MINUTES OF THE PATERSON BOARD OF EDUCATION WORKSHOP MEETING August 1, 2018 – 6:40 p.m. Administrative Offices Presiding: Comm. Oshin Castillo, President Present: Ms. Eileen Shafer, State District Superintendent Ms. Susana Peron, Deputy Superintendent Robert Murray, Esq., General Counsel Comm. Vincent Arrington Comm. Joel Ramirez Comm. Emanuel Capers Comm. Nakima Redmon, Vice President Comm. Jonathan Hodges Comm. Kenneth Simmons Comm. Manuel Martinez The Salute to the Flag was led by Comm. Castillo. Comm. Martinez read the Open Public Meetings Act: The New Jersey Open Public Meetings Act was enacted to insure the right of the public to have advance notice of, and to attend the meetings of the Paterson Public School District, as well as other public bodies at which any business affecting the interest of the public is discussed or acted upon. In accordance with the provisions of this law, the Paterson Public School District has caused notice of this meeting: Workshop Meeting August 1, 2018 at 6:30 p.m. Administrative Offices 90 Delaware Avenue Paterson, New Jersey to be published by having the date, time and place posted in the office of the City Clerk of the City of Paterson, at the entrance of the Paterson Public School offices, on the district’s website, and by sending notice of the meeting to the Arab Voice, El Diario, the Italian Voice, the North Jersey Herald & News, and The Record. Comm. Castillo: Good afternoon. I just want to welcome each and every one of you back as we start prepping up for our new school year. I want to make sure we get Page 1 08/01/18 through everything and I want to hand it over to Ms. Shafer so you can start the presentations since we're a little bit behind. Ms. Shafer: Good evening. At this time, I’d like to call Will Gaulich to come up and give a presentation on the Garrett Morgan Academy Theme. PRESENTATIONS AND COMMUNICATIONS Garrett Morgan Academy Theme Mr. William Graulich: Good evening everyone. I hope you're all doing well. It's a pleasure to present for you this evening. As you can see, we have a presentation prepared from our Division of Academic Services on a proposed thematic transition for Garrett Morgan Academy, as well as addressing its implications and opportunities. This is not the first time Garrett Morgan has considered a thematic transition. The school was established in 2000 and previously the school had a transportation and technology pathway, and most recently engineering and technology. The engineering curriculum and program that was utilized is Project Lead the Way, herein referred to as PLTW throughout. PLTW is the foremost academic secondary organization for engineering. It's nationally and internationally recognized. The teachers receive extensive training and the organization requires the teachers to be trained in each of those courses prior to implementation. Engineering at Garrett Morgan Academy – going back to 2016-17 after an audit the school was forced to withdraw its Perkins funding considerations due to CTE specific teacher endorsements. Essentially, a course that is an elective has much more flexibility with the DOE as compared to a course that’s Perkins funded. For instance, a science teacher could in theory teach engineering. However, for a program to be CTE and Perkins funded the teacher would have to have an engineering certification. Last year, school year 2017-18, the three teachers that were certified and trained in Project Lead the Way were no longer at the school. The school was unable to offer this Project Lead the Way program and courses, and the school essentially operated as a comprehensive high school for the last year. With that, Garrett Morgan administration began to explore other options. They held a series of meetings with cofounding school partner New Jersey Community Development Corporation and began to investigate possible replacements. Discussions were centered around three areas - would a proposed program be achievable to teach with the current cohort of faculty, would the proposed program be unique to the district, not offered in any of our 12 choice schools, and would the program be rigorous and academically intensive. The topic that was discussed ultimately led to service learning. Service learning is a teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities. Service learning is experiential. It seeks to achieve real objectives for the community and a deeper understanding and skills for themselves, and in the process students link personal and social development with academic and cognitive development. Service learning is community engagement. Projects often designed by students in collaboration with faculty and community partners, non-profit organizations, non-governmental organizations, and government agencies. Service Page 2 08/01/18 learning is community action, giving students experiential opportunities to get into the real world to develop their skills, research, planning, engagement, and public speaking, all the while addressing a community need. Service learning is beyond academic achievement. Here students must develop broader sociopolitical consciousness that allows them to critique the cultural norms, values, morays, and institutions that produce and maintain social inequities. If a school is about preparing students for active citizenship, what better citizenship tool than the ability to critically analyze the society. In discussing any type of thematic transition, it would be prudent to address the status of engineering at the school and in the district. Before you on the screen is the current cohort of engineering programs at Paterson Public Schools. Engineering currently consists at Garrett Morgan Academy, ACT, and STEM. You'll notice Garrett Morgan and ACT operate identical programs. They each use the Project Lead the Way curriculum using the same three identical courses. STEM has their own curriculum branded specifically for that school. Three of our 12 choice high schools have engineering curriculum and pathways. Two of the 12 choice high schools have identical engineering programs. With your consideration for a possible proposed transition that would come with proposed engineering expansion plan. Should this be approved, that would be a plan that could be presented to you in the fall of 2018. Year one, this year, it would begin by introducing new STEM-themed courses, which are up for the Board’s consideration this month. We have a new Drones course and the ability to expand computer science offerings via Option II. We'd assemble an engineering stakeholder committee. We'd enroll interested Garrett Morgan students, current Garrett Morgan students, and allow them the ability to take college-level engineering courses online via Option II enrichment. We would assemble an engineering advisory board of applicable firms, professionals, and post-secondary institutions. The second year, next year, we would seek to end interschool thematic competition for engineering, focusing the engineering program in the district and being mindful with the resources both with faculty and classroom materials. We would adjust Project Lead the Way teacher schedules to increase the amount of engineering offerings. Teachers teach math or science. Perhaps we can investigate ways where we can have them not teach one section or two sections of Project Lead the Way engineering, but maybe three, four, or more. We can train Paterson Public Schools branded engineering teachers at STEM in the Project Lead the Way curriculum. We would continue expansion of the advisory board. Going into year 3 we would seek to transition and replace Paterson Public Schools branded engineering with Project Lead the Way and offer a fourth course. A fourth course is important. The Project Lead the Way has an articulation agreement with Rowan University School of Engineering where students who graduate high school with 4 Project Lead the Way courses are eligible to have their first engineering course articulated for free if they are enrolled and accepted in their university. Continue expansion of partnerships and universities for dual enrollment opportunities and continued expansion of the advisory board itself. Targeted outcomes for the engineering expansion plan within three years – strengthen and promote the engineering program, focusing the program and its resources at one school; increasing the amount of engineering student seats; increasing the amount of engineering courses; increasing access to credit-bearing post-secondary engineering opportunities; increasing the presence of advisory boards within the schools; increasing out-of- Page 3 08/01/18 classroom experiences for our students; and formalizing an articulation agreement with Rowan among other universities. How would service learning look at Garrett Morgan should it go through? Garrett Morgan administration engaged in exploratory actions speaking with students and parents regarding the current status of engineering at the school, possible thematic transitions, developing committees among faculty for feedback and research, met and brainstormed with advisory partners. A service learning theme at Garrett Morgan would harness the resources and reach of New Jersey Community Development Corporation as well as the Paterson Alliance. It would be a unique offering in Paterson Public Schools. We're proud to report it would be a unique offering, period. Service learning is prominent in many districts. However, when aligned and built as a curriculum, not integrated in the curriculum, that is blazing the pathway. We believe there is some unique opportunity here. Service learning at Garrett Morgan would be innovative in and out of classroom learning experiences. It would allow for the efficient sharing of faculty members between the schools at International High School and Garrett Morgan. I say that because the proposed thematic transition would utilize social studies teachers, which are far more prevalent in the district, as opposed to an engineering teacher, but would also create opportunities to share those teachers among schools if needed.