001To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Miss Amal here, Miss Prrisel here. Miss Giovani here. Mr. Sher here. Mr. Sampone here. Mr. To here. Miss Waditz here. Miss Calderon here. Notice of the April 7th, 2025 meeting of the board of education was emailed to the clerks of the burrows of Essex Bells, North Paul and Rosland and to the township of Fairfield and to the editor of the progress on January 7th, 2025 in the Star Ledger on the same day. Welcome everyone. It's nice to see smiling faces out there. Um, and it's just nice to have people out of at the board meeting who are going to be pleasant and not yell at us. With that
002being said, um, I would like to I just like to comment that I had the opportunity to attend The Little Mermaid, which was the first production done by the middle school at the um, high school here. And um, it was extraordinary. I mean, it was those kids had such a good time. I mean, they were up on that stage and they were just enjoying themselves. And although I mean, you know, you compare it to the high school, you're like, "These kids are going to definitely grow when it gets time to be in the high school. They're going to be polished, they're going to be professional, and they're just going to bring so much to the community." Um, it was just such a nice event. Um, and they really they just had a great time. They
003were just truly enjoying themselves and that was nice to see. So, I applaud all of the middle school teachers and staff and everyone and the parents who supported them, who got them out there and encouraged them because it was a little bit, you know, scary your first time being there in this auditorium in front of everyone. It's not the same as being at the elementary school. So, um, we thank you. accolades to all of you because it was a wonderful event. Um, we did have other board members who attended. Go ahead. I see you looking at me. No, I I um I agree. It was a phenomenal event. Um to say it was their the students first middle school um performance. I mean, their voices were I was like blown away. I said, "This is
004as good as the high school performance." They were phenomenal. Um, and they did look like they were having a great time. Um, I I thought they did a wonderful job. So, it was very nice to see and I hope the uh tradition continues. So, um, it was fun. I had a great time. They were amazing. I'll echo both of your comments. I thought it was spectacular. The kids did a tremendous job. Um, and I like that now there's a transition because, you know, from elementary school there is that gap from elementary to the high school where the kids sort of get out of the rhythm of performing and now there's a venue for them to now continue and then go straight into high school which I think is tremendous. So they they really did a
005spectacular job and like you said they were having a blast at the end of the performance. We're all on stage jumping around. They were they were so jazzed and excited. So it was it was really good. We had staff members who um were part of the um production. Actually, our superintendent of school, right? Oh, yes. We have a video, you know, that we can use at any time. But um there were a couple teachers who were partaking and they just they just had a good time with the kids and I think the kids really they just enjoyed themselves. Great. Definitely. I also I've noticed a very large increase in social media presence of the high school and the middle school. And I think that's been very positive. Um really nice to see like so many
006photos, things that are going on in the school. I feel as if almost every day something new is popping up on my feed. So it's a it's a nice ad. Yeah. Okay. Superintendent report. Yes. So I Oh, I'm sorry. That's okay. So, um I just wanted to um thank the students that uh participated at the uh Livingston High School for the uh jazz concert. That's the first time first year that we're having this jazz concert and we had Katherine Rogerro and Miles that um performed beautifully at the concert. So, we have a lot of talented students here at West Essex. obviously between the performances of the uh uh Little Mermaid and chorus and choir. So, I I I really think that it's it's we're headed for a good direction here with all our kids. That's
007it. Yeah. I also just, you know, had a great time, especially being backstage for about 45 minutes with 60 middle schoolers was uh was also an experience in itself. Um but yes, I agree with all the comments here. It was it was a great time. We look forward to many more productions and just a big shout out to Lisa Swanic and the music and arts department for all their hard work and for all the teachers that were helping with all the rehearsals and the stage crew and the building of the set and everything. Um so I I just give them a lot of credit for the time and effort that they um put in for that. Um, all I have uh in addition to that is just a reminder that we're doing our bus study
008on Friday and Monday as we move through our start our school start times process. The last piece is to kind of evaluate the transportation um logistics and we're going to um hold our buses after uh they arrive on Friday morning and Monday morning and um then release them to go do their runs and see if there's any impact on uh the elementary schools. And then in the afternoon on Monday and Friday, we'll actually hold our buses in the bus lanes till about 2:45 and then release them to go do their their elementary runs. And then we'll start to gather some data to determine if releasing earlier um I mean with a later start time and a later end time if there's any impact on our transportation um with regard to our shared services with our
009three um districts of Roseand, North Cwell, and Fairfield. So, and then our next school start times meeting is on Tuesday, April 15th. We'll bring back some of that data to the committee. We'll see what it looks like. If we feel like we need to do another day or two of a bus study just to be, you know, have a little bit more data, we're we're prepared to do that after spring break as [Applause] well. I think Emily's next, right? Anything report out? No. Okay. Okay. Let's start with our curriculum and presentations and starting social studies and language. We have doing sciences. That's right. All right. All right. Good evening, everyone. Good evening. Thank you to the board of education for inviting me to speak tonight. Thank you as well to Damian Caesar and the entire
010administrative team for their continued support over the past six years while I've been the science supervisor at West Essex. I'm grateful for all that my lead teacher, Lauren Summer, Lauren Summer, sorry, does to help move our department forward. I'm also appreciative of the great teachers and staff, wonderful students, and involved parents at West Essex. So, speaking of our teachers, on the next slide, we can see um our staff, my staff. We have new teachers in the middle school, Gabby Riley and Aaron Hughes. Gabby teaches eighth grade and has transitioned smoothly from Fairfield. Aaron is a science specialed teacher and is working with our seventh grade team. It's great to have their new energy as they both as they both share their experiences from other districts. At the same time, our teachers have helped them acclimate
011to life at West Essex. In the high school, we welcome Elena Amoris, who is doing a wonderful job with our chemistry honors and AP chemistry programs. Despite having a very full course load, Elena has quickly gotten acclimated to West Essex students and our learning community in general. In fact, about 20 minutes ago, half hour ago, I saw her over at the high school. She was um with her AP chemistry students getting them prepared for the exam coming up. So, that's dedication. All right. As we turn to our district goals, there are many ways we incorporate them into what we do in science. We're continuously working to use data to improve student outcomes. One way we do this is by strengthening classroom instruction. Our teachers go through countless hours of professional development offered by the district,
012seek out professional development on their own, and and they work in PLC's to help collaborate with each other and with me. On the next slide, get to start looking at some of that data uh that data. We have uh science 11th grade scores from the last two years. And if you look towards the left, you'll see um at the top is obviously 2023 and on the bottom is 2024. And the first row that you'll see, hopefully you can read it, is the state and the second row is the district. It's our district obviously. So you can see in 2023, um the state was at 171 for the average for science 11. And then in 2024, they actually went down to 169 for the average score. So that was a decrease of 1.2%. 2%. Whereas at
013West Essex, we improved our score from 187 to 191, a 2.1% increase. So the state went down a little bit whereas we went up. So that's obviously good news. Um, as you look further to the right, you'll see the performance levels and levels 1 2 3 and four where one is the lowest and four is the highest. Um, focusing on level three, which is proficient, we'll see the state declined from 21.6% being level three to 19.4%. That was a 10.2% 2% decrease in their level 3 performance for the state. But for West Essex, our level 3 performance um went from 30.8% to 31.9%. We had a 3.6% increase. So while they were decreasing 10.2 2% the state that is we were increasing 3.6. Um on our next slide, we're going to focus on Whoops. There
014we go. We're going to focus on grade eight. Um, and it's the same data here, except they added one more year to see a three-year trend. Um, so we're looking from 2022 until 2024. We'll see that the state improved their their average score from the beginning to the end from 161 to 164, which is a 1.9% increase, whereas West Essex improved our score from 170 to 181, which represents a 6.5% increase. Um, looking at this time, we look all the way to the right and look at the combined level three and four. The state improved from 15.6% 6% getting a score of 304 um to 18.8% and that represented a 20.5% increase in combined level 3 and four for the state. That's a nice increase. But for West Essex, we improved our combined level three
015and four score from 17.8% to 30.8% and that represented a 73% increase. So very proud of that increase that our science teachers and our students um obviously achieved. So at both the middle school and the high school, there's obviously still room for improvement. And what we're going to hope to do is get our level twos to move into level threes and our level threes to move up to level fours. And some reason I'm having trouble here. All right. Um, actually, let's wait one more second here. So, as we look to to toward that future improvement, um, our middle school science teachers are continuing to use Edelastic Spark. Edgelastic is a computer-based program that offers questions formatted similar to the NJSLA science a test. Combine the testing format familiarity that Edgelastic provides for our students with
016the data that it provides for our teachers. We hope to continue to see future gains on state testing. As for the high school, we're adding more NJSLA style questions to all of our assessments to help our students be more comfortable when they take the NJSLA. And now, as we look at our next slide, hopefully there we go. Um, so moving to our second goal, we're improving school culture and climate in numerous ways. As illustrated on this slide, we held um, sorry, West Essex held its second annual schoolwide elective fair, which is a spin-off of sorts from what science had done in the past when older students talked to younger students about science courses and what to expect as they advance through the high school. As you can see in the picture in the middle, during
017lunch, students went around to various stations where their peers informed them about elective courses that are currently that they are currently taking. students were able to ask questions of their peers which was very helpful as they decide on their courses for next year. This event um involved collaboration between students and staff as well as well as a lot of studentto student interaction all of which surely had a positive impact on the West Texas culture and climate. Field trips are another great way to improve the culture and climate of our school community. It gives students a chance to bond with each other outside of the school setting. Last month, Andrea Berllo organized her annual trip to Liberty Science Center to see a cardiac surgery with anatomy and physiology students. It was a great experience for our
018students to watch a live surgery and be able to speak with the doctors and nurses involved. They were even able to ask questions of the surgeon. Um, last year I was able to go on that trip and got to see it. This year I wasn't able to do it, but asking questions of the surgeon and our students did it. Other students that were there also got to do it. It's really neat to just get that firsthand experience with them. Um the picture is just a picture of them going through a maze at the Liberty Science Center. Um so that's the picture you see on the left and then on the right you'll see a picture of um a little turtle uh in in the picture uh in that situation that's from our field trip that
019seventh grade goes to to Gateway National Park in Sandy Hook for the Clean Ocean Action Student Summit. All right, switching to last year. All right. After our um after our meeting last year when I presented and told you guys that we were going to be going on the um eclipse field trip, um it actually happened. It was April 8th. It was 364 days ago. Um here you can see a few pictures that my son Ben took of the eclipse in New Jersey. Unfortunately, the pictures that I took really weren't presentable because I use my iPhone. Um so they didn't look as as nice as these pictures did. And it's crazy when you look at that picture on the left, even the one on the right, the first thing everyone thinks is that's the what? That's
020the moon. But that's not the moon. That's the sun, right? The moon's blocking. And because he was in New Jersey when he took the picture, it never got to total um total, you know, total eclipse. So, he didn't get to get all of that. But you get to see the the sun there looking like the moon. It's pretty pretty amazing. Um, so it was an amazing experience obviously for all of us once in a lifetime for for all the students that were there and the 15 chaperons as well. Um, this wouldn't have been possible without the support of the administration in both of our buildings, right? As well as the board of education. Um, thank you so much for letting us do that. Special thanks also to Lauren who was instrumental in helping me organize
021this as well as the clean ocean action field trip. It's truly a team effort to make field trips happen as there are so many moving parts to be taken care of. Um, however, the real world experience it provides for our students makes it totally worth it. So, in addition to the help that uh Lauren provides me in the science department as lead teacher, she also helps improve the culture and climate of our school community. And here's two situations where she was doing that. Um, so these two, the picture on the left is a slide from the eighth grade end of year event and you'll see that Mr. Machochi is prominently displayed there over to the left. Okay. Um, and the autism awareness pie the principal event and that's obviously on the right. All right. And
022again, this was from last I think it was last April or last May. Um, all right. Next up, we are moving to seventh grade work. All right. On the left is a student shown working on the PDNA extraction lab. On the right is the bracket for the seventh grade science March Mammal Madness Tournament. All right. Um, moving on to eighth grade, we can see on the left students completed a lab measuring the volume of liquids. Um the middle the middle picture shows students working on their roller coaster. Um they have insulated insulation tube which and we have a marble which goes to represent the car going down the tube. Each roller coaster had to have three special features. Students determine the kinetic and potential energy of the marble as it traveled the track. And now
023we're going to move on to the high school. Hopefully there we go. Um, and on this slide you can see Wendy thinks students collaborating on two different labs. While both challenged students with real world applications and a competition component, I will highlight the protect the passenger lab. Students designed, built, and tested crumple zone for wooden cars to reduce the force on a figure taped to the seat. Obviously, that was pretending to be a person. Um, all right. I'd also like to showcase an activity that chemistry teacher Miss El Elizabeth Rickfort and her co-teer Zlata Denise recently completed with their students. Recognizing the hard work all winter their students have been doing, they wanted to provide them with a change of pace while still engaging them in rigorous meaningful activity. Students were given a brief marking
024period reflection survey via Google form. This promoted metacognition as it encouraged students to think about their own learning. It also encouraged a growth mindset for future improvement. Additionally, this reflection was helpful for Zlatada and and Liz to adjust teaching methods, material, and PACE. This resulted in them being more responsive to student needs and keeping a student centered approach. The students then made snow using sodium polyacrylate. Not easy to say. Some groups even tried to build a snowman. Students connected the use of this chemical as the same one that's used in diapers, believe it or not. For students who are done with winter and ready for spring, Lizen's Lada had an option to make chromatography flowers or help with classroom plants. You can kind of see actually the chromatography picture. Yeah, it's over on the left.
025All right, that's the chromatography one. Um, there was a lot more to this activity that I left out in the interest of time. I'll conclude it by saying that Liz Enslad's in school snow day was a meaningful and fun experience that contributed positively to the culture and climate of West Essex. So, as depicted in the previous slide, science lessons and labs are connected to phenomena to help students understand science concepts and engage in science and engineering practices from the next generation science standards. Next up is our annual snapshot of success in science. Lauren Hayne, pictured there to the right, graduated from West Essex last year. She's studying biomechanical engineering at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. At the same time, she's also on a premed track, so she's keeping herself busy. She told me that
026science is a major part of her life and that she is really enjoying the advanced chemistry, biology, and physics classes that she is taking. When she graduates, she would like to either pursue a career in biomedical engineering or go to med school. Whether she will be making equipment that can be used in surgeries as a biomedical engineer or performing the actual surgeries herself, she will be heavily involved in medical and science field. Additionally, Lauren has two younger sisters, Lexi and Lindsay, who are seniors at West Essex, and they're currently taking AP science courses. So perhaps someday they will follow in their big sister's footsteps. We'll see. All right. Um on that note, let's hear from our phenomenal science independent study students who have been working with Miss Jodie Dolce, our wonderful AP and honors biology
027teacher. First up, we have uh oh, I pushed the wrong button. There we go. First up, we have Mika Camitki. Hi, my name is Mika Kamyki and today I'll be discussing crisper and its role in crop evolution. Not just how it speeds up genetic changes, but also the ethical concerns and risks it raises. Crisper offers powerful ways to shape agriculture, but it also has unintended consequences that need to be addressed before widespread use. Should we be controlling evolution? And if we do, how do we ensure it's done responsibly? I'll explore both the promise and the pitfalls of this technology. Crisper stands for clustered regularly interpaced short palendroic repeats. It's a technology derived from a bacterial defense system where bacteria uses it to fend off viruses. They use it to recognize and cut its DNA. Scientists
028have adapted this system for use in plants, animals, and even humans. What makes Crisper different from older genetic modification techniques like GMOs is its precision. You can target one specific gene rather than inserting random genes into a plant's DNA. In nature, evolution happens slowly over thousands and even millions of years. Crisper acts as a shortcut, allowing us to directly edit DNA and accelerate changes in plants. This is a gamecher for agriculture because it can rapidly help crops adapt to climate change, become more resistant to pests and diseases, and even increase yields. What traditionally took generations can now be done in a single season. Even though Crisper is designed to be precise, it's not immune to unintended consequences. Sometimes Crisper's gene editing tool can cause mutations in parts of the genome that were not the focus
029of the edits. These are called offtarget effects. For example, scientists might aim to modify a rice plant's disease resistance, but in doing so, they could inadvertently alter its growth rate or other traits. These unintended changes can affect the plant's health or productivity. And in some cases, these mutations may only become apparent when the crop is grown at a large scale, leading to unforeseen challenges in agriculture. Another risk of using crisper on a large scale is the potential reduction in genetic diversity. When crops are genetically uniform, meaning they all share the same traits, this makes them more vulnerable to diseases and pests. A historical example of this is the Irish potato famine, where the lack of genetic diversity in potato crops led to a devastating crop failure when a disease struck. If crisper is used to
030make crops genetically identical, it could create the same vulnerabilities, putting global food security at risk. A one another one of the least predictable risks of crisper in agriculture is what happens when modified genes escape into the wild. If a modified crop, such as one with herbicide resistance, crossbreeds with a wild plant, it could create a superw weed, a plant that is resistant to herbicides and difficult to control. This can disrupt ecosystems by outco competing native plants, potentially causing long-term ecological damage. Evolution is not just about crops. It's about ecosystems as a whole. And these unintended gene transfers could cause imbalances in natural systems. Who controls evolution? Currently, the vast majority of crisper technology is controlled by large biotech corporations, meaning that small farmers might be forced to pay high fees for seeds that are genetically
031modified using crisper. This could create economic dependence on a small number of companies reducing the autonomy of local farmers. This also raises the ethical question of should we be altering the evolution of plants so directly. Is it right for humans to control such a fundamental process in nature? To ensure that crisper is used responsibly, we need strict regulations and international cooperation. Right now, different countries have difficult different rules and some have no regulations at all. Without a unified approach, crisper modified crops could spread without proper oversight, potentially causing harm to biodiversity and ecosystems. Global cooperation is essential to create standards that prioritize the long-term safety and sustainability of this powerful technology. In conclusion, Crisper has tremendous potential to improve agriculture by making crops more resilient to climate change and pests. However, it also comes with
032significant risks, including unintended ecological consequences, ethical concerns, and the potential loss of biodiversity. The challenge is not just to innovate, but to do so in a way that responsibly manages these risks for the greater good of society. Thank you. [Applause] Yes, we have Pria coming up [Applause] next. Hi, I'm Priya and I've been researching epigenetics throughout the year. So, sophomore year, I took AP bio with Miss Dolce and that introduced me to Crisper Technologies. And then my junior year, I had the opportunity to learn more in AP research and I wrote my research paper on crisper regulation and it was titled crisper regulation opinions from a unique perspective. During this I was introduced to the field of epigenetics and so I chose to take this independent study. DNA provides instructions that allow somatic cells to
033function. There are two strands as you see in that image of DNA that wind up to form a double helix structure. They connect through four types of bases. adinine, cytosine, guanine and thymine. Genes are specific sequences of these bases. Individual genes work together to form the genome. We have no control over our genetics. They are inherited from our biological ancestors. And our genetics predetermine everything from our eye color to our risk for disease inheritance. There's a huge potential in science if our genetics could be changed. The field of genetics is different than epigenetics. Genetics is focusing on the DNA sequence itself. It's studying the variations in the DNA sequence and the changes can only occur through mutations, deletions or substitutions in that genome. All of these changes are permanent and can only be changed through
034genetic engineering. Epigenetics is a relatively new field of science. It's the study of heritable changes in gene expression that do not alter the DNA sequence itself. Epigenetics focuses on how genes are regulated and how genes are expressed. A critical piece of epigenetics is that they're hereditable. This means that a parental diet can be passed on causing metabolic changes in their children. Severe parental stress and trauma can leave epigenetic marks on their offspring leading to the development of things like ADHD. Changes to the epigenome are influenced by things like lifestyle and experiences. The epigenome itself is a collection of all the chemical modifications that regulate gene expression without changing the DNA sequence itself. The epigenome is dynamic, which means it changes over time. The good thing about this is that if you eat nutritious food, exercise,
035and have manipulable stress, this can result in epigenetic changes that promote health. The negatives to this are that if you eat processed foods, participate in things like smoking, and have a lot of stress, that can cause epigenetic changes that can harm human health. There are three key mechanisms that lead to changes in your epigenetics. The first is DNA methyl methylation, and this is adding methyl groups to DNA, which silences gene expression, so those genes are no longer shown in your persona. The second is histone modification and that's chemical changes to histone proteins that affect how tightly your DNA is wrapped. This influences your genetic accessibility which is basically like saving a trait in your genome for later. And the third is non-coding RNA and this is when microRNAs bind to messenger RNA which blocks translation
036and that silences or turns off genes. This image shows an unwinded piece of chromatin from DNA undergoing epigenetic alterations through three modifications. There's a lot of potential in the field of epigenetics and the first one is that we can understand disease development. Epigenetic changes impact many diseases. For example, with cancer, abnormal DNA methylation can turn off tumor suppressor genes or activate encoens. Epigenetic factors contribute to conditions like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's and can worsen or better them and other neurodeenerative diseases. Epigenetic modifications influence conditions like depression, schizophrenia, and PTSD. The second is personalized medicine. Doctors can study epigenetic markers to create individualized and more effective treatments for their patients. The third is in cultivating safe environments. Epigenetics can explain how diet, stress, toxins, and exercise impact gene expression. Understanding this means that we can make lifestyle
037choices to reverse or modify harmful epigenetic changes. And the third is controlling heritability. Epigenetics shows how experiences like famine, trauma, toxin, or toxin exposure can leave marks on DNA that affect future generations. This has major implications for public health, genetics, and species resilience. This image shows phenotypic plasticity as a catalyst of tumor recurrence. In the first image, the tumor has a mix of cell stages shown through all the different colors which are enabled by the DNA's epigenetic landscape. If we change what the epiggenome can tolerate so its variability, we can choose which colors to include and that leads to the third image. So that's an example of the epigenome changing to modify a cancer. Drug targeting regulators of the epigenome are already used in science in fields such as adult oncology, but their applications are
038still growing because it's a new field. With cancers, there are frequent mutations in genes that encode epigenetic regulators. Pediatric cancers have relatively low rates of genetic mutation which make epigenetic changes a promising target for therapy. I read a case study discussing targets for epigenetic therapies and pediatric cancers. It tracked the stats of two terminal pediatric cancer patients who were ineligible for traditional chemo treatments. Patient one had secondary moplastic syndrome known as MDS and patient two had acute myoid leukemia known as AML. Patient one was treated with an a DNA methylene inhibitor and a histone ductase inhibitor and these both target the epigenome. Her initial bone marrow blast percentage was 89% which meant she had a very high immature blood cell count. Her white blood cell count was elevated in the 72 to 255 range showing
039immune system suppression. As you can see the treatment was a success. Her bone marrow blast percentage fell down to 36 and her white blood cell count fell to 0.9 through 39 which is tolerable range. It was a success and it reactivated tumor suppression genes that had been silenced by DNA meth methylation and that helped to restore normal gene expression making the DNA in her leukemia cells accessible then reducing the expression of encoens which are the cancer promoting genes. Patient two was treated with a similar therapy combination which led to better control over the leukemia. Her bone marrow blast percentage fell from around 60% to 14% and her white blood cell count fell from 120 to 0.9 through.39 which is tolerable range. The this patient is now in clinical remission which means the percentage of leukemia
040cells in the marrow dropped significantly. Overall this case study shows that epigenetics stable the respective marrow diseases outpatient palation and quality of life. Thank you Priya. And next up is Asha. Oh I guess we have Kash. Sorry. Hi everyone, my name is Cash. My topic is the human immune system focusing on HIV. I took AP bio with Miss Dolce last year and was very drawn to the unit of cellular communication which included the discussion of the human immune system. And I chose to zoom in on HIV because I believe it is the most common autoimmune disease that people might connect the immune system with but don't really understand how it works. So before I get into the discussion of HIV, we first need to understand how the immune system works in general. The immune system
041is categorized into two main branches, innate and adaptive. We're all born with innate immunity. It is a non-specific and more general immune response. For example, our skin, which protects us from infections, and our white blood cells that fight off any foreign or unusual viruses. On the other hand, adaptive immunity is more specific, requires antibodies, which are essentially these proteins that are needed to recognize and invading pathogens in order to destroy them and BNT cells. BNT cells are two types of our white blood cells and they play important roles in our adaptive immune responses. Today, I'm going to focus more on another subbranch of tea cells called helper tea cells. Metaphorically, helper tea cells are messenger cells that set off a chain reaction to call on other cells uh such as B cells or other T-
042cells to help destroy foreign pathogen. This is important because HIV is all about attacking this messenger cell. So the whole idea of HIV is that it attacks helper tea cells, reduces their number in our bloodstream, which in turn weakens our immune system and makes us more susceptible to diseases. The main way of transmission of HIV is through bodily fluids and this is normally through sexual activities, unsanitary needle practices or heritage. In terms of susceptibility, anyone can get it but through different means. For example, in children, the most common way of infection under the age of 13 is through something called paranatal transmission which is passed down from the mother either during pregnancy at the time of childirth or breastfeeding. For adolescence, both men and women, it is usually from sexual activity and there are around
04319% new infections annually for people younger than 24 years old. Over 50% of people infected by HIV are a age 50 or older and is even more complicated for them because chances are they've had it for a long time and other conditions may further complicate the patient's health. What is unique about HIV's replication process is that it is a retrovirus which is essentially a reversed process compared to the normal replication. So normally a viral cell attaches to a host cell integrates its DNA with it and lets the host cell produce the new viral protein. However, HIV is an RNA virus instead of DNA. After attach attaching itself to the host cell, an enzyme called reverse transcriptise is needed to create a DNA copy from that viral RNA before it integrates itself with the host's DNA.
044Knowing HIV's retrovirus characteristics is very crucial in developing antiviral drugs to specifically target the process of reverse transcription for infected patients. Besides the decline in immune system, there will also be physical symptoms as well, such as fever, rashes, fatigue, diarrhea, and more. There are relatively common symptoms, so it's really hard to detect whether it um these symptoms are signs of HIV just through a patient's physical health. But doctors do recommend regular checkups or just getting in the habit of testing if you know you're at risk of getting infected, say your partner is a carrier or any known family history. In terms of progression, there are three main stages stages of HIV a patient goes through. first acute or primary HIV. This occurs around 1 to four weeks after transmission. In this stage, the patient will
045not see a huge decline in helper T- cell count and might not be clinically diagnosed. The second stage is chronic or asymptomatic HIV. This stage usually lasts around 8 to 10 years and is accompanied by a gradual decline in T- cell counts. The last stage is when HIV turns into AIDS. A patient is diagnosed with AIDS when the helper T- cell counts goes down below 200 per millime cubed or 14% of their total white blood cell count. The speed of these progression is unpredictable. One can go from HQ to death within 2 years while others survive more than 20 years. So how do we prevent that? HIV is known for having no cure. But with advancing technology, scientists and researchers have come up with potential solutions. Today, as mentioned before, HIV is still considered to
046have no cure. However, the most effective treatment is called anti-retroviral therapy, also known as ART. There are antiviral drugs to inhibit the enzyme reverse transcriptase and HIV's transcription process. Other ways of treatment include pills and shots called preexposure and postexposure prophylaxis, which essentially blocks the enzymes to prevent HIV from attacking host cells and replicating the viral proteins. While these anti-retrobiotherapies and drugs are not 100% guaranteed to completely stop HIV, it is an important safeguard to be aware of should you have should you potentially happen to be exposed or at risk of getting infected. Future possibilities are currently being explored and in the experimental stage include stem cell transplant uh from bone marrow and cord blood and gene editing tools like crisper. Stem cell transplant from the bone marrow has been a very common approach to
047many other medical issues such as cancer, cickle cell anemia and other autoimmune diseases. According to NIH research in 2023, only three people all males have been cured of HIV through this kind of stem cell transplant. The reason the cure rate is so low is due to the fact that the donor needs to have this have two copies of a very specific gene called CCR5 and they need to have a mutation called delta 33 32 which is a mutation that causes a 32 base pair deletion that turns off a very specific receptor that makes them immune to HIV. So the rarity of that naturally decreases the chances of finding a donor. In addition, this procedure also risked the chance of developing something called graph versus host disease when transplanted cells start attacking the host's body. So
048overall, bone marrow transplants have been done and have been successful in the past, but is not quite accessible. Next is the use of stem cell from umbilical cord blood. This is a newer solution, but it offers more accessibility as cord blood doesn't need to be as perfect of a match as stem cells harvested from bone marrows. One woman has been cured of HIV through this procedure. A year after the transplant, her body no longer produced antibodies against HIV, which indicates that HIV is no longer replicating in her body. However, due to the nature of stem cell transplant's complexity and riskiness, it's still reserved and suggested for people in life-threatening conditions. This female patient who also has leukemia proves that the use of cord blood stem cells could potentially expand access to HIV treatment. Last but
049not least, gene editing. The tool crisper can be designed to target viral DNA or RNA. It can potentially tag viral HIV cells, edit the viral RNA and prevent them from transferring that RNA copy into DNA before the cell infects the host cell. Other targets of crisper could also be helper T- cell receptors or the CCR5 co-ceptors as mentioned earlier with the stem cell donor. While no HIV patients have been cured using gene editing technology yet, it seems to have a very bright future to be put into use in the medical field for curing not only HIV but many more. Thank you. Thank you, Cash. And now up is Asha. Sorry. Hi, my name is Asha and I decided to do my independent study on the nervous system and cell signaling. The nervous system is divided
050into the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system. The central nervous system consists of the brain and spinal cord while the PNS is everything else. The nerves and the neurogilia. Gileia cells perform many functions to keep the system working correctly including supporting neurons and trimming out dead neurons through the through these communication networks. These neurons are the reason we can complete our daily tasks. Cell signaling for for cancer control. In a healthy individual, cell signaling prevents tumors by regulating cell growth through checkpoints in the cell cycle. For example, before a cell can enter the S-phase or DNA synthesis, the G1 checkpoint ensures that no DNA was damaged and that the cell has enough resources to replicate. If DNA is damaged, the cell may repair itself or undergo apoptosis, which is programmed cell death. And
051these checkpoints prevent mutations that could lead to cancer. However, in glyoma, which is um a type of cancer that originates in gillia cells, um the it's the result of cell prolification. So, it's uncontrolled cell growth that leads to the formation of a tumor. This cancer is caused by a sematic mutation where lysine 27 is substituted with methionine. Gloma is considered high-grade when it spreads quickly and into nearby tissue. Most people recognize this as stage three or four of cancer and it's the type of gloma that's found in most children. While the exact cause is unknown, it is thought to have arisen from random errors in cell division. There's no genetic or environmental link and the symptoms vary from headaches to vomiting and can be so severe that they could wake your child up from sleeping.
052While there's no cure, researchers have found high potential in one particular treatment plan. Radiation is a machine that uses highdose X-rays to damage DNA inside cancer cells. It causes the tumor to shrink or to lose the ability to grow. The benefit of radiation is that it's localized so that it targets a specific part of the body, sparing any healthy tissue. On the other hand, Zelanexer, which is an oral medication, is a selective inhibitor of nuclear export. This means that it blocks the export of tumor suppressor proteins from leaving the cell's nucleus. This may seem counterintuitive because if these so-called proteins can block a cancer-causing tumor, then why would we want to stop them? However, it's much more complic complicated than that. Tumor suppressor proteins are meant to stay in the nucleus and Zelanexer will keep
053them there, restoring their function to help the body fight cancer. However, these treatments do not work on their own. Radiation is ineffective in treating gloma because of its abnormal chromatin structure. However, Zelanexer can make the tumor cells more sensitive to radiation and reduce their and reduce their resistance to radiation. Clinical trial. Researchers conducted a clinical trial to explore the treatment. In phase one and two, researchers tested the side effects of Zelanexer and radiation, including determining the maximum tolerated dose and how effective it is against HGG. To participate in the trial, you had to be older than 12 months but younger than 21 years old. have a platelet count of 100,000 and hemoglobin levels around eight which is um the normal range for a healthy child is 9 to 15. One received radiation 5 days a
054week for 5 to 7 weeks and then on day four received Zelanexer every 7 days. The cycle repeated every 28 days for up to 24 cycles. Patients conditions were monitored before and after to observe any tumor shrinkage. The trial began on March 1st, 2021 and ended February 28th, 2025. The current status of the trial is concluded and we're waiting for more comprehensive results of the success and safety which will be published in a peer-reviewed journal soon or um presented in a medical conference. With any cl with any clinical trial, there are always risks and rewards. Regardless, the exploration of innovative treatments like Zelanexer and radiation are essential to one day finding a cure to cancer and saving many patients lives in the future. Thank you. [Applause] Good evening everybody. I'm Laura Drago, the uh supervisor
055of social studies and world languages. Just a little tidbit for tonight looking back. It's actually my 10th year presenting to the board of education. So, thank you for having me around that long. Uh I'm excited to share with you details about the social studies and world language department and how we approach the goals of the district. Uh you're going to see slides on how we're cultivating some exciting things new new exciting things this year activities that the teachers are doing to cultivate career readiness particularly including AI which I'll get into in just a minute and certainly our ongoing efforts in both the social studies and world language departments uh to ensure a positive and inclusive school culture and climate. just about a year ago. Okay, sorry. Um, we in social studies and world languages, again,
056this is our second year in which we've participated in the No Place for Hate program in the middle school and high school in the social studies classes. Just some examples of some of the activities that the teachers are doing and how they're integrating them into their curriculum. For example, in eighth grade, they were working on the Salem witch trials. And in the middle school, the lessons were on uncovering truths related to stereotypes. So, this program has been very beneficial for the middle school social studies teachers and for high school uh because the themes are very relevant for their ages and appropriate for their ages and also they've been able to integrate them into the content of their curriculum. We have a new teacher of Spanish. I'm excited to introduce to you uh Miss Vivana Rojos.
057Uh this year she went to professional development on AI in world languages and she actually turnkeyed her learnings to the world language teachers. I'm going to share with you a little bit tonight about how all of these socialized world language teachers are integrating AI in some exciting ways. So just about a year ago in the social studies and world language departments, we started to and and all throughout the district, of course, we started to talk about AI in education. And literally a year ago, the conversation amongst teachers was a concern about how do we not have students use AI to create something that was not authentic, that was not their own. Well, I'm excited to share a year later, our teachers in middle school and high school in social studies and world languages have really
058spent time diving deep into how they can use AI and have their students use AI for creativity um and certainly critical thinking and I'm sure you can all understand that this is absolutely a life skill. So for our students to come out of high school, not even college, but out of high school with, you know, what I would say is um an AI proficiency, I think is very exciting. So a year later of the conversation of how do we avoid our students using AI, we're actually excited to share that the teachers are becoming very proficient in integrating AI into their classrooms. So for our um department meetings this year and certainly for our PLC time, we really tried to just focus on having the teachers learn one of one or a few of the AI
059platforms and really become specialists in that and they've been sharing their uh resources that they've become proficient in. For example, DIFET is one that teachers use. It's really good for differentiating. uh teachers can put a lesson into there or a reading into there and it will generate different uh reading levels. The it'll generate the material in different reading levels. It creates a lot of great um graphics for the teachers to create lessons um and activities. Um you'll also see as we go through, let me just see if it's in here. Okay, I'm going to come back to the other one. Uh, another resource that teachers have been using quite a bit is called Magic School. Magic School has a few platforms in it in which on the left side you've probably seen like Google Classroom,
060Magic School has a variety of little tools in there for teachers. They can type something in that they want to create and it can create a chatbot which many of our teachers are using. I know that sounds like what's a chatbot, but in both social studies and world languages, it allows teachers for our eighth grade uh social studies classes, they were doing the Revolutionary War. So, the teachers were able to create an lesson in which the students were able to chat with a figure from the Revolutionary period, like a Paul Rivere or a George Washington or whatever, and they had to create questions to ask that person. and it not just provides answers but it's also got audio to it as well. Um and in this is another platform that some of the world language
061teachers are using as well as I'm sure you're aware of the idea of a crest which is a very cultural component particularly in Spanish. This is something that Vivana Rojas introduced to the other teachers where students used AI to create their own personal crests based on information that they put in. So rather than drawing it, which is also, you know, an amazing um example of how students can create their own crest for a student who maybe is not that artistic, uh they can put in their different characteristics and then this AI platform will generate a crest. And if they don't like it, particularly if they feel like it doesn't quite reflect what they wanted it to, they can go back in and have it um based on their prompts or follow-up prompts uh edit it
062a little bit and come up with a different result. So these are just some examples of how the teachers are really using these platforms in um world languages and in social studies. This is an example of the chat box. If we can just get this, this is in a world language class. Just before you do that, um, they have them in the target language. They're asking historical figures questions and then it will answer them and then they can hit play and it will re it will respond to them in the target language, which is also very important. Sorry to pause you for a second there, but um, it's important for students to not just only hear their teacher in that target language, but hear other authentic voices. So the world language teachers are very excited
063about the opportunity to have not just their teacher speaking in the target language to them but have the students listen to other authentic um language I mean speakers as well. You can just click the should I click the play or Yeah. So now you can literally like leave tonight saying now I understand what a chatbot is. Chat bot like robot. So a chatbot is a feature in um educational AI platforms that the student can chat with a bot in different ways. So this is the eighth grade US history or early American history project that was put together by a teacher, the road to revolution. And one of the functions that they did in addition to have it create an image uh it it allows them also to chat with a historical figure just like a
064few there's many things that they're doing but for the sake of um the fact that we have many presentations tonight I just wanted to focus on a few. Here's another great one called Brisk AI. Teachers started using this last year. They're becoming very proficient with Brisk AI. This platform, I feel, is going to lead to more writing in the social studies classes because students can input their writing and it will give them formative feedback. It's not grading it for them, but it's making suggestions to the student on how to enhance their writing, whether it'll tell them uh provide dates or more data to uh demonstrate their point that they're trying to make here. So, this is um another exciting platform for teachers called Brisk AI. And they're they're using these in world language as well.
065Okay. Sorry that this is a little glitched with the title. exciting. I don't know if you remember uh last year I mentioned to you last year that we would be bringing in a heritage Spanish program. Well, here it is. And there's 25 students in the class. Yeah. And they're only 20 24 and they're only freshman and sophomores. So, here's what we did. So, our heritage Spanish program, it's an A and B, not a one and two. So, you can come in at A, which is running this year, or come in at B. It's not one and two, it's A and B. So at any given year, a student can take it. So we only have to run one section of it as long as we have numbers around 2425. So this is a course for
066students that we have determined have or heritage background. And what it is is it's obviously very different when you have heritage Spanish speakers learning Spanish as opposed to non-heritage Spanish speakers learning Spanish. Um, as you could imagine with any language, the students are at all different levels. These are particularly this year we put in uh ninth and tth graders into the heritage Spanish track. The juniors and seniors, we have them continuing through our levels four and AP. These students in like any particular language learners tend to be stronger in the listening and the speaking but the reading and the writing that is not formally part of their heritage necessarily or anyone's heritage uh is tends to be their third and fourth skills learned. So, the key goal here is to have these students be prepared
067for an AP Spanish literature course that we currently don't offer, but we will be looking to roll that out um next year. We definitely have more students that will be coming into the program that we've identified as heritage Spanish speakers. This is a great course. It is offered in many schools that we feel that we are comparable to. Summit offers a heritage Spanish course and in our first year offering it, we feel that it's been very successful. Another new course that we're running this year, I'm not sure if you heard anything about um our AP psychology course we offered to students last year. We have a hundred students taking AP psych. We already started to run the numbers for next year. We have a hundred students taking this course. The exciting thing about AP psychology
068is these are generally new students to AP. For many of these students, they haven't taken an AP course yet and they're upper classmen. So when we feel like normally we'd have a lot of 10th and 11th graders wanting to take AP courses because they're getting ready to have those on their transcripts and preparing for college. For the most part, these are seniors um who are really taking it because they want to challenge themselves their last year of high school in taking an AP course. So, am I going anybody can let me know if I'm going too fast or too slow. I feel like because I know we have a lot going on. Okay. You've probably also heard of the AP Capstone program. I wanted to give you just a little bit more detail about it
069because this program has grown significantly in the last three years. Not just that, but this is a very premier program that not a lot of schools offer. I think it's fantastic that West Essex offers this for the size of the school that we are to have this AP capstone program is incredible. So, it started three years ago. We had seven students and now we have 13 students as of 2025 that will get this specific designation on their transcript. So in order to be an AP capstone student, you're taking AP research, sorry, you're taking AP seminar and you're taking AP research. Generally 10th and 11th grade, sometimes 11th and 12th grade. So the students have to take the two AP courses seminar and research. Currently AP seminar is taught by an English teacher and currently um
070AP research is taught by a social studies teacher. In addition to that for students to get the AP capstone they also have to have scored a three in three other AP courses. So in general overall our AP capstone students the 13 of them have taken five AP courses that they've uh become proficient or demonstrated proficiency in all of them. Now I'm sure there's many more AP students that have taken five AP courses but this is particularly with the um seminar and research classes. Okay. We are also in social studies still using link it. You've probably heard of it multiple times from the building principles. The key thing with linkit is we are targeting those students that are on the cusp and trying to move them to the next levels of proficiency by determining their standards,
071the standards that they're deficient in and focusing the assessments and activities in the social studies classes on those particular standards. So these are just some slides to show what uh link provides what information link provides to the teachers. The middle school teachers uh this is their second year for social studies using which is a fantastic standardsbased program as well that provides them with examples of the NJSLA assessment style questions as well. There we go. Okay. on to some more cultural slides. This year I'm excited to share. We've always done in the last four or five years, we've done quite a bit of cultural celebrations with our Chinese club and our Chinese courses. This year on Saturday, May 17th, we are hosting a community event that will celebrate um AAPI, as you know, is AsianAmerican and
072Pacific Islander. That's the month of May, the month that we celebrate our heritage of these cultures. And um we're going to be hosting here at West Essex High School starting at 10:00 a.m. from about 10 to 2. You'll see some announcements with information about the activities for that day. This year we had in honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day in both buildings, the middle school and the high school, there's an organization that reached out to us called 2GJ, which stands for second generation. There's a New Jersey group of second generation Holocaust survivors, family members of Holocaust survivors, and they have um they brought in the high school, we had a survivor speak to uh the students. In the middle school, we had the child of survivors speak to the students. Okay, this was an exciting um
073opportunity for our students in the Italian club. I don't know if you've ever been to Palaton, but uh the Palaton family is a West Essex family. And we had a massive crowd during lunch where we had the Palaton family and the grandparents come and teach the students about authentic Italian cuisine and they made lunch for them um which was just absolutely incredible with a specific uh eggplant um what's the word I'm looking for? It was a specific type of an eggplant dish, an eggplant pasta dish that was regional. And it was great because they also got to speak, the students got to speak to authentic Italian speakers. Like I said, other than just hearing their one teacher regularly, they got a chance to engage. They asked questions of the family members in Italian and then
074the Italian uh the the Palatony family answered them in Italian as well. So, it was a fun experience for them. This is our is it our third year? Maybe fourth year. Yeah, third or fourth year. I don't know if you you you've all heard of March Madness. Our Spanish classes now, all of our Spanish 3 classes N4 participate in a March Madness event which is a national event in which they have music from all Latin American artists and they do a bracketology and they do their final reveal of the um which which song, you know, won the event. The high school library hosts them for like 5 to 10 minutes the day of the reveal and the students just really enjoy the celebration. See if you can get that on there. [Music] probably [Applause] delay.
075It's [Applause] just if you haven't been into a high school lately, it's exciting to see high school kids excited about anything, right? to get them into the library and be excited is a wonderful thing, right? Okay. Sorry. Thank you for that. Okay. So, a week from tomorrow, very excited again to have our academic day where we will host the Roappa National Honor Society for Social Studies. We have about 20 students will be inducting and the World Language Honor Societies. I think we're up to about 90 about 95 students that we'll be inducting those days. If you um can certainly make the event the world language honor society induction ceremony is always very beautiful because we have student performances and again somebody was talking about the talent. I think Miss Crystalall was talking about the talent
076of the West Sussex students and you will see amazing talented students if you're able to make the uh induction day. Okay. Um, we're almost done, but you've heard me talk about the sale of biiteracy. I think we're on our third year for the sale of biiteracy, and the numbers continue to grow. We're up to 45 seniors who who will again have a notation on their transcript that from the state of New Jersey that they are uh biliterate. This is up five students from last year. Some other exciting details, uh, one of our students is proficient in three languages. is three of our students were proficient in two languages and we have another group coming behind them. 24 juniors have already passed the seal of biliteracy. So we test them as juniors and seniors. They have
077to also pass the NJSLA in order to achieve the notification on on their uh transcript. And these are just a list of students and all the different languages. Okay, just a couple quick um just yeah two we have two alumni who spoke about their experience at West Essics for you and then I'm done. Hi, my name is Brianna and I have graduated West High School. Since graduating, I have to complete my bachelor's degree in government and publications. I also completed my master where I currently work as a nutrition office where I work full time. I'll be full. I am very thankful for the time I had this as I feel it very well. For example, I had the pleasure of having multiple years. She was super engaged and I always think back to how I
078was social. is a very good school and I feel [Music] admire where over half the material I was very well immersed in because of what I learned. It's very clear that they care about the success they hire, the curriculum that they need to learn and benefit from in order to set them up for success. I could be more grateful for my time and I couldn't be more grateful for the things that I learned that relationship. I will ever continue. Awesome. And then we were able to grab um Alex, where's my next? Alex Chen, who is or was our saludiatoran. You may or may not recognize his face from last year. I don't want to steal his thunder. It's quick, but it's amazing. Go ahead. Hello. education. My name is Alex and I'm assessing currently I'm
079studying engineering at MIT and today I would like to spend a minute to talk about how has prepared me for college. First there were many and they have helped me through my place while also balancing academics time management taking organization are just some of the skills that my teachers coaches and friends. Second, taking world language and social studies classes has taught me countless so many that they wouldn't have fit into. At college, I've met people from all different backgrounds from all the world. Learning about different cultures has helped me appreciate stories that we all have and how we bond with each other. Learning about the native historical and current events has helped me gain a broader understanding of my world and help me develop my critical thinking skills. Thank you for your time. Awesome. You
080all heard that, right? He's at MIT studying aerospace. Okay. So, we have two um independent study presentations. I'm excited to announce uh and introduce Hana and Amelio doing their AP Spanish literature independent study. Thank you. Um, I am Hannah Parra and this is Ain Murio and we're doing our presentation up Spanish literature and language. Okay. So, this is our table of contents. What we studied, how we studied, what we learned, and our favorite work. So, what we studied in AP Spanish literature, we studied a key literary works from Spain and Latin America, focusing on themes, cultural context, and historical significance. We've explored major literary movements like the Renaissance, Baroque, and modernism. This course emphasized literary techniques in works by authors such as Garcia Lorda and Cvantes. Overall, it it deepened our understanding of the cultural
081and social impacts of literature. how we studed. AP class AP classroom was a best source to study as it provides a lot of videos and interactive form where we can answer questions and also another reason why it was so easy and it was so wonderful to study this is because I have this classmate Ailio who I've been working with since last unit last year as a junior and we had abilities to reconvene and evaluate our ideas and our understanding of the unit. What we learned throughout this unit, we learned about the impact of social colonization, Spanish colonization in the in the Americas, both from the Spanish point of view and the Latin American point of view. We learned about all the different eras of literature and their differences, such as the media era where the
082most where most of the writers were nobles or soldiers who described their travels in Latin America or the golden age where Spanish literature reached its peak. our favorite word throughout this unit. Me personally, I thoroughly enjoyed the exercises that made us compare pieces of artwork with pieces of literature as art is something I really relate to because during my time in Spain, my mother would always make me go to museums. And truly, I didn't like it that much. But comparing it to these pieces of literature, you really understand it deeper, like deeply, and you really connect it. Okay. Out of all the assignments so far that we've been assigned this year, uh my favorite one has definitely been in unit 2, which speaks about sontois. Okay. Okay. This was my favorite due to the theme
083of carpet DM urging the reader to seize youth and beauty before time and aging inevitably take them away. Me, right? I'm reading this one. Yeah. Okay. the exam format. During the exam, there are multiple choice questions or sections which include an excerpt with from an interview with an author where I mean I think we all know what multiple choices. You just have a list of questions and you have to choose the right one. There's also a recite a poem that is not required on the reading list. So, we'll probably have to guess from what I write on, the age, what the themes of the poem are, what it reflects, and a presentation of a literary topic related to the course content. In the free response questions, we will also need to complete a text explanation,
084which will require us to identify the author and the period of the literary text, which AP classroom has also been really useful in because of the the vocabulary and the writing style those texts are in. And we will also compare all three a text and analyze like a single text or compare two texts with each other to a theme. One from a required reading list and one that is not on the required reading list. Excited to see how you two perform on that exam. Right. You're taking me. Yes. Emily, come on up. All right. Uh, good evening. My name is Emily and I did an independent study on ancient history of the Middle East and I also followed the College Board AP World History curriculum. Um, so I started my studies um with the beginning
085of civilization in Mesopotamia. Um, if you look on the map, it is near modern-day Iran, Iraq, and it stretches all almost all the way up to where Turkey is. Um, Mesopotamia is credited as the birthplace of civilization because it was one of the first places where humans stopped being nomatic and they settled down and began farming. And they also invented things like pottery, writing and language, government, and culture. Um, the image there in black, that is uh the Hammurabi code, which is the first recorded government. Um, and it just shows the invention of language and government in Mesopotamia. Um, moving on from that, I've also focused on the AP World History curriculum, which starts much later in history. And I used this curriculum to understand other histories outside of my classes, such as AP Euro,
086AP French, Honors World History, and AP US History. Um, this allowed me to take a deeper dive into African, Asian, or South American histories and cultures. And I focused a lot on how religion impacted society. Um, I focused a lot on art and I also focused on the roles of women. Um uh so here's some fun facts about religion um and social hierarchies. Um these three pyramids just show different religions in China, Japan and the Islamic Empire. In China um the main religion was confusionism which put a lot of emphasis on studying and learning. Um and China was ruled by an emperor. The people underneath the emperor were often scholars because of their value on education. And a fun fact during this time period especially which I is theQing dynasty China was mostly isolationist. So
087they did not like to trade with other countries. So they had a lot of value on their farmers as their main source of food and artisans on their main source of goods and merchants were not valued because they did not emphasize trading around the world or even within um China itself. In Japan they had a similar isolationist policy but they had a very strong focus on the military. They were also ruled by an emperor, but their second most powerful leader was called the shogun, who was the military leader and was very powerful. Then underneath the shogun were the daimo, which um are basically land lords, like feudal lords. They just control large sections of land where peasants would live. Underneath them were samurai, who are um the often mythologized warriors um in Japan. And underneath
088them, farmers and artisans were val valued, but merchants were again at the bottom due to their um isolationism and lack of trade. And in the Islamic Empire, which at at points in time has spanned almost the entire Asian continent, um the leader was a similar figure to the emperor, but he was called a caiff, a sultan or a sultanate. And um underneath the emperor, just like in China, there were a lot of scholars. Um they were called ulama and they studied the studied Islamic history and religion and underneath them were Gazi or military figures. Um and then because the Islamic empire spanned most of Asia, it was actually a major trading empire which contained places like access to the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean as well as the land routes such as the Silk Road.
089So they had a lot of value on merchants and not as much on artisans and farmers. And um a key point about the Islamic Empire is it is one of the only empires that was the control and the government itself were based in religion. Um another thing I focused on a lot I focused on a lot of the roles of women throughout history and today I've I have three women in history who I found particularly exceptional. Firstly, Queen Puabi lived in the dynasty in Mesopotamia. Um there is not an image of what her face would have looked like. So that is an image of her headdress and in she actually did um rule areas of Mesopotamia in under the dynasty and it does not appear that she ruled with a king. So it is evident
090that she was the sole ruler as a queen. Um later in history when the Spanish conquered South America, a woman called Lalanchi um was captured by the Spanish and she worked as a translator between the Spanish and the native people to South America because of her knowledge of both languages. And she um there is some controversy surrounding her because some people believe that it is her fault that so many places in South America got colonized. However, she most of her work was done in translation and because she was kept as a slave or servant. Um so and the Spanish had other means of conquering things. And um another woman I focused on was the daajra empressi during theqing dynasty in China. Um, she lived at she also was a very controversial figure in China because
091she had a way of manipulating the power of who would be emperor in order to put herself in more power. And um, she also had a was much more welcome to foreign influence than many people in China at the time. Um, and even started reforms in China that were closer to the Western world. Um, final thing I focused on in the arts, I focused a lot on pottery because in Mesopotamia that is where the wheel was invented. And fun fact, the wheel was not invented for rolling things or a traveling cart. It was actually invented in order to create pottery. Um, so the first image there is from the ube period and it is a simple dish from the beginning of when pottery was created. Um, and this was often just used as um like
092utensils, dishes, things like that. Um later in ancient Greece, pottery became more decorative. It would depict scenes of battles and warriors or even scenes from mythology and they began to use painted pottery. Um in Japan they had a form of pottery that they used creating a lot of cords to imprint designs upon the pottery called jamun and it is very distinctive of Japanese style and culture. And some of the most famous pottery in the world is from theQing dynasty which is known for its painted pottery that was so valued in the world at one point that it was considered one of the most valuable types of plates and ceramics and a symbol of wealth in western countries. Um, so the reason I decided to take the AP world curriculum in addition to just my independent
093study is just to build upon my knowledge from other classes that I've taken as I said and I also wanted to gain a larger understanding of global cultures and history and um this will help me to pursue an understanding of international affairs as um when I go to college I will be pursuing a career in international business. Thank you all to the independent study students. I'm sure you agree that they're fantastic and always continue to amaze us at the talent that uh comes out of West Essex. So, thank you again to the board of education and to the faculty members for allowing me to present to you. Next up is the principal reports. Good evening everyone. Good evening. It's really nice to see all of our students finding their passions. I'm going to take this
094down about five notches in terms of the level of rigor of what I'm going to speak about. I'm just going to talk about fun things going on at the middle school right now. Okay, it's late. I'm known to sometimes get up here and say good morning when it's 7 o'clock at night. So, we're going to roll with this. All right. We started off the month with ReadAcross America. Uh this is our second year. Our we lead peer leaders are going to their respective elementary schools where they're reading to the younger students. It's such an amazing experience to see the kids get back in their buildings, see their old teachers. You can see Mr. Gupta's in the bottom right corner. He's down there. So, it's just really really it's a wonderful experience for for us as
095well as for all of uh the elementary schools. Mr. Martin, I have to give him a lot of credit. We had a bag piper here this month as part of our culture and climate initiative. We're trying to do different things and incorporating music and some of the arts. Everyone loves music and everyone loves art. I give Mr. Martin a lot of credit. He's not even Irish and he was able to get a bag piper parading throughout our halls and it was a fun day on St. Patty's Day. Treps marketplace is back. If you're not familiar, Treps is an entrepreneurship club. Um it was not up and running last year uh but it is back and so the purpose of the club is for students to identify, create, market and sell their own products. So you
096can see some different pictures here from candles to bracelets to different food items. Uh it's just a wonderful experience and the kids take a lot of pride in it. Um and so that was a really fun event this month for us. We celebrated autism awareness. April is autism awareness month. So, we like to wear our our blue uh to show some solidarity and to promote inclusivity here at the middle school. So, you can see myself, Dr. Mcuade's in there, uh various members of our team. And you guys all spoke about it, but we actually even made the fir the front page of the progress, right? So, just an amazing experience. We're beyond proud of our staff and students for bringing the first ever several musical production to the middle school. The dedication, talent, and hard
097work of Miss Rizzo and Miss Ayala, as well as various other staff members, um Mr. Mati had a guest appearance, Mr. Martin had a guest appearance. Uh it was just a wonderful night and I think besides seeing the kids on stage at the end of Friday night when they came off the stage, they were yelling and screaming, "We did it. We did it." And there was just such a sense of pride and camaraderie and it was just really really cool. So looking forward to seeing this tradition continue and just demonstrating the value of of the arts in our school and how important they are. So that was really really special. And like Mr. Matroji said, thank you to Mrs. Swanik uh for taking the lead on that. Upcoming events, we have teacher appreciation week. Um
098there has to be at least one teacher in everybody's life that has touched you or made a difference. whether it's a teacher, advisor, someone, reach out to that person. Um, an email goes a really, really long way. But we will be celebrating our staff the week of May 5th. And then we have NJSLA testing. Can you believe May is almost here? You're looking forward to it. I know. Nothing like being a senior in May and June. What a great great time. So, we have testing coming up. So, that's it for us. Um, have a wonderful spring break and I'll turn it over to Vicer. Good evening everyone. Um, students, you guys crushed it. I'm like so proud and I didn't even teach you, but like that was that was awesome. You guys did great. I
099feel like they should even like count as my presentation for tonight. My principal's report. These are the students. This is what we're doing at the high school. All good stuff. Um, no. Uh, on a serious note though, we um honored our third marking period Shopright stars. So for academics um we have Emily Dime, senior Emily Dime. For athletics we have Sasha Resnik in also a senior. In the arts, Joseph Pachara, senior and leadership, Matt Capra, a senior and service to the community, Kirstston Yang. So we are proud of their work and for all that they do for our school community. Um we also have um an unsung hero award. On March 13th, Thomas Rouan, a senior, was recognized as West Essex High School's unsung hero. The Essex County School Boards Association Unsung Heroes Award program
100recognizes and celebrates the exceptional contributions and service of Essex County students within their high school communities. Thomas is a volunteer firefighter in North Caldwell and has responded to numerous emergencies and saved many lives. He even responded to a call when he was off duty. Thomas is also involved in the kayaking community and his club has partnered with Heroes on the Water, which is an organization that provides support to honor the invaluable contributions made by our military and first responders. As described by those who know Thomas well, he is responsible, diligent, and embraces challenges. His compassion for others shines through his volunteer work, and his wrestling experience has instilled a strong work work ethic. So, congratulations to Thomas. We had 27 students represent West Essex High School at the DECA State Career Development Conference down in
101Atlantic City. Um 12 students had earned their spot by excelling at the regional competition held at Keen University in January. Their top placements qualified them for this state level challenge. The other students were able to get there because they demonstrated their hard work and expertise by preparing comprehensive 10-page marketing and startup business plans. Um they then delivered compelling 15inute presentations putting their research and ideas to the test. So we are incredibly proud of all of our DECA members for their dedication and achievements. The following week we had 70 students represent us at the FBA state leadership conference in Atlantic City. Um we had seven groups of finalists and we were really excited for Maline Co and Lyanna Logic who placed second in graphic design. They are heading to the FBA National Leadership Conference in Anaheim,
102California. So, good luck to them. And we also want to acknowledge our West Essex choir. As Miss Cruel mentioned earlier, congratulations to Kathern Majerio and my Schmidt for their acceptance to the NJ region Jazz Choir. This is the first in our school's history to have students make it to this. So, this was like a really big deal. This was a huge deal for our students. Um, and the performance is on Sunday, April 14th at Livingston High School. [Music] Um, it happened. It happened. Okay. So, the information I received when you said that Yeah. So, it already happened. It was already amazing. It was already amazing. Um, and then also congratulations to Kash who's here tonight. How great is that for being accepted um into the All State orchestra for the second year in a row.
103So, another amazing accomplishment. for culture and climate, our no place for hate. Our lesson four name calling will be given in PE and health classes April 28th to 30th. This lesson was designed by students in our culture and climate committee who said, "We just feel like kids like call each other out and they name call and they just say mean things to each other and we really just need to like get a better handle of it." So, this is something that our students came up with. There's a lesson. It's an interactive lesson because the students said these lessons can't be just discussions. It has to be something more engaging. So with the leadership of Miss Lisa Hol, they came up with this um lesson for for No Place for Hate. Also, I spoke last month
104about the we compliment you initiative and all of the compliments were delivered. So we had over 2500 compliments that were shared with students and staff. every single student and every single staff member received an anonymous compliment. Um, and it's just a moment in our school where like everyone opens the envelopes, right guys? Like can you like drag it to open and you're like wow like someone noticed that, someone saw this. Like it was it's a really cool moment for our school. And um in the month of March, we recognized the English department and the guidance department. Um, our English department inspires students to think critically and express themselves confidently. And we just are so proud of the work that they do. And our guidance department are true rock stars. They help our students navigate academic
105decisions, plan for their futures, and manage personal challenges. So each month, we just like to give a little shout out to the departments to recognize the work that they do. Okay. Upcoming. Well, it's happening right now. It is high school voter voter registration week in New Jersey. this week um here. So, we started that's a picture right there. Um RO Kappa Honor Society, that's our social studies honor society, is hosting a voter registration drive for students who are 17 and older. So, you can register to vote at 17 so that you're prepared to vote when you turn 18. Um this is a great opportunity for our students to engage in civic responsibility and prepare for their future participation in our democracy. So, there they are in the cafeteria where students can come and talk to
106them. Also for our seniors, the senior English teachers were handing out mail-in votes for our youu vote initiative. So, um, we're we're we're we're doing our part in civic responsibility at the high school. We also have our junior prom April 11th at the Legacy Castle, a night of dancing and entertainment. The National Honor Society induction ceremony is Tuesday, April 15th at 7 p.m. at the high school. And then the following day is when we have academic achievement and induction day. And I welcome you all to join us that day as there are the different content um honor societies um and we'll also have student work on display and it's just a day celebrating and recognizing the achievements of our students. I think we are done with our reports for the evening. Thank [Applause] you. Before
107we go into our regular scheduled agenda, we understand it's been a long night for some of you students and parents if you would like to leave now. We understand we won't take [Music] any presentations. This is what bed is all about. This is what the school is all about. And once again, you make us feel very inferior, which is a good thing. It's a very good thing. So, congratulations to all of you in your future endeavors and to the parents for your support and staff. We really do appreciate all of this. Have a great night. [Music] [Applause] Speak out behind. I think we can all agree that was amazing. Here, here. Um accolades always to the parents and the staff for you know encouraging their children and staff for bringing these you know independent studies
108yeah right it it's um it's truly truly amazing great um committee reports I think we have one right the finance finance committee met briefly Thursday evening if I'm not mistaken uh for for about an hour virtually. Uh we discussed uh proposals regarding milling and paving the entire West Essex complex. Uh we entertained several bids. Uh the cost which will be used from capital reserve funds. Uh slightly less than $1.2 million. Uh the project's going to be completed in phases starting with the middle school and working its way down. and we hope to complete it by the beginning of the next school year with minimal disruption. Thank you. Commenters questions. Okay. At this time I Deal quick. I'm sorry. I just want to make a comment if I could. Um Ruth said something before about our
109social media. I just want to acknowledge that as well. I mean, we really have stepped it up and I know that was always one of our goals as a board was to improve our outreach to um you know, parents, students, whatever. So, um I just wanted to acknowledge that as well. Our social media, I know we have a new um person at the helm. Um I who I think is doing a fantastic job around the campus taking pictures, getting involved. Um Nick Stampone I think has done a phenomenal job and keeping us informed always with emails and pictures and yes I mean we're on the front page of the progress so it really he was here the night of the little mermaid. Um so I know that was one of our initiatives years back. We
110always wanted to improve our you know visibility not just the board but the whole entire school. So I think that they've you know he's done and everyone else has done a phenomenal job with that. So, when Ruth said that before, I wanted to comment, but then I just decided not to, and now I did. Okay. At this time, I will open the floor for public comments on agenda items only. Is it an item on the agenda? I need to ask if it is. Um, it's about that's not on the agenda. So, we will give you a couple minutes at the end of the agenda. We will get through this very quickly. Okay. And you can then ask your question. Not a problem. No worries. Okay. Thank you. Been here this long. I will get through
111it real quick. I'm waiting kid homework. So I will do very quickly. No worries. Okay. Jonathan, finance. Yes, ma'am. Anything uh the following finance motions are made at the recommendation of the superintendent of the school. She's trying to rush. Anything placed on this agenda? Items one through six will be vote upon in one motion. And I so move. Any questions? Good. Okay. Sorry. Miss Amal, yes. Miss Crystal, yes. Missy Giovani, yes. Mr. Sher, yes. Mr. Sampone, yes. 1 through four. Abstain. Five. Mr. To. Yes. Miss Wajowitz. Yes. Miss Calder. Yes. Um, building and ground to roof, please. The following building and grounds motions are made to the recommendation of the superintendent of schools. Anything placed on this agenda item one will be voted upon in one motion. I move second questions. Okay. Miss, yes. Miss
112Crystal, yes. Miss Giovani, yes. Mr. Sher, yes. Mr. Sampone, yes. Mr. Toe, yes. Miss Voditz, yes. Yes, Miss Kell. Yes. Personnel John. Following personnel motions are made at the recommendations to present the schools. Anything placed on this agenda item 1 through nine will be ordered upon motion and I second questions. Miss Amal. Yes. Miss principal. Yes. Miss Giovani. Yes. Mr. Sher. Yes. Mr. Samp. Yes. Mr. Toe. Yes. Miss Rogers. Yes. Miss Calgary. Yes. Laya curriculum, please. Um, thank you. The following curriculum, special education motions are made at the recommendation of their superintendent of schools. Anything placed on this agenda, items one through three will be voted upon in one motion. And I so move. Second. Questions? Miss Amal, yes. Miss Chrisal, yes. Miss Giovani, yes. Mr. Sher, yes. Mr. Sampone, yes. Mr. Toad, yes. Miss
113Bodwitz, yes. Miss Calderum, yes. Mayor, the following miscellaneous motions are made at the recommendation of the superintendent of schools. Anything placed on this agenda, items 1 through seven will be voted upon in one motion and I move. Second. Any questions? Okay. Miss Amo. Yes. Miss Crystal, yes. Miss Giovani, yes. Mr. Sher, yes. Mr. Champ, yes. Mr. To? Yes. Miss Vaju? Yes. Miss Cal? Yes. Okay. At this time, I'll open the floor for any comments that are none on the agenda. If you would just step up to the podium, give us your name and address. No worries. We went through that real quick. I'm impressed. I'm impressed. Um Jennifer Juna, 26 Sunset Drive, North Caldwell. Um I have two kids in the West Essex School District. Um, so this doesn't directly involve me with the idea
114of subscription busing that parents have been chatting about and I think it was said at a meeting or two ago. Um, but as I stated, I live at 26 Sunset Drive, which is the second house seated at the back of the middle school. I currently have an eighth and tth grader in the district who walked the school through the dead end at Sunset Drive in the middle school gated entrance in the back. Um, since spring of 22, when my oldest started here, um, my neighbors and I have seen an increase in safety concerns during drop off and pickup times with the school district in our neighborhood, including my oldest son who almost got hit at the gated entrance by a parent doing a K turn that ended up going to town council. Um, but I'll
115talk to you about that in a little bit. Um, like I said, we have pre presented to the North Codwell Town Hall meetings at Burrow Hall, requested police presence during drop off and pickup times, were provi provided the orange safety cones by the NCPD, which I regularly take care of myself when I can. Um, and that's basically to block the entrance um to the dead end to parents driving through to drop off at the gate. um we keep it open for the two residents that live there. Um but otherwise it even went as far as we got an ordinance approved with the town. Um and this ordinance basically prohibits stopping or standing within 200 feet of the intersection of Squire Hill Road and Sunset Drive. Um there's been over the past couple years I've witnessed
116no parental adherence to any of this. Parents still drop off at the intersection while students walking through the intersection are even spinning around and dropping off at the cones blocking the dead end. Sometimes even with a police officer present um which in turn only ends up in a verbal warning from the officer. Um now almost three years later, we have even witnessed entrance into the dead end through the cone barricade in the event of no police presence. Ordinance signage was placed in the designated areas of Sunset Drive and Squire Hill Road for a reason. I was advised by NCPD is limited in the amount of officers that can stand guard at the dead end due to not having enough police coverage during those times. Um, we get them at first, a couple years back when
117we started this, we were getting police coverage every day. Now it's maybe once a month. Um, with the newly proposed subscription busing being voted on, um, the current safety concerns at drop off and pickup on Sunset Drive and Squire Hill Road will only get worse. I understand the budgeting and cost factor involved in this with both the school district and the cost that falls on parents. I live in North Cwell. I pay for subscription busing for my fourth grader. I have to do it. I work there. There's no other way about it. I have no one to pick them up or take them to school. I depend on that. Um but unfortunately, you know, although my oldest two boys don't need busing, and this doesn't really directly concern me with the subscription busing that was,
118I guess, brought about. Um, I just urge you to reconsider moving reconsider moving to subscription busing for the financial impact on families and most of all um the increased school traffic and safety concerning of our children that walk in the neighborhood behind the school. If the vote gets passed, please work with the local police departments to guarantee police presence is behind the school at the intersection of Sunset Drive and Squire Squire Hill Road at drop off and pickup times to make sure our children remain safe. We also request that if parents aren't following the ordinance signs and rules behind the ordinance, consequences will occur. Now, I still see daily when I can. I have one that basically is late to school every day. We live two houses away. Can't help it. I'm sure Miss Westervelt
119knows who he is. Um, but I see it every day. I see near misses. We've gone to the police department. Their hands are tied. But if subscription busing does happen, and I know it will affect North Caldwell in some parts of Fairfield, it's just going to get worse back there. Um, I invite you to come out there between 7:20 and 7:40 to see what it's like. and at dismissal. Um, now with the springtime, it's just going to get worse, but we just feel, you know, the neighborhood and other parents that don't live in the neighborhood, um, the safety is going to be the concern with more cars dropping off. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Um, we appreciate you coming and sharing this with us, you know, from your point of view because you actually
120physically live there. Um, we are in open discussion uh with the North Pole Police Department. We actually Mary Del and I saw Carl here Friday night and we kind of had bit of a discussion about it about the cones and all of that. We are taking everything into consideration. Please, we want you to understand we are utmost concerned about the safety of our students. that will never go undisclosed to the parents how we intend to address it. Um this is all new territory for us. Um and we do understand we will have to and and the parents will have to have conversation with the North Coal police also going forward because there are certain things that they are responsible for that is their domain and then there's our you know it's separate yet we have
121to collaborate together. Um so we will have open dialogue. We appreciate any t anything that you parents can give us. Even if you think that, you know, because you experience it yourself, you think that maybe there is a solution or a timing or you see things more firsthand than we do, please don't hesitate to bring it to the our, you know, u Mr. Machoi and, you know, those of us here at a board meeting to let us know what you see and, you know, your concerns and we do accept it. We do acknowledge it and we are trying to work through it going forward. So, thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. I just I'm not really I just wanted to say that I did also get some phone calls from people and I know I
122brought it to their attention, people who live on Squire Hill. I have recent pictures as of the other day of the signs on the street. So, and like Deb said, we've been Mary D's our private investigator. PI um Yeah. and we've talked to Carl. So, I just want to mention that I have the So, we will take every steps that we can administration um and our dialogue with the North Pole Police to make sure that we can make this a you know a safe situation for everyone involved. Thank you. You're welcome. We have Chief on the speed dial. That's always good to have. Okay. Any comments, questions by board members? Okay, Mary D. No further business. Yeah. Okay. Okay. There being no further business before this board of education, be it resolved that this public
123meeting be adjourned at 9:23. Motion to adjurnn.