy yeah they're doing the uh geodes attack as I think they should be done by tomorrow or Thursday so the type of graphical survey which is the elevations of the field Waters and everything that pertains to bringing it back to the DLT has transpired
033we should at any point once we have this uh sit down with the mayor and Council to start discussions open discussions as to what are going to be there um I would probably use the term acceptance or ideas if any uh to try and um you know get what we've committed to uh for the town of pagoda so just so you know we are working um and I know the bonds are being prepared to start being sold off sometimes in mid-june um primarily so that it doesn't carry over on on the tax discussions the increases so it's like last payment first payment kind of idea so that it's a wash all right same commitment keeping it up and I'll keep reminding over and over at every meeting every step of the way because I think
034if you voted on this or you didn't um but if you did you should know all right uh next on the agenda is old business is there any old business for the board next on the agenda's new business that we have in a new business okay I like to open up hearing on uh of hearing of the public on any item is there a motion open hearing on the public thank you Mrs ruckett a second Chavez Chavez any board discussion all in favor remember any member of the public please state your name and address you have five minutes there's a hand hi hi you know it's me it's Carmel bernie162 East Fort Lee Road um you went through the budgets really quick but just to can you explain how we have you have no budget
035increase but you're taking on the new lease of new offices and apartments that wasn't in the budgets so we we have the preschool Grant right so the preschool Grant anything preschool pays for that also what we are paying for is those students right now that we want to create the 18 to 21 year old program is we're paying about eighty thousand dollars between tuition and transportation to save them out of District at any point in time we could have anywhere between five to ten kids out of District of the least partially paid by preschool but also because we're bringing kids back to District we would be saving money in that process you know minimum hundred and fifty two hundred thousand dollars to lease that um building space bring the programs back so it's it pays
036the program pays for itself to reiterate it it's not costing a hundred and fifty thousand dollars to lease the space with all said and done within the educator the lease which is about four thousand some of my dollars all said and done we will be saving approximately 450 to two hundred thousand dollars and that includes renovation of the apartment space special ed teachers yeah again so like right now I have 10 I think I have 10 students in the 18 to 21 year old program right so quick math that's eight hundred thousand dollars we are spending to send 10 kids out to hire one teacher two AIDS and a job coach costes me two hundred and fifty thousand dollars with a fifty thousand dollar lease that we're only paying two-thirds of because preschool is paying
037the other half in a perfect scenario we can be saving a half a million dollars okay all right thank you thank you Carmel anyone else no one else Carmel thank you for always um speaking up I love it um so I have a motion to there's no executive session oh we do now on to Executive session we gotta close I'm sorry is there a motion across here okay all right motion to close hearing of Citizen remarks um do I have Mrs Cruz do I have a second second um this is Mrs rocket any board discussion all in favor aye any opposed okay we do not have an executive session um do I have a motion to adjourn motion Mrs rocket do I have a second Mr Alvarez all in favor aye good evening everyone and
038have a good night