[Music] a [Music] [Music] I [Music] [Music] [Music] a [Music] a [Music] a [Music] oh [Music] a [Music] [Music] and [Music] a [Music] [Music] [Music] a [Music] la [Music] a [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] a [Music] a [Music] [Music] m good evening everyone once again uh today we're going to do things a little bit differently um we had uh unfortunately this time around we were not able to have committee meetings how we normally do uh for that reason we we convened a committee of the whole which is um the reason why we're starting here at 6m today um so you're going to kind of sit in in our work session and and hear how we normally operate when we're in close session uh downstairs if there's any legal negotiations or or uh personel that we need to discuss then we'll go into executive session and then that's when we'll ex exit here and work our way downstairs um so welcome and thank you for being here with us tonight so I want to call this meeting to order uh Mr Paladino please call the role thank you Mr President uh trustee datus here trusty daro here trusty Jacko here trusty valz here here profy Williams here vice president benini here president munes here New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend meetings of this board except where specifically Exempted by law at which time any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon it in accordance with the provisions of this act the board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having same advertised in the Beville times also notice of this meeting is has been mailed to the members of the Board of Education the borrow clerk all elementary schools the middle school the high school Hornblower Early Childhood Center and posted on the district website also this meeting is being televised via the district's YouTube and Facebook pages thank you very much uh we're going to go ahead and move on to items presented by the administration Dr tonco yes thank you Mr President munz um welcome everyone thank you uh for uh meeting uh committee the whole um just a few items uh that we put on here there's still there are a few items that we added um that will be presented in close executive session um later tonight um as soon as we finish the business of the order for committees um for the public we I'm uh I'm recommending we go into executive session as soon as possible to discuss personnel and a few items that are on here um that we added the the late additions uh some of the addendums that were on that you saw have to do with uh reports from Mr Paladino's office which uh just had to be um kind of touched up by the auditor a little bit but also there are there are several other addendums um that needed attorney review we were working with the bush laog group over the weekend so Mr Bush I appreciate all the time that your Associates given us over the weekend uh there was some uh definitely some difficult things U that we were talking about uh one of those things that you have I handed to you is the re-registration packet we actually just finished this today at about 4:00 maybe I was working on this just some finishing touches uh this is up for approval tonight uh the only thing that was added from the past is that and we've talked about this before was the first page if you go to the first page uh and this is on the public agenda um so anyone uh can view it uh we added a point system sort of like DMV uh so it's like an eighto system so you so sort of like when you go for your license and you have to provide documents uh to make it easier for our residents during this re-registration period um we're making it an a point system so we have a few different menu items that you can choose from in order to get those points so for example um you need one two points Point document so you either need a deed uh we added CCO which is that continued certificate occupancy although there's an aster there that says that we cannot require that but we do um we would like that document if possible makes it very easy um and then uh uh or a written lease agreement and then as you see the second um two and one point um categories uh there's a there are a few different items that are listed there so that parents can provide with those eight points every family in the district will have to go through this starting in January so your approval tonight allows me to start getting the word out on that again the only thing that's changed from the registration packet that we've used for the nine years that I've been here is that first page uh and again been vetted by the attorney uh and uh everything's a go uh so again we have until um we're going to start that up in January 1 we're going to give our parents uh of current um current students in the district District those 6 months to comply uh while we're reminding them uh probably weekly on a weekly basis um but again everyone has to re-register your approval tonight would make this the re-registration registration packet so are we going to have Robo calls on this yes there'll be a thousand Robo calls on this as well so I'm sure uh not a thousand I'm joking but uh but again um I think that uh this is important and you know we we did have some uh you know some talks about enrollment uh we do have a lot of people that are living in rooms uh Etc so I know we do an incredible job registering students now but it's about time that we do this we did hold off for a few years because of covid and because of working with the municipality that was no fault of the municipalities that we couldn't partner that was a legal ramif ramification there is also something else that we're probably going to be um enforcing this year when I when I do the letter to the parents about this after your approval tonight uh and that's going to be that um anyone who falsifies this document it is a uh it is a criminal offense uh and we'll be pressing charges now we haven't done that um regularly but we will start doing that as as well as uh charging tuition so that's the first item that um is on the agenda to basically discuss or talk about with with that said just in uh in the conversations we've had uh what happens if this is not completed by the time of the new school year so if you do not have the packet completed by new school your your child will not be uh allowed in school they'll be disenrolled by a certain date okay that's why parents that are currently enrolled um it's it's easy fix uh anyone new to the district will go through the normal registration process the normal registration process starting January 1st will have that that new document okay so we got a good amount of time yeah we do we we gave ourselves that window to start for September one we'll obviously be collecting over the summer too so yeah so that's number one uh am I allowed to ask a question quick question on that I'm sorry so this will start going out in January but it won't be applied till the 2024 2025 uh school year right correct I'll send a letter out Mr Darrow probably December but as you know with the holiday it's not really you know so then we'll send out the packet well we're not going to physically send out the packet unless somebody really needs it it's all online now um but if someone does need it it'll be in multiple languages uh Etc so um but yeah we will I will uh approach the community on this uh soon probably the first week in December and then really enforce it or really launch it uh in January because of the holiday and the new year and I'm sure you're going to answer this when when we go to actually launch it but um are we going to is it going to be specific to the building like you turn it into your um your the building your child goes to well we going to have so it just submits uploads all online it's all uploaded online way different than we had it and if you need a hard copy you go to your building yeah if we need if you need a hard copy you can go to your building principal um if you can't print it out online we could we'll put provide it by that point we'll have a registration uh area at the casa Center so everything will float down there so it'll be perfect cool question going forward what are the parameters for if someone moves in the middle of a school year like how like would there have to be notification on the legal guardian side or how would that work going forward what do you mean for them leaving the school district no like let's say somebody currently lives at one residence and they move to another residence in like would they have to notify the school district immediately would there be a certain time frame going forward so I I did that when I when I move when I lived in one side of Beville and I moved to this side of Beville I just once one you're going to be going you're probably going to be in a different building so so if like my kids were in school number four then five and then we moved then eight in high school so if that's the case and they're going to let us know then they're going to go to their local building right the quicker the quicker we find out the better it is is um I have a question for example I know that a lot of families and I'm speaking from my own um maybe my brother might meet one or two points um because he doesn't have anything in his in the house under his name it's under everything is practically under my name and sometimes my dad so if there are kids and I do have a niece how what justifies something that of that nature um when they can't meet the eighto system but they legitimately live there um I I'm sorry Mr CH I don't know what you're what you're saying I mean we there's about 11 documents on each side that licenses permits I mean if there's if there's an individual that cannot come up with eight points then we would probably have a have them come in and sit down and try to verify their um residency there's also um we're trying to avoid the um certificate of land land lord um certificate of landlord has been used throughout the state uh instead of a lease or another document that's really only should be utilized if there's like a verbal lease uh which is very rare and I think uh I think a lot of individuals not just in B but across the state have been um abusing that certificate of landlord um but if someone lives with you as a family member yes then there's probably a certificate of landlord um so in in the case that you're talking about Miss Joo I think we would probably sit down with that individual but I I I I really find it um I think that we we have enough documents on here to come up with eight points I believe so contracts of sale utility bill um we'll even take a phone bill um if it comes down to that because technically phone's the utility um you know stuff like that I know it sounds simple right now but I know it's going to get complicated and I'm speaking because I live in Belleville Dr TOMCO even the phone bill is in my name and my brother's on my plan the main name is me so I'm just letting you know because I know that a lot of parents um a lot of residents Etc are going to be having these issues where they might not reach that eight point and they might reach seven points so I just wanted to make sure there was some sort of flexibility where there is that discussion and I wanted that to be clear and I'm glad I heard that from you today yeah 'll be flexibility I think it's a very rare situation though we would we would have been dealing with it already so um but yeah they we'll definitely uh if if someone lives in town uh whether we verify it through a domicile officer or whatever it is it'll be fine so the second thing uh that kind of goes along with that is uh an update for Casa uh the center for academic success we're looking uh hopefully to close that I'm sorry to finish that project we just got the update we're looking at uh possibly the end of December um we had to uh we did uh we got um some approvals late from the um the construction approvals uh but everything's kind of moving along we we were down there the other day uh last week so uh so everything's moving along so that's just an update there again that's going to have the E theater the professional development area the tutoring center uh and the registration and elll welcome center so uh it's a very exciting project so we're to open that January um I know we were all talking about the tutoring Grant uh everybody's been talking about that uh the tutoring Grant has hit a little snafu from the state with regard to bidding um originally the RFQ or the RFP went out from the state and there were only um specific vendors that we had a partner with um they had to apply to the state I guess someone figured out that that process was incorrect so now we have to go back out on our own as a district and go out for an RFP so the the grant that we received that is on the uh agenda tonight for acceptance still has to go out for a bidding uh and that's Statewide now so I was with um some um some legislators the other day who were talking about um you know how that falls on the doe um the New Jersey doe so uh so again uh we're still in line with Costa to open up for next year year um right in the right in the Crux of all of our assessments and whatnot I wanted to also talk about a few things that the Board needs to make a decision on um for us tonight um with regard to well let me save this one but uh we're we're thinking uh we're hoping to go out and we do have some several Partners aligned up uh spok we spoke to Doug from Bush Law Group again over the weekend finished finished with him yesterday appreciate his time on a Sunday um we're looking to open up a Cooperative um component to purchasing here so basically what that means is that we would host a Cooperative um bidding shop for lack of better term U Mr Paladino would be in charge of the uh qualified purchasing agent and what you do is you partner with other districts and together you collectively bid on certain projects or you bid on certain items so let's say it's a uh water right so Mr paldino goes out and says we're looking for water bottles he gets all the bids and then that one bid and everybody in the Cooperative basically bids on that um it's great for pricing because it's you know because these vendors know that they automatically you know it's a one onetime bid um so you don't have to keep going out for RFQ so a lot of vendors like to work with cooperatives what it does for us is the The Cooperative host which is us can charge a percentage on those fees so there's Revenue back to the district so we can charge 4% for example um and that that 4% would go towards revenue for us for doing the work for for basing that Cooperative uh for doing the work for that cooperative and the reality is we get the we get all the um the products that we want and Matt's doing the work anyway uh we do have five or six districts that want to start with us right away uh so um again I wanted to talk to you all about it tonight uh if if there's no objections to it uh there really it's really a no-brainer basically but if there's no objections to it then um we'll go ahead with it we'll put a resolution on for next month with some of those initial partners and then we'll get together with the partners and we'll see what kind of products that we want to bid out uh some of the services that we have already that we all kind of use and we'll get the best price and again there'll be some Revenue stream here for Belleville uh we'd also probably work with a consultant uh there's a new organization that a lot of our um our administrators uh are with it's njal um they're doing consulting for cooperatives that would come out of that percentage peace as well uh they'll bring in vendors and do all that work for us as Matt uh would do the bidding um so that's uh something that we can discuss uh again uh but I wanted to bring it up if you have because I don't want you to to hear for the first time next month but again to me it's a uh it's something that we're in cooperatives already how operatives we have now definitely cell phones right so we're in six cooperatives already so if you want it for example if you want um T-Mobile phone service you have to go into a national Cooperative all right and everybody joins the cooperative and that's how they don't monopolize things um the same thing same thing here how does the how does the co-op I guess are there bylaws how how is it regulated I guess no it's it's basically resolution saying that we collectively want to all go together and bid on the same project and all share the same price okay uh and then we get vendors uh vendors that will try to outbid each other and then basically that's how it goes so it's and it'll be us managing that call we're going to manage it yeah I mean anybody could any uh any government entity can do this um like a school or a college and you know some of the big ones the njc the New Jersey ESC uh Essex County does have one they do it for busing right um so they do co-op bids we're looking for um computers um security stuff what was it cameras all the things that you guys purchase a lot of money on spend a lot of money on buses when we purchase buses right so so if we can go out as a co-op and bid buses for six or seven or eight or 10 different uh districts you get a better price maintenance uh machines and stuff like that um so we don't have a name for that yet we'll come up with a a fancy schnazzy name by next meeting I have talk about this isn't something we're voting on tonight no it's not a vote it's we're just're just hearing about it we wanted to bring it up because I didn't want to I didn't want to go forward with it if it was uh you know again to me it's a no-brainer um um well I have a question um so when I heard Louis ask how it was how was it regulated um that I understood how you understood it but my question was more so the same but in regards to for example currently right now on the agenda we would see an item for Chromebooks for example and then we would vote on it if there is a cooperative component to purchasing does that mean that moment you purchase it and it's done and we will never see it on the agenda for voting no it's it's still the same thing this is the bid process so right now that's that U that amount is Bid out anyway um so what we would do is the Cooperative would bid out one time and everybody would purchase the same thing Across The Cooperative so you get better numbers what I'm saying is like let's say um since you're saying that this would be a purchasing component and instead of and Mr Paladino for example would do it so if he bid for five chairs and got $1,000 is he liable to that bid or is it come into the meeting and put on the agenda and then we vote on it and then the the purchase continues or is it automatic that moment when he does that particular bid no the bid the bid is the lowest bidder so basically like if we wanted to buy a pen for example right now and we spent a million dollars on pens Mr palino has to go out and get three or four different bids to make sure we got the lowest bid so now what a co-op does is it does all that for a certain amount of items so if there's 20 items every year that we buy uh we would go out and we would get as many vendors as possible to bid on that item which would make it a competitive bid and then we say anybody in New Jersey can now buy these pens through Belleville because we bid it out already so anybody who's part of the co-op who joins the co-op for free can basically bid those pens and then we get a percentage of that sale that goes right to the revenue it's because we're doing the work do you know how many schools are expected to be part of this Cooperative I'm going to try to get every school okay because I have experience with other co-ops that have done this and if there's no fee to join the co-op it's a no-brainer because you don't have to use it unless you have to right so why not be part of the co-op hey if I ever need Furniture I don't have to go out and get all these bids Belvo already did it for us so we'll pay the 4% and you know that's it um so that's usually people say yes if you if you explain it I think a lot of superintendents don't really understand how it works um I think we can only do it here because Matt is a very successful qpa um and using a Consulting Agency on the outside uh helps us get those vendors involved as well so again we could always you know we could give it a six-month trial period if it doesn't work we could always end the co-op um but there there really is no downside there's no extra work for the board um it really is a revenue stream if it works so I have a question just real quick apologize let me just two things real quick number one even if you guys give us the okay to do this you still have to follow title 18a which I'm sure you've all learned in your trading so you still have to go through all the proper purchasing rules as a board of bed no matter what we do with the co-op so even if we put 50 school districts together as an example and we bid out pens and you know Matt Paladino LLC is awarded that through the co-op for any of those 50 districts to use Matt Paladino through our Co-op you still have to put it on a board resolution and the board still has to pass it that's in title 18a it's a purchasing statute I'm I'm sure you guys all get that in your training if you don't you should Gess it and I can give you all information on it that's number one number two if this is successful you guys can give us the direction of opening it up even more not just the school districts most of the co-ops throughout the state um Bergen County Hunter um the ed Service Commission Essex Reno they not only do schools but they go through like Dr Tom just said they go through the municipalities they go through colleges so you can you can it can grow a little B of legs I mean I'm I'm jumping ahead but there's still the potential for for more than just doing this with with schools if it if it and the idea is that that percentage that we would be paying essentially up front which is that what that 4% then when if they go with our bid then they cover that correct well it's another you know the board this board has always talked about revenue streams exctly this is you know I think we're ready for this and just one other thing you remember you have to do this every year so if you give us the go-ahead you know you probably looking for this for the remainder of the 23 24 school year but then come July 1 of 24 you have to do a whole new it's every year it's not just I bid it out once and whoever gets the bid for the the the pens is from here till eternity every single year it has to go out uh you know you can look up any of the other Cod Ops that's just the way they do it every year no matter how many rfps no matter how many bids you put out no matter rfqs go out you still have to every year do the cycle again so it's an ongoing process so it's basically like um and just for my own edification for the edification of the public is it basically like we're like a subscription service where people buy into our service we take on an upfront cost and then we make money generate through all the people who buy in over time yeah you could see that we could charge everybody $9.99 a month right yeah well something like that but that sounds great you know because if you think about it yeah if you you're going to pay that upfront cost but overall we're going to have so many people who are going to buy in because the prices just could to be so much better it it does sound like a great opportunity for the school district to build a new stream of Revenue right and and we would take the revenue from the vendor not from the other districts so it's a no-brainer correct to join so I mean just kind of jumping a little bit ahead now that Revenue that comes in from there what does that go into Title One what what what does that Revenue go into like what is that what is that Revenue fund what part of the it goes into the budget as miscellaneous Revenue right miscellaneous Revenue okay so almost like if somebody donated to us or something you yeah it's it's pretty much revenue that you're not expecting and then it's you get Christmas money in July right so it's not it's not restricted it's not that's that's that's what I wanted to know is it restricted restrict or we can use it where where you could use it wherever it is so again and we're all into you know we're jumping we're jumping ahead and you know what we've been talking about creating more Revenue opportunities for because that that in turn helps our community and it's time to raise taxes when it's time to do now we're realizing that we're you know we're making our own Revenue so therefore now we don't have to do these other things yes and I think if you're a vendor and you think about it right all right okay if we just go to Belleville and we give them a really good price we can get 50 school districts to buy our pens right I mean so so it's a it's a it's a win-win all over if you know how to do it the right way and and again you know it took us a little while to get the legal piece down and like I said we worked all weekend on it um and we're here and I wanted to bring it up tonight um because I don't want to go through all this work if next month you know because again I I have you know a bunch of superintendants real excited about this but I I said give me you know let me see um because I don't want to you know get some promises done now and then all of a sudden um you know the when it comes on the resolution so on the resolution can that six Monon that you mentioned be put in there because if something hits the fan and it doesn't work or whatever product the other districts buy because they thought it was a great deal but that then the product itself is not you know good in a sense potentially just hypothetically speaking I know that Louis said we're getting ahead of ourselves but when we make these type of decisions we're actually seeing the situation from a to Z not necessarily just right now I can see if we could put the 6 months on there I would just caution that we do that cuz then it looks like we're just doing a temporary thing so I probably wouldn't join us if we were only going to do it temporary but I could look I could look into that well you know something of the nature where it says you know as long as it's profitable and beneficial something to that effect because if it's not then why continue and uh and then after regardless it's going to be beneficial to us because we have to be those products anyway yeah I don't I don't think that that's really a need because the whole point it's like it's like if you're going to go shopping Amazon you're going to put your products in Amazon you're not going to say hey I'm only going to put these products if they're profitable you you kind of get to manage the back office of it right so that's we're essentially that back office that's great if there is if it's productive and then if we benefit from it and financially it can alleviate some tax relief I I definitely support that thank you cool yeah so a couple other things real quick um so we really need your guidance tonight on an Annex cover um so we we've we have a bunch of tents that we purchased during CO as you all know for outside uh you know Recreation and whatnot and um our idea was while we're in the midst of uh construction and now that both middle school buildings are open I I wanted to provide a cover for students in case it rained um that's not um mandatory there's no law that states that but it just to me is common sense that if it's raining and with the snow right we kind of just want to cover so we decided to put all the tents together tied them down supported them um Etc the other day we had a really bad wind and we realized that just wasn't working so we need more of a a greater structure um we Matt did get a quote on um an what are we calling it an Annex cover walkway walkway so basically it would just be a simple walk away from one building to the next it would be out of the way of where the construction is going to be so obviously would stay up as long as it can but it's extremely costly uh and Matt I think was with a couple different companies um and this would come out of the monies that we have for that project so we're looking at what was it 80 80 to 100 Grand 80 to $100,000 for that temporary structure now it would probably be up for two years at least um we've thought of and tried everything even our own maintenance team building a um structure out of wood the cost of wood the cost of uh labor Etc anything that we would need would be upwards is almost the same amount anyway so I think the board we need some guidance from the board as to whether or not um you know you really want us to to go ahead with this or not um the only other thing we could possibly do if it rains is to I'm not even making a joke at this now but give everybody umbrella and from one biling to the next you go with umbrella and you put it down I don't know I mean it sounds ridiculous but think up out of just kind of again just thinking out loud do we have something like is it possible to have I mean we're always adjusting our periods is it possible to when we have those weather conditions just we create a uh an auxiliary um schedule where students are in that building and there's no transfer well you have no gym you have no cafeteria there's different stuff so I mean again we you know so so when I was in uh another District we were doing a referendum project and we we didn't have a fire escape upstairs so the state U actually it was the town um construction official made us put up a temporary fire escape and it cost us probably $150,000 and that was back in 2003 we only used it 10 times for fire drills um but if we didn't have that there you know for the for the time being for the year or year and a half um we wouldn't have had a structure it was covered and everything so so I think the board you know we want some guidance I mean my my suggestion would be to to have it built um because you know our luck you could say harly rained or whatever our luck will get like two weeks full of rain yeah right I mean I'm just saying so from from the I know I know right now going back and forth on designs for you know our our our auxiliary designs that we had for that space as well is there any possibility that we can build something that's can become part of the structure we're going to we're going to put there like or or this there's no way around it no no way this there has to be just cuz of all the foundation they have to all the site work yeah there's no way we can't even put this close to where the actual structure will be that would be the the so we're we're looking at the other side of this thing well it's right now where it is is kind of on the nothing will you know be so I mean but we have to see where the new structure will you know the new layout um while we're doing this but I'm even thinking maybe more towards the front of either Washington or up higher towards um what's that High Street or higher to High Street higher than I maybe even on the the sidewalk I I don't know we have to talk about that but again these are preliminary plans to do this temporary thing because I don't want to talk about that if the board's not you know would this be a completely enclosed structure ened it's open it's just a open and what would be made what would be made of material wise what are we looking at is ital well I'm sure there's going to be at least a lum it's got to be AUM aluminum post and then a metal roof yeah whatever it is for um whatever would me code and this is this is an individual that built these so we even looked at temporary like accordion structures that come out and those are I can't believe how expensive those were so again it's a temporary solution to a possible issue I mean there are schools that have campuses that are next to each other like in Pay County there's some campuses have two buildings and kids run across but it's only 25t running across all you need is but this is a lot you know this is a lot longer so um I think I mean I think we don't need a decision right now but um I'm I'll go back to Mr munes in a week or so when you guys all think about it maybe give us a direction on it um I think it's a lot of money for a temporary fix um that we don't even know we're saying $80 cash 100 100 we're saying 1 to two years um so I think it's too much money for a temporary situation um and and I've been to the middle school I attended the middle school and walking on High Street from the you know the back of the building of bevel Middle School towards the corner I used to walk home like that all the time uh rain or shine and I think that um I I for temporary I think it's too costly especially where um you know we it's not part of the permanent structure it's not even helping Erica you got to think about the fact also that it's not like they're just switching one time to this is constant back and forth with students going from one building to the other so it's and and in a in a day where it's a monsoon or a heavy snowstorm if where school is open and they have to go to those classes you're talking about us letting our kids out of the building to go into that weather and and and not only that but what if it's raining now they're going to be sitting in a classroom soak and wet with with climate control running whether it's hot or cold but it's not a closed structure it's open they're going to get wet no matter what it's open from the sides it's a canopy like where we were just outside it's it's it's a roof it's essentially a roof so they're not going to get wet unless they walk out of it yeah I think our parents are going to want have something like this of the wind sorry listen we can go back and forth into how you can possibly get wet the whole point is that it's a roof over the kids heads so that they can they can get into the building and if I I know if I send my kid to school the last thing I want is a phone call in the middle of the day like hey can you bring you know Jacob some clothes because he got soak and wet going from one building to the other so it's not expense we want this is one of those pills we have to swallow if we have to but the alternative is that the kids are literally going to be either soaked or stuck in in the in in whatever the the the condition of the weather is our original fix I understand that part but it's not closed and I'm saying that the exposure is still going to be there cuz we can't control the winds so when it's raining we can't control the winds they're going to get wet I if it was closed in somehow totally understand we get a price for closing in and they do plastic curtains all the time if that's the case then we can just run plastic curtains along the side but that's just going to increase if we're talking 80 to 100 and then we now we're going to add plastic curtains the side of it so so that I mean if we want to fully protect we're going to have to do something like that we'll get a price on that that we get a price on enclosure so just so everybody knows if there's a fire drill in the rain like you know somebody pulls a fire alarm it's in the rains are outside I can't tell you how many phone calls I get for that which is understandable right um so again I'm just putting it out there I I you know nobody wanted to do this at this time uh we really thought the temporary fix we had would work but we did lose a tent the other day and it was it was a pretty dangerous situation um I seen so we just can't do we just can't do it anymore can I just ask the distance between both schools what is do we know what the they're 10 foot they're 10 foot fences you got I mean yeah it's probably farther yeah maybe 800 feet 1,000 maybe then you curve over and then you go into the landing maybe 1,000 feet we can get that number for you but it's 10 at least 1010 I think definitely these are all really valid you know concerns my only thing would be just sort of like food for thought just see what the procedures and sort of like the guidelines that schools which I would think now over half of the population is now below the sunb belt look at how schools in the sun Bel Florida California that have an outdoor campus see how they sort of operate in severe weather conditions sort of look at how they go about that just as Food For Thought not necessarily for or against the structure but kind of see like where millions and millions of American children every day are going to school outside predominantly in outdoor campuses so I think that's just food for thought so we'll get back to on that so the last thing that I have is uh you have ECI ECI which is the um uh Essex County Improvement Authority that's the grant that we uh we had from Essex County which was several years ago for clearan field um you know we talked a little bit about this we we had uh I think we talked about this last meeting we put in um for um several items including some additional an additional field up at the middle school part of that walkway we were talking about the permanent St stabilization of the walkway I think we put Furniture in there um a few things um so we actually sent a a request to the municipality to put on their agenda because if you remember this is one of those you know Mommy and Daddy have to coign loans um has nothing to do with the municipality just that they have to co-sign because it's a it's an improvement Authority um so we asked them to put on their agenda I don't know if that's going to happen but simultaneously we need you all to support that as well so that's on there uh today uh as well you also have envelopes which is include an invitation that we received uh so you're invited to that and uh that's basically all I have so okay um uh just uh does do we have any does anybody have anything within Personnel negotiations or legal that they need to discuss if so we um we can move to uh close session I just have something for uh something that Dr TOMCO mentioned before um he mentioned Kasa moving along and then we jumped to other stuff so I just uh wanted to go back to it I wanted to find out if something can be looked into for or cam um so that way it's offered or available at the tutoring center portion of Kasa because I think it's beneficial a beneficial device for the kids especially for reading can I have a motion to go into uh close session discuss to discuss personnel I'm sorry to to to to discuss legal negotiations and personnel and uh HIV motion I'll second it um all in favor I any opposed okay we're just going to go ahead and go into uh close session now and then we leave and maybe it feels like uh you don't want us to leave while you're here but we've got a lot of business to discuss that we can't necessarily discuss in in public like you know when I give attorney client advice or when we discuss Personnel matters those are private so that's that's what we did we're back now and uh this is actually the way a lot of school boards do it they do it in the middle of the meeting this is a one-time tryy out and uh hopefully the board learns from uh whether this is good or not good and we can move forward go ahead yeah it's definitely very uh very interesting um so uh we're just going to take off right from where we left off and we're going to continue with uh items presented by the administration thank you Mr President uh welcome everyone uh thank you very much first I want to just wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving so I won't get to do that again later on um continue having incredible things happening in District here uh our our kids our students our parents our the resilience of our our staff teachers Administration um just really incredible the the the amount of things that are happening and going on so so I I uh I encourage everyone to get involved uh and uh you know continue to put forward any kind of ideas you have or any type of um um clubs or anything else you want to see so please please let us know uh so I only have a few things tonight um first um we have a special recognition um I guess it's um definitely want to recognize this person but it's it's unfortunate that we we have to do this because uh it's it's a dangerous situation but it just goes to show how prepared uh we are as a district um uh Erin McGary she is she here uh come on up come on come down with me I see all right so miss mcgary's here so we we uh honored was that last year we honored you so we honored miss mcgar last year because she saved a child um from choking uh was you know a very um treacherous situation she did an incredible job and and she was up here and uh we wanted to thank her for her uh for being a heroine and and uh really saving that child's life basically and uh she's up here again because she did the same thing um just recently so again uh as a parent of for myself and all of you could kind of attest to this when you drop your children off you you want to make sure that they're safe and you want to make sure that uh that everything's okay and and we do the best we can as a board and administration make sure that happens but and we know we have teachers and staff members behind us as well that are also looking out for our kids uh we definitely want to celebrate that so hopefully you don't get any more of these but she's ready um so for your dedication to students in the B Public School District we want to just recognize you uh for all you do here so thank you very much again thank you can I take a picture real quick piure here take thank you again round thank you so much all right and I think uh taking uh Mr pugly a spot tonight Mr Klein are you here oh come on up so Mr Klein is going to um present I won't take away your thunder but School Force go ahead Mr kin thank you Dr TOMCO Board of Education um last year Dr Anthony uh I'm sorry Steve pugly is not here tonight because he's uh has a death in the family so I'm taking his place to introduce our staff members and families and students uh but last year Dr Anthony could soft this with uh the communication science uh Department in disorder Communications Sciences disorders the uh Professor with seen Hall University reached out to see if our departments were interested in doing a research study in order for a research study like this to happen we need staff that will volunteer because there's um there's a lot of benefits of This research study we have professional development that could be offered and then uh our students benefiting from the services provided but in order for a research study like this to happen we need staff that are willing to volunteer their time uh and families that are willing to have their their student students participate so uh we reached out to our staff and Jess Peralta who's a speech and language specialist with our district for years um she works closely with several University she was the first one to raise her hand like she always does and and uh stepped up to partake in this study so I'm going to turn it over to Jess and Jess can explain the study uh then the students and we can bring the students up to be congratulated because they really put a lot of effort in turn it over to Jess peralto thank you so the students being recognized this evening participated in a year-long study entitled project wild project wild like do uh Mr Klein mentioned is from seen Hall University and it's an intervention designed to improve and strengthen the writing skills they are all targeted lessons that impr improve all areas of writing the three students worked very hard with extreme diligence to complete the tasks and very challenging lessons they made significant progress in their writing and spoken language these three students are here tonight with their parents this moment is bittersweet because they participated in the study as fifth grade students and they are now sixth grade students however I have worked with all three of these students since they were in preschool we would like to call them up and present a certificate of recognition for their efforts and noted progress Samantha Robert Pullin and Jacob Lopez please come up with your parents to receive your certificates of [Applause] recognition great job guys let's give him a round of applause thank you Miss Peralta thank you Mr Klein Puglia excellent job thank you very much again we continue to do incredible things here uh just a great place we're you know we're finishing out the year uh giving thanks for everything so um appreciate everyone appreciate this board uh and progress thank you very much thank you Dr TOMCO and congratulations to our students great job once again um we're going to move on to Mr Paladino give uh monitor's report just a couple of points from Mr rean uh as you already know he's watching uh live just wanted to wish everybody a Happy Thanksgiving uh he wishes congratulations to um Dr msia and uh Miss Pacho on their election victories um and then uh just looks forward to continued progress working with the board and the administration we move into uh 2024 Sly that's it thank you very much so we're going to move right into uh remarks by citizens um can I have a motion to open public participation motion second is there anyone opposed okay we're going to move on to um so I will call the individuals uh in the order sorry I I will call the individuals who wish to speak in the order the order they appear in the sign in roster the individual call to be heard shall proceed with his his or her statements comments as briefly as the subject uh as the subject permits with a maximum of 3 minutes at the podium all inquiries must be directed at the board president Mr Michael Sheldon good even evening everyone Michael Sheldon 47 Floyd Street uh let me quickly go through my list of questions with the agenda items uh firstly 9.9 uh the person that you're hiring for um the maintenance crew is this person any relationship to a previous Board of Education trustee um 11:29 you apparently have a re-registration packet ready to go could you uh Dr TOMCO give us a little bit more information about the timing is this going to take place in January uh I read through that re-registration packet I think it might be helpful to toughen it up a little bit perhaps with some warnings that if anyone is found to be illegally using Beville school system without being a resident that they could incur Financial penalties um agenda item 1312 I see you're about to enter into another ECI loan this is the Essex County Improvement Authority the last one was in September or October of 2019 it made possible the claremon field project as far as I understand you're still paying you still have at least one payment left for that previous loan agreement you apparently going to bond for 3.75 million could you uh tell us what you plan to do with that money back in 2019 we gave the community a specific laundry list of items for that 3.6 million uh bills list um last month four trustees voted no with check number 08922 202 which was uh reimbursement for the owner of 335 Union it looks like that was rescinded but you're issuing another check in the same amount could you clarify what's going on there uh check number 4949 Innovative Therapy Group LLC could you explain what they're doing you're paying them nearly $120,000 could you please clarify what their services are and then uh check 89278 Dan Dan Daner LLC for breakout classrooms uh $262,000 where are these breakout rooms what's their purpose and how many of them are are being implemented in the uh the district and and lastly um you on the bills list you're paying environmental logic uh uh well over $50,000 this brings the running total to well over $100,000 this is the company that's doing the testing for the site that's going to be the new parking garage uh can you give us any updates on the parking garage situation I noticed that you haven't gone out to bid yet for any Revis plans I checked uh Solutions architecture earlier today uh their bidbox system there's nothing there uh could you at all give us an update of what you're planning to do and again why are this is now two years and running over $100,000 for environmental testing and it seems like almost every month or every other month we're spending another 20 $30,000 for this company to do more borings or soil testing so I'm just concerned about what the status of the garage is and why why this company is continuing to do so much testing on a site that was ostensibly clear I know that before it was the king's window store it was a gas station and there may have been an oil breach but I mean this is this seems to be extraordinary amounts of testing thank you okay through the chair so um 9.9 is a personal issue I don't I don't feel comfortable answering any of those questions on that one so we'll skip that one 11:29 um is the re-registration yes we did speak about that in the um in the uh the meeting prior um not only is there tuition costs for someone who's lying about registering District but there's also a uh criminal charge or I shouldn't call it a criminal charge there is a charge from the police department so those will be added uh to my um uh my initial uh my initial uh emails or or letters to the uh to the uh parents in Township um just so everybody knows the process um we've we've kind of just kind of reiterate what we said before the packet that's hopefully going to be approved tonight by the board uh we were working on it over the weekend with the attorneys um and uh it it holds uh it passes the litmus test so we've kind of created this eight point system sort of like your license like when you go for your license now you have to do points um hopefully this acts as a model for other districts uh we think it's pretty fair and it's very thorough uh we're also recommending that we get a CCO from individuals even even though it's not required but we think that's the easiest way to kind of prove who's in what houses so that we can definitely um you know make sure we have we can afford students a uh appropriate education um we plan on rolling this out next month to tell parents what's coming down the pike uh it'll all be electronic online and everyone will have from January through um to some date I'm not sure what I'm going to set yet but in the summer uh to register all of their children that are in District so every parent has to go through a re-registration uh we haven't done this since probably I first got here eight years ago maybe we held off during covid and then we held off trying to work with the municipa municipality but to no no fault of the municipality the uh the legalities just didn't work out for what we wanted to do uh and what we were uh uh approved to do um so it took us a little more time so starting January 1st for the 2024 25 school year every student has to be re-registered um so thank you for bringing that up so that's 11:29 13 12 was sorry oh ECI yes um yeah so we were um looking to again bond with the Essex County Improvement Authority uh to add some things to the middle school project which would be another field possibly up there a little bit more to the prominade area uh and a bridge bridge access from one um one building to the next we also have furniture in there uh what else am I miss at off top of your head oh Esports theater uh to furnish that we are getting a lot of um sponsorship in there as well um but we plan on renting that out down in Casa uh so so those are things that would would basically hit that um hit that ECI agreement uh and of course just remind everyone and we said it in public already um that also has to be uh co- co-authored or co-supported by the municipality as a formality so we uh we did submit to them uh with hope to have some support there um I'm going to let Matt talk about the bills list stuff but I will say about the environmental logic piece uh when we purchased that property which was um how should I say what was an optimal piece of property that needed for this um the individuals that own the property at the time I knew there was environmental issues we did get a credit on that property um to do some of the testing uh I was it 50,000 I believe it was 50,000 at the time um off the price um there is continued testing as pursuant to EPA that's that's filed uh you know it's it's on a a docket so this isn't anything that we're requesting to do it's it's actually part of a plan um and and that's really it I think the there are Wells on site uh it's tested frequently and and again there's um there's now borings uh as we get closer to putting together a project we expect that the board is going to have the newest plans hopefully within the next few weeks um we've had we had to attenuate the project because the scope came out way past budget um we've been working with some uh garage for lack of better term Consultants to try to get those number down numbers down uh we think we have it in such a way where a lot of the site work a lot of the concrete is is going to be out of this project we're going to sort of ramp it a little bit uh hopefully it stays within our budget we go out to bid first hopefully as soon as we can beginning of the year uh and and kind of move forward on it so that's where we're at do you want to do the you get those bills today go ahead yeah yeah um did you want to talk about those yeah the the the the other piece is the check to the landlord at the last meeting that was referred to at the bills list that that vote actually passed I know at the last meeting uh Mr sheld you came to the microphone and you asked whether it passed at the time I wasn't sure to be honest I thought for a second maybe it didn't um did some legal research this last couple of weeks and determined that it was in fact a passing boat under the circumstances so for Innovative therapy that's all related services for special ed it's one of those things where we've said when we sat up here in April uh in regards to special education a tuition and uh related Services you can't predict um we've had a number of um students move in who need related services so that's gone up a lot uh it's going to be one of those things when we do 24 25's budget that uh you're going to see an increase to in the line um that we just can't afford to cut because we're getting we're getting hurt by that right now uh and then Daner is the furnit that was here at the high school um Dr good evening okay before I asked my two questions um I would like to say uh for the two board members who will be going off the board I would like to thank you for your service and your dedication to our children it is not unnoticed and certainly not uh unappreciated you've done an excellent job and I know as a parent in the community I appreciate both of you and everything that you've done and and thank you I've got you are both leaving uh very big shoes to fill for the remainder of you on the board Dr TOMCO and Miss Peko I don't know if you're here or not but I look forward to working with all of you to continue to keep moving our district forward and to give our children the quality of Education that each and every one of them deserve I have two questions because my third question actually was asked by Mr Sheldon and answered by the attorney okay the first one is on 11 11 uh what policies are in the second reading and how come when policies are put on the agenda for readings they're not actually read to the public so we know what it is um they that are being um approved and number 1221 what is a heated merchandiser um and as I said on the third question um Mr Sheldon had already asked that so I don't have to and finally just I would like to extend to all of you and everyone in the audience a very happy thank happy healthy safe blessed Thanksgiving to everyone and your families thank you m oh can you repeat the last item number the second one oh I'm sorry is it 12:21 1221 okay thank you yeah I mean through the chair so we have several uh uh policies that's we in the second reading now um some were some that were abolished um through our consultant School Leadership Council um sick leave policy that's new based on the new law that was passed religion in school which was revised School threat assessment teams which is new and it's mandatory Examination for cause attendance rights of privacy sick leave Examination for cause some of those are also um regulations um so there there are several on here School nutrition program different meal charges Etc like out outstanding uh food service so uh the way we've always worked it is after they're approved they're made public and then then they're on the um then they're there for the public as for a heated food merchandiser that you s outside excuse um uh M massagio just just to to to tell you about the readings of the policy um there's no there's no requirement that a reading actually be a reading um even in municipal government where they have ordinances and they have two readings of an ordinance which the you know equivalent of a policy or a bylaw here in in the Board of Education it would just be be you know that that the board is adopting it once obviously with the opportunity for the public theoretically to ask questions um for the board members to ask questions to possibly modify it and then the second time they would adopt it for its actual adoption into policy but there's no requirement that it be read publicly it's no legal requirement the board could do what it wishes otherwise well there you know it's in the agenda so I think that's idea so it's in the agenda and anything on the agenda is public and you can have that information may I have a motion to close uh public participation motion and second I'll second it and any is anyone opposed all right we're going to backtrack a little bit um we're going to go to 31 and have the approval of the minutes for uh last for October our October meeting May I have a motion on that and can I have a second second um all in favor uh go any oppos okay great so we're going to move right on to uh uh I'm sorry excuse me one second right um we're going to go ahead and move on to uh giv giving Ryan the microphone um after you good evening everyone I hope you're all doing well um starting off I'd like to congratulate all the trustees for being elected and express a sincere thanks on behalf of Beville high school for all um that the two trustees that are leaving us have done through your hard work it's evident that your position is very well deserved first I'd like to recognize our student government Association for signing up 40 plus people for the blood drive which is happening on November 29th this is the biggest blood drive yet which we're very proud about especially since um hospitals rely on high schools for blood donations following um our National Honor Society had just had their first trip to the Hornblower High uh sorry Hornblower preschool helping out the students and slowly building a bond over the next few trips coming up on the 8th of December they have a trip volunteering at the St Peter soup kitchen after they're officially inducted on November 30th during their induction ceremony Key Club being the biggest Club of Bah high with over 60 members has just wrapped up a canned food drive given only giving over 120 cans to St Peter's Parish um and they also gave gave all their members UNICEF boxes to fund for those in need they will also have a field trip to Nina tomorrow where 20 members will be preparing Thanksgiving baskets to give out to families Key Club has been doing a lot to help the community which is something they definitely deserve recognition for on the 16th of November the BHS fashion show was held here in the auditorium where members of the fashion Club were able to so showcase and model their outfitss from both for formal and '90s street wear our senior class held a powder puff hosted by the HSA on November 17th and our sophomore class is having a dodgebow tournament tomorrow ending on a high note various clubs came together with with our student government to host an open house for all eighth graders where they were giving tours of the high school and had an opportunity to learn about activities and classes offered here they even got to experience the new Buccaneer beastro which is finally here to provide all students with a more comfortable and enjoyable lunch experience that wraps up all the exciting news happening here at BHS I hope you all have a great evening thank you ran we're going to move on to our Personnel um may I have a motion on items 91 to 95 eight motion may I have a second second is there any discussion hearing none Mr Palo please call the rooll trusty dtis yes trusty daro yes trusty Jacko yes trusty valz yes trusty Williams yes uh vice president Bennett Mei yes and president munes yes we're going to move on wants a curriculum and instruction may have a motion on 101 motion may have a second second is there any discussion on this item Hear n Mr Palo please call the RO trusty dtis yes trusty Darrow yes trusty Jacko yes uh trusty valz yes trusty Williams yes vice president benini yes president munz yes move on to purchasing and business services may I have a motion motion second second is there any discussion hearing n Mr Palo please call the rooll trusty dtis yes trusty daro yes trusty Jacko yes trusty valz yes trusty Williams yes vice president benini yes president munz yes move on to finance may I have a motion on items 131 to 1322 please motion may I have a second second is there any discussion on these items hearing none Mr palino please call the rooll trusty dtis yes trusty Darrow uh yes with the exception of check number 089 327 I am going to abstain on that trustee Jacko I take no part in 13.1 the other ones yes trusty valz yes trustee Williams yes vice president benini all Yes except uh the exception of check number 089 261 and 089 327 which I abstain and president munes uh yes uh same uh with the uh exception of 089 327 I obain on this [Music] item uh yes and all are they okay okay uh I'd like to move on to re U reopen public participation can I have a motion motion second uh is any uh any objections okay um I would like to um other board president will call the individuals who wish to speak in the order that they uh in the order that they appear in the signning roster the individual call shall proceed with his or her statements as briefly as the subject permits with a maximum of 5 minutes at the podium all inquiries must be directed at the board president Mr Michael Sheldon uh good evening again everyone Michael Sheldon 47 flight Street uh thank you Dr TOMCO for uh giving some more detail about the re-registration matter um as we discussed uh occasionally over the last several years um when you became our superintendent in the middle of February of 2015 uh you basically walked into and inherited a veritable disaster that was our our Board of Education at that time admittedly you know we we've made great strides um in in get in riding the ship um I also recall that the first re-registration event you uh authorized that for the uh September of 2016 and if I remember correctly you reported that just the the threat of re-registration we saw the dis disappearance The Exodus of over 200 students they just didn't return the in in September because of the the re-registration requirement that summer so we'll see what happens over the course of the next several months hopefully it won't be as severe as it was back in 2016 um the question I asked during the first session about the breakout rooms I would like to know how many of them do we are we getting here uh are they all in the high school or are they scattered amongst all of our our schools if you could give you a little bit more information about that I would appreciate it um I walked in tonight and you know saw you guys already in session I didn't you know initially I thought I had once again uh warped into another time zone as I occasionally do um but as uh Jonathan Bush explained that you're you you're you're testing a new procedure I recall that the New Jersey foundation for open government when they do periodic surveys of compliance with the open public meetings act the only criticism they had of our board was that uh they didn't like the fact that you would have automatic um close sessions they wanted the board to meet then vote in public to go into Clos session so I think it's actually a wise thing to do to continue with this procedure that youve begun using tonight um but I would like to know where did you advertise because I this cut me by surprised I had no idea that you were going to have uh a conference or work session starting at 6 o00 tonight I usually check your website but you know it was was it on Facebook or could you just tell me where that was posted uh I uh commented on Facebook uh uh about the US News and World Report uh they recently published their annual statistics uh rating or um giving data about every Public elementary middle school and high school in the United States and uh you know it doesn't speak well for what's going on here in Belleville the uh very quickly and I have all the snapshots on my Facebook page but as far as math proficiency let me just run down the list school three 12% School 4 8% School 5 15% School 7 12% School 8 only 7% School 9 22% School 10 22% the Middle School only 11% proficient and the high school school only 17% proficient in math and only 133% proficient in science you know we're these are unacceptable results I know there's going to be uh some dismissal that Co a lot of this is impacted by covid and learning loss Etc but you know you look at other districts uh for example matachin our counselor also if you don't know is the mayor of matuch and uh all of your elementary schools have meth proficiencies of well over 50% uh you and I assume you had to deal with covid as well um so you know this dichotomy this discrepancy in performance uh has other explanations than just beyond beyond covid and you know we were really doing a tremendous disservice to our kids uh all of this extra money the tens of millions of dollars spent on new resources new books new instructors new programs new technologies you know and where where's where's the return all I see is a continued decline we started to see some improvement uh through 2019 then covid hit us obviously in 20120 but boy it seems that we've taken several steps back and if we ever do recover it may take several years before we start to see any real definitive signs of improvement but what do we do about all the kids right now that are going through our school system I know you've got new tutoring programs and other things in in place and the RTI programs but I don't know if this is ever going to you know overcome what what we're seeing in this in these data in these statistics our our district is basically failing our kids across the board you know School number eight only 7% of the the kids proficient in the high school only 177% proficient of math that's basic math as I keep pointing out when Dr TOMCO first arrived in Belleville his first speech he said one of his near-term goals was to see to it that at least 50% of our high school graduates were proficient in trigonometry and we have less than 10% proficient in Algebra 1 I mean you know I I I I I just my heart breaks back in my days when I was a student here things seemed to be much better with math instruction than they are today and I I would like hopefully some resolution and some answers so thank you and have a good Thanksgiving thank you you too do the chair yeah thank you for your uh comments Mr Sheldon um the breakout rooms do we need to get more information on that for him or do you have those why you why don't you start with that go ahead so the breakout rooms are 13 special ed here at the high school and then the public notice is on all the social media [Music] platforms yeah that's on the website um the posting so the posting was changed two times uh and and again just to kind of reate what Mr Bush said um because we had the ribbon cutting ceremonies today we you know we we wanted to you know make sure that we met um with all the board members about a few items uh and we had to do that in public so committee the whole I think it worked out pretty well I think it's you know something the board should consider at some point um when it reorganizes maybe um however just to talk about again and and you know been doing this for 20s something years now as an administrator so I really don't like test scores um yeah for for the simple fact of what Mr Sheldon just said and I'm not disparaging what said and you're 100% correct nobody said that these scores are great nobody likes them um but again you know comparing um Belleville with mouen or with Carney or with Clifton and you know again uh it's very difficult to do that um we are still multi-million dollar underfunded District um not sure what those numbers are going to be but I I guarantee it'll be over $10 million uh we've just you know we're now formulating a true preschool population when I'm sure individuals in aou and have had preschool for their children for a very long time and that's not to say that there's anything wrong with Belleville it's just you know unfortunately the reality of of where different districts are at different times so the US News and Views report uh I'm very familiar with uh in the past as well if you look at the methodology section there someone like myself who's into survey uh Theory and data the method methodology um um section is is very interesting and we'll never have us in a top uh Echelon category if you if you actually study the methodology this report was really interesting if you did read it because it says that we have 10 elementary schools and seven middle schools so I don't know where this data is coming from to be honest with you U but again I'm not saying it's wrong to dat it because our numbers are low uh but just to kind of put it all into perspective not even talk about free reduc lunch not going to even talk about some of the other hurdles our our families have here I'm not going to talk about covid what I'm going to talk about is since September 1st we have 178 new students here 178 students who were educated somewhere else I don't know what their grades were I don't know what their scores were all I know is that now they're going to be part of belleville's numbers so that's a reality here and it's only November I don't even have the November numbers yet so I'm going to I'm going to summize that we're over 200 new students um there's an influx of people moving here for different reasons um yes it's facilities yes it's all these new buildings that are coming up it's the change and it's and it's a it's an incredible change but it's the reality um again that's 178 students right now that I don't really know how they fared where they were I mean I know but you don't so uh it's just to put it in perspective not making an excuse It's the reality it's the reality of that um situation we do have students that still get into really good schools Ivy League schools uh they get incredible scores they do well in their SATs um so so people people uh families and students do perform well here uh and we do the best we can uh our RTI program is is really going to push those numbers through the roof I think this year uh unfortunately our tutoring because of the state Department's uh mistake um is not going to come to us the time that we need it um that's not just us that's everywhere and again not to talk about the uh triangular pizza slice here but you know the last scores that we had in the last rankings our middle school did rank higher than Bloomfield and Nutley so put it all on perspective but uh but again I do think that um you know we do have to make more progress here I've always said that and and we'll continue to do that but I appreciate people keep keeping us in check and you know and I and I keep focusing on the idea that if I ever did become Commissioner of Education one day I would definitely change this into a state that only focused on growth of individual students because if you have more than one child at home uh in your family if you have siblings you know that somebody in your family was the best reader and somebody just wasn't right and you all were raised by the same people uh as parents we raise our kids the same way and someone's great math mathematician in your family and someone just isn't right so our kids learn differently too so we're doing the best we can um but that's it progress and we keep talking about it but again uh be careful of all these reports that you see they're great the niche reports and and all that other stuff that everybody looks into because the methodology you could twist really anything right so the methodolog is pretty incredible but that's it thank you thank you can I have a motion to close public participation motion second second all in favor I I any oppos all right good all right so we're going to go on to uh board member reports um this is a portion of the meeting where uh each person gets to speak on items and uh any any specific um going to go ahead and start with um trusty VES okay thank you Mr President and it's great to see everybody here tonight um first off I want to report operations as those of you who were here and those who watched online earlier we did have our first Committee of the whole very interesting time you know the public got to see all the Committees meet together all at one simultaneously in front of everybody live so I think that was definitely an interesting uh situation and I think it's definitely going to be a question for the next board to consider with uh future discussions um so going on about operations uh we did discuss as we did earlier talk about uh the possibility of having an outside sort of structure at the middle school the next two years or so while we were having uh these huge upgrades and modifications and just huge construction to say the least I think that's definitely going to dominate the operations committee going forward uh we also spoke about just overall the progress of the Middle School uh things are moving but we're still at that you know before kind of major headline stage um further uh in talking about um what's G on in the district yes we have seen really incredible strides you know earlier we we just saw another operations committee Staple in the opening of the buccaneer beastro I think this is amazing and just it was so great to see everybody uh everybody was so happy and excited because this is just another EX example of really the Renaissance that's going on at the bille public schools you see time and time again this school district this community is reinvesting in spaces for our children because they are our future and they are worth it okay for many years in the school district you had dilapitated upon dilapitated you had floors that looked terrible you had walls that looked like they were falling apart so I am so glad that in the last few years years the community the board school district has really follow up on its commitment to a truly 21st century education and I think we're seeing that and it was so great and I can't wait uh for everybody in the the coming months when that pizza oven that has been so spoken about is finally operational that uh everyone could have a slice because it's going to be really a great time um so with that I just want to congratulate uh all the awardees of the night and I can not wait for my slice so thank you all so much and have a great night trusty jao thank you Mr President uh congratulations to miss Erin McGary for helping our students and uh saving um a life thank you very much um also congratulations to the students at school number four I wanted to mention that on Friday I attend attended my njsba fall leadership conference and uh they spoke that as a community leaders how can we promote Community engagement in times of uh charged emotions they spoke about um the njsba discussed a firearm safety task force further research and I and how to identify proactive and preventive programs to keep kids families and communities safe there is current ly a task force membership compiled of various trustees in various towns hopefully Beville can also participate they mentioned that average leaders raise the bar for themselves good leaders raise the bar for others great leaders Inspire others to raise the bar for themselves um they spoke about mental health emotional support and social emotional learning um there was a portion about ethical leadership and they said that ethical leadership ship is leadership that is directed by respect for ethical beliefs and values and for the dignity and rights of others uh there spoke about an equity audit I had mentioned this to our superintendent um the equity audit is a leadership tool that informs the process of developing systematic opportunities that promote full participation and access for all students to receive an equitable and excellent education um I wanted to express my report of um myself attending that conference um it was important it's important for me to share it because I personally had suggested that possibly this can look uh be looked into further uh the equity audit um they I spoke to the people there and they said that I could um I know at times we have night school offered in our school district uh for whatever reason to students that are not able to attend during the day I know some of those reasons happen to be Hib or happen to be any other situation or matter um and I wanted to make sure that those students also had access to make sure that they succeed and also have access to the opportunities our other students have to succeed at the end of the day whether our kids graduate with Straight A's straight B's straight C's D's or don't even graduate they are still living in our community they are still part of our community and no child should be left behind they said many times throughout my six years as a trustee and at the end of the day they're going to be partaking in our community and we want to make sure that all students succeed for the betterment of the community itself um many heard me take no part on the bills list item tonight 13.1 on the agenda um last month there was a vote on the agenda to pay rent to the mayor for a property he owns across from school number three I took no part in paying that check last month and I never took part in the original recommendation to rent the property because I knew 3 years ago it was a conflict of interest and now the mayor sued the bille board of education for this payment I hope this doesn't cost the district more money in the future um I also wanted to let the community know that uh I want I wanted to take this time to congratulate um Lisa Masa and Miss PCO I embrace them as a community Community uh leader a mom I wish them the best I hope that um their leadership as powerful women shine I am a woman supporter always um I think that it's important that we have a diverse board and they certainly provide that to our board um I wish them the best I recommend that they take their classes from njsba I did my 61 credits totaling Friday which puts me in an Avenue to my leadership board certification which requires minimum 60 credits so I'm at 61 I obtained my masterboard certification in September after completing 40 credits I really did not know I was close to 60 credits and so I was just shy by three credits so um I definitely encourage you ladies to partake in that because I think it will give you the base and the fundamental to stay strong because at times people will tell you this is wrong this is right don't do this don't do that I've never been a puppet I know you ladies are not and I hope that you stay clear that our children are the main focus and work hard to make sure that they succeed Happy Thanksgiving to everyone and I wish you guys a great holiday trusty Daryl good evening thank you all for coming out tonight and or viewing our our uh meeting online Erin McGary what can I say wow again we are so glad that you are there at those moments and we're able to once again come to an aid of another child's uh Aid you are definitely an invaluable asset to this entire district and we appreciate you greatly uh congratulations to our school number four students that are a large part of the research project done at seen Hall University um I would like to also extend my congratulations to the our trustees elect Dr Liz msaga and Brenda Pacho I am looking forward to working with you in the new year as we bring all our Collective wisdom to this board uh we need to keep the momentum going that has started here over these past few years and we just want to continue to keep going and moving forward uh no no reason to go back at this point we got to keep moving on so I look forward to working with you on this on this Collective Bo as we go into the new year uh to Echo truste Vala's feelings on the enhancements that we've been seeing over the past couple of years I also had the great honor tonight to participate in I think my first ribbon cutting ceremony I haven't been here this my first year uh for the opening of the senior cafeteria and outdoor pizza oven area it's just going to enhance the overall students experience uh something that can only be imagined just a few short years ago and we're starting to see some of the stuff come to fruition and it's awesome and we know that the students are going to be very appreciative of these things moving forward it's going to just become second nature to them and and it's great that we can offer that and have the opportunity to do the to do so um so glad that we're also moving ahead now with our new registration process as this has been a long time coming and we will now be able to make sure that we are teaching only those that are really from Belleville we're not stretching ourselves too thin in the either in the classrooms or space for those that are not really part of our district so it is key and I'm glad that we're starting it in this next year and that by 2024 uh the new school year in 2024 will be there uh so I'm hoping that's going to be be very uh good for us uh as the high school liaison I know we touched already on the Powderpuff game hosted by the HSA which was an awesome experience if you had had a chance to attend it uh looking forward to everything else that planned throughout the end of the year up to including the bringing back of some type of Project Graduation uh activity uh coming at the end of uh uh at the end of the school year so I'm looking forward to that and I'm sure our seniors will be looking forward to that as well uh after that I would like to wish everyone a very safe and enjoyable and very Happy Thanksgiving trusty dtis good evening everyone I just want to say a little something about the re-registration I know it can seem a little overwhelming I know a few years ago when we did it it looked like a huge pain in the butt but I see the importance of it now being on this side um I've been ad advocating for this for a long time now and I'm just so happy to see it happening finally and if anyone needs help doing it please reach out we want to help you we're here to help um I hope many of you had a chance to check out the new senior cafeteria it's beautiful and Happy Thanksgiving everyone see you in December you ready trusty Williams good evening everyone and thank you Mr President it was a memorable evening tonight as we celebrated the grand opening of our state-ofthe-art Belleville beastro and Brick Pizza Oven this event showcased The Innovation and progress happening in our schools I want to extend my gratitude to miss McGary for ensuring the safety of our students congratulations to all the students who participated in Project wild continue using those strategies and interventions to enhance your writing skills next I like to congratulate Dr msaga and Mrs Pacho on their recent Victory and I look forward to working with you both finally as we approach this season of gratitude let us be thankful for what we have and the people in our lives despite all of our challenges we continue to press forward with resilience and we should be grateful for that I wish everyone a happy and healthy Thanksgiving and please get home safely vice president benini yes hi good evening everyone uh I want to thank the um school district and the township for working on the re-registration I know it's taken quite some time to get everything in order but uh we do look forward to seeing this happen and yes if any parents need help please reach out I'm sure every school will be sending that message home um I also wanted to announce which Dr TOMCO you didn't touch base on December 16th the holiday market and Santa sing along that Mrs Diana kellerer has been we're sing so hard on um so remember that date December 16th right here at the high school if you're looking for something fun to do for the holidays um the holiday Mark at Santa singalong from 6:00 to 9 o' uh she's working very very hard on this project uh so is everybody so I'm looking forward to that in December though we're still in November um I was very excited I uh was at the league of municipalities last week on behalf of the township I was asked to present I uh presented for sustainable Jersey Section on Transportation ideas and funding I presented our Middle School crosswalk Safety project crosswalks for a safer Community um I enjoyed it very much I enjoyed making the connections that I did while I was there um pic County doing a lot of the same work we are commend the police department for working on the safe roots to school program they really do step it up with the walk with the cop days the uh bike rodeos the community bike ride and nobody ever really thinks about what that could lead to but we really are putting all of the pieces in place to be able to announce that just Friday uh we did make the deadline for our safe roots to school Grant application for the township of Belleville um so fingers are crossed because we really covered all of our crosswalks around the schools walkability um school zone lighting broken sidewalks everything that might prevent a child or a family from walking to school would be put into place with this infrastructure Grant um grants are very competitive so I'm sure a lot of applications were being submitted around New Jersey but I'm very hopeful that belleville's application with all that we are doing um will hopefully get accepted so everybody out there cross your fingers hard we won't know until mid 2024 uh what that Grant application status is um so that's it for me I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving happy and healthy enjoy the couple of days off um be safe and we'll see you again have a good night well I I would definitely like to uh jump in there real quick and and kind of reiterate a little bit of what Gabby talks about uh right Gabby does not get a lot of credit she's involved not just with the board but she's also does a lot for the municipality and um you know I've never met anybody who gets so wrapped up in so many different things so I thank you um as a as a resident and as a friend who gets to uh watch all the work that you do um so congratulations once again um I want to congratulate Dr lbas as well as uh Miss PCO for their recent win on the board of on the elections uh I welcome you and I'm very excited to see the work that we can all do together um I I you know we really can't be very outspoken during elections and it's it it was was interesting to see so many people step up and and run for this um position um it is not easy um it is definitely rewarding and um you know I personally feel uh a lot of Purpose with with this position so I'm glad to to see you all uh be a part of it and you know to the every other candidate that ran um you know I hope you're not discouraged uh it was great to see so many people step up and try to try to take on this role so um just want to congratulate everyone once again um and I won't board everybody I'll keep it even shorter and say Happy Thanksgiving thank you so much for the time that we've had so far um congratulations to Dr TOMCO and to the administration for having pulled off the beastro and for all the work that was done in the outdoor space as well uh it was cold tonight and it was nice and toasty in there so I appreciate it um you all have a great now and Happy Thanksgiving may I have a motion to close our meeting motion second um all in favor I any opposed