I I don't the New Jersey Public's meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the beler board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place thereof posted With The Star Ledger and The Express Times and submitted to the the town clerk of town of badier on January 19 2024 the meeting will be live streamed at www.bad sd.org flag salute i al to the flag United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation God indivisible Liberty jce for all the mission of the Bader school district is to celebrate our past and Empower our future while focusing on the four cornerstones of our district tradition Excellence academics and Community we strive to build confidence and promote collaboration we encourage an equal partnership with our students and staff as well as its community members we Empower everyone to develop the best version of themselves the beler school district is committed to shaping students into Global Citizens who take initiatives for their success and contribute to the continued Excellence of the district our students are leaders in the decision-making process of their education and will be prepared to excel in the 21st century Society roll call please Mr Akerman Mr Blum Dr zith here Mrs Duckworth here Mrs Gardella here Mr chiarelli here Mrs ratham here Mr Scott here Mrs stepan here Mrs wenner here Mr wner okay committee reports Personnel met any yeah we everybody there was notes out yes no okay anybody see Personnel notes who's the Personnel chair who's on the committee anybody I got there late I forget it was assigned that I'll have to look at look and see but we're going to go into EXA to discuss more on that on person yep on personnel and then next is ad hoc and you met right yep yep yep we had a a meeting it was early in the month so some things have changed so I don't know know if Mr BTO is here to kind of bring us up to speed with some of the things that have occurred over the month um we talked about bringing in an all access card for sporting events and this would be something I think just for students and and parents as well yeah so that we have like a card so this way you don't have to worry about making payments and things like that when you come to the sporting events um we also talked about not charging students for coming to games and seeing how that works because I know currently right now we do charge students to come to the games and we really want to give the um the kids incentive to come so we were we're going to wave those fees and I think an announcement was going to be made this week I guess or next week about that in hopes to um just you know get more people involved in the sporting sporting events here uh again we talked a little bit about getting more kids involved and the upcoming programs um talking with some of the rec programs the last basketball game that I was at they had white Township kids come over and I was also which I think is fantastic and it was a great way for the kids to see The Varsity games and the JV games and the the coaches and and the you know camaraderie with the the students but I did have a question I don't know Brad if you could answer me and this isn't about the Sports ad hoc but I didn't know where where the other towns were like beler and hope girls we had all oh it was cuz I only saw white that's why well because girls on the White okay yeah okay that was at the girls game yeah yeah yeah this was at the boys so that's why I just saw White Township so I was just curious about that kids were I think yeah there might have been games too okay so so that was another way that we were talking about getting some you know more invol involvement from the upand cominging um students into the programs um and we talked a little bit about the Huddle in which we were hoping that we can get that rolled out um at some point too and I know we we've that's been on um the radar with getting that system in place for the winter sports and that would be great for the coaches so we're going to look into some different options with that and I think that was pretty much it we did get a recap on how some of the um sports are going and from what I understand the girls basketball and again this was early in the month so this might have changed I think think at that point they were seated seventh which is you know a great position to be bowling is fourth I think right is that still okay yeah so so it's yeah yep yeah so it's it's going well so we're just going to continue to try to keep you know engagement and get everybody excited and coming out to the events can I ask a question about that um do you know if the coaches um plan on going out to the individual I Mr BTO that that would be a question for you so do you know if um the coaches plan out on going out to the individual schools this spring like they've done previously in the past to try to okay okay and then um are the varsity Awards still on for like so that's pretty much it for the Sports ad hoc meeting any questions no okay we just had Finance I missed most of the the meeting I sh wants to anything noteworthy for everybody sh any questions on that no okay so I need a motion to go into executive session for personnel motion second all in favor I I any nose any exensions okay so any discussion held by the board which not need confidentiality will be made public as soon as practicable minutes of the executive session will not be disclosed until the need for confidentiality no longer exists the board will reconvene in public session at the conclusion of the closed session in approximately 15 20 minutes 15 20 minutes okay good okay so we're open for public participation any public par participation no okay correspondence one letter de beler Board of Education please accept this letter as formal notification of my intention to retire from the Bor School District effective May 31 2024 it is with mixed emotions that I will be leaving my current position as part-time teachers a I would like to thank you and the rest of the staff for the opportunity to work at beler for the past 23 years during my tenure at alad Elementary School I've had the opportunity to grow both personally and professionally I have worked with hundreds of students and staff that have enriched my life and have had countless memory memorable moments that I will cherish as I pursue the next chapter in my life I look forward to keeping in touch as I am sure our paths will cross again sincerely Lin Mata that's it that's all okay so no superintendent report since he is sick we are on to our 2024 teachers and Educational Service Professionals of the Year teacher of the year first we are proudly to announce Mrs cran for the Education Service professional of the Year award at Bel elementary school she has consistently demonstrated an exceptional commitment to the growth and development of our preschoolers Miss kaps possesses a natural affinity for creating a nurturing and stimulating environment fostering the early stages of learning with enthusiasm and Care her ability to connect with young children and support their social and cognitive development is truly commendable Mrs crats goes above and beyond in ensuring a safe and engaging atmosphere where each child feels valued and encouraged to explore her collaboration with Preschool teachers is seamless contributing significantly to the success of our early childhood education program Miss ket's passion for fostering a love of learning and our youngest students makes her an exemplary candidate for this well-deserved recognition congratulations Miss crads next we are honored to announce Mrs Gomez as the teacher of the year her exceptional dedication to the kindergarten class classroom at beler elementary school is superb Miss Gomez creates a nurturing and stimulating environment where young minds flourish she employs Innovative teaching methods that not only impart knowledge but also instead love for learning in these formative years what says M Gomez a part is her deep understanding of early childhood development she tailor her teaching approach to meet the unique needs of each child fostering both academic and social growth beyond the classroom Miss Gomez actively engages with parents creating a collaborative partnership that enhances the overall educational experience Mrs Gomez is a true asset to the school Community congratulations thank you for everything you do for the students of beler Elementary School beler High School's Educational Services professional of the year is Miss bethanne Hendershot Miss Hendershot has demonstrated the type of caring and nurturing demeanor of a truly dedicated school nurse in just a few short years at beler high school she establishes positive working relationships with families students and staff on a continual basis through her successful communication for example emails are sent out almost immediately after conversations with families that warrant the information being shared with the administration or staff one of the most important responsibilities of a school nurse is maintaining confidentiality is especially with having sensitive medical information about students this is something that Miss Hendershot takes seriously and is very much appreciated by all she is not afraid to ask for advice and offer suggestions when it comes to an individual's well-being regardless of whether it is a student or staff member it is a pleasure to work with Miss Hender shot on a regular basis as she is a wonderful asset to our district this year's teacher of the year is Mrs Sarah shavone for beler high school if there is one word that describes Mrs Shone it's selfless just about everything she does is done with the intention of being what is best for the students she works hard to create a classroom environment where all students can find success but you will always observe her helping those students who may be having difficulty with anything for that matter she Begins the school year with her witch costume and demonstrates some simple chemistry experiments to get her students excited about the school year add not okay thank you very much to all here tonight and congratulations on your Awards now we're on to the texpro presentation hello hi Jess so we had the pleasure of going to texo this year and I really appreciated the opportunity to be able to take some of our staff members with us as we do every year uh because it's important for us to get out and kind of see what's out there um I joked with the high school staff today because I said it's nice when you go down and you see all of these great things that are out there and then these vendors are like hounding you because they want you to get their product um but there are some really good things a lot of free things too which is really nice um I presented some information today to the high school staff that seemed relevant um you know to what we do but it was basically about AI because AI is the thing and um we had some main takeaways uh Mrs uh Francis Gino from the Elementary School Mrs Bader from high school elementary school Mr Lee and then Mrs Smith who's not here Mrs ble who's not here tonight they were all with us when we went down so couple of the takeaways that we got from texo this year is that we need to embrace AI because it's here uh but we need to learn more about how to use it effectively with our students so that they can use it responsibly um there were some programs that we already have access to that have some really cool things I know Mrs um Francis Kino used magic school with canva to um do a probabilities presentation with her students is that right probabilities okay um some of the other things that a lot of the uh people were talking about were school policies on on uh acceptable AI use normalizing the ethical use of AI using AI as a thought partner um a lot of them talked about using it as a tutor to help the students um but again I think what we got most out of it is we need to learn how to use it effectively so that we could teach the kids how to really use it the right way um teachers can use it for a lot of different things which is really cool they can create lesson plans create rubrics and if you haven't used AI check it out because it does things in like seconds for you which is really cool um so it's not perfect though which is why we need to look into it it does have its flaws so it's definitely not the last resort to use um but using it testing it out so that you know what um what works and what doesn't is good and then um it does help teachers and students save time so one of the things that I had mentioned to the high school staff is let's figure out how to use it how we can use it effectively and then that way we can Branch out and teach the students how to use it anything else well I used it today um I teach video production at the high school level and we are creating a commercial so I wanted the students to create like a shot list but this for this particular project I said let's create a storyboard and that is if you don't know it's kind of like a visual shot list like you kind of sketch a picture of what the one scene is and then the next scene and the next scene so um we researched some different AI storyboard generators and that saved the students a lot of time so they had a lot more time to do the fun stuff which is like put the product on the pedestal and play with the green screen and start filming they were really excited about it we flew a drone today for a Red Bull commercial had the can flying in the air so you know that part of the process is really important when you're shooting a commercial or any kind of video project um but this just saved them a ton of time for you know the people who aren't the greatest artists in the room or don't really know where to start so this was it's a really great tool for them so I I did mostly cyber security stuff I also did AI um but I also attended a lot of cyber security sessions uh and I also attended a round table with all the other technology coordinators that are in New Jersey so we can just discuss uh anything about e- rate or cyber security and training which is is a big one nowadays um along with insurance for cyber security um we also talked about uh network security as well with vlans and permissions and pushing out uh security updates on the network to segregate a lot of the information that's coming to the network so hopefully it doesn't all communicate with each other um I also talked to some vendors about firewall and VPN that we installed this past summer uh about for for configuration um I also want to mention um we launched our beler app uh couple weeks ago and we we've been testing it and it looks like it's live now so if you want to download it's on the App Store and uh the Google Store it's going to be beler SD as the name um so give it a shot it it it gives you notifications the great thing about it is when we add things to the calendar you'll actually get a notification on your on your phone or your device uh with daily updates and weekly updates so today you would have gotten a notification about the board off the board meeting today um and Sunday you would get a prompt saying here's the summary of this week coming up so it's it's really actually pretty helpful um you will get more notifications of course through the app which is I think our previous app didn't do that um so if you have the previous app as well you can delete that and replace it with the beler SD app um they you will also get notifications there through uh school closings and delays so it's it's it's a it's a pretty good uh app change you'll notice a lot of features on there so and that's that's all I got oh I I do want to mention that uh we will be putting like a splash screen on the website so we'll have like a something anthonette and I will uh pop something on there so it's easy to find if you can't find it I just want to thank the board for allowing us with the opportunity to be able to go down to texo it's nice when we can get out and do these professional workshops so thank Youk okay so now we are on to our student representative report oh okay um so Leo Club went to the Chelsea on a service trip a few days ago and we also had St Luke's Hospital Network come in today to talk about volunteer opportunities um student government is planning our activities for Spring Cup which is coming up in a few weeks and then we're currently celebrating FFA week and today a few of our students had the opportunity to bring in farm animals for other students to come and see and learn more about agriculture and learn about how to properly care for these animals thank you Michaela okay so we are on to Personnel items it's one through three but then there's three a b and c on your um add-ons add-ons thank you I can't think of words tonight all right so can I have a motion for items one through 3C motion second any questions yes just on 3C um for those AIDS are those paid positions or are they volunteer positions those are volunteer positions volunteer okay thank thank you any other questions okay roll call please Mr Akerman yes Dr Ze yes Mrs duck yes gardo yes gelli yes Botham yes Mr Scott yes St yes and Mrs wner yes okay so on to education items 4 through 8 and there is add-ons on your sheet on six and eight can I have a motion for items four through eight motion second any questions no questions all in favor I any NOS any extensions okay on to business items 9 through 12 and then if you flip over your add-on at the bottom is 12 a and 12b for the grant can I have a motion for items 9 through 12b motion second any questions everybody get to look over all that yep okay all in favor I I any nose any extensions okay so that brings us to continuing business does anyone have any continuing business I have my Third Street question but do you have any information on that shell I believe we're still waiting on an updated appraisal now due to the cottage zoning so that we can set a base price okay any clue when that's going to I don't have a timeline okay but I will ask the question again thank you any other continuing business I just have a quick on the website again sure is it possible to get the times of early dismissals and late things it drives me crazy I've asked that before too I asked that seven times maybe eight we have an answer th those are like everywhere like I mean if you go to the main website District website it has all the bell schedule it's called bell schedule so if you look under under under parents there's a bell schedule you'll see it on there it's on the oxa street it's on the high school it's on the district I have never seen it I like when they say it's going to be early dismissal or I I and I have't I haven't broken down to what time the high school gets out what time the Ox Street gets out or or Elementary sorry uh bell schedule bell schedule yeah it's definitely on there CU I know that was a big request and it it totally made sense I just it was just missed when we switched everything over from our Blackboard to the new system um but yeah I definitely made sure and seems like every other school calls it bell schedule so that's what we did as well okay thank you yep when it goes out on the app that there is one can the time just be added there I me uh so we we do uh on the on the calendar we do put like when the school's closed so you will get an app reminder saying hey this coming week you know school will be dismissing for elementary at uh 12:20 and then for the high school at 12:30 so okay yeah yeah if the times can be put on there I think that would they definitely are help everybody because then they don't have to look correct CU originally if it's closed when we do all day but for for half days we made sure to put a time in there so it starts and ends so yeah awesome thank you you're welcome any other I have found it I did look any other continuing business any new business we're that boring know I can't think of anything that's amazing I know I know there's more continuing I just can't remember what it was and I don't have my old notes okay then we are on to public participation our second public participation up to the mic my name is elain MAA um my son is a freshman here at beler high school he is a part of the MD program and it's my understanding that both Miss Cassidy and Miss Black have uh asked to have um a their life skills classroom kind of expanded um to include like light cooking and um you know just really working with the kidss on all different life skills work related social self-care all that type of stuff um I know that there's a grant supposedly that there may be available through um someone who U may be able to get funds from their employer um so I'm just here to speak um on behalf of that um as a child with autism since the day he was two this is you know what's going to happen after high school is the biggest thing for me so um sorry I always get emotional with them but um you know um you know when you're thinking college and marriage and all that stuff our goals are so much smaller than those um it's just life skills being able to clothe himself cook for himself um those are the things these children need so um I know budget every year gets cut there's no doubt we know that um but a grant could help um I've run a PTA for Hope for eight years Mr chze Carelli can tell you about it Mr Barto can tell you all about it I have no problem soliciting I have no problem um donating um getting parents involved um it's what I did for eight years so um I'm just looking to help back them get this you know moving forward because it's a large class um this year and I know she could definitely use the expansion into a bigger room um make it more like a whole Mech type of classroom that we all probably had as children we all had those cooking and basic skills and that's what these children need um so I'm just here to you know help facilitate that get that moving for her um and anything I can do personally the administration anything I'm I'm there to help whatever needs um but I just wanted to bring it to you I'm not sure if this has been brought here yet um I did email the superintendent this weekend I want to respect the chain of command by starting with him um but I do know that there is a time sensitive Grant so I just wanted to come tonight just to speak in support of that great thank you very much thank you any other public participation Mr Barto it's June 5th not June 6th I apologize public service announcement stuff any other public participation no okay can I have a motion to adjourn motion second all in favor I any knows any extensions no okay have a good night thank you everybody for coming thank you can you pull your Finance page back up and I'm going to write down your follow