0016ville board of education meeting. Public announcement. In accordance with chapter 231 PL law 1975, this public meeting of the serville board of education has been established by sending a copy of the public meeting notice to the home news tribune and to the star ledger. In addition, copies of the announcement of this meeting have been sent to the burough clerk and a copy of the notice of the meeting has also been posted on the bulletin board outside the office of the secretary of the board. Now, now the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Can we have a roll call? Mr. Pashetta. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Bloom. >>
002Here. >> Yes. >> Mr. Callahan. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Tkowski? >> Here. >> Mr. Fernandez? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Hernandez? >> Here. >> Mrs. Maldonado? >> Here. >> Mrs. Napoleano? >> Here. >> Mrs. Pabone here. >> Mr. Smith >> here. >> Now, can we summarize executive session? Whereas section 8 of the open public meetings act chapter 231 PL1975 permits the exclusion of the public from a meeting in certain circumstances and whereas this public body is of the opinion that such circumstances presently exist. Now therefore be resolved by the board of education of the bureau of serbo county of middle sex state of New Jersey as follows. The public shall be excluded from discussion of an action upon the here and after specified subject matters. The general nature of the subject matter to be discussed is
003as follows. Personnel student matters negotiations with the SCA and matters falling under attorney client privilege. It is uh anticipated at this time that the above stated subject matter shall be made public at such time as the need for non-disclosure no longer exists. This resolution shall take effect immediately. >> Is there any correspondence of note? Great. Like to take a motion to approve the minutes from last meeting. So move. >> Move. Second. Roll call. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Hernandez. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Maldonado. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Nepalotano. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Pabone. >> Yes. >> Mr. Smith. >> Yes. Okay. Um assuming we don't have any board president or comments today. No presentations. Correct. >> Um you want >> going right to public participation, I think. Right. >> We're not going to summarize the agenda
004at all. >> We do that after public participation on agenda items only. >> We're opening to the public for agenda items only. Seeing none summary. >> Okay. Uh if I can direct your attention just to numbers one and two on finance that's on page two. Number one co is basically aligned with the settlement agreement with green skies. They are asking us to um sign a bill of sales for all the equipment they've installed as well as the equipment that they did not install for the same amount of money that is in the settlement agreement which is $75,000. Okay. Number two, it's a change order and it's out of the windows project at um the Truman School, Woodro Wilson School, upper elementary school and the high school. This is particularly for the Wilson school. We need
005new sashes there and sashes is a part of the window. I don't have Jimmy here to explain that for you, but it's part of the window that we need. Um, we worked with a contractor there so that the cost of it is going to be $20,81.78. And luckily, we have an allowable balance within that for change orders up to $22,929. So, we have a remaining balance still of $2,127 in that referendum project account. Okay. Any questions on those items or anything else on finance and infrastructure? >> Dr. Lavyby, with the amount that's going to be left over in that balance, then what happens if there's another change order that goes in that exceeds that? >> We don't anticipate that project is done. This was the last part of it. If there were an occasion where
006we needed to do that, we would actually have to borrow from another bond referendum account, which would take a board motion and and so forth. So hopefully we don't get to that point. We were at that point with the initial estimate, >> but our architect was able to talk to the the contractor and get the contractor down the cost. >> Okay. Thank you. >> So this account with the 2,000 left is solely for the windows at these schools. It doesn't if we have a change for ducting in the high school, it's a different >> correct account. >> Yep. There's for each project that was went out to bid, we have to reserve a certain amount of money. I believe it's 15%. >> Whatever total amount that was for change orders. And in this particular case,
007there's just a little bit left, but it probably won't be used. And that will go back eventually to the taxpayers. >> Great. Thank you. Any other questions? Okay, let's move on to student achievement. Of course, we do have one long-term suspension that we need you to approve. Um, and then, um, I don't want to steal too much of a thunder, and I'll ask her to talk a little bit about it, but we're really excited to let you know that we're going to be piloting some new programs, particularly in mathematics. We know that when we went over our assessment data, mathematics is a real concern of ours. Um, we feel that we have exceptional teachers. So now we're exploring well what about the resources that we're using and the programs we're using. The greatest way to
008go ahead and get insight into programs particularly programs that you want to purchase that are big ticket items you want to be able to pilot those items. So um Miss B um Miss Gman you want to talk a little bit about the numbers one and two which we're asking you for your approval to pilot. >> Absolutely. So um under the leadership of Dr. Maharana, the math supervisor, and um Michelle Depalo, who is our elementary supervisor that focuses on math and science. Uh 22 teachers gathered in December and spent the day reviewing um through presentations from a variety of uh textbook companies and instructional material companies to see what was out there with mathematics. So our current program um we've had for at least 14 years if my calculations are correct. It predates me. Uh so
009we've had it for about 14 years and we continually have been talking about mathematics and performance. So when you look to increase performance, you look at you know instruction that's going on in the classroom and we've done a lot with professional development but you also look at your instructional materials. So the teachers sat um there was a rubric that was created prior to the day of the presentations and we called in I think it was a total of um five companies that addressed at the elementary and the middle school high school and then there were additional companies that just spoke with the high school group. Um there were teachers of all different levels of all different um buildings, elementary teachers, academic support teachers, some of our honors and calculus teachers, and they were given some
010accounts from some of the companies to use and explore online prior to this meeting. They evaluated all of the materials um and they had a scoring system and they um really it was kind of um across the board agreed that they wanted to look at the McGra Hill materials. They felt that they were closely aligned with the New Jersey student learning standards and with the New Jersey student learning assessments. They felt that the materials would be able to differentiate for our multilingual learners and our special ed population in addition to all of the McGra Hill materials having um specific resources to use for differentiating up for gifted talent gifted and talented students and higher level students. So they selected reveal math by McGra Hill um to pilot and it's only select teachers and students. We're
011not using it with all of our students. Uh we have representation identified in each of the buildings and at different grade levels and at the end of this school year they will come back together again and they will talk about their experiences with using those materials. We will be meeting with the piloting teachers throughout the spring so that we can keep track of the materials and how well they feel the students are responding to them. We used a similar structure when we um approved the pilot for study sync a few years ago. Uh some of you may remember we did it at the high school three years ago and the middle school two years ago. So it's an organized process. Um algebra 1, algebra 2, and geometry by McGraill will be used with our middle
012school and our high school students. So, we're looking forward to seeing what's out there because like I said, we've had the same program. It was updated a few years ago, but really not big changes. Um, >> we've had it for 14 years. >> I I remember Envision Math when my stepson, who is now seven years out of Memorial High School, was in the UEES is when we got inv Well, no, it's his older brother. >> Oh, really? Oh my god. >> Yeah. The teachers are very excited. They were really um interested in seeing the quality. Audrey and I sat in on all of the presentations as well. Um we had the presentations here at UES. So, we're excited. >> We're doing such a good job with other subject matters going from preK all the way
013through. Is there is there a prek component to this McGraw Hill program that we would use in the preK? >> Most of the major publishers really start with kindergarten and our um preK program. And Mrs. Burns can speak to this a little bit better than I can, but Tools of the Mind does have a math component, but >> big math. >> Yeah. But we are looking to see that that feeds in. We do look at vertical alignment across the board. And one of the um some of the um middle school and high school classes use big ideas. They don't use Envision. So Dr. Maharana and the middle school and high school teachers were talking about the benefit of using um a single a sing singular publisher >> all through to see if it would feed
014better there would be less gaps in the um course sequencing. >> Great. >> I have a question. >> So I'm like shocked to hear that the current system has been in place for 14 years considering our grades have not they've been consistently low in math. So, under your leadership, because I know that 14 years wasn't, you know, you weren't leading the way. So, under your leadership, how many years will you let go before you decide that something's not working? Because obviously that thing did not work because our scores are, you know, they're fairly low. Well, I I I want to just clarify that we didn't just sit back and not look at the math materials. I'm not sure that it's the math materials that are related to the scores and the performance. Um it's just
015one more thing that we were looking for. But when you go out for such a large purchase, as Dr. Lavyby said, I mean, you know, this programs like this, there are hundred I think the three big the top scoring programs um range from $80 a student to $179 a student. This is a very large expense and our current contract is coming to an end. Um, so we would be deciding whether we would renew or whether we would go out. So the timing of it seemed to be that way. When we re uh we've been revising all of the math curriculum guides over the past several years, we always look at the resources and the materials. They did have a 2024 which was released in 2023 like they do cars. Um, they did have a reboot.
016So some of the online materials were updated and they are still aligned to the New Jersey student learning standards. One of the things that's changed since we brought in Envision, um, we've worked with instructional model changing and, you know, vertical thinking for math and we've had in a lot of PD consultants, but our population has also changed since we adopted Envision. And one of the things that we did notice is Envision is reliant on literacy a lot for mathematics. So, we thought that there would be um groups of populations of our students that would benefit from something that was a little bit more visual in its representation. And I and I want to point out too with regard to our math scores, our math scores were actually improving up to the pandemic. And then after
017the pandemic is when we we hit rock bottom. Inside of that is when the state also changed their assessment too. Um so, a lot of things coincided with that. But since the change of the assessment and since you know after the pandemic we have been looking at the patterns of our math results and that's what's led us eventually to the point where we are right now. >> Can I ask typically what is the contract length for these types of uh changes? >> So um you can do one-year contracts, you can do a a three-year contract. Um some of them have five and sevenyear. Uh we typically don't do anything that long. Um, we don't, you know, our in my partnership with Mrs. Hill, um, the business administrator, usually it's less than a three-year contract. Um,
018you know, multi-year sometimes saves us a little bit of money. Sometimes they allow you to pay it out over different times, but in this case, um, when we look at the pricing, we kind of make that determination. Do do we even have Speaking of pricing, do we use physical books anymore or is this >> Yes, the math programs all come with physical a lot of them are consumable books as well, especially at the elementary level. So, they come with student textbooks, then there's online access, and then there are teacher kits and manipulatives. >> So, do we do we have textbooks for each kid or is it just on a requested basis? >> Um, no. At the elementary level, each kid because they're consumable, they write in them. >> Gotcha. But at the high school level,
019it's different, right? >> The high school is usually um class sets, but they have, you know, the the older kids are a little bit um more adept at using the online tools to do all of the work. >> Yeah, I know my kids don't even want to look at a book if you give it to them. So, know absolutely makes sense. I just wanted >> to clarify. >> To go back to your question, Mr. Smith, you don't want to spend $180,000 on something that you're not going to invest in for more than a year. um we're really not allowed as public, you know, school districts to go into multi-year contracts. So, we end up doing like if it if there's something to be contracted, we go year-to-year contracts. Um and sometimes we can work in
020an agreement that we'll agree to three separate contracts where we really can't have those multi-year contracts. But again, the reason why we're piloting is it's a lot of money. Not only is it a lot of money, it's a huge transition. So there's professional development. I mean you you you actually when you change a program, you take a step back because the teachers are now going to be forced to learn that program. So making a decision like this is not taken lightly. No. >> Um and but we did feel that it was time to to to look >> and see if there's something better out there. So >> can I ask do they allow for also soft books? I think I brought that up at one of the SPACK meetings, but like when my kids were
021in charter school in Jersey City, they had soft books available in the waffle cone for the uh for the parents to be able to help the kids at home so they can go in and see how it was taught so they can help the kids do the homework at home. Um so is that a possibility with McGraill? And in this >> different publishers have different resources. I don't know what you mean by soft book. >> I feel like so they're they're able to access the actual like a copy of the actual book. >> Yeah, there's digital licensing for all of our books. They currently have it now. Okay. >> I mean, in vision, we have it with our our >> So, we're able to access it right now at their at the kids waffle cones.
022So, I think we need instruction in that because I have no clue. >> What is a waffle cone? >> That's what the the elementary the lower elementary clever through their clever account. >> Exactly. That's what they used to call it. >> I was like, wait, I'm confused. >> So, yes, yeah, that's what they call it. >> Your students can steal over and you know, >> yes, we have digital access for math, right? We have digital access for math and for um at the upper grade levels, social studies, English, and um science. They have digital textbooks within their Clever. So, if your child lives logs into their Clever account, you'll be able to see the different tiles for the different textbooks that come. The McGraill does have digital accessing for all of its grade levels, but
023we currently have it with Envision, too. So, >> so I didn't know that and I'm very diligent with my kids. So if I didn't know that, I'm sure other parents don't know that as well. So I think it's something we can explore and how to help the parents maybe in back back to school nights or like when they have the parents conference. >> Be hardressed to see that a teacher didn't share it at back to school night. But I I will reinforce that. >> We can reinforce that with you. I >> appreciate it. Yeah. >> It's not a teacher copy. It's >> No, no, it's for the parents. Right. Exactly. So I I at home can help my daughter because I've helped her do math and it has been wrong because I didn't do it
024the way >> that's part of our licensing. >> Yeah. Okay. Perfect. Thank you. I'll just say though, I I I've been able to access them all through elementary, middle, and high school. All the PDFs of all the textbooks. I mean, definitely if there's parents out there that don't know, we wanted >> Yeah. So, we want to make sure it's just available. Yep. Perfect. >> I wanted to ask quickly with the math program. So, one of the complaints that we hear from families with when it comes to trying to help their children with math, and you guys might have heard this as well, is that they don't understand the methodology of reaching the answer. The child might the parents might teach them how to do that math problem according to how they learned it when they
025were in school, but even though the answer is right, the child will get it wrong because the methodology that how they did it was wrong. Is this new math program still going to be teaching it the same way as before? Or is it a more parentfriendly so to speak um method that parents can actually help their children with their math? I I could probably speak to that a little bit better after the pilot once the teachers actually start to put it in place and to um implement the lessons and to kind of go through it. Um the way that Envision is set up now, they go through multiple ways of like if they're dealing with multiplication of two numbers, they go through four or five different ways to multiply different numbers. Um so different programs
026do have different approaches. Um, and that would be something that, you know, the teachers would be evaluating during the pilot, but I I would leave that up to the licensed math teachers to give us that feedback. >> And, and I do know that that's always been a problem. I mean, for the past 30 years, um, it's always been a problem in terms of how we're teaching math. It's always different. It was different for me with my children and so forth. And that's why we do offer those family math nights. Unfortunately, very few parents come out to those family math nights. I do like like Chris had said because yeah, having had several kids go through the schools here, >> the I relied heavily on looking on that the online stuff available because that explained it
027to me as the same step by step that the kids are getting. >> Yeah. >> In class, >> right? Okay. So that's what I was referring to is when uh when critical thinking skills were incorporated into math teaching and how to that's when the method of teaching how to solve a math problem and you know this or I'm not telling you something that you don't already know that when the critical thinking was incorporated into it about 14 years ago um and that in that curricula was introduced to schools to use with the um common core standards. Uh that is when families started to have difficulty helping their children. That's when it started. So that was that's specifically what I was asking about is you know is it still going to be and it wasn't just
028hey well here's a bunch of different ways to solve this problem because children that would get the right answer would have it marked wrong because they did not follow that critical thinking method of arriving at that answer. So that's what I was asking about is are we still you know and to say well we'll see what the teachers think when they get to the end of it. It's something that I would think would be evident at the beginning to see how the math problems are being taught in that curricula, but we'll wait until the end of the pilot program and see what the teachers think, but I would like to know is it that same style of teaching math that so many families have trouble and to look at the book that's available online. Okay,
029that's available, but that's a parent having to relearn how to do that math problem other than, you know, the common sense way to do it. It's more difficult and it removes that parent aspect of helping their child with their homework and just makes it all more difficult. So, I I'm hoping that that it's being taught more going back to the traditional way of teaching the math problems um to remove that difficulty level out of it for the parents. >> And and I don't know too much. I don't want to cut you off. I don't know too much about the programs and I'm I'm anxiously, you know, awaiting to to learn the feedback from our teachers about the pilot. Um but I do know this. I probably observed probably about thus far about four or five
030math teachers this year um during our double scoring observations and several of them in the elementary school. And the one thing I will note that all of the teachers did while I was observing them was talk about the different ways to solve a problem. >> That the bottom line is is to get the problem correct. Um that's in each one of the lessons that the teacher stressed that that the key was we want you to solve the problem correctly. The teacher would give the procedure or methodology for solving the problem but the teacher would also say if you have another way to get to the right answer then that's going to be acceptable too. Um, so I think that addresses a little bit of what you're saying because there was a time when it was
031no, it doesn't matter if you got the correct answer, you had to do it this way. That's no longer the way we're teaching math. But we are we're trying to encourage kids to utilize different ways to solve problems. So here's the way I'm introducing it to you, but the next day they may show them a different way to get to the same problem. But again, the emphasis being on getting the correct answer. So, I don't know if that >> and it is and I think that that's what um when you were talking about the shift when we went from Common Core and then when New Jersey pulled out of common core and developed the New Jersey student learning standards for mathematics which were pretty similar to common core. Um so when we shifted a lot
032of the mathematical education philosophies you know for now especially related to preparing the students for New Jersey student learning assessments it's application of mathematics related to problem solving. So for example the student will be given a problem to solve and a giant white box and they'll say solve it but now you have to also explain your thinking. So, I think that that's kind of the trend that's going with mathematics. Um, to be honest, my role is to make sure that the program aligns to the standards and prepares students for what they need to perform at grade level for for New Jersey. So that is going to be my major focus in analyzing is is making sure that it aligns because any program we choose has to be aligned to the New Jersey student learning standards
033which are aligned to the New Jersey student learning assessment. you know, um, they're probably going to teach multiple ways of doing multiplication, but it will be different than, you know, in envision in some ways and it will be similar in other ways because that's just the mathematical expectation in New Jersey. >> I don't know if that explains it. >> Thank you. >> It's changing all this and I think these were two completely separate things, but I wasn't sure if it was tied to Envision or something like that. I know the kids right now can go in through their accounts and get online help or tutoring that continues with this that they can still get the free resources. >> So the on demand tutoring is actually a separate license. So it's not tied to a specific
034problem although we we're looking at usage and they do use it for math more than any other subject. Um so we do have the on demand tutoring. We obviously have our our mathmies that start in kindergarten and go all the way up to the high school level. Um we do have family nights for math and we do have things related to that. >> ASI math. We have um push in and pull out support um in grades K through 8 for math and for language arts so that we do kind of you know support them in learning as we move along. The one thing that Audrey and I um both noticed when we were looking at the materials are so many more companies are and McGraill is one of them. They include video um demonstration and
035howto. So if a child is at home and they are doing their math homework, there are going to be resources through that digital licensing where they could watch it being demonstrated again. Um so you know we do have those resources as well. Uh envision right now we have the digital license for success maker which is going to help the kids online. Again it will demonstrate um so these are tools that they use in the classroom that are available outside the classroom as well through Clevver. >> And speaking of the on demand tutoring you'll be we'll be asking you to approve um the extension of that during our next board of education meeting. personally seen it in use and we'll definitely good. I'm glad about that. >> Are there any more questions on that on those
036student achievement items or anything else? >> Okay, so now I'm going to just move to governance and then governance is just one item. It's the settlement. I mean it's the sidebar agreement with Oh, go ahead Katya. So, >> yeah, we asked you guys to approve that during the last meeting, but we actually we we >> there was a typing mistake. The names were flip-flopped. That's why it's in bold now. So, the course right now is finding your digital voice. The course is going to be called journalism and public speaking, but they were flip-flopped in the last agenda, which is why we had to seek reapproval. Good catch. >> Yeah. >> All right. So, going to governance, we're just asking you to approve the sidebar agreement that we discussed in close session. >> All right. And
037then last one is we have another sidebar agreement with the SCA and that's due to the increase in minimum wage and that's for our part-time employees, the cafeteria workers, part-time paraprofessionals and bus aids that are on step one and two. Because of the increase in minimum wage, we had to move their salaries up. >> And that concludes my superintendent report. >> Thank you, Dr. Lavy. Any questions or concerns from the board? Now, I'd like to o open it up to the public for >> No, we >> we did the public already. >> So, we just need a motion to approve the um agenda. Can I have a motion to approve the agenda? >> Second. >> Roll call, please. Mr. Callahan. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Jkowski. >> Yes. >> Mr. Fernandez. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Hernandez.
038>> Yes. >> Mrs. Maldonado. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Napolitano. >> Yes. >> Mr. Pabone. Mrs. Pabone. >> Mr. Smith. >> Yes. >> Public participation. >> Now, now like to open up the public participation on any items. Seeing none, >> can I make a closing comment if >> Yeah. >> For closing comments, I just wanted to bring to everyone's attention that um an exciting thing is happening that actually began when I think Dr. Aguilles, you you might have been principal back in 2014 or or was that Mrs. Coglin still >> here? Mrs. Cognese, >> Mrs. Coglin was principal and Mrs. Brady was the vice principal and the school um basically wrote a petition to have a law drawn up to make um saltwater taffy, the New Jersey candy, the candy of New Jersey. So, they did
039such a great job that the law got through the s I got I guess it got through the Senate, but it it died in the assembly. So, Mrs. Brady has launched a resurrection campaign and all the kids from Samo wrote letters to Senator Amato asking him if he would reawaken that legislation so that we can finally make saltwater taffy the candy of New Jersey and Senator Amato has agreed to do that. >> Amazing. >> So that that legislation has been resurrected thanks to the students here at Samo, thanks to Mrs. Coglin and most importantly, thank you thanks to Mrs. Brady. Um, and hopefully that will once again be approved by the Senate and move to the Assembly and hopefully the Senate will I mean the assembly will go ahead and approve it and the governor
040will sign it and finally make saltwater taffy the candy for New Jersey. So, there's an article uh that was written about it. I will forward that article to you all, but I promised Mrs. and east that I would mention it to you tonight in tonight in public um during our meeting. >> So sometime in the near future, you know, God willing, we're going to have a vote to approve candy saltwater taffy for all the students. >> Exactly. Exactly. >> And and enact that's got to be that's got to be served in the cafeteria now. And the greatest thing is in the article, the the the front page of the article, it's a picture of the Samber Elementary School and they talk extensively about the work that was done in 2014 as well as the work
041that was done now to resurrect the uh legislation. So, thought I'd share with you. >> Sounds like a sticky situation. >> Yes. >> Take his mic away, LSE. >> Thank you, Mr. Fernandez, for allowing me to do that. >> Thank you. Any other comments from the board? >> Mr. President, I have a comment. Um so number one I want to clarify I am foreignb born as well. I was actually born in the Dominican Republic. I was raised here. I came here uh very young. But um you know I am very honored and I want to sincerely thank my fellow board members for your confidence and support in electing me as vice president. I am grateful to for the opportunity to serve in this role. Um, as we move forward, I am committed to working collaborative
042collaboratively to help unify this board, promote efficiency and transparency, strengthen community engagement, and maintain a strong focus on compliance and accountability. Of course, you know, wearing my compliance hat. Um, I look forward to partnering with our administration, staff, families, and community as we continue working together to improve our district and support the success of all students. Again, I thank you all and I look forward to the work ahead. So, thank you. Thank you, Miss Maldonado. >> Any other comments? >> Uh, yeah, I would like to make a comment at this time. I would like to thank all the voters who elected me to my fifth term on the board of education. Uh, and know that whether or not I have a title, I'm still here to serve and I will do my best and I
043will still be a pain in everybody's side. It's necessary. So, thank you to all those who put me here for another three years. My side is already hurting. >> And I like to congratulate Chris, Jeff, and Lucy under the re-election. I truly appreciate the time, care, and dedication if of you. Uh continue to give in service to our district, our students, and our community. I will also like to congratulate Ilo on being elected president of the board and Lady on being elected vice president. Thank you both for your leadership and commitment and to serve and I look forward to working together with all of you as we continue to support our students and improve our schools. >> And I I too would just like to thank the voters of Saraveville for reelecting me to a
044second term. I look forward to another three years here. look forward to working with you, Eloy, and you lady in moving things forward for the district and uh the progress we're going to make in the next three years. >> Awesome. >> Well, I also want to thank the voters of Sable for reelecting Miss Bloom, Mr. Smith, and Mr. Callahan. Um it's always been a pleasure working with you. I've learned so much from each of you, and I really look forward to continuing working with you. And more importantly, thank you all for for your for your support for both Lady and I in in this in these new in this new position we have. Our next meetings are going to be January 20th of 2026 and Tuesday, February 3rd of 2026. At this time, I'll entertain
045a motion to to adjurnn. >> So moved. >> Roll call.