001All right. >> Good morning all. >> All right. 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. The webinar ID is 8793955-5443 and the required password is 756750. Right. I call this meeting to order. Roll call, please. Mr. Lamb. >> Mr. Copper Miniro >> here >> Mr. Dilva Mr. Denise >> here >> Mr. Gallow >> here >> Mr. Hughes >> here >> Miss Jansen >> Mr. Kiz Morski >> Dr. Mort >>
002here adequate notice of the agenda for this meeting has been provided to the Rididgewood News and the record specifying that the MA Board of Education will meet on August 6th 2025 in the administrative offices 60 Ridge Road MA New Jersey. A copy was filed with the township clerk. Our salute to the flag of Mr. Denise 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. >> All right. We do not require an executive session in the beginning here today. So, let's move on to agenda questions. Please limit your questions at this time to resolutions and new business on this agenda. As a matter of fairness, you're asked to limit your questions to no more than one and
003your remarks to no longer than three minutes. You're here representing a group. Please identify yourself, the group, and your position in the group. If you're here as an individual, please give us your name and address. Please specify the resolution you are referring to in your question. All right, I need a motion to open the meeting to the public. Mr. Hughes, second by Mr. Gallow. We are officially open to the public. Seeing no one come forth at this time. Motion to close the meeting to the public. Mr. Hughes, second by Mr. Denise. Thank you. All right. We do not have a MA student representative report at this time. So let us move on to Dr. Tutoro's report. >> Yes, we have um a presentation to share with the board. Um as you know that the state
004provides data from the assessments from last year. Once we receive those uh data reports we are obligated to share with the board and the public. This is the first of a number of presentations that we're going to have from now through the fall. We asked uh Miss Craft, Miss Carella, and Mr. O'Hara to come up to share uh those data reports. >> Good morning. >> Morning. >> So, we're here to present uh our district testing report for the 2024 2025 school year. I have with me, Mrs. Carella and Mr. O'Hara. We're presenting different data points throughout the school year. So, we're going to start off with our multilingual learners and our access reporting. So, the access scores came back um at the end of June and you're going to hear throughout some of the presentations,
005although it's preliminary. Um the data even on our NJSLA is a point of pride. So I'm really really proud of not only the work that our teachers and our administration has done um but that the students have done too because their growth is really tremendous. So what the access assessment does is essentially show us the growth the proficiency in English um in speaking in listening and reading and writing. In order to exit the program you need to score a 4.5 or higher. Um and really ultimately the students are tested on computer for grades 2 through 12. our kindergarten students and our first graders still have a book um that they put their their writing in. So, it's one of the few assessments where we're actually still writing with pencil um and a standardized assessment. >>
006So, at the end of the year, we get a student report that has 30 days to be sent home. We send it home within that time frame um and in native language so that all s all parents and families are able to understand how their students scored in native language. Um the proficiency levels range from a one through six. That expanding of the 4.5 bridging and reaching is ultimately where we have students who are exiting the program. When a student does exit the program, we do continue to monitor them for about two years to ensure that students are appropriately placed within their program. So these are the data points for this year. We had 73 students who did test. We had all 73 students test, including one student was an avid district placement, which we
007sent one of our teachers to go test. Um, 58 of those students were students who were in this district last year or previously. The reason why that number is actually really important is because it can tell us the growth of the students yearbyear. Sometimes within this population, we have students who move into district, move out of district. So, it's really hard to track their growth. So when we have 58 students that were really able to look into their profiles, look into their details and see that they've improved um or grown proficiency, that's important for us. So 54 out of our 58 students all grew with 12 students exiting, which is not necessarily an easy task. Um so we are really really proud of the data this year. So it was about 93% of our students
008showed drastic improvement. So through the QAC process, we learned that we are not able to share out information. Um we need to have a minimum of 10 or more students as per the suppression rules. Um so the only grade level that I'm actually able to uh report out on is grade two. So of the 10 students in grade two, you can see um we had a student who was entering who actually was new to district this year is considered to be a newcomer. um one who's emerging and then we have students really through that developing to reaching. So our goal next year would really be able to move that emerging emerging and developing student into that 4.5 range. So after we get the test scores, what do we do with them? The first thing is
009we sit down and we really analyze where the student has scored. We have a profile sheet that includes our ready scores. um we will include the NJSLA scores and we try to really learn about the students strengths and weaknesses and then address their profile as a learner to meet those strengths and then obviously um to grow where they may need support. So we meet as a team to look at those multiple measures. Then we decide as as a team is it best to have students really pulled out because I know in the past we've talked specifically about what our program looks. We're a little bit of a hybrid. So we have some students who are pulled out for support and then pushed in for support. Um realistically our goal is to have all students stay
010within the classroom setting so that our ML teachers can collaborate with our gened teachers to make sure that students are getting all the information that they need right in their regular setting. We have conferences with our parents. We um attended this past year a PZ specifically talking about how to interpret these access scores. The Department of Education did a great job in teaching our teachers how to use this data. Um, and so now we sat at the end of the year, we've already made it um our multilingual learner individual learning plans that we then complete and we put into real time. So every teacher will have access to not only the scores of the individual student, but strengths and weaknesses and how to support those students within their classes. Um, we've also over the past
011couple years made sure we've updated all of the standards within our curriculum. So all classes have the LETA standards met. So whether a student is in social studies or whether the student is in our ML math class, we're making sure that we're meeting all the needs of our individual multilingual learners directly through our curriculum. Uh our ongoing PD is extremely important to us. Um this year I've been working with Jodie already which has been amazing and Courtney Neglia so that we are incorporating our sheltered instruction um training right into our new teachers. So that's important because we're going to continuously have a new cohort of teachers who are being trained on how to meet the needs of our students. Um, and we've also really focused in on our NJTSS tier 2 small groupoup instruction. In
012fact, yesterday, one of our ML teachers was working with our new teachers in small groupoup instruction because it's been such an important tool and resource um for our teachers to be able to meet the needs of their individual learners right within that classroom model. Um, we also are going to continue to have our tutoring program which we really focus in on literacy and language acquisition as well as content because it's really important to not only build those language skills outside of the classroom, but also understanding academic and content vocabulary is is key. Um, we found great success in our MLM math class at Ramo Ridge this past year because we really have such various levels of student learners. Um, if we have slave students who come in who have really interrupted formal education, they really
013need that support of the foundation classes. And the goal of that class is to really get students to fly. They're not supposed to live there. They're supposed to be able to go in, we can bridge the gap of what we haven't learned. We can really focus in on that um foundational skills at a at a really infant level and then move them out. Um, and so we already have two students from that MLM math class who now will be going into their freshman year out of high school and starting algebra 1. So we were able to close gaps um pretty pretty quickly, but because of that, you know, focus and attention to detail, we're able to do so. So that is all of our access scores. Um, again, you know, we're really really proud of
014the work. It was a complete team effort. You know, the administration being able to work with scheduling, that was something I'd like to give credit to a lot of the elementary principles. we worked very closely to make sure that those schedules could be where our teachers were pushing into the classrooms. Um, you know, that's not an easy task and so I really appreciate that they took the time to do that. The um support of the teachers in regards to working with our general ed teachers um I was just talking to Mrs. career because I'm at um camp convention at Lenipe and we talked about one of the points of pride being those NJSLA scores coming out of Lenipe and it was interesting because she said I love that your ML teacher said I learned so
015much being in this classroom you know so where our teachers can support one another especially in reader writer workshop and language acquisition and phonics based instruction that is truly key so um really proud of the work of the teachers and we will continue to do so um you know focusing on each individual student because that's really where we're at We can't compare ourselves to other districts or even state numbers because this assessment really focuses in on individual growth and data. And I'm going to pass it off. >> Great. Thank you. I want to highlight the work that um Skella has done with ensuring that our teachers who are not ML teachers have access to sheltered instruction profession professional development. That's important because when these students are back in their regular classrooms, the teachers that are
016with them need to have a frame of reference and how to directly support them. So that work is excellent. So, thank you for that and we're going to push that forward on Aludo, our platform, and make sure that all new teachers have access to that professional development. So, great work with that. Okay, we're going to move on to the NJGPA assessment data. As you all may or may not know, the NJGPA is administered to all of our 11th grade students in the spring. Uh they are tested in both ELA and math and they are driven in ELA on grade 10 standards and the mathematics component is aligned to algebra 1 and geometry standards. Uh the passing score for this assessment is a 725 and it's given to make sure the students are ready graduation ready
017for the prior the following year. So this is just information about what the if you don't pass. This is my first time doing this. So um there are alternate assessments in different pathways for you if you're not successful the first go around. So there are different options for students to take the assessment should they not score the 725 in both ELA and math. So we'll talk through those um as we go through. So in the 2025 school year, so our senior class currently of 2026 in grade 11, we had 222 students testing in both ELA and math. If you look at our data, we had 94% of our student population graduation ready as compared to 81% across the state. a great job by our our staff and our students. In math, we were at 80%
018of our students that were graduation ready as opposed to 58% in comparison to the state. So, in comparison to the state, we are doing great. Um, ELA numbers are incredible. Our math numbers also are doing really, really well. But we can talk about ways we can grow and improve in both areas. This is just a comparison from years 2023, 2024, and 2025. You can see the increase in ELA and the slight decrease in math. Uh we I've had multiple conversations with our math supervisor just to really dig deep on those standards and make sure that our students and teachers are prepared to address them via our tier 2 instruction and making sure that our curriculum is meeting the needs of those learners. So that work is already in process so that we make sure that
019we hit the ground running looking at our link data and making sure that teachers have access to the right information so they can really provide that small group instruction support starting in September. This slide talks about our disagregated data. And I think this slide is really important to note that we've had some really great increases, especially with our special ed population, our economically disadvantaged students. Uh really had a nice increase. Our Hispanic and Latino population. Nice increase there. There was a slight dip in the male population, something that we'll look at with our ELA supervisor, and we'll dig forward in our curriculum just to see like where that discrepancy is happening and how we can support them moving forward. But overall, some really nice increases in some of our subgroups. Um, our female population, nice
020increase in ELA from a 94% to 100%. That's really, really great to see. Um, but I'm especially proud of the special ed numbers and also the econ economically disadvantage. There's a nice increases in those areas. Math, similar demographic. We have a slight decrease in the female population and in the male population. Um, but a nice increase in our special ed population. our economically disadvantaged students are performing well. Our Hispanic and Latino population, our Asian population, we're doing well in our subgroups, but some areas to look at, especially that decrease in the females and males in math. Again, more work for our math supervisor and our teachers to kind of look at what's happening in our classrooms and how we can address those subgroups via small group instruction, via >> work in the classroom, and looking
021at our curriculum and see how we can closely align our supports for them. So, some of the intervention strategies we have in place for all of our students, we have a college and career readiness course with ELA. We'll continue our work in tier 2 interventions. We have a new ELA supervisor. We're very excited about her work. She is doing a deep dive into our curriculum just to make sure that we are maximizing our capacity with regards to strategies and standards and making sure that our teachers are wellversed in how to build meaningful lessons in the ELA classroom. Um in our for our subgroups we have special ed students who have access who are identified starting in grade nine um after reviewing data in different parts of our test scores our standardized assessments or benchmark data
022and then place in the right courses so that they are supported along the way. Similarly in math we have supports for all students. Um we have an algebraic accelerated course a career readiness algebra 2 course and students who are pass alternate assessment. So that's one of the things that I love that we have supports along the way starting freshman year for students who are not successful. So we really make sure that we identify them early starting in grade 8 so that when they come to us as ninth graders, we are ready to support them along the way. >> So I'm going to pass this over to Jim. >> Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Um I I really, you know, I'm lucky I get to report out on some graduation statistics, some testing, SAT, ACT,
023and AP. um outcomes for our class of 2025 that just graduated this past June. But I just I think it's great to start with this image. I'm sure many of us have seen this, but you know, if the goal is to help students figure out their path, their strengths, I think this image depicts, you know, that the proof is in the pudding here in terms of where all the different routes that students have taken um as they plan for life after Mama High School. Um and also before going into those statistics just you know to to remind us of the faces behind the numbers um that we're talking about students here many of which have gone through the district um and are now again those Thunderbirds in flight leaving us going out into the world.
024Um but just to start with graduation rates um I won't read through all of these slides but just as you see in the middle there important to note that you know all 206 seniors that started with us in September graduated. Um on the right side that graduation rate uh the New Jersey DOE reports a state and federal number for graduation statistics that include in district and out of district um numbers as well. So right now we have an estimated 96.3% graduation rate that includes those groups um which will be confirmed uh later in the fall. And some more graduation statistics here. As we know, you know, New Jersey provides a menu of options in terms of passing those assessment requirements for graduation. So, this lists out um students that might have taken um those alternate
025routes as Miss Craft mentioned um whether passing a substitute competency test with a portfolio um option as well. >> Now, moving on to uh go through SAT and ACT numbers for the class of 2025. Um, and I'll talk about both of these kind of um, in comparison with each other, not necessarily about the scores, but also about participation. Um, as you can see, you know, about 70% of our class of 2025 participated in the SAT, that 147 number there. Um, and you can see the scores in terms of averages. But important to me from a school counseling point of view, um, is thinking about SAT versus ACT, um, for students and their goals postgraduation. that um if you move on to ACT, you'll see we had a number in about 50, which is about 21%
026of our senior class. Um which is great. It's great to see the students are taking these exams. They're still an important part um of the post-secary planning and college admissions process. Um but definitely um you know, in terms of scores, a point of pride, but a point of growth that um we can definitely look towards is thinking about the participation across SAT and ACT. Um these tests are changing, especially this year. SAT just went digital last year. ACT is digital as of September. Um they're making the science section optional, which is a bit of a barrier for some students in choosing that exam. And they're also removing, um decreasing the multiple choice option from five to four. So, um one, you know, goal and maybe point of growth would be to make sure students, and
027I definitely have the goal of educating families and students of making sure they're choosing the test is right for them, not just the default test that most students take in the Northeast, which the SAT. Um, nationally, actually, more students took the ACT last year than the SAT. So, traditionally, as a lot of us know, the SAT was taken in the Northeast. ACT was a Midwest and kind of the Southern and West Coast exam. Um, but it's important to make sure that we're educating families. Um, and something I'm proud of, our previous district is really increasing those numbers um of making sure students are choosing the right test for them as a learner as opposed to just a default exam that their classmates or their siblings took previously. So great participation numbers, great averages. Um but
028that's just one thing as an objective observer um that I noted with that ACT versus SAT numbers there. AP really exciting excited to go through some of these scores here. Um so we had 28 students participate in AP courses this past year with that 93.3% um percentage of scores above the three. Okay, which is very very impressive. Um, as you know, they're scored out of five with the three generally considered passing. And I won't go through all of these, but I'll just mention a couple just to highlight. Um, and maybe some year-over-year statistics to note. If you look back at 2024, 19 out of 25 of our subjects had an average score of three or above, and this year 24 out of 25. Um, so, you know, a 76% number last year compared to a
02996% this year, which is which is really impressive. Um, so we offered 25 AP subjects. All right. And again, 24 out of 25 this past year had an average score of three or above, which is really impressive. Just some notes again as I was going through this. Um, CalPC, which is your highest level AP math course, um, you know, seen that number steadily increase um, and really creeping close to that perfect score of five, which is just incredible. Um, European history has some significant uh, improvements. If you look at the last few years as well, getting students this year is an average of 4.4, which is very impressive. And then looking at those last two, I just just noted those really big improvements, US government politics over the last four years as well as US
030history. And one note, you know, actually something that I just recently learned too and thinking about maybe some unique things that that MAWA does. you know, our students take macro economics and microeconomics combined into one year. Um, which is not common. It's very impressive to think about students taking both of those classes within one year. Um, and you could have, you know, in some places students taking macroeconomics all year long, not achieving that average of 3.7. Um so to have students sitting in one class for one full year taking macro for a half year for a semester and micro for the other and achieving these scores um something again as an objective observer was was very notable. And then postsecary plans I mean this just depicts all the different options and and really shows that
031students are thinking about the best choice for them personally. Um overall you can see the numbers from a four-year to a two-year. Um the last slipper is employment there. has less than 2% but overall at 96.6% of graduates attending either a four year, two-year or some kind of career education training. And this again just a visual depiction. The next three slides just show how students are, you know, really thinking um about what's best for them, spreading their wings and looking at different options across the country. Okay. Um, so this gives you just a visual depiction of of all the different graduates and where they're heading as far away as Hawaii down there. Um, and as far north as Canada. And then in terms of thinking about where students are actually heading after they graduate, our
032students attended 88 different post-secary destinations. Um, which is great. Percentage wise, just notable for me, you know, you have a higher percentage of of students that are going down to, let's say, South Carolina or Florida as opposed to those typical Mid-Atlantic states, Pennsylvania, DC, and Virginia. So definitely thinking and looking at all the different options um across the country which is impressive. And then just just a list just to see it all on one page of all the different destinations for our graduates. Um and again you know just some to me some niche unique programs which are of note. um some great institutions obviously um across the country on this list but even having two students go to Embry Riddle which is you know like kind of the leading aeronautical engineering aviation school in the
033country um or the culinary institute of America obviously students that are really thinking about their path their strengths their goals for the future and matching that with their options after high school so questions So you spoke about the um multi learner program at the bridge and I remember you speaking about the profile of those students. Maybe just elaborate a little bit. A lot of those students come to us with like >> below like fourth or fifth grade. >> Yeah. Actually if I were to bring >> your >> and and sort of when you can when you can launch them sort of that far out where they're going to high school with algebra that's >> that's a big deal, right? Um actually the two students I was referencing when they came to us in sixth grade
034um they were more at a third grade level um and we actually got them to grade level at eighth grade going in. So um again, you know, the goal of the program itself is when we can have students come to us at our elementary level and we can work so closely with them at that K through five and keep our students in the classroom using that, you know, what we keep talking about NJTSS, but using that small group instruction and really focusing in with I Ready um and our teacher input and data knowing what they need. When you can close that gap at the younger levels, it does make our life obviously easier going forward. But with that being said, the creation of that math class in middle school was huge for us because we
035realized we had students coming in that weren't our ma students at the K through five level and was coming in at what you're saying, second, third, fourth grade level. Um, and so we really had to figure out using that diagnostic for in particular, we were able to sit there and say, okay, this is where we have to build the foundational skills in order them to be able to say, these are the important components, standards that need to be met in order to let them fly. Um so a lot of individualized attention was put into that course. Um specifically Mrs. Burkeel and Mrs. Anahan worked so closely together in this collaborative model. One really focusing on the language acquisition component while the other one really focusing on the math skills and being able to build one
036of the pieces of really understanding multilingual learners is understanding academic vocabulary. Um, and so many of our students, even when you talk about shapes, um, they may may never have seen a shape in in understanding what it looks like in our country. So, being able to break those language barriers, but also the cultural barriers was really key. So, um, you know, I think talking to being able to close the gap is you have two teachers within that room focusing on two components, the language and the foundational skills. Um, and they're really able to target that instruction. And so you're looking at a class that is really I mean it is NJTSS in true fashion. Um and that's why even when Dennis was like let's talk about teachers that can talk to our new teachers about
037what small group looks like. Julie 100% came to mind because she lives it every single day. And so she was able to talk to our new teachers during orientation and this is how it's going to look. This is how you determine what students need in the moment and then this is how you build the instruction to go forward with it. Um, so we did found, you know, great success and we're going to keep plugging away um because the goal is to have you close those gaps by the time they get to the high school, >> right? And I the other thing that we >> just make sure to use your microphone because you're on >> Sorry. People hear you. >> Yeah. And other people can hear you. >> I'm assuming this is >> Yeah, that's
038right. >> So, um, the other thing that I remember in the presentation was that we don't look at MLL as sort of like another division of our enterprise. It is an integrated part of the enterprise >> and the cross fertilization or the cross passing of knowledge especially the importance of language in science and math um which became evident in sort of the analysis of deep dig of what's happening for our nonMLL population MLL population that cross fertilization um is important to everybody all our ML experiences also benefit our nonMLL students Absolutely. And and really when you're even looking at the data that Jod was referencing and we're talking about our socioeconomic and we're talking about our Hispanic Latino population, you know, we're talking about many of our ML students and that's why I brought up
039the NJSLA scores even as a point of pride. I know it's preliminary. Um but we are targeting that subgroup in all of our classes. And I think that's important. You know, when we talk about our multilingual learners, one of the points of pride um in my role is that we moved as a highintensity district where students were getting a two periods a day to a sheltered instruction district, which meant that we're training our teachers. So all teachers in district, not just our ML teachers, understand how to work with multilingual learners. And then the second piece was keeping our students in our academic and our general ed classes so they're not missing science, they're not missing math. You know, there's sometimes in a schedule it's hard to meet the needs of everyone if they're in band
040of course all these things amazing programs that we offer. So getting our students to be able to stay within those classroom settings, they're never missing a minute of language acquisition and content knowledge that can be given to them. >> Fantastic. >> Any other questions? >> Make sure this is >> Mr. Denise. How do you explain that regional difference between the SAT and the uh ACT? >> Sure. >> Yeah. Ju just historically, right? I mean, these tests have been around since the late 50s, early 60s and historically um the ACT was was not taken in the Northeast. It was really Midwest West Coast and the SAT was traditionally a northeast uh exam. And it's amazing that even like today that that really still, you know, lingers in some places and in some people's minds. Um but
041again nationally you know more students of the ACT by by a sliver last year. Um and in a lot of places students are looking to figure out which of those exams is best for them in terms of their learning style, right? Um so I think it's really about educating students, educating families, giving them exposure to both exams um to make a good decision instead of just making it a default. I'll just take this exam because a lot of times if they take that exam and don't do well, we now have the test optional route and they just decide, you know what, I'm not a good test taker. But actually, maybe you just didn't, you know, do enough research or homework to match your skills with the appropriate exam. So, um, you know, I've just seen
042some students even just boost their confidence in terms of how they feel about themselves as a test taker when they actually do that homework and figure out what's best for them. >> I I know that was included in the presentation, but I want to make sure that I reiterate because there was a lot of stuff up here. Um Mr. Harrow was talking about educating the families and that's a huge push of our guidance department uh for this year and moving forward of explaining to our parents because I explained to him that when we say traditionally SATs we talk a lot about SATs here and recently we started to talk about ACTs but I think it's worth um the opportunity to talk to our parents about the benefits of both tests and really and I know
043Mr. talked about what works best for the student. I don't know if our community is really aware um of the benefit and value of the of what each test holds. So, that's going to be a focus this year along the lines of along with other things of what our guidance department, our counseling department um is is going to be focused on for the year for the year ahead. The last thing I'm sorry, are you moving to your report? >> Yep. >> I was moving to a quick question about the SAT. Um I did notice the numbers had gone down a bit in participation >> participation. Yeah. Um do you think is that because of this test has that has the test optional piece uh you need to show has it taken more you know because
044I think that came what maybe out of co at some point and all that. So is that now an emerging trend? Do we see more students who are going test optional or? >> Oh yeah, absolutely. But just to answer the first part of your question, then they go back to test optional. Um I did I was curious similarly when I looked at it, but it's actually really due to class size. Okay. >> So if we actually and probably should even going forward make it percentage, >> it would be a little bit more indicative of participation as opposed to just pure number. Um this past 2025 is similar in size to 2023. So if you go back to that slide, they're pretty similar in terms of participation. But either way, it's not 100%. Right. So, it's
045still yes. Lingering from from COVID just historically when COVID hit and students couldn't take these exams. Uh, pretty much every school in the country went test optional. A lot of schools have remained test optional. And that again, and I I believe as a counselor that's still a good route for some students as long as they make sure they don't just do that by default. They try the exams and then they decide it's best for them. Um so yes there's still a lingering test optional which is great for for students but we still have seen especially mostly at the very competitive level um colleges going back to requiring exams. >> So when you're a high school you know junior 11th grader and you're not sure where you're applying and you don't know what the test policies
046are at those schools it's the recommendation you still sit for these exams especially because it's an alternate assessment for graduation requirements. So you might as well do the homework to figure out which one is best for you. Okay. So, >> thank you very much. >> Um, before we move on to the next report, the one thing that I do want to say, first of all, thank you guys so much for it was a fantastic presentation. I I hope that you are able to take a look, I I've said this once and I many times actually and I'll say it again. You know, our work's not done, but this is an opportunity because of the different types of tests to show not only the board, but the community our commitment to every type of learner in
047our schools. We have students who need foundational support and as you can see there's movement there. Then we have students who are taking AP tests and I'm really proud and I'm so glad that Mr. Har put that together that last year we had 19 of the 25 above um above three >> three or higher >> 25 >> last I got it 19 of the 25 the year prior and then this year we are 24 of the 25. Um, and that just shows that oftentimes we talk about remedial supports and foundational skills and all the different things and rightfully so, the concern comes back of, well, what about the kids who already know the material and we have to extend and press them on. Please know that the district is committed to stretching every type of
048learner that we have. We're going to build our foundational uh needs, but we're also not going to let the kids who already have it just sit there and and and and be stagnant. So now our commitment is to every type of learner that we have in the school and I really appreciate the way that you guys articulated it and thank you for the time putting that together. >> Thank you very much uh Mr. O'Hara Miss Craft and Miss Nice to see some new faces and great presentation from our from our newest members of the team. So thank you. Not Miss Kell. >> You're you're getting to be like Lisa Roso. You're I am I was born here. I came through here. I stay here. You're a lifer. >> But Miss Craft and Mr. Thank you
049very much because again new faces for us. Thank you. Um and I think it again I mean excellent um information and it just suggests that we continue to focus on u maintaining gains but then what can we do to continue uh to uh uh continue our gains. So again thank you very much. Um does Dr. Fair have >> oh no audio visual today. All right. >> Oh no I do have something from Dr. Fair. I want to plug Dr. Fair. >> Okay. Dr. Farah's report. This is very brief and we'll have more at the next meeting. But the reason >> on behalf of Dr. >> Dour um Dr. Fair and Miss Rizzo um and Miss Craft is going to be going over there very shortly. We're currently in the process of of doing new teacher
050orientation that we welcomed uh 24 new staff members. It started today Wednesday uh started on Monday. Uh this is our third day. we were able to really showcase and educate our new teachers on what is expected here in Mawa and really try to put them on a path for success because ultimately our goal is to make sure that our new teachers are successful. So our our what we try to do is put together um a learn learn learning opportunities over the last three days that touches each and every aspect of what they're going to be encountering um in their first first year um and give them quote unquote answers to the test of how to successfully navigate that. I know that uh we've been taking some pictures. Mr. Gallo, thank you so much for liking
051the Instagram post that we had the other day. Um uh and we'll have more pictures because I know Dr. Dr. Mory loves our slides um at the next meeting and give a little bit more detail, but Dr. Far um puts a tremendous amount Dr. Fair and his team um in the HR office puts a tremendous amount of time and effort into putting together these three days. We bring in, as Miss Carella was saying, we bring in teachers. Uh we bring in uh a number of different people to provide them information. Today actually we have our teacher new teacher panel that we bring in uh current staff members to give them really the rundown of what they experienced their first couple years here and give them tips and strategies on how to navigate it. So more
052to come but I did want you to know that's why Dr. Fair left, Miss Rosa left, and we're actually going to go after this meeting. It's exciting times. >> Thank you very much. Uh Mr. Lamb, do you have a report this year? >> Sure. Just uh briefly a couple of updates. Uh Mr. Greg Romero, our uh supervisor of buildings and grounds has done a great job managing our summer projects as well as overseeing the cleaning to get our buildings ready for September and all the projects and all of the uh cleaning is on time or ahead of schedule. So that's great news. We submitted the idea application for federal funding last week ahead of schedule. Uh fortunately uh we are going to be getting more money than was budgeted. So that's always good news. And
053we were told by the state that the state just received their uh total state allocation for the ESA which is the grants for titles one through four. And they're in the process of uh divvying up the money and the funds uh to each school district. So we think within the next two weeks we will have those numbers. Normally the application is due by the end of July and we haven't even received the allocations yet and we were told we'll probably be be given four weeks to a month to submit the application once we receive the numbers. So thank you. >> Thank you Mr. Lamb. All right. my report this evening. Um, ironically, I was actually going to me mention the new teacher orientation because it was well, it wasn't it was it it was very
054well done. I I actually felt my age in that room a bit as well. We have a lot of youth or it appeared that they looked they looked very young and um many of them but there was great enthusiasm in the room. Um I think Dr. Doro, Dr. Fair, Miss Rizzo, Miss Craft, the whole team. Um, the first day and and I was invited to join for, you know, we go around the room um of an administrative team and say kind of how many years the district and what you appreciate about MAWA and a piece of advice. Um, and it's just very interesting to see um all the valuable people in the room as well. There's a lot of good energy in our administrative team and that obviously is going to trickle down but it's
055it's brighteyed bushy tailed I would say our new teacher group and it's good to see and I >> graduate >> and a previous mama graduate >> yes >> D'Angelo we have a pre previous mama graduate Mr. gallery. You would be happy. Um that that Mike figured Mike got his photo that he's he looks quite similar. >> Exactly. >> Mr. G, >> he was in my second class. My second year working now he works here. >> Yeah. Now he works here. So you know anyway, it's good to see alumni coming back as well. All right. The only other piece of my report um I just wanted to report that the board um completed our board self-evaluation. Uh this is a process similar to when we do our um um superintendent evaluation. Um and this informs um
056our goals for this year etc. and looks at our processes of um how do we work together um governance those kinds of things. So I'm just going to introduce it today um and then at the next meeting um board members can have an opportunity um to look at the results and then we'll discuss further um when we have perhaps a few more board members present. So, I just wanted to say that the areas that we look at in our board self-evaluation um are the following and these are ranked on um a a kind of fourpoint scale of exemplary, proficient, area for growth, unsatisfactory, and then there's two categories of not observed and average. And then there's an average. So um our first area is um is the board committed to a shared vision of our
057district's future mission and goals um that are focused on student achievement district strategies and reflect community values. So that's the first one. Um the second area that we look at is policy. Um our board governs through policies that reflect local values principles and guides the direction and priorities of the board. The third area that we look at um and get rankings for are accountability for student achievement. Um our board supports a rigorous and coherent system of curriculum instruction assessment and prioritizes continuous growth for each student's academic success and well-being. The next area is related to governance um team relationships and accountability. Um, our board understands that healthy, productive relationships among members of the board and between the superintendent and the board are essential to providing leadership and prioritizing student success. Um, the next one is
058regarding resources, management, and oversight. Our board is responsible, ethical, and accountable stewards of the district's monetary and non-monetary resources. Um, and then our I think this is our last one. Let me see. Yes. And then the last one is regards uh to community leadership. Our board recognizes public education's impact on the community and understands how strong connections mean everyone is invested in successful schools. Um, this is not an evaluation that we come up with. This is an evaluation uh that is created um by New Jersey School Boards Association and it is one that is consistent. So any school district in New Jersey who is doing a board self-evaluation is doing the same one. So we're um looking at ones that are similar to what our peers are doing. Um I think two things I just
059want to highlight um from the overall findings and again we'll we can go through it a little more at our next meeting. Um in terms of us as a team and the thing that came out I think most strongly and I I think um I was kind of point of pride Dr. Jurro would say um what is what do I what do we consider our board's greatest strength that we can build from and I think most of the comments were very similar um and I think this reflects it very well the board's greatest strength is its ability to work well together respective of individual differences and work collaboratively with the administration um placing student needs as a priority so I think really that's what came out that we are very fortunate that we have a
060very strong board, a very strong collaborative team here in Mawa. Um, and I think that um, you know, and our relationship with the administrative team and I think that really speaks volumes to why we're getting so much done here. Um, one area I think that we need to continue our focus on and we've talked about this. Um I think there's been improvement in this about intercom committee communication. Um but we continue to need to do that so that what's going on in individual committees um the full board is aware of um and that we're communicating well to our larger community as well. So that was I think the one thing that came out of that. But overall thank you to all the board members for your participation. um and take a look um and when
061you have a moment and then we'll if you have uh more feedback or any other things we want to discuss we'll discuss that again at the next meeting. All right. So part one and part two Mr. Galla we'll have a part two. All right. Very good. Um board of committee reports. Mr. Galla speaking up. I I have um I think it was last week or so that uh Prima and Mike sent out on my behalf and the committee's behalf, the finance committee's behalf um sort of a status report where we are in some of the review of some of the potential referendum sort of high dollar cost projects, but I I forgot that I should have given some context. There's a large portion of the project list that are as Mike has been talking about
062and we've been talking about it quite a bit is the is sort of the nuts and bolt stuff. the HVAC, the roofs, the windows, the basic systems that keep our schools operating safely. And the other thing that was I thought I should have included also is the sort of the reference to the timeline. So in early September is when Lynn will be submitting on our behalf the uh project list to the state. So sort of the reason why all this work is occurring now is to get ready for that September uh submission. So, I just wanted to give some additional context to the the email that went out last week or so. I think it was last week, right? >> Yes. >> So, um and we're still working on some of the uh of the
063big projects. So, um but I think in in general, I think I can speak on behalf of the committee and say that we're very happy with the work plan has done. They've been very responsive to our suggestions. they've listened to our administrative team in terms of the the program of work or the program of requirements at each of our schools and I think um from that perspective we're in good shape. So I just wanted to provide a little more context. The only thing if I if I may um that that I would love to to add to all those who are not on finance and facilities. Um I greatly appreciate Mike putting together all of those notes and sending the schematics and things like that. But I think it's extremely important that once you take
064a look at those emails and take a look at those those images, I strongly suggest if you have any questions or comments to please reach out to either myself or to Mike and we could talk you through any sort of either ideas, suggestions, questions that you have. Again, it we're we're still in the beginning stages of all this, but it's important that everybody walks alongside of us and more importantly is aware of where we're at. And we're doing the same work with our community relations uh group. We have a calendar, as I said before, for our facility side. And then there's also a calendar that we're starting to develop for our community relations side. That's going to be delayed a little bit because of just when the timing starts. Um, but I think it's really
065important that you just take a look and then please bring up any questions or concerns or comments that you have throughout this process to either the committee or to myself because I'm fortunate enough to sit in all these uh these meetings as well. >> Okay. >> Yeah. This is this is our time for your voice to be heard. Um because once we get into the application process becomes a lot stickier to make changes. >> Thank you, Mr. Gallo. Thank you, Dr. Um any other committee reports? Um okay, I have um a committee report from instruction curriculum. Um this was um the minutes from our June meeting which kind of rounded out um our last academic year. Um and our first meeting um with Miss Craft and with our new uh team is going to be
066on August 26. So I just want to kind of close out that last year before we resume um this year. Um so there was a update from Dr. Bowie um regarding um so we had a good problem um I would say at Joyce Kilmer school um we introduced a new science curriculum that was so wellreceived um by teachers and by students who actually wanted more science time. So, um, something that you want to hear more time in an area that perhaps students, um, aren't always ex as excited about. Um, so Dr. Bowie said, "Okay, we need to look at um, how are we going to do this? How how can we have um instruction in um, several areas every day?" Um and so they looked at the schedule um and he put a team together
067and they came up with some really um important uh strategies and so there will be some changes at the JK schedule level. Um and one of the other ones is that some of the core blocks were 85 minutes um and sometimes it was a little too long for engagement for students. Um, so what the schedule now will actually have, there'll be consistency now that we'll have math, ELA, science, and social studies. Um, and there will be daily instruction in all those areas, which um supports the core curriculum initiatives. I know it was hard to believe, but social studies and science were on um on cycles. And so um not to say math and ELA were those were daily instruction but there were cycles. Now we will have a daily um um you know instruction on
068four all four key areas which I I think is fabulous. Um and so there is is going to be some changes. Um and I'm sure uh JK families and parents are are going to hear about that. But I think it's really exciting stuff about the specifics. Um, speaking to our um, you know, supportive instruction, um, we also had report um, from our math uh, supervisor um, and I always chicel chic. I always say wrong. I felt like I wanted to make sure. Okay, so this was a moment of celebration at Model High School. Um, teachers are giving more direct instruction and moving away from the lecture model. And he spoke about how honors and AP teachers were doing small groupoup instruction in their classrooms. Um, and kids were feeling more confident um and uh students
069were feeling more motivated to work in this kind of small group. So, it really just speaks to the larger um push of small groupoup instruction and how to really tailor approaches to students. Um so, that was exciting. Um he also mentioned that there's a new textbook for computer science. Our old textbook was from 2014. Um and so, uh they have now updated that um as well. Um and the other thing is um that was uh Miss Rizzo and Miss Abstano reported on the new classroom proposal. I think this is something that's already been on the agenda and you've seen that. Um and this is uh to create a new behavioral disabilities classroom that maintains students within district. Um and that would be housed at Lape. So I think that's something that is still um pending
070state approval um that they >> we approved. >> We're approved. Okay. So congratulations to Miss Rizzo and her team. So that's been approved. Um and that will be at Lape and our um self-contained class will move to GW. So those were in those things in the mix. And we also just um thanked um Dr. Bevino um at that last meeting um for all her work in our district um and we wish her well. All right, let's um move on to any board member remarks this this morning. Mr. Galla, >> I just have a very quick one. So, I attended this um the MAWA Rec Department in in conjunction with the Mawa Health Department is running the summer wellness program. They have like 20 or 25 events. It's pretty amazing to really get us a little
071healthier. But one of the events um was a cooking class that they brought in Mibo to make gaspacho and pesto and some sort and a salad. And um while I was there, I ran into one of our MWA intern students and she is a rising junior. So this she's a sophomore essentially. And she was so enthusiastic about the program and her supervisors were there and they were so enu enthusiastic to have her. But the thing that really stood out to me was her gratefulness, her gratitude for having access to the program. And it was really heartwarming to see that somebody who, you know, often times, you know, there's that expression, you know, the you have to take your opportunities, they become apparent. She took advantage of this opportunity. It's great. It's great to see that
072sort of the stuff that the leadership team here does to make those opportunities available to people and then when people really dive into it, it was really neat to see that. So, internship, externship program, another, you know, very powerful experience in our district that's um growing and is fruitful for students. >> She's interning with me? No, she's interning with uh the rec department and the health department. She's actually in the health department. So, she's uh >> with the township. You're saying this is a in like a right >> um internship with the township. I think this is >> Yes. >> But as part she's participating in this in the summer program summer wellness program. >> Yeah. She's there for like >> Mike got good recipes. So, we're When will you be making us the spot
073Joe? And uh >> it'll occur in an undisclosed location. >> All right. Thank you, Mike. Um All right. Let's take 17. Uh old business. Let's take uh A. We have A and B. I need a motion on the floor. Mr. Hughes, second by Mr. Gallow. Um roll call, please. Mr. Lamb. >> Miss Davinero. >> Mr. Denise. Uh, yes, >> Mr. Gallow. >> Yes, >> Mr. Hughes. >> Yes. >> Dr. Morton. >> Yes. >> All right. New business. Let's take 18 A2F. Um, need a motion on the floor. Mr. Q. Second by Mr. Gallow. Roll call, please. >> Miniro. >> Yes. >> Mr. Denise. >> Yes. >> Mr. Gallow. >> Yes. And thank you to Glenmark for making those supplies available to the district. That's great. Mr. Use. >> Yes. >> Dr. Morty. >> Yes. >>
074All right. And now let's take 19 A2N. This is on new business personnel. I need a motion on the floor. Mr. Gallow. Seconded by Mr. Hughes. Thank you very much. All right. Roll call, please. Mr. Lamb. >> Miss Ainero. >> Yes. >> Mr. Denise. >> Yes. >> Mr. Gallow. >> Yes. >> Mr. Hughes. >> Yes. >> Dr. Morty. >> Yes. 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'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
075position in the group. If you're here as an individual, please give us your name and address. All right. I need a motion to open the meeting to the public. Mr. Denise and second by Mr. Hughes. Okay, we are open to the public. Seeing no one come forth at this time, I need a motion to close the meeting to the public. Mr. Hughes and second by Mr. Gallow. Uh we do not require executive session uh this morning. So I need a motion to adjourn. Mr. Hughes and second by Mr. Gallo. All right. Thank you very much everyone. Uh and enjoy the rest of summer before >> end of month >> before the school year begins. All right. >> Dino flip.