001All right, everyone. We're gonna continue with our meeting. If you um are still um socializing, then you're stopped. >> You're not stopped. You can continue. Uh Dr. Toro has uh our next strategic plan uh update and uh this is our compilation. starting our slow down of the 2020 to 2025 year. So um let's get started. You want us to move in? What is it? Culmination. Culmination. >> Dr. Dilva. [Music] >> All right. I guess we're going down. [Music] A lot of people I Yes, everyone got a favorite. >> so let me get started. Um, this is the culmination of 5 years of hard work. Um, these actually these are my my favorite uh meetings because we get a chance to really celebrate the work of of the entire district. I'm I'm very grateful that the
002administrative team is here. Um, there's been a ton of work and and commitment from the administrative team to make all the things you're about to see possible. I also want to thank the board of education uh for your commitment to this work and absolutely I want to take some time to thank the teachers cuz without them this work wouldn't happen. So just to give you a little backstory and I know I do it every single time but it's the last one I want to say. 5 years ago we decided uh to come together and really figure out how do we work the best of the life. When we came into the district 14 years ago, um I was very fortunate to work with administrators that every single building was working extremely hard. Um the issue
003though was everyone was working in silos and we felt it was important for us to not only come together as as administrative team but talk to our community about the needs that they feel the district um really has in order to improve yearover-year. With that, we took part in the numbers plan meetings and this is the product of all that work. Every single year, we report out to the to the board of education twice a year to talk about the work that's taking place each year. This uh presentation is going to be a little bit different. This presentation represents the culmination of five years of work. So this is a close out of the 2020 to 2025 strategic plan as we begin the next strategic plan which is 2025 to 2030. Throughout this presentation you're
004going to see a couple different things. There's going to be the four frames that are going to be introduced by one of the administrators. And then we asked this time for our building administration to talk about the work that's happening at the K5 level, 68 level, and 912 level. What better way to show the work than the people who are actually doing it with the administrators and the teachers. So without further ado, I want to introduce Dr. Medino to introduce the cohort. Thank you. [Applause] All right. So, um you've heard me talk about curriculum over the last I don't know how many years, a long time. But I am really proud of the work in all seriousness um and the work that the strategic plan allowed us to do in some of the goals up
005there or I guess their statements really. Um I'm just going to review because it's really hard to those little words are. So the first statement we had to do or had to do with updating our curriculum, making sure we aligned to all mandates and also creating differentiated instruction and JTSS Q. We should all be collabing right now. Um number two, um how do students start to think globally beyond the four walls that they were learning in? So we started that work and we're going to talk a little bit about that in those in different slides on that. Number three was to ensure that we had ongoing PE that was supportive of our teachers and the initiatives that we were running. So we've done a lot of different Persudo or January P where we have teachers
006and administrators teaching other teachers and administrators. These are all things that lead to good instruction and informative instruction. Number four, creating authentic learning experiences for our kids. And then number five has to do with developing a connection between the school our school and other schools our school and organizations and our school and assassination and you're going to hear a lot about them today. So I'm really really excited to introduce our admin team. We're going to start with our elementary team and they're going to take you through some highlights some that might be a little bit closer to this moment as you've heard so many things in the last four years but we're we're about to celebrate. So I hope you enjoy. [Applause] Good evening. Good evening everyone. Um I am super excited to start off
007in speaking about curriculum and instruction. Uh for those of you who know my first two years in the district, I got to be the supervisor of elementary curriculum and instruction. So it's definitely a point of pride for myself as well as the district. Um, and if you heard in a lot of the speeches tonight, everyone kind of highlighted the curriculum and the instruction and just our staff in general and model. Um, as research continues to evolve, we are committed to evolving it as well. The district intentionally reviews curricular programs to ensure we are teaching current, engaging, and meaningful material. With that being said, professional development for our staff remains as an important focus in our district. Some of the um professional development that we have gone through in the last five years are related to
008reading and writing units of study. We have adopted the uh units of study for both reading and writing in K to 5. Um even in sixth grade they are adopting those units which is really exciting. Um and then something that we piloted this year for the first time is writing math. I am super excited for that to continue next year with all of our K5 classrooms. uh the ability that our students are developing in the way that they're able to articulate themselves mathematically, watch our 5-year-olds grow is just really impressive. So, I'm excited to watch um that grow go up the the scale for our students. Something else that is really exciting that we've done here, um this is the fourth year that we have instructional coaches. Um that ensures that we have ongoing and
009consistent professional development for our teachers. We are truly invested in our staff. Um just making sure that again we are always current. Making sure that our students are being thought of in uh every step of the way and making sure that they're not just being developed academically but socially and socially as well. Some of the ways that our instructional coaches are supporting are through residencies cycles. U making sure that our new teachers are coming into the profession and feeling confident. Um and then also making sure that our veterans are always evolving as well. So Mr. White is now going to continue with how we invest in our students. >> Thank you. So what's exciting is Natasha is talking about all the time and effort that we put into investing our teachers. We're doing that for
010a reason. Correct. It's for the investment that that goes into our students. So I'm just excited to report um that we're now in position or the teachers are now in a position through the diagnostic and all the uh components that I has to offer. resources coupled with the fact that all the hard work that went into uh uh implementing our tiered instruction. Uh the teachers have a place now that can truly meet all the needs of our students. Um they have the resources at their fingertips. They have the approach, the mindset and the understanding of how to make this happen which is great because coming on four years ago as Dr. was highlighting there was a little bit of people being in silos and now going into this next school year we're in a position
011where that's not the case. collaboration that's happening amongst um the teachers um whether it be grade level special ed teachers um our instructional coaches and staff at large. So we're in a really good position to be engaged to all of our students. Um and I'm really excited uh for the prek autism program that came on uh was here uh this year. on those students. Um it's really nice to see the schoolwide activities that they're participating in and ability to have integrated with their gender peers which wouldn't be the case if they were not here. So it's just a really nice launching point for us. I'm excited to have the K3 autism program here as well. Thank you. Our strategic plan. >> Okay. Um, for the middle school, we thought it would be best if they
012both break it down uh by department. So, have to give a shout out to our supervisors. They've been doing incredible work with our teachers uh and they've been doing a lot of heavy lifting with everything that you are going to hear and some of the highlights uh and also just the support uh ongoing support from the central office team uh in this area especially Dr. Aino. Thank you for all your work uh in guiding us. In terms of ELA, that was the first department I kicked off with. In ELA, we updated our reading selections by adding some contemporary novels and book clubs to enhance student choice and deep connections. And the new novels that were selected uh also reflect our ongoing commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. All of our ELA curricula have been updated
013to reflect the new state standards. Um, but beyond the state standards, because that's just a mandate, um, we were very intentional in updating the curriculum to focus on uh, skill development driving all the units. And that work was supported um with a tool that arrived just on time. uh the I learn tool that we are using uh right now is supporting uh that very specific skill work through our diagnostics and the students uh my path plan in Mrs. Since department in social studies, uh the emphasis has been on civil discourse, human rights, and civics, alltimely issues. Uh if you drop into any social studies classroom, you're going to see students engage in Socratic discussions. And yes, they are engaging uh content in in those discussions. uh but they're also building those essential communication skills and
014social skills that we know no matter what pathway they pursue they will need. Uh at the sixth grade level uh all the board members are aware we have our teens group uh highlighted and featured at a recent board uh meeting and the work that they're doing with real world problems but also being solution finders coming up with uh solutions to those problems is just uh fantastic. Social studies also added some literary texts uh in the seventh grade level during the strategic plan. But I want to highlight this year we had a volunteer book club that got off the ground. Uh teachers and students brought forward a proposal uh to start a book club and the book was called Black Star and the the group that participated in this volunteer book club is our current eighth
015graders. they gave up their lunch at recess to actually dive into a book with their teachers and the book it was a sequel uh based on uh something that they read as seventh graders. Um so I just think that speaks to the future that we are building at the ridge and that Mrs. Vaness has created in here in the area of special education. I'm very proud of the work that Mr. Kosine and the department's been doing expanding use and training for the Wilson program. uh helping us grow leaders in foundational skills and our life skills program. Uh I know this was a dream of Miss Wrizos um and and just watching the dream play out right now is amazing each and every day. Um it's a point of pride in our building, the students in
016the program right now uh operate a coffee cart. I think it's the best cup in town if you ever want to drop in. Um they've also partnered with MIA. Uh so you may be aware they have hydroponic towers in our uh life skills program and they learn how to create perfumes and lotions and lip balms from the different plants that they are growing in the program. It's just amazing. So with that I'm going to turn it over to uh someone I'm very lucky to work with Suzanne and she'll hand out some of the other departments. [Applause] All right. So, I want to highlight um the mathematics department first. And um in mathematics, we updated the placement test that we administer to the fifth graders for middle school placement. And this was done um with Mrs.
017help with vertical articulation between our school and JK um as well as our math supervisor Castle and our previous math supervisor as well. Um through this updated placement test as well as our ready diagnostics uh and other multiple data points, we're increasing participation in our um grade six prejudge 78 classes uh which is the accelerating math program. So that's a point of pride for sure. Um we also with Mr. Sheep's uh assistance and supervision. We've embedded geometry in all units of math at all grade levels in order to address a priority area for growth through our work. And this was identified through looking at data analysis of NJSA performance. Um we're positioning our students to achieve at higher levels on state assessments through this work um by integrating NJSLA like questions into our lessons not
018only in math but in other uh content areas as well. In science um we're building our content mastery through the link benchmark assessments um allowing retakes and also building in reading strategies such as vocabulary morphology examination anchor charts and goals and That's not something that's typically done in science, but we are increasing those essential reading skills there as well. Um, in world language in our ESL program, we launched a new uh multilingual learner math class um which is a co-eing model at the school level. And this is a multi-grade level instruction model that um Courtney who is very uh primary uh brought to our school and we're seeing a lot of success with the students in that program. Uh we added Mandarin Chinese as a third language offering. Um so that's available to students in
019grade seven and 8. And overall in world language in general we've developed common assessments and proficiency based instruction. And these efforts have improved in um uh have resulted in improved stamp scores and extended eligible students for option two credit. And then finally, as Brian referenced early uh earlier, across all departments, we're growing into tier 2 small group instruction in the classroom and revising on two to three supports through math lab and the lab. Here's Mr. Pascal. Oh, he's still in touch. Good evening. Um, first I'd like to thank uh all my colleagues at the K5 and the middle school level because without a foundation at the high school level, even though we're the flagship, we wouldn't be a flagship without the foundation. >> So, curriculum. We have um we have updated all of our courses
020with the 2022 standards and mandates. Um and we have created numerous courses with innovative approaches to work. Um in addition, we have implemented small group instruction using datadriven approaches. Our science department is currently using link to help students master content and preparation for the types of infree activities that students are required to do um in this day and age. In terms of authentic learning, our Thunderbird internship and externship program, our pilot year, our 2122, we had three students. Last year, we had 48 students. Right now, we're in the midst of planning for this summer. well over um probably 65 students and numbers are still working. Um we've created a number of work-based learning placements for our students and have expanded our life skills program and those students are actually using Cricut machines and producing um
021products that the community can buy. And our goal next year is to move to some sort of online store in terms of um our career pathways and I'll get to that in a minute. We had 16 students in last year's class um earn endorsement and this year we're projected to have 25 students. We've expanded our AP courses. The high schools been awarded the AP honor roll and AP access award which means that uh our course is offered to many more students by demographic. We've also increased the number of female students in computer science. In terms of new enrollment at the start of our strategic action plan we had three articulation agreements. We now have seven. We're with Cat Hall University, Carolyn Dickinson, Bergen Community College, St. Thomas Aquinus, St. Elizabeth, NGIT, and we have a
022relationship with our seventh university college, which is Rambo for which we've added seven courses this year um for our students to be able to take um availability. We've increased our cost offerings from 20 to 31 in dual enrollment and we have um 132 students who earn um college credits in 194 classes in the 23 24 school year. We have 40 graduates from the class of 2024 who earn six or more credits over four years. And our students this year who are graduating will be attending colleges in 24 states in Canada. In terms of our career pathway endorsement program, in order to get a career pathway endorsement, students need to do three things. earn 15 credits in your pathway, participate in an authentic co-curricular experience, and then either do an internship, an externship, take a college
023course through community service or actual research. Their choice is five place. We have 25 projected students, the numbers are there, who will earn um a career pathway end this year. And I'm really proud of the work that our team has been doing, especially our values. There's some pictures for us included in the church. [Applause] I'm supposed to talk about these dollars, but I really just want to say, oh my gosh, the amount of work that the people in this room and the teachers and the parents to support the kids and the kids in order for all of these things to be accomplished. And really, this is just highlighting because over the last four years, 5 years, we've been talking about everything every year, twice a year. So, if you put that all together, the compilation
024of work is extraordinary. So, I really just from the bottom of my heart from CNI, thank you so much for constantly coming to work and wanting to push ourselves even further and making programs better for kids. If you can look at those bars, we have four of them at 100%. One of them we left at 90% which is number two and that's the that's the bar that really talks about thinking globally, making connections outside having empathy for the world around us. We feel that that's we want to continue to build with our kids and we have actually included it into our strategic. So, thank you from CNI. I really appreciate the work, the hard work. Thank you to the boards for supporting all of these crazy initiatives that were like, "Hey, let's get this, let's
025do this." It is working. It will continue to work. And the most important thing is honestly, we're doing all of this for our kids. So, thank you so much [Applause] with connections. Thank you. And I mean what an awesome night to actually highlight community connections because uh there are two pieces. Um you know tonight's teachers of the year celebration and honoring as well as the cohesion you feel amongst this leadership team which is the most cohesive it's ever felt for me in the last 11 years is very ematic of our collective work. So, we really um I just want to give a round of applause. I know it's just us, but we owe ourselves a round of applause. These were uh we have the goal statement and uh similarly sub goals to support that standard
026for community connections. And what emerged from our conversations uh back in uh 2020 when we were building the strategic plan was focused on a continuation of building a sense of community uh and connecting amongst and across our community. This frame focused on ways in which we can build more opportunities to work with community members in a range of forums, welcome newcomers to our community, and expose our students to opportunities beyond our classroom walls to bring course content to life. So what you'll see here is a little bit of overlap with our curriculum frame as well as the frame which will follow. The strength of the school district as we know is rooted in the strength between home community and our schools. So as highlighted through our Thunderbird partnership program we couldn't have talked about it
027more right that branding was super important. our internship extership experiences for our students, our further development of our communication strategy through our district newsletter, streamlining email communications across the district, our T-Ird talk opportunities, and celebrating our work across our school more overtly at our board meetings and our social media platforms. We believe we have made significant strides in this training. So, I'll pass it off to Miss Adams from JK to speak more thoroughly about what this looks like at the building. Um, so a lot of what Dennis Farah was saying I was also just going to echo. There is the sense of community and pride when you talk about Mawa. There are a lot of lifers in Mawa who grew up in Mawa and then come back to Mawa and live work in Ma. Um,
028and I think that what better night to see all of that in action. A lot of alumni came back to speak about futures that they had. And so thinking about community connections and our strategic plan, I think we were all excited to welcome families and students back into the building in 2021. And uh so some of the things that we did, we had hosted parent street orientations and tours, welcoming people back into the building. And um we updated our communication. So all of K5 has communication. We also send uh weekly newsletters and um our social media presence has increased and moved to Instagram and um we have a lot of exciting posts. We like to do battle with schools and um a lot of fun mascots. >> Great. Um and it's become really fun to
029compete in between the schools and try to see who has the best social media presence. the flagship typically wins, but we're working on it. Uh we also have new translation tools that are really they make speaking to all families easy and allows of access and entries for all families. And our community outreach, many people have talked about it, but the Denver partnership has been really huge with K5. Uh it allows students to see all the opportunities that they have when they grow up. Um so we have lots of our alumni come back. Um many community members and then people who are have fun and exciting jobs that we don't even know about. We don't typically talk about how do we get our students excited. Um in JK Project Challenge we started mock trials. Um we're
030looking to develop those. Uh we joined the national script spell this year and K5 partnership and sounds like it might be the middle school as well. Um science day and we also have a slew of cultural events within our community that we participate in that we're also really proud of. These are all of our students in action showing off the strategic plan for community connections. [Applause] uh community connections. I I came to the district in 2018 and I think it's fair to say we all of us will agree we're connected in ways now that it's just very different and it's so cool. Um Dennis uh Dennis kind of coined the hashtag not connects or I think I gave him credit for doing that. I'm sure as a team approach like everything else, but it's a
031real thing. Dennis mentioned branding. U Ma connects is a real thing and we're going to highlight some of the things in different areas for you. In the academic domain, uh under Thunderbird partnerships uh at the secondary level, we have hosted 165 Thunderbird uh experts. Uh that's across the middle school and high school. We've hosted architects, authors, scientists, financial professionals, journalists, and and many more. Uh our project challenge students participated in the New Jersey lawfare competition. Uh and our sixth grade team won first first place. Uh these students had an opportunity just last week uh to visit the New Jersey Law Center for a mock trial experience. uh the the Ridge and Malawa High School collaborated to create a career pathway assembly for grades seven and eight. Uh and that assembly, the best part of the
032assembly was a panel of students who were in the pathway program or went through the pathways program. Uh and it was just a studentto student Q&A uh about what uh the the opportunities at the high school level in the area of the arts uh visual arts, performing arts. Another point of pride here in Malawa. Our groups uh continue to get very prestigious awards and achievements. Uh for example, our orchestra recently earned the gold rating at the North Jersey Regional Festival. Our coral director, Miss Maria, uh conducted this year's Bergen County Chorus Festival. So that was a huge honor for her as well as for us here in MA. Our theater department continues to uh raise the bar for itself. It's always been an impressive uh production each and every year, but this this year's Annie
033Jr. just found a way to uh kick things up a notch. And besides the impressive performance uh under the umbrella connects, they always do a uh performance for JK. So we not too long ago we started as part of the transition process hosting JK uh doing a special performance for them and we also performed for local senior citizens. Uh and earlier this month uh once again our G&T program hosted their annual art show in town hall. So that's been a location in recent years. Great tradition. I think the entire community looks forward to it. He stole my opening line, Mr. Corey. I talk about # connect because it's really become a thing and I heard Mr. Cory give Dr. Fair credit for it, but apparently the word is over here. That's what he's saying. So,
034um to continue along the um regard thanks partner. Um regarding our different um service clubs, uh we We have several clubs at Noridge that are engaged in service and those include the community service club, friends of Americ, [Music] um all of these clubs at some point have engaged service initiatives um from clothing, food and toy drives and efforts to support organizations such as American Red Cross, Tomorrow's Children Foundation, and even supporting new families in MA or any um families in MA that are in need. uh we take very proud of that. Um our students, staff and families also have engaged in various cultural events such as international night and uh the lunar new year celebration. I know a lot of that was uh through um Mrs. Carlo's department as well. Um but that new year
035uh lunar new year celebration was made possible through MSF grants. Um I believe Mr. Tory referenced it earlier, but we have had hosted members of the model Police Department uh for coffee with a cop and those are our life skills uh students who are um invited in members of the mall police department to have coffee with them and talk about uh community service and protecting the model community um in uh connecting in an important way. Um we've fostered opportunities as Mr. we've set up for our schools to connect and blend uh together and that includes daylight um which is an opportunity for um I believe our school and the high school I believe JK as well to kind of the students and fans to kind of connect with one another um and play together. Uh
036the chorus and orchestra uh groups have visited our elementary schools. Um we had friendsgiving which is our life skills class um engaging with other levels um for Thanksgiving feast back in the fall. We do that each year. They also engage in a cookie exchange amongst their classes. Um and then also last year we had a collaboration with all schools to raise the $61,000 for Habitat for Humanity project that Mr. J was in charge of. We continue to remain focused on communication including our weekly updates through our one call system, the launch of a new website and also related features with uh which has related features with improved accessibility for our programs and activities through our social media. [Applause] Community Connections has been very exciting at preschool level. We've had educational partnerships in particular with Ramco
037College um through a variety of departments, their art department, their social studies department, and their Holocaust studies department. In addition, teachers had professional development in the visual arts at both Reno College and the Monontlair RU. In terms of career development initiatives, uh we ran several parentmies uh for student for parents from grades six all the way through 12 about our career pathways program, our internship program, our dual enrollment courses as well as our option two um programs. As Mr. Cory mentioned we have had assemblies with our middle school students with panels of students which has been um very successful and we've had alumni come back to speak in a variety of classes about their experiences in the workplace in terms of experiential learning. A lot of our students um are taking field trips. For example,
038our art students go to the Met. Um, our business students will go to the financial district and our science club and our science needs students will go to our elementary schools for C days and for science days. In terms of community service, the Habitat for Humanity, as you know, has been doing a lot of fundraising for the House in Ordale. They will go on June 2nd to start um to start building that house, which is really exciting for us. the Leo Club as well as the Habitat for Humanity does a lot of work each month with Access for All and Mawa. Uh and those kids and those advisors give up a lot of their time on the weekend to work with Access for All um in our community. Our Hope Club uh takes charge of
039taking child to work day, which is really an exciting day. Uh we have a lot of kids uh a lot of kids including Dr. Rinos and Dr. posted who all want to come to Mal High School now. Um, which we're happy about. Um, but they do a great job organizing that for our for our community. In terms of multicultural and community events, this year we had the Lunar New Year celebration funded by the Mala Schools Foundation. We've had international night, our band choir. We've been the host site um for Bergen County band choir auditions and uh we are working collaboratively with rans program and we've formed a lot of community partnerships with the MA police department our life skills class um has really integrated activities um into their program where they have police officers come
040in um sit and speak with our students and also we have a variet idea of community based trips like the Rock and Boulders where kids go out for social activities and other kinds of activities. Thank you. [Applause] >> All right. As you'll see here, we have the bar progression of what we believe after reviewing all of the work over the course of the last 5 years what we've achieved. You'll see that goals one, three, and four based on our work, uh, we feel as if we are at 100% completion. Goal one mentorships have been forged through our Thunderbird partnership program and our internship externship program that we've we've talked about pretty extensively. Uh goal two, we believe we are 90%. Um we've instituted town halls along with our focus work on welcoming uh new families
041into our district. Uh we've tapped into a communications consultant to improve our communication efforts as well. Um we've also a very conscious and purpose purposeful um effort to work on the transitions from building to building uh to make us connected as a entire school district. What you'll hear about when we discuss our framing, there's some overlap here. We're still working on building the parentto parent piece. Uh that is uh also really important to to us and our team. Goal three, we have successfully built and branded our pathways and come to work partnership program with an added focus on career fairs and expanding our partnership opportunities for our students. So, we've definitely achieved that. And lastly, we've successfully connected with families through our work with our ML families along with the branding of our programs for
042dual enrollment, which is ever growing. Um, big shout out to our supervisory team uh for their tireless work in finding new and innovative ways to uh free opportunities for our kids. Uh we also strive to building and sustain those partnerships with more and more trade schools and diversified programs for our students beyond the subsequent four-year college option for our students. So, uh we're really proud of what you can see see here. Um obviously the the piece that we don't believe we we've achieved uh we're going to bathe into the the following strategic plan. So, Miss Rizzo is now going to speak to the achievements of our family. [Applause] You know, as I'm sitting there listening to each of the areas, I'm beginning to envision that notion of the hand becoming a mighty fist. and what
043a wonderful opportunity we're creating for all of our students through all of this cohesiveness. Um, and relative to social emotional learning, I remain so enamored by our district's steadfast commitment to social emotional learning. We all know that there was a time during which SEAL or social emotional learning caused apprehension or perhaps some confusion. And by now we've demonstrated that our diligence with SEAL is rooted in care for each student and commitment to each one reaching their potential. The potential that every parent hopes for their child. SEAL is designed to build learner capacity, including grit and resilience both in and out of the classroom. MA's program has the intention of creating moments for the learner during which he or she experiences the fact that they have within them all that they need to meet the challenges
044and come out successful. We have developed an enriched environment rooted in SEAL competencies of selfawareness, self-management, social awareness, responsible decision making, and relationship skills. We have developed our programs with the expectation that all students have opportunities to evolve into their personal best. I know that tonight you're going to find that all that is shared by our principles are an outstanding representation of our collective dedication to each and every student. And might I invite my elementary colleague to come up and share. [Applause] SoCal with with regard to us making sure that we heard so many great things in the beginning about curriculum instruction that we have to make sure that we are teaching the whole child. We've made amazing strides with what I've seen over these five years in the plan um which we've done quite
045quite accomplishment. So building continuum um each school now has two coaches and those coaches help lead morning meetings um rooted in the um standards as Mrs. shared. They're also helping coordinate days during the mindful march. School counselors were also added across the schools and they are in classrooms teaching lessons which are not only helping the students but helping the teachers understand how to support those lessons and make sure that we continue for those goals. They also support students our counselors with developing skills to help students navigate social situations. There are things that they need to be taught and understand how to respond or how to react in those cases. Something that I think the district is really proud of is the code of conduct. um teachers and administrators um work collaboratively to to develop a
046code of conduct across the A5 school that where we believe that every every student has the right to be part of a supportive and safe learning environment and where we want to recognize those positive behaviors make sure they are recognized and then with regard to this conduct it's an opportunity for us to teach learn and grow. The code of conduct that was implemented this school year and promotes consistency across all of our buildings which makes sure that we are regard to our expectations and our responses at this time with supporting families. Uh the district has launched a website michaelmlaw.org uh with resources for home and also hosted numerous parentmies to build homeschool partnerships. Some of those are empowering your child and understanding through and castle and the other was the nurture heart approach uh in
047responsive classroom which is this year cultivating a positive learning environment you'll see that this daily infusion of the practices during our schoolwide morning meetings which such great work was taking place during that time um and from each classroom are helping build our classroom communities and the classroom lessons are fostering uh empathy and respective communication and events such as the uh mindful march uh promote educational well-being schoolwide. It really does give us an opportunity to provide extra attention uh to mindful based activities. Um and we've had activities such as mindfulness yoga and I believe one of the students was talking one of the students in high school today was speaking about having the opportunity in high school to take his shoes off and put his feet to the grass and just ground himself. Uh so it's
048just showing the great work that that's happening. And here are some uh slides from our Instagram across all the [Applause] Okay. Um, in terms of SEAL at the middle school, we're very proud of all of the hard work that we have been doing um, as administr administrative team um, as well as with our coaches and our school counseling uh, school counselors. Uh, we've focused on targeting program forming through our school counselors pushing in to the PE and health classes periodically um, to help the students to develop and promote their competencies which Mr. Brazo referenced earlier and the way that we do this is um we meet as a team. Um we also take feedback from our teachers uh their observations of students and uh really focusing on what each grade level needs um uh some
049instruction and some guidance and some support with and that's what our counselors uh focus their talks with the students on. Um and we've been doing this for the last several years and it has been very successful. Um we have student centered initiatives including wellness week. Uh that is a week typically in April or May when our PE health teachers and our counselors um create specific activities in PE and health classes as well as um around the building um to foster all this. Of course, we still do one for March. And days, I know that day was referenced earlier by the elementary school. Um, at Oakidge Day has truly become an amazing experience where all of our teachers are participating by creating teacher-led workshops for the students and these are highinterest workshops. Um, there's been very
050diverse offerings such as Spanish music dance party, which is a very big fan favorite. Check out our Instagram, you can Mrs. Murphy and Mrs. Harris dancing the students. Um, storytelling with Legos, Chill Out, Heal Up, Back Recovery, was a big favorite back in December. Backyard Astronomy and The Night Sky, and many, many more. There's about 60 offerings each day. So, we did have our first day this year, the day before our uh winter break, and we are planning another one for the end of June. We continue to celebrate our students through students of the month and mind acts of kindness. These are programs that we've had in place for a very long time since I've been here uh in which is 24 years. Um but we continue to hone and shape those programs and make
051them even better each year. And we do that with the support of our employee. Um each morning we start the day with daily positive quotes on the morning announcements and we try to use that to promote a positive school culture and then we also of course have our fun and purposeful spirit days and meetings throughout the school year. Um along with high school we've designated a series of homework free uh breaks or weekends throughout the school year and of course as um Mr. we referenced earlier. We have uh two coaches per school. Uh those coaches help to guide and model best practices for our faculty and staff um for our students under the umbrella. Uh we're also going to be uh building programs for our students beyond classroom uh after school activities. I I have
052to leave uh lead lead with the middle school sports program. Um just a few years ago it did not exist. And I think it it's worth noting uh Dr. Dur like I'm sure you're proud of so many things you're hearing tonight. Uh, but I hope middle school sports is at the top of your list and everything because um we have everything we have right now because Mike sat down uh with me and a few students in the conference room and just started the conversation. The next conversation was a cup of coffee with Mr. Pelier who's been instrumental in in making it all happen as well. Um, and right now by three years time, we have the most comprehensive athletic program at the middle school level in the county and I venture to say the state.
053We've grown very quickly. Um, we have uh in the fall boys and girls soccer. We have cross country. We have girls volleyball. In the winter we have boys and girls uh basketball. Uh, and then right now in our spring season, we have track and field and there's over 100 kids on Mrs. Beam's uh track pro uh track and field team. Yesterday they were in the league championship and performed very well. I sent out a note to our parents and guardians today about some of the special performances. Um so we are new kids on the block, but I'm sure many of you know uh we've already won a soccer championship. uh all of our uh basketball and soccer teams have gone into deep runs in the playoffs and um that's not why why we are doing
054it but it's great to do it right test scores etc. Um but uh we're certainly competing and making ourselves known in the league. Um you don't have to just be an athlete though to have a place at the ridge. We're also building uh our menu of club offerings. Uh this year, for example, through the support of the MSF, we were able to add the future engineering club. And this year, they got their feet wet. They went to the high school, worked with the high school students and the robotics program there to get some notes. And I just sat down with the advisor, Mrs. Chung, last week, and we started planning out the competitions that they are going to enter next year. We are so uh excited about that. Uh through the help of my buddy
055John here, um we have new opportunities uh for our students to participate in the uh marching band. Uh middle school students, if you go to a Friday night football game, you'll see them in the stands playing with uh their high school peers. Also, our students have an opportunity to perform in winter guard and uh percussion group, the awardwinning winter guard and percussion group. So proud of all the students who have uh participated in that. This has been a big focus of us uh of ours over the last couple of years in terms of helping uh grow the number of students involved in clubs, sports, performing arts, etc. I'm proud to share with all of you tonight that this year in random numbers over 67% of our students are involved in one activity at the bridge.
056many of those to give you an idea of that number that's 412 students that were involved in that at least one activity and the chart that we have that I recently shared with the central office team uh many of those students are involved in multiple activities and that's something at the middle school level as we're adding programs we're very mindful to to help our young uh students balance all those opportunities. Uh so our coaches, our music directors, the club advisors, they all work together so students can participate in multiple uh activities and not feel like they have to choose one over the other. Uh another uh big area under the middle school level uh is field trip experiences. So, we are known for our Frost Valley trip and and our eighth grade trip, of course.
057Uh, but now we're also adding a seventh grade trip. Uh, and I give credit to Mr. Poplin. Um, when he was involved with our HSO, uh, that started we have a seventh grade trip because at an HSO meeting, uh, Mr. Copper and other parents who are involved and participate raised the idea. Um, Suzanne and I try to give these lost answers the next year again. Uh, and I'm proud to say that we now have a seventh grade uh day trip that our students uh enjoy this year to mid mid April times. Um, we've also revamped our transition from 5 to 6 and and 8 to 9 to make sure our students are ready to hit the ground running in their respective schools. Uh, I just met with the fifth grade parents at orientation this week
058and I assured them that the ridge will be a very familiar home for their child before they even show up in September. Uh, we've already hosted them in March. Uh, tomorrow Suzanne and we're hosting the entire fifth grade again and then of course over the summer they come in with their families. Uh so we're really proud of the work that we are doing uh with the transition work under uh we're also mindful of school safety and security. We've implemented several teams that are focused on uh looking at data identifying trends talking about situations but more importantly coming up with uh proactive measures to make sure everyone is healthy and safe. Uh some of that work is being done through our student support data team, our school safety climate team and our school threat assessment team.
059And then of course this year uh we were fortunate with the board's uh support to add a school security officer uh who feels like he's been there many years. He's already a valuable member of our team working with our students each and every day and it's just an extra resource for us. Thank you. All right. So at the high school level in terms of SEAL um for communication resources last year in collaboration with our SGAA we created the top four in Demburg program that I know Dr. reports on monthly where we recognize uh well first we created pillars of positive behavior and good character and every month we recognize one faculty member and one student who it kind of is training our students to kind of see the good in all that we do see
060the good character and encourage one another and demonstrate that character daily uh we also have you know is pretty much an everyday experience at high school whether it's mindful Monday whether it's word words of wisdom Wednesday and also our Thunderbird Thursdays. Um Dr. Ftoro really must love the month of March because we turn it into mindful Monday music march. And so every Monday during the month of March, we have the students select musical selections to play throughout the passing of the period in which Dr. will then text me and judge the the song selection of what just took place. So, um, in terms of implementation and support, uh, as you heard tonight with the high school teacher of the year, Mr. Arino, right before the strategic plan, when we had mindfulness, the class begin, there
061was only 22 students in the very first year that it ran. We're happy to say that next year there are 96 student requests for that course. So, we continue to expand up to four sections next year, which is amazing. Um and uh in terms of student support, we um did we got a grant through Bergen County Human Services for $7,000 and we were able to create a confidence closet where students who may not have a piece of clothing, they may not have this that or the other, they can just go to the conference closet, be quiet, and we can uh help support them throughout that process and in their needs. So, um, a lot of exciting things. And then just to touch on what Brian said as well, we have implemented the predecessor teams not
062just, um, at the high school across the district and are working together with the implementation of the form of the teams and working as one unit. So, it's going to be great. Here's [Applause] some obviously images relative to our SEO in action. And here's our bars. Um, sorry for the SEO. I'm a little bit of a tough creator, I guess. Um, we didn't reach 100% on everything, but nonetheless, there's always an opportunity to grow. Um based upon all that was shared by the building administrators for our learning community remains at our forefront. We continue to believe that when students feel connected to the schoolhouse through the supportive learning culture rooted in the growth of each individual's personal potential. We can note marked progress in academics and the not so subtle people and personal skills so
063essential to be a productive member of our society. For goal one in the area of curricular offerings and experiences around SEO, we've received 100%. In the area goal two, we have we've achieved 90% of our goal in cultivating a culture of appreciation from each of us in our entire community partnership. I want to note on goal two that our Habitat for Humanity and Teens initiatives contribute to those in need with housing and building wells. and there is still time for the community to donate to those causes. Goal three, we've achieved 80% of our goals by providing opportunities for parental enrichment. As Dr. Farah alluded to, we do have more work there and we have plans in place. Go four, we've reached 100% of our expectation there, and again, thank you to the board of education.
064We now have guidance counselors, grades K through 12. Goal five, we've reached 100% of our of our goal relative to PD opportunities for teachers and staff. And might I close by saying programs in Malawa have the intention to build within the adults and children the understanding that our determination and future comes from our own efforts and actions and are not bound to our past. Thank you, Mr. Um, I'm going to close this out. Um, along the lines of facilities, what I want to talk about first of all is the goals that were that were set forth when we were creating the strategic plan. Some of the things if you look up on to the slide, which you probably can't see, um, it talks about regularly evaluating our learning spaces, talked about upgrading our learning spaces,
065it talked about creating innovative learning spaces that allow our students to thrive. And most importantly, it talked about identifying spaces and adjusting spaces to ensure that every student is able to access their educational experience without boundaries. So what I'm going to talk about over the next couple slides, I'm not going to go chapter and verse in each uh bullet, but there's a lot of commonalities across the elementaryaries. So if you look at the first two elementary schools, Betsy Ross and GW, and it continues on for a lot of Joyce Summer School. Across the elementary schools, we um upgraded our fire alarm systems. I know it's not the the exciting upgrades, but those are the essential things that we need in order to ensure that our kids are safe. A new projects have been done throughout
066the district in consultation with town council, which we're very grateful for that partnership. HBC upgrades and replacements have taken place at GW, Lenin Meadows, and Joyce Gilmer School. window replacements at Betsy Ross School and an innovation lab at Joyce Gilmer School. This summer, we're going to be working on the new gym on the HDC replacement temperature controls and there's still more work to be done. At secondary level, a large amount of work happened at secondary level as well. Uh roofing work happened at both buildings, but still more work need to be done there. window replacement at both buildings, but again, more work needs to be done. Um, hopefully everyone has been able to experience the new grand stands at Mal High School. It's definitely a point of pride and it's enhanced the uh spectator experience
067watching our students perform um resurfacing the new track um and the media center furniture upgrade at Hollow High School. Those are just to name a few projects and I wanted to take a moment to thank the finance and facilities committee. uh four years ago I was fortunate enough to work with them. Um in our work together um we've been able to develop different forecasting schedules. So we're responsible not only to our district but to our taxpayers. All of this work that I just started to speak about um total $10.9 million. All of that work is happening within our operating budget. Um, and that for me is a point of pride because there has been a tremendous amount of work that that happens uh so far over the past 5 years. I said there's still more
068more work to be done, but the strategic thought process and assessing of our buildings has allowed our buildings to be um continue to provide a space for our students that the community can be proud of. That being said, what I want to share with you is um throughout the district, our newest building is over 20 years old. Um throughout our district, we have buildings that have character, let's say that. Um and that and that is is something that is special for our district. But with that, um we have to be really thoughtful and on top of things to make sure that the infrastructure is in place, the work that the financing facilities and the board administrative team has done with Lamb Associates to come in and do a early diagnostic assessment of our facilities have
069aided in our understanding in making thoughtful decisions and improvements throughout these past 5 years and it will continue over the next 5 years. I was going to put a a bunch of pictures of our roof of our rooms throughout the district. I didn't think that was going to hit really well. Um so we have a picture of HBAC. Um, the picture in the middle is our JK Innovation Lab, which is absolutely spectacular. Um, and then a picture of our, I believe, our new HBAC units, um, at GW school. Everyone's talking about these bars. So, let me talk about the bars for facilities. As much as I'm extremely proud of the work and commitment that not only the board, the administrative team, I have to give a shout out to Greg Romero. has been um just
070a gem for us of being on top of all the projects and overseeing that and I'm I'm so grateful for Tom come in this year and work with us on these projects and we continue to um facilities is something that's never going to be done. Um as much as we're proud of the work that's happened with HBAC roofs, windows, classrooms, field uh field services uh and grandstands as we know and I know that Mike has I believe the total um square footage of our facilities memorized I do not. Um it's something that's going to be an ongoing focus not only in the first strategic plan but in the second strategic plan. So that's why we have not uh completed 100% of the goals. But hopefully what I shared with you the summary of just some
071of the projects uh showcases the commitment that we've had to ensure that we're evaluating um creating innovative spaces and ensuring that all of our students have access to our facilities to just close out and I appreciate everyone's patience. I appreciate everyone's uh attention to this. To close out, this work has been extremely important to all of us. This has been our roadmap from 2020 till 2025. Um, I just want to take a moment to thank the administrative team. I started that way. I want to end that way. The commitment that every single school, every single department has had to this work is the reason why all of this um is a reality. I also want to thank the teachers. The teachers have been walking alongside of us every step of the way. and the teacher
072of the year award really encapsulate the special moments that the teachers create each and every day. And we have all of these products on top of the impact that they're making to our students. So, administrative team, thank you very much. Board of Education, thank you very much for for your support and your commitment to this work and I look forward to starting 2025 to 2030. So, thank you very much. [Applause]