Board of Education Meeting - Public Session - 10/30/25

001People Dennis behind them. >> Oh, no. [laughter] [laughter] education to order. Mr. Moody, can you please take roll call? >> Sure, we'll do. Uh, we'll start with board member Jeff Bennett. >> Board member Dear J Brown. Board member Elizabeth Callahan >> here. >> Board President Nubia Duval Wilson >> here. >> Board member Regina Eert. Board member Bill Guilford. >> Board member Biml Kapadia >> here. >> Board member Will Meyer >> here. >> Board member Shaina Saka Gable >> here. >> Board member Dan. [laughter] >> Okay, great. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. Okay. Please take notice that adequate notice of this meeting has been provided in the following manner. That written notice was sent from the office of the secretary of the board at 2:30 p.m. on January 3rd, 2025. That said notice was

002sent via email to Maplewood and South Orange Township clerks and the editors of the news record star ledger tap into Soma and the Village Green. And now before we motion to go to exec session, we will have the Maplewood Middle School select chorus perform for us tonight. Thank you. >> [clears throat and cough] >> Excuse me. Okay, that was amazing. Thank you so much. Another round of applause. And no one wants to stay for the meeting. [laughter] Yes, I'm done. So, I'd like to make a motion to enter into exec exec session at 6:38 p.m. to discuss attorney client matters, personnel, and hip reporting. The length of the executive session is estimated to be 75 minutes, after which the public meeting of the board shall reconvene. May I have a second? Thank you, board member

003Brown. All in favor? Motion passes. [clears throat] Um, and just checking to see if there are any students for public speaks in the audience. No. Okay. Um, so I'd like to Oh, wait. Let me wait for Mr. Moody. I just realized I need him for this next part. >> Take your time. >> Good to go. Good to go. >> Okay. Um, I'd like to make a motion to approve the board meeting minutes from September 25, 2025 executive session and regular board meeting. Do I have a second? Thank you, board member Eert. All in favor? Thank you. Great. Minutes have been approved. Um, all right. We've got our student rep here. Hey, could you please give us your update? >> Yes, ma'am. So, I want to start with our school board recognitions. So, we're going to

004start with the creative crew at Maplewood Middle School. Congratulations for winning the NJ School Board Association STEM Tank Challenge. Last week, last week the students traveled to Atlantic City and won $2,500, beating over 550 teams with their winning project named the Cross Guard. Led by teachers Miss Zafo Oh jeez, sorry. Um, Zavoki and Mr. Wright. The winning team included Teddy, Nick, Claraara, Sam G, Laya, Frank, Mila, Sam C, Zaren, Finn, Ror, Maddie, Sylvia, Bryce, and Lena. We're so proud of these students for their creativity in building the mechanized gate designed to improve traffic safety around MMS. Next, we're going to move to MMS music ensembles because earlier tonight, we heard musical selections from the middle school's music ensembles and would like to congratulate them for performing in the celebration of sound music festival earlier this

005year. The select chorus was led by Miss Bradshaw. The honors win symphony led by Mr. B and the eighth grade orchestra led by Miss C each performed well before the festival judges and received the highest possible rating of superior. And our final recognition is going to be to the district as a whole for successfully completing our series of back to school nights last month. Each evening the each evening gave the families an inside look at classroom life and the engaging learning happening everywhere across the district. A shout out to the counselors who ran info se info sessions to help families learn about classes programs and how to support us along the way. Those nights really show how much our schools and families work together to help students succeed. And at the tail end of school

006principles month, we would like to thank all our principles for inspiring students every day. That brings our recognitions to a conclusion and I have a couple issues I would like to talk about in my update. So, since the last board of ed meeting, the student council has collected feedback from hundreds of students regarding various concerns, specifically the uh inefficiency and ineffectiveness of the current photo ID system at Columbia High School. 80% of our responders expressed a dis satisfaction with the current system with over 100 sharing their experience of frequent damage and loss and an extremely difficult time replacing them. On top of this, a common theme throughout student feedback is the annoying clunky nature of photo IDs and their ugly appearance. And the goal of this project isn't necessarily to immediately eradicate the use of

007photo IDs, but rather to explore alternatives or supplements that better fit students wants and needs. At the last meeting, I mentioned using bracelets as an alternative means of student identification. And since then, student feedback has also highlighted other potential physical or possible digital options as well that we can obviously consider. That being said, if we do keep the current photo ID system for the time being, students should be given a certain level of creative input for those photo IDs, especially with Columbia High School being a very arts focused school. Similar to our yearbook process, they should be able to submit drawings and designs to a schoolwide contest with top entries being offered as customizable ID options. I've also heard from various students that they would like to select their yearbook picture because right now we

008uh a lot of the freshman IDs have old middle school pictures, some from like sixth grade. So, a lot of freshmen are like, you know, let's upgrade those. Um, since Colombia orders the bulk of its student IDs in mid December, this offers plenty of time for student council to hold this contest and manage selection and voting. And this lets students uh let [clears throat] students influence sorry these policies and would increase support and encourage a respect for the rules. Secondly, I would like to briefly address another pressing student concern, which is the facility maintenance at Colombia. Over the past few months, there's been considerable discussion about the district's long-term plans for uh expanding and improving school infrastructure both at Colombia and across the district as a whole. And while these plans are important for the

009future, I want to emphasize the importance of caring for our existing facilities in the meantime. Our students take notice when their facilities are well-maintained. They also take notice when they're not. Via Google forms and direct conversations with various students, we have received complaints and requests to focus heavily on maintaining facilities now and not necessarily being distracted by the projects of the future. We recognize that the board has done much towards improving facilities on a larger long-term scale. An example of that is the Ritzer project and we're incredibly grateful for that. However, I want to stress the importance of the maintenance at the smaller levels as well. This includes bathrooms, water fountains, etc. The things students take notice of every day they're at school, every day of the week. I firmly believe that students mirror the

010care and attention they receive from their school. And by maintaining everyday facilities, the district can show its students that it values them, which in uh which in turn would foster school pride and encourage a greater care of Colombia and its community. Currently, I'm actively working with Principal Sanchez and the CHS administration to address these issues and various Google forms will continue to be put up and they will remain pending throughout the school year to further collect data. Uh upgrading to ID system and improving school facilities are the first of many projects and the student council will continue voicing and adapting to the needs of the student body as new feedback emerges. So, it's the end of my monologue. if anyone has any questions. >> So, Pam, let me piggyback real quick. We uh will be

011submitting a grant for uh water infrastructure uh for our buildings that will include upgrading uh our water fountains uh filters and we'll probably also include uh our toilets in there as well. So, uh I'll share that with you. It's due uh late November. I'll share I'll share the draft with you guys. >> That's perfect. Thank you. >> You got it. Thank you so much for these updates. There any questions, additional questions? Okay, great. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Um, okay. Next, it's the superintendent update. [clears throat] >> Good evening, everyone. Uh, I'm going to start off with some spectacular news. Not just great, but spectacular. uh our Maplewood Middle School Steam Team um are the state champions for the 24 25 no 25 26 school year. Uh they're going to be

012at our next meeting, but I just we have it on the website, but any chance I'm getting now, I'm making sure everybody knows. Uh I've been personally been participating with this program since its inception since 2015 and this would be the first time we I even got to qualifications final qualifications let alone won it. Uh we were lucky enough to see the presentations of the final three teams and steam tank is you have to go through about three different rounds uh and you're presenting your ideas to a panel of about eight or nine adults uh in different fields. Um when I say their presentation was spectacular, it it was just spectacular. And if you go over to Maplewood Middle School, you will see their product sitting there right on the corner. Uh and and the

013fruit of all their hard work. It was to say it was remarkable would be an understatement and I'm sure some of our board members will will talk about it. Uh but I do want to mention and I'll say a team of dedicated MS students uh called the creative crew um showcased their solution addressing local environmental sustainability. This win is a testament to the talent of our students and the dedication of the educators who inspire them. Following the victory, the students and their mentors Mary Alice and Glenn were honored with an invitation to present their innovative work at the annual New Jersey School Boards Association conference in Atlantic City uh which happened uh last week. Uh I want to give real special recognition not only to uh our students um their families but also our staff

014members um our supervisor who I emailed and said hey maybe we should look into it and found these two wonderful individuals Mary and Glenn and they ran with it and just ran with it. And I would be remiss not to mention the fact that the Achieve Foundation funded their project 100% paid for their busing as well to go down to Atlantic City. And I'd be remiss not to mention uh Vic Luca over in Maplewood Township uh and his team who bent over backwards to help these kids uh with their project. So a lot of people working from different areas of government but it came together so very well. So big thanks to that team and congratulations. Uh we do want to talk briefly uh as you all know uh SNAP benefits supplemental nutrition assistant program

015uh will be unfunded come November 1st. Uh we have been working with uh both towns and various organizations throughout South Orange and Maplewood uh anticipating uh this stop of funding. So uh right now and I want to make sure we get this out. We're sending letters out this week. Um the following is happening. So food shopping by Wednesday. Uh Cougar Cares will be doing that. putting together care packages. Uh we're giving out Walmart gift cards uh to our SNAP kids and SNAP families. We're estimating that to be anywhere from 265 to around 300. We'll have the exact number uh by tomorrow, but we're in that realm. Uh we've reached out to Stop and Shop uh and they'll be helping us out with additional uh gift cards. Uh we have a account now with Rent Party.

016It is a donation platform. Uh and that will be in the letters tomorrow going out. So you can donate to help through rent party. Uh we are having schoolwide events as well. Penny wars uh where we're collecting those funds. Uh we are reminding folks that uh if you're eligible for free and reduced lunch uh and are receiving SNAP, please reach out to us or reach out to your municipality. We are working very close with the health department. Uh big shout out to Candace. Uh we're having uh our interns make calls to families to make sure they're okay and see what they need. Uh we are also determining who is eligible for free lunch and breakfast and making sure that's available to our students. Uh and again rent party will be the platform we are using

017for donations. Uh and that will also be in the correspondence we're sending out. Uh we are convening the children's cabinet also to meet uh to make sure uh to see what other organizations are doing. Uh and then we're also meeting with the municipalities I believe on Monday as well uh to again uh synthesize all of our energies and work. So we'll have more information on that moving forward. Um we want to make sure that our families are taken care of. I do want to also point out aside from the water infrastructure grant, we're also applying uh for the recent uh cell phone grant that the state has put out. We submitted that uh last week which would really just increase the amount of yonder packets that that uh we have. Uh we should hear about

018that within I believe a month. Uh the grant noted. Um we also want to make sure that uh and I will carry here we are participating or accepted in something called the NJ safe program. Uh it is a new program being launched in New Jersey uh that will provide our parents and students with an app they could download um and also a reporting tool for issues of mental illness, suicide, violence, things of that nature. Using this app, they can report it right off the bat. Goes right to the district and the police. It also has a a channel that goes right to trained counselors if it is a mental health issue. So, we're excited to launch this app. We should have it up and running uh I would say by December 1st. Uh so, you

019expect to see more information on that. Look on our website right now. We have some information posted about it. We're also very excited about the TAP auto program, uh technician advancement program from the New Jersey Coalition, uh automotive retailers. Uh they reached out to us. They state uh they are running a program now to train automotive technicians. Uh if you do not know uh the automotive dealerships now are down by about 65% of their workforce in regards to automotive technicians. So um the New Jersey Coalition of Automotive uh retailers have put together a program where kids after school can go to dealerships around our area and train to be automotive technicians. Uh we had an info session for Columbia High School students. We had five kids that were really excited about the program. Uh they

020attended uh the in-person info session last week. Uh and I believe we'll be starting that first cohort within the next two weeks. And then if they don't get into that first cohort, they will be in the second cohort starting in the spring. It is out of Hillside Toyota right on Route 22. They go there after school for eight weeks. they receive training uh and it qualifies them to be an auto technician uh and get into the auto field. Um it's a great way uh to prepare our kids for the auto field, especially for those school districts such as South Orange Maplewood School District that can afford can't afford the infrastructure improvements. Uh so we would have to really put in five different bays to qualify uh for funding. So, most districts can't do that unless

021you're v a uh vocational school. So, this program is perfect for districts like us who have kids that are interested in auto uh can go right to the dealership and get trained. So, we're very excited about that. We just sent out a survey uh in regards to exploring the possibility of starting a dual language program next year in the district. Uh, an elementary dual language program provides instruction in two languages such as English and Spanish or English and Mandarin to help students become bilingual and biiterate. It typically integrates native English speakers with native speakers of the partner language in the same classroom with academic subjects taught in both languages throughout the day. It would be a K to5 program. Um, we we've sent out a survey at least today asking folks uh their opinion on

022whether we should explore a Spanish program or a Mandarin program. Uh the program would start in kindergarten if we decided to launch it and go through fifth grade. Uh finally, uh we did have a great meeting today um with Judge Wallace. Uh it was our uh quarterly monthly meeting. I want to give a big shout out to uh Black Parents Workshop uh and Judge Wallace uh and Mr. Rubin. Uh we really had a productive meeting and and I we w Dr. Gilbert and myself walked away with that from that meeting uh feeling like we had true partners in regards to the equity work we are doing. So I do want to shout out both of them and we have started some of the richer work. So on October 14th, we had Speizel and engineers go

023down to Richer Field and do a walkthrough of the field. Uh in about I believe it's two weeks uh maybe more they'll be taking their soil. >> Yeah. And they're doing their boring holes and uh doing measurements and and soil samples and uh I'll cover some of that stuff as well in the Britser update. >> And I do want to thank everybody uh October 14th who came out for the community conversations at the high school. We had a nice turnout and great conversation. So big thanks. Please look for more community conversations and town halls in the near future. Uh you'll receive emails and you'll see the posting schedule uh on the board website. [clears throat] >> Where is you want first? All right. and Enzola will be doing a NJSLA update for the district. >>

024Hello everyone. Nice to see everyone. Okay. So, last two months ago, I guess we did our NJGPA and we're back for a little more data fun. Um, so tonight we'll be presenting NJSLA access and the DM um scores for the the 2425 school year. Next slide, please. Thank you. Perfect. So the graphic on the left um we have been using for quite a few years and it talks about the whole SOMD uh child student and what we look for to make sure that we're meeting all the needs of our students. So we have culture and climate NJ um TSS student opportunities instruction and programming. So what I wanted to do in this um slide is talk about some of the things that we implemented last year. are just some of the highlights from last year

025that helped support some of the growth that we'll see um in the data. So, in culture and climate, we really strengthened our SEAL HIV cult uh climate equity and restorative practices to foster belonging and inclusivity in our schools. We used our NJ Sky data to guide improvements and measure progress. For NJTSS, we used our diamond um that we've been kind of referring to that Dr. Korea created to support students in intervention and referral uh referral services and our gifted action plan. We introduced automatic um interventions for students in areas like attendance and for failing grades student opportunities. We expanded the academic and emotional support across schools with tier 2 interventions, tutoring and counseling. with instruction. We supported year two of our K5 Eureka Math Squared program with targeted professional development um to enhance tier 1

026and tier 2 interventions. We launched our magnetic reading phonics program in grades K through three. Um we supported the implementation of AXL and I Ready resources for students and teachers. Um and supported um data informed decision- making using our linkit data warehouse. Um we also strengthen our middle school math curriculum by um selecting a new math program for our grade level math um in sixth, seventh and eighth grade that um we picked the the program last year for this year. And then in programming we strengthen support programs to address diverse needs across the student subgroups. Next slide. So our we are going to move into our NJSLA um ELA data. Next slide please. So um as a whole we have a few different um charts here. Um you can see in the top left that

027we have back one. I'm sorry Jonathan. Yep. Right there. You can see that we have um outscored the state average for um in all areas, all grade levels for um ELA. Um some noteworthy areas is the DIS for district-wide ELA proficiency meeting expectations of level four um remain strong at nearly 48% slightly up from 45%. Grades six and seven demonstrated highest growth in student meeting exceeding expectations, a 5.2 two increase on a 3.5. Um and then um we had we have stable performance with modest growth yearly in grades six through seven improving most rapidly. Um you can see on the right hand side by grade levels our increases. Um we did have um some nice nice uh increase in grades three, four, six, seven and um all grades together. the slight decline that we did

028have in we did have a slight decline in grades five and eight and a little bit more of a decline in ninth grade which we will um talk a little bit more about nth grade in in general coming up. Next slide please. Okay, so these are our breakdowns of demographics throughout the um all of our test scores. We've seen some nice growth in certain areas. we do see areas that we can um uh improve on, continue to improve on. Um again, looking at our ninth grade in general, we are we have seen some areas of concern in nth grade that we'll again we'll address as we come um come up to that point. But um for the most part some slight drops um there's a 20% drop in demographics of other but there are only

02913 students. So we you also have to look just to make sure that there's a huge bigger population. Next slide please. Um these are our special populations which um I am excited to see some of the the the um gains that we've had in some of our special special populations. Um, notably in the elementary schools 3 through five in our special ed department, we saw a 9% gain in our language arts, which I think is awesome. Um, and our middle school special ed also went up and um, our high school went slightly down. Um, but we're starting to see some some of the fruits of our and as we continue through the fruits of our work together with curriculum and instruction and special ed department coming together and we're starting to not notice some nice

030gains or a good trajectory going up. So, we uh definitely are excited about that. Next slide, please. Okay, now we will focus on our math. Next slide, please. So um overall math proficiency increased by 7.5% from 24 to 25. Sixth grade had a 7.3 increase. Um CHS geometry and algebra 2 had large jumps in proficiency 8.6% and 36.8% and grades three through six had steady upward trend particularly strong foundational growth in grades three through five. One thing I really would like to point out um on these charts is specifically looking at grades three, four, five, and six whether it's comparing to this state or just overall the growth that we've had. We we are now we this was after two years of Eureka math squared. So we I believe we will start to see trends

031moving forward as our kids continue to learn through through Eureka Math. um these scores continuing to move up. So, we're really excited about the data and seeing that the work that we're putting in and the and and the decisions that we are making are paying off in that area. So, it's very very exciting. This is what we thought would happen and it is. [laughter] Okay. Um did I need to put something about ninth grade? No. Oh, and then you know we also just looking at our math in the orange on the right um in the right chart you know there is some small drops um we were looking at um I'm sorry the the high school we are now working on the sixth seventh and eighth grade math the the high school algebra one would

032be students who took grade level um grade level six, seventh, and eighth grade math, which we are now have just changed the program and it's a continuation from Eureka math. So hopefully we'll start to see our our high school scores go up also. Uh next slide, please. Okay, so our demographics um Oh, one back. I'm sorry, Jonathan. >> No, one forward. >> One Oh, I'm sorry. One forward the other way. Sorry. >> One more. One more. Excellent. Thank you. Okay. So, um, we're seeing a lot of green on this chart. We're seeing a lot of great progress in our math in in general. And the areas where we're seeing we are seeing a little bit of um uh decrease. Um, it is minimal. Not of course we don't want to see decrease but I do

033have to say I think that these numbers are manageable and we can definitely you know zero in on those specific um skills or standards that our students might be lacking and and really kind of those areas up for our students. Next slide please. Okay. So, our special populations, I am really pleased to see the work and the progress that we're making in this area of um our with our special populations. We do have a few that had dropped in some ways, but majority of our special populations have made um some nice growth um you know through throughout the grade levels. So, we are really happy and pleased to see that trend and anticipate that we'll just continue to keep moving forward. Okay, next slide please. Yeah, we'll be talking about our science. Um, one more

034slide, please, Jonathan. Thank you. Um, so overall science profic proficiency increased by 5.1% with declines in the lower levels. five grades five and 11 showed an eight-point gain in proficiency at and advanced levels and the district continues to perform well above the state in all proficiency categories. Again, we're pleased to see a lot of green. Um we have a 1.5 decrease in eighth grade science. Um, again, we don't like to see the orange up here, but 1.5 is is not terribly awful, but or it's not significant, and we would definitely want to see we'll dig into the data a little bit more and see what's going on. Next slide, please. And our um, uh, demographics, we're seeing some nice increase also in our demographics. um a few areas that we need to focus in on,

035but overall we're seeing nice growth throughout the uh our demographics. And next slide, please. Okay, we have one area here which is um our special ed in the middle school and eighth grade that we need to kind of take a peek at and look at a little bit deeper. But overall, we're seeing in our special populations an increase in all areas. Next slide, please. Okay. So, taking this data and moving forward into this school year, what we are planning to do and how we're going to build off of the momentum that we have. Um, again, we're now back to our SOMD student and all the different areas that we want to focus on to ensure that our students have the supports that they need. Um we will in culture and climate we will be continuing

036to strengthen our seal HIV climate equity and restorative practices to foster belonging. We'll continue to use our NJ sky data to um guide improvements and also measure successes and maybe having to tweak some areas. Um we will continue to analyze our attendance data to adjust related interventions as needed and regularly analyze our graduation rate to implement targeted interventions. Um NJTSS we will be continuing our work in this area and um deepening our really deepening our work and getting more specific in our in our interventions. Um we will be um mo we were oh we are going to modernize our NJTSS process by using an online INRS u manager through link it which is going to be a gamecher uh when you're sitting in an in an NJTSS meeting you can um pull up all the

037information on a student that you're talking about so you see the complete picture of this student and then It will also hold all the information we need. It'll collect data for us so that we can start to see trends whether it is a building looking at maybe a grade level who seems to be having the same issues or we can look at it from a curricular area and say hm are we doing do we need to tweak our curriculum and make things um move things around maybe something like that. So it's really going to give us another level of data of our students who are struggling and how we and then help us to inform how we can then help our students better. Um students opport uh student opportunities. We will expand academic and social

038emotional um interventions across the schools with tier 2 interventions, tutoring and counseling. So we'll continue our work. Um, a lot of the successful work that we've been doing at Columbia High School with their intervention programs, we will be implementing them at the high school. I mean, at the middle schools, sorry. Instruction will be year three of Eureka math square for K5. Um, we will continue with targeted professional development. Um, we will be supporting the second year of magnetic reading. We've seen a lot of great work coming out and a lot of great data coming out of our I Ready program and our magnetic reading. Um we will we're continue to support and gathering data and I ready. Um we will be expanding our I Ready um uh into kindergarten through 8th grade uh with collecting

039assessment data giving us more information on our students so we truly understand where their needs lie. Um we will continue to support use um linkit this year this year and actually in the past few weeks all of our teachers have been trained in using linkit. So last year our focus was on administrators making sure that they truly understood how to um gather and look at their data in the schools. Now we're going to um all of our teachers are being trained so that they can go in and look at their um their students and see direct uh they can take all the information that they need. Um we will we will support the implementation of new math program for urea math for grade level math in sixth, seventh and eighth grade. And we are also

040going to begin we have a nice foundation for ELA. We're at that point. We have a nice foundation for our math programs that we will um that we are going to start to look at our science program for next year and see how we can then do an audit. We're going to do an audit on that and see how we can continue to strengthen our our science program. Um and then we will continue to strengthen the support of our middle school um middle schools to target diverse needs of our students. >> Did you want to add anything >> in in terms of in terms of the data? We're just really looking NJSLA presentation asks us to compare gradeto grade which is fantastic but we're also going to go deeper and compare cohorts of students. So

041the ELA 9 for example had a drop in 9th grade by 26 points. However, when I went into the eighth grade how they did in eighth grade and now how they did in 9th grade it was more of a 4% drop. Still a drop nonetheless. We still have to target it but it's different. Right? So now we're comparing how those interventions are hitting our students. how are the how's the instruction for those specific students. So I think intervention manager is really going to help us really look at the cohorts and not just the gradetograde comparisons. So, I'm excited about that as well as not just the intervention piece, but also the enrichment piece, right? Really enriching our curriculum for our students and with gap plans, but not necessarily gap plans, understanding that we also just

042need good enrichment for all as well as tier 2 as well as tier three, right? So, having these platforms and now that the NGSLA would be adaptive, I think it's really going to inform us even more as to where the students lie and really target that intervention, whatever it be, better tier one, better tier two, and better tier three. Our professional development for this year is also focusing on how to enrich tier one, tier two, and tier three to come alongside with the software, but also the human aspect of our teachers and making sure that we care for their teacher capacity. Right? So, there's a lot going on, but we're trying to be mindful as we move along with all this new information. And I think what's also important that we need to think about

043is that we saw this drop in nth grade in general, but we are really um we really do believe that having our freshman academy is also going to support our freshmen obviously to to that we wouldn't see such a big drop in in future years. I really I I am truly impressed by the collaboration of the staff and the administration with the and the central office with freshman academy. So I'm really looking forward to the data for next year. >> I'm going to move into access. Next slide, Jonathan. >> Thank you. So access is testing for our ML students. Um it's basically just seeing the student progress. One more slide. Sorry, it's the introduction. One more. Yeah, just seeing student progress as as they develop in their English language proficiency. Um, they take this test

044and they they start you could be from one at beginning all the way to six where they're more advanced. However, our goal is to hit proficiency which is 4.5 to make them eligible for exiting the program. So, next slide. Because this is such a small population, um, some of the data cannot be shown due to suppression laws. But I did I was able to gather at least how many students tested? 157 tested the different schools where they lie and then how many were eligible for exiting for this year 22 were eligible for exiting. It's really not an instructional component as much as it's personal growth of the student. So of course we come along we support we have a phenomenal ML program our staff and our supervisor really supervisor really works hard on continuing that

045following the students. So I really am proud of our ML system all through K through 12. So I think we'll continue to help students come through that for that proficiency. However, they come at different times. So, it's not like we have them from kindergarten through 12th grade necessarily all the time. So, there's a lot of uh data that's just true to what we can see and not we can't expose, but know that a lot of hard work gets put into supporting our ML students and we're excited to just continue to help support that program. Next slide. Same very similar to our dynamic learning maps. This is our DM. Oh, thank you. He already knows. Next slide. >> [laughter] [gasps] >> These are assessments that are for students with our most significant cognitive disabilities from whom

046general state assessments just wouldn't be appropriate, right? So even with accommodations. So our DLM assessments offer these students a way to kind of show what they know but in a way that's appropriate for them and it's it covers English language arts, mathematics, sorry, English language arts, the same thing. Mathematics and science. Next slide. So who can take these tests? just so you're aware is students in our autism, our MD, LLD, so multiple disabilities, right? Learning disabilities, they take the DLM. Our SOC students in some of our out of district placements also take the DLM. Our DM aligns with their grade levels subjects tested by the state. So, same as our general education population, the third grade through 8th grade tests and the 11th grade test for ELA and math. And same for science, grade 5,

047grade 8, grade 11 for science. And same as our access due to not meeting the required minimum participation per grade and the suppression rules we are not allowed to give you that information. But again more than ever have we worked so closely with special services CPAC even conversations we've had to really make sure that we're being mindful of who takes a DM how we can support them. Um I have to say CPAC has been a champion that has really helped us understand um even how we have prior professionals in the classroom through testing. Sometimes it's appropriate, sometimes it might not be. But having that conversation and that collaboration has really helped us truly support our special needs populations as much as they deserve. >> Okay. >> Any questions? [laughter] >> Just touch on briefly the

048transition to the new state assessment starting in 2627. >> Yes. So we're currently doing field tests. I'm sure you received the letter. And um unfortunately the field test questions are not adaptive right now. They're just being tested. The questions are being tested. So, we're not putting too much pressure on our students. They're just kind of testing the format, the system. But what's interesting about the NJSLA adaptive is that it will be adapted to the students. So, to like when your students take or I Ready, as they're doing so, they're third grade and they're starting to do their little assessments, classroom instruction, and as they're being as they go through a diagnostic window, it'll tell us where and what domain. So in geometry they might be at third grade but they rock in fractions. So now

049they'll be at a fifth grade level. So their fifth if their fraction lessons will be given to them at a fifth grade level but their geometry remain at third grade and hoping to continue to close the gap or continue to have them grow. The the NJSLA now will give us that data. So it won't just be whether they met expectations or did not meet expectations. Where did they meet expectations? Right? Because right now for example math is usually five domains. When you get your results, it says approaching expectations where right what geometry fractions what am I paying a tutor for? No, no, you don't have to answer that. Well, gotcha. But you know what I mean? Where and it even informs us too like where are we helping these students because that's all it gives

050us. So through this adaptive performance, I believe that I'm hoping that that's what they're saying that the state is going to give us just more to identify where they're at so we can really target right from the beginning. Um when we get those results and the teachers have them through link it um intervention manager, we can start the interventions immediately and exactly where it meets them. And even exceeding, what does exceeding mean? They might be one grade, two grades, three grades above. We want to make sure that we're we're we're reaching the students that need enrichment as well. >> The state's finally catching up. Yes. >> And that will be in the spring. Yes. >> And the same grades are testing. and JGPA for their senior our juniors will also be adaptive. >> Thank you

051so much. Um I see we have questions. I saw uh second gate will go up. We'll just go in order. You too. And then Jeff, you had your hand up to me. >> Thank you both. It was great. Um very comprehensive [laughter] and it's great to see the the gains that were made. Um and just two quick comments. Thank you for touching on not only how teachers will be able to how they'll be trained and how to access the their students data but then what to do with the data >> um in terms of especially tier one instruction and that differentiation piece and have to be an area of interest but you know it's neither here nor there but um yeah so thank you for touching upon that and it'll be great to see in

052the uh through CNI the various PD plans and options that are available for teachers Um and the second point was just that um another a trend to watch will be whether increases in proficiency then translate into more students enrolling in higher level middle school math classes and higher level math class higher level classes in general at the high school. um is I don't know just seeing all the greens like wow like I'm hoping that kids feel more confident. >> Correct. >> And um you know may decide to choose those classes. Yeah, that's that's the hope and you know I think for the past few years our focus has been building the foundation right I say that quite often actually we needed to build and have a solid foundation so that we can send our kids

053to the next grade grade level or to a higher level course feeling that they have what they need to be successful and I think especially in the ma in math um we weren't doing a good job of that just because we had a very outdated program. It was time. We desperately needed something new. And we and we have that now. And now moving into middle having at the middle school, it's really exciting to see what our high school teachers will be getting in the next few years. I think it's going to be quite amazing. And and the I do believe the kids will feel more confident in the work that they're doing. And hopefully our our goal is to get them to challenge themselves and see if they can they should have the skills to

054be able to take on that challenge. Thank you. >> Great. >> Yes. Echoing what board member Saka Gable said, um thank you for the presentation. I also um just want to call out it's been exciting to then look at this sitting on both CNI and special services where we talk a lot about the collaboration and what that looks like. Um to see some of the fruits of that increased collaboration between the two departments um and the outcomes that it's translating into for kids and students and teachers is really exciting. Um connected kind of to that, right? Um can you talk us through a little bit of what currently we're doing in terms of how are we monitoring um like our NG MTSS systems um and then what you imagine some of this new online manager

055improving your ability to do because I think it is exciting and no doubt all the new data systems that we have have really helped us streamline and and kind of pinpoint the areas that we need to be working on. So would just love a little bit more insight on that. >> Absolutely. So this is our second year with linkit. The first year we really targeted the administrators, the supervisors to really dive into link it to collect all our data. We had to make sure that with our IT to get years of data so that way you know any INRS plans in the prior any kind of goals any kind of anything we had on students to really program it. This year we've begun our training for Lincoln. Our secondary schools currently are and we're next

056with our elementary. We wanted to give our elementary a little bit of a break since they were doing the literacy legislation mandate and [gasps] just been a lot of mandates from the state. So um but we're start we're targeting the elementary soon but I just went to the high school uh one of the sessions yesterday and and I just hearing the teachers saying like wow this is awesome all this on my student um really really moved me right because that's exactly what we need is to help the teachers in the past what we've had are Google forms which can help but it's like a little bit messy right like open this drive open that sheet let me look at all these pictures of samples where now link it's putting it all in one location um

057when we want to you know, say we go through the tier one checklist, we go through the action plan, and now we feel that it may need child study team support. It's a matter of just clicking and sending it to the child study team, and they have everything in that same location. So, again, it's not sharing or duplicating or copying Google forms. It's literally all in one location. All uh the student baseball card, if you will, or student profile will give all kinds of data, the I Ready, attendance, right? Um the standardized test, classroom grades, all in one. And it also then gives you warnings like this student may need intervention, right? There's more than one data points that are directing to needing intervention. This student may need enrichment, right? Um so having that help

058us out and then it also provides the teachers interventions or enrichment. So right on the spot the teacher can click and they will create groups for you. It'll create interventions for you. Um, and when we're as a nation at teacher capacity, I think this is can be really helpful to our teachers because they can come up with that on their own, but how many hours? They're are experts, >> but at the same time, having it all in one location for them and some interventions already available, I think will be a gamecher. Yeah. >> And I think to add to that, what I'm also excited about with um our intervention manager is that we can now start to take data and information from all interventions in general, whether it's gift, you know, our or gap plans

059or INRS and start to look at trends, >> see get information from it so that we can make informed decisions on curriculum or even at the building level or even the grade level. what might I need to do differently or give more information on? So, it it it gives us a bigger much bigger picture on any type of trend in the in in the MTSS um data that we're getting. >> I just want to add Oh, sorry. really quickly just wanted to add that I think that's exciting and and seeing on the you know end of the diamond with special services how helpful it's been for those students but excited to see um also potentially I know a pain point has been students with gap plans and what enrichment looks like so I would love

060you know a year from now or six months from now to hear feedback about from teachers from families how that this has helped with with >> enriching those coming up for enrichment as well for parents I'm trying to find the parent information night um for giftedness and you know there there's a lot of movement going in that direction but I think a lot of times we get caught up on the gap plan that's like saying every kid needs an IEP >> it's a kid may need enrichment >> a kid may need a gap plan which is like you know just like an IEP a student may need intervention or they might need an IEP so we have to just be mindful that not only kids with gap plans are getting enrichment that's not the case

061right so just know that with our dad with naglieri they might not have you know been very much above average in non-verbal but they were in verbal then we're going to enrich that right we don't need a gap plan to tell us that right so but we will be sharing more information about that I'm excited about how we're going now really we target the enrichment part and that's why I keep repeating it because we get stuck on the intervention we get stuck on INRS but I'm a big champion for that enrichment piece >> for all >> thank you I think we'll have so um Bennett and then Brown and then we'll probably call it there because we have another presentation after this So going to be mindful of time. [laughter] >> Thank you very much

062for the presentation. Um I think it really vindicates our decision to go um with RIA math and magnetic reading. Um my question is about um our starting to track the academic results um which may not be discernible of the triple I. So, uh, last year's third graders were the first elementary school cohort placed by the triple eye and we don't have like the school by school breakdown here and like we definitely don't have like you know breakdown for each school by subopuls and I just wanted to ask if like you know that could be shared with like the public before the state comes out with it in the New Jersey school performance reports because like it would be interesting to see like you know how you know various sub populations are doing in schools because

063there are certain schools where we could infer that like you know most of the FRL eligible kids might be for you know out of that neighborhood so traveling a bit of distance and I'm just asking for that data like you know when it's available >> correlation between students that were moved through triple I and their academic progress is that I'm sorry it's just >> yes more or less you know to see like I'm assuming that we don't have like the students coded by who's going to their closest school um versus who's going to a nonproximate school but like you know if you look at like FRL eligible students at Balden and at South South Mountain like you could assume that most of the FRA eligible students there are probably kids from other neighborhoods who are

064being bust and you know it would be interesting to track how they're doing. >> Have we zeroed in on that? No, we've been partnering with special ed right now to just reach all students but I definitely I mean it could be a conversation we could have in SLTS next steps. >> Okay. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Everybody's our students. >> Hi. [laughter] >> Thank you so much for this presentation and the the slides. I really the slides were really great really easy to comprehend the information a lot of information and you know impactful >> and don't forget there's a hundred something page [laughter] >> feel free >> and it will be on the website the long and short >> okay perfect that's great um actually that's excellent thank you for mentioning that

065um I just had a few comments and I don't necessarily expect a response now it's more just making note of what I'm seeing and I think it piggybacks along a lot of what you observed as Well, um, and I do want to just point out that I think it is hard to see trends with just three years of data and especially within um, some of those years you saw up and down, >> you know. >> Yeah. >> Um, but bottom line, I think the overall message is some progress made. Clearly, we have more to do. Yeah. >> Um, and I'm glad that you pointed out 9th grade specifically because for both ELA and math, that really stood out to me as an area where we are not doing. >> It's hard not to see it

066and to not address it for sure. >> Yeah. >> But I just wanted to highlight um the following and again I don't necessarily think it needs discussion because we are the district is doing a great job of using these new tools. we're going to have a lot more data so we can really start to pinpoint as you've described. >> But just overall going forward, I would consider in your slides when you're looking at kind of increases or decreases over time, think about it from you know your first year of data forward as opposed to just last year to this year because it's really I mean it's not really a trend if it's just one year. Now the fact that the state testing is going to be changing that will obviously >> impact our ability to

067look at trends but still even looking we have the 2023 data. So maybe next year we could look at 20 what the change was from 2023 to 2025. >> Sure. Just >> we can definitely do that and then through link we could even create a five-year one which is the most we have right now due to co right. >> Yeah. I mean I think going back earlier than that >> go back right. >> Yeah I was thinking about that but with co it was it was wonky. just for sake of time and to fulfill the state mandate. This is what is asked from the state but certainly you know through curriculum we can definitely bring in other data but we have multiple data points so but yeah definitely we said that like we can't sometimes

068look at one year is not a trend. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So just wanted to bring that up >> and that's why I think we're going to try to focus now more on the cohort because that's another thing that following the student themselves right the grade themselves how they did in third fourth fifth six. That's and that was part of the conversation with Ninth like we were that's immediately what we did when we saw that red flag. We're like what's going on here? And so we went back to the cohort. >> The great to grade is good for our own decision-m for curriculum, right? And instructional practices, but the cohort is really to provide that true intervention to the student. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. >> That's great. And then um I just want to

069point out a couple other observations. you know, for ELA, I think specifically free and reduced lunch and special education students, they really they kind of stayed the course. I they didn't really improve over time, right? Like free and reduced lunch, 37% met or exceeded expectations in grades three through five, 39% in grade >> nine. >> For special education, it was 39% in grades 3 to 5. By grade nine, it was 31%. So, actually, they decreased. So, just kind of, you know, I think those populations, obviously, you know this, I'm just kind of saying this for the broader community. >> Absolutely. No, thank you. >> Um, and then for math, I think a major takeaway for me was that ninth grade and that only 38% of our students met or exceeded expectations for algebra 1 and

070algebra 2. >> Yeah. And I think that's that's really um also when you look at that data knowing that those are students who took grade level math in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. Yes. >> Is important to know. And that's this is exactly why we needed a new program. Exactly. You know what I mean? >> And that's why we separated for you guys, right? Because most of our students take algebra 1 in seventh grade, >> right? >> So, you know what I mean? the the students that end up taking algebra 1 and eighth grade are either new transfers or students that took the gen regular gened grade six, grade seven, grade eight. And that's also where we've seen often the big decreases. So that's why we knew it was imperative to start with a program

071for those students. >> Yeah. Right. >> Yeah. And it'll be good that the ones now the high school and the middle school curriculum actually match as well. >> Yes. >> Um but again, I just wanted to point out the special populations free and reduced lunch. only 16% of kids met or exceeded expectations for algebra 1 and algebra 2 and for special education only 6% of students. So I just want to lift those up. I think those are major areas for focus as you know going forward. >> Absolutely. [clears throat] >> And and just notice that will we did it for you. We included the special education population because often we've [laughter] skipped it and we're like you know what this is important to highlight. So thank you for reminding us of that the last presentation.

072>> Yes. That's great. Thank you for that. Thank you. >> My questions were answered. Thank you. >> Great. >> You all did a great job with your questions and comments. Thank you. And thank you for the great presentation. >> Um we'll have Dr. Gilbert next, right? And and and Dr. Wibley. Yes. Good evening. I'm Dr. Kevin Gilbert, assistant superintendent of schools. Oh, >> Dr. Carrie Weapel, director of data planning, research, and evaluation. >> And our two-hour presentation begins now. [laughter] This is the uh uh you know, we come to you with our self assessment and our final assessment scores for our HIV uh work here in our district. And so this is our report on our preassessment our assessment that our ABS's and our schools gave themselves self assessment and I talk about our goals.

073In the spring we'll come back with you with the final scores and talk about what um how we did in achieving our goals. Next slide please. So again, uh this is how we determine our grades. This is mandated by policy uh by uh state code. Um our school climate teams uh uh complete the self assessment by the end of October. Uh the information then that we are reporting to you tonight is what that self assessment is and then our goals are determined on what we want to do by you know in 2026 by the end of our time. what are some of the things we want to accomplish? We'll let you know how we do that when we come through you in the spring. And so that's also set by some of the work that

074our school culture and climate teams do at our particular schools. Next slide. Why you working in [gasps and sighs] the assessment deals with these particular categories. Uh each of the categories is broken down and you you try to total 26 points. Uh this is programs and approaches, training, uh instruction and other training programs, curriculum, uh personnel, uh school level incident reporting procedures, investigating procedures, and reporting standards. Um and we always always like to point out, especially when I started in um May of 2022, man, it's definitely where we were then and where we're going now. So if you just kind of look and see uh some of our numbers, we have definitely improved over the years. Um next slide just and this is just the timeline and the process. Um September climate teams receive uh

075receive p uh pro professional learning. Climate teams do their self assessment and climate team create some school climate plans. Then October through May for 25 26 with the implementation and prevention of the opportunities that we have there. Staff continues to take their do professional learning and then the climate teams continue to meet to examine data to update their plans accordingly. And so now I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Wayel to walk us through that self assessment and our goals. >> Okay. Good evening everyone. Uh next slide. and one more. So each of the 26 categories will get an either a zero, one, two, or three. Three means you're exceeding the requirements. Two means you met them, partially meet, and does not meet for for one and zero. Um, and so if you meet

076all of the standards, you get a 52. Um but we always strive to um exceed the standards because neats is the bare minimum and exceeding is where you're falling into best practices and it's really important for us to move into best practices um wherever we can. So that's always a goal for for our district. Next slide. So this is last year's so we're examining last year self assessing this year. Um these are last year's scores. Um I'm proud to say that everyone was over a 75. Um so we're really proud of that. Um significantly changed from uh several years ago. Next slide. So all of the schools in green increased their scores from last year. Um, I do want to point out that two of the schools that didn't increase can't because they are at

077the highest that you can be at. Um, and and really we're we're proud of this work. Um, a lot of the work the ABS's are working hard with their climate teams um each year to develop more support for our students, more curriculum for our students around uh anti-bullying, more social emotional support. So, we've invested a lot of time um and efforts into this. Still more to do, right? We I say all of this and still have four pages of goals for us this year. Um but we're really really proud of this work. Um next slide. And one more. Thank you. Okay. So, and if you can just click through them. Thank you. So before we get into the slide, I just wanted to remind everyone that last year we took a number of steps. We

078integrated the New Jersey Bar Foundation curriculum for anti-bullying. We had professional learning for our elementary schools and middle schools around restorative justice and community circles. Um our middle schools did some targeted um lessons on vulnerable populations. Um, and we added some more training around uh specific populations uh who experienced bullying such as our LGBTQ community uh students were bullied around religion, ethnicity, and ability. So that's what we did last year which we're really proud of. So this year um I want just want to commend our schools. All of our schools received a 75 or higher. Um all of them provided universal strong lessons in HIV last year. Um everyone was in exceeded expectations in elements one, two, three and four. Um and in 24 out of our 26 components, all schools exceeded expectations. Um and

079week of respect, we exceeded expectations. We do a lot of work for week of respect. So we're really proud of that. Next slide. And I might have done that. I'm sorry if you can keep pressing. Um, [clears throat] so I normally have the clicker. I apologize. Um, so just some some areas of focus this year. Um, we are seeing bullying investigations in our fourth and fifth grade populations due to cell phones. I just want to remind anyone that's listening that cell phones are supercomputers which have extensive availability to our kids and so we are handing kids supercomputers very young and so they're seeing a lot of content that they may not be needing to see and that is coming out in in our schools. Um so we're going to do some work on that. So

080that's an area of focus. Um the second one is additional support when students bully. Um so it does take some time, right? You can't just give a student one lesson and then they're good to go because they're not going to bully anymore, right? There's a lot of skill-based lessons that we need to provide students over time. So we're continuing to develop those so that our students will get them. Um greater support for social emotional learning. Wayfinder. Uh we're finding great success for Wayfinder in grades six through nine. Um we're also we just built and it'll be going out uh next week. Um social emotional learning uh manual for our K5 prek through five schools. So we're excited to roll that out. Um and also additional supports to build skills for students when negative interactions happen.

081So we want students to have the ability to advocate for themselves. And so last year we started a one district uh one uh one sorry one district one response initiative and so we are pushing that out even more this year. Our high school students are going to do some videos for them what to do. We're all going to respond the same way if someone's having a mean moment. Um, I want to take an opportunity right now to just just talk about, you know, there are mean moments that happen between kids in schools across, you know, across the country. And it's really important for us to help our our kids advocate for themselves to know when they can say stop. That's not okay. Right? And also what to do when someone tells you to stop, right?

082We have to do both. we have to teach students what to do when someone tells us to stop and what to do when we feel uncomfortable with something. So, that's what we're really working on this year. Um, especially in those in the in the preK through five, um, how to do that verbally and then really fourth through 12, how to do that virtually. How to tell someone to stop when it's happening on the phone. Because when bullying happened 20 years ago, you went home and it went away. and now it's still on your phone. So, we want to make sure that the kids know how to help themselves and how to reach out to us if they need us. Next slide. And keep pressing enter. Thank you. Uh so, four goals. We're going to provide

083additional lessons around digital citizenship for our students. We're going to expand training for staff and teachers around social emotional learning and how to support our students when negative interactions occur between students. Not only is that happening during our professional development days, but it's also integrated into our HIV training that's mandated from everyone from our lunch aids to our administrators. So, everyone's getting that training. Uh we're going to expand learning opportunities for our families around digital citizenship. We're hoping to have several lunch and learns. We seem to be getting a lot of traction in lunch and learns for our families that there's a lot of people that show up to those. So, we thought that'd be a great opportunity over the next few months for digital citizenship and building additional supports for students who have bullied,

084as I mentioned, or initiated negative interactions with peers. So, those are our four goals. Next slide. So, some of the things we're doing for goal number one, identifying and creating age appropriate digital citizen lessons um that are aligned with the ISTY standards. Common Sense Media has some great ones that we're actually looking at. Um establishing a consistent instructional schedule for those lessons. One of the things I worry about when we do things is we do it because it's a hot button topic this year, but what happens next year? So, when are those going into the curriculum? so they systematically happen. Um, and students are already getting digital citizen lessons, but we want to we want to beef that up. Um, building parent companion letters to support um, anti-bullying and the lessons. I love when parents

085can can come home at the dinner table and talk about what we've done so that it's a team effort between all of us and monitoring our impact and reinforcing expectations through schoolwide messaging for positive digital culture. So, that's what we're working on there. Next slide, please. We're looking at expanding our our training and staff uh for staff and teachers around social emotional learning. So it just mentioned we're creating anal lease uh resource manual. We're providing extra or additional professional learning for the castle framework which is social emotional learning framework that has already started with professional learning in September. Uh we want to provide gear guidance around tiered support for challenging behavior uh which we've already started last year. Um as students have behavior sometimes they need a little support and sometimes that support needs to

086increase. So what does that look like? We want to provide professional learning opportunities for teachers and support staff including lunch monitors on the one district one response and professional learning for restorative justice and equity across the district. And all of that is either started or in the process of being uh of planning. Finally uh nope not finally goal three expanding learning opportunities for families around digital citizenship. Uh, like I said, parent seminars, communication for families around the lessons, a c a c central hub on the school website for short videos, tips and facts, fact sheets, and recommended tools to help digital responsible citizenship at home. Um, as well as a social media campaign around digital citizenship. We just did a social media campaign for this year around attendance and we want to add one for

087digital citizenship so that families can see and just be reminded um you know that we're working together. Last goal this time. [gasps] We're going to build additional supports for students who have bullied. This has been a multi-year plan. Um the ABS's will continue to build a library of resources to support our students and the high school and middle school will identify lessons in wayfinder and seven mindsets which are both online programs um to address bullying. Um and so those are our goals. Next slide. actually two. [gasps] Uh, next slide. And one more. There you go. So, we just celebrated the week of respect and this is just highlighting what each of our schools wanted to highlight for you. They did things all week, but this is just a little bit um of what they did.

088One of the things we introduced was that every school gets lessons on the same topics for five days in a row. And that's really important because we want a consistent message for every child in the district about bullying, what to do, how to help, how to, um, you know, how to stand up for ourselves, how to not be a bully. So, um, that was really great. And then they did some really fun stuff like, you know, crazy sock day and stomp out bullying. So, that was really great. And uh that's our story. >> Thank you. That was great. Um I have a comment and then I'll see if people have um questions or comments. One thing I think the uh the lunch training for parents is a great idea. And if I would um recommend

089maybe having a portion that teaches parents how to look at the smartphones and put in different uh limitations because I will say as a parent myself trying to do that with my middle schooler, it was not as easy as I thought it would be. Um and so just having a little tutorial on how to do that could be great. I know there's a lot of tech folks in the district that could even create an FAQ to support that. >> I can do that as long as no one tells my daughters. every every time I show a parent how to do that, they roll their eyes and they yell at me that I'm ruining someone's life. >> Oh my god, that's so funny. But well, you know, there's also like ways to just say like how

090long they can be on the phone and then it like shuts off, you know, at a certain hour. >> Screen time is an amazing thing. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, well, you can just send them to me. Tell them they can yell at me for it. Um, any any questions, comments? Okay. Yeah. Uh, well, you didn't get a chance to go. Why don't you go in? >> Oh, sure. [clears throat] >> Mine is quick. Uh, and I think I asked this last time as well, but can you just remind us how uh our schools are doing these self- assessments in a way that is objective? Um, because I mean I I think I'm pretty great. Not everyone necessarily agrees, but as far as how they're choosing what score to give themselves. >> Sure. So there is

091spec. So the state offers or provides a rubric of very specific criteria that you have to meet in order to get a zero, a one, a two, and a three. What they then have to do because we can be um you know the state can check this work. Every anti-bullying specialist has to provide documentation for every score that they've given. Um and so they upload that to me and I review all of all of that. So that's really important is that just because you say you do it doesn't mean you actually do it. So we we collect evidence for every standard. >> Great. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Um again a great present another great presentation tonight and I love the areas of focus for 2025. Um I agree with the help especially with

092cell phones and helping parents manage that. It's really important. Um and I understand this presentation is rooted in the requirements set forth by the state. I'm just wondering if there's an opportunity here as you do this presentation a year from now um to also include data on HIP complaints and investigations by schools over time. >> So generally we do those together. >> Yeah, >> because SSDS has that >> but SSDs didn't release didn't open up till yesterday or the day before. So you'll get that next month actually. >> Okay. And >> because that really does provide a holistic picture. >> It does. Yeah. So, that'll be with all of the um suspension data and things like that. That all comes together. I normally try and pair them together. It just didn't work out timing wise

093and and this is uh due, you know, this month, >> right? Okay. Thank you. >> Okay, great. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Um now we have the business business administrator update, Mr. Mooden. >> All right. All right. Thank you. So, Jonathan, if you wouldn't mind posting that uh presentation [clears throat] actually the uh the other one, the presentation that this will be second. >> [clears throat] >> No, not not ritz or milestones. Actually, it's uh it's called the uh it's the health benefits uh presentation. It's a PowerPoint >> and that's not the right timeline anyway. name. [clears throat] >> It's It's all It's all Regina Eert's fault. [laughter] >> I've got a lot of questions. Get ready. Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you. All right. So, uh there's a couple of things that

094I'll be presenting on here this evening during the business administrator update. Uh and the first will be the pro the perspective change of health plans. Second, I'm going to talk about uh the Ritzer project timeline. And third, uh a little bit of a construction update. So, I want to start here because um well, first I want to take folks back to our budget season. I don't even like referring to it as budget season because budget season is all year. Um but back in April May we received a warning from the state that health plan insurance costs are likely to increase by 37%. Uh this was they essentially them ringing the alarm across the state that uh school districts, government entities really need to be thinking about that eventuality because you know uh it was pretty

095much a certainty. So, back in May, we started a process. I reached out to three brokers uh and had those brokers go out to all of their networks to start looking at potential health insurance plans that might prevent us uh from having these significant increases uh in costs. So, you know, what we found at that point was the state health benefit plans premiums have increased literally by 74% between 2021 and 2026. Uh, you know, these costs were driven by rising costs of specialty drugs, uh, GLP1s, medical inflation, medical advancements, cancer treatments, etc. Um, so for the upcoming plan year, ultimately when they came out with their numbers, it was not 37% which was a blessing, but it was 31%. Which was still a tremendous cost increase and essentially meant that the $20 million approximately that

096we spent in health insurance premiums uh in 24 to 25 would likely increase to 27 million. uh now that is a tremendous increase and one that our budget could not sustain. So we started the process of really digging into how we might avert this looming crisis. So this dramatic increase, you know, even this sentence here, this dramatic increase is a significant financial burden that if accepted would require deep cuts elsewhere in the budget impacting educational programs and staff. Let me make an adjustment to that. Th that dramatic increase would have really just sent us off the the the financial the fiscal cliff here because broad deep cuts will be required in the coming budget season. Next slide. So on this slide, it kind of just shows you that pro that uh trajectory from 2021 up

097through 2026 and then into projections around 2027. And as you can see, the darker uh bar charts are medical uh increases and then the lighter bar charts are prescription increases. So you see the drivers of growth in premiums uh and it's pretty blatant here uh that in the 2627 projected year we're looking for the state health benefit plan will likely see much more dramatic increases that that are even uh slated for 2026. Uh next slide. So, we started a process and I mentioned that I went out to these three brokers and had them scour the state for potential relationships, potential plans that could keep us out of this crisis while doing what we were called upon to do as district leadership, which is provide uh the best in the way of coverage for the for

098the full body of staff. Now we have to do that by providing something that is equal or better in plan structure, plan design and cost which is a a daunting challenge. So um we did the comprehensive search uh these three brokers went out looking at any potential relationships that they could find and in fact so it was round and brown Eagle Rock and um and also um Gallagher our existing broker. So essentially we only of the three brokers we went out to they could only bring back one respondent that was willing to quote us uh you know for a potential plan uh and that was Eagle Rock and the Meritane uh Meritane being the third party um uh the TPA uh third party adviser. So and then we also got a proposal from Homestead. Okay.

099So then we started the process then of socializing this and in involving the the broadsp spectrum stakeholder groups from within the district right uh that means asking some leadership teachers staff district leadership board uh all constituencies involved in the thought process asking questions myriad questions getting answers and really workshopping you know what could be done to avert this potential crisis. Next slide. So after a thorough review um and of the respondents we only had two. This is the Eagle Rock Maritane relationship and and Homestead. uh we we felt that the Eagle Rock meritane relationship we wanted to proceed with the process of of evaluating that one because it offered benefits uh you know over the the other relationship and they could meet the need of providing something same or better in terms of plan design

100cost structure uh and network coverage. So that detailed analysis they provided for us, they landed on a 94% to 95% overlap with the existing Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield coverage for the district. Uh which was the best uh circumstance that we could hope for. Um and as I mentioned before during this process uh myself the superintendent uh district leadership human resources team ask in some male leadership uh we all got together to really um provide as much in the way of detailed specific questions to these brokers as possible uh to really come come to a final consensus on the best path forward. Next slide. So what you can see here is that um in the 2425 fiscal year we had expenditures of 20,500k. Uh during our budget season uh you know we projected a 15%

101increase. We felt that was you know sufficient. Um and then you know we're looking at what a 31% increase would be in the event uh or or actually when we once we were uh made aware of the likely um premium increase at the state plan and that's approaching 27 million. However, with the Eagle Rock maritane relationship, uh we're looking at a projected uh approaching 23 million, which really does constitute uh approaching a $5 million savings from what would have been. It also approaches uh approximates approaching a million dollar savings from what from where we budgeted um in for the 25 26 year. We we got increasingly strong feelings that this really was the option for us given these numbers, given the the budget and cost projections that we see here. So, next slide, please. So,

102this next slide is kind of a breakdown of a self-insured cost because essentially uh we evaluated any potential networks that could quote us. we evaluated uh or applying for membership within a state health insurance fund. Those funds actually allow for um you know lower premiums because they are more selective in terms of their populations. We did not get quotes from them. But this self- insurance options that we were presented by uh Etna, you know, Meritane via Eagle Rock and Fairview Associates is kind of captured here. The current plan again uh in the 2425 year was 20 million uh 20.5 million. In the proposed plan uh we have these categories of charge as you can see because it's a self-insured plan. The self-insured plan means that the district will be taking on all liability for claims.

103So instead of paying a fixed cost of 20,500,000 uh we we have the 1.6 6 million and but then we have to uh take care of any estimated medical claims. Those total out to about 16.5 million based on the projections from our broker. Then there's this A4 search charge medical and that's the A4 searchcharge is really um it's the patient centered outcomes uh research institute fee. It's mandatory of any self-insured plan and then that comes in at around 282K. And then our our broker estimates the potential pres prescription claims uh the RX uh and that's the 5 a.5 million there. Then we also get uh uh prescription drug rebates which total to about a million. So that's how we land at the perspective or the projected uh self-insured premium cost of 22.87 million or you

104know approximately around 23 million. Uh next slide. So uh just to spend a moment on the difference between fully insured plans and self-insured plans. Fully insured plans like the state plan uh is where we pay a fixed premium to the state. The state then assumes all financial risk for medical claims and prescriptions. Um however the premium also includes state administrative costs, profits and state premium taxes which are returned to the state regardless of our district's claims experience. That said, in a self-insured uh type of plan like the one we're proposing, uh the district assumes the financial risk for our employer's actual healthcare costs. We also have the third party administrator Veritane that handles all the claims processing and network management. Now, under this model, the district pays for the medical and claims that they that

105are incurred. Uh so where we have favorable claims years, claims experience years, the district retains those savings uh rather than you know having the state retain the surplus. This gives the district greater control and transparency over its healthc care spending. Now, uh, with what's required in any self-insured plan, if we're taking on the risk of actually paying for the claims that occur amongst our population, then we have to insulate ourselves from risk by having this stoploss uh, reinsurance. So, essentially, it's insurance on the insurance, right? So, it protects against any high cost claim. So, there's specific stop-loss and aggregate stop-loss. specific stop stop-loss protects against any high cost cost claim from any single individual employee or dependent. Um the aggregate stop-loss insurance provides a total ceiling on the dollar amount of eligible expenses for the

106district will pay in a given contract period. So if we eclipse that uh and in in the aggregate then this insurance kicks in. we pay for that insurance but in fact it serves us well by uh also taking care of those claims in the event something outsized happens. Um next slide. So, you [clears throat] know, our conclusion here through all of this analysis over the past literally seven months is that, you know, moving to a self-insured health plan is a really strategic necessity because it addresses uh the unsustainable increase in the state health benefit plans. Now, I should also say that a lot of our neighbors are already have already made the move. you know, Newark, Irvington, Orange, D Orange, you know, a lot of North Jersey folks are even moving to uh the same

107uh e- rock management maritane relationship that we're proposing. So, um, for all these reasons, district leadership is recommending that the board of education passes the necessary resolution today in order to approve this transition and allow for the district to move forward with a sustainable, modern health insurance plan that protects our budget and provides excellent benefits for our employees. The fact is, we have a short window to take action here. Here we are October 30th and uh in order to exit the state plan, we need to submit a um you know a form to exit by November 1st because it has to be done 60 days prior to any potential start date. So essentially in the event we pass this resolution today, uh we'd be moving forward with an exit from the state plan and then

108uh moving forward with open enrollment planning for the next health insurance plan. So, if you wouldn't mind going to the other chart, even though it's it's small, I just want to put it up there uh as an example of the kind of uh communications and uh you know, single pagers that we'll be sending out over the period of time in the event the board uh decides to move forward with this. But, and this is a multi-page sheet, one that none of us can see, but >> can they zoom in at all? But essentially, you know, what you have here is a demonstration that the current state health plan and the Eagle Rock merit uh Etna plan that's being proposed are equivalent in every way and even better in some ways. Uh so this is the

109kind of information that'll be distributed in the event the board decides to move forward and it'll have detailed uh pointby-point uh comparisons as well as um asurances that um that things will move forward smoothly. Um we have a commitment that in the event we move forward uh that our third party administrator and broker will be uh you know present at our schools and really there for us to to handhold us through the transition and answer questions. Uh but I tell you what uh ask and leadership and the district leadership have done a lot of question and answering uh receiving in the run-up to this conversation. So um I'll stop there. Any questions? Thank you for all that information. I really appreciate a breakdown of kind of the costs >> um and the his the historical

110cost as well. I just had I have two questions. One is you said that the state premiums have increased by 73.9% between 2021 to 2026. Is that the employer portion of the premiums or the employee portion of the premiums or both? I'm I'm trying to get a sense of how much have staff how how much have staff premiums gone up over the last >> Well, you know, the thing about it is it's when you're talking about premiums, you're talking about that which the school district pays to the uh to the provider, right? And then within the premiums, there's going to be the, you know, employer share and the employee share, right? So, when I'm making that reference about how much they've gone up, that's that's premiums in their entirety. Now each district, each you know

111relationship uh you know that seeks to cover the the population each district leadership sets the premium levels right. So we we currently uh you know if we are to move to a new plan we would have equivalent premium levels. So everything the 11.5% projected increase >> would be the total premium projected increase and both employer employee would experience that same amount of increase >> right so so you're are are you saying that the increase is actually 22 point something% and that the employer is paying 11 or are you saying that 11 and it's split >> that's correct so uh if we had stayed in the state plan and we were about to experience or if we do stay in the state plan and we're experiencing a 31% increase >> the employer and employee share would

112grow by that amount >> because the premiums in their entirety would increase 31%. >> So are they split half and half? Is that >> No, it's it's it's whatever the employer and employee are set to pay in the current situation it would increase by 31%. Okay. >> So the share of the total would remain the same. >> They both increase at equivalent levels. Same in our scenario that if we decide to move to 11 to um you know Eagle Rock Meritane, if we're looking at an 11.5% increase in total premiums paid to the broker, the employee and employer share would grow up, you know, commensurate with each other. >> Okay. Yeah. >> So, I mean, just looking at the 73.9% it looks like there's generally been an increase in premiums around I don't know 13

113or 14% each year. >> Yeah. Whatever was on the Okay. >> chart. Mhm. >> Okay. Because this is projected to have an 11.3% premium increase if we switch over. >> Yeah. >> Okay. And then with the stop gap insurance, it wasn't clear to me because I looked in the res the resolution, the one resolution is the 23 million and then the other resolution is for the broker. That's $45 per employee per month, which is about 400,000 or so. Does that include the stop-loss insurance? >> The 23 million projected total cost includes both the stop-loss insurance as well as the per employee per month broker fee. >> Oh, so then why are there two resolutions? because we had to do them separately from a procedural standpoint. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> So, you're welcome. >>

114Um, so two questions I guess going to that stop-loss coverage. Do we do you have an understanding or there specific numbers as far as when that kicks in on an individual basis as well as for the aggregate coverage? >> I do not have them right here at the moment. However, they will be known to us. Absolutely. They will share that with us. the thresholds for for both single and aggregate. >> Okay? Because obviously, well, it seems like this is the right plan. The degree to which we could have an abnormal set of circumstances and our claims go way up, it's important for us to understand what amount of protection we're going to have. >> Oh, well, we'll we'll be completely pro protected in either circumstance. So, as soon as we eclipse the threshold, >> because

115we've paid for the stop-loss insurance, which is reinsurance, which is insurance on insurance, >> as soon as we eclipse either the single or the aggregate threshold, it kicks in and then covers the remainder. >> It's just a matter of whether the threshold is here or here. >> Right. >> But we will have already paid for the insurance anyway. So, they would take care of the the claim. You see how that works? No, I understand. It's a matter of, you know, if we if claims for one year were 50 million versus 500 million, at what point at what number of million will they say this is how much you have to pay because that could be a big unexpected? >> Well, not for us. See, that's that's the whole nature of this because when you have

116stop-loss insurance, it's to stop the loss. So, essentially, you pay your insurance premium for this additional stop-loss insurance and that's all you're on the hook for. So if it get if we eclipse the threshold in terms of a individual or aggregate claim that insurance kicks in they pay those claims and we will have only paid the premium for the stop stop-loss insurance. >> So once we pay that premium the amount that we're talking about that is the total cap. We know >> that's that's it. >> Got it. And the other piece here obviously with self-insured plans the district has um an incentive or a hope at least that we're not going to be paying out as much. If I was a teacher, I'd probably be a little bit concerned about that. So, under this plan,

117who is it who is deciding what claims are approved and denied? I mean, I assume it's not going to be you guys in the >> Can you give me that first part of that question again? >> If so, we're paying the specific direct amounts of medical costs, right? So, the fewer costs we have, the less we're paying, >> right? >> And I'm sure that folks who know they're going to have claims to submit are worried about are they going to be approved or denied. Who in this chain between the district merit Etna who is actually making that decision of what's being allowed what's being >> nothing changes in that regard. Etna is a network uh they would be making those decisions around you know plan design providers uh what claims how they address any individual

118claims. It's just like it happens today. >> So that we don't have any impact on say we want you >> by no means we have no discretion. We're completely separate from that. We simply simply will have retained the insurance and insulated the district and everyone from the risk of any exorbitant claims right by through the stop-loss protection and there the network would be the Etna POS2 network and it would act extremely similarly to the current network that's in place today. It's just a POS2 versus a PO. Those things used to be a departure from each other, but they have reconciled over the past years. And in fact, POS2 offers a bit more flexibility than a PO because we there's a national network. Um, but uh to answer your question, we're not involved in that. >>

119Okay. >> Thanks for this. I don't expect you to have the the answer straight away, but it's a good followup is to know on the stop loss what are their exceptions to uh to certain coverages, right? They might have carveouts to say that your uh exorbitant costs might only cover X, Y, and Z, but not something else, some some of these other conditions. It's a good thing to understand because certain certain stopoff coverages won't cover what they call million-dollar babies or preeies or whatever it is. There could be scenarios that do not fall under that. And then while we're we're making a a short-term run to make a decision for the new year, >> for the long term, it's a good thing to get some understanding as what are the top three, top five drivers

120of the medical cost, muscular, skeletal, cancer, whatever, whatever it might be to then look at alternative routes that we could take for carveouts on ourselves, right? So, we're not be able to do it now because it's a couple months away, but for for forecasting for the future because that's where the biggest increases are. Now, thank you for that question because for one, we did pose that question to the the brokers, right? And they assured us that there is there's no with our stop-loss protection, there's no scenario that we ultimately are on the hook for. Okay, that's one. Um uh two, I'm glad you raised the point about being self-aware, right? Because essentially when you have self- insurance, let's just say this, when you have full insurance and you're fully insured by a separate network, you

121do not have visibility into your claims experience at a granular level. So you don't know what's affecting your claims, right? Uh you're only given certain higher level reports, right? When you go self-insured, you have full visibility into the granular detail and the nature of the claims experience. As such, it gives you the ability to be um [clears throat] very intentional about how you shape the plan moving forward. You're in the best case scenario. If we move to the self-insured plan, we'll have the most in the way of visibility into our claims experience. So, we can incentivize certain things. we can uh we have a great deal more flexibility to really meet the needs of the uh the full spectrum staff and and tailor things such that those uh savings that we're experiencing year-over-year from declining

122claims we then put back into our a reserve. So, uh that serves us moving forward. >> Um I I want to just say something real quick while we're and then we can go to you. Just wanted to make sure we also clarify for people um because we're saying a lot of acronyms like PO and POSOS um which is not point of sale, it means something else. Um but so >> point of service. >> Yeah, exactly. So um I appreciated um once you had educated us before this meeting that even though this we're not we're going to something that is not a PO, we still this current plan will not force teachers to get referrals for specialists. actually acts like a PO even though it's not called a PO. Is there anything else you want to

123add to that? >> Absolutely. So the the only I would say that um traditionally PPOs or insulate you from the risk, right? Because you you you'd have to get a referral. You don't have to get a referral in this POS2 plan. You do not have to get a referral to go out of network, right? um you know but just like or in both scenarios certain kinds of um cases require a pre-certification from Etna okay not from your primary care physician and so that's the same scenario um so we we've been very comprehensive and intentional in looking at both plans in excruciating detail to determine that we're moving to something if we decide to do so that is uh the same more better. Uh, and I'm just really, you know, I feel really blessed that and

124we should all feel blessed that that we were able to find something because, you know, they also asked for additional claims experience for like the last 3 months, right? And because they have to scrutinize this in in in extreme detail and um, let's just say we were able to still qualify whereas the health health insurance funds and all of the other brokers, we were not able to qualify. And guess what? Next year we may not be able to qualify for even this kind of thing if we if we don't get in today. So it's like uh it's a tremendous blessing. One that we're trying to kind of you know drive the district through this this window of opportunity uh to insulate ourselves from from from risk moving forward and to provide the best in the

125way of care um and insurance to to the population. Thank you for some of those visuals. Wasn't all, but you did [laughter] say in my email just some would be great. Um, >> I just want to clarify Jar's question because I think I got two different responses. So, the 11% premium is applicable to both the district and all staff members, teachers, supervisors, principles. So the premium >> in its entirety is what the district pays. Right. >> Right. >> There's two components of it. Employer and employee. >> Right. Yes. >> So meaning you know that 11.5% that's projected to grow will be shared by employer employee at the same percentage share you know in the in prior years. you know, it's so if it were to go up 31%. >> The premiums for uh employees and

126employers would go up by that amount unless there was some intervention at the district level which said we're going to take care of more or we're going to take care of less. >> Okay. So that's that's really the circumstances what we're talking about is the aggregate premium growth. Uh and you know we can set it up such that it the contribution remains the same um year-over-year. >> Got it. >> The share of contribution. >> Got it. Um [sighs] you mentioned a lot of conversations with SA leadership as leadership. What were I'm just curious what were some of the main concerns because I know we talked a lot about how everything is, you know, better or the same, but I imagine there still had to be some some question. >> Yeah, sure. There's there's a lot

127of um concerns expressed around can I keep my doctor? Uh what's the overlap in in network coverage? Like you're saying it's 95% but you know, how do we know that? What's the methodology for the the calculation for that? you know, um, how can I find out if my individual doctor is covered? You know, that, you know, a lot of a lot of that. And then if I want to keep my relationship with my doctor, can I you know um a lot of those kinds of any kind of question that you might imagine really was kind of tossed our way and relayed to brokers and third party administrators around plan design, plan structure, costs, uh you know, prescription drugs instate, out of state, things like that. And [snorts] again, what we found is that uh particularly

128going to a POS2, it's even more beneficial because it's a national network. So, it's going to cover instate or out of state, right? Um but a wide wide array of questions and so uh we also had our uh broker partner that we would move to in this situation create an FAQ document which is extensive, right? um and an array of uh glossy materials that are going to, you know, really serve the district well and educating folks and making uh bringing comfort to the transition. >> Okay. Thank you. I know I've talked about it a lot even just in in personnel and I know you've talked about an FFT, but communication on a huge change like this is is really is really key. And I know that even just from my experience, even in a healthy

129budget situation, any organization is always going to be evaluating every couple of years. So I I understand the need for that, but that's why I wanted to clarify and get a little bit more into that because I do think it is important for folks to understand why it's happening [snorts] and what the [laughter] >> what the the process was and how you engaged with everybody. >> Absolutely. >> Um the one one last question. You talked about a couple of districts, neighboring districts that have already done this. I'm just curious, do you know if that was done recently uh like in, you know, in the past year or two? And then also if they've stayed on that plan and if there have been any, I guess, challenges switching from state to private, any known ones anyway.

130>> Yeah. Um I will say that uh you know, we've been presented a list of um quite a few of our neighbors who have done this change. uh in the past several years in anticipation of these growing costs. Um I mentioned New York, Irvington, East Orange, Orange, you know, so many uh uh I have a list of maybe 12 or 13. Um now, um we didn't do a comprehensive poll of their experiences, but I know the BAS that I know and the assistant BAS that I know around North Jersey are extolling the virtues of uh their moves, not just from a budgetary standpoint, but from a uh you know, a user experience standpoint. So, you know, we did a lot of back and forth, a lot of uh talking to folks, and you know, we

131got really positive guidance Um, so I want to be mindful of time because we still have um quite a bit to cover tonight with community uh committee reports and public speaks. So I know you wanted to give an update on um facilities or LRFP. Maybe you could just do like a verbal update. >> Yeah, I'll do that real quick. But what I was going to say is and I'd like to make sure that the presentation that you that you gave today along with that comparison chart can be put um on the website in our board of ed um section that's on pre like presentations. Same for the NJLA NJSLA and the the HIB. Um if we can do that next week that'd be great. So but I know you have some positive news to share

132about um progress we're making on our >> Absolutely. Yeah. And I can I can run through that really briefly. Uh so essentially what uh I was going to talk about and if you happen to have that visual you could throw it up but uh I can speak through it as well. Essentially um as we all know that um we started a process of moving towards uh attempting to really modernize Richerfield and we we were underway that process is underway and we're bringing it forth uh to the border school estimates. Um it began with the process of updating our long-range facilities plan, our LRFP. We submitted that on September 12th. Um you know, then we did a uh project submission to the Department of Education to start the process of trying to get debt service aid

133in the event we move forward with a development of Ritzer. that resolution or that acceptance by the DOE uh requires that your long-range facility plan be current. So, um those two things were happening in parallel, but essentially uh our long range facilities plan was approved on October 15th. I have the letter right here. I'm sorry, October 5th. Uh, Department of Education has approved the major amendment to the long-range facilities plan submitted by South Orange Maplewood School District pursuant to the Educational Facilities Construction and Financing Act PL 2000 and JSA187G. We have our letter here. So, that allowed for uh the DOE to continue with its process of u evaluating our project for debt service relief and that process happens over some time. either uh they give us an answer or if 55 days have elapsed

134I'm sorry no that's actually a maplewood planning board so DOE starts their review once our LRFP is finished our LRFP has been approved so the DOE is doing is has their review our review underway then we have our site investigation this is happening now October November 2025 where as the superintendent mentioned earlier uh our teams are doing measurements um boring holes, surveying and really planning out uh you know what's possible that's happening over October and November and also the design development phase underway November through January. And then next would be the permitting as you can see up there. That's item number three. Permitting from January through March now, uh we also have to submit for a courtesy review of the Maplewood Planning Board. We would do that. We're targeting that for December 9th. Um in

135the event we do not make that we we believe we we may then we would target the January meeting. So um then the DOE approval has to come through after the Maplewood Planning Board review. So that DOE approval we're anticipating for February uh 2026. At that point, we would do a board resolution to the BOS to follow the DOE approval. Um, then construction documents in March, bidding for the the project in April of 2026, award and contracting in May, and construction to begin uh June uh through December of 2026. So, that's the timeline is captured here. Uh there's some other details that I mentioned, but we are on the path. We are making uh uh making headway through these milestones as we approach the next items on the list. So that's >> great. >> That's

136riser project timeline. >> Thank you so much. Um okay, if you have any questions, send them to FFTD chair Bill U Bill Gford um because we need to move along. So next is uh board president update and then we will have um public speaks and committee report. Okay, so some updates. Our first community feedback session for the 5-year strategic plan process with the NGSBA will be January 15th, 2026 at 6:30 p.m. at Columbia High School's media center. Um, more details will come soon to the community from the district on how to RSVP and attend, but I wanted to announce that date now so you can hold it on your calendars. Um, everyone in the community is invited, but everyone can't come because we don't have that much space in the media center. So, RSVP early.

137Um, but there will be three sessions, so you'll have plenty of opportunity to go. Tonight, we vote on the uh Oh, is it 2026? Yeah, I know. I just noticed [laughter] 2026 2027 school year calendar, which enables our community to plan in advance much earlier than before. Um, we ensured that the district spoke to the YMCA to confirm they will have before and after care available on the first day of school, which will be September 1st, 2026. Um so tonight per our po per per our board goal we have formed the new community and revenue partnerships committee tasked with advising the district on developing new revenue streams. Um thank you to board member Kapadia for stepping up as chair and board members um Brown Gable and Bennett for joining this committee. It'll probably meet like

138every other month or something. We'll see. But thank you so much. We're excited for this. Uh, special thanks to the Music and Arts Project for their donation of approximately $13,000 to to Columbia High School's fine and performing arts teachers, totaling up to about $1,000 per educator for supplies and equipment to support their classrooms and programs. Tonight we also vote on our 2627 school year budget calendar which includes policy focused mandates and milestones as well as oversight mechanisms like a Q1 2025 review of budgeted versus actuals which will be coming up in a few weeks. Please note that the audit presentation date is pending and could be delayed because of the federal government shutdown impacting the ultimate timing of the fiscal year 2025 audit due date. Normally that um audit review happens in February. So, we

139shall see. Lastly, I want to remind our community that the district is looking at making adjustments to our intentional integration initiative, aka triple I to make it more sustainable. It's not because we don't believe in integration. It's not because we aren't listening to the experts. In fact, the district is looking at models that the ALS group had originally suggested more than 5 years ago. The district has been taking a close honest look at how the roll out of our triple I is not only impacting our budget but also affecting our families in collaboration with the black parents workshop and the board. It is especially important to look at the impact on families of lower socio socioeconomic backgrounds and families of color who have carried the heaviest burdens of the current model. For decades the group

140has advised districts on integration models across the country and as close as Monontlair and they are now helping us assess and refine our approach. I take my privileged position as a board member very seriously as we have the unique opportunity to look at data first before the public and directly receive feedback from community members on an ongoing basis. We have a responsibility to listen. Students are not just data points to check a box. When the owls group confirmed that schools were diversified well at 5% and this was a success story in the 2025 spring triple eye review meeting, they had not actually seen the experience survey feedback. The success story for them was focused on data, not lived experiences. Here are two anonymous examples from that survey. A late start time does not work for

141our family as dad commutes to the city at 6:00 a.m. and mom is a teacher. we've had to use before care to make it feasible, but it's financially and logistically challenging." End quote. Second example, this integration plan has caused so much hardship on marginalized groups, parents who work outside standard hours, don't have cars, or can't afford before or after care. How does this make sense? When you dig into the details, talk to families directly, and review student experiences and imbalances in those experiences, especially for our students of color, and lower SCES, a few things become clear to me. An algorithm with 5% variance, isolated PL placements, no zone neighborhoods, and no control choice SCEs neutral transfer process, which Michael has suggested, creates an unstable program. After the conversations I have had with the low lower

142lower SCEs and black families in particular, I'm advocating that we no longer have unrealistic expectations of our integration model and I support that modifications are necessary to make this program more sustainable. Across the country, school districts continuously review their integration initiatives and adjust their models. Monontlair reassesses its variance annually, which ranges from 15 to 25% per their policy. Board of Education policies are regularly updated and reviewed. It is one of the most important aspects of being a board member. Modification should not be misconstrued as deviation. Future adjustments to the triple eye are not a step backward. They are an evolution grounded in listening, evaluating, and doing better for our students. Lastly, we all see tensions are getting high in the community on this topic, especially at is currently as it is currently the board of

143education campaign season. Can we please bring the temperature down a little bit? >> [laughter] >> Bringing the temperature down would be great right now online and in person. People will have differing opinions on the triple eye and it's okay to agree to disagree and we can do that respectfully. And now I'll read the board president up statement. The schoolboard meeting is a business meeting in public and not a meeting with the public. Oftentimes it may appear to members of our audience that the board of education takes action with very little comment and in many cases a unanimous vote. Before a matter is placed on the agenda at a public meeting, it has thoroughly been reviewed by the administration, the superintendent of schools, and the board of education, after which it is placed on the agenda

144for board discussion and action at a public meeting. Hearing of individuals, okay, thank you [snorts] for coming in person and joining us online this evening. The South Orange Maplewood Board of Education values public involvement and respects that you've taken time to address the board at tonight's meeting. As this is the board's business meeting, a friendly reminder to please be respectful as we take into consideration your valuable input which will inform future deliberations and work by the board of education and its committees. The board does have time limits by policy and it will be enforcing those to enable as many people to speak as possible this evening. Each individual will be given three minutes to speak. The first public comment period is usually limited to 1 hour with priority often given to items related to the

145meeting agenda and the second may be limited to 30 minutes. Please remember to say your full name and town where you reside. Okay, >> we're here. >> Okay, great. Thank you for your patience, everyone. It's normally not this late when we get to public speaks. So, Rosio, you're up. Um Rosio Lopez, president, um resident, Spanish teacher at Columbia High School. uh today you're boring on something that it really touches really really deep that is the health insurance of more than 5600 families uh since I'm being here and it's 25 years this year we always had blue cross brush we have never had a we don't know about that plan we used to have traditional then we went to PO now it looks like you want to put us in pos2 piece of sorry POS too,

146right? And the truth of the matter is yes, we went so I went twice to two different meetings with the brokers and we sent some emails where we got some answers and that's all the discussions we have have about insurance. That's all the meetings. Okay, there is no other meetings that we had about health benefits but those two with the brokers. Um, I understand the need for money for the district. I understand the the difficult decisions that sometimes people has to make because of budgets. But I also want to ask you if you're going to vote for this, I'm just hoping that you did your judiciary duty and you check every single thing. If you feel that you check every single thing, if you hire an expert to check both of the insuranceances, right? An

147expert, not a broker that is a salesman that is going to tell you whatever you want to hear, then I'm go for it. You know, do whatever you have to do. I can tell you yesterday we got the list finally um the list of um medic like Kermark, which is going to be our prescription list. I already looked for a couple of medicines that they don't cover. It will have to be another generic right different one. Okay. Some of us will have to change already changes. Then it looks like out of network depending on who you go the insurance might not cover the same. Again I don't have 100% answers. My problem is not doing this change. My problem is I don't feel we have all the answers yet for such a big thing. I

148have some members with cancer that they're going through treatment right now and they're freaking out and I'm concerned for them. If you're healthy, like lucky for me, I'm healthy enough. I have little things like normal. So, this might not change my life too much, but I have members that this is a life or death situation. And it doesn't matter if we put a grievance. By the time the grievance is over or we put litigation, that person can have died. So, I just ask you if you're going to do this decision tonight, I ask you to please make sure that you had all the information that you needed to make this decision. That's all. And if you don't have it, table it and wait a month and do it appropriately. So if you got because the

149information I got sometimes it was from the internet from the district or from AI I think. So I don't know how much I can trust. So I just ask you for that. Okay. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Next we have Quali Tisport. Dr. quality test. All >> right. Good evening. My name is Dr. Quali Tlesfor, president of South Orange. Um, I'm here to talk about Triple I and why it's important for the district to remain committed to the work and stay the course. Triple I was created to correct long-standing socioeconomic imbalances in our schools and the data shows that it's working. Every elementary school is moving toward the 5% variance target that ALS groups itself determined was the best for this district as described in their year 1 report. That balance matters. It

150means that no single school bears a disproportionate share of economic disadvantage and every student benefits from learning in a more representative environment. Now we're hearing proposals to raise the variance to 10%, remove the middle schools, and to increase proximity based placements. These are not small adjustments. Even by the ALS group's own analysis, raising the variance would result in only about a 3% increase in students attending their closest school, roughly 15 students. That minimal change is not worth the risk of weakening integration. We also have to remember that it is still in progress. We haven't yet seen a fully integrated elementary school, and we have yet to see how this generation of students will fare in later years. Until that happens, we can't claim to understand its long-term impact or justify changing it before it has

151matured. To be clear, I'm not opposed to testing new models or reviewing data. But those efforts must start with the right questions. Will this change improve integration or increase segregation? Will it reduce imbalance or make it worse? Does it expand opportunity or does it narrow it? Proximity alone cannot be the goal. A system that recreates neighborhood divisions isn't efficiency. It's resegregation by geography. We keep hearing words like efficiency and sustainability. But true sustainability means maintaining equity, not cutting corners that reintroduce segregation. The most efficient system is the one that works for every child, not just those who live closest to their school. What families are asking for isn't a retreat from integration. They're asking for better operations, transportation that works, expanded before and care, before and afterare options, and school cultures that foster real connection.

152That's how we build shared experiences and a stronger community. Integration isn't what's broken, it's what's working. The progress we've made under Triple I is too significant and too hard one to risk undoing. Now, integration is not a checkbox or a bus route. It's a commitment to what kind of community we want to be. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Telis Ford. Next, we have the Joshua. >> Good evening. My name is Thier Joshua from South Orange, New Jersey, and I have two kids in our school district. I'm here this evening to address the district's latest statements on the attention integration initiative specifically at the middle schools. The district is planning to remove triple I from middle school because in their words currently 91 to 93% of middle school students already attend their closest to school

153making the process more efficient and geographically consistent. This reasoning completely ignores the SCES differences between the two middle schools before the implementation of triple I in 2021 2022 12% of MMS students were classified as low SCES versus 8% of SAMS which is a 50% difference not to mention that in 21-22 MMS had 33% black student population versus 22% of SAMS again a 50% difference. Let me be clear. Both schools suffer when they do not reflect overall diversity of our district. Furthermore, the rising sixth grade is the last one that was enrolled in our district without triple I. To remove it now robs them of an opportunity to experience the diversity of our district as they enter their middle school years. Contrary to what some may have said, implementation of triple eye for middle schools was

154necessary. The evidence suggests that even with an overall decline in low SCES, one middle school community will have a substantially higher percentage of low SCES students than the other if the district moves away from triple I. It makes no sense to have SCS balance elementary schools only to remove it at the middle schools. A designed feed to school system from elementary to middle will only increase transportation costs since students could be assigned to an elementary school and then fed to a middle school more than two miles away and likely will lead to an increase in elementary transfer requests as families realize their middle schools would need transportation. Schools have never worked well for those with non-standard hours. This is not new and school start times have been staggered for years. To use this as a

155reason to modify triple eye ignores that generations of Marshall and Dia Bolton parents could have kids at both schools with two different start times. There were no calls unpair schools because the community stayed the course. In fact, eight of the nine members who worked on the initial triple I program were members or were current or former marshall parents. As a proponent of moving triple eye forward, I do not look at our students as data points. But there are those who are using selective data points to further their own personal preferences and they are doing a disservice to black students. If there are indeed instances of isolated black placements, black student placements, that is indeed problematic and should be addressed. But the solution is to create more is not to create more variance in student assignment

156model but to create less. In conclusion, I strongly encourage district to continue implementing the triple I integration initiative, the intentional integration initiative student assignment model in the middle schools. Thank you for your time this evening and as always, thank you for your service. >> Thank you so much. Next, we will go online and we have uh Michael Gates. That community member is um not online. >> Okay. Um next we have Lori Maguire Gates. >> They might >> that community member [clears throat] is also not online. >> Yeah. Um we have Rosenna Jackson. >> That community member is also not online. Um, Suzanne Ryan. >> Hello. >> Hi. Can you hear us? >> Can >> Oh, hello. >> Can you hear? >> Yes. Uh, please. >> Okay, great. >> Evening. Once again, thank you for your

157service. And Ryan, I currently reside in Philadelphia was a 39y year res of Maplewood 1985 to 2024. Three children attended my in 201. I s for 25 years. I'm so sorry. We we cannot hear we cannot hear you. I'm so sorry. I don't know. maybe have a bad connection or >> can you hear me now? >> Is you you're just very choppy. Um perhaps you you could send us an email. You can try one more time. Hello. Did we lose her? >> I can hear you. >> Oh, okay. All right. Let's try let's try one more time. >> Okay. Hi. Um, my name is Suzanne Ryan, Philadelphia. Um, current, um, currently there, but I was a 39-year resident of Maplewood from 1985 to 2024. My three children attended SOMD. My youngest graduated in 2010. I

158taught in SOMD for 25 years from 1994 until 2020 when I retired. I s I served as a SEO vice president and secretary. I also was a member of one of our negotiating teams. Um I am calling tonight because I am a person with some history that gives us some institutional memory. Um memory that perhaps has dimmed as many have retired. Um there's a quote that says history does not respect itself does does not repeat itself. It rhymes. Sadly I believe that SOMD's situation with regard to health insurance uh carriers is a rhyming situation. In the 1990s, there was a surge in healthcare costs much like today. Soomsd member of the state insurance plan and found itself with a problem. The state's plan cost um were projected to increase. At that point, the board decided

159to explore other private carriers. We left the state plan. We went with a a private company because the prices looked good. After we had been with them a year, the prices surged there and the district went back to the state plan and asked if they would take us back. They said that they would, but that if we changed our minds again that we would be at a loss to come back. So, the board now is under the same situation. Um the state plan pretty much is the bell weather for other plans. So while the state plan is surging this year, next year you'll see the private insurance companies come measure with what you see this year. So there's a warning that I give you in terms of a historical perspective. you have this year and

160um private insurance may not be cheaper in the long run. Please expect an increase in the private insurance even if it's self-insured. You'll find yourself in the same boat perhaps. And at this point, is it really same coverage? Because we found that when we switched over to that other insurance, it was not the same. People complained. Um, keep in mind that people that have left the state system are trying to come back. Take a look at Belleville. They left the state plan a few years back and they are considering coming back. So, please don't repeat history or even Ryme. Please stay with the state plan for my beloved colleagues of the past. Thank you. >> Thank you, Suzanne. Um, the last public speaks listed here is uh Daniel Thorne. >> Hi. Can I >> Hello.

161Can you hear us? >> Hi. Can you Yes, I can hear you. Can you hear me? >> Yes. Thank you. >> Okay. Um, so my name is Danielle Thorne. I am a South Orange resident. I have two kids in the district at the earliest stages of their education. And I am also an SOMD alumni, a proud one. Um, I'm here to talk about Triple I. I have a much lengthier thing I will send you. Um, and I hope you will give me the courtesy of reading it in full. But there has been much said about the desire for hardship waivers. And I've yet to see anyone share the perspective of a family who was bust back when there was no such thing as a hardship waiver in Soma. Many folks have used the example of

162the child care challenges encountered by single moms whose kids don't go to their neighborhood school to demonstrate why an increase to the variance or adjustments to the hardship waiver process are necessary. But here's the thing. I was raised by a single mom in this district and I was in the Marshall Balden pairing, meaning I did take a bus and many of my peers did not live in my neighborhood. Back then, it would not have even occurred to my mom to demand that the school grant a waiver and keep me in my neighborhood school to make her child care coordination easier. That just wasn't even a thing. And because it wasn't a thing, my mom thought of other ways to solve the problem caused by her getting off work after school let out, an experience many

163parents have. We did not have money for before or afterare either. So what did we do when we couldn't rely on neighbors walking me home from the bus stop? My mom planned upstream for that. I walked home with or was picked up at school by classmates parents and hung out at their house until my mom got off work. My mom picked me up from their house. There are ways to make this work without a hardship waiver being the default or first solution. I'm not arguing that there are no legitimate hardships, but I see much rhetoric that acts like the only solution here is a change in district policy when some of the solution is just a change in mindset between relying on your your direct neighbors for community to relying on the other parents in

164your child's school for community. >> [clears throat] >> Similarly, I have also heard the school start times be used as a reason parents may want a hardship waiver. But if we pause to think about it, that really has nothing to do with eye. If we had neighborhood schools and your child's school start time made getting to work a challenge, your family would have to work that out. For many, that's where before care and car pools came in. I understand the temptation to say, "Oh man, it would be so much easier if we were just placed in X school instead of Y because then I could make the morning train." But I isn't responsible for causing that situation. Even if all elementary schools had the same start time, that time would inevitably be inconvenient for some

165subset of parents. Should those parents be able to ask the BOE to change the start time for all district schools to accommodate their work schedule? If not, why do folks feel it must or should be any different under the II? And why would we risk undermining the implementation of triple I to accomplish that goal of convenience? I have much more to say. I will put it in writing and I would welcome ongoing engagement on this important topic. >> Thank you. That completes public speaks. Uh so now we go to committee report outs and we can start on this side. >> Thank you. Yes, please be brief. [laughter] >> So maybe if you have three pages of a of a committee report out, you reduce that to like one and a half. >> Dearra, I know

166it's hard for you. I'm not going to do that. >> You are every month, so I'll give you a pass, but you know, and reminder, these all go are actually currently on the web. Um, so thank you. >> All right. The recorders implementation committee met on October 8th. Those attending from the board were President Dval Wilson, second vice president Eert, board member Sacka Gable and myself. Those attending from the administration were Mr. Bing, Dr. Gilbert, and Dr. Wavel. Among the issues discussed in committee were the following. The triple transfer requests and policy 5124. data provided back provided to the BOE back um as of September 15th is the most up-to-date data or was the most up-to-date data on transfers at the time of the committee meeting. Mr. Bing had been reviewing review uh re reviewing

167appeals and those were scheduled to start going out to families on October 11th. The district explained that once school starts, its priority is to get new enrollments placed and in school. So they have not been working on transfer requests in the interim. Hence, that's why the data the board was provided as of September 15th is the most current. October 15th is generally when new enrollment work is completed. This is when the district will look at the current trans transfer waiting list again and see if they can make any more transfers starting with tier one transfers. The district anticipates this will take three weeks. Therefore, families still waiting to hear about transfer requests should hear in the coming week or so if they haven't already. There was also continued discussion of the triple eye evaluation. The

168middle schools there was as discussed in prior records committee meetings, AL's analysis indicated that more than 90% of students were placed at their closest or zoned school, which is isolating for those not placed at the closest school. The district recommended not doing the triple line middle schools which Mr. Bing announced at the town hall earlier in the month. Variance as discussed in prior records committee meetings elves analyzed the 5, 7.5, and 10% variance and found no significant change in school balance. Subsequently, the district further discussed modeling 15, 20, and 25% variance with ALS. In general, variance is used as a guard rail for ensuring school balance. The district district discussed other variances with ALVs as other schools ALS services use higher variance. So for example, Montlair uses between 15 and 25% variance. Champagne, Illinois uses

16915 and Cambridge, Machus uses between 10 and 15% variance. However, the district concluded that anything over 15% variance would be too high because you would have more than 50%. You would have 50% or more of your students from one SCS group. For example, the ideal balance of a school is 33% low SCEs, 33% medium, and 33% high SCES. So, if one has a 10% variance, that means 33% in one tier could go up or down by 10%. So, you would have a maximum range between 23 to 43%. This is not mean necessarily that schools would would be at this target but would be in this range or would be at that 43 or 23 but rather they'd regard rails that they could the schools could not go beyond. As a result of the analysis and

170discussion, the district recommended moving to a 10% variance which Mr. Bring announced at the town hall earlier in the month. Adjusting the variance by 10% does allow for some placement flexibility and does not affect balance significantly according to the ALV's modeling per data sent to the board in August. School capacity is generally the largest factor in school in students not getting assigned to their closest school. However, if a school does have capacity, upping the variance a little would help place a student at a school closer to their home. There was also exploration of other integration oper options. There was a robust discussion on the sustainability of the triple eye in its current form, namely the long route times and early pickup times for students and the high transportation costs. Many in the meeting felt that

171the triple eye is unsustainable in its current form and especially in light of the tough budget situation we are facing. However, all agreed that integration is important for a district. where there is disagreement in lie it lies in whether and how to modify the triple eye within the discussion transportation and its costs were discussed. It was commented that effective and efficient transportation is imper imperative for any integration model. So logistical challenges changes are needed because transportation is not working for families in its current form. >> [snorts] >> There was a question as to what are isolated placements and the response was it's those those placements where one child is going to a school that no one else in their neighborhood is going to. The district is examining prior year's transportation data to determine estimates of

172costs related to prek and triple I K through8 busing. The district also shared preliminary data on a three school zone model that demonstrated that which demonstrated that grouping South Mountain, Marshall and Clinton as one group and Balden, Tuskcen, and Seth Bdon as another group. Um, so essentially if you live in an area of one of those three schools, you you would be kind of zoned to that area and be sent to one of those three schools as opposed to the current model where students are potentially uh sent to six schools. By grouping the schools in those three those two groups that resulted in SCES balance. It was discussed that just this change would also likely reduce transportation times and costs because those three school groupings are closer to go together. However, the school capacities do

173not match the current zoning. So, for example, South Mountain, Marshall, and Clinton would have too few seats for their neighborhood zones and the other group too many. As [snorts] a result, if the district wanted to take this approach, some resoning would be needed. Other considerations to help integrate schools to be explored by the district include a dual language program at South Bdon and continue continued expansion of multilingual learners classrooms. However, these were not discussed in detail as the committee was meeting was running late. The district has or will make the following modifications to the triple eye. The district will move to a 10% variance. the district is ory has implemented a transfer policy and the district is using proximity placement. It was also suggested that to help address families needs and to improve routes in

174the near term, the district could look at isolated placements and proactively reach out to families and potentially do swaps of students between schools if parents are agreeable and it maintains the balance. For the longer term, the district will undertake a larger review of various approaches to integration and what those approaches would look like. Gentrification needs to be examined as part of this review. The review could be part of the strategic planning process the district will be undertaking in this next year and the district's budget needs to be considered. A rough guess of preK and allei transportation is at least 4 million, but the district is working on more educated estimates of transportation costs of IA and K through 5, and they will be sending that to the board of education once it's completed over the

175next few weeks. The district stated that the way to roughly think about it is that for every $10 million in every $1 million in savings equates to 10 teacher positions. By the next rec meeting, the district states that it'll have more information on if they want to pursue the three school model and or undertake other approaches to integration. Giving given the expected budget challenges in the year in this year and future years, everything is on the table for explanation. This is similar to what other districts are going through, including our neighbors in Montlair. The district also provided a brief update on their future plans for the triple A survey. The district would like to revise the triple A survey to collect feedback um not necessarily on climate and culture experience since that's covered in other

176surveys which the district um administers and thinks are better but really to focus on questions that are on placement, transportation and hardships. And they also uh suggest conducting the survey one time a year which would require a change in board policy. Uh lastly, the floor was open to any records recommendations that committee members wanted to discuss after the September 20 uh board presentation on the recorder's recommendations. And there was a question about the status of re well you guys can read that. I'll shorten it up. Um that is in the written notes. The next committee meeting we are going to be meeting again. Um, normally we meet every two months, but we are going to be meeting on November 10th. And there is more detail on our committee discussion in the written notes. So, please

177go to the district website for a full recap of the meeting in the board committees section. And um I just before I open it up to questions or comments, I kind of I wanted to make a comment of my own if that's okay. Um, I wanted to thank Mr. Bang for his leadership in taking a close look at the triple eye program. I really appreciate the time and the thought that's gone into evaluating what's working and what's not. As Nubia mentioned, as board members, we hear from families across the district every week. And I want to share some of what I've heard so that people understand the impact of the current design of the triple eye. I've heard about kindergarteners waking up really early to catch a 7 a.m. bus ride, riding for 45 minutes

178plus across two towns. Some kids get to school too early and have to wait for school to start. Others arrive too late. Parents tell us they're paying for extra child care or getting to work late because of unreliable transportation. We're also facing serious financial strain. The district is spending roughly $4 to5 million a year on prek through 8 transportation and triple I is a part of that. The district ended up having to add buses this year to add to address transportation transportation challenges and so any savings the district thought we were going to have disappeared. At the same time, we're trying to plan for the future. Things like buying our own buses or hiring more paras, all of those are investments that take real money. I want to be clear that I and I believe

179all members of the board and the district are fully committed to integrated schools, but I believe that we need to do it in a way that is sustainable for our families and our budget. Changes won't happen overnight, but we have to start now. I truly believe that we can design a smarter plan that maintains integration, reduces costs, and keeps more resources in the classroom. I'll just end by saying that the amount of time adjusting and working within our currently flawed integration system takes away from the real work of educating our children, addressing our achievement clap gap, and improving our school's climate and culture. We saw from the NJSLA results that we've made progress, but we a lot more work needs to be done. And I would like to get to a place where that's the

180focus of our administration 100% of the time as opposed to the significant amount of time they spend simply trying to work within the current triple eye. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you dear for the recap. And I want to also take a moment to support Mr. efforts and commitment to the integration initiative. I also want to take this moment to extend extend some of the sentiments shared by Deerra and also by Nubia. The triple eye is imperative to our district's mission to drive student outcomes academically and across social emotional factors. But alongside the positive impacts for our community, we've also now experienced rather acutely acutely challenges of the model, including ongoing transportation wos, chronic lateness, disproportionate hardships, soft and hard costs of isolated placements, a loss of learning time, which all ultimately ultimately impeding

181progress to close the achievement gap for students, including our most vulnerable. It's why policies are not doctrinal and should always be modified as more data, more experiences, changes, professional recommendations, and lurings are presented without losing sight of the purpose. The challenges I mentioned before are apparent. We've seen the data. We've heard from parents. We've heard from students. It's why I support looking at placement criteria, hardship criteria, zoning, owning our buses, amongst other proposals, all with the shared goal of sustainability and longetivity for the three for the triple eye. For clarity, these are proposals I would support even in a healthy budget environment. Set another way, if we continue the current iteration of the three, do nothing and bolt on the current budget circumstances, we not only make the triple eye unsustainable, we put the entire

182district at risk. And in short, everyone loses. Which is why in this budget climate, I will not support any teaching staffing cuts or program cuts. It's the last resort. We must exhaust efficiencies and reallocations elsewhere first. I'm reminded of the math that Mr. Bang stated in its community speaks and we've heard here before every $1 million equals 10 staff. And I'm also reminded of the oath that I took as a BOE member to ensure the education and integrity of our district. Simply put, any relief and improvements on the threes on the triple I's implementation helps us to focus, preserve, and progress the actual teaching and learning outcomes, which is the ultimate intention. Thank you. Thank you, board member Brown. Um, as you said, I was in attendance at the October Ruckers Committee meeting, and respectfully,

183I disagree with the decision to raise the variance and overhaul the intentional integration initiative structure at this time. With the minor adjustments already made, the current implementation has improved. While ongoing evaluation and refinement are certainly appropriate as needed and the Rucker's recommendations acknowledge this, there [snorts] has been no clear evidence presented to justify such a significant alteration. Given that and the progress we've seen, I don't believe that now is the time to make changes that will make our schools less integrated and make future data more difficult to discern. Changing to a zone model would further pull our district leaders away from the needed work in the classrooms. Instead, let's prioritize putting resources into the true integration that happens in the classrooms, hallways, and on the playgrounds. As we know from recurring incidents of bias, this

184is where resources are sorely needed. Integration should not be reduced to a disposable budget line item. Just as we wouldn't remove sinks and bathrooms to save on plumbing costs, we shouldn't dismantle fundamental initiatives because they have a cost. The real cost is what our children would pay without them. Additionally, this process requires transparency and broader engagement. I propose that the Ruckers committee meet as a committee of the whole so that the full board can engage and the public can be privy to this discussion behind the discussion behind any changes to the triple eye. And since we're headed into our strategic planning process, it's also important that any major shifts happen within that broader framework. So my view is let's stay the course and allow the current model time to demonstrate its full impact before taking

185steps that could compromise the progress we've already made. >> Thank you. Um I appreciate everyone's comments and I agree that this work requires consistency. Um and I think it also requires transparency. I think we've made meaningful progress. I think we'd move to a proximity model. We've liberalized policy 5124 and I agree ongoing evaluation is going to be essential. For example, reviewing hardship data um which so far this year has not yet been presented to us in a way that would allow any real understanding of socioeconomic breakdown among what the transfers look like. Ensuring we do have a definition that was shared tonight on isolated placements and a completed transportation analysis. Um to date we have not had any additional FFT meetings regarding transportation though they have been requested. So we would also need to look

186at that in a more in-depth level and also considering what this revised triple survey results show us and I think given these evolving factors as we approach having fully integrated elementary schools next year. I believe that continuing to monitor the variables we've changed rather than making enormous structural changes is the right next step. Um said I do want to echo the concern around process and communication. Um not all board members have had access to the same information from Ruckers. So in advance of the community conversation without committee notes the full board lacked visibility into these discussions and data that informed what was apparently a finalized decision. So some of these ideas certainly had been socialized had been in notes. But for some of us, the first time we heard that they were finalized was secondhand.

187Um that we would have a doubled variance that middle school was being removed or presented as finalized not under consideration. And that was found out from some board members after the fact. So now having reviewed the notes I've shared with colleagues, my concern deepens, not only because of the content, but because the full board didn't have the opportunity to provide input, ask questions despite asurances and norms that that kind of engagement occurs. Additionally, we weren't aware that the village green would be speaking with Mr. elves, an opportunity the full board hasn't had since the summer. And so these lapses in communication and information sharing make it difficult to build trust and confidence in the way that this process is playing out. So I strongly support board member Saka Gable's proposal that the Rucker committee convene

188as a committee of the whole so that all board members and the public can engage in these discussions together. I think doing so would ensure that these decisions reflect the full board's perspective and are made transparently in full view of the community that we serve. And lastly, as we said, our priorities should, I think we all agree, remain on meaningful integration, the kind that happens every day. As board member Sacka Gable, we have seen incidences of bias. And indeed, our variance metric is only one way that we look at integration. And to do that well, we need our team to be focused on that. We need accurate data, open communication, and shared understanding. I think staying the course, continuing to monitor the adjustments that we've most recently made and resolving the major logistical issues around

189transportation requires the focus of this board while improving transparency and collaboration and grounding our future decisions and the upcoming MGSBA strategic planning process gives us the best chance to sustain and deepen the progress that we've already begun to make. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um, >> why not? >> Oh, okay. I'll just jump in really quick. Uh, first I want to say that I I appreciate the work that's been going on in the Rutgers committee both around the important Ruters equity work and the triple I piece that's been sort of tacked on to it. So, Bormers Brown, Sack Gable, and the rest of the committee. Um, I appreciate as well the uh memo that Superintendent Bing has sent out and the conversation has been started uh and specifically reiterating that the discussion about how integration

190is happening in our community is something that requires significant community involvement. Uh because this is something that is very clearly impacting a massive portion of the communities. Some folks more than others, some in very different ways than others. Um and I think the work that has happened in that committee of four is important. Um I I do think it is time for us to really move intentionally to having more public conversations with the board as a whole to make sure first of all that all members have that opportunity to be speaking with each other which of course we can only do in front of the public which is good because then it's in front of the public. uh and also that we're moving to having more community conversations to discuss things like the proposals that

191uh the Alves group have put out and that so far just board members have seen so far. Uh I also think it's really important that we um acknowledge there are a lot of proposals on the table for things that we could do to change pieces of the triple eye and I don't think we need to consider it to be a sacred cow that can never be modified at all. But we do need to be really careful and really slow, right? We are just seeing uh the whole elementary school as of next year become fully uh integrated under the triple I and so we're looking at the possibility of changing the variable uh the the variance the possibility of changing to two zones and essentially having I guess sort of two triple eyes in our town.

192um looking at the possibility of changing the middle school. There's a lot of pieces here and I think we need to make sure that we are doing the right ones and not doing all of them or doing them scattershot or in a rushed way. Uh this plan took a long time to be developed and then after a lot of different plans were considered and I want to make sure that we're not rushing into something uh and um cutting up our nose to spite our face. We do have to fix the transportation issues. uh you know, kindergarteners shouldn't necessarily be having to leave the house at 7:00 in the morning to get to school, but we do also need to figure out how the entire community can help figure out our work life balance because it

193can't all just be on the district either. So, I appreciate the work. I do think we need to move more of it in public now at this point now that things are really moving quickly. Um and make sure that we have a plan that will keep our eye on that that guide star of continuing our integration process and not losing sight of it while also of course making sure this is working for our budget for our community in general. So, >> uh, we can just go down the line and then we need to move on to personnel. Thank you. >> Um, I want to say that I agree with my board colleagues on the need to actually have this conversation more in public and to share more data with the public. um you know the

194board of education has received a lot of information on like the current workings of the triple I and you an analysis of what might happen under various changes that this information hasn't been shared with the public you know for instance we could see like what the beta testing would be like if we adjusted the variance from 5% to 7.5% to 10%. Um we could see what the demographics were of each school's proximity zone. I don't mean like the kids who are assigned to that school but like the kids for whom that school is the closest school like um we have that data the board has seen it and it would be something good for the public to see because they could actually make their own judgments from that. Um we also we the board have

195seen like the impact of the new proximity precedence system and it would be good for the public to see that too. Like we've seen like maps of actually where kids um come from who are assigned to each school and like seeing those maps which were released for the first year at the triple I 2122 I think would also like inform the public very much. Um, I want to reiterate something that um, Will Meer said a few seconds ago that like we wouldn't be setting up six elementary school zones like what we had before the Marshall Jefferson pairing. Um, before the trip I we really had like, you know, like six schools and five zones, but we wouldn't be setting up something like that. We'd be setting up something I'd like to call two sets of

196three. Um, 2S, you could call it like 2s three. Um you know most likely the most logical way to do it we'd have the three northern schools um which would be South Mountain Marshall and Clinton and then the three southern schools. Um if you do that actually like we have the data to say that actually those zones are demographically extremely similar like in terms of race um they would be within plus or minus 5%. And in terms of the three demographic tiers, they also like would be within plus or minus 5% just naturally. Um that would make a much better situation for busing. Like I've looked at the maps and actually the longest bus route I think a child could have under that system would be 2.4 miles which would be from like Vaness Street

197to the Balden school. And under a current system in theory a child could have a four mile bus ride. That wouldn't [clears throat] so 2.4 miles is a lot less than four miles. Also, there are a lot fewer transportation diads. Like once two sets of three were fully phased in and only thinking of like gened students, uh there would be at most 12 transportation diads. Whereas under the status status quo in like year three of the triple eye, there are like almost there over 25 transportation diads. Um with the proximity precedent system, there are fewer transportation diads, but it's still like in the mid- teens. It's more than 12. So transportation would work a lot better. shorter distances, fewer diads, like greater efficiency. Um, something I don't think has come up yet is that having

198two sets of three would also make a really natural, fair, efficient way to assign kids to the middle schools. When the triple A was planned a few years ago, there was no planning at all about how elementary cohorts would be assigned to the middle schools. like um since 2022 23 we've just used the triple I um to assign sixth graders which works because you know the isn't a lot of busing that that requires and like 85 to 93% of kids are assigned to their closer school [gasps] and you know we still could do that for the rising uh fourth graders um who will be the first triple A cohort but it'll mean like a lot of kids are like separated from their friends and they wouldn't like that and you know for some kids that

199would be pretty hard like it's been suggested we could set the elementary schools as feeder schools and you know that would make a lot of predictability like a child would go to middle school and like all their elementary school friends would be there with them. That sounds really good but actually as a public speaker pointed out that would require a lot more transportation because there are a lot of South Orange kids who are assigned to Maplewood elementary schools and vice versa and a lot more of those kids in six as sixth graders would be over two miles being a whole lot more kids which we can't afford right now. But if we had two sets of three with the northern schools and the southern schools, um it's just natural that the northern schools would go

200to PS and the southern schools would go to MMS. Um you know, the only thing we'd have to decide is actually like, you know, would we do like a formal zone so that like maybe some kids who are closer to MMS are assigned to PS because like we want the two schools to be equal in size. [gasps] Would we do that? Maybe. But it's an opportunity because depending on how you draw the line, like you could actually make the two middle schools even more demographically identical. So anyway, like I don't know how soon it could we're not going to like we we can't like rush things. We do have to share the data with the public and we have to give the public a chance to weigh in. But like I I do think that

201like two sets of three which was considered back in 2018 2019 like is a viable solution that would provide integration for the elementary schools and the middle schools and could give us a chance to have fair busing so that no child like feels like no child is like treated unfairly. No child's waking up to catch a bus for 7 a.m. You know, we have to the system's not working for everyone right now and I don't think we can accept that. interchange. >> No, that was fine. Um, so I've shared some of this in committee meetings. Um, but I do agree. I think we do have to start having more public conversations. And so I do I want to express my appreciation for Superintendent Bing, uh, his commitment to integrated schools and the work that's gone

202into getting us here. Um, we all want integrative, inclusive schools that reflect the diversity and strength of our community. It's not up for debate. It's just it's simply not. The question is how we get there. And I think it's totally fair to pause and ask whether the current path still makes sense given where we are now. The initial iteration of II rolled out during the 2122 school year, it was poorly planned and executed. And you know, well, to your point, I think that actual plan wasn't what was initially designed. So, I think the fact that there are some community members and quite frankly some board colleagues that you know think it is time. It's been what do we have four years of data both qualitative and quantitative data and I think we've all formed our

203opinions and that's totally okay. Um, but it was poorly planned and executed and it's created real hardships, stress, and financial harm to many families in this district, including many students of color and lower SCES students. Uh my colleagues have already shared some of the stories that we've heard as board members. So I'm not going to bother repeating them. But I will go back to one of the first things that I have truly believed and said since I've joined the board and had initiated the first iteration of the 5124 transfer policy around hardships. Um who are we to determine what a hardship is? We have no idea what anybody's personal situations are. Who are we to say to parents that are requesting hardships simply for convenience? We absolutely don't know. And I think there are some

204real challenges that students and families face. And maybe they don't make it as public as we want it to be. And there's a reason for that. But I think we should acknowledge that other districts, including ones that our consultant has worked with, have found different ways to reach the same goal. And what matters is finding what works best for our community. something that supports students, has community buyin, and is financially and operationally sustainable long term. And I do believe that it is perfect timing because we are about to kick off the 5-year strategic plan that actually it is all aligned with that. My understanding is that those conversations around what potential modifications, whether it's the two two zone, three school could look like um given our budget realities, we need to be practical about how

205we move forward. I truly believe we can stay true to the goals of integration, still make adjustment that fit today's reality with in district transportation costs around $4 to5 million a year. I think it's worth asking whether some of that could be better spent supporting teachers, classrooms, and programs that directly impact students. And thank you. I can't believe we still have to get through some more readouts. Uh, but this is an issue dear to my heart and I come from my I come from a different angle a little bit here. though uh I want to respond to the recent criticisms of increasing the variance of placement for triple I also in general to the proponents of triple I who feel a threat to it is somehow diminishing our commitment to equity more than 20 years

206ago I ran for the board of ed as a high school senior because when I dug into the numbers of our level twos the lowest levels which thank God don't exist anymore were almost completely black over 95%. I ran again as a college freshman with now soon to be assemblyman Chiggoyma. We ran specifically We ran specifically to close the achievement gap. And what that meant to us was directing resources towards the students who needed it most to be uplifted. We needed to give those students more opportunity to thrive. I say this to beg the question, does our integration initiative address the needs of closing the achievement gap? Integration is a noble endeavor, but does busing a student across district to another to another part of the district provide them with more opportunity? The cosmetics of

207triple eye look fantastic, but how does a student who is struggling to read get more resources from this arrangement? When I envisioned fighting the achievement gap, it was first dileing, which we have done to a certain extent, but it was also hiring more black teachers, changing the curriculum in a significant way that spoke and transformed black students experience from stagnation to success. Strategies that have proven to work. And when I talk about success, this is not just about a good GPA or acceptance to college, but self-actualization and pride in their history and present struggle to continue to challenge us in this comfy community of ours where so much inequity still exists. That's all. >> Thank you, Bill, and thank you everyone. appreciate all the feedback and we will continue the conversation um after our meeting.

208Right. We talk a lot behind the scenes. Um okay, next is personnel. Personnel committee met on Monday, October 25th at 6:30 p.m. In attendance were board members Sack Gable and Brown filling in for board member Kapadia and myself along with Mr. Bang, Dr. Gilbert, and Mr. Adoyan. Uh more than usual this month, a large chunk of the meeting was discussion around confidential personnel matters. Uh but a few things I that I can highlight. Um the district provided a general update on vacancies with discussion around some of the personnel recommendations on the resolution this evening. Um as of I believe it was October 20th, we had six total vacancies, one of which is a leave of absence. We also discussed the new health insurance per um potential change. Uh we all Mr. Moody went through all

209that so I don't need to to go through that. Um and we discussed the 2526 district goal related to personnel and the Q1 KPIs. Uh Mr. Adido will be providing the committee a more robust update in the November meeting on metric metrics established for baseline measurements. So things that the district is going to start looking at voluntary turnover rate, initial staff satisfaction index, hiring and attrition data and you know looking disagregating it by staff type, teacher, etc. Um, I personally, and I don't know if I think I've talked about this before, but it's been about three or four years since the district has had a personnel related goal, and I think that um, I'm very excited to see it in action and at least in the next two months to support, uh, the HR department

210as much as I can in this capacity. The next committee meeting will be Monday, November 17th at 6:30 p.m. Any questions, comments? Thank you. The policy and governance committee met on October 1st. Uh there are a total of uh eight second read policies this evening. Six first read policies and two first read regulations in addition to one policy that is being abolished. I'll now read the full text of each one of them into the record. >> I guess no I won't. [laughter] >> Are we going to cancel that? I'm sorry. Not tonight. >> Edit. Uh, I'm going to let you go to the agenda to see uh the policies that are going through. Most of these are based upon the Strauss estimate policy alerts 234 and 235 which we're slowly working our way through to

211update our policies in line with the state statutes. Uh we have made sure in uh doing this to make sure that we are keeping the local language that we've previously adopted to make sure that these policies are matching our specific uh values. For instance, in policy 8500 in food services to include our local language that the school or school district shall not deny a child a meal period, which I think is very relevant given the um the current SNAP crisis that we're looking at coming down the pike. Uh we also have uh we discussed a couple of the items at the policy meeting uh including policy 5330 on administration of medication looking at uh any ways that we can ease the uh the workflow for parents who have to uh reauthorize uh self-administration of medication

212for students at the beginning of the school year. Uh also looking at the standard operating procedures the district is creating. We've got a large number of them in the hopper. they are coming through and will be posted on the district's website so you can see the district's SOPs for all manner of different procedures throughout the district. Uh and finally, we discussed the committee for community and revenue partnerships which we are creating by uh resolution this evening uh in implementation of our board goal number one identifying new revenue streams by committee. Any questions? >> All [clears throat] right. uh FFT met on October 17th. A big item on our agenda was improving the budget calendar. Um we added milestones uh to reflect greater transparency and accountability from both the administration for both the administration and the

213board. Some examples are when exactly we should expect to receive and present the district audit and when the board receives specific items related to the budget as the year progresses. The goal is clear is clearly defined deliverables and timelines the board can reasonably expect to support effective oversight. Uh we also discussed transportation cost drivers the distance shift from 2.0 to 1.25 increased cost from 9 million to 10.4 a 1.4 4 million increase as we face fiscal hurdles and need a rapid cost and and need for rapid cost reductions. Um you know this is the 1.5 standard may have to be revisited. Um we also discussed the equity and enrollment um and demographics in our prek. Uh white and Asian students are over represented in our prek. African-Americans under represented by as much as 10%. The

214district is aiming uh to do some recruitment there to close that gap. Lastly, the district aims to enact a budget freeze on November 1st, which Mr. Moody already said to immediately control expenditures. Approximately 8 million in savings are needed to balance the budget next year. FFT will be developing a plan. We're going to make a plan [laughter] by our next meeting uh to to try to face this this budget deficit. The next FFT um is uh no November the ne the next FFT meeting is November 12th. >> Any questions? >> Just a quick comment. Um and Mr. Bing, you know probably where I'm going to go with this. Um, specific to financial resolution 4868C, it's travel expenses. Um, in your November FFT meeting, budget threes will be in effect by then. But I think understanding

215for the board and and and everyone else to understanding the guardrails around that, like what is what are going to be the real true necessary expenditures in terms of travel, uh, conferences, all of that stuff. >> Thank you. I just want to quickly add um I'm happy that we were able to um work together to add some additional content to the budget calendar. It's part of our board goal and um I think it definitely is more comprehensive than it's been in the past. So, thank you. Um one thing that uh is not listed in there because I know we don't get too much in the weeds sometimes, but it's our cost center. um 2526 and of course we need to do it for 2627 and so um it's not listed in there but it was

216requested and I'm just holding FFT accountable as well as central office to make sure that when you are looking at um Q1 budget versus actual and doing the budget for next year that we are going to continue to um to have our cost center view. It's something that we've done in this district annually and we need to continue to do so and I think it's really important for FFT to have that information um before the end of the year. >> Thank you. >> Yes, dear D. >> Um I just wanted to kind of piggyback on that point and make a separate point. The cost center view for the school year 24-25 is online and and I would hope that we can get it's called final cost center for the budget that was passed 2526. If

217we can get that approved budget in the cost center view sooner rather later. I think that's going to help us all especially because we have these tough decisions to make and it's going to help the public. I mean, I know that we you've talked about the district's talked about um budget literacy and part of improving the community's understanding of our budget is by putting transparent information out there. And I that cost interview provides really important detail to understand um where our costs are and also allows year-to-year comparisons. And so I just I really hope that we can get that on the website to the public soon. No problems. I know. [laughter] Um the other thing I wanted to to just mention was that I noticed in the FFT minutes there was discussion about eliminating um

218busing, courtesy busing, which is busing for students who live within 2 milesi of a school to help address our budget concerns. And I just want to state for the record that I do believe that transportation is an integral part of any successful integration plan. Um, and I do believe that it is the district's responsibility to provide transportation to students if they live more than 1.25 miles away from a school that they are assigned to that is not their neighborhood school. And this is especially I think important for our low SCES students or families. This year 40% of our low SCES kindergarteners were not assigned to their first or second closest school and not so therefore not providing reasonable transportation for these families does create an undue hardship and undermines the goal of integration. Um so

219I I do hope as we continue our discussion of the integration initiative and where we want to move it forward um that transportation is an integral part of that. And I just want to make a a brief point. I I agree with that and I I want to note that there was a policy 8600 that was put forward and was passed on first read that would have um codified in the record that uh courtesy busing uh was for prek through 5 at 1.25 miles and by a majority uh of opinions on the board that was taken off before it went to second read. So we don't have that in the policy because of that, but that would have been uh acknowledged. >> I think I I just want to clarify though because I think there's

220still a lot of discussion around prek busing. So it wasn't because there was a change in mind on that at all. I mean, in all honesty, I believe that the as soon as we reinstated transportation at 1.25 25 miles. That should have been codified in policy in 2023. Um, a few of us asked for that and it it it it just didn't push through. So, it it wasn't because anybody changed their mind. It was because there's very robust discussions around what's going to happen around pre-K busing. >> Ditto. Okay. Um, yeah, it's true. We just got to we got to move on. Jeff, Jeff, we No, no, Jeff. We got Thanks. >> [clears throat] >> Uh I was going to do the next committee. >> Yeah, next committee meeting. >> It'll be quick because we

221covered we already covered a lot of it with Mr. Moody's updates and Mr. Bing's updates around Ritzer uh the budget update that went out earlier this week. So you guys are exceeding expectations in terms of follow-up from the last MP meeting. But more importantly on Monday we are meeting in an emergency MP meeting uh to discuss the food emergency amongst our most vulnerable students um and families. So, uh, the next meeting will be November 3rd as opposed to November 17th, which is on the which was on the original schedule. >> Oh, I know. Now, I have no chance to make it the shortest one. You did a great job. Pressure's on. Um, so the special services committee met on October 14th. All board members and Superintendent Bing and Miss Jess Maria were in attendance. We

222were joined for the first portion of the meeting by president of CPAC, Nickel Josie, um who were excited to hear that our Paris in self-contained ABA classrooms were being restored both in pay and title retroactive to July 2025. We discussed concerns around special education vacancies and what communication has looked like to families. And we also discussed some of the latency between arrival times and when students are taken off of buses. Um and mistress Maria indicated that she would follow up with specific schools as power professionals are being compensated uh to arrive prior to start times. So to avoid that issue um I'm going to skip this. Um so we had an important budget presentation from our business administrator Mr. Moody which included an overview of special services spending in particular. We talked about reimbursement. We

223talked about staffing. Some key points of discussion included higher than anticipated state reimbursement which is a plus. and then some of our ongoing efforts to build in district programs to reduce future costs. Um knowing that those are an investment upfront with hopefully long-term um savings and continued pressure related to thirdparty contract costs that we have. Uh the district plans to analyze potential savings from continuing to expand in-house programming as well as bringing some staff potentially in-house versus contracted over time. Um and is also evaluating potential for tuition in model students. Um, in addition to this budget presentation, we also reviewed an overview um that was provided to us for from our special education council. And the committee will be providing feedback and recommendations for how to move forward with receiving more targeted information um or

224audit of those costs so related to lawsuits and out of district placement so that we can better identify where bottlenecks are and where we have areas for improvement to reduce that spending. We reviewed personnel, but since board member Eard already reviewed that in the interest of time, I will defer to those notes. Um, and to close with a win, the IEP program at SOMS is up and running and offering a full case load of support to students, which is great. Our next meeting is scheduled for November 13th, and a full recap of this is available on the district website. And I am open for any questions should anyone have any. 11:34. Thank you. All right. The CNI committee met on October 13th with two special guests, Dr. Dr. Anton, the director of guidance and board

225member Meyer who filled in for board member Callahan and all other members were present were present. Thanks to Dr. Anton for joining and sharing counseling updates afterwards. We discussed progress toward district goals related to CNI. All of those notes are available online of course, but I would just like to highlight that chronic absenteeism at CHS has declined by 6% um but the rates remain about at about 12% and the goal is to be 10% or less. So this is a great start and we heard about the efforts that have contributed to this decline as well as how the team is moving forward. We discussed the CNI related policies that are up for review and um and then lastly we discussed the delayed math materials. There was a delay in the arrival of elementary math workbooks

226this year due to state funding delays that affected the publishers processing uh timeline. These workbooks are consumable and reordered annually and they were the only missing component of the math curriculum. This was definitely not ideal, but thank you to teachers for making the necessary adjustments for students and our next meeting is on Monday. >> Okay, great. Great job everyone. Um, so next we finally get to the action portion of the meeting. Um, are there any severs? Okay. Then Will, you want to just give a quick 30 second overview? >> There are [laughter] there are a lot of things as always in our consent agenda. Sorry. Thank you. >> Uh I I know I'm our first day of the we are adopting 4876 adopting our 2627 calendar. Uh the first day of school in that calendar

227is September 1st, 2026. Uh resolution 4874, we have a new committee for community and revenue partnerships being created. Uh in our financials, uh resolution 4868. In G, we have our ultimate frisbee, uh granting them, uh free access to Underh Hill Field. Uh they are not uh an official high school team, but we are uh we're awfully fond of them. Uh, resolution H is adopting the 2627 budget calendar, which is a terrific advancement, and I think it'll help us in our budget development process quite a bit. Uh, resolution O is accepting a $2,000 grant from American Water. Uh, we're going to use it for uh, putting new water fountain bottle filling stations in. And $13,000 in, uh, resolution P, a donation from the Music and Arts Education Project. Thank you very much. uh resolution Q the

228withdrawal from the state's school employees health benefits program as we've discussed extensively and uh 4868R is adopting meritane for health insurance >> great thank you that was perfect um okay so can you uh Mr. Committee, can you please read the resolutions into record? [clears throat] >> Absolutely. Um, so we're going to essentially take action on resolutions 4865 through 4876 and uh there are no severs. So I think we can proceed to board action. >> You ready for a roll call? >> Uh we need to open >> or are there any other more discussion? >> We can open discussion but then I don't want to forget we'll do these after. >> Okay. Or we can hand carries. >> Wait, or was it It wasn't in the consent, I don't think. Was it? >> No, it's not.

2294865 to 4876. >> Yes. So, we'll just do this after. Yeah. Okay. >> And then we'll do that next. Um, no severs. So, um, I will, uh, do a full roll call. Uh, board member Bennett, >> yes. Board member Brown, >> yes. >> Board member Callahan, >> yes. >> Board President Duval Wilson, >> yes. Board member Eert, >> yes. >> Board member Gford, >> yes. >> Board member Kapatia, >> yes. >> Board member Meyer, >> yes. >> Board member Saka Gable, >> yes. >> All right, eyes have it. >> Okay, great. And so next we have three hand carries. Um I guess we'll just do each one separately. >> Three together. >> We can just do the three together. Let's just do Okay. Good. Um, so we've got A, B, and C. And remember to

230push them forward. We vote yes. We cannot have discussion because it was discussed in exec. So please, >> so we'll proceed to a roll call vote then. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Uh 4877 A, B, and C. Board member Saki Gable, >> yes. >> Board member Meyer, >> yes. Board member Capadia, >> yes. >> Board member Gford, >> yes. >> Board member Eert, >> yes. >> Board President Duval Wilson, >> yes. >> Board member Callahan, >> yes. >> Board member Brown, >> yes. >> Board member Bennett, >> yes. >> All right, the eyes have it. >> Great. Thank you. Okay. Um, look, now it's hearing of delegations. I closed my online list. Do either of you have it on? Well, well, while you're looking to see if we have I'll double check. >> Anyone else?

231>> There's no one else. Okay, great. Everyone's asleep. [clears throat] Um, so Mr. Moody will check to see if there's any new signups and then if not, we No. Okay, great. Uh, new business. Anyone have anything new business? >> No. I almost feel like I should never ask because we never do, but I have to ask. [laughter] Okay, so now um future meetings and closing out. So, uh, the board of education will meet again for our retreat, woohoo, on November 19th, 2025 for seed presentation and and, um, review of our SOMD board manual. Um, then on November 20th, 2025, the board will meet again in public session for our regular meeting. Action will be taken. [laughter] Um, Mr. Moody, I would now like to make a motion to adjourn this meeting. It's still Thursday, October

23230th at 11:41 a.m. 11:41 PM. May I have a second? Thank you. Uh, board member Callahan. All in favor? Great. Motion pass. [clears throat] I will be teaching them what