001foreign members as a reminder we have microphones turned off when you're ready to speak please bring my folks close to your mouth turn microphone on it helps with the Acoustics both here in the room as well as for ma listening on live stream and get up on the video broadcast Mr penners if you just want to let me know when you see a few people signed up and then we'll begin just another moment [Music] thank you Dr Morgan right this meeting of the malwa 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
002be live streamed for viewing purposes only anyone wishing to view the meeting made you so via Zoom the webinar ID for this meeting is 851-1455-5789 and the required password is 711016 all right I called meeting to order Mr Baker Mr Coughlin here this devanero Mr DeSilva here Mr Denise here Mr Gallagher here Mr kasmarski here Dr Park here Mr cone yeah student representative Mr Edward King here uh this Mr Edward Kane tonight thanks um all right um adequate notice of agenda of this meeting has been provided to the Ridgewood news and the record specifying that the malwa Board of Education will meet on December 7th 2022 in the administrative offices 60 Ridge Road Mahwah New Jersey Hopi was filed with the Township Clerk salute to Flagstaff [Music] thank you okay um it looks like we
003do not require an executive session in the beginning so let's go on to agenda questions please limit your questions at this time to resolutions under new business on this agenda as a matter of fairness you're asked to limit your questions to no more than one and your remarks to no longer than three minutes if you are here representing a group please identify yourself the group in your position in the group if you are here as an individual please give us your name and address this section of public participation will be limited to 15 minutes please specify the resolution you are referring to in your question okay motion to open the meeting to the public Mr kizmersky second by Mr DeSilva hi Danielle Brian 22 Riverview Terrace Wawa um the item number is 18 personnel and
004appointment number m my issue is the last or last meeting rather um there was a list of what for I my kids are in Lenape so um there's a list of 29 individuals that were um okay to volunteer um so I never um like with I never bombed here I didn't get a I didn't I must have missed the email or whatever to give me that opportunity so the night of the meeting I'm at home I emailed on the hso and I've never heard back um so I'm curious why um like I'm missing from this if we're adding people why I wasn't included on this list thank you Mr grime hi I'm Miss Ryan uh what school specifically do you want to be okay um that I'm not aware about what I can do is
005I can connect you with the principal need just so this is not something that's a one-time thing we often do volunteers on an ongoing basis so we can look into the matter we always want more volunteers so we don't want to stifle that at all so I'll make sure that I check in with Mr weiken to see what the logistics are for that yeah I didn't I didn't email him I just emailed because the post had said to email the hso the hso directly that's who I emailed right so I'll make sure that he connects with the the exact for The Meadows hso to make sure that we get um you on the list yeah thank you all right thank you Miss Ryan um sure this one my name is Justin I'm the parent here
006okay do you uh what item number are you referring to again um I think it was letter M that Danielle was just speaking about oh 18m so under personnel as well okay uh I'm Apparent at Lumbee pedals as well I was just curious as to what the process is of choosing a volunteer along the lines of hso volunteers I mean this is specifically to assist in the library the library yes I'm just curious because I know a lot of people did ask volunteer and they weren't chosen so I'm just curious as to why well that's not that's not a board process what happens is the hso have a number of committees that they look to fill I don't know exactly how they're the ones once they get the interest from the parents what they do
007is they start to look at what committees they need to fill then they fill accordingly I don't know specifically what's going on with uh the feeling of those volunteers at Lincoln Meadows but like I said to Miss Ryan what we can do is we can connect you with um Mr waika actually just so just so you know just Mr weikable will talk to the exact board for the hso and then they can give you clarification but then it comes to you to confirm this yeah because all all volunteers need to be approved if they're going to be working within the school for an extended period of time that's a procedure that we have to do but one time volunteers like the pope fair and things like that they don't have to be a board approved
008but if you're going to be in a school in a capacity of supporting something within a school that then needs to be bored but then this is just too late to no no not necessarily because um and if you go back to the previous agendas you'll see there's an ongoing approval oftentimes every single meeting um so that if you're not on at this time again I don't want to uh stifle anybody from being interested from volunteering to be a part of the school we'll we'll figure something out okay I have more comments of questions okay thank you thank you just to be clear so ehsl operates separately from the board so I guess they feel the um interest in in volunteering they pick where you you whatever their process is to choose Who's Who and
009then they submit to us just for the approval to be in school so that that's not anything that we actually have you know that's true that's right they won't they don't consult with building admin or board to select the volunteers that will attend to whatever posts they need to fill right and then when when there is a request that goes to the hso we don't see that correct okay that's correct thank you okay no I just want to make sure right we'll get more clarification it sounds like thank you Doctor your turn um all right motion to close the meeting to the public Mr Copland second by Mr gallo all right superintendent's report Dr tutorbo I see a lovely turnout tonight for our meeting a lot of smiling faces so so I'm very excited to
010see all of our guests here uh thank you for coming this is something that we wanted to do at the last meeting um but unfortunately our athletes had a previous engagements I believe you guys had games for your Club teams and things like that so thank you so much for the team and the parents to come and attend um this just really special time um let me just give you a little background before I get into the specifics of why the the athletes are here um last year Mr Mr Corey uh Miss Whalen and a number of students came to uh to me and asked for us to consider reinstating Middle School sports it was wonderful to sit with the students that really presented a wonderful argument of the benefits of reinstating Middle School sports
011to rampo Ridge Middle School a lot of the things that they spoke about was to build camaraderie camaraderie among the athletes it talked about connecting the students to the school and it also talked about continuing to build a sense of Pride and being connected to Rambo Rich um Mr Corey Miss Whalen Mr Pelletier who's in the back did a ton of work to research what's currently out there along lines of the sports connecting with the league to see the logistics of how we can get reinstated into the league working with Transportation working with the coaches and did a a tremendous job of really turning this request into a reality so I can't thank them enough for for all the hard work to Bringing Middle School sports back and it definitely came back with a bang
012so we had our first season with uh boys and girls soccer it was absolutely tremendous to see all of the athletes out on the field after school working extremely hard with the coaches we have our coaches here but we have one of our coaches here uh we have Coach Caitlin Jones who is who is here and we also have zodelori who is unable to attend tonight um working with our athletes and really building a sense of Team you could tell when they were out there that there was tremendous talent but coming together as a first year team and competing is a challenge to to say the least um to be able to go out and watch them play after school and compete against other schools the first thing I was wondering is how are they
013going to be supported by our community Mr Corey coined the phrase of Phil the hill and to see all of our our students out there our teachers taking the time after school to go out there board members were there parents were there other community members were there and it was just a really exciting environment I was I was just going to get to that point and the connection also and and Mr Cal makes a very good point of our high school soccer team coming down and cheering on the girls was just a wonderful thing to see of the connection not only within the school but across from rample Ridge to the high school we didn't know what to expect for the season uh they came out and they had great games in the beginning of
014the season but we knew it was going to be a long season and to see that the girls made it into the playoffs we were excited but I have to tell you when a number of people are in the audience and uh on the desk that were at the championship game against cavallini it was probably one of the most exciting games that I was a part of and I was just a crazy fan yelling and screaming um to see the girls who lost to this team during the season but to be able to work hard and regroup and compete at such a high level of the championship game and then coming down to a direct kick with less than one minute left it's like these are the things that they write after the school specials
015about um and just the excitement that you saw on the girl's face faces afterwards the parents and the sense of Pride that they had um just know that you you left a mark on Mawa this year it's something that we will never forget and we hope that the athletes and the coaches and administration and parents don't forget it either so we felt like it was really important to take the time uh you know we come here we talk about business we try to celebrate things that are happening in the school district but what better way to celebrate you than to ask you to come and celebrate each of you tonight so um I just wanted to um to say it is we are celebrating the north bear with me the North Bergen Middle School interscholastic
016Athletic League champions our Middle School girls soccer team so if you can give them around the cause [Applause] thank you Mr Corey can come up and just say a couple words good evening um before I talk about this extraordinary group of young women and our coaches um I want to express to the board and say thank you uh to Dr morthey the entire board Dr detour the entire central office team Mr Pelletier thank you for for making this possible um uh when you approve Middle School sports last spring we want you to know that that we know that that was not an insignificant commitment and and we are extremely grateful uh for that and we can we promise you that that we are committed and in turn uh to continue shaping and putting together a
017product that hopefully all of us could continue to be proud of and if we win some games along the way that's going to be great um uh but but certainly just doing the doing it for the right reasons in the right way we thank you for that opportunity so thank you to transition to uh the this this team and our coaches coach delorey could it be here tonight she had a family obligation um just extraordinary um when we started our season we didn't know what we were getting ourselves into uh there's not a lot of information out there about Middle School sports there's no scouting reports um we didn't know what the competition was going to be like um so so we played our first couple games and and we we started whispering to each
018other hey we're pretty competitive and and we started stringing some wins together and and there were some bumps along the way uh we did have one really bad loss it was nine to one but what I loved about that adversity during the season that nine to one loss um no matter who you talk to after that game and I'm sure the girls would agree whether it was a player a coach following that loss everyone had a bad taste in their mouth and they said we were better than that and and that didn't reflect uh we just had a bad day at the office and if we ever get a chance for a do-over uh it's probably going to be a little bit different so then we continue to win and and piling up the wins
019and then it was late in the season and and all of a sudden we started to have a new Whispering conversations we never talked to the girls about it but we said wow we must be one of the best teams you know we just keep winning we don't know what the other teams are doing but we know we're just winning all of the time and and then we started saying are there playoffs and if there are playoffs how are they structured I don't even think Mr Pelletier knew how the playoffs operated or whatever uh and then you know the rest is history we get into the playoffs we get to the championship game um not only did we do a little bit better against that team uh that we lost nine to one we did
020a lot better we we we won in the rest is history throughout the season besides all the wins we also try to have some fun so on that day before the big game we said what can we do special and we put together we said let's have a pep rally and what could that mean at the high school and literally when I tell you a couple of emails flew around and next thing you know the the high school marching band is is leading a parade through the throughout the hallways and and Mr Cronk was in the Thunderbird mascot outfit and and it it was just a really cool moment that put an exclamation point uh on this year and and we didn't know what was going to happen that afternoon uh we did that little
021pep rally up front uh we didn't want to mess with their pregame routine at all because they they knew what they were doing so after the drums left and you know some of us had an opportunity to talk to the to the team um my message to the team was just go out and do what you do and and play every moment like it could be that moment these big games always come down to a moment and if you were there there that day Dr morothy was there a lot of board members parents grandparents siblings young kids students teachers um certainly parents we we traveled well throughout the season home games away games we had a great fan base if you were there you knew that moment was going to be uh in favor of
022the of these girls they they were gonna somehow win the game you can make it a little easier on all of us like if you score that goal like in the first minute in the first three minutes that would be nice uh but I guess that added to the excitement so uh we are proud of you you will have this forever um my only wish is that this cohort of girls somehow you know stay together and go up through the Mawa High School uh program because if they do I promise you this will not be the last time that you're hearing from them so congratulations [Applause] foreign could be here tonight uh but it's spinning that that Coach Jones Coach Jones coming up uh Coach Jones is it's a new teacher in our district and
023I think it's fitting that she she's here tonight in this role um uh from day one she wanted to get involved she said how do I get involved uh so I think it's worth noting uh Coach Jones volunteered uh the entire season and and volunteered next to uh coach Delores so Mrs Jones Katelyn thank you for your service she will now introduce uh the members of the team those that are here as well as those that maybe uh weren't able to be here awesome just stand when she calls me thank you okay I can't stop that speech but obviously I love being with these girls yes I volunteered my time but I wouldn't change it for the world awesome job congratulations okay so just stand when I say your name Leah for me oh she's
024not here Charlotte Ferguson Ava Ford Kelly garmendia Lily Harrington [Applause] Peyton Kelly Julie and grazalina who is on here [Applause] Alexander La Prairie [Applause] Olivia lafrari Ashley mahano Alfaro [Applause] Ella Martin [Applause] Ava mytrap [Applause] page my truck test monks [Applause] paranita palette [Applause] foreign [Applause] Tremblay [Applause] and Olivia Zucker [Applause] congrats girl we have your certificates you'll get them afterwards but we'd love to have a picture with all of you and the board board s congratulations process there you go perfect sorry yeah I want this on Twitter right away yeah girls uh and and families please feel free I mean you're more than welcome to stay but you do not have to but now's a good time to make the exit congratulations again everyone thank you [Applause] the next part of my report um
025as we've done in the past there are a number of assessment opportunities that take place throughout the year we asked Dr bavino to come up and share the results of one of the many assessments that take place throughout the year this one being the new one thank you foreign graduation proficiency assessment we're going to talk a little bit about the history of this assessment it is the first time that this assessment was actually given to our Juniors last year so in September on the end of September the State Board of Education adopted the graduation proficiency assessment they said that the Juniors of 2023 2024 and the 2025. those graduating classes would take this assessment in July 5th the governor Murphy said hold on 2023 class we're going to make your assessment and field test because
026this assessment has never been given before and also if you remember with covid this class actually was a class that had not taken an assessment since eighth grade so Dr Murphy felt it was really important to say on this assessment we're going to do it as a field test so just keep that in mind there are no graduation requirements in terms of Assessments for the 2023 City seniors but if you look at the NJ GPA it will be required for the next coming class so our current Juniors will take it this spring we look at the NJ GPA you might say well why are we even reporting on this because it's a field test but there are some benefits to looking at the data so one of the things that the state said is something
027the districts should do is we can look at this data to say how's our curriculum going how about our programming do we have to change anything or tweak anything there are also opportunities to focus on different targeted areas so that the next degree that takes it will have a better chance of having success and then the other piece is a quote from the njdoe which I'll allow you to foreign and what this is saying is what we've been doing njtss and our data teams are exactly what we want to do we want to look at multiple data points and through our work with njtss this year and the data teams that we've set in case that is exactly what we're doing so overall the NJ GPA is set up a lot like the NJ SLA
028so our students take the njsla in all the way up through ninth grade they used to take it in 10th Grade but that was removed so when the students now take it in junior year I know it's a little confusing but they now take it in 11th grade the similar questions are there so in our Ela section they'll have two sections of 90 minutes and in our math sections there'll be two sections again of 90 minutes the ELA component is testing standards in grade 10 and the math component is testing standards in Algebra 1 and geometry so it's a combination of both the report will will come back to families so in November we actually sent families the field test results and in those results you'll there's there's two different ways that they they have
029a distinction of whether you passed it or not it's called graduation ready or not yet ready not yet graduation ready so that said they kept it pretty simple um so when parents are receiving those reports they'll receive reports for ELA and for mathematics and they'll be able to see where their child if you look at this chart let me take you through what you're what you're looking at here at the top you're going to see participation numbers so for our ELA test we had 198 students take the test last year and in mathematics we had 199. the difference of the one student is when students come from a different country and they come into our schools they do have an exemption of taking Ela section tests so one of our students did not have to
030take the Eli section so that's the difference if you look below you'll see the blue sections are Mawa blue that is where our students write and the gray is a comparison to the state we don't have historical data obviously to compare to because again this is the first time that they ran this assessment so if you look for ELA we had 65 students 65 of our students graduation ready 39 was what the state showed as ready so we were well above we're actually 26 above the state and for mathematics we were 76 graduation ready over the state's 50 again 26.6 26 percentage points over this is the current seniors they took this in junior year yes um something that Mr Pascal kept throwing in my ear was please tell them that there is no graduating
031senior that has not passed a test so usually in the beginning of the year I stand up here and I say all those students that didn't pass the NJ SLA Grade 9 or grade 10 test took other assessments so please keep that in mind this is the same situation if you did not pass this test you have a chance to pass other tests and we'll talk about that a little later foreign this is our subgroup analysis for this assessment if you see the N equals 10 this is just a reminder from when we did our NJ SLA presentation we cannot report on subgroups that are nine or less so anything 10 or more we can report on so on the left hand side of your screen you have economically disadvantaged and special education subgroups and
032on the right hand side you have Hispanic Latino Asian black African-American and white if you look to the right of those category titles you'll see little numbers so for instance our economically disadvantaged group you see an 11. that means although those numbers are big right 55 percent did not pass or did we're not graduation ready and 45 were that makeup is 11 students does that make sense okay when you look over to the other side screen on the right you'll see Hispanic Latino Asian black African-American and white please remember just like in the NJ SLA these subgroups are mixed with economically disadvantaged special education and our L subgroups as well our L sub groups cannot be shown here because they are nine or less this is that same subgroup analysis but for mathematics so I'll
033give you just overall the district did a little bit better in mathematics than we did in ela and when you're looking at these numbers I want to I want to not caution you but I want to say we never want to make sweeping statements about any subgroup because they are mixed with other subgroups and because the numbers are only representative of a very small population we really pride ourselves in Mawa at the fact that we can look at this small subgroup and look at the individual student that needs Assistance or that needs a small group moment as opposed to looking at a large subgroup of maybe 100 students we're really talking about 12 students 20 students 11 students so we have that benefit here in Mawa to look more deeply at the individual student the
034state requires us to talk about what we do right what do we do with all this information so there are some things that um our upper level supervisors and Mr Pascal and Miss Boney have put in place for our seniors this this year one of them sitting right here so in ela and in math it mimics each other so you'll see for students who did not pass a junior year assessment they have other opportunities so you can take the PSAT the SAT the act the ASVAB the accuplacer all of these tests you've heard me talk about already and again going back to what Mr Pascal would like to remind you every single student passes a test before they leave we have never had an issue with that we have also created an Abby called the
035ahasa course but it's an alternative high school assessment course we created it for both Ela and for math this is for students that did not pass this assessment and and it is not a full year class but it's it can be a semester course or a half a year course and we do this so that the teacher can really work on foundational skills but then also test taking skills for children that would need to pass a test there's also on the left hand side of foundations of English 12 course that we've always had in place it's two is for students that might not have passed the holiday section and on the right hand side this year we created the foundations of college algebra statistics course this specifically for students with special special needs who also
036have have difficulty passing this test this course would help them there this also gives our students a fourth year of math which is actually really important if they want to go to college and then also we have summer school and summer supports as well that we put in place any questions on the information that was presented so we do the the intervention the eight niche of the program we developed in this when is that semester class is that your fall of your senior year you're taking that yes so it would take in in the fall and you would take it until you passed another test so if you took an Act a PSAT or the ASVAB you could act and you passed it you can actually come out of it but we don't repeat this
037test for the non-passing student that is we don't actually know if our interventions would have changed the outcome of this test yeah so the state actually gives you the opportunity to retest the child in the fall of the following year so this senior year this senior class could actually take right if it was a wheel not not a field test they could have a chance to take it um but to be honest I'd rather them in a class where they're building their skills and take another alternate assessment to the njsl the NJ GPA does that make sense yes but so yes in terms of comparing variable to variable yes you're not comparing Apples to Apples you're comparing apples to oranges so like for example if I took the ACT to be my alternate task I'm
038assuming that like the number value you have to get more than an X to say you're good to go um but some of the students who did pass this test might have passed the abc2 regardless correct so again we don't know necessarily if those interventions bent the Curve doing it before that and what I will say to you is that if we're only relying on Intervention in 11th grade right so we want to really love our 11th graders we want them to take this test with no problem and we really want those numbers to be higher um so we look below that so where are we intervening before and that's what engine TSS does right so we're building and we're building based off skills and deficits throughout their years with us and then we have
039other data points large test data points that obviously the state produces um this class is a little bit of an anomaly because of the fact that they hadn't taken a state Statewide assessment for you know a couple years thank you very exciting you could say their learning was disrupted by covid and all that so that's um I believe the scale score is up to 800. um it actually goes to 8.50 so 750 to 850 is passing so and that's the cut score is 750. um and in looking because we're we're continuing to look at the data and see what it can share for us um we had a large portion of our students who fell within that Gap category of not ready that fell between was it the 740 and 750 line so when you're
040looking at a scale of from from zero to 850 and you have a large portion between that 740 and 750 lion it's encouraging obviously listen we we did we did wonderful compared to the state but that's not something that we're we're going to arrest our press there we constantly want to continue to build those proficiency rates well you're looking at data you want to look at it in its entirety and to see that a large number of our students who are not there yet to see that they're right there is encouraging but and continue to understand each student's educational profile we're committed to making sure that we're building them where they are and really building those foundational skills um from a timing perspective I mean we're seeing this it's you know the first week of
041December when did the school district get this from an actionable standpoint for those students so you're talking about working on this in the fall Falls over I mean we're all in a win already I mean they're halfway through the year so kind of like when did we get these results when do we break this down for the individual students even in those subgroups to assist them in their path this year so it's a great question we got them at the end of October parents receive their school reports at the end of it was the middle to end of November and then we have to report to the board and the public within 60 days so that's why we're reporting now regarding we talk about looking at data and actually answer one of my questions behind
042the two which normally happens um regarding data um do we know the comparison of our subgroups versus the state I know we did fairly well against the state overall but we know what the subgroups look like versus the state as well as we have a subgroup of gender do we know the gender breakdown male versus female we do so um the gender breakdown is pretty much even I will tell you in ela in um for boys we did a slightly lower we were about 40 46 comparative to girls um so but even even pretty much throughout which we see that's pretty much normal for us so if you go back to the NJ SLA data 2 female male comparison didn't lend itself too much information for us to lean on thank you um I'm sorry
043they're a second purchase question um we don't have the comparison to the state at this point the subgroups yeah they just have the overall exactly they're just providing the overall Mr Giselle yeah so to the exhibits so hypothetically you know you said the state gives you know the option to retest and the fact that they get us that actionable information by November just you know at least they're consistent right [Music] they're consistent they're consistently like that helpful so you know obviously you know the the it's it's interesting to see how we do against the state but I mean I mean if we compare ourselves to the state like that's that's a pretty little bar to set do we have I know we used to get four I think it was njsla the district yeah do
044we get something similar with this not yet not yet um but the state has told us with njsla they're going to do that so I'm assuming they will do this with the NJ GPA as well but for this round for the field test we don't have that data so does this replace njsla are we still doing that so technically the history of it right is you have this ahasa assessment way back then we got Park then we got NJ SLA and jsla went up to 10th grade we dropped njsla 10th grade so we only go up to ninth grade now and now they replace 10th grade with an 11th grade test which is the NJ GPA so should we take that's now on how long this will last yes this will be yeah so so
045our current seniors don't have a requirement for an assessment of course we have other requirements for graduation but not an assessment requirement and then following years yes it's a requirement to take it so it'll go past the class of 25. yes unless they come up with a better one another one now right and then it'll be so we'll get the results so what our faculty got these results and they said Mike Gallo's name is on the not pass math right did The Faculty say oh yeah I think I I suspected that Mike needed help in algebra or geometry and but and I'm already on top of that so like going to Ben's Point like you're getting used results a quarter of the win more than a quarter of the wave of the Year yes and
046then they want you to bend the curve yeah at the last minute and that's what your good point was like hey what are you doing you can't be doing this up way ahead yes um so I mean that's really the only thing you have is like the correlation of Faculty at where teacher expectation to the student list and say oh yeah Mike he never got math we're gonna he's he needs help so so Mike that's a great question to speak to that um and I I agree with the the frustration that's shared along the lines of all the aspects of Assessments and timelines and things like that that's what I'm really proud of the work that's taking place with the njtss because this is just one of many data points that we get a chance
047to use to create those understandings of our students so the the goal of njtss is to make sure that if there's ongoing awareness of how our students are performing from the beginning of the year to the end of the year and then once we hand them off to the following year there's not this exploratory time there's opportunities for them to continue the work from that handoff of the previous year we don't have to wait for an assessment this singular assessment to come and say Mike detoro really needs some work on his his reading strategies that's something that we're embedding protocols and systems in place so that's already something that we're working on whether this comes or goes or the report in December or January it shouldn't matter that's the benefit of the NJ TSS model
048yeah so um just to add to that something else we did this year was um we actually tested the district tested we did PSATs to all sitting sophomores and juniors which is um an experience we have not done before and that's something else that we're trying to be proactive in in that case as well um any other questions I just had one question and so and again this is more your opinion versus um do they consider this or they made it a field test because of the performance do you think Statewide I mean which oh well I just busted through but so suddenly it became a pilot program and field test because of the timing is very um this apropos I would say right so um originally it was it was going to count and
049then I I think yes once once scores came in there was also some talk that the cost score changed so originally the cut score they were talking about was going to be 725 but it changed to 750. um so there's definitely different different um different things in play in the background I would say but yeah so I think we have to take it for what it is right it is a field test it's the first time our kids were given an assessment like this it does give us debt data to compare to our other data points um and it's something that we can work with and I guess I asked that because a parent who receives this report should perhaps consider those factors you just spoke to and take the information um you know with
050a grain of salt perhaps that it's all important these are all data points that are important but this is not the end all be all and it certainly will not affect graduations or any of our seniors this year when was there again um it's given in the spring always so I believe the dates were March March 15 16th 17th and there I know that's when we're giving it this coming this coming year it's going to be March 13th to the 17th that week it was on St Patty's Day um all right are there any other questions I think uh Dr dutaro's point about our work and the goal of related to the New Jersey period um the njtss is so important to sort of gain more you know put us in driver's seat instead of
051waiting for these Knuckleheads in Trenton to get their act together um to say oh by the way your kids say you know they did okay but not great and you only have three months to fix it you know it's sort of like I mean it's frustrating and and just to clarify for people njtss is in is the New Jersey tiered system of support just for people who may not have attended or pre they're using a lot of abbreviations but just to clarify um all right well thank you very much thank you thank you uh and asked Dr detoro one last thing I'm jumping into your report no no um one last thing I think is important to to share with the community um I know we sent out communication um and this is really specific
052to our surveys um the communication was sent out last week and then this week specific to our Equity audit surveys as I stated at the November 17th board meeting we were unable to vote on the surveys at that time due to um we were still getting feedback from the board from the administrative team and making adjustments accordingly we held the meeting last week in order for the board to vote on the surveys that special meeting was made with the sole purpose for the vote but more importantly to give our families ample time to view these surveys it's something that's very important that they have the information in hand they get a chance to talk as a family and really make the decision of whether they would like their children to take part in the surveys
053that's something that we committed to in the beginning of this process along lines of transparency and sharing information it's something that that was at the Forefront of our timeline along the lines of building these surveys but more importantly getting it in the hands of our of our community and our parents to view it before it goes active now obviously the adult side went out this weekend and is active and adults can make their decision as they see fit but we felt like it was really important to give our parents an opportunity to take a look at what the students were going to be experiencing um come next week and make the determine a determination accordingly and also sharing information with the parents along the lines of the opt-out process so I just wanted to take
054a moment and share that with the board in the community and that's all thank you very much Dr detoro um all right Mr Bleaker do you have a report for us this evening thank you uh good evening everyone uh one item report on this evening uh item on the agenda which is the budget calendar this is the budget calendar for the 23-24 school budget this is on here for uh two reasons one is a requirement to meet uh Cusack that we have which is presenting a bunch of calendar to the board and having a discuss with public board meeting as well as one of the board goals for this year is to discuss and have a little bit a deeper understanding of budget financials in the background on how the budget financials are created drafted
055and then also implemented with the district so for the board members in looking at what you have at your seats you have a budget calendar for the 23 24 school year in front of you this process begins primarily in October when we're setting up our system we use a system CSI for our budget and accounting software as well as for payroll production in October we set that system up to prepare to input the budget for the next school year in November We Begin Gathering any historical information that we utilize as a reference during the course of the process as well as in the enrollment data which helps to influence and gauge where we need to budget accordingly in the following school year based on where enrollment projections intend to be uh beginning in late November
056and into December we start to share information with the various schools and departments who are responsible for inputting their own individual budgets those budgets begin to be inputted in December we have meetings for any new staff that might come in as principals or budget secretaries to make sure that they're trained on how to input the budget correctly into the system in January we have that process completed and also to go back to December just for one moment a lot of the other really large areas of the budget such as health benefits salaries a lot of that is also inputted and completed within the month of December and once we start January the board reorganizes I begin meeting with the finance committee as well as Dr notoro and Mr Romero builds ground supervisor we have any
057brown specific projects to discuss that we want to have Incorporated included to the budget those typically begin to play take place in January and it continues into February uh January also we typically have a release of the budget software that the state provides us this is a dedicated web-based software program where we input our budget into the state it's already pre-loaded with what information from the prior year and budget information for prior years um the program itself is designed to identify specific areas of the state reviews that input is primarily done in February and we're also finalizing getting some other data from outside sources we need such as tax gradable information from the township is provided to us so we can determine the appropriate tax rate for the district as well as uh finalizing any
058last discussions with guns and grounds initiatives or other things with the person with the finance committee in March every year for those that recall we do have a preliminary budget hearing at this time we're presenting the preliminary budget to the board and uh after that presentation is then submitted to the county office for their review approval they have their own system of checks and balances they review all the budget lines as well as some of the rationale and support that we give for any other areas that they ask to review for that year it does change a little bit from year to year but we provide that in March and typically they will turn around within a couple of weeks in April will give us any feedback that we need to incorporate and include during
059this time we can still make any changes to the budget if we need to um if I can go back one minute one um that I did forget to mention was usually late February mid-march mid early March one of the most important pieces is our state aid figures are released as well those are received from Trenton it coincides with when the governor gives his or her budget address to the um to the state and to the legislature that typically occurs end of February and budget numbers state aid numbers I should say are released to us a few days following that in late April early May again based on the calendar for that year it changes a little bit each year that is when we will have gotten all of our information back and feedback from
060the county any last-minute items that we may want to adjust ourselves are done and we have a dedicated um public hearing as part of one of our board meetings in late April or an early May that will then be when the final budget is presented and approved by the board and submitted as final budget for the year we do have a requirement to post that budget a few days afterwards on our website and lastly with all this now being done typically a few weeks later we flip the switch so to say or a bunch of software and begin to activate the new school year budget for any purchase orders or things that we may want to begin um begin putting in an inputting so that is the very broad view of the budget process that
061we follow again this calendar is a uh doing two things here is a requirement that we need to do for qsac presenting a budget calendar to the board for discussion uh as well as addressing one of the board goals which we're going to continue to address some future board meetings discussing more about the finances and the budget here in the any questions so as soon as like we have in the past there will be we usually bring it up into like four or five chunks at uh public meetings who will be doing the same thing yeah specific to Mawa the method that we found to be most beneficial for us is beginning with that first presentation in March when we're discussing the plural budget uh we'll break it up into three or four different sections
062depending on the number of board meetings we have between then and when our final pledge is adopted and at each meeting um I'll go into another section of the budget and do a little bit of a deeper dies in that particular section addressing some of the details of it thank you very much okay thank you Mr Bleaker um our assistant superintendent Dr Fair do you have a report for us this evening yeah so the brief report the first piece is connected to agenda item 17K and what I'd reference this in my memo to board um it's it lists an update to our safe return to in-person instruction and continuity of service plan um every six months we are to update this plan and every time it's updated it's to be approved by the Board of
063Education we have to do this up through September 30th 2023. um this is just a legit School piece um board policy 1648 safety plan for Health Care settings in school buildings was abolished so that lists everything from quarantining isolating mask wearing contact tracing uh hand washing etiquette and physical distancing so that's been abolished and that is the language that's been added to that plan and the second piece if you'll bear with me I'm going to read we we have a we recently had a passing of a staff member one of our paraprofessionals who's been here for 20 years her name is Maureen Donnelly excuse me um recently she's worked primarily at George Washington School over the course of the last 20 years she's worked out of District as well as in every other school building
064almost every other school building her dedication to the students in which she served exemplified by Mawa is such a special place most recently Maureen worked at George Washington School her last name love is embedded in the students that she cared for and in those that were her colleagues we asked that our community keeps Maureen's family and their thoughts and prayers during this difficult time we will miss her dearly every time I would see Maureen in the school building just a few weeks ago she was she as I was walking away she said Dennis I'm I pray for you all the time right and if you knew Maureen that was who she was so we'll miss her um it's it's it's it's truly tragic so thank you I I'm not good at this stuff but I
065felt like it was important enough to publicly note Beyond just an email to our staff resident and her two sons went to our school system yes and she was an RN she she was a lot of things so she um she's going to be really missed she was also a real important part of the culture in GW so um they're they're devastated so I thought it was important especially because it's so recent as of Monday evening that um you know the community is aware thank you perhaps we should just take a moment of silence Dennis Dr Fair all right thank you and our thoughts and prayers are with her family and again a loss for our district and a loss for um our little Schoolhouse on the other side Mr Gallon so um thank you
066Dr Fair um all right president's report so um I don't have uh much I'm gonna just um a couple of things one um the surveys that Dr detoro spoke to um and thank you for clarifying um regarding uh we did have a special meeting and um Dr jetoro and Dr Fair actually at that meeting did a very thorough presentation about the survey so I I want to just um alert any parents who want to go look at that that that should be up on our website Mr flicker so that people could do that even though um you know as many people weren't in attendance in person all of that information is always on our website and I think we just want to encourage as a board um you know everyone to complete the survey it's
067important information and one data point in multiple data points in this Equity audit that we're doing but we really want to hear all voices so so hopefully you feel comfortable to participate as parents and the students as well but again we encourage you to participate fully because again the more information we have the more we can find out about what needs to be done or not done so again all important information okay number two I just wanted to highlight as the holiday season comes a lot of concerts going on maybe Mr Kane's going to speak to that but I love it this time of year it's it's exciting to see our choruses our our bands our strings so I encourage everyone to get out and and I love holidays um so anyway that's exciting I
068heard there was a great a talent show as well I think there might have been participation from our student member was there uh maybe maybe I think I saw something on the Twitter feed so anyway a lot of talent and I'm sure everyone really enjoyed the Italian show it's exciting uh and I'm sure it was exciting to participate um all right that's all I have board committee reports Chicago uh first of all Transportation we're meeting next week so I'll have a more complete report in the next meeting um Hanukkah starting for community relations sorry about Community quarter I'd like to the beginning before the next meeting so I wish everyone a Happy Hanukkah December is also the national drunk and corrupt driving prevention month serves as a reminder to never drive impaired and stems from
069the creation of mad Mothers Against Drunk Driving in 1980. the time between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day is described as one of the deadliest and most dangerous times on America's roadways due to increased and impaired driving so remember to drive sober um Dr Morty mentioned already I want to congratulate all the rich students that performed last night at their Winter concert and a very special thank you to our music department staff for doing an amazing job of preparing our kids as Dr Dorothy mentioned please check out your school's websites for all the dates of upcoming concerts and today is the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor every year on December 7th the nation pauses to remember the 2403 service members and civilians who were killed during the Japanese attacks in 1941. it wasn't until
0701994 that Congress officially designated December 7th as National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day it's important that we take the opportunity to discuss these kinds of remembrance days with all of our kids so they have a better understanding of the sacrifices that our service members make for our nation on a daily basis so thank you to all our active service members our veterans and may God bless the memories of all those that we lost on December 7th 1941. thank you Mr Conklin thank you very much um Mr Denise policy uh policy has four readings on tonight's agenda for first reading uh these were basically from our review of the 3000 Series very minor um formatting and grammar changes all right thank you very much Mr Denise um anyone Do you have a student representative report for us
071of course what exciting things are happening over there in high school um so with the holiday season and everything there's a lot of Club activities going on um SGA and all the honor societies are finishing up their families for families fundraiser which I think I spoke about last meeting which is like the Adopt a Family program that we've been doing um at this point pretty much all the gifts send a few Slackers have uh been turned in and are being wrapped by National Honor Society and are being dropped off on a Friday the Leo Club is giving out candy canes to all the teachers which is nice for all the uh teachers in the building and staff uh the wood shop Club is having a gift sale after school one of these days coming up
072and they made a bunch of like um I think like some keychains some cutting boards you know wood shop things um the interact Club was that the tree lighting I think that was last week right um future medical professionals is making holiday cards for veterans home um and similarly Habitat for Humanity is making cards but for one of the senior citizen homes nearby um talent show was last week as we spoke of you know as a group I think Ryan Stanford was in my group with me too we felt uh almost a little out of place some of the other groups had you know some actual talent we pretty much got up there and said embarrassed ourselves for a little bit um it was fun um uh the robotics team now has 70 students and
073their season starting up and also fits in with our Technology and Engineering pathway and then on behalf of the robotics team and Mr Pascal we would like to thank the current uh outside sponsors which are in Sarah supermarkets high torque and shock Tech safer World group with our other sports teams and winter sports are starting this week games uh hockey team's the first one to go we play Friday night 8 30 at the ice Hall against Ramsay if anyone wants to come out um and then the Winter concert is on December 20th which is our show band and choir and then in terms of the drama club the spring play was announced as Shrek and auditions are beginning in the next couple of weeks all right thank you thank you very much a lot happening
074over there at Mawa high school that was exciting um anything else Mr Gala I just have a very brief report and I said in patrista at the access for all meeting on Monday they were very very appreciative of Leo club members and Habitat for Humanity club members who assisted them last Friday at their ugly sweater event at their 25 high school students who helped out and and this is not the first time but it seems like those organizations have made a very strong connection with access for all and they were they're already planning our future events so they were very appreciative of of the support the other thing that they were very kind enough to do is to distribute the equity audit survey to access for all members so to spread the word out to
075community members who we would not normally have so I expressed my appreciation for that record as well great thank you very much Mr gallo all right uh board member remarks or additional comments Mr DeSilva yeah so um two things the back in the early 90s we did something similar to the uh I was looking I was looking at the um uh at the lineup for the talent show yeah actually there was a lot of musical you know acts right there so back in the early 90s we did something a little different we did a battle of the bands complete with concert t-shirts with you know listing out the bands on the back of the t-shirt and everything so you know maybe that's something uh something to consider were you and Mr kasmarsky in a band
076yeah I was not for you for the record I was one of the I was the landing director Roadie soundine oh okay okay I said in the back and watch that's something I got to do so so just food for thought um I want to recognize Our Town Council and administration and thank them for the awesome uh Town tree lighting that we had back at company one at the bottom of uh Miller where it should never have left and it's kind of like Middle School sports yeah [Music] but the the the the event was fantastic it was a lot of fun um I know it's you know it's going to get uh bigger and better here but thank them to Administration and Our Town Council for bringing that Christmas tree back to uh the middle
077of town where people can actually see it is that what brought up the battle of the bay it's like traditions coming back for you Mr Distillery things in the 90s are coming back to town you're all dating yourself do you realize that okay I want to thank thank all the students that March in the parade Department event our high school marching band Color Guard the JK choir and everyone who's involved it was it was it was the first one out of the gate we've never done a parade that night before we don't have a downtown like Ramsey so there's some things we got to work through but it was great to see a lot of people in the center of the center of town lighting a tree so it was it was great but thanks
078to all the high school participants and teachers John Pascal was there of course yes because where is it okay so it was great so thank you thank you anyone else all right um let's move on to Old business um 16a the minutes from our November 16th meeting we need a motion Mr gallo and a second Mr cone Mr Speaker Mr DeSilva yes Mr Denise yes Mr Gallup yes Mr kasamorski Dr Park abstain laughs uh Mr Cody yes and Dr morthy yes all right let's move on to new business um that's taking a to l um I need a motion Mr Galla second by Mr Denise um yes sure um is fifth grade not going to the intrepidating work you're going to uh Liberty Science time for now is that a change okay yeah um multiple
079lines of of the field trips for our elementary schools what they've done is they worked of which which is something that's been an ongoing effort long lines of working with the other schools to make sure that there's no duplicates so it's taking time to really start to settle into what the experiences are so I know that him Elementary initiative team has has worked together eight through five along lines of field trips so whatever field trips that that they've decided on that's what the ones that are posted here so yes fifth grade is going to be going to the Liberty Science Frost Valley is now an overnight again that's exciting yeah so miss Whalen has done uh tremendous amount of work to uh to bring Frost Valley overnight back we know that that's a tradition that's
080something that's special to Rambo Ridge and they've also um are working on the eighth grade trip to do overnight there as well wonderful and I just want to bring attention to um the 17 L is it now start I and J um we welcome donations to our various Sports and programs and we thank those who've donated all right um okay it's to be a roll call on 17th a through L was Emotion by Mr Gallup a second by Mr Denise Mr koblin yes Miss David Arrow yes Silva yes Mr Denise yes Mr Gallo Yes except on 17A I am staying from checks number one zero nine two seven two and one zero nine three four five thank you Mr kasmarski I will personally thank my daughter and her friends to the intrepids Dr Mark yes
081Mr go yes and Dr worthy yes all right let's take now a new business Personnel we have 18 A through n uh all right we need a motion Mr Cohen second by Dr Park Bleaker Mr Coughlin yes and thank you to our parent volunteers miss David Mr de Silva yes Mr Denise yes Mr Gallup yes Mr kasmorski yes Dr Park I'm staying on 18m otherwise yes on all thank you Mexico yes and Dr Worthy yes our public participation in board meetings is in accordance with bylaw0167 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 know more than one and do remarks to no longer than three minutes if you
082are here representing a group please identify yourself the group and your position in the group if you are here as an individual please give us your name and address the section of public participation will be limited to 15 minutes I need a motion to open to the public Mr kizmarski second by Mr de Silva and just a reminder when your um during public participation please direct your comments to myself and then if it's appropriate I will refer to someone else to answer okay thank you my name is Justin again I'm a parent modeler parent I just have a couple of comments and questions first I just want to congratulate Chris Hughes from being elected into the Board of Education I think you saw about a number of votes that you did receive it wasn't some
083type of anomaly there was a reason why he got voted in and so um I hope that you guys kind of Welcome him listen to him he's only one voice and I know you'll show them some respect but from what I've seen from what I've been learning from what I've been seeing in the past support of Ed meetings in the town halls um not a lot of diversity of thought here it's pretty much one-sided Chris is only one voice which is great but I think you need more balance here I don't think there's a good representation of the town and as a stakeholder as a taxpayer as a parent community members speaking to people in the town they know that for sure it's not being represented represented and I think one of the responsibilities as
084a stakeholders is to hold you accountable right you guys represent us we're a team I don't want us to be a team so um one of the things I do want to hold accountable I remember from one of your board of ed meetings right after that town hall um I believe it was a part where you were talking about the testing the scores and uh Mr Park made a comment about how he said uh from what he heard in the previous night of the Tom Hall how he couldn't see that racism isn't evolved by seeing race here this is this is the it's right here on the slide so I said okay let me look at this slide and I was like okay no I looked at the slide I saw there was a breakdown
085of testing scores by race it was just a classification that's all it was and from what I saw the top scores were Asian students last time I checked Asia students were a minority so I was a little confused I'm Asian all right I'm a little a little confused by that so um I mean I was kind of it was kind of laughable all right so you're contradicting something I don't know what you're trying to approve but it was wrong I'm trying to be nice here but it was very wrong you're entitled to your pinning that's fine but you're not entitled to your own facts so that's why I'm coming here to hold you accountable for that disparities does not equal discrimination okay disgravity is this on equal discrimination there's tons of sociological research on this
086um so I want you to be very careful on how your this has gone along with Equity audit I have a question I want you to be very careful about what you're trying to insinuate here and if you're not I'm going to hold you accountable other parents here will hold you accountable you'll get questions it's suggestion can I just clarify who you're you're using it sort of broad you yeah of Education oh okay and first of all it's Dr Park just to clarify I replied to call him Dr Park uh that I I mean yes I'm not putting you down or anything that's fine okay I'm a doctor too then I require that you called me Dr Jacob yeah okay you didn't provide your last name Dr Jacob I was gonna call you Mr Justin
087but I'm happy to call you Dr Jacob I I see I see how this is now so it's not fun thank you all right I'm not showing disrespect yeah Dr Jacob I'm I'm trying okay thank you I'm trying to clarify because you're using a broader you Board of Education oh okay so let's just clarify because I thought you were directed comments to Dr Park individually in Board of Education all right okay so yeah so I'm here just to hold you accountable to that okay um so leading into that um you know just I had to say this when you when you call everything racist you cheapen the word okay um you don't you're never gonna know what actual racism is so you have to learn from that it's it's wrong okay so just stop saying
088that everything is racist I know there's rooms going on after the town hall that people were being racist you know that's not true okay right and this is going around that's how I hate that that's just the wrong remember we're stating our opinions you Prima You said Dr worthy sorry you said in the beginning you'd like to welcome everybody's opinions and that's what it was so we need to be very yeah when you use the word you it so again it's hard to determine are you directing that comment towards me to someone specific or is the Board of Education Board of Education Board of Education okay all right so this leads to my question sure in relation to the equity audit yes so what is the evidence that bias from District employees is a sole
089or even strong determinant of disparate outcomes okay I'm seeing your faces in another words what led to the equity audit I think a lot of parents don't know what happened what led you to to coming to this okay sure um and I'm gonna let perhaps if Dr detour wants to take that but I actually just wanted to clarify one thing about um Mr Hughes um and just to let you know that we've actually already had a new member orientation with him um the executive committee that's myself Mr kasmarsky and Mr de Silva with um Mr Blake or Dr dutoro and Dr fair and we welcome him with open arms and I think if you if you speak to Mr Hughes you would know that he has been um you know sought out by individual board
090members um and um there's an absolute welcoming of Mr Hughes to the board so I just wanted to clarify Dr Jacob about that um regarding the equity audit perhaps um Dr jattoro or do you sure select doctors before I answer your question um Dr Jacob specific to um specific to your question your question is why are we doing this yes okay um in in previous board in previous sport presentations and communication that we sent out to the community from the last spring until now we've we've tried to put forth the explanation of why why we're doing this in mind now the purpose of this is when we put together the Strategic plan it very it's really a large number of areas of focus when you're talking about how we can make sure that our that
091our school district is operating at a high level so there's a number of things specific to instruction that we've shared at board meetings we've talked about different organizations that we're trying to build like we did with our Middle School sports um and really when we get to how are we servicing our students we felt like it was most appropriate to make sure that all of our students felt as though our students and our families felt as though they were respected valued and they feel like they have a home here in order for us to do that as as me and my seat you know as a previous principal as a current superintendent I can't make that assessment and have that broad stroke yet we're doing a good job in order for us to do it
092just like in the business uh field people come in and they audit to make sure that everything is operating at a high level so in order for us to do that here we felt it was most appropriate to have someone to come in and say what is our current reality what is our truth and to see what are we doing specific to a curriculum to make sure that our curriculum is representing the students in which we serve what are we doing along the lines of procedures and protocols to make sure that everyone is afforded the same opportunities and make sure that we're supporting everyone wherever they are so that this and that was really a truncated explanation of why we got to where we are right now um here's the thing along lines of an
093audit it's an opportunity for us to celebrate the great things that we're doing I don't want anyone in the community to think that the purpose of the audit is for us to say man we're doing an awful job everywhere but I think if we take a step back and say what's what's the opportunity for the audit we get a chance to see yeah let's celebrate the things we're doing that's something we do every single board meeting but are there areas for us to continue to develop or ask questions to say can we do this better so for me I'm going in with the Open Mind of saying I want to hear what they have to say along the lines of their assessment of our functioning are we functioning at a high level because that's what
094this community deserves are we missing anything is there anything that we can do better that's my perspective of going into this audit along the lines of curriculum social emotionally and all aspects in between because that's our responsibilities that for you the stakeholders is to put out a great product okay so I go ahead did you feel somebody was or did you hear that people were being misrepresented sorry misrepresented is that why you that's it or you just this just came out of no no to speak to your point um and I don't want to misspeak it you said one of the secrets of somebody said that people were racist yeah at no point in any of my presentations said I call my all racist good so so that that's I'm not sitting here and making
095broad stroke assessments of of our community or our practices um but I think it's worth noting that there are opportunities in in any fashion whether it's an equity audit or whether it's a basic curricular audit to say yeah I think we're doing a really good job but are there other opportunities to grow so I so that's really um something I would love for you to take away with along the lines of any sort of broad stroke statements of this community is at no point I've is is it responsible for me to make a statement of this is what this community is this is a large community um containing a vast amount of people from all different backgrounds and it's a special Community but at no point in any of the communication that was sent out
096or the presentation what a state would be made of this community is great okay um and I just wanted to clarify too Dr Jacob that this I I think your the focus on a singular point of race is not the purpose of the equity audit as well um the equity audit is looking at socioeconomics tests looking at race it's looking at those who might be differently abled and maybe looking at uh you know kids with learning disabilities with other varying ability levels so gender gender exactly so this is a very comprehensive um audit that again comes out of our strategic plan um brought up by our administrative team and voted on now by the board of education so Dr tutorial said it was very innocuous and I agree with you who wouldn't want that but
097the truth of it is what it is now this is going on around the country all school system's been around in New Jersey it's a politically divisive uh issue Equity diversity inclusion let's not let's not you know forget that so I'm only seeing one political bet here and it there hasn't been any there hasn't been any excuse me there hasn't been any real measurable positive results from it we're seeing schools academics kind of go down who wouldn't want social emotional learning well actually Define social emotional learnings okay is there an additional question and then okay please define sociable I'm not gonna go back and forth please reply please define social emotional learn information there was a whole School of commentary um the equity award is because we want to do right by all of our
098students and we want to know their story and we want to write by them so so that's the first piece the second piece is we do respect those families who don't feel comfortable taking the equity audit um I think we were pretty clear in our in our communication when we present to our board as well as in our email communication um that if families don't feel comfortable they're certainly like they can certainly opt out right so we've had some families opt out I think that due date is tomorrow right so um if if a family doesn't want their child to take the survey or be involved in um talking to the consultant via an on-site visit that's perfectly okay too right and I hear you with that but the trick with that is as we
099heard of the town hall is only one certain part of the town the answers that you're only you're getting slanted results I understand that so right now in terms of the numbers of opt out at the high school level in the Middle School level we probably have the most so far we have about 22 students who are being opted out right now at the high school level at the middle school level we have about 14 at the high school level so I'm I'm really hopeful that we can get a wide variety of perspectives because that's really important to us okay this will continue but can you answer my other question as well that I asked how do you define social emotional there social emotional learning has a number of different aspects to it social emotional
100audience which we have talked about in previous meetings is an opportunity for the staff here to work with our students on how they navigate different social situations when they need social situations are throughout their life depend it doesn't matter what age of Life they are they're they're coming at it with is there are stressors there are points of frustration there are challenges that they face and we try to give them the tools and how to successfully navigate them and when you start to talk about SEL there are there are opportunities for us to be able to real time give them the tools that they need in order to not only deal with difficult situations on an individual basis but also deal with situations in a group atmosphere as well so SEL is something that I
101mean I we're talking about a number of different topics this is something that at the K-12 level we feel is extremely important I know that there are people who come up and say just teach our kids math where you reading and writing but to be quite honest with you school is a lot more than that and it's an opportunity for us to continue to build them in a comprehensive fashion absolutely agree with you this has been adopted over 10 years ago it's changed so does this so does well you said I agree with you self-management goal setting but does that include embedding that generality uh gender ideology sexual orientation social justice work is that embedded in what you're saying is that in there it's gender ideology I'm going to answer your question yeah I'm going
102to answer your question I'm sorry I'll just repeat it because I don't know um along the lines of SEL the SEL piece is what you're saying is it in there yeah it's it's not a written curriculum this is not something that every single grade here's another additional thing that you're going to do I'm not saying yeah yeah okay yeah thank you this is an opportunity for us to create structures in our school whether it's the the classroom teachers and how they create an atmosphere in their school and different experiences that allow the students to um to to go through different events and really work through them when you're talking I talk about that it's at the K5 level I'll know how old your children are at the K5 level there's something called morning meeting and
103then morning meeting you get a chance to really understand and respect the differences across the across the room this is what I like to do this is what this is what is something that I'm really proud of or I'm really good at her this is something that's difficult for me and really build a sense of community as you continue to go up and as we all know in middle school and high school different challenges uh come up and we're trying to equip their teachers with understanding these are the things that the children in front of you are facing and this is how we're going to be able to navigate and work through those specific situations right I agree but there's no there's no let's let's it let's Force this interforce that thing I'm going to
104answer one more of your questions along the lines of the political side and I'm glad you brought that up because I think it's important for the community to understand I can't control what's happening outside in our country and I could totally understand the assessment of this type of work is politically driven I can sit here and tell you this is not a political point because you don't know what my political affiliation is and nor is it important for me to share that what I can tell you is my affiliation is committed to making sure that the students here feel valued and feel like they're respected that has no political party so along the lines of the things that are happening outside which I will not deny I understand that there are things that are happening
105outside in the country that make people pause and really make people concerned but that doesn't mean that that's our reality here so when we started this work we were committed to making sure that we opened the books and really trying to do our best to educate our community on everything that we are doing we help we help meetings last year that we presented to the board something that we never do of bringing in this this this work we presented to the board and talked about what this is going to be all about we also which other schools don't do is we really make sure that we have our communities voice at the Forefront of this assessment now you make a very good point if people don't answer it how do we know their perspective well
106be quite honest and I'm so happy that they did it there were families that came in and sat with myself with Dr fair that are very much concerned about what this work is all about we had a great conversation and the thing that I said to them about not being a part of it it's they are they're making the decision to not be a part of it everybody has an opportunity to say how they feel whatever you feel and that's the benefit of having having a survey if people are perfect and not taking part in it I can't force our community to do it I can only continue to to be the person that's gonna educate our community on what we're doing and ask for that participation and that's really where where my line of
107of the scope of what I could do really stops um I'm hoping that people change their mind and say if by chance they're having a great experience put it down if you feel like there's challenges put that down too people who are also concerned like who's going to see this information I I really feel hesitant about to put my name to the survey all of that stuff was accounted for and it's all housed with the outside organization so people don't have to feel like there's going to be a change which wouldn't happen but I understand the concern of how people feel about each other so we're really trying to dot our eyes and cross our T's to do this the right way so it doesn't turn into the different events that you're talking about that's
108happening around the country that doesn't happen here in every part of this process will be very clear with what we're doing what our findings are and what the considerations are in the future okay I agree to disagree with what you're saying that happened around outside around the country it is happening here I go to the model public library and see what books are there and terms of what you pull over but I don't care what your politics are but I see actions are more important than words okay and I've seen that thank you Jack and I just would suggest Dr Jacob that you 've got several concerns and you can always reach out to Dr duturo um and Dr Fair because they've had these conversations with other parents as well and I just want to
109um the only other piece that I want to say is as a board and I want to really highlight this um we are non-partisan board we're we're not elected based on partisan politics and um that I can I finish whatever you say Okay um and there are those of us who disagree on this board we agree to disagree but we are able to build consensus for what's best for the students of Mawa so I think we have to be careful because politics does not come into board decision making here in malwa for sure agree to disagree okay thank you very much did I come in since I was named uh sure Dr Park let me give you the floor but okay thank you um so I just want to be very clear about what I
110did and didn't say um I pointed out that there were achievement gaps present in the data presented several weeks ago uh we saw them again today those are specifically students from low socioeconomic background Hispanic students and black or African-American students at no point did I say that those discrepancies or those achievement gaps rather uh were caused by discrimination at no point did I use the words racist or racism you said race you absolutely did no idea okay fine I did not I continue I did not suggest that they were caused by racists or by racism what I said was very simple there is data it exists it shows these achievement gaps we need to look at that data disaggregated and treat that data in an intellectual way and get to the bottom of it and
111figure out what's going on that is all I said I did not suggest a cause to those to those achievement gaps I did not say that so my words unfortunately have been misrepresented um I did not say those things I stand by my comments as they were said several weeks ago I have nothing to add I believe that my comments were correct and I said by now you're changing it which is fine you're right there's other confounding factors in those thank you very much thank you for your comments thank you very much Michelle's awesome intended Stonewall court is it possible that can be a gap just because there's a gap like for instance I'm really bad at math really good at other things no one really dug Miss Salzman direct your comments no one really
112dug deep in the day thank you it just is so do we spend how much time money resources do we spend digging into things that maybe just are that's my first comment my second comment involves the equity survey for the K through five level there's a there's a lot of graphics on here so I'm assuming for The Kindergartners and first graders who can't read that the this will be given by the teacher so can you explain the format of that to me will they read the question and then say which of these emojis do you identify with or how will that work so along the lines of the K5 survey what what this the students are going to be experiencing yes there's an emoji scale the teachers are going to be using that scale prior
113to them taking the survey for them to get comfortable with what the city even means depending on our uh our our level of students whether it's third through fifth or or K through two our teachers aren't going to be reading the um the questions to them they'll have either a tablet or they'll have a computer and they'll be able to pick the choice that they want where they feel is appropriate for that question okay and my second question is a general question how are you going to parse this data on the back end when it comes in and let's take one of these questions for example I'm encouraged to speak my truth and share my thoughts and you have 50 responses of never okay how are you going to know the context that those numbers
114are given so let's say my daughter's not comfortable in class because they spend half the class period talking about gender and the three different kinds of sex and she's uncomfortable talking about that at the age of 13. so she answers never you have another child who answers never because they feel that they're still not being adequately represented despite everything the district's done so you have a garbage pail of answers with no context how are you going to determine what needs to be done if you don't know the perspective the answers coming from that's a great question so and I'm glad you brought that up because as we shared at the last meeting along the lines of the value of the survey historically in our district there was and we'll just talk about the previous surveys
115there was a survey to the community and oftentimes there's action following that survey this survey is one of I believe it was five different opportunities to gather information we have the town hall we have the survey we have them coming in and having focus groups then we also have them coming in talking to students the remember the focus groups is a wide variety of people hopefully people continue to sign up and we also have them come in and talk to students but then further there's also the audit that they come in and they speak to um central office they speak the building administrations they look at our curriculum they look at our policies so there's a number of different entry points into understanding what this is all about the survey to speak to your point
116is really an opportunity for them to look further they're not going to make a determination solely on a question of the survey it gives them an opportunity to say you know what this data really makes me wonder I need to find out more about this and then they can go in and start to ask different questions whether it's to staff whether it's to administrations whether it's the students whether it's the focus groups to really get more clarity on whatever that data set has said to them but if there are not honest how are you going to know who to go to so you're going to get these you're saying this is 20 of the data points that you receive that you're using one fifth how are you gonna how are they gonna know who to
117approach the the company is going to utilize that data to drive their focus I'm not the one who's going to be doing the the digging or the or the fact Gathering the fact of the matter is is this survey is going to guide their questions depending they don't have a list of questions that they share with us or a strategy that says we're going to talk to this person about this specific question that's why there's a wide variety of questions it's not even just a singular question oftentimes they'll couple questions and say you know this is providing an area of focus for our next steps so along lines of strategies of if this specific question says this specific thing I'm not going to be able to explain to you what their strategy is for those
118specific questions they can't have a strategy for the question because there's no answer okay so basically the the answers to these questions on the survey they're going to be looking for trends like that and if for instance they see that uh that question and everybody marks never and the next question everybody marks you know always well now they know where they need to spend their time to ask more questions do a little bit of digging this is going to inform the process going forward so this isn't going to provide any answers this is going to be this is this will provide where they ask the questions going forward and the the name is optional obviously as you can see on the survey in front of you but also there is an opportunity at the end
119of each category that there is a an opportunity for comments so I agree with you in terms of context that's really important so if a student feels um they want to provide their context that's what that that open box is for for them to share kind of what that never really means to them and the results are going to be um correct results thank you thank you thank you mm-hmm uh Chris Hughes do Matthew place I just wanted to start off by saying I do feel welcome by everyone we just have the orientation meeting on Tuesday so I just want to thank everyone that was at that meeting for welcoming me with open arms I am very excited to be working with everyone uh my question today is about Transportation so a couple moms have
120approached me saying that their child is coming home late around like 4 4 15 from GW and I was just wondering uh because I believe that this is only starting since uh day one of this year what's been causing the delays are the delays are they being approached in the right way or and how are we dealing with it uh okay thank you Jack Mr Blaker or um thank you thank you Mr Hughes um along the lines of the the GW situation we have been working with uh Transportation we've also spoke with uh a couple different parents along lines of their concerns there's uh there's uh one or two bosses that do come a little come a little bit late the issue with Mustang to be quite honest with you and um I'm more than
121happy to share um when we went out to bid last year there was a huge um challenge of making sure that we were able to fill our routes with uh with bus drivers and with companies that are willing to take on our buses with that there are a number of things that we have to take on account when we take on bus contracts we work with Scholastic and we also have internal bus drivers as well um with Scholastic oftentimes their tiered bus routes which means that they're coming from other districts and we had to take on those routes in order to fill our routes there are two I believe two or three bus routes that do come about 15 20 minutes maybe even 20 2 or 23 minutes after dismissal um Mr rampola has done
122a really nice job of identifying spaces in the school for the kids to go and either start their homework or just relax until the bus comes when you're talking about Elementary buses even though they might come on time Mr rampola which is a sight to see gets on the bus and and make sure that all the kids are buckled up which that's a whole different additional amount of time unlike at JK we're at Blue Ridge and model high school that they're very independent um it's something that he's done we've we've talked to the bus company we've tried to do our best to make sure that we're shorting shortening that time but as of right now those are the times that we've communicated to the parents but it's something that we're going to be looking we
123continue to look at to see if there's any efficiencies in place there's the same guys have like a timeline per se do you say anything oh maybe in a couple months or in the New Year something will be occurring where the kids will be showing up just a little earlier yeah that's a good question too no we don't have a timeline because at this point we're at we're at a place with the with the company that they said these are the best times that we can provide so with with that there's really no adjustments in less there are drops in routes in other areas that they're working with now we're we're asking for them to keep us updated if there's any sort of open routes that they can roll to our schools but at this
124time we're we're at know that there's nothing else that they can do so I don't want you to walk away thinking that they're going to be decreased it's something that we're constantly focused on but at this time we don't have any different efficiencies we can find all right thank you thank you Mr Hughes all right um motion to close the meeting to the public Mr koplin second by Mr kasmarski um all right we I need a motion for us to recess to Executive session Mr Gallow and second by Mr to recess we will adjourn the meeting from our executive session we will not be returning uh thank you very much thank you