001I'd like to bring this meeting to order. This is a regular session of the Buddha Township Board of Education held for the purpose of transacting appropriate board business in compliance with chapter 2 laws of 1975. The notice of this meeting was advertised in the Mars County Daily Record. Copies of the agenda of this meeting were appropriately posted to make made available to the public. >> Mrs. >> here. >> Mr. Brander >> here. Mrs. Cavana >> here. >> Mr. Chen here. >> Mrs. Hermy >> here. >> Mr. Johnson. >> Mrs. McBride >> here. Mr. Mill >> here, >> Mrs. Noika, also present, Mr. Fatini, superintendent principal, we have a quorum. Thank you. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands, one
002nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [Music] First on the agenda, we have uh two presentations. The first is our our annual audit from Machia and company. We have Miss Man Lee to do that presentation. Good to see you again. >> Good to see everybody again. Everyone's doing well. [Music] Thank you. >> Yeah. [Applause] All right. So, another year and I apologize that I have my back to you. Um, so I just handed out a summary which has the young highlights for the year ending 6:30 25. Um, I see that you have a packed house tonight. So, I'm going to be brief and to the point. And of course, if you have any questions, please feel free to stop me at any point. So, um, it's fun fact. So, on the first
003page, on the top of the first page, you will see that the comparison of fund balance between 63025 and the year before. So at 63025 the overall fund balance is $4.6 million but most of that is restricted in various reverse hund about $105,000 in incumbrances. So which are goods that you place an order for as of 6:30 but haven't received items yet. $3 million in capital reserve that you can use for any projects in your long range facilities plan. $350,000 for in maintenance reserve you can use for any required maintenance for your school facility. 67,000 or close to $68,000 in unemployment compensation for unemployment claims. $281,000 of current year excess surplus to be used in your 2627 budget which is going to be in the spring. Then you have uh prior year access surplus of
004$280 and the $1,000 of designated for subsequent years expense. So the 281 you're using right now the 2526 budget year. So that leaves you with about $500,000 of unassigned from balance. That's your allowable 2%. So overall the your fund balance increased by $700,000 and the middle section is the uh recap of the what makes up the overall increase. So about $32,000 of excess uh in local revenue. Excess meaning by above what you anticipated in your budget. $198,000 excess in state revenue. That's mostly ex your extraordinary aid and your nonpublic transportation aid. A million dollar unex unspent budget appropriations. Uh that if you take out the $105,000 of incumbrances, you're left with about $900,000 of unspent appropriation. That might sound like a big number, but in comp compared to your budget size, that's only about, you
005know, under 6% of what what you can spend on budget. And it's also a good thing because you utilize $563,000 of your fund balance to support your budget every year. So it goes back to kind of replenishing that. And you also uh increase your capital reserve through the budget process of $340,000. So the bottom section is a comparison, a trend if you will, of the fund balances you've been using to support your budget in 2425. It looks the number looks a little inflated because the 563,000 includes the 300 $300,000 increase in the capital reserve. So if you take that factor that in, you're kind of on par every year. And then if you flip to the back of the page, it's just the activities in your capital mains reserve. Um like I mentioned, at the
006end of the year, you have a little over $3 million in your capital reserve and 350 million in reserve and your enterprise funding, which is your milk um account. Those are the comparison of the activities between the two years. And at the end of the year, you you up about $600 compared to the year before. And the uh last section is just the your long-term liabilities, your compensated absences, your crew signification, and then net pension liability, which you have no control over because that's a number that the state comes up with. Any questions in terms of the financial numbers? And so in terms of uh formal recommendations, I'm happy to report there are no formal recommendations. So um commend you know commence your finance team and administration because they're always very um fully responsible and
007uh want to also thank them for some process. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Have a good night. You too. Thank you. Okay, that next thing on our agenda is a presentation of the 2024 NJSLA results by Mrs. Mor. [Music] Mrs. Baldino is our basic skills math teacher. Um, so she's going to help me present today and talk a little about math. she's passing out cuz no matter how big I how much I try it's they're really tiny you see so it helps to have it in front of you um to take a look at the numbers um so before we start I just want to start by saying I have the pleasure of presenting these scores our scores are awesome we're you know we're doing really really well and I'm very
008excited to be able to celebrate our students and our staff for their achievements Um, so everybody took in grades three through eight, everyone took ELA in math and ASLA in the spring. Um, our math this year, last year, I'm sorry, I keep saying this year. I'm flipping back and forth. It's a little bit tricky. Um, so our math last year, everyone took the algebra one um test. Next year, um, we'll have some students taking the algebra one and some students taking the math eight. Um, so it'll be a little bit different. Um, and then grades five and eight. We took the um science. So when we're looking at the scores, we have levels one through five in math and ELA. And then science is special. It's just one through four. I'll share my personal feeling
009about the science assessment um when I talk about the science. Um so English ELA scores are English language arts scores. So this first graph, this is a lot of numbers. Don't worry, I have a better graph so it's easier to see in a minute. But what we're looking at here is we're looking at grade level specific data over the last three years. And what you want to see is you want to see smaller numbers over here and larger numbers over here. So we have that across the board. um which means that we don't have very many students in the not meeting and the partially meeting and we have more students in the meeting and exceeding. So that's fantastic. But if that graph hurts your brain because it hurts mine, the colors are even better. So
010you can see the green is the meeting and the exceeding. You can see across the board we have very few students in the um not meeting or the partially meeting and the approaching. The majority of our students are doing pretty well. So I love this graph. It shows from year to year. Um but it's the same grade but it's different students. So you have to take these numbers into caution because you're comparing apples to oranges. You're comparing different populations. So we could have a population of like um our fifth grade you can see went from 40 to 27. So when when you look at these percentages it's really you really can't compare year to year this way. But the good news is when you are looking at these scores you can see that the majority
011of our students are in the green. Green means go. So we're happy. We're very happy about that. So, our language arts, we had 236 students in grades three through eight take the NJSLA language arts. And I'm happy to report that we are at preandemic levels. That's really great news. So, we were at 81% um pre- pandemic and we're at 80 we were at 81% last year across the board. Um so, the green bars again are representing the meeting and exceeding. yellow represents approaching what we like to call our bubble students. We use our that aligns with our link benchmark. Um and then the orange and red represents partially meeting and not meeting. Um what I wanted to point out from this information is that our RTI team took a look at the data and there
012weren't any student surprises. So any student who is in this lower level of not meeting or partially meeting or approaching, those are all students that we have already identified. Most of them have a 504, an IEP or an RTI plan that we're working on building up those skills. So that's always exciting for me when we get the I'm always looking for that. I want to make sure we're not missing anyone. So I feel really good about that information. Um and again, lots of green. Green is good. Um, this is our state comparison. So, when we compare ourselves to the state, I know no one's going to be surprised to hear this. We're doing better than the state averages. If we weren't, we we'd be very concerned. Um, so again, we're looking for lower numbers in
013the levels one and two. When you compare them to the state, we're consistently lower. the numbers you can see they start to get higher as you move up in the levels and then level five level four um so that's where again it's consistent okay you're going to see a similar theme with the math sport too um were very successful um this is comparing the performance levels over the last three years um and so you'll notice the percentages in level one and two are low and then in three, four and five they're much greater which is exactly what you want to see. Okay. And this is the same data showed in a visual way. Um it's representative of the same grade just over two years and it shows that majority of our students are meeting or
014exceeding expectations. Um the kids who are not meeting or partially meeting it's because of the class sizes is only really a small one or two kids per grade level which is great and again these students have already been identified and have an IEP 504 or an RTI plan meeting and exceeding agreement that's okay there's the amount of green in the in the chart is amazing. Okay. And then this is the math achievement and growth. Uh 237 students took the NJSLA math assessment. Preandemic passing rate was 72% and we're only 1% away from that. Um one thing I want to point out over here is these two years where the algebra one uh results were 100%. It's because only a small select few of students actually took that test. So you could see a significant drop,
015but that's because the entire class took the assessment this year. Um so that's why that drop is the way it is. Okay. Again, the green bars are meeting. A dark green is exceeding. The yellow is approaching. And then the orange and red represent partially meeting and not meeting expectations. >> Can I ask one quick question on that back slide? >> Grade seven math. >> Yeah, >> that's the only year where it's close between the yellow and green. Is that a change of the math program or is that any indicative of that or >> if you think about it as in terms of meeting and exceeding it's it's 63% of the grade um and then 33% of the students are approaching expectations. >> That's only one year. >> Yeah. It's just one time. >> Yeah. >>
016So it could be class >> I have mobility. We're going to talk about that in a minute. I chunked them differently. It's just made my brain like >> Yeah. So it could be class specific. >> Okay. Yeah, there's no changes in curriculum or anything. Okay. And then these three uh the next three slides show the percentages of students in each performance level compared to the state. And again, you want to see lower level lower percentages in the lower levels. We want less of our students being poorer. And we we definitely have that. If you look at these two levels and then same thing with approaching you want it to be less but then you want the percentages to be greater. We want more of our students meeting and exceeding expectations. So this is the meeting
017and say exceeding all great stuff that you want to see. So, science, and I can say this as a former science teacher, I don't love the NJSLA, the NJSLA science. Um, we test in grades five and we test in grade three. The data that they give us is not super helpful. So, for math and for ELA, they break it down into standards. So we can we they give us this beautiful another little graph of each grade level of the standards and where our students stood and if the standard if we met state or if we were below or we were above which is great information for us. It really gives us a lot of information when we're looking at our curriculum to make sure we don't have any curricular gaps. Science doesn't do that. Science
018you test in fifth grade and then two years later you test in eighth grade. So you can't really compare but also it doesn't break it down into standards. It breaks it down into bigger chunks. So like space science, earth science, physical science, that's a huge amount of information over several years. So I don't love the science test personally as someone who's taught science for 20 years because I would get the scores back and I would say I can't do anything with this. I teach physical science. It doesn't break down into standards and give me anything valuable from that. So I just had to say that I just felt like everyone should know that's really important when we look at these scores. So the science scores um this is looking at our science scores again comparing
019against the state again we are in a much better place than the state is. Our scores are lower when we're looking at our below proficient. Oh and it's only levels one through four. So it it's not level one. Um so we're again those numbers in the lower level are lower. The numbers in the higher level we have a higher percentage in the state overall. Um so overall we're looking at sorry I missed the slide. Um so here we're looking at grade five, grade eight. Again, you can't really compare year to year. In general, the science scores are much much lower than the ELA and the math scores, but that is statewide. So, what I ask myself is if our scores are so great in math and ELA, why is the science this low? I think
020there's some work that we could do with the science in general like as a district and we've been starting to talk about those kind of things and I'll cover that in a little bit but just in general as a state I think we need to do some work on this test because it shouldn't be that that big of a difference. So when we look here the numbers down we have 39% of all grades that are um scoring in the exceeding and well they're not they're I'm sorry they're proficient and advanced proficient categories. They like to change the categories of them too. Um so our eighth grade we have 36% >> 32%. Um again the science scores it's just it is kind of what it is. We can't even take this information and and use it
021in any way that can really truly help us. Um but it's across the state that this is the score. So I think the state score I have it on the other score the other slide as well. >> Yeah we have >> um so this is our mobility comparison. So this is talking about how the grade levels did. So grade three to four grade four five like how they did. So we had 17 students who moved into meeting extend exceed move to into meeting standards in ELA. So that's pretty great. So that means 17 students moved into that category. We had nine students move into the meeting standards in math and then 75% of students who were not meeting expectations move to partially meeting or approaching expectations in math and ELA. So that's a lot of
022movement. So maybe they didn't get there yet, but they will get there and we're moving into the right direction. Um, we moved 33 students who were meeting standards to exceeding standards in ELA. So that's out of like 200, what is it? 37 students, 33 of them we were able to move into meeting um, meeting to exceeding, which is pretty remarkable. We moved nine students to exceeding in math. So that's also really good information. >> Yeah, I think this shows like that targeted data-driven instruction is working and we're meeting the needs of the students where they are. So if they're meeting expectations, we're challenging that them to exceed ex expectations. >> And although although these numbers are really there's a lot of numbers, they're really small. Even on your paper copies here, there will be a
023digital copy posted so that people have access to it and you could zoom in and have a little bit closer look. literally. >> I tried to make them as big as I can, but they're just so tiny. You get all the information. Um, so this is we're looking at our demographic information. We're looking at our our males and females. So, we're looking at language arts. And this I definitely wrote down because I can't see. Um, we had >> 89% of Thank you. 89% of females who were meeting and exceeding and 74% of males who are meeting and exceeding our standards. And again, if you look at the at the they're pretty consistent. Three three, you know, six. They're a little bit different, but they're they're pretty consistent across the board. Um this is uh for
024math. We had 71% of females and 71% of males that are meeting and exceeding, which is pretty great that that's equal that way. And again, you can see the other other scores are pretty close as well. That tells us that our curriculum is equitable to males and females. Um, and the science again a little bit different historically. Um, and I hate to say this as a female science teacher. Um, the ma the males always score higher in science. Historically, it's just not fair. But it's it's it's statistics. Um, so our males, we had 45% of our males that were meeting and exceeding and then 32% of our female students who were meeting and exceeding in science. Um, this next slide I'm really excited about because this is showing our population. So we have our section
025504 population, our special education population, and our general education population for um, language arts. And we can see that 49% of our special education students were meeting or exceeding standards in ELA. That's fantastic. We also see that um 83% of our 504 students were meeting or exceeding standards. Um, as someone who has lived in the special education world, that and as someone who worked at the director, that tells us that our programming is accurate and consistent, that our students who have 504s are being accommodated and aren't able to access the curriculum accurately. So, I think that's a that's just a great um I love this slide. Um and then of course our general education 87% of students are meeting or exceeding in language arts which is fantastic. Um in math um similar same thing um
026we're looking at 80% of our general education students who are meeting or exceeding the standards and then 23% of our special education students are meeting and exceeding our standards in math. So we have a little work to do with our math. Um you want to talk about? >> Well, we can talk about it. We get there. >> We'll talk about So, we suspense. We're going to leave you there. We're gonna talk about that later. Um, and then our our 504, we have 77 >> 67, sorry. 67% of our 504 students are meeting or exceeding it. Um, science, again, the science words, like I said, are a little bit lower. Um, and there's a lot of synthesizing that goes on and again I just it doesn't align up with the other scores and it doesn't make
027sense to me. It's like an outlier, right? It shouldn't be. We shouldn't be this great in ELA math. There has to be I'm convinced, right? There has to be a problem. >> Is that is that a statewide phenomen? >> It's statewide. It's statewide phenomena everywhere. >> Yeah. If I remember the the scores are very low across the state. >> Across the state is very different, right? in ELA and >> extremely different like 26% of state is passing science >> but also with the science test >> the so 26% of the state of the kids who take the science education >> yeah and we're much higher >> we're 39% >> 39 um but also as someone who I've had to be a reader for the science test. It's a different type of test like you were
028saying. So like for example, you can have a question and it has three different tabs and you've got to go all to the different tabs to get all the information and then you have to synthesize that information on a whole separate tab. So there's a lot of like movement and clicking. Whereas like where you're doing the ELA or the math, it's on the screen. You're not you might have to watch a video, but you don't have to click back and forth between data charts to figure out where the patterns are. It's it's it's it's it's a it's a lock. What's the feedback mechanism to let the state know that important you know your opinion your you know you've looked at this for so there are number of years >> there are groups that are giving
029input on it. Um I'm interested to see what will happen now that we're doing the NJLA adaptive um this fall. the NJ the it's adaptive um for ELA and math but it's not adaptive yet for science so it's going to be the same science test next year >> just clarification so adaptive is the questions get harder as you go or >> the questions adapt to your ability okay >> so I think that that's great because especially for any student who isn't exceeding >> you you start to like get down on yourself like oh my god these are lower the anxiety. So, this should help, you know, I I look at it as I think it's better for our kids. I think it's a better experience for our students to because they they won't be so
030stressed out like they are >> now when they take it. But they will be they will continue to be stressed out in science because the state's not changing that gap. >> I think it's very similar to like um if you take like a not an SAT but like a GMAT >> or Elsa, it adapts to Yeah. >> I know the question. Yeah. >> Well, but for you, what you think is hard, I might think is easy, so it will adapt for your ability and my ability. >> Um, >> I have a little bit of mixed feelings on it. Frankly, I I agree that having the adaptive test, which I've done before, makes the scores more reliable and valid. So, we know for sure that this this student is consistently getting these uh particular problems incorrect
031or consistently getting them correct getting them correct. So, we're pretty about where the level is. But if I wanted to have if I want to have them have that opportunity to engage with some of the higher level questions, it may not get them to that level to engage with those high level questions across the content area. So I'm kind of a little bit, you know, unsure of it as far as >> yeah overall assessment. >> It's going to be >> I'd like to have both actually. >> It's going to be interesting. So we'll see. We're doing our field test. Our first test is on the 28th of October and then we have two more field test days on the 12th and the 13th um of November. Um we don't know what we're getting. We just
032know it's reading writing and that um so and we won't get any information from that. Again, this is just for the state to test out the questions to test out the um adaptability of the test. >> Is it all um all schools are taking it in the fall or San Jersey schools? grades um fourth through eight. So what they'll do is the fourth grade students will get questions from third grade. Okay. So you get because it's the beginning of the year. So that way they'll be they're they're hoping that they'll be able to compare like their their question same group of students and to see if it's reliable with their question their question. Although will we get that information? No. >> Okay. Um so notable achievements we are super proud of our students, super proud
033of our staff. Um everybody worked really hard. We So just some highlights. Um 14 of the seventh grade students moved from meeting to exceeding standards in ELA. Um sixth and eighth grade ELA scores were exceptional. Although 14 students out of there was like >> no out of the whole grade level. Well, I think that seventh grade is like 38 kids. That's amazing. Um, but sixth and eighth grade ELA scores were exceptional with 90% of our sixth grade students scoring a meeting except in exceeding with and then 92% of our eighth grade students scoring in the meeting and exceeding categories for ELA. So, that's amazing. Um, we have eighth graders who had a perfect score. >> Wow, that's amazing. Um 49% of our special education students met or exceeded standards for ELA. Grade six increased by
03415.2% to meeting and exceeding standards. And then we had 17 students schoolwide who moved into the exceeding character category who had been in the um you know the meeting category. So that's awesome. Okay. And then math 80% of our general education students are meeting or exceeding standards. 88% of the sixth grade math students met or exceeded expectations. 75% of the fourth grade students met or exceeded expectations in math. And then this is the scores we were talking about science. Uh so 39.7% of our school is meeting or exceeding expectations. Those categories three and four. Well, it's only 24% of the state. >> So we're well above even though it looks sad next to the other numbers. One other thing that I wanted to say, well, first off, thank you very much. Um, I want to
035add on to that. If you run all of our uh data into the AI token that we're we're piloting, the Sunshine Education Demoo platform, it tells us, it confirms that all the subscores across the state standards and our local assessments say that the students over the course of time in each of these assess assessment areas gradually increase their scores. So, we have to take a look at that. Are the kids not performing as well in the younger grades because it's all on uh the computer and they're having some difficulty typing, managing the technology. But the fact of the matter is they are all improving not only the state standardized scores but the local assessment. >> So, our action plan, our action plan is what are we going to do with this information? So, first of
036all, we want to improve our tier one instruction. And so tier one means full class instruction. One way we're doing that is we're having data meetings. We're doing data driven driven instruction. So we collect baseline data from in-house assessments um from last year. So we've been looking at last year's data to help us accurately identify weaknesses of students, weaknesses of whole grade levels. and the approach will enable us to focus on the foundational skills in essential for moving more students toward p proficiency. Um, we're also holding data meetings and they're being held after each benchmark period. So, we actually just had our first data meeting and this is the opportunity to bring staff together to identify those instructional weaknesses, whether it's a group of students in their class or a whole a whole grade bubble
037weakness. And then also staff will be attending a professional development on universal design for learning through our NIP >> the JIP grant. >> Our inclusion grant >> our inclusion class. >> There's like six names for it. the gym and all. >> Um, so all staff will be trained on designing a framework for educational materials and activities to be accessible to all learners right from the get-go. So all of this information will improve tier one instruction, which is general education instruction, which improves everybody's instruction. Um, >> yeah, sure. Okay. We also have a response to intervention team or an RTI. This is a general education support that is available to all students and addresses academic, behavioral, and social emotional needs. Um the RTI meets monthly with staff to analyze and collaborate on improving student achievement. uh
038we we review multiple measures of data that um indicate where additional support is needed. Um so there's three tiers of instruction. Tier one's the classroom level support which you if you improve your tier one, right? You would see less students in tier two and tier three. That would be the hope. Tier 2 instruction is classroom level support and the addition of pushin services from either the reading or the math basic skills teacher. So I push into every K4 classroom once a week to help with tier 2 instruction. Um and that's again data driven. That could be uh I recommend the group the group to the teacher based on data that I'm analyzing or the teacher could say hey I need you to pull these students to go to review over this standard or this skill.
039Um and then tier three support is a pull out small groupoup intervention that utilizes progress monitoring on specific goals um to provide students with targeted support. >> So this is a little bit different. We've been working on this since last year. Previous year we had the EIS support which was not as targeted. It was just we we noticed that students were struggling and we gave them support. This whole plan, the systematic plan of RTI is to identify foundational weaknesses in their academic programming or in their academic um ability and then work on those foundational skills. If you think of it like uh you know brick laying for a foundation, if you don't have a solid foundation, everything else is going to fall apart. So we're really working on a lot of those basic skills, those
040foundational skills so we can build those students up and they can do the more higher level thinking in the higher level. >> Yeah. It also supports teachers like we can give teachers recommendations of ways we would modify or accommodate the students. I always say like math manipulatives um ways to build independence in students. And so we also can support teachers through RTI to to support the their kids. >> And RTI is a general education program. Um however any program is available to all students but is really focused on general education students and and needs that they have. Um and the goal is to like I said close those foundational gaps. Um so we did a lot of talking. Um so in mathematics a little some things that we have Our action plan is um we
041have um a gifted enrichment. So our old used to call it soar, it's now called enrichment. Um so we have math pull out and push in services. Um Mrs. Flary is um working with Mrs. Barbeck on that. Um we have two basic skills teachers, Mr. Pino and um currently right now Mrs. Rut is in for Mrs. Karate. Um so they're focusing on data driven tier two and tier three instruction. Like I said, the tier three instruction pull out two is push it. Um the teachers are really enjoying that because it's extra help and it's supporting our teachers to support our learners. Um and we implemented the level math courses at the middle school level to provide instruction that's aligned with the proficiency levels. Um like we have like we have a math eight and then
042we have some seventh grade students who are taking math for one um English language arts by the and this I'm really excited about. By the end of this year all K2 teachers will be or in Willingham trained. So students will benefit from the science of reading method um through K through 8. Um in the past we had follow also be giving um they're also going to be taking a um dyslexia screener three times a year. Um in the past the mandate was that it had to be screened by the end of second grade. So now every student K to to three will be screened three times a year. That program that we are using with them also has progress monitoring. So it has like a little AI assistant. So if um Johnny I always I
043feel bad for Johnny. I always use Johnny. If Johnny has weaknesses in vowel teams, he'll get a little thing on vowel teams where Susie use Susie too a lot. If Susie has weaknesses in fluency, she'll get fluency activities. So it's tailored to those those needs of the students and we're working that in through center time. Um and then science um we have begun to discuss how we can further support scientific thinking at the elementary level to improve our framework and we've started to look at um curricular support for grades three and four so we can kind of bolster up our science and maybe if we start there we can even feed the state even more. Um, so that's the conclusion of our data program. Sorry if I droned on you. Just really like data. Um,
044if you have any questions, we'll be happy to answer. >> Is the public allow questions? >> I have a couple questions. >> Sure. >> Um, are you as the instructors, do you ever see what these questions how they're actually worded or structured on these tests? Do you have the opportunity? >> You're not allowed to. I know you're not. >> The only reason why I might have an insight is because I've been a human reader before where I've had I've only done the science. So, I've had to read. I had a student who was um legally blind. I had to read for them. But teachers are not allowed to. >> So, there could be issues with the wording of how the questions are asked versus how the questions are being asked. So, the same it could
045be the same subject material, but it's just worded differently. And if if you're being you're teaching like recognition of what they're asking for in one manner and then the state comes back and asks it in a different manner and it's not familiar, especially more if you're on the younger side. It could that and with the younger students, I also think you're you're on to something there because I think that the way the test is worded is is not at an like it's not great for the littles because it's more it's not what they see every day. Although our curriculum does have questions that way when they have assessments, but that's not how we speak to our kids. So I I see where you're what you're saying. >> So then the other thing is do they
046is the test basically the same every year for several years and then they revise it or do they revise the questions also every year? >> They revise the questions the tests are or different for you. You and I could be sitting next to each other and we could get different questions. >> Okay. Mar, I can speak a little just a little bit. This is a long time ago when I would be in second grade walking around watching the kids take these standardized assessments. It was in it was on paper. There's a lot of subjectivity to it. Vocabulary, language is an issue. They all had the same uh standardized test. Now, when I'm walking through the classrooms, I know that the two kids sitting next to each other still in language arts, different questions. They could
047be even the same number, but it's different questions. >> It's a way to have that opportunity because it is digitized. It's easy to do that. And even the essay questions I know in the older grade the kids are like I had a informational essay I had a persuasive essay. So they have totally different skills too. >> Then my last question do you know does a state actually do any kind of analytics on these tests as they develop them? Like if you see you go across the board like it seems like the like do they look at a question and say boy right across the board everybody in the state is really blowing it. We need to throw this out. I mean it's in simplistic terms but basically >> they do. They do. They do. >>
048They do. And I think that's, you know, part of what the field test is all about, too. They don't want to just throw out a new test without testing the test. >> Okay. And then the last question I have is, do you actually set particular I mean, you know, goals for achievement as far as a percentage for the class like for your grade level >> uh like okay so just a general it's like 72%. So let's say the goal for next year we want to get that raised to like 80%. No, we look at individual students. So, we're looking at individual students and their abilities and how we can help the individual student. Again, you can't compare that that overall percentage grade like grade level to grade level because the numbers are different. >> And
049and the sample pool is small as well. >> And that's Yeah, exactly. The other uh question is like when you were showing that 14 you had 14 kids advanced is that like I'm just throwing it out there like in fifth grade they were here and in sixth grade is it like it's across the next grade in that subject area. >> Thank you very very much. [Music] We do not have a student representative this evening. But that brings us to this is motion number one. May I have a motion, please? Is there a second? >> Second. >> Any questions, comments, or discussion? If not, the questions on the adoption of board business motion number one. All those in favor say I. I. >> I. Post say no. >> Any abstensions? And that brings us to a
050motion to enter into executive session to discuss issues that warrant confidentiality as permitted in the open public clinics act chapter 231 of the laws of 1975. These matters may or may not be made public when the board remains. It will be made public when the confidentiality of the subject is long warranted. The this topic of discussion is legal matters. We may be >> at least an hour >> about an hour for anyone that is going to stay for the rest of our agenda. Our apologies if you are um um but we will do continue our agenda that you see after we come back into open session. And with that, may I have a motion to executive session? >> Is there a second? All those in favor say I. >> Say no. Any extensions? >> And
051we will come out and get you when we are finished. >> Thank you. >> Okay. It is 10:35 p.m. We have just returned from our closed session and at this time we have administrator report starting with the administrator secretary support Mr. Murray. >> Okay. Thank you Mr. Brandon. Um I won't go over but we had our auditor here this evening and she uh the audit fall reports October 15th today is the date snapshot that the state uses for the application for state school aid and the DRTS. Those are the numbers that they use to calculate state aid. Uh the facility committee met um again this week with the district's architect to review all infrastructure items that were included in the March 2024 referendum and to facilitate discussions on future infrastructure and educational needs and to
052explore all options. It is important to note that large-scale infrastructure needs of the building such as boiler replacement, electrical upgrades, roof replacement, HVAC upgrades cannot be accomplished within an annual budget. Alternate sources of long-term financing could only be achieved through a referendum, which would also make district eligible for approximately 34% in state funding that would not be available through the use of capital reserve funds and the annual budget. No decisions at this point have been made by the board with regard to a future referendum as we are in the information gathering stage. So, the district will be seeking input from the school community in the near future as part of long-term planning process. There is a resolution on the evening's agenda authorizing the district architect to proceed with exploratory work, information gathering, conceptual designs, and
053budget estimates to help the board make informed decisions about the possibility of presenting a referendum vote to the public in the future. uh the 202526 budget. The finance committee meant to discuss the board agenda items uh this evening and the 2526 budget planning and other topics. The tentative 202526 budget schedule was distributed to the committee and also to the board. Uh and the last thing of note, the boilers uh were started for the first time this season on Monday. All systems appear to be up and running with no issues to report. And that is all I have for my report. Mr. President, >> great. Thank you. And that brings us to the superintendent report. Mr. Thank you. [Music] >> So, I've been meeting with Dr. Seagull from Mountain Leaks, Mountain Lakes for about a little
054over a year now, and our relationship and collaboration are not only developing, but accelerating. And on Monday, September 22nd, Booten Township of Mountain Lakes had a joint faculty meeting in Mountain Lakes. Very happy to report it was wellreceived and the meeting itself went very well. Faculty meeting members from both districts had very positive reviews and the respective HSAs um split the cost and provided cookies for all 120 to 140 faculty members. So, thank you very much to the HSA. Malik's director of special services, Carrie D. Gioquinto reached out to discuss an opportunity to coordinate on professional development series that leads to a certification as a mental health mental wellness specialty through Thrive Alliance Company. This free initiative is being funded through grant monies. Uh, this Mount Lace came to RVS yesterday, Miss DJ Aquinto, to
055do a presentation and discuss the opportunity with our faculty. Thank you to Mr. DJ Quinto and uh, Mountain Lakes and the uh, director of school counseling, Grace. October 6th started the week of respect. The students were engaged in many activities and themes throughout the week. One thing uh after that was donating goods to the food pantry uh initiated by the student council and they also spearheaded the school spirit days. This past Friday was the Bin Township Education Foundation annual fundraiser. Pulling off this event takes a lot of hard work, coordination, and volunteers. Thank you to the BTF In an effort to develop connections with the community, superintendent roundt discussions on the first Monday of each month were implemented. For the past year, we've had wonderful discussions about educational philosophy, current events in the schools, as
056well as district building and educational needs. This year, to further those discussions, I added a forum called community connections. These help discuss continuing educational needs and capital projects. Here's a little bit of a recap. Uh in March 2024, the district presented a referendum and the projects were primarily infrastructure needs, roofs, boilers, etc. Uh and they received over $4 million in states they would receive over $4 million in state subsidies. But because the referendum was not successful, the district did not benefit from this subsidy. No uh educational space projects were part of the consideration at that time. And then in September of 2024, I came on board as the new chief school administrator. Uh much needed roof replacements had to be undertaken over the past uh few summers and I and had to be funded through
057capital reserves. As a result of this funding uh approach, the district missed out on approximately 600,000 of state subsidies and the ability to finance a large capital project over a period of 20 years. In addition to other projects, there are still few roof sections that need to be replaced right now. And during my superintendent roundt and community connection sessions, members from the community have asked about the status of these needs and we're now revisiting these improvements. Over the last few months, the facilities committee has started to revisit the project list. Consideration is being given to priority community feedback and additional feedback is being sought and has and will continue to be publicized. Meetings with the community, staff, administration will be taking place over the next couple of months for feedback as exampled in the roundts
058and the community connections. This evening, the agenda includes that authorization for a professional team to assist with exploration and I I encourage the boot township community members to attend my upcoming community connections on the following dates in uh the remaining dates in October and November and December. Uh one date was added on December 6th which is a Saturday which would be convenient for people who are not available during the week. These projects are in line with our strategic plan. More specifically, school and community values. Objective number four, enhance facilities and technology to optimize a safe environment with a focus on achievement and experiences. And that's the conclusion of my report. And I'm going to go right into the commendations, which has a lot to do with our Soore initiative, which um I went over last
059time. So meaning showing respect, honoring your actions, acting safely, and reaching for excellence. Congratulations to the following RVS Falcons that were caught soaring for the month of September. Isla Egan, Charlie GM Certio, Jordan Given, Kefrey Luchiano, Foster Shandell, Harrison Hater, Byron Maharitz, Connor Velasquez, Declan Haggard, Hunter Glander, Jake Graham, Talia Dioro, Shanti Star, Caleb Duza, Dexter Kinger, Damen Tong, Bo Clark, Bastian Flesac, and Kyler Vander. Congratulations to the following Falcons of the month. In fifth grade, Charlotte Lang, sixth grade, Vanessa Galloway, seventh grade, Johnny Ponte, and eighth grade, Molly Johnson. We'd also like to congratulate our uh boys soccer, girls soccer, and cross country teams on a fantastic season so far. Most of what I'm going to read to you is from the coaches, so I want to give a shout out to them. for
060the boys soccer. Going into the last week of the regular season, the boys soccer team is undefeated with a record of 9-0. A total of 50 goals have been scored by 14 different players and only six have been let in. The team has demonstrated good sportsmanship by keeping within a six-fold differential with the other teams and they have shown um good sportsmanship camaraderie amongst amongst each other as our players have tried to help their own teammates experience thrill of scoring a goal. The coaches are extremely proud of the 2025 boys soccer team. Girls soccer. The Lady Falcons have had a fantastic season. In our most recent game, they beat Mendembar on Friday by a score of two to nothing. Everyone on the team worked tirelessly to contribute to the win. Congratulations, girls soccer falcons. Cross
061country. The boys and girls cross country teams have put together amazing seasons this fall. These athletes embody the team's mission to compete quote unquote the right way. Not only to do our runners not only do our runners show sportsmanship to our opponents, but they also teach, encourage, and guide each other through the grind of a long season. Our teams trained with effort, improving their endurance, stamina, and strength through a variety of highintensity exercises. Their consistency and attitude has led nearly all individuals to achieve a new personal record. Additionally, eighth grader Lilia Dioro and seventh grader Johnny Ponte both surpassed the respective girls and boys record times for RVS's home country course. We're deeply proud of the athletes and we look forward to how they will perform in the upcoming county races. And that concludes the
062conversations. >> Thank you very much. First of >> Thank you again. Okay, you want a chance to look at correspondence and that brings us to open session number one. I will not read the statement because clearly there's no one in the public to to read it to. So I'll move on to leon reports starting with the Mount Lakes Board of Education. >> Uh keep it quick. We had uh two meetings since we last met. Um one they had a big presentation on the turf project. They're about to begin work in October on the turf of um turfing the pit. Um so they'll have the second turf field. I think it should take several months to complete the work. Um they hosted a college fair in the lunchroom for grades 9 through 12. There 110 colleges
063and universities they've attended. That's the highest they've ever had. Um they're looking to develop a long range facilities plan to better understand the priorities and costs and there's more to come on that. Um AP scores were discussed. English and social studies are doing well and they're working to increase scores in other areas. Um there's a curriculum update as well. Um there's the Mountain Lakes Education Association bingo night is November 13th uh coming up. Uh the second meeting they provided an update on school security. There's been a lot to talk about with that with the community. So Dr. Sele gave an update on uh what's in progress. Um they're adding a photo ID uh scanner or they're looking to do it pretty soon that would to go into any of the buildings you got to scan
064your uh government issued ID and it will do a scan to see um any background check. basically on you. Um, and I think that's about it. >> Great. Thank you. That brings us to New Jersey School Boards Association. Uh, only recorded next week is the NJSDA workshop and city. >> Great. >> Thank you. And that participant Orange County School Boards Association. >> I'll keep this brief. Um, it's a late hour. So, the last meeting was on October 7th. It was in Bootin. We have a new field service representative. His name is Dr. Paul Panero and he is in essence the new Charlene. Um and then I just want to give a heads up the next meeting is December 2nd. We look out again it's in Montville. The topic is AI empowering education AI for enhanced
065learning and community engagement. >> December 2nd. >> December. >> Thank you. That brings us to the Educational Services Commission of Mars County. their meeting. I attended their meeting on October 8th. Pretty much routine business was conducted. Nothing uh extraordinary to report. That brings us to the book Township Special Education Parent Advisory Group. >> Okay. We met last night for our first parent listening night. It was very well attended. We will have our first public event in November 17th at 700 p.m. for both Putin Township and Mount Lakes on ADHD. um primarily the subtypes and how they manifest into learning and home and school environment. We'll have a second workshop on ADHD with coorbidities on anxiety and interventional tips for parents and caregivers. So that's what we're planning right now and that's my update. >> Great.
066Thank you. That brings us to the Bootton Township Education Foundation. Uh they had the um night that Mr. They're going to announce the play next week at the trunk or treat. And something to be on the lookout that the aviation club there. Um I think they're going to vote on it soon, but um the two foundation from Mountain Lakes and Punch bought like a aviation simulator and they're going to teach kids in a special club to sixth and eighth graders to build drones and flight simulators. I think there's like a $75 participation fee, but it's like sounds like a cool program like but stay tuned. I think they're going to include something that's >> great. Thank you. That brings us to the Rockway Valley Public School Association. >> Okay. We met last Tuesday evening and
067we went we had a total meeting of at least 40 or 50 people. All the class parents were present. We went over guidelines for volunteering policies and procedures. We have a meeting this week to plan for the year cultural events with administration. We created a fund for administration to hand out prizes for sore reward the sore rewards. And then we boomed the teachers lounge last night. If you saw on social media, we created like a food bar for Halloween and decorated the teachers lounge and the two front offices. We discussed trunk or treat which is next Friday evening from 5 to 7:00 p.m. Setup starts at 3:30 at RFL fields. The book fair is next week, October 20th to 22nd. And then we um are having a holiday shop December 8th through 10th. And that's
068it for now. >> Great. Thank you. That brings us to the township of Bootin. >> Okay. A few things to report. The annual rabies clinic is Saturday, October 25th from 10:00 a.m. to noon at RBS in the front of the building. There's a health fair and a smack clinic. It's uh self-management and care clinic. That's what that stands for. Saturday, October 18th from 8:00 a.m. till 11:00 a.m. at the Montville Senior House, 356 Main Road in Montville. Uh the next hazardous household waste collection day is Saturday, November 8th from 9:00 a.m. to 2 p.m. at County College of Mars, parking lot number one in Randolph. Early voting begins on Saturday, October 25th, and goes through Sunday, November 2nd, in the municipal trailer. Hours are Monday through Friday, 10:00 a.m. till 8:00 p.m. and Sundays 10:00
069a.m. to 6:00 p.m. The vote by mail ballot return box is located on the access driveway at the municipal building. And lastly, the township's move to the new m municipal building is expected by Thanksgiving based on the current progress. >> That concludes my report. >> Great. Thank you. And lastly, the potential green team. >> Um so we have uh submitted and had approved our grant modification for the garden over here um for the we call it the community garden, but it's really right here at the school to be used by the school also as if they'd like to. So, um, December through March, we hope to work with, uh, Fox Landscaping and work with the township to purchase, use the grant money to purchase, um, about eight new garden beds. Some are like 17 in
070and some are shorter, intended for like younger kids to be able to access them in here. Um, so it's exciting. >> Thank you. And that brings us to facilities transportation uh breaks. >> Okay. So we have a motion on tonight's um facilities under facilities which is an annual bus evacuation bill. So we met on Monday but this is an annual drill and we did not did not review that. Um but what we did talk about is the referendum planning. So what's on motion under finance this evening are two proposals from the architect. One is to allow them to move forward with updating the facility needs um from the prior referendum and that's the lesser of the two proposals. And then the other proposal is to um evaluate uh needs. As Ken stated before, he's still
071getting um community input and to allow them to start doing design services um to potentially then come back to the board with a couple of different scenarios based on everyone's feedback of what might be possible for us from an educational and from a facilities um standpoint. assuming a couple of rounds of drafts. Um, we would then kick the tires a whole lot at that point. Um, and right now there's there's been a a wish list of sorts in the in the facilities folder. That's a starting point. It's not an end all be all. It's not a 100% we're doing all of that. It's just a starting point. And I think where the committee got kind of hung up is kind of like analysis paralysis. And we stepped we started going line item by line item
072really debating some of the needs and um the architect kind of guided us like we don't need to button it up now but I can't do anything. We'll keep talking about this to the end of time unless we get some kind of budget and proposal to move forward. So that happened um this week. Uh they got back to us a little bit of a delay. there's a death in the family from the architect. And so that kind of brings us up to speed and of course Ken's doing his due diligence with the community as well. >> Great. Thank you. >> Any questions? >> No, I mean I think we should probably just more of a comment like look at the big themes of what we need to do across the building which I'm sure you're
073doing instead of like the line item by line item tedious. Well, if you look at the >> like >> the document that's out there, it does bucket it, but there's a lot of detail. And I think that's kind of >> I don't know how the community feels, but I think that's kind of where we got hung up. We just like >> discussing a lot, but not making any happen. >> And as far as timing goes, it's going to depend on feedback or whatever. We don't have a time yet. We'd be looking, we're just thinking about that. >> Just just rough milestone potentially September of next year. But there's a lot of things that come in between then and now. Obviously, >> I think there's only several times a year you can go. >> Correct. I
074think it was three or something. >> Call special, right? >> It's a special election and that would be a fee born by >> the same as same as last time. But >> if we were to do it in September, they would need to submit it to for approval in March. >> So March. >> So it's not a huge time. >> So you're right, the review time to to get plan. So, you know, the board and the community have a lot lot to do in the meantime to kind of put it to a point where the board can actually make some kind of decision. >> What's the date after September? >> So, you have a mark, you have an April day, September day, November day, December day couple. >> Yeah. >> After September would be the
075normal November election, >> November election. So, >> so you have to weigh all the options, but you know, you're in that early stage right now. >> Yeah. This is just the proposal so that they can come back to us with their analysis of some of our big bucket items and feedback that will continue to come in. >> So we're information gathering from within the school and then within the community and you just going to try to include everyone in the process up you know along the way. >> So I urge anyone to come to the uh the meetings that were scheduled by Mr. Patini for sure to provide any impact. Yep. >> Within the next month or two, then I'm going to extend more times and dates and things like that. >> January, February, um
076even into March. >> Yeah. And then and clearly from the last reference, there are clearly items that were there that we do have to certainly, you know, continue to look at that we need done in the facilities and other things, you know, are to to change, but we certainly want any and all feedback from books. >> Just to be more specific, we got some very nice coaching from the architect that which was to that he would attend a faculty meeting to collect information from faculty um and um and advised um Mr. Tini to work with some students to get some of their feedback. And then um he also advised that we do a community um like an ad hoc community group which um will be a survey. people are interested. >> That's going to go
077out from >> November, right? >> It's kind of hard for me. >> And that's all within the November, December time. >> So, there's a lot going on um to get it to get it going a little bit more than >> Do you want to have the board uh approve like the establishment of an ad hoc committee? >> Is it is it >> because you're not establishing the committee just saying is it committee of the board or committee of the administration? It's not the administration. You're good. >> Sorry about that. >> No, that works good to check. >> Um, okay. Um, so with that, um, I have a motion for motion number one. >> Is there a second? >> I don't know how John I have Mr. Mills and John. Any questions, comments, or discussion? If
078not, the questions on the adoption of facilities motion number one. All those in favor say I. I. >> Anyone post say no. >> Any abstensions? Takes us to finance. Uh >> yeah. No, I finance committee met uh earlier before meeting. Uh pretty routine business. I think the most time we spent was on finance motion number 10, which we kind of just spoke about on facilities, right? About what what's the scope of what's going on with the architect, what the timing is, etc. So um otherwise fairly routine business. >> Okay. Thank you. I have a motion for finance motions one through 10. >> I'll move. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Any questions, comments, or discussion? If not, questions on the adoption of finance motions 1 through 10. It looks like it's roll. >>
079Mr. Bike, >> yes. >> Mr. Brandon, >> yes. >> Mrs. Cabana, >> yes. >> Mr. Chen, >> yes. >> Mrs. Hermy, >> yes. >> Mr. Johnson. >> Yes. >> McBride. >> Yes. >> Mills. >> Yeah. Motion carried. >> Yeah. That reason to personnel the personal committee met >> two weeks agoish. >> Recently. Yes. >> So, it's pretty standard. We're approving a leave replacement for an FMLA paraprofessional. We are approving substitute teachers. We are approving stipens for two educators. We are moving to educators along the guide salary wise and that's pretty much and yeah that's it. >> Great. And with that may I have any questions for personal motions one through eight motion. >> Is there a second? Any questions, comments or discussion? I think maybe done in public. If not any questions on the adoption
080of personal motions one through eight. This should also be a roll call. Mr. B. >> Yes. >> Mr. Brander. Yes, Mrs. Cabana. >> Yes, >> Mr. Chen. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Hermy. >> Yes, >> Mr. Johnson. >> Yes, >> Mrs. McBride. >> Yes. >> And Mr. Mills? >> Yes. >> Car. Thank you. That brings us to program. The program committee met on October 10th. We discussed uh the progressional November 4th division professional development that was between booty township school districts which are very successful. We had Mr. Virginia explain what they did on those days. And we also discussed with Mrs. border the NS NJ NJSLA data and results that we saw this evening. We discussed how the results are analyzed and steps that may be taken based on the results to help students succeed. We
081also discussed about the meeting times for future meetings and we have some other stuff that will be carried over to our November meeting. And with that, I have a motion for program motion number one. >> I'll move. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Any questions, comments, or discussion? Just a quick comment that branchburg is spelled with a U. Maybe this is >> And with that, let's see. Do we have a motion in a second? I lost track. >> Yes. And if we get all in favor say I. I don't. >> I got distracted. Okay. All those in favor say I. >> I. Any oppose say no. Any abstensions? That brings us to policy. >> Uh we had a meeting September 29th. We discussed the administering medication policy with the update to include sunscreen.
082Um we also had some brief discussions and we're still working on an AI policy and looking at um discussion of ebikes on campus here. >> And that's it. >> Great. Thank you. And that's the first reading. So please take a look at it and if there's any any administer sunscreen yourself is that >> so it had to be put into the policy um to include that to include that if you were to bring it to school I believe and then >> note that >> the note that you can put it to >> yes >> but with a note from >> thank you and the governance committee has not met we do have to meet um if if if it's not late, if you want to try to schedule anything after the meeting, but but let
083us do that. Um that brings us to open session number two. There's still no one in our audience. We might not be a statement uh for that. That brings us to old business. Is there any old business to come before the board? Is there any new business to come before the board? Um, I just would like to say I to reiterate our thanks for the presentation that we got tonight and I really appreciated the code um presentation by staff and our administration. It was they did a fantastic job. >> It was very neat. >> Thank you. I second that motion. Well done. >> And thank you to the staff for helping us achieve such great results. >> Absolutely. Thank you. And thank you. And with that, any other new business? And if not, may I
084have a motion to enter into executive session to discuss issues that warrant confidentiality as permitted in the open public meetings act chapter 231 laws of 1975. These matters may or may not be made public when the court convenes. They will be made public when the confidentiality subject is longer. We have three items to discuss. Personnel, student matters and contracts. There will be no board action taken when we reconvene. May I vote, please? Second. Second. >> All those in favor say I. I. >> Thank you. It is 11:38 p.m. We have just reconvened from our closed session. There is no other board action. May I have a motion to adjurnn? >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> All those in favor say I. I. >> Thank you very much. We'll see you at the November
085meeting.