Board highlights district goals, AI training and $167,000 tree grant; state gives district 74/78 score

Superintendent Dr. Caputo presented a spring update on five district goals at the April 28 meeting, pointing to progress across classroom engagement, facilities planning, school climate data ("Sky"), information literacy and social-emotional supports.

Dr. Caputo noted examples at each school: shared tables and a farm-stand food program at Edgar, a new full-day kindergarten launch, and cross-school collaborations. He said a $167,000 grant supported tree-planting work across the district and praised the tree-ambassador program that coordinated implementation.

On information literacy and technology, administrators described district training on Notebook LM and other AI guidance: "students and staff were all trained on the use of Notebook LM," Dr. Caputo said in describing Edgar School's rollout. The district also emphasized plans to teach source evaluation and prompt engineering as part of staff PD and student lessons.

Dr. Caputo reviewed the district's use of NJ Sky (the New Jersey School Climate Improvement Survey) and urged parents to participate in upcoming survey windows. He also summarized components of the 2019 mental-health referendum funding, which the district uses for therapeutic programs, school psychologists and related student supports.

Administrators presented the official state school-quality release: a district score of 74 out of 78, with individual school scores ranging from 72/78 (Campbell) to 76/78 (Moss). Dr. Caputo said the data and the goals will be compared against school-quality indicators and shared again at the June meeting.