001[clears throat] This meeting of the MA Board of Education is open to members of the public to be physically present. Members of the public that attend will be asked to follow the same procedures as all other visitors to our schools. Those procedures can be found on the agenda page of our website. Additionally, the board meeting will be livereamed for viewing purposes only. Anyone wishing to view the meeting may do so via Zoom. Webinar ID for this meeting is 831-8863-4579 and the required password is 617689. I call this meeting to order. Uh roll call please. >> Dr. Mory >> here. >> Mr. D Silva Jr. >> here. >> Mr. Kasmarski. >> Mr. Gallo >> here. >> Mrs. Deanro, Mr. Denise >> here, >> Mr. Hughes >> here, >> Mrs. Ting Jansen >> here, >> Mr. Coplin
002>> here. >> Thank you and welcome, Mr. Hiramodoto. Hi, is that correct? >> That's correct. >> Okay. And welcome. Uh, this is, I think, your first board meeting with us. >> Yes, that is correct. >> Thank you very much. >> Um, all right. Um, adequate notice of this agenda for this meeting has been provided to the Rididgewood News in the record [clears throat] specifying that the MA Board of Education will meet on October 29th, 2025 in the administrative offices 60 Ridge Road, MA, New Jersey. A copy is filed with the township clerk. All right. Salute to the flag. I will lead this salute today. 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.
003>> Okay, we do need a brief uh executive session in the beginning, probably about 10 minutes. So, I need a motion to recess to exec Mr. Mr. Coplin, second by Mr. Gallow. We should be back shortly. Thank you very much. made a motion to reconvene the public action meeting, Mr. [clears throat] Hughes, second by Miss Ting Jansen. All right. Agenda questions. Please limit your questions at this time to resolutions under new business on this agenda. As a matter of fairness, you're asked to limit your questions to no more than one, and your remarks to no longer than three minutes. If you are here representing a group, please identify yourself, the group, and your position in the group. If you are here as an individual, please give us your name and address. This section of public
004participation will be limited to 15 minutes. All right. I need a motion to open the meeting to the public. Mr. Dilva, second by Mr. Gallow. We have a butterfly who's joined us for meeting today. Looks like a moth. >> Oh, is that a Oh, it's a moth. Okay. I thought butterflies sounded better. Yeah. Okay. >> Um, all right. We are officially open to the public. >> Hi, good evening. >> Is this Can you tell us what resolution under new business? >> Well, actually, I don't even have a question. I [laughter] Okay, >> I just have a uh a comment rather. So I I I'm here. First of all, my name is Aif Kib. I'm here on behalf of Muslims. Um I just wanted to say thank you for coming out. We had a a a
005meet and greet last week uh as we do uh as we've had in the past uh to meet the candidates who were running. Uh and despite being an opposed, they did come out. Dr. Morian and uh Mr. Hughes. Uh thank you for coming out and we we had a a great discussion. Um, so, uh, the board, >> if it's a followup to that, was it a follow-up [snorts] to the conversation? Because then that might be more appropriate at the end of the meeting during public, um, comment. >> Sure. >> Unless there's a resolution specifically under business. >> It was just a It was just a thank you, note. And, uh, um, there were a couple of follow-ups to that, but that's not coming from me. That's going to come from some of my colleagues, okay?
006And they will do that at the end. So, thanks for hearing me and thank you. >> Thank Thank you for the thank you. Appreciate it. But, um, we'll hold any further comments till public comment if you don't mind. Thank you very much. >> Um, okay. Motion to close the meeting to the public. Mr. Cop, second by Mr. Hughes. Uh, no. Ma represent. >> Okay. Um, our MAWA student representative report will be done by Dr. Durro this evening. >> It's not going to have as much pizzazz as the high school student. I'm going to do my best. I'll read it word for word. Excellent. >> So, it's true to their report >> and there will be a little overlap. >> Yes. >> As per >> as usual, right? Okay. >> Um, okay. First bullet point. The
007spirit rally went really well. It was unscripted and we felt like a lot of kids got into it and found it very entertaining. Senior captain Scotty Rosenblat got the young man of the year award for the Super Football Conference. The cheerleaders won first place at North Hunteran cheerleading competition. This is their second competition of the year. The Habitat for Humanity Club helped out with the MA run, which I'll talk about in a little bit. Uh and it was great for the community. The girls tennis team uh is the Patriot League champions. Marching band was the finale band at the North Jersey Band Festival and Mr. Bitner conducted all 17 bands and he also led America the Beautiful at the end. Sports are starting to wrap up and doing well. The boys and girls soccer team
008are doing well. Uh right now there is the eighth grade open house at the high school. I mean at at I'm sorry, yes, at the high school. Uh we would like to congratulate any student who received an award at the Scholastic Awards night this past Monday. And Thursday, which is tomorrow, is our internship externship cap capstone presentation um ceremony for the summer internship and extership awards. I think everyone got an invite for that and hopefully you can attend. That is from our high school student rep. Now you can dismiss me. [laughter] >> Thank you very much, Mr. I will go Mr. Dtoro for that one or Mike for that one. >> Perfect. >> Thank you very much. And now our superintendent's report, Dr. >> Dtoro. Um as you can see and I just want to
009thank the administrators who who are in the audience right now. Um every year we are obligated to report um on various data sets that we receive um specific to standardized testing. Um, and we have um we have representatives here, Mr. Jarvis and Mr. Chic, who are going to come up and talk to us about the district testing presentation. >> Good evening. Good evening. Uh, my name is Dennis Jarvis. I'm the um the supervisor of science for grades 6 through 12 uh as well as integrated design engineering for grades 9 through 12. I'm joined tonight by my colleague Mr. Fasel sheet who's our supervisor of mathematics for grades 6 through 12. Um we're here tonight to report out on our district testing results for the spring of 2025. Um before we do so, we wanted to
010extend a big thank you to the board um to our central office, to our parents, our families, um and our students, um for allowing us to engage in this work to get the best possible result for our students um and certainly for the students to put forth their best effort um to try to do as well as they can and show the the rewards of all the good work they put in. So, the two uh tests that we're going to report out on tonight are the New Jersey Student Learning Assessments um as well as the dynamic learning maps. Um the New Jersey Student Learning Assessments or the NJSLA um was administered in the spring of 2025. It is uh assessing our students on the New Jersey Student Learning Standards and their proficiency towards those standards.
011It assesses our three content areas of English language arts, mathematics, as well as science. In English language arts, it assesses in grades three through nine. In mathematics, it's three through nine as well. It becomes more differentiated from seven, eight, and nine. Uh depending upon math placement for our students, whether it be algebra 1, geometry, or algebra 2. Um and in science, we assess at grades 5, 8, 11. That follows the natural breaks in our standards bands, um which we'll speak more to in a little bit. Our dynamic learning maps test and assess our students um with our most significant challenges. um students, you know, basically they have to participate in alternative assessment essentially. Um and that also assesses in English language arts, mathematics as well as science. We're going to start out tonight speaking to
012the dynamic learning maps. The DLM, as we said, basically assesses our students who have our most significant cognitive challenges. Um students that are normally in specialized programs who aren't exposed to ongrade level standards. Um essentially, it meets them where they are. So essentially what we do is we we assess them or what are called our essential elements which are our new New Jersey student learning standards but reduced in depth and breath to meet our students um where they're at in terms of developmental abilities. Okay. Um it is also assessing in grades three through eight with grade 11 as well for science and assesses in math as well as ELA. We have four ratings uh for our students. We have emerging or approaching and then at target or advance. Certainly, as we'll speak to with all
013our other assessments tonight, at target and advance, the top two levels um are always our goal and trying to improve that um in the results for our students. This next slide speaks to the number of actual assessments that were given in ELA, mathematics, as well as science. Um we flushed it out this way so you guys can see that not every student takes every assessment. So, we wanted to make sure that we were, you know, as detailed as we could be so you can see what we're what we're speaking to. This measures um students who are also in district as well as out of district placements. So as you can see in ELA and mathematics we had 19 of those assessments given. In science we had 11 um with the predominant number coming from grade
0148 and grade 11. Uh you'll see in grades 3, four and six seven. We do not administer the test in those grades. Thus the gray boxes. This slide represents the number of our students who are at target or at advanced. Okay. Essentially passing the DL1. Okay. at first glance doesn't really jump off at the screen at you, but when you look and consider the percentages of our students who are at target or advanced, um you you really should note that this is basically equivalent to if not in excess of what our students performed at in terms of our NJSLA results. Okay, so that speaks to the the quality of the interventions that we have in place. They are working for our students. We are demonstrating proficiency with our students in these specialized programs. And our
015next slide, I would speak to those interventions. Um very simple formula. Our child study team works very closely with our teachers and they develop these specific learning goals uh ultimately developing specific intervention strategies for individualized students. Okay. Um we use internal data as well as our uh DM data [clears throat] to help develop these specific learning goals. Okay. Um we use other assessments in house like Dibbles and FNP to garner some of that information. Um, and we also equip our teachers with the best possible skills uh to help our students such as Edmark uh and Orton Gillingham. Um, so we ensure that our teachers have in hand the the skills and the programs that they need to best meet the needs of our students and best and get the best results from our students. Now
016I'll shift to science results. Um, science was also administered in the spring of 2025. science uh assesses what we call our next generation science standards or our New Jersey student learning standards. They go hand in hand. They're basically interchangeable. Okay. Um and these assessments measure what are called our three dimensions of science instruction. Our disciplinary core ideas which is our content um our science and engineering practices which are you know for a long time been referred to as our soft skills. Data analytics mathematical computation that sort of thing. Um and then we're crosscutting concepts which essentially are concepts that you see within any realm of science whether it's life science, chemistry, biology. Um as well as outside of that mathematics, English you name it. Okay. Um its primary focus is our three basic content areas.
017Life science, earth and space as well as physical science. Okay. Again we test in grades 5, 8, 11 because those follow the natural break in the standards bands um from 3 through 5. That's 6 through 8 and finally 9 through 11. Couple key differences you'll see with this assessment as you won't see with mathematics and ELA. We have a scaled score of 100 to 300. That differs from our, you know, the following two tests that we'll speak to them. We also have a four [snorts] point four point performance levels. Okay. Did not meet expectations, partially met, met expectations. Obviously, again, we look to have our students at that level three and four and try to improve on that every year. Okay, our next slide here speaks to our percentage of students who fell at each
018one of our levels. Three and four you see in the blue on the right hand side of the screen, one and two in the red on the left hand side of the screen. Okay. Um I want to draw your attention to grade five. We have some points of pride here. We have some things that we certainly need to work on. Grade five is definitely a point of pride. Okay. The 45% you see in the blue represents a 12% increase from the year prior. That is monumental. Okay. um that speaks to the quality instructional strategies our teachers are implementing down in K5 as well as um we rolled out a new science program in SAS learning this past year and we made a commitment to putting more time in science instruction a significant amount of more
019time I was lucky enough to be on the committee to pick that program um the teachers are doing it with fidelity and I think it speaks to that work where you had that that magic combination of more time quality instruction um as well as as the new program, right? Um, next we'll look at grade 8. Grade 8 is a slight decline from the year prior. Okay. Rest assured, we're looking very closely at that. We're looking at the data. Um, you know, we're constantly looking at our instructional strategies, uh, to improve on those, our tier one interventions, uh, as well as our tier 2 interventions, our small group instruction. Okay? We're working towards it. In a couple slides from now, I'll show you that we do have some quality results that are coming from that, but
020we certainly need to improve on that. We're not satisfied with that. We want them to improve. Okay, grade 11 represents a 4% increase from the year prior. So, we're very happy with that rebound um and that positive momentum going forward and we look to build on that this year. Our next slide here is MA in blue on the left hand side compared to our state results on the right hand side. As you can see, and this is now four years of consistent data that we've seen from the state in red, that pattern has been pretty consistent. We basically have the goalpost on the other side with that dip in the middle um across the state in terms of the middle school assessment. We're happy to say we have consistently outperformed the state significantly. Okay? And
021those gaps remain constant and they're slightly improving every year between us and the state. This next slide shows the four-year progression from 2022 on um at grade 51. Obviously, point of pride, you look on the left hand side of the screen, that grade five, that huge jump we made. Um, you know, we're looking to replicate that across the board in grade 8 and grade 12. Okay. We're moving in the right direction. The work we're doing is making a difference. Okay. Um, this slide, I think, speaks more so to the the intervention work and the quality that our teachers are doing with the with the instructional strategies they're implementing in classroom. Okay. This is our MAB subgroup data. Okay. Um, if you look up here, what this represents is it on average an 8.2% increase across
022the board. None of these levels drop. They all increased um as high as 20% in two or more races to a level of 1% okay in our white category, but we have an increase of 5% in our IEP category, 8% Hispanic and Latino. Across the board, we've demonstrated increases. Okay, our interventions that I'm going to speak to on our next slides really are interventions across the board given the state of our scores. We wanted to make sure that we're hitting on every single student um and moving every student forward. So, with our K5 intervention strategies, obviously I spoke to the fact that we brought in service learning, our new science program. We really committed to to increasing the amount of time in science instruction. Clearly, you can say that's, you know, that's paid dividends. um
023we're looking to build on it. That bodess well for us for our sixth grade students now um who are coming in with a much stronger science background as well as every successive grade that's coming through uh the elementary schools. Okay. Um the elementary has made a real commitment to increasing non-fiction text readings and also embedding those in those text dependent questions that they're going to see on the NJSLA. When it comes to our 612 intervention plan, um this is where you know I can speak to this personally. Um we have layered in a lot of of amazing tier one interventions. Um we're working ve very very strongly on our tier two to try to reach full implementation by the end of this year. Um we are leaning very heavily on our data teams um and
024the information we get back from our link benchmarks analyzing that for curriculum gaps um addressing those curriculum gaps and making sure that we're delivering the best possible science education to our students. Okay, we constantly reanalyze our in-house assessments to make sure that we're meeting the needs of our students, that we're meeting needs of what they're going to be assessed on with those threedimensional questions. Um, you know, we've layered in targeted reviews this year um this past year, problem solving strategies when speaking to our subgroup data. Um, you know, the purposeful grouping that we're doing in our tier 2 small group instruction, okay, we're seeing the benefits of that already. Our in-house data is leading us in the right direction. We're very happy with that. Okay, we're not satisfied overall. We're moving in the right direction.
025Um, and these are the tools that we're going to use to do that. And with that, I'm going to turn over our presentation to Mr. She. >> Thank you. So, I will be talking about the NJSLA mathematics results. So, as Mr. Jarvis was saying, for mathematics, um, we assess all grades from 3 to 9, unlike in science with those selected grades. Um, our skill score is also different from 650 to 850. and our performance levels are five levels instead of four in science. So we will be focusing on those students that meet or exceed ex expectations levels four and five and those students that have not met expectations or approach expectations levels 1, two, and three. All right. So here we have our NJSLA results for from grades three through nine. Um something to especially
026celebrate is our third grade results. um with their high percentage per um in meeting expectations. So, especially um to know that 82% of our third graders have met or exceeded expectations is something that we are really happy to see and we want to see that kind of success in all grade levels. Um we're also really happy to see our geometry students um really meeting um the expectations that we've set forth. I will be speaking further in further detail as to what our plan is for the uh remaining grade levels um and what we're doing to address those needs. Okay, so here we have the state comparison with MAWA. As you can see, we are well above um the state averages. One thing to focus on again is that we're really happy that there's a significant
027difference between the state average and our average in grade three as well as in geometry and in algebra 2. Well, that's one more thing. Um, one thing to also note here is that the grade 8 percentage, um, as it is low across the state, it is something to note that it does not include all eighth graders because we do have eighth graders that take algebra 1 and they take the algebra 1 assessment and um, we also have eighth graders that take geometry. So that eighth grade percentage does not include all eighth graders, which is why it is designated the number of students that took that assessment versus the other assessments. So you can see that we are focusing on what needs to be done with our eighth graders, but also continuing to continuing to differentiate
028for our students and making sure that they're placed in an area where they can excel and we can really focus on those eighth graders that need that support in a smaller setting. All right. So, here we have our year-to-year comparison. Something to take note again is that the year-to-year does not represent the same students. Different students compared to different students. So, as you can see in grade three, the light blue is results from 2024 versus the dark blue are most recent scores. Um again really happy to see that increase in grade three as well as um grade sorry excuse me geometry and algebra 2 that success in algebra 2 is consistent um and we're again creating plans and really analyzing our data to see where we can continue that growth in all areas and I'll
029speak to that in further detail the next few slides. All right. So, this is something we really take seriously is the cohort comparison because this does represent the same students over time. So, the first cluster um as you can see in second grade there is no assessment but in grade three and then how they perform in grade four. The middle cluster are most recent fifth graders how they did in fourth grade and third grade. And then the last cluster are most recent sixth graders compared to how they did in fifth grade and fourth grade. One common misconception is that seeing this decline some people think means that they're losing math understanding, but that is not true. The rigor is changing. The rigor is increasing. And of course, this is not something we're satisfied with at
030all, and we want to see exactly what we can do to prevent this trend from continuing. All right, here we have the cohort comparison for grades seven and eight. really happy to see that increase in grade seven and for grade eight it's staying in the same area. Um and again while we're happy that it's maintaining and we're not having a significant decline, we really want to have an upward trend moving forward. All right, here we have our subgroup data. Some important things to highlight here. Excuse me. Sorry. There we go. Um, we showed significant grow growth with our black and African-American group. Um, last year we had 29% proficient and now we are at 41% proficient. So, a 12% increase of that subgroup. It's something we're really happy to see. Also, in our economically disadvantaged
031group, we went from 27% proficient to 34% proficient. Um, so as we are meeting the needs of all our students, we're really happy to see that it's also showing growth in these subgroup areas as well. All right, here we have our intervention plan for the elementary level. So we first started with implementing the ready math curriculum, a new ready math curriculum across grades K through 5. Last year we only piloted it piloted the program in kindergarten and in select um sections through grades one through five, but now we have it across the board in all sections. And we're really happy to see um how the students are really taking into this program because it really enforces conceptual understanding and discourse. um because once we have that conceptual understanding then we have a deeper understanding of
032the math material and hopefully um we'll show growth in all areas for our students. We also are continuing to use our I Ready program which is our diagnostic program that teachers use to um inform their instruction. We take that test as you know three times a year. Um so teachers can use that data to really see where those students need individualized support and they can provide it in various times of the day. Um especially in small group instruction during the class time and also as you can see during the win period. So that win period is very significant at the elementary level. It's a designated time of the day where there is no new instruction. students are either being remediated or enriched based on where they're placing in their math proficiency. We also have um
033an inter we also have interventionists pushing in and pulling out for most most classes to really give that individualized support to those students that need it most. Push in meaning the interventionist goes into the classroom and works with a small group. pull out, meaning they pull out students during their math time to really give them that additional support. Um, we also are happy to continuing the tutoring program in grades three through five. Um, that again provides additional support for students that need it most. At the secondary level, we are also using I Ready and in addition at in the high school, we use link it as a benchmark. Again, these assessments are formative for teachers to use to inform their instruction um and really um take into account that data when they're individualizing their teaching
034with those students. We're also really making sure and ensuring all supervisors um but especially in math and ELA um to implement small groupoup instruction in all sections grades 6 through 12. Um there is a my path program at the middle school level um that also provides individualized support for students. One thing I'm really happy to celebrate are is the geometry standards and the results they've shown. Last year I had noticed there were very significant gaps in the geometry domain in grades 6 through 8. And when we've revised our curriculum to make sure it was the geometry standards were embedded throughout the year. we've seen um no uh low proficiency in that specific domain in grades 6 through 8. So that's really working and we're continuing to revise um our curriculum. We're also in under a
035curricular review in the secondary level. So we're also looking at math programs that can continue to support the needs of all of our students. Um and then lastly, I do want to also highlight that we have also revised our tier three programming. So tier three represents the students that need our most support um and are showing proficiency two or more grade levels below to where they should be. Um so we've revised the way in which we select those students and also what we do with those students when we give them that support class in addition to their general math class. Okay. Um now I'll be talking about English language arts. So similar to math um it is assessed grades 3 through 9. The scale score is also 650 through 850 and again five performance levels.
036We will be focusing on four and five meeting and exceeding expectations versus those that are not meeting expectations levels 1 2 and three. Okay. Here we have our results from grades three through nine. Again, really happy to see grades three and grade seven showing significant proficiency and we want to see that across the board. And again, we have plans in place to ensure that that growth can continue. Here's the state comparison, the MA being on the right, state on the left. Um, again, very happy to see that differential in third grade and in seventh grade. And we want to see that difference from the state across grade levels. So we are not satisfied with just being above the state average. We want to be significantly above. Here we have our year-to-year comparison. Again, reminder, this
037does not represent the same students over time, but it does represent represent the same grade over time. Again, really happy to see that jump in third grade again in seventh grade. again looking into and analyzing the data to see where we can show improvement across grade levels. I'll be speaking about that plan in the next few slides. Here we have our cohort comparison. So again, now we are at a place where we're looking at the same students over time. Grade two is not assessed but in grade three and how much they improved by the time they were in grade four. That's the kind of trend we would like to see. that maintaining trend in gray in that middle cluster is something that we're looking into. And then that last cluster as well. Here is the
038grades 6 through nine covert comparison. Um as you can see in that first cluster that upward trend is something that we strive for and we are again not satisfied with what we see in the middle and last cluster right there. Okay, here is our subgroup data. Again, making sure that we're using all of our intervention um plans to support all students and making sure that we can continue to show growth in these subgroup areas. Okay, our intervention plan for the elementary level, we've refined our writing units to make sure that theformational writing skills and reading skills are enhanced. Again, we're using the I Ready diagnostic to inform our instruction. So, students take that diagnostic three times a year and teachers use that information to inform um their teaching and also how they are working with
039students in small groups, continuing to work in small group instruction. Um we have ELA vocabulary strategies in place that are crosscurriculars and we make sure to emphasize how they connect in science and social studies. We are again use taking advantage of that win period that one period where there is no new instruction and there's that additional time provided at the elementary level for teachers to meet with students for additional support or enrichment. Um we als from from uh grades three and through five and content specific vocabulary again as I mentioned earlier and tier three supports as well. So revising how we are supporting our students um at that most vulnerable level. Um we're really happy to use our reading specialist for that. Okay. At the secondary level, grades 6 through 12, continuing to use I
040already my path and also link it for the high school to inform our instruction. continuing to work with small group instruction and revising our literary texts to make sure that we can really tie in our skills to those literary texts to make sure that students are not only reading rich material but really analyzing it at a deeper level. We've also revised our tier 3 programming for ELA just like we did in math to make sure that we have those support classes in place. um and revising how we select those students in addition to what we're doing when we do have those students in those classes. Okay, and that concludes our presentation. >> Thank you. Any questions? Uh that's a question then I guess just kind of a comment. Um [clears throat] I mean that presentation
041was kind of concerning I think to me. Um I know you know we say when we look at the the cohort which that's the the part that we always talk about right that we want to look at the kids and follow them to see if there's actually any increase or decrease as opposed to looking at you know different cohorts of kids and we see that and we see that decline and and and we say well there's a decline because the rigor is more well but our kids aren't keeping up [snorts] so the rigor is that shouldn't be the reason I I see a decline and it's great that we're above state level. State level is deplorable. Um I would hope that we're above the state level except for eighth grade math. We're we're not above
042the state level. Um I guess the the the concern that I have [snorts] and without going back and looking at the the you know past presentations, the intervention plans sound to me and again maybe I'm just sound that way to me. Maybe there's big differences, but they sound to me to be the same every year that we that we see this presentation. And, you know, when we're seeing the results that we're seeing, um, and I I I you know, the the intervention plans seem to be consistent, that's that's concerning to me. >> Okay. A couple things. Um, along the lines of of the performance uh compared to the state, you're you're absolutely right. All of our grade levels except for eighth and we provided clarification on that population doesn't represent our entire eighth grade population.
043>> No, but I was I was talking about where we're that population is below the state population. They they have the same thing, right? >> That's incorrect. So, let me explain to you what 8th grade is. So, there are schools that do provide algebra and the other offerings for the accelerated students and then there are other districts who don't. So we have we do there are districts do have a higher population of students who are taking those assessments. We've expanded our offerings uh to students and we continue to extend those offerings. Needless to say, I think the the both gentlemen were were very clear and honest along the lines of um our points of praise but also the things that we have to address as it pertains to the intervention plans. the intervention plans from
044last year to the is this year there's a lot of similarities but from previous years there there's not similarities um specific to the small group instruction supports um you're absolutely right they've been in place for the past two years this is our second full year of implementation um at different levels there's different there's different um levels of particip um of implementation um I I totally agree with you there's a lot of things that we can be happy about and there's a lot of things that we have to really be honest with ourselves and say what what do we need to do next? What I can tell you, the board, the public, is that currently um and I know that there was a lot of information specific to what we're doing. When you look at instruction
045and you look at proficiency, there's there's two buckets that you need to really focus on along lines of impact of affecting change. The instructional side and the curricular side. on the instructional side to speak to the point of the um continuation year-over-year um we've we brought in small group instruction last year um and that really when all the buzzwords out there in education you talk about differentiation that's where you're going to affect the most change um and in order to do that instead of delivering to an entire class you have to understand the population you have in front of you and you address the kids where they are and build those gaps. um that implementation for me to in full disclosure to everybody on this board um is a lot farther along than I expected
046at the K12 initiative. When you look at K12 initiatives, they don't they don't move as fast as is happening here. Still a lot to be done, but the implementation percentage- wise across the district is significantly high. That being said, another buzz word that we talk about of instructional practice is data-informed instruction. not just going with your gut, understanding exactly what this looks like. Um, I can tell you guys uh with the utmost honesty that we have implemented data informed instruction across K12. Um, it this test is one of our measures, but last year we brought in a diagnostic assessment that's actually normed um and what I can tell you and I I know that we spoke to the instructional committee about it. um across every single grade level, across every single subject area, significant growth
047took place across the board. Again, not discounting what we have up here. We have to still look at it. The second the second piece of of change is the curricular side of change. Um we were not happy with our math results. Um and in the elementary level, we made a concerted effort to do a curricular review. We did that at the elementary level. Um last year as they said we did um kindergarten was full implementation of readymath and there were pilots. This year we're full implementation of readymath. What I can tell you is that with our assessment tool, our I Ready assessment tool, we were very pleased with the results in those across the board, but in those specific classes, we we saw we saw increases that we were extremely happy with. It's my hope
048that that continues for a K5 across the board. So, that's just that. Um, I know that Mr. Sheet spoke about a curricular review uh for the middle school level. Um, and then I'll get into science in a second. The math the math curriculum is up for review. We have to take a hard look at that to see if that program is providing the things that we need aligned with the state standards. Now, again, and I don't want this to be viewed as excusem because I was very honest with you on we have to get better. Um, even if you look at the state scores when you're talking about the co-word analysis, you spoke about that the state scores decline across grades, it's not consistent of of percentage of proficiency across. You would think it would
049be, it's not. It goes from third grade down to fourth grade down to fifth grade and then there's spikes in between. So, I I I struggle with getting any sort of correlation between that. But that being said, we still have to be very hard in our assessment or thoughtful in our assessment about what are we doing instructionally and curricularly at the middle school level. That's going to happen for science, which I know Mr. Jarvis shared. We're very happy with the science scores at the elementary level. Um, specific to fifth grade science along lines of the increase. There's still more work to be done, but 12% increase year-over-year is something that we can't forget. That's because of a curricular review that we took part in last year and a scheduling re uh scheduling adjustment that we
050did in the past year. We're doing the same thing with science because and not to bore everyone with the details, but I want everyone to be eyes wide open with science with the three three grade band at the middle school. Our curriculum does not spiral. Our curriculum is isolated with earth science, life science. I'm probably getting it not not in the right order, but earth science, life science, physical science, Earth and space >> space um that's challenging for students to retain information from sixth grade and eighth grade. So we've been talking about looking at our curricular offerings as opposed to it being in isolation. This is what we're getting in sixth. This is what we're getting in seventh. This is what we're getting in eth. We have to really be thoughtful about what are the
051schools even though you're absolutely right across the state the scores are are not a point of pride. I didn't say that, but I'm not going to disagree with you. Um, >> find another word. >> But the fact of the matter is is it's it's something that we need to continue to improve. So, we need to look at neighboring districts that are that are better than than us. Obviously, not at the standard when you're looking at 80 or 90%. I would challenge you to find a district that's at that for science. Um, but that being said, there's always opportunities. So, I'm happy to report that at the at the secondary level, those curriculum curricular reviews are going to be taking place this year while simultaneously really hyperfocusing on instructional reviews. So, we're not being I don't
052want you to feel, which I'm glad you brought up, I don't want you to feel like we're being complacent in our efforts of making sure that the kids are getting the best that they possibly can get, whether it's instructionally or curricularly. But I don't want to discount the efforts that the teachers are doing in the classroom because they have been tremendous with their with their shift along the lines of understanding that we need to have all the information that we can to be attentive to the kids in front of us. The work is not done. Uh we will continue to look at it and I'm I'm very hopeful for uh what this is going to look like in the future. >> Thank you. you go first. >> So equally dissatisfied with the gaps in some
053and I [clears throat] know they're consistent and I know we're doing better. I hear you. Um I'm just curious what what else we can do and it's not for you to answer today but just in the future. The other thing I was curious we talk about interventions but I'm curious on the long-term impact on the cohorts as they move forward. Do the interventions we do in year one really impact on them the next year and the next year so that we need less like what else can we do that's different because every child learns differently. So I'm just curious how we measure that right because I hear the tutoring I hear you're doing the pullins and pull outs but what else can we do because there seems to be as they move up continuous challenges
054>> so as Dr. Turo was saying sorry um as Dr. Vero was saying that we are using our data, but the one thing I want to say is for the cohort comparison and seeing how they're going year after year when we're pulling students in those small groups, we're addressing needs from a year prior, two years prior. Sometimes even at especially at the math level I can speak to um I have teachers looking at what they're currently teaching looking at their students and where they are currently in that domain or in that topic and then finding prerequisite skills that match that. So if someone's teaching sixth grade are they addressing fifth grade needs so then that cohort doesn't continue to decline that we're filling in those gaps where we can. So then by the time there's
055uh they go to the next grade level there's less gaps. So in that regard, we are doing what we can to make sure that cohort decline does not decline further. Yeah. >> Not to belabor the point, there's two different things to to address with your question. One is what's happening in the classroom at the classroom level and what's happening when you talk about they talk about pulling out um of the classroom. The tier three supports that that we just started talking about along the lines of of the focus last year and into this year. Um there's been a tremendous amount of work with those specialists whether it's at the elementary level or the secondary level. Those specialists are are equipped with a number of different data points that the uh grade level teachers or the
056classroom teachers do not have. That addresses what you're referring to along the lines of we're not just putting a band-aid on it and hoping for the best for the next year. it's we're getting to the root of the struggle and building that foundation. So that's not going to be something that's going to be a point of um of issue in the future years. So that's at the tier three level. That's with our media students. At the tier 2 level, the best part that we I can share with you is this is one moment in time one time a year. The assessment tool that we have currently I ready is throughout three times during the year. So we have our initial data in fall. We create our plans whether it's tier one or tier two. Then
057we have another opportunity in December to say how much growth have they made since and we get a new fresh set of data so it doesn't become stale. So that allows us to continue to focus on the different things. And I'm not even speaking about the homegrown data assessments that we have as well. I don't want to discount that either. But when you start to talk about what does it look like and how does it challenge them for the following year, we're hyperfocused on understanding what the kid has now in front of us as opposed to what they did last year in the spring. We're we're we're focused on that. >> Mr. James, >> uh so first off, just with the good news, I I thought it was really great to see at the elementary
058level seeing that big jump in proficiency. Although we're not at proficiency levels yet, it was good to see that jump with the intervention program that was implemented. Uh just going off what Rick and Janine were saying, is there anything where we're not proficient specifically looking at eighth grade or anywhere we're not proficient? Uh because we do see this was has been consistent over the past couple years looking at the data. What types of specific questions are our students lacking in for science? Is it at the eighth grade level? Are they missing the earth science questions, the life science questions? And similarly for the mathematics questions, are we lacking in algebra questions, geometry questions? So I would answer the question for science and eighth grade. [clears throat] Realize too that eighth grade whether it's fifth grade,
059eighth grade, 11th grade, you're talking about three years worth of content knowledge that's being assessed in a snapshot of time like Dr. said. Um to say in limit it to one content area. I I don't think it is. It's more so what the challenge we're seeing with a lot of our students um is is reading comprehension and grit and and that that stamina to be able to get through the kind of questions that are on our assessments. Our assessments are very verbose. They're incredibly challenging in terms of the the the visuals with that. Um so a lot of those factors factor into it. Um we're honestly kids need to have that stamina. So that's one of the things that we are working with is that increasing reading stamina. You know our kids live in a
060world where it's instantaneous gratification. it's clickbait, they read for 10 seconds, they move on. Um, sitting for a standardized assessment of three or four hours at the high school is a long time for those kids to demonstrate that kind of stamina. Um, so with respect to content, I'm confident that our teachers are covering the content. Um, I think it's a lot of the the other other pieces of the puzzle that we're that's what a lot of our interventions are layering in. We're trying to teach them stamina, trying to teach them strategies to be able to approach certain question styles, um, you know, and and and that sort of thing. And for mathematics, I would say um at the middle school level, we've really honed in. So there's four main domains in middle school math. Numbers
061and operations, algebraic thinking, measurement, and data, um and uh sorry, I'm blanking out for a second. >> Geometry. Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh and geometry. So our focus, especially when we're pulling students for the additional support, we've really seen that in numbers and operations is where they're um struggling. Um, and it's, you know, some of it does carry over from the previous year. And that's when I was speaking earlier about how we're pulling those groups in a smaller setting in various ways, whether it's in the classroom or in a support class to address those needs and numbers and operations. And then at the high school level, there are times where we see um algebra skills because algebra is the foundation for all higher level mathematics in high school. So, it's um some simple algebra
062skills like and we've honed in on specific standards like factoring and rational expressions um to make sure that we're really uh emphasizing those when we get to those units in algebra so that by the time they get to pre-calculus, excuse me, pre-calculus and higher levels that um those uh deficiencies aren't there. >> Thank you. >> Um I just wanted to say um thank you very much. uh for the presentation. A a few comments that I have and I think um when you're on instruction and curriculum and um for some of us this is um I know Mr. Dilva your first time hearing it. For some of us we heard it once before because it was at our uh meeting just um this past week. Um one of the things I think that's really important related
063and Mr. Jarvis and I have discussed science quite a few times. So um I I think what I'm seeing that's different we can look at data and data is sometimes uh you know again a point um but I think the things that we're implementing and the thing we're there's a seriousness with which um it's being taken to how do we improve these things and I think that's important and sometimes you may not hear that I mean I know you read my uh you know minute you know my meeting minutes you know from you know page to page but just in case sometimes you don't hear that one of the things that that I wanted to point out was about uh this reading comprehension issue and of how the questions are presented because one of the
064things Mr. G likes to talk about this quite a lot is how ELA skills are really um very important and at the foundation of math and science skills too that sometimes we forget that it's really the you know the word knowledge, word fluency, you know, some of the language pieces that then translate into science and math sometimes. And that's something that you don't think about. Sometimes we think it's just formulas and this and that, but the way the questions are also um you know created etc make that piece of ELA fluency and I think ELA is actually one of our probably higher performing performing areas. But I think Mr. Chic and and Mr. Jarvis have both spoken to that. Um, I think the other thing that was exciting for us to see as a committee
065was how we could uh really pinpoint a program like the science program um at the middle I mean at JK that very interesting and I think I spoke about it but again it's hard we talk about a lot of stuff how we were not doing science every day at JK right there was a a a staggered approach right yeah cycle was cycle version um because of the direction of Mr. buoy. They looked at scheduling. They created a team um and they took it very seriously. Now kids are getting science instruction every day. And so one of the things that I was excited to see, Rick, was that guess what? That's working, right? I mean, if you practice and you do it, that was something I said at the meeting. A lot of science, math, EL,
066all of this is practice, practice, practice at the younger ages. So that was really exciting to see the 12point increase. Look, there's a lot to do, but it really feels and felt like the administrative team, uh, all the supervisors, etc. are committed to really looking at this. And I think with our data teams and our universal screeners and all that, there is a lot of focus on this. And I I think it's very encouraging. Um the last thing I would just say was that in the subgroups if you looked at the subgroups um all three levels ELA, math and science they all increased on average in the subgroups right which was broken down based on um certain factors. So again there were some sort of pieces in that. Um, I agree. I think we need
067to look at all of it and we continue to, but it did feel actually a little more encouraging when we've sat through this before. I don't know what you thought, Mr. Gallo, but there's some peaks. We have some peaks. Let's continue to focus on that and improve on that. >> And I I don't want anybody to to kind of misconrue what I'm saying. I certainly don't question anybody's commitment. I know everybody's working hard on on on all this stuff. And you know, the other thing we really need to keep in mind, you know, when we're looking at test results, you know, at the end of the day, we're trying to raise successful people, right? And, you know, obviously the test results don't show everything. It's, you know, it's great that we're seeing some of the
068changes are are are making, you know, making progress. Um, but at the end of the day, it's not just about the test. We're, you know, we want to make sure we're raising successful kids. >> Yeah, I get it. Any other questions, comments? Mr. Gallow, let's close it out. >> Brett is allowing me to speak. >> Oh. Oh, Brett is allowing. Wow. I thought I thought that was the president's job, but Okay, Mr. Galla, >> I'm just going to Chris's [laughter] question specifically about science. The science test is unlike the other ELA and the mathematics test. It has the three areas the uh the the the basic knowledge the core knowledge of science the crosscurrent items you know sort of the thinking through science and then you have scientific meth technique. Um it's totally different than
069like just studying his subject and here you know uh here are the facts and please regurgitate them back in an answer form on the on the test. It's really combining the the understanding of all the concepts like for example just the scientific principle of you know why does water expand when it's heated or why do you know hot things get bigger it's colder things get smaller you know it's things like that you have to then relate to something completely different because the question is presented not in that simple way that I just described it's presented in a way that's um more challenging and have different contextual elements so the science test is I think a very important test because it tests the real knowledge of our students to connect all the dots from all the
070subject areas from ELA mathematics and scientific thinking. Um, so to me it's a good indicator about the fact that we made these big changes in the JK and it appears that it it >> it's working >> changed the number. I mean one one point does make a line but let's see what happens next year and I'm very excited to think about what our possibilities are in elementary mathematics when we change the curriculum which we did this year. So, we did the kindergarten and a couple pilot classes last year. Very, we'll see what happens there because everyday math, I think we ran our course with everyday math. Um, and I never understood everyday math and my kids were in the program. Um, but I think uh and as uh Dr. Duro hinted at all the focus
071that will be in middle school as well because it seems like our kids, you know, we're we're we're pushing them in all directions in every grade. We have a whole bunch of interventions in the elementary level but we have to it seems to me is we we have this thinking of running a K through2 district but we have gaps in the journey for our students and in those when we identify those gaps are we doing something about it so I think the middle school we see a [snorts] lot of opportunities for improvement is that a fair way of sort of characterizing >> yeah yes [laughter] >> say yes >> Mr. Copeland, did you have something to say? >> Oh, I didn't know if you were deferring to Mr. >> Gall. [laughter] >> All right. Again,
072thank you very much, Mr. Jarvis and Mr. Chic, for that comprehensive presentation. Um, and these are topics that we will obviously continue to discuss and look at and um, we just, you know, Miss Craft has a a lot on her plate, but thank you all for um, all the focus and the attention because we we really do appreciate it and we're very committed, I think all of us as a board to to seeing the improvements and seeing where we can and hopefully uh, you know, we continue to do that. Thank you very much. Um, all right. Was did you have other reports, Dr. Dro? >> I assumed you did. All right. >> Okay. >> A lot of questions. Good. >> Yeah. Yes. Um, I just wanted to thank the administrative team for coming. I know
073you guys have a lot of stuff to do at home. Please feel free. You can leave now unless you want to hear the rest of the board meeting. >> You're more than welcome to stay. >> I know that was a test. >> Byebye. fatigue. >> Okay, >> thank you for coming. >> Um, >> I like to see people in the audience. >> I have I have a handful of things. Um, there's a lot of great things that are happening. Um, I know each each meeting we have uh different celebrations. Um, the first slide talks to the state of facilities. I did want to take a moment to thank all those who attended our state of the facilities meeting, but we felt like it was extremely important that the opportunity to give feedback. Um really we
074wanted to give provide that to the entire um model community. I'm happy to report we received 191 responses so far from the survey. Um we'll send out a last call um by the end of this week. Um, and I do want to say a part of that survey asks if anyone wants to be a part of our uh, commu a communication committee. Um, as we shared in the beginning of the referendum process, we think it's extremely important to make sure that all community members are informed in a lot of different ways. So, they are eyes wide open going into March the 10th. Um, I'm happy to report that for over 40 around 40 people um, volunteered. We're taking all 40 people onto our communication committee. Um, and we're also looking to expand outside of just
075our school community. So, invitations were sent out to the 40 that volunteered. We send an additional uh grouping of invitations out today. And we're looking forward to having a uh robust, if you will, um, committee. Next one is our GW. As we all know and love, they had their walk-athon. Um GW's harvesting harvesting purposefest. Um celebrating this year's theme is a festive and family friend in a festive and familyfriendly way. Students and families enjoyed a day full of autumn fun including pumpkin decorating and a lively on-site farm. The event not only encouraged physical activity but also fostered a sense of community, bringing everyone together to celebrate the season and support a great cause. Did that kid actually drive that front? [laughter] >> He had a CBL license. >> As we continue to move on, >>
076Betsy Ross uh Betsy Ross also had a walk. Thought it was a huge success. The students walked uh the course with pride and enthusiasm. The annual event brought a positive energy to the day, filled with smiles, laughter, and encouragement, and showcased the positive spirit that continues to make Betsy Ross such a special place for our students and our family. The third graders um also now third graders across the district. So, I'm going to add a little bit here. The third graders at Betsy Ross recently enjoyed a hands-on learning experience during Mr. Gallow, their visit to MEO, um the educational farm in Mawa. The students explored the garden beds uh learned about composting and sustainability and discovered how small actions can make a big impact on the environment. I do want to take a moment to
077thank MEVO. Um they have been a wonderful partner with us. Um just to talk a little bit about this field trip. This is actually an opportunity that all third graders get a chance to go to the same space. But what we were able to do and thank you um to um to Spindler, we are able to take a grouping from the different schools and they're able to take the field trip together. So it's an opportunity in third grade for them to come together in our efforts to create opportunities before they go into fourth grade as a whole group. So, we've gotten great feedback on that and um that took a lot of people to plan it together, but MEVO is just a wonderful, wonderful partner and in our backyard, Lenipe Meadows. Um Lenipe Meadows also
078had a walk-athon. Uh this fall, Lenos was full of energy and community spirit. The annual walkthon brought together parents, students, and staff for a day of fun and fitness, complete with exciting activities, including a fan favorite dunk tank. During fire prevention week, our local firefighters visited visited to teach students about fire safety and share demonstrations that combined learning with hands-on engagement. Students also enjoyed connecting with nature through MEVO, as I shared previously. And last but not least, I think I shared with all of you that um giants came to JK. This is a continuation of that experience that was all over social media. We just want to thank um thanks uh to strong collaboration. MA students recently participated in the NFL Play 60 initiative in exciting and meaningful way. Fifth grader Brad Christie spent the
079afternoon at Giant Stadium shadowing Tyrone Tracy Jr. to experience life as a professional athlete and was even presented with Super Bowl tickets as part of this journey. This partnership exemplifies the power of giving back and the impact of communityminded leadership. We are grateful to work alongside passionate partners like the American Heart Association to provide valuable resources to promote health and well-being for our students. Looking ahead, JK will continue this partnership in February with the Kids Heart Challenge fundraiser to further inspire healthy lifestyles. That's all I have. >> Thank you, Dr. Toro. Um Dr. Far this evening. >> Yes. So, I'll start with passing a program to both sides of the day. Um, you'll see this program uh showcases the 78th North Jersey Band Festival where Mr. Bitner, our band director, conducted the MA High School
080marching band. Um, and our talented students had the honor of serving as the finale band for the event. This prestigious performance showcased the band's exceptional musicianship, discipline, and teamwork. uh representing MA with pride, the students delivered an outstanding performance that was met with enthusiastic applause from the crowd at Clifton Stadium in Clifton, New Jersey. In more music and performing arts news, um just last night, MA High School also hosted auditioning for Bergen County High School uh the high school chorus. uh more than 320 students auditioned representing 34 high schools and 185 students were accepted into the county chorus including 11 students from our high school. So we've spoken uh quite a bit about team and our work with team uh there was recently um a water ball event hosted by the Georgie Bielle foundation in
081the city. Um, three of our social studies teachers from the ridge, Donna Conrad, Morgan Rididgeway, and Chrissy Shannon, uh, were honored to participate in the event. Uh, they obviously attended. Uh, the evening raised significant funds for the foundation. Uh, team again is a global nonprofit organization that educates students about global issues and the humanitarianism by connecting them with underved communities. Uh in one image uh with our teachers is Georgie Padielle on the right uh who started the foundation and the gentleman on the left in that image uh is Jared Shector who founded team uh the others in the picture sit on the board for team and you'll see in the middle image additionally uh showcased here uh some of our sixth and seventh grade students from the ridge also attended the team fifth annual leadership
082symposium at Montlair State University. They were also joined by two students from the teen club at Ma High School. Uh they were able to engage with students from other schools, listen to stories from human humanitarian partners from around the world, and learn what it means to be a change maker. So, awesome stuff there. We've also been uh making some uh purposeful highlights of our internship and externship program uh over at Mo High School. Uh you'll see here uh we wanted to spotlight an internship uh right here in the Mona High School cafeteria. The recent apron and case event was a wonderful celebration of our students hard work and dedication to highlight students internship experience with Pmptonian food services. It was heartwarming to see their smiles as they received their personalized aprons and knife cases. A
083tangible reminder of their progress and pride in their work. A very special thank you to Rebecca Davis. she's seen in all three of the images. She's our Ponian Food Services lead uh for her generous support of our students and her program. Her contribution made the event uh and has made the internship experience a memorable one for our students. So, congrats to our kids and uh thank you for uh the in-house opportunity for our students. Uh some fall sports highlights. I know in Nick's uh via Dr. to Toro's report. He shared a few highlights related to our sports. Um, MOA High School recently had the honor of hosting the quarterfinal round of the Bergen County Women Coaches Association soccer tournament. On the field, our soccerers our girls soccer team celebrated a thrilling victory over Dumont on
084senior night, while our football team earned a strong 286 road win against Way Morrow. Uh, our football team traveled to Nashville, defeating Franklin County High School 483. Uh this was the school's first outofstate game in victory since defeating Tapenzee in 1959. Uh girls tennis earned a 100 record in capturing the Big North Patriot Division title. The girls also advanced to the state sectional semifinals. Boys soccer earned the number 10 seed in the Bergen County Championship tournament and advanced to the Elite 8. Uh congrats to the boys soccer for recently defeating Pasc Hills 40. The girls soccer team also earned the number 12 seed in the Burton County Championship tournament and advanced to the Sweet 16 with a defeat of Demerest in the first round. Uh, congrats to the girls soccer team for defeating Pasc Hills
08520 recently. The JB volleyball team just finished the season with a win against Premis Catholic. Uh, several athletes were nominated for North Jersey athlete of the week. uh Diego Bravo from the boys soccer team and Mandy Yazidian from the girls soccer team. And lastly, Jason Smith, who is one of our teachers at the elementary level, um was announced as the Big North Patriot Division Girls Tennis Coach of the Year. So, some good stuff on the fields. Um, our ninth grade parent night at [clears throat] high school was recently hosted providing families with an early look at the programs and course offerings available to our students as well as information on the internship and extership program and our career pathways. Uh, we extend our gratitude gratitude to the school counseling department. We've really uh asked them
086to emphasize communicating all the great things that MA High School has to offer and providing our parents with um as much of a a snapshot as early as possible. So, uh this was really awesome for our ninth grade parents. You'll also see in front of you uh we have the MA High School academic over overview booklet. It looks very different from years past. Um, part of our school counseling program obviously includes this sort of update um, which is at each of your places to review. And lastly, uh, you'll see here, I know some of you are alumni. If you haven't signed up already, uh, you'll see this is another effort from our school counseling uh, department that encourages our alumni and uh, to join our alumni directory. um they recently resent this notice to its
087alumni community uh to uh generate renewed interest. So this gives alumni the opportunity to reconnect, engage, um celebrate what's happening uh professionally, personally um provide support uh in terms of volunteering with any of our programs and to obviously network. So this directory is an important step toward cultivating more lifelong engagement with our graduates. [snorts] And that is my report this evening. Thank you. >> Did you get that QR code there, Mr. Dilva, for the for the alumni directory? >> Yeah. Very good. Excellent. Um, thank [clears throat] you very much, Dr. Fair. >> Um, all right. My report this evening. Um, I wanted to just take a moment uh to report that um myself, Mr. Gallow, Mr. Denise and Mr. Copan attended the New Jersey School Boards Association uh meeting, annual meeting last week uh along
088with Dr. Durro. Um many of the um workshops and seminars um that were comprehensive over a 3-day period. Um I think some of the highlights were talking um about referendums. one I attended was uh I thought very interesting talking about AI or artificial intelligence and how that is going to slowly come into the classrooms. It's already impacting classrooms, how we expand on that and how all that's done ethically and responsibly. Um so there were some uh very good uh presentations. Um I also attended um the keynote speaker who is Joe Thyman. Uh I I I didn't I don't know if all of you did. I did go to that one. One of the things you know me and my little quotes, but um well it's interesting because I grew up in Virginia. So you know
089the at that time the Washington Redskins that was the time I think I was in Virginia with Joe Thyman as the quarterback at that time. Anyway, one of the things that I thought really spoke to uh MA was uh an acronym he used for team. He said together everyone achieves more. So, I don't know reminded me of Ma connects and all the themes we have. I thought that was very interesting. Um I want to just wish um all our families at happy Diwali who were uh celebrated the Bali last week. um our Hindu Jane and seek families. Um and really honestly I I really want to highlight and say thank you to Dr. Dtoro and the administrative team for um continuing to look at um how we um maintain um inclusivity in our district. um
090because again I've spoken to it several times but um you know that's taken time and it's under your leadership that we have now holidays for um some of these uh you know particular um religion. So I I just want to say thank you on behalf of that community. Um have a safe happy Halloween. Um I look for I mean enjoy all the Halloween parades. Um and that's all I have for today. Um, oh, and please vote next week. Um, you do have, um, three, uh, members, uh, standing for board of education positions. Uh, two are incumbents and one is, uh, a new person coming into it, and you can vote for up to three. So, again, thank you, um, to those who run for the board of education. Um, we do appreciate it. Um, all
091right. Uh board member. Oh no, that's board committee reports. Anyone? Mr. Galla and Mr. Coughlin. >> I'm just going to be real quick and just piggyback on what Dr. Turo uh mentioned about the state of the facility survey. In addition to the survey in the email that went out, we also shared a link to the temp to the district's website highlighting all the facility upgrades that uh have happened over the last six years. And I encourage everyone to go on there and check it out. Um, if you haven't seen it, it's on the website underneath the buildings and grounds uh page. Uh, it's organized really, really well. There's pictures, there's videos, it outlines how much was spent on all the projects. And if you start adding up, it's multi multi-millions of dollars over the last
092six years that this board has spent on facilities uh to continue to enhance them. So, uh, please check that out. Um, Dr. Turtle took everything else I was gonna say. Good. Thank you. And Brett, you make a really good point. A lot of information that is discussed at our board meetings, um that presentations, for example, today's testing presentation, etc., it's all on our website. And I think what a couple of years ago, we revamped the the website so it's more user friendly and a there's a lot of information. You could do a real deep dive on our website. Um and there's really a lot of information on there. So if you have a chance um please do that when you have the chance or if you have additional questions about presentations things that are brought
093up at meetings. Mr. Galla do you have a report this evening Mr. James? >> Okay. Um all right so quickly and I will be quick instruction curriculum meeting we did meet um uh this past week and um we did have the data presentation uh which we have gone through already. Um I just wanted to give a highlight on our reflective practice protocol. Um and this is our evaluation tool that is used for teachers. Um you need to be a highly effective teacher to qualify but very exciting that there was an increase from 30 participants last year when this program was piloted to 103 participants this year. Um so thank you Dr. Far and Miss Craft for um your work on that. Uh PD day reflection. Misscraft reported uh it was delivered virtually because there were
094some weather issues. Uh AI was a popular topic um and universal screeners such as I Ready um and additional screeners uh that we may need to uh use to be compliant with the state. Uh there was also conversations about small groupoup instruction, tier 2 intervention plans uh and this topic of crosscurricular skills between subjects. So um trying to infuse science in math or social studies in science and those kinds of things. So that was another topic. Um [clears throat] data teams um and our tier one interventions. Miss Craft uh reported that she visited the data teams at the various schools um as they develop their tier one interventions. And the hope will be that some of the work um K5 will be now embedded in grade grade level meetings and 612 um into departmental meetings
095for next year. Um and lastly was parent academy update. I just want to give a shout out that uh again a lot of useful information um that um Miss Craft has created a good series. Please go to the website to look at what's upcoming. Um there are ones that are specific for K through five, ones for secondary. Um and again this is for you. This is to give you information if you have questions. These are broad topics that hopefully um you know peak some interest. So please participate. Some are Zoom, some are in person, but we just encourage you because really it's a service that is u being there for parents uh and to just get more information. So thank you. Um, all right. Uh, board member remarks. Mr. Gall, >> just a quickie, um,
096one of the items that wasn't mentioned that, uh, I think we're really proud of, I wasn't able to attend is that the high school hosted a marching band festival a couple weeks ago that was unfortunately there was a little bit weather activity that dampened everybody's enthusiasm, but it was sort of a last minute invitation that the that John Pascal got at the end of August from another district. And thankfully we had the facilities and the wherewithal to be able to pull it off. And thank you to all the volunteers, the traffic directors, the the ticket sellers, the arrangers, the logistics folks who made it all happen and everyone I spoke to who did attend program. >> So lots of alumni participation too. >> Was that you? No. [laughter] >> Band alumni. Yes. Alumni. >> Yeah.
097So another another >> great event that we were able to host. >> Excellent. Thank you, Mr. Coblin. >> Yeah, just two really quick shout outs and again to piggyback on Dr. Duro's report. I want to congratulate all the K through three HSOs for their successful walkthons. Uh it's an annual event that's been going on for decades. I remember Kevin pulling out his medal for walking the most laps when he was at GW back in the day. Um but it's it's a it's their most significant fundraiser of the year. uh raises probably the most money that they're going to have to be able to give back to the school, but it's also a big community building day. So, uh congratulations to them and also congratulations to the MSF for a successful uh run. What was that?
098I think this past Sunday. So, thank you for for all that they do. >> Thank you, Mr. Complet. Anyone else? All right, let's take old business number 17A. This is the minutes from October 8th. I need a motion on the floor. Mr. Gallow second by Mr. Denise. And I need roll call, please. [clears throat] >> Dr. Morphy. >> Yes. >> Mr. D Silva Jr. >> Yes. >> Mr. Peasmarkski. Mr. Gallow. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Daviniro. Mr. Denise. >> Yes. >> Mr. Hughes. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Ting Jansen. >> Yes. >> Mr. Coplin. >> Yes. >> All right. Let's take 18 new business. Other take uh A2. Let's see. We have Q today. Dr. Mory. >> Yes. Oh, no. I need a motion on the floor. [laughter] Mr. Gallow, second by Mr. Hughes. I got excited,
099too. It's okay. [laughter] Okay. Dr. Morphy. >> Yes. >> Mr. Dilva Jr. >> Yes. >> Mr. Gallow. >> Yes. >> Mr. Denise. >> Yes. >> Mr. Hughes. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Ting. Jansen. >> Yes. >> Mr. Coplin. >> Yes. >> All right. Let's take 19 new business personnel. Let's take A through W. I need a motion on the floor. Mr. Hughes. Second by Mr. Denise. Thank you. Roll call. >> Dr. Morphy. >> Yes. >> M Silva Jr. >> Yes. And thank you to the parent volunteers that we see on the agenda. >> Check it. Check it. Check it. First time. >> Well, I'm not used to going first. Actually, that took a minute. [laughter] >> Mr. Gallow. >> Yes. >> Mr. Denise. Yes, >> Mr. Hughes. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Tang Jansen. >> Yes, >>
100Mr. Coplin. >> Yes. >> All right. Public questions or comment. Public participation at board meetings is in accordance with bylaw 0167. At this time, members of the public may ask questions or make a comment on educational issues or school matters of community interest. As a matter of fairness, you are asked to limit your questions to no more than one and your remarks to no longer than three minutes. If you are here representing a group, please identify yourself, the group, and your position in the group. If you are here as an individual, please provide us your name and address. All right, I need a motion to open the meeting to the public. Mr. Dilva, second by Mr. Copan. We are now officially open to the public. >> Hi, my name is Omar Muhammad, resident of nine
101surain ma. Um I just wanted to bring it uh a little concern about the emails that we get um as a parent between Dr. Duro and the other principles. The emails that we get on our phones, they are not phone friendly, mobile friendly. You have to zoom in and out of these emails and there's multiple links that you have to click to get to the actual message. Um, unlike all of our other emails, we usually just get a content and then there's an attachment at the bottom which you click and then it opens up. So that makes that kind of format makes it easy and uniform when you're reading a message rather than, you know, like I'm looking at an email. First of all, I have to zoom in to read the message and then
102there's several clicks that I have to click and then that takes you to a different link where you read the message and then you got to come back to the email and then click a different link to get the different message. So, if there's some way to streamline the email messages, sort of make the um emails more mobile friendly, that would be very, you know, very useful in getting the message to us because, you know, we're busy throughout the day. you know, we just want the message right there in the email and then there's an attachment, click on it, get to the message, call it a day rather than, you know, trying to decipher and god forbid if you have to go back to that email um and then look for those URLs to get
103the message. So, just a little, you know, um issue that the parents, you know, my family, you know, my mom, my my wife and we face while reading these messages. So, if there's something that could be done to make it mobile friendly, iPhone friendly, you know, I know >> that might be too specific, but thank you, Mr. Mohammed, for that. And I I have to I do have to tell you that um communication continues to be something that we've discussed as a board. We've discussed in the past, we continue to and uh we appreciate the feedback and um we've we've taken a lot of strides forward I would say in email communications but we do appreciate the feedback. Thank you. Um my full name is Yasan 1185 Lane, New Jersey. I wanted to thank the
104board for doing what they're doing, especially the internship and extership program. Uh my daughter who graduated last year, Pizakhan, um she did the internship, externship uh junior year going to senior year and um it actually helped her stay on path. She wants to become a pharmacist >> and that program really helped her over the summer, junior to senior year summer to learn, work in a pharmacy and understand what it takes and like she is fully laser focused on that's what she wants to do. So I want to congratulate the board for coming up with a program and everybody who helped. Thank you. >> Thank you Mr. Khan for your feedback and uh good to hear. We we definitely appreciate the positive feedback. Thank you very much. Um, all right. Uh, I need motion to, uh,
105close the meeting to the public. Mr. uh, Copan and Mr. Hughes. We do not require executive sessions. A motion to adjourn. Mr. Copan and Mr. Hughes. Thank you everyone. Have a good evening.