001Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] Heat. Hey, Heat. [Music] Okay, Dad. One, two, three. [Music] Uh, good evening everyone. I'd like to welcome you to the July 7th, 2025 Long Township Board of Education meeting. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Uh act notice of this meeting of the Longill Township Board of Education was given as required by the open public meeting act as follows. Notice was sent to the Echo Sentinel and daily record on October 14th, 2024. Notices were posted on the bulletin board in the first floor entrance hall of the school district administration building, Gillette, New Jersey. Notices were filed
002with the township clerk and notices were mailed to all persons who have requested individual notice pursuant to the open public meeting act. Roll call, please. Mrs. Butler, Mrs. Dailyaly, here. Mr. Damos, Mr. Foster, Mr. Goff, here. Dr. Maher, here. Mrs. Mlennon here, Miss Nyquist here, Mrs. Casease here. I think before we jump into presentation, we just um as a board would like to and as a district have a moment of silence for the uh victims and the communities that are battling the flooding in Texas. Thank you. I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Alexis for presentation. Okay. Thank you. We have our uh members of our administrative leadership team here and I'm going to invite the principles forward. Andrew is going to come forward. Jack's on his honeymoon as you know. Uh so Andrew
003is here and he's going to load the presentation. I just have a brief introduction and then I'm going to turn it over to our new Gillette principal, Melissa Ber. Okay. So, we begin with our our four goals, right? Our district goals, and you've seen these before, you've seen them all year, and we've talked about them, and I've given you some updates on on certainly on goal number two with the attendance rate. Um, but tonight, we're going to go through uh all four. Before we get to that, just going to go to the next slide. Um, we're just going to give you a brief overview on I Ready. I know most of you, particularly those of you who have children in the district are very familiar with I Ready at this point, but it's our computer-based
004uh assessment system used to identify individual strengths and weaknesses and it has a learning path associated with uh it with uh for the students uh when they are taking doing their practice assessments or or taking the diagnostic they have uh you know the problems either get harder or easier based on responses from the students. I think why it matters is really that this has been a great tool for us to use to implement a a datadriven culture in the district and we've been paying a lot more attention to data um in terms of student performance uh not just using the NJSLA and some of the other local assessments but having something consistent throughout the year and we measure it uh three times a year. Uh tonight we're going to talk a little bit about the
005results from June. And go to the next slide. Uh so we had our first assessment in September, late September. Uh the second one in late January, early February, and then the most recent one at the end of May and early June, it was finished. Um we have the five level placement color key. Uh the green is on or above grade level. The yellow is a grade level below and then the red are more of the uh warning signs that we are two grade levels uh or more below. Uh it it is also important to point out that every student in the district takes these assessments. So we have students who are English language learners um at varying uh ability levels in terms of their uh English language proficiency. we have uh students with significant uh
006learning disabilities that are taking the assessments. So, something to keep in mind. Now, I'm going to turn it over to Melissa and she's going to take us through the data at Gillette in June and and the principles go through all this. They're going to show you that the data from June uh all the way through 8th grade. And then we're going to uh switch over to the district uh data and look at some comparisons from September to June and see how we did in terms of growth. And then we're also going to specifically look at the uh the typical growth data. Okay. So for Gillette reading, this is by grade level for and this is our most recent data that we have. So for kindergarten we had 60% of our population was mid or above
007grade level. 26% was early on grade level. 14% would be one level below grade level. And then 0% two or more levels behind below grade level. And for first grade, 67% fell into that mid or above, 11% um early grade level, 21% one grade below grade level, and 0% again for two or more below grade level. So reading overall, this is for the school as a whole. Um, out of 181 students, we had 64% mid or above grade level, 19% early or on grade level, and 18% one grade level below. And then to shift over to math, we had 52% of our kindergarten students were mid or above grade level, 20% were early grade level, 28% were one level below grade level, and then 0% two or more below. And for first grade in math,
00846% were a mid or above grade level, 24% early grade level, 29% one grade level below, and just 1% one or more grade levels below. And then math overall out of the total school 181 students we had 49% mid or above grade level 22% early or on grade level and 29% one grade level below and that 1% three or more grade levels below. Excuse me. The grade level below it it wasn't the last category which is more than one. It was just one grade level below or so there's two grade levels below and that's where that was the 1%. We didn't have anybody into the three or more grade levels below. Thank you. And then just for our annual growth. So as Mr. Alexis mentioned we took three diagnostics. One in September, one in January
009and one in June. And in reading for the Gillette overall, we started in September with 29% of our students in the green, which was honor above grade level. We went to 83%. We started in September 68% were one one grade level below and we ended with 17% one grade level below and we started at 3% two or more grade levels below and ended at zero. And for math, we started with 19% were on or above grade level and we finished with 71% on or above grade level. 73% were one grade level below. Then we were at 28% at the end of the year. And finally, we finished 8% two or more grade levels below and we ended at 1%. I'll pass it on to Jennifer from Millington. Good evening everyone. Uh so we're going through
010reading first for Millington School. Um second grade you can see in the green we had uh 72% um that were mid or above grade level, 17% who were early grade level, 9% that were in the ongrade level, and then 2% that were be two below. um and then zero for more than that. In grade three, 60% were above grade level, 23% were early grade level, 6% um with the on grade um one grade level below and then 7% and 4% which was the two grade levels below. Then in fourth grade, 53% were we have a lot of grades, so a lot of numbers. 53% which was the mid or above grade level, 23% which was the early grade level, 22% which was one grade level below. And then we have 1% and 2% for the
011reds. 40% in fifth grade were mid to upper or beyond grade level. 29% were the early grade level. 15% was one grade level below 10% two grade levels below and then 6%. And so overall out of 364 students, you could see the breakdown on the graph there. Two uh 204 students were mid or above, 84 early or on grade level, 46% one grade level below, 19 two grade levels below, and 11 three or more. And then as we go to math we have grade two 44% which were mid or above grade level 31% early grade level 22% one grade level below and then 2% two two grade levels below. Third grade 54% for the mid to above grade level 19% for early grade level 20% one grade level below and then for both reds there
012was 3% in each group. Grade four 51% to mid or above grade level 28% early grade level 20% one grade level below and just 1% was the more than two grade levels below. And then fifth grade 45% which were the mid to above grade level 21% early grade level 26 in the one grade level below 2% and then we finished with 6% for more than two grade levels below. And math overall out of 364 students 178 were on the mid or above grade level. 89 early on grade level, 81 students one grade level below, seven two grade levels below, and nine three or more grade levels below. And so for our overall annual growth in reading, um I'll start with the red. We started the year with 18% two or more grade levels below and
013that moved to 7%. We started the year with 32% one grade level below I'm sorry 13% 32% and it moved to 13% and then on or above grade level we had 51% moved to 79%. And then for math in red again two or more grade levels below 13% moved to 4%. One grade level below went from 54% to 24% and hon or above grade level is 33% moved to 73%. And now we'll hand this over to Mr. Vitarelloo for central. All right. For central school, we're starting with reading. In sixth grade, we had 52% that were mid or above grade level. 14% were at grade level, 22% were one grade level below, 4% were one grade level below, I'm sorry, uh, two grade levels below for 4% and more than that were 7%. For seventh
014grade, we had 50% were mid or above grade level, 19% were at grade level, 17% were one grade level below, and then we had 3% for uh underrade level, and 11% were two or more grade levels below. And for 8th grade reading, 42% were mid to above grade level, 24% were at grade level, 14% were one grade level below, and then we had 4% undergrade level, and 15% were two or more grade levels below for reading. And then that's our reading data overall all combined. So 100 out of 282, 135 were mid or above grade level. 55 students were at grade level. 50 students were one grade level below. 11 students were two or more grade levels below and 31 students total were three or more grade levels below for reading. and our culminating data
015that's at the end of the year for math sixth grade we had 43% at or above grade level 34% were at grade level 14% were one grade level below and then we had 2% for undergrade level and then the 6% there as well for seventh grade we had 35% mid or above grade level 30% at grade level, 19% were one grade level below, and then the 5% and the 11% for in the red categories there. And then for eighth grade, which was one of our largest grades, 98 students, we had 35% mid or above grade level, 27% at grade level, 26%, so a big chunk were one grade level below, and then the 6% and the 7% for the red categories. And then for our culminating data overall, you could see there we had 38%
016were mid or above or that's 106 students. 30% were on grade level which was 85 students. One grade level below is 20% or 56 students. And then the red categories there 13 students were two grade levels below at 5% and three or more were 22 students at 8%. And then our overall the summary for our for our annual growth in reading. I'll start at the bottom. So two or more grade levels below. We started at 22% in September and we finished at 15%. One grade level behind we were at 21% and we finished at 18%. And then on or above grade level we were at 57% and ended at 67. Then for math, I'll start at the bottom two. For the red, we were at 21% and brought that down to 12%. We were at
01742% for one grade level behind and brought that down to 20%. An increase at the top, the green, we started at 37% in the beginning of the school year and ended at 68%. Okay. And that was Central's data. Yep. And so when we look at the district uh combined uh progress, we have a slide here that gives you a visual image of the above is the uh the June diagnostic and below is the late September one. And you can see the uh numbers moving positively, you know, to the right. The green has expanded, the yellow and the red has decreased. You'll see this something similar for the math summary. Michael Thanks. You see a similar You see actually a more pronounced increase, an expansion of the green um and a decrease in the yellow and
018certainly of the red too. The next slide uh gives you the numbers. And so we ended up with a composite score of 76% on or above grade level for the entire district uh K through 8. and we started at 49%. So we saw some significant improvement. The yellow decreased from I believe that says 36% down to 15% and the red uh cut almost in half from 16 to 9%. In math we saw even more growth from uh September to June uh ending at 71% on or above grade level but starting at 31%. uh the yellow decreased significantly from over 50% down into the 20s and the red was cut uh by more than half from 15 to 6%. And then when we go to the next slide, I want to show you something which I
019think is is notable. This is the weekly comp the average weekly amount of time that students spent on the learning path. That's basically the practice exercises. And we had uh been advised by the consultant to uh come up with about 45 minutes a week uh in terms of usage and we had um students you know meeting that uh basically the the lower bar is from 2024 when we first started this. So you see most of those hovering around 30 to 33 minutes. Uh and then this year there was a probably about a 15 or 16 minute weekly increase which does translate over the course of 40 weeks into about 600 minutes or 10 hours of extra practice. Um and I know there's been some concerns voiced about the amount of screen time and you know
020I ready is not perfect but I do think you know we we did follow the advice of the of curriculum associates who advise based on the research that there is a number that really is um you know about 45 minutes a week for each subject is really very helpful for the students you'll see progress. So when we go to the next slide, not that this is, you know, a perfect correlation, but we did see a significant increase in the academic growth comparison basically on reading proficiency. In 2000, the 23 24 school year, 65% of the kids ended up on or above grade level. This year, 76%. Uh so 11 percentage points higher in terms of reading proficiency performance. And with mathematics, even a greater increase. Last year's was at 50% um and then it went
021up to 71% this year. So we saw 21 percentage points higher in terms of mathematical proficiency performance on the I Ready Diagnostics. Uh so now we return to the original goal, right? So we wanted to give you the background and give you the data on how the kids did uh with the diagnostic assessments throughout the year. But we had this specific goal that we wanted at least 80% of the students to achieve their typical growth for the year. And this is set by uh the algorithms of I Ready and based on national norms. We didn't quite get to the 80%. I discovered uh you know later in the year that really was an ambitious goal. uh but we did in reading have 66% of students uh achieve their typical growth and in math 60% so
022more than satisfactory progress and gives us something to continue to reach for so we were happy about that goal number two as you'll remember was about attendance um and we placed a large focus on this I talked a lot especially during the winter about the historic flu season that really uh created an obstacle for But in the spring, we definitely saw steady improved attendance uh throughout those spring months. And we ended up with uh 95.44% which wasn't as much as we wanted to. We we had set a goal of of 97% uh which again was an ambitious goal. Um but for the flu season, we probably would have been closer. We're at 96% which really is a significant increase. Um, one other important note here, uh, Michael did the calculations for this year's attendance and
023we did reduce our chronic absenteeism rate and got it down to 8.1%. Uh, last year's performance report for the 2023 24 school year had it reported at 10.8%. So that that's encouraging. Um and I do think uh as several of you have mentioned it takes a while for this to uh become part of the culture where attendance is expected and we did get a lot of feedback that you know there there is a heightened um you know uh intensity about in attendance but as we've said all along it's because the students learn best when they're here in school and engaged with their teachers and classmates. Excuse me. Chronic is uh what's the meaning of chronic in all go ahead it's 18 or more absences once you pass 18 then you're determined as chronically absent as
024per the state okay so we really like monitor we always monitor closely but I was really tracking those from the year before once those students start to pass that threshold just re endlessly reaching out to them okay you also had that calendar up on the uh right in the entrance way of the school just reminding everyone This is the monthly attendance for September, October, etc. throughout the year and we post it. So, it we just want to continue to um to emphasize to highlight it to reinforce the importance of it. We have our own separate web page uh on the district website uh that has data and it keeps track of the monthly attendance but also data and research about why uh school attendance is important on a consistent basis. I just say but in
025the I already I mean I I obviously not exposed to it. You can you identify individual students. Was there any thought to identifying the students that were below grade level to the chronic absentee people? Yeah, there definitely is. But I'm I'm going to save let's save that question for the end with the with the principles. Um so goal number three, but it's a good thought. Goal number three was raising family engagement. Um we did this in a few different ways. Some of the primary avenues were uh just the new uh branded letter heads and look of the website uh which was intended to just uh you know get people's attention to approach everything with consistency and uniformity. Uh we created Instagram accounts and let go of the X accounts uh for each school in the
026district. And probably most uh importantly, we created these parent information webinars that we hosted this year. We had 10 different topics. Robin started off the year with one on transportation and the national school lunch program. And uh Dr. Jones uh came up with the rest of these through ideas that were shared with her from the administrative leadership team, from board members, from community members. She also did a survey at the end of the year and asked for input uh and has some ideas for expanding this next year and actually making you know one session available during the day for parents uh because that was some of the feedback that we got that that would be uh a better time for them to to hop onto a webinar. And then goal number four was the QAC
027process. This is a year-long process. Uh the state monitoring system governs it uh by statute. Uh and the county education office in Mars County uh basically uh does the uh the monitoring and and ask for uh a great deal of information and documents and we provide a lot of that uh remotely throughout the year. Uh their visit was postponed from February until April because of snow or at least threatened snow and um they came on April 24th. We got a lot of positive feedback in all areas. Curriculum was highlighted by the uh the reviewer from the county office is being very strong. Um the operations personnel governance and fiscal we don't have our official scores yet. We're waiting for um that from Trenton from the department of education. uh but we believe it's going to
028be uh aligned with our self- assessments which means basically 100 points in most of these areas perhaps the 98 in one area and um the one area that we've talked about before at board meetings and in committee meetings is the instruction and programming we got our full credit for our uh curriculum documents and our curriculum program but we lost points based on the NJSL LA um uh scores from last year when the state puts it through their uh formula. We came up uh basically 4100s um of a point shy. We needed to have 80 um overall 79.5 would be rounded up to 80, but we fell a little bit short there. So, we won't be receiving that designation of high performing, but uh as we've said before, it probably is a good thing in a
029sense because it did highlight and reinforce certain areas that we need to improve on when it comes to student performance on the assessments. And then lastly, we as everyone recalls this winter we did our strategic planning process and through the input of our our faculty, our administrative leadership team, our board members and our family members and even some community members uh we identified four strategic plan goal areas. One being teaching and learning uh two culture of respect and well-being. three future focused facilities and last building community. So what we did with that for our district goals is that the administrative leadership team we um we have co-chairs for each each goal and uh their their assignment was to come up with a district goal that would be aligned with these strategic plan goal areas. uh
030so that you know we do have this strategic alignment throughout the district and everything that we're going to be working on next year. So the next slide has the the next slide has the um proposed district goals. So the first one aligned with teaching and learning. We are uh we've talked a lot about implementing MTSS and we've been doing a lot of the work this year and we look forward to uh starting the implementation process on a a full-scale basis in September. So we are looking to raise student achievement by strengthening the use of datainformed instructional strategies resulting in at least 75% of students meeting the tier one goals in English language arts during at least two of the MTSS instructional cycles. There probably will be three instructional cycles throughout the year. Um, but this
031is all part of the process and we we felt this would be a good goal to measure our progress in implementing MTSS. Uh, the next one is developing a district-wide student-led mentoring program. We we dipped our toe into this at the middle school this year and we have plans to continue it, but we're looking to spread it throughout the district in some form. Um the measure uh will be some form of either the NJCI survey or other qualitative feedback from students and staff. Future focused facilities uh we have our new uh learning comments being worked on right now at Central Middle School. We have a new media center uh this past year at Millington. uh and we are looking for ways to measure the engagement of students uh to serve as models whether it's the
032flexible furniture or other features that will serve as models for instructional upgrades in the future. Again, this is going to have to be measured by qualitative feedback. Um maybe some data too. We can figure out a way to measure how often how much more often the learning comments is used than the old library. um but also feedback from students and staff will be key. And the last goal is to build a more um connected and informed school community uh through enhanced communication and collaboration among students and staff and um community members. So again, the NJ Sky survey, which we plan to continue this year, uh, and other feedback from families uh, will help us build on our previous family engagement goal from the last year. And all of this is well aligned with our strategic
033plan. And then the next slide is basically an opportunity for anyone to ask questions while we have while we have the uh, principles here. Yeah, that was my only job was to say hold your questions till the end. So sorry about that. Um any questions? Um obviously we've had students come in during the year. Do you think the numbers you know the universe of the students did that affect the evaluation of uh the IR like maybe they came in mid year. Do you is there any kind of way to monitor that with all this? There there certainly is ways to monitor all of that. Um looking at the data I think Mr. Alexis shared this morning um earlier at the the presentation. You know, every student in the school takes the assessment. So when we
034look at each grade level and the test, we identify the students. So I can tell you students that are going to be three grade levels below have a true learning disability. So all those students are still participating in the test. We have a number of ELLL students that come in, ESL students who are new entries to the district. So that's going to affect some of the data as well. So new students coming in, yes, we would look at those students to see where they fall and see what supports might be needed. And like I said, I apologize this because I'm, you know, I don't know the functioning of the I Ready. The tests that are you you use for the monitoring are automatically generated within the system. You don't tailor any of the No, we
035do not do anything. Okay. and and it like they the students will get a question based on how far they can answer that question or how well they do it might take them down a level if we also have some students that get flagged because they rush through it. So just yeah so that's something that when I looked at all my students I said we did a pretty good job this year of trying to build that stamina but we need more messaging just like before NJSLA how we have to take this seriously how we look at the data but you have to think NJ third graders right they're eight first time taking NJSLA literally one week is passed in between that and starting I ready because there's so many end of the year events so
036I did get some parent feedback I'm Not sure how to resp I mean I've responded but we can't really fix it. You know that we need that end of the year data. So just really encouraging the kids the best we can and to do their best. Who who would like to talk a little bit about how we're going to use because a lot of this I Ready data is going to be helpful next year with the MTSS approach. I think our rookie is going to come up and and share. Dana Carcillo, our new director of special services here. Yes. Hi everyone. So the data will be used to pick um to identify the students for the tiers. So there's tier one which is general education. So that'll be done in the um in the home
037rooms with the teachers and that can be that will be looked at. Just some areas that the overall grade level could use um you know more focus on to strengthen the skill of that. Then the data will also be used to identify the kids midpoint of our first cycle to see who's not responding to that intervention and then might need an additional tier. So the tier 2 still in the general education still within the classroom by um delivered by the teacher small group. So it's met it it could be met anywhere from three to five times a week in in the classroom. And then from that again the data will be used to identify the kids that may need a tier three targeted support. Again still falling under the umbrella of general education but that
038ch uh that student may need to be pulled out by an interventionist and that will be the most intensive level of support that we are given. Um and the the goal is between the cycles. So the first time you take I ready to the second time that you're looking to see um as the data showed on the screen the green sections increasing and then the other the red and the um the yellow sections decreasing. So the data that we have from the I Ready drives the instruction for the MTSS process. [Music] Greg couple of questions the early on grade level how's that defined? Is that early on grade level? That's the definition. Early on is basically beginning to mid year. The beginning of the grade level. So where the student should be at the beginning
039of the grade. So like September is early on like September, October, and then midyear and then end of year. Oh, I think I think I know what you mean. If it's a second grade test, they're it's the so they've hit grade level, but it's like the earlier point of their second grade year, even though they're taking it in June. Yes. Got it. Okay. So they're still within the grade level, but they're not, you know, they're not at like they're not I was assuming, but I just wanted to hear it because then you fall to the yellow, which is one grade level or below. Okay. Um I'll just suggest that it would I Ready was done last year as well, right? And that's what we're basing this on is I Ready. It would have been helpful
040to see last year over this year at the same point. Yeah, there was a comparison. We had a comparison slide on that, right? That was the the time at the end. The chart the graph. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. I can flip. Let me see. Yeah. Um is that the same right here from previous year? This this slide that's up. Yeah, that's one of them. And then this is a narrative. That's great. And and I will say that although I'm still not disappointed that all the kids aren't getting hundreds, uh it was definitely great growth this year. Excellent work. Good. I'll be watching you this fall and next spring, too. I was I was curious. Well, two questions. One, just seeing you know, I have a middle school student actually now I have two.
041I I know that there's a notorious especially at the end of the school year sandbagging of the exams if that's fact like are you kind of looking at that and saying because obviously the middle school had the largest number and I I'm sitting there and I I know parents and they're saying the kids are just not even interested at all. It's it's a valid topic that you bring up. It it's hard for us to gauge how how you know how much effort did someone put in when they're sitting there quietly and they're going through the task, but it it gets a little ch I think at any grade level, the middle school kids included, it could be any grade level where they get a little fatigued, you know, it's like, okay, we know that we're
042going to take this three times, you know, we know that the every the teachers are putting an emphasis on it. It's the end of the year. We already took the NJSLA. So, it's hard. I don't I don't know if I can give a quantifiable answer to that, but it's a it's a valid point. You know, some might give better effort than others. So, it does, as um I think Jennifer mentioned before, it does flag if they click away too fast, it will flag for us and we can have them retake it. But that if someone just sat there and took their time and but didn't really put in a lot of effort, you're not going to really know. You can look at prior numbers though to see where someone falls because sometimes someone might do
043more poorly on the most recent than the one before and you say, "Hey, what's going on there?" I don't know. You know, it's one it is although we have good data by them continually using I Ready, it's still just one benchmark on one day. That's the way that we kind of look at it. So, you know, we have to look holistically at the big picture, how they're performing in class. This as another measure. We use the N SLA as another measure, their most recent unit test. So we try to put it all together. The teachers when we have data meetings, I can tell you we have a very good background on the students. We kind of know what's going on, what direction they're moving in. So that's that's the big picture, you know. And then
044as as another point, the teachers and us have a very very clear-cut view on the standards and skills. So we get very good data and say, "Okay, in sixth grade, what are the low performing skills in the beginning of the year?" And then we're going to try to work on those with like tier one goals which Dana mentioned. So that's what we have uh we're looking forward to next year to just improving. Thanks Daniel. I just had a couple questions. One was going off of what you had originally said like in the middle of the the presentation when you said is there any correlation between the children with the chronic absenteeism to the red notice some at the middle school. There's some that I've noticed are on you know kind of both lists. Yeah. I
045I can't speak for the other schools, but definitely at Central. Yes. Okay. And then I two more questions and then which this one's maybe silly, but so every single child that takes this, they complete it, right? Like they're not going to run out of time. Like they definitely they complete it. Yes. Oh, sorry. Time gets almost extended. Okay. Awesome. Correct. Yeah. Because it really wants to know how they're performing on those skills and standards. Correct. And then just to just to mention it, I just it just stuck out to me that for Central Middle School, it looked like they they did overall in math did well in in improving the numbers to like majority green. Um but Central for the reading looked like we like barely moved the needle. It was like three. Yeah, they
046started a little higher. I think it was uh 10 points for the green, but the the smaller didn't shrink as much as we would have liked it to. Yeah. Yeah. And I just I mean I just took notice of that and I was like I wonder what's going on there. Yeah. But with the new um Sorry. Yeah. You have to but with the second um year with the consultant and with the interventionist we are looking at the interventions that we will be using specifically at the middle school as well to target the um the instruction that they will be re receiving at the different tiers. Thank you. I'm really interested in seeing this next year after having another year with them, you know, the multi-tered and also seeing the new math program implemented and also
047just another year if we've had this growth. Like I like seeing that like now we have something to compare it on. And um I have faith that that we having like real things to kind of sink our teeth in to kind of understand what's going on. And I think also hopefully some parents will will, you know, read these things and understand that where we're coming from as a district, why you guys are, you know, make these recommendations, why we're doing this, because it's one thing to say, oh, we're doing I ready and what, you know, but like I sit there and I try to like look what other districts use it, what's this, and just to kind of see how we are improving and what we're getting. I I I I'm glad we're having this
048presentation because I think it's valuable data and also as a parent to be able then to say well you know to talk to them about that because the kids do you know it's in the efforts things that are talked about and I mean I had one kid coming home and talking about the curriculum in one of the classes I was interested in and I was like okay that's cool and telling our pediatrician it was amazing you know he's 10 but um so they do kind of soak it all in and so I do think having this kind of information out and having it in the community and hopefully parents parents will um you know listen to it and and learn about it because it is you know we are moving it it you know time
049takes time but you know you can see the steps are there. Thank you Crystal. I I don't really have a question. I just wanted to say thank you because I know the work that all of you have put into the data driven instruction and the tiers of support for the students. And it just feels really good to have an administrative team talking um so comprehensively about the data and it's very clear that everyone knows their students. I really appreciate the context of last year's numbers and this year's numbers as well as like looking at the growth because we want all of our kids to be proficient but then we want to make sure that those that are proficient, you know, we're still moving them up and that those are struggling that we're really looking at
050their growth as well. So I really appreciate that. Um I I did have one question and this is just for sheer curiosity because I don't think that I that I've asked it. Um do the students know is there any conversation with the kids about their data after the assessments because I know that I like the data meetings and everything. I was just wondering and curious like if we had any like student data talks or anything like that. So, we've had some about we use they have some tools in I Ready to encourage kids to get to the minutes, right? I've had some conversations with primarily fifth grade students that I know were rushing through things or teachers are reporting back just to say, you know, I'm not just looking at this data. Mr. Viterella is
051going to look at it, but some of the kids are still rushing through. Yeah. So, we have to do look at it a little bit better of how we're going to get to that point. We do release it to parents. So hopefully they're sitting with their children and I will I'll just say it's so powerful I think and like and and so I know that when I talked to to my kids about it like when they see their growth because to to whoever made the point it's there's not a lot of weight behind it, right? Like why am I taking this? What am I doing? But when they see how much they've grown over a period of time, I mean they just they just light up. So, um, so I was just curious, but thank
052you so much for the context and all the work that you all have done around. And just as you're saying that, our interventionists are fabulous. So, I want to I want to highlight them, too. We rely on their work and expertise. They have a tool bag of everything. So, they support what the teachers are doing in the classroom. Thank you, Karen. Uh, I don't know if this could be done. I don't know if it would be valuable, but if you have, you know, the the second grader this year and next year the third grader that that as a third grader, like can you track the student all the way through that one student year to year? Yes, we do. We do. So, so last summer we created data charts. Okay. and all the teachers filled
053in the data from the end of the year testing, not just I Ready, but if they took um Dibbles at the early elementary school, um Fontis and Panel, all of our data that was used um and they tracked from end of the year before. So, second grade teachers looked at end of the year, first grade data, filled that in, and each testing we put the data in and we so we all were able to see where students were. So, what I'm curious is that um how do I want to say this? Is there a falloff between the summer and se in the summer because the kids that ended they left school like really good and then in September they're tested kind of on two different things now they're tested on a different grade level standards
054that they don't know yet. Okay. But there's probably a summer slide is what you're saying. Like no matter like that's that's typical. That's how I sold my kids on the summer institute. I was like, you don't want summer slide. Uh, any other questions? No. Thank you all very much. Thank you for coming out on your summer. Yes. Have a good summer. Okay. Uh, moving to communications. Nothing to report. Okay. Board committee and liaison reports. Karen. Okay. Uh on June 11th I attended a virtual meeting for Ed Services Commission and the two things that would impact us I guess uh we approved the uh CSA evaluation and the new goals for the new year and as I mentioned before uh they have had declining enrollment so they actually are going to go through a force reduction
055this year so it'll see the inevitable inevitability of their school closing is is getting closer and closer. Uh governance met, excuse me, and first topic was discussion of mission and vision and George had utilized some AI tools to see what could be generated from the input things that he gave the unfortunately none of it was very earth shaking or you know appropriate not I want to say appropriate but really didn't drive with what we were looking for. So, getting back to it, he's going to be Oh, we also shared with us some uh from uh other districts. So, we're we're going to be looking at it as a committee to try to see if we can come up with something and George is going to work with the administrative team and all all of us
056agreed. We want something I'll say it short and sweet because we should be able to say it. We should know it ourselves. We should be able to say it. Should be very repeatable. not one of these four or five sentence things that gives you everything. So, it it's gonna hope and then of course we're going to get it to the board know our suggestions and we'll go through it together. Uh the self-evaluation I guess uh we thought it was good. I'd be curious to get any comments from anybody at how you thought it was, how the session went, if it was valuable, anything we could change, what we could do better. So I mean you want to comment or you want to let me know later or you don't have any comment or if you
057have any thoughts email Karen. Okay. Uh I thought the one thing is that I mean we all said it um we were very critical of ourselves which is really good because that means that we're expecting more from ourselves like we said we expect more from the kids too. Okay. Uh calendar evaluations and goal setting. There was a question as to whether we would follow uh the the yearly calendar or the school year after some back and forth. We follow the school year as it is now. Um we're going to we're going to stay with that. It seems to work best especially because it goes in line with the school goals. So our goals will go go for the school year and uh the the pacing of the CSA evaluation has to be the way it
058is because it has to be completed by July 1. we could possibly look at a little bit of a difference in the timing of the self-evaluation as as uh we spread it out maybe spread it out a little bit more because uh I guess the comment was you know they come right on one after another the other way to look at it is you get it over with right away and the pain is not prolonged okay um Charlene had provided us a a sample of the district calendar a district's calendar Washington township ship that they have on their website that gives a a very detailed look at a lot of the activities and um many many of those are already on ours but we're going to do a little comparison and what they did they
059also added committee meetings on their calendar so the public knew that so we might consider putting on committee meeting dates or even if we just showed like at the beginning of the year how the committes work like you know we meet on the second third Tuesday of the month at 7 o'clock. Even if you put that in there for them to note then the public knows that you know committees are working they do the work and you know move ahead. Um all right the big one finance. Um okay uh I have to look at this because this is like a lot of stuff. uh health benefits update. Uh 15 uh excuse me, LHA employees were paid out for accepting a waiver for health benefits and it cost about $67,000. And excuse me, there are six
060employees that decided to switch to the educator health plan, saving them approximately $14,000 and the district saving about $7,000. And uh per the contract, there were three employees involved in uh health benefit payments over the summer. Uh two uh one retiree and two resignations and they will be covered through uh August 30th and it'll cost about uh 12.5K as I said as per the contract. um you know that we wave fees on activities that happen throughout the year in all of the schools and uh on things such as uh the graduation you know the dance of primma vera etc. Um now the cost of those fees from one year over to to this year increased 98%. Now the big increase obviously is because there was a a redefinition of the who could qualify for free
061and reduced based upon Medicare Medicaid requirements although that could change again. Um but uh usually was paid out of yearbook let's say for central school yearbook excuse me and what was remaining from the primma vera dance but we might have to look at new avenues to provide that one of those avenues is actually putting in some funding for it. Um, so there was, you know, some discussion about what could be done about that. But again, like I said, year-over-year uh was pay to uh pay to pay paytoplay fees, field trip fees, and other things. That's that's what it that's where the waiverss come in. Uh, as mentioned before, Robin was concerned about the uh the rates that they were getting or being charged from banks. So, she put out an RFP. Four banks have requested
062the RFP from us and the due date is 7:24. On the agenda, there's a lot of items. There's disposition of assets like you know old books and you know a dysfunctional wheelchair. Uh there was a grant from uh force for standing desks. I guess the way it was education found I apologize. Okay. Longill Education Foundation. They were going to purchase the desk and then give it to us, but it works out better for us to purchase the desk. So, they're going to donation of money to purchase the standing desks. Uh, we received a grant of $3600. And I'm sorry I didn't write it down. The note is it's for I have I know what it's for. It's optimal comprehensive universal screeners, whatever. Yeah. The state put out a grant uh making funds available to comply
063with the new literacy screening law. Okay, that's right. The testing the test thing. Okay. You're going to see again uh approval of vendors where expenditures over $44,000. Again, it's always per contract. It's a requirement based upon Robin's previous certification. Now that she has a new certification, that's that's limit is raised to $55,000. So, this is the last time we'll see that. You'll also see about Robin's change on that. We had to make an interest payment only uh payment on our debt and uh if you remember during the year we had an investigator. We utilize the services just in case we need them again. We put them on for approval. Not that we're going to use them. Uh food service aids for the new school year. Uh you're going to see all the rates are approved
064and the hours everything has been worked out and they got the leave first aid etc. Now the big thing is we have an additional preschool section and what's going to be done is this. The autistic class in Gillette is going to be converted to the preschool class. The autistic class the we are requesting a waiver from the county to utilize the space of the teachers lounge for the autistic class. There are only three students involved in that. It'll be totally renovated as a classroom. it meets all of the requirements in terms of size, space, etc. And uh excuse me, I said uh that that is going to be done. And if I remember correctly uh about the the the ability of the faculty lounge to be available for the faculty is I mean like they're
065going to have a another there's there's an alternate space available. There's an alternate space available. Yes. Okay. Um, we reviewed information regarding personnel, but George or somebody's going to review that. All the bills are reviewed and are ready for approval and can be passed in the resolution. So, that's all. Thank you, Karen. Any questions? Okay. Can I go to Danielle? Um, okay. Um we had a um community relations committee meeting on July 1st and it was George and Tom, myself and Kim uh via Zoom and basically we spoke about the communications between the senior center and um and our district in regards to the calendar events and just keeping communications open in terms of reminders weekly, you know, a week before a a big event or the day before the event. Um just to just
066to make sure that everyone's on the same page. Um and also for invites as well. Um we also talked about the results to the parent webinar survey. Um and basically 13 people responded to the survey. Topics were um that were included were extracurricular activities, social emotional learning topics, handling friendships, transportation, things like that. So, we're always, you know, they're always looking for more ideas for those types of webinars. Um, we talked about the release of I Ready results, which we had the wonderful presentation tonight. Um, we spoke about um ongoing communications uh for the kindergarten and sixth grade orientations coming up this summer. Um, and making sure that all those emails are out and reminders and stuff like that. Um, we talked about uh fifth grade clapout. I know a lot of um there was
067a lot of feedback from the community that um you know maybe there's something that the school could be involved in in terms of moving up the fifth grade students to the central and kind of memorializing that. So we're looking into ideas and there will be more to come on that. Um we spoke to Jack about a lot of the website data. um he had a lot of good numbers for us and we're going to continue monitoring those um as well. And then for good of the order, we were just discussing our goals, like when to make up when to do our goals. Um which I think we decided we're going to talk about our new ones coming this August. Um and our and our next meeting is July 28th, but I'm going to have to
068reschedule that. So to be continued. Duly noted. Any questions for Danielle? Okay, Crystal. Nothing to report. Okay, Tom. Nothing to report this month. Okay, Katie. Um just um some minor Longill Ed Foundation news. Um our annual gala will be on November 14th. Um from 7 to 11 at Bridgewater Manor. It'll have a uh there'll be, you know, like the tricky tray and also um there'll be like a meal. It's a really wonderful event. There'll be much more information and it's a night of Hollywood, so that should be a great time. We also will be participating in the Millington Music Fest which is on September 27th. Um it's sponsored by the Longill Chamber of Commerce and we will be involved with the kids zone. So more information will be going out about that. We had our
069final uh meeting of the year and um we had our election and uh myself, Mike Costa and who was our I was the president, Mike Laccasta who was our our secretary and Anna Keshvali who was our treasurer for about 10 years. We all decided that we were not going to run for reelection and um but would would remain involved in our various ways. So I'm very pleased to announce that our new president starting in September will be Yasmine DG Yvani. Our vice president will be Mary Pepe. Our treasurer is Omar Be. And our secretary is Ana Salisa. So we have a really strong group. It's really exciting to see this group. We've had an influx of volunteers um of parents of all, you know, kids of all different ages and it's just a really exciting
070to see this organization kind of grow in a very organic way. And um we have a lot of really exciting things coming up. Um I will still be involved. I'm not going anywhere. Um but I just everyone needs to kind of have more time to do more things and I'm really excited that that Yas mean is a superstar and I think everything's going to be great. So on to new things and uh that's all I have. Well, okay. Thank you for your service and congratulations to the new officers. Um excuse me. Okay. Any questions for key? No, I apologize because I don't think Robin would want to brag about this, but she had a charge to go get a teacher's desk and a teacher's chair and she dragged her husband and they went to restore
071like Habitat for Humanity store. She got a teacher's desk and a desk chair and a rocker for the new kindergarten classroom. I'm sorry, prek classroom for $30. Nice job. Could you get a little bit less? Couldn't talk him down. Good job. You're good quality. Did you have a car to put all of that in or uh my husband has a truck? Oh, she went late night. Thank you, Robin. Um, okay. So, super questions. Okay. Superintendent report. Okay. Ju just um a couple of notes here. You'll see on the agenda, and I'm very pleased to report that we've been fortunate to find candidates to fill three very difficult to fill uh positions on our staff. Uh we're still looking for power professionals and a leave replacement teacher and a new facility supervisor. Uh and now uh
072in September, we'll need a new uh technology assistant because Andrew um is going to be moving on to a new adventure and we wish him well. Uh and Mark Pcino will be helping us out uh during the transition with facilities. Uh Karen covered the facilities waiver application. The other thing I just wanted to point out is that we have to submit our chapter 27 emergency virtual or remote instruction plan uh which has to be approved each year and that's in your board folder and we will be submitting that once it's approved by the board. And I think that's it. Our next meeting is August 4th. Just for the community to put that note in the back of their minds. Okie dokie. Any questions? Robin, did we miss you on this agenda or do we normally
073Am I not on the agenda? I don't. Not that I see. Oh, no. You're not there. So, good thing Karen mentioned the resourc. No, it's okay. I only have a few things. Um just a few brief updates on the financials tonight. You'll see two bills lists. One is to close out 2425 and the other is to open 2526. The endofear list is slightly higher than usual reflecting typical year-end processing and close out of purchase orders. And on the petty cash and mileage, we've included our annual petty cash authorizations by department as well as an additional mileage reimbursement for intra district mileage travel during the past year. And um just to uh say a little bit about what Karen was talking about on the purchasing threshold, um I didn't get a new certification. I do have
074the QPA. The district bid threshold though is being formally increased to $53,000 as authorized by the state treasurer. And this so we're able to increase it because I have my QPA. Oh, okay. That and that also um increases the amount of quotes. So we need to get a quote now for anything that is 15% of that which I think is 79 something. So it increases our quote threshold as well. Okay, that's what I have. Okay, thank you Ramen. Any questions? Okay. Um any comments? Oh, wait. I had something that I wanted to say. Sorry. Um I just wanted to mention going back to so we had personnel met on um June 16th. I just want to uh Mr. Alexis Crystal, Justin and myself met and a lot of that um um we just discussed issues
075related to personnel. Some of that's on the agenda today and also Ann and I attended the leadership summit that school boards hosted for presidents and vice presidents on June 23rd. Um it was really good. I shared some of that information with governance and we might be bringing some of the things that we did there um to maybe something that we do through governance. A lot of it was about leadership development. Um any comments from the public on agenda items? No. Okay. Okay. We're going to move to resolutions then. So special tonight. Don't make me read it. I won't make you read Karen. Um we did um this was Karen's 25th year of service to the board of education and um we really just want to thank her for um the time and energy that she's
076put into this role and um she really has um been such an advocate for the district and the work that we do here with students. Um, so we wanted to do something special and so we reached out to um our legislative offices and we were able to get a resolution from Assemblywoman Munos and Matsawis and Senator Bramnik and so we just want to read the words of that resolution. So I'm going to start with the first whereas Danielle if you can read it. Sure. Whereas the Senate and General Assembly of the state of New Jersey are pleased to recognize the Honorable Karen Anne Nyquest, a highly esteemed resident of the Garden State, and commend the immeasurable contributions she has made to the Long Hill Township Board of Education throughout the past 25 years. And Crystal,
077whereas since joining the board of education, Karen Anne Nyquis has secured a sterling reputation as chair of the community relations curriculum building and grounds policy and governance committees. a superb tenure marked by her expertise presenting on board governance at the New Jersey School Boards Association fall workshops in 22, 2023, and 2024. And she has chaired the superintendent search committee three times, leading the district through critical leadership transitions with professionalism and strategic insight. And whereas having earned Carol E. Lararsson master board member status, Karen Anne Nyquist has further distinguished herself as vice president of the Morris County Educational Services Commission and as a member of the board of directors for the Morris County School Boards Association, thus demonstrating her unwavering commitment to excellence in public education. And whereas in addition to her stellar record of volunteerism
078within the Long Hill Township Board of Education, Karen Anyquist devotes her time and energies as a member of the Long Hill Township Citizens Emergency Response Team, the Rosary Society of St. Vincent Depal Church, and the board of Ldensbury Meadow. And she provides invaluable support to various PTO functions including the annual talent show and faculty Harlem Wizards basketball games. And I'm going to wrap it up. Whereas the strength and prosperity of the state of New Jersey and the effectiveness of our American society greatly depend upon hardworking and resolute individuals exemplified by Karen and Nyquist who utilize their unique talents and resources in furtherance of an astute, engaged and informed populace. And whereas by continually demonstrating an exemplary measure of civic-mindedness, Karen Nyquist has provided a model of faithful dedication to public service worthy of emulation. Now
079therefore, be it resolved by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey, that this legislature hereby salutes Karen Anne Nyquist, pays tribute to her meritorious record of accomplishment, and extends sincere best wishes for continued success in all the days to come. And be it further resolved that a duly authenticated copy of this resolution signed by the Senate President and the Assembly Speaker and attested by the Senate Secretary and the Assembly Clerk be transmitted to the Honorable Karen Anne Nyquis. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Thank you. I think I know I know everybody would expect um you know it's hard to to realize that it's been 25 years. I mean it it goes fast. Um it's not something I I initially went for. I was actually approached by teachers uh way back when see if
080I was interested in it and I I went for it. Um at the at my state in life, you know, I'm being retired from another career. If I had to think about something that I would want to do that would, you know, give meaning to my life and what they say, give back to the community and help others, I can't think of of a more important thing that I could do than be a member of this board. Um, little did I know how critical it was and I I truly truly appreciated the confidence that the community had to vote me in the times that they did. And I have to honestly say every board that I've worked with, we've all been focused on the students. And sometimes it's not easy, but uh it's always been
081something that I truly valued. And um I just appreciate I appreciate being appreciated, but I do really appreciate the the opportunity that I have the community provided me and um I just want to say thank you. Thank you. You Thank you. So, just in case you want to see. Yes. Here it is. Here it is. My resolution. Very nice. It was actually So, going into their office to pick it up. It was very important because I walked in and I said, "I'm here picking up this resolution." You know, where's Karen's resolution? And I'm like, "Oh, she's like a household name in this office." So, and I thank their offices for for doing that for us. Okay. But we should move it. Um, do you have a motion to approve uh resolution number one? So move.
082Second. Okay, we'll just do a voice vote. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Extensions. Okay, thank you. Okay, we're going to move to minutes number two. Karen, will you move those in? So moved. Second. Any questions? Roll call, please. Uh, Miss Staley, yes. Mr. Groskoff, yes. Dr. Maher, yes. Mrs. Mlennon. Yes. Miss Nyquist. Yes. Mrs. Pace. Yes. Danielle, will you move financials numbers 3 through 24? So moved. Second. Any questions? Okay. Roll call, please. Mrs. Daly? Yes. Mr. Goff? Yes. Dr. Maher? Yes. Mrs. McClennon? Yes. But abstain from 19, please. Uh, Miss Nyquist. Yes. Mrs. Casease. Yes. Um Crystal, will you move in special services numbers 25 through 30? So moved. Second. Any questions? Roll call, please. Mrs. Dailyaly, yes. Mr. Grossoff, yes. Dr. Maher? Yes. Mrs. McClennon? Yes. Mrs. Nyquist? Yes. Mrs. Casease? Yes.
083Um Tom, will you move in personnel numbers 31 through 63? So moved. Second. Daniel questions. Roll call, please. Mrs. Dailyaly, yes. Mr. Groskoff, yes. Dr. Mah, yes. Mrs. McClennon, yes. Mrs. Nyquist, yes. Mrs. Casease, yes. Katie, will we move in curriculum number 64 and 65? So moved. Second. Any questions? Roll call, please. Mrs. Dailyaly, yes. Mr. Gros, yes. Dr. Maher, yes. Mrs. McClennon, yes. Mrs. Nyquist. Yes. Mrs. Casease. Yes. I'm going to come back around. Karen, we move in policy number 66 through 67. So moved. Second. Any questions? Roll call, please. Mrs. Daly, yes. Mr. Groskoff. Yes. Dr. Maher. Yes. Mrs. McClennon. Yes. Mr. Nyquist. Yes. Mrs. Case. Yes. And Danielle, will you move in other number 68? So moved. Second. Questions? Okay. Roll call, please. Mrs. Dailyaly, yes. Mr. Groskoff, yes. Dr. Mark, yes.
084Mrs. McClennon, yes. Mrs. Nyquist, yes. Mrs. Casease, yes. Okay. Thank you. Uh, any items for discussion? Uh, I just want to mention that, uh, some board members had conflicts tonight, but, um, Alex Dejimos lost his father. His father passed away, so unfortunately that's the reason he's not here tonight. So, we'll send prayers to his family and and we can discuss as a board um uh any arrangements. Yes. Um any uh new business? Can I just ask? Yes. Just August 4th. U when we're doing our goal setting, are we doing it after the meeting or before? After Well, actually before. Yeah, we could. I thought we were doing like a 5:30 deal again. We should be doing a 5:30 deal. Could we do a 5:30? We could. We just have to advertise it. We advertise. Yes.
0857:30 is kind of late to start goal setting. Okay. Thank you, Karen. Um, any comments from the public? No. Okay. Motion to adjurnn. So move. Second. All in favor? I any opposed extensions. Thank you.