to order meeting notice statement adequate notice of this meeting of the Berkeley Heights Board of Education was given as required by the open public meetings act as follows on June 4th 2024 notice of the Board of Education meeting schedule was sent to the Star Ledger and The Courier News and was also provided to all schools PTO presidents the bhea president and posted at the administration building a copy was also provided to the public library and filed with the Municipal Court uh sorry clerk please rise for the flag salute States the stands nais and jusice for all Mr secretary roll call Mr Kiri M Bradford here Dr forer Mr Hyman here miss Jolly here miss Conor here miss Stanley um I just would like to explain a little bit about how we're going to order our meeting tonight we're going to be meeting here in the GL cafeteria to open our meeting we're then going to adjourn in a few minutes after we administer the oath of office to Executive session then at around 7 o'clock we are going to go have a brief recess to enjoy some festivities in the IMC library for our celebration tonight then we'll go into the GL Auditorium or at that point I will reopen the meeting to the public session and hand it over to Mr Nixon our Acting Superintendent okay Mr juskowitz administration of the oath of office this point you can you could just stand up okay and what you're going to do is repeat after me okay I Kelly huffnagel do solemnly swear swear or affirm or affirm that I will support that I will support the Constitution of the United States the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution and the constitution of the state of New Jersey of the state of New Jersey and that I will bear and that I will bear true faith true faith and Allegiance and allegiance to the same to the same and to the governments and to the governments established established in the united states in the United States and this state and this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people so help me God so help me God I Kelly huffnagle I Kelly huffnagle do solemnly swear do solemnly swear or affirm or affirm that I possess that I possess the qualifications the qualifications prescribed by law prescribed by law for for the office for the office of a member of a member of a board of of a board of education of a board of education and that I am not disqualified and that I am not disqualified as a voter as a voter pursu pursuant to pursuant to RS RS 14 colon 4-1 oh I'm sorry 19 I'm sorry 194 D1 I'm a little dyslexic right now no words nor disqualified nor disqualified do due to conviction due to conviction of a crime of a crime or offense or offense listed in listed in njs njs 18a 18a colon colon 12-1 12-1 got that one right and that I will faithfully and that I will faithfully impartially impartially and justly and justly perform all duties perform all duties of that office of that office according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability so help me God so help me God congratulations thank you and best of luck I just want to also uh note during the report of the Acting Superintendent that um Miss dipy kanana will be working with uh um Mr Nixon uh to talk to the representatives of the Board of Education and Mr Jordan Heyman will be there for the recognition of board member Angela Penna Miss Natasha Jolly will be there for the educator of the Year recognitions and Mr Tom forer will be there for the resignation sorry recognation recognation recognition of District retirees thank you adjourn to Executive session whereas the Berkeley Heights Board of Education seeks to adjourn to Executive session in full compliance with the open public meetings Act njsa 10 call 4-6 whereas the open public meetings act provides that a public body May exclude the public from the portion of the meeting at which it discusses matters related to those identified below matters rendered confidential by federal law state law or Court law individual privacy collective bargaining agreements purchase or lease of real property if public interests could be adversely affected investment of public funds if public interest could be adversely affected tactics or techniques utilized in protecting Public Safety property pending or anticipated litigation attorney client privilege Personnel employment matters affecting specific perspective or current employees be it resolved that the Berkeley Heights Board of Education adjourns to Executive session to discuss matters related to students personnel and attorney client Privileges and be it further resolved that the minutes of the discussion of any of these items will be disclosed to the public when matters have been determined and confidentiality is is no longer applicable may I have a motion to enter into executive session so moved Mrs Conor moved seconded Mrs Jolly seconded all in favor I opposed extensions okay we will we will go to Executive session I'm from Recess at this point uh we're going to go to the report of the no sorry yes report of the Acting Superintendent continued thank you very much and for the last portion of the report of the Acting Superintendent tonight uh I would like to welcome up Dr Kelly Curtis and Alysa Rush uh to present uh 6 through2 uh from the 6 through2 mathematics Department uh with an update for the Board of Education great thank you very much um first I just want to say what a privilege it is to be here tonight and to follow all of those amazing recognitions that we just saw um so I'm I'm here to really first also thank Miss Lissa rush because we've been working very closely since day one on taking a look at um the needs of all of our students in the area of mathematics so to get started um the purpose of this presentation tonight is to really share out and address the feedback that we have gathered from all sters since we've started this school year we've talked to parents students teachers PTO Representatives Board of Ed members School administrators um we've reviewed State assessment reports we've observed classrooms um and we've really taken a lot in and some of the feedback I will share has been um not easy to here and sharing that with you tonight also will not be easy to talk about um but I really believe it's important that that feedback is acknowledged because that is what has formed our plan for moving forward and our goal is to move forward in a very positive and supportive way for all of our students and teachers and the community okay so there are some key themes that came out of um all of this feedback the First theme is really the biggest theme is trust and the need to rebuild trust amongst all Stak stakeholders in the community um balancing technology and instructional delivery working on Collective teacher efficacy and supporting students and promoting their well-being so the first item is really the need to repair relationships in the mathematics Department with the community um a lot of the feedback from everyone has had an expression of a loss of faith in the instructional program in mathematics since um postco really with the implementation of building thinking classrooms um specifically with really teachers expressing the need for training and stakeholders students and parents expressing um a need for consistency and implementation and also training so part of that I think is really an ongoing theme across the board which was one of our board goals is that transparent communication so using transparent Comm communication also is a way of repairing those relationships here sure uh the next piece of feedback that we received from many uh areas was that since covid that Pendulum In the instructional delivery has gone really uh to one side with a significant amount of dependence on digital technology and um specifically in math and over Reliance of online resources um a lack of tangible resources and the overuse of Delta math um I know Miss Rush can speak specifically to how some of those challenges apply to our special needs students yes and so finding this balance between the use of technology and instruction delivery with the over Reliance on one particular technology Source or material as we know it doesn't always meet the range of learner needs that we have in the classroom um and sometimes they don't necessarily have the adaptability that some of our Learners require with accommodations and modifications as per their IEPs so that's why we are looking And discussing how to find the balance in utilizing some of these resources while also ensuring that students are getting um the range of materials or resources that they require and then in addition to to that there's been a lot of feedback on balancing the amount of direct instruction provided in the classro with the collaborative group inquiry strategies that have been really prominent with the building thinking classrooms okay um so with that this is probably some of the most vocal feedback we received is this desire for consistency consistency amongst teachers specifically in the classroom with grading policies um assessment policies and then the process of providing constructive feedback to students so that students can use that feedback and take action on it in terms of learning from correcting errors that they might have misconceptions that they might have prior to any high stakes assessments um and along with that there's also been a lot of discussion with the technology and consistency about really needing the support in terms of student accountability and their uh efficacy in the classroom um the in the math classroom there's been a lot of challenges with technology on the teacher side and holding students accountable able using uh Ai and apps like math type and things like that that sort of make the learning of math out of students hands because those kinds of things just do the math for them and it's really um made that idea of of balancing that very difficult for teachers so addressing that as well is something that we need so we have two images on this slide that I want to explain a little bit and we're going to talk more about this with our plan mve moving forward but there is a researcher by the name of John hadti that has published well over 40 books well over 75 articles has been um an educational researcher for a very long time and his biggest piece of research has been a compilation of um over 200 or 2,000 different meta analyses of the types of instructional practic that truly impact student achievement and if you look at those it might be a little hard to see from here um but Collective teacher efficacy which is really that combined effort of all teachers so for me the mathematics department and including the special education teachers that combined effort really has a very high ability to positively impact student achievement so so as we move forward with our plan I'm going to talk really a lot about making sure that our teachers are working as a collective group to support each other and to support our students in the classroom all right so we know in our classrooms we have a range of learner needs and so the Forefront of this uh plan is really the collaboration and how we're going to as a team support students the range of the the needs that they have and their well-being and success um academically socially throughout the classroom and when we look at instructional practices we are looking at differentiation um and forward planning and Universal Design as a goal of not only focusing on Intervention but also enriching um and enrichment for our students and again this is no easy feet right we have multiple fees in the classroom we have a range of learner needs that we're addressing and so in looking at this we are um looking at how we can support Educators to not only continue to expand their understanding of diverse learner needs but how to effectively address these needs in the General Ed setting with the appropriate supports that students are entitled to and I think um in addition to that and this ties back to that that first theme of trust and repairing relationships um is that in the community and in the feedback that we've received it's clear that um over the past few years prior to us joining and even this year that there the climate around mathematics has has not been the best and it's really important that we work to uplift the mathematics climate um and that takes the community as a whole it takes good leadership which I truly believe Alyssa and I can do um it takes really strong support of teachers in terms of providing them what they need in terms of professional development and um it really needs to come from us the administration from the Board of Ed and the parent Community okay so with that said um moving forward there one of our goals is to really truly engage parents and address their concerns and um we've done that so far through the Board of Ed curriculum committee meetings PTO curriculum committee meetings and the immediate feedback we've gotten from that is really great appreciation for that opportunity for them to share that information with us and and appreciation for real conversations about what's going on in mathematics in the classroom um and teachers are excited and ready for the professional development opportunities they really want that support So moving forward we really want to turn our dialogue into positive supportive conversations for all involved so with that said here is the professional development proposal that I have shared with the curriculum committees um with Mr or Dr jordano and Mr Nixon at all of the meetings and this is just the first step towards moving in the right direction math educa education as a whole is very complicated multifaceted um so this is just one part of it okay that professional development plan for next for the upcoming school year includes working with um the first educational resources consulting firm I've worked with this firm in my past district for the past four years they were an excellent firm I'm very familiar with what they do and the positive impact that they had on my last District so what this firm will do is come in along and work with us to facilitate two full day teacher trainings with followup parent universities for parents to come in and really experience what our expectations will be in the classroom then in addition to that the we will have monthly my monthly math department meetings will be dedicated to followup professional development which would be five different additional meetings then we're going to continue with some of the collaborative planning release time if you want to share about that yes so we we um have started in the past with providing optional macr planning sessions for general education and special education teachers to come together look at the the needs of the students and take that into account with planning so teachers have shared the value in that and the time that they have to really collaborate and design instruction around the needs of their students so in looking at um the math proposal here this is really used as a way for teachers to come together reinforce what they've learned and taken away some of their trainings and Infuse this into the instructional planning and that's really significant and intensive training that the teachers have not had since preco um so for that first year that training is for everyone in the department by the end of the year we will evaluate where we stand and move forward for the 25 26 school year and Beyond on target Ted training so we will differentiate just like we'd expect our teachers to do for students we will then differentiate that training based off of the teachers's needs okay so what will that training include so this is another image um from Dr John Hattie's research and I think it explains a little bit more about what I mean about the practices that positively impact student achievement so he's compiled thousands and thousands of different pieces of research and created what he calls a barometer of influence and has um put qual quantitative data scores called an effect score to each of those strategies and students are born to grow that's what they're expected to do kids grow regardless of what we do but there are things that we can do that will positively impact their achievement and he's identified that score point4 is the pivot point of where what we do can go beyond their natural growth so all of these things that I have listed here um in terms of instructional strategies that our training will focus on all fall above that point4 scale so we will be focusing on how to craft effective direct instruction and many lessons in the classroom um how to create create tasks that um really support student engaging in the classroom and how to successfully go beyond that traditional approach to teaching how they can build conceptual understanding how they can foster environments that support discourse problem solving risk-taking and inquiry uh how they can pose high quality purposeful questions how they can master and enrich learning through small group instruction again going back to um some of the things about building thinking classrooms that is a piece that is missing in building thinking classrooms is that targeted small group instruction that teachers provide within the classroom um in addition to that feedback effective feedback used for learning is probably one of the most effective strategies that you can use in the classroom so we'll be focusing on that planning meaningful activities targeted learning that addresses specific needs and then of course implementing how to implement successfully student accommodations modifications and specifically designed instruction yeah especially designed instruction within that framework right that is um an important piece of this okay so um of course when when you have something as big is this where you're trying to impact change um it's important to know that real true change does take time and takes effort and takes support and that support includes financial support so there is a budget that does go along with this proposal um the cost for everything from the consultant totals $15,000 which does include the two full day inperson sessions the follow-up parent University sessions and the five 1hour follow-up sessions in addition to that it's important that we provide as many professional resources to teachers as possible so there was an additional $2,500 in that budget proposal to provide teachers with that material this does not address student textbooks that's something that will come in the future um but just know that that could be another additional large investment um so the total proposed cost for this professional development plan is 17,500 and in our meetings with um the Board of Ed curriculum and PTO curriculum committee we talked about where that money could come from and it was shared with me that we could potentially use the title 2 Funds um Mr nickon and I discussed that as well and we'll be working with uh the ba to make sure that we have that money available okay so again thank you um so my hope is is now that we have taken this feedback in we have acknowledged that feedback that we can now move forward as a whole as a collective group to support this work to support our students and to support our teachers thank you thank you Dr Curtis and Miss Rush are there any questions from the board I think I saw Mrs uh Air's hand first oh okay sorry Mrs cona I want to start off saying U thank you for actually presenting this uh message back to the board and it's a tough one I also will admit it's it's it's not surprising it it reflects things that we have individually heard from parents um perhaps experienced ourselves as as parents so I appreciate you taking the time to actually bring the message back to the board uh I just have a couple of questions to understand one what is the time frame that you have in mind for this uh professional development between now and uh you know start of school School it'll help to understand the time frame the second question I have is as you look at how do teachers take you know a more uniform approach where students are irrespective of the teacher receiving instruction in a in a uniform manner are you thinking that there will be a little bit more guardrails guidelines for how any teaching methodology or a program gets rolled out to you do you feel like there is going to be a little bit more of a prescriptive approach going forward than it was in the past uh and the last and third question as a parent somebody who's listening to this right now the question in my mind is what can I expect to change in my students classroom in their experience so any information that you can kind of share would be helpful thank you sure I might have to ask you to remind me of some of your questions sure but the first question in terms of the timeline um Miss rush and I are definitely going to be working over this summer to really make sure um once this proposal and um the contract with the consultant and the budget is approved working to first um put that in place and then uh build some um all teachers have to do a professional development plan where they set their goals so we have a draft of a goal that we plan to provide to teachers um and that goal is connected to um really evidence-based reasons of why that goal is going to be important for our all of our teachers to work towards it will be connected um and supported by the Danielson rubric um we will be in classrooms observing on a regular basis for both evaluative and non-evaluative reasons to make sure that we see the training being implemented um and in terms of timeline we plan on starting right away um part of The Proposal included that timeline which would be that first full day would be the second day in August where all teachers are in and receiving that training so we plan on starting it right at the beginning um P finding time for PD is a challenge with the calendar uh so that's why my department meetings will be dedicated to follow-up sessions so really the cycle will be a full day of training in August followup sessions at my department meetings then release time for teachers to work together to collaborate and plan for implementation and then the next full day with the follow-up parent session will be the February I believe it's February 14th PD day that's in the calendar and then that cycle restarts with follow-up sessions um release time and then of course as I said before we will be in the classrooms all year long doing that um the yeah and this this what I shared with you tonight those specifics is just year one a really true effective plan is minimum three-year plan so when you look at what we have now and then presented to you that's for year one it doesn't make sense to present you a year two plan without knowing where we stand at the end of the year so at the end of the year we will re-evaluate where everyone is at and then make an additional plan for the following years based off of those needs that we identify and feedback from staff and feedback from staff um you can you remind me of the second question the second question was is there going to be a bit more prescriptive approach in rolling out a methodology like BTC perhaps not as much done in the past do you see that changing in the future I think my prescription is research-based best practices and that's what that training will be focusing on so will I be adopting a book for teachers to follow absolutely not I will be making sure that what I know as a leader in math education what I know that works and what's proven by research from multiple researchers not just one researcher is what we're moving forward with okay and then um the third question was parent what so just parents listening to this what can they expect to experience or change or um see it you know some shift in the way that children are learning yeah so I think the biggest shift that I hope to see in the classroom and what students and parents will see is um that Bal bance of direct instruction where teachers are providing that direct instruction along with collaborative student group work and inquiry but also intervention and enrichment provided within the classroom I I didn't specifically point that out in the slideshow but one of the things that I've observed when students need extra help or um enrichment there which is great to have the unit lunch but most students are asked to come see me during lunch and that intervention isn't necessarily always happening during class time so my hope and goal would be that through that small group instruction training that teachers begin to understand how they can use class time to provide that type of an intervention thank okay to jump off that as well I think when I'm thinking about special ed in the mathematics classroom it's students getting what they need to be successful and access the curriculum and that made may look different for all of our Learners or for different groups of learners but again the the purpose being very purposeful strategic rooted in the understanding of the student and the way they interact with the material and having that feedback be Al live source for them to internalize and continue to utilize in the way they move forward in the classroom Mrs Ziri thank you for the presentation and and um I'll EO some of the same U sentiment that dipti said that acknowledging these concerns um from various um sources is important um my first question is you did acknowledge that you want to move away from being more reliant on technology and Delta map and you won't focus on Direct instruction [Music] so having the proposal for a multi-year thing is great but what can we do or learn from other districts that have successfully embraced BTC I think one of the thing um one of the feedback that we've got is can we as a district prescribe and say in a math class from 6 to 12 there will be 75% traditional instruction and then or what is is your take like what does the research tell you and from a collaborative consultative model this is my second question and as a parent of um somebody with an IEP I would ask um having these whiteboards and giving multiple questions and assigning them as groups is great but the feedback that I I'm sure you have heard is these classrooms get very noisy sometimes because you've have multiple children you are asking them to collaborate and as a parent I feel like sometimes you're asking students you're assigning them six problems and saying take two each so are you effectively asking a student to solve this problem and explain it to their friend in this collaborative model but what if a special ed student doesn't get it and now we do not have have integrated classroom so you do not have a dedicated special ed teacher for the entire length of the classroom so how are you catching those gaps or are children falling through the cracks sure that's that there's a lot in that question and I'm going to do my best to address it um one thing I will I want feel like I need to address right away is the idea of traditional direct instruction being 75% um that is not a recommendation I would make um because now you're you're there's a difference between direct instruction and traditional lecture and if you have a teacher in front of the classroom that's standing in front of the classroom for 75% of the time you're getting into that lecture structure and if you go back to um this barometer of research-based instructional practices and I I don't have that in here but I have the resource you can look it up traditional lecture styled instruction actually negatively impacts student achievement because the students or who's learning the person that's learning is the person that's doing the thinking and doing the work so if the teacher is in front of the classroom and is the sole person or 75% of the time doing the work and doing the thinking that's not going to improve our student achievement and that's why thing that I want to talk about um just a little bit with that as well is because another part of this feedback that I that has not been included in here is talking about our state assessment scores and our school rankings and we definitely do not want that pendulum of too much of one thing swinging completely to the other side and being too much of the other so yes we need to have direct instruction in the classroom but it should definitely not be 75% of classroom time um and in terms of dealing with students that need that extra support and the special needs in the classroom when they're doing collaborative group work that is actually the time in which teachers would Implement small group instruction or small group intervention and that's for all students whether they're special needs um with a 504 and IEP accommodation plan but it's really important that teachers know how to use formative assessment data to really know their students and who they are in terms of mathematical Learners and using that data to proactively plan for those interventions and that's the piece that I mentioned before that is missing in building thinking classrooms is that that proactively planned small group instruction and feedback time so that that is a piece that they will be provided training on in this plan um and I just want to really I know we want change and we want it now but that was the mistake that was made with building thinking classrooms is teachers from what I've been told teachers were uh given the book to read over the summer and were told they were expected to implement it in the fall some teachers did it and did it well some teachers really need that training and support and if I were to do the same thing then this wouldn't be successful we'll have that same issue all over again so it's really important that we understand that this takes time it takes effort and teachers need to know that it's okay to start small and move forward in a positive way so that I don't get push back or I don't get teachers that get frustrated or students that get frustrated or things like that so um it is a it is a multi-year multi-year goal so um when I said 75% it was based on one of the neighboring districts that has this but my question was would you recommend when you said you want to go for a more uniform approach and this is one of the concern like are all teachers in grade 6 to 12 instructing in a uniform fashion so what is your guidance I I understand this consultant multi-year plan but what's our reality right now the current state is we have rolled out BTC and let's not harp on the past what has happened has happened and you you have the concerns we know the results what is it that you're going to do differently in addition to this consultant come 2024 2025 year you said that um student textbooks you want to move away from technology and um you will consider student textbooks in future so what's the future date are next year students going to get student textbooks because I did see in our budget line item that we had money budgeted for textbooks so would you make a recommendation during the summer that starting 2024 2025 students will have access to textbooks then can I can I pause you so I can address that um no it will not be for 2425 that's not budgetary it's not possible in the budget to if you're interested in and moving forward with looking at textbooks or online textbook resources through 6 through 12 you're looking at a minimum of $500,000 or more it's a significant investment that um is not included in the budget for 2425 if you know I wasn't here in the fall we develop our budget proposals in the fall of the the school year for the next school year so if that's something that's the direction we're looking to go I would work on collecting that information and making a budget proposal this fall for the 25 26 school year and um it's a significant amount of money so we would have to have conversations about what does that roll out look like and you know I know we like numbers and I know we like hard data and hard uh lines for for people but that's not human behavior so it's not appropriate for me to say that all of my math classes grades 6 through 12 will spend this percent on Direct instruction because that's not responsive to student needs teachers need to be able to respond to student needs which means if in this particular unit on this particular day the class needs more direct instruction then the teacher needs to be able to provide that or if on this day in this particular unit the students need to have more practice time then the teacher needs to have the ability to make that decision but those decisions need to be based off their data and evidence that they're collecting on student performance through formative assessment so that is not something that that I would be comfortable in doing at all so if I hear you um we had two years of BTC so somebody who started sixth grade in 2023 20 no 2022 2023 year and they've had two years of BTC so next year is going to be this pilot or proof of concept of moving away from it so basically those three years in Middle School you are aware of the concerns but we cannot do something short-term what is a short-term thing that we can do I agree money is not budgeted for the textbooks but what is it in the short term that you can do for next school year which is this professional development proposal letting teachers know that they can begin to implement and take small steps so that we ensure that it's successful and I can tell you there's not a single class in the school district that's full on BTC okay it it doesn't exist teachers are doing parts of it they're doing the parts that they felt worked best for their classroom and I will share with you that some of these things that I'm talking about are a part of building thinking classrooms because there are best practices in that and when I spoke and I will I do want to go back to that feedback is that the feedback I gathered from all of the parents and the PTO and everyone that I talked about the overwhelming message was that they weren't so much against building thinking classrooms but that they felt that the teachers needed the support and the training on how to best implement the strategies which is why we are going with this focus on professional development and I just really caution you with this idea of saying that we all have to make this huge change in one year because it will not be successful we need to be able to start small we need to be able to give teachers time to adjust and students time to adjust to what they're used to thank you Dr Curtis and Miss rush I have one followup question Mrs is it quick because we could email yeah um so this first educational resources um it's a multi-year plan and you are planning on using some of the title two so the same title two funds can we get maybe not a textbook for every student have we explored that possibility so title two funds aren't for textbooks title two funds is for supporting teachers and academic needs in programs connected to meeting the needs of students okay I'll follow up my other questions I'll send them to you as an email thank you Mr Nixon anything else no okay we will move on to report of the super sorry student Representatives hello everyone as we just heard in the auditorium a huge congratulations to the governor Livingston baseball team as the group defeated past C Valley in the final round of the group two state tournament 3 to nothing Junior matd disin was the highlight of the game tossing a complete Game shutout while recording 10 strikeouts thank you good evening throughout the month of June G has been celebrating lgbtq pride month with different activities sales outside of the cafeteria and parties with the Saga Club as well as faculty spirit days finals for G students will be completed on Wednesday June 10th 10 marking the final two days before graduation graduation will be held on Friday after school weather permitting after the ceremony graduates will have a couple of hours to celebrate with family before arriving back at GL for Project Graduation which is a much anticipated tradition for seniors congratulations to the class of 2024 thank you and have a great summer okay thank you Olivia and Jake you can leave when you need to leave uh committee and Le on reports an update on board goals the board the board continues to refine and standardize our committee meetings our second goal the board is continuing to Pilot remote participation at tonight's board meeting with Visual and auditory auditory participation uh the board is continuing the evaluation of the former superintendent and the deadline is July 1st um the board has given input into the budget process as to our professional development the board president met with our newest member Mrs huffnagel and updated her on the requirements for board training in terms of the Veterans Affair committee the liaison the Veterans Affair committee met on Wednesday June 5th to elect a new president and to review the events of Memorial Day the Town Council liaison the Town Council meets tomorrow night uh this evening they had the pride month flag raising that was held uh today B oh is it tomorrow oh okay thank you thank you Mrs poke uh the Berkeley Heights educ ucation Foundation met on Tuesday June 4th there were concerns expressed about e scooter safety this summer The bhf voted to donate ice pops to accompany a video that the Berkeley Heights Police Department is creating on safety the video will be shared in the district on Wednesday June 12th the bhef submitted their very generous Gifts of over 13,000 to our school district which will be looked at at our next meeting this concludes my liaison reports are there any other committee or liaison reports I have yes Mrs Conor um so this is the report from the Union County Educational Services Commission meeting uh they had a meeting on June 5th uh somewhat similar to the agenda that we had today they recognized the the folks that were retiring from the district uh after many many years of service uh they also had uh their reorg meeting so pretty much like the way we had ours in January they had a reorg meeting they chose uh the new president the new vice president uh and the board of directors uh as well as re um sort of reconfirm the representative assembly uh of all the towns uh in the in the meeting uh and just on aside the chocolates again are provided by the students at Westlake School who use this as a opportunity to learn kitchen skills and monetary skills um Mrs Jolly thank you um not so much a um committee update but it was wonderful to be at the CMS Awards um night um I wasn't able to make it to the high school Awards but um you know sometimes you forget how little they are when yours get bigger so it was really wonderful to see all the great achievements it was great and GL was great also such accomplishments that we have here we really need to celebrate any other okay uh board Communications Mr secretary I just have one one is a uh it's from a uh Miss Ashley col GL French teacher is a dismissal of a Hib in my personal experience that's the only one I have thank you we'll move to comments from the public on agenda items I also for some reason this wasn't on here is the report of the of my report oh I'm sorry Mr your secretary um at GL we had a new air conditioner was installed in the art room Mary Kay there was uh wood chips were G begun to be spread um and work was completed at on 67 uh call for a utility dig out uh was made to install a new interactive playground sign for the upper playground Mountain Park playground wood chips have been spread around the playground and that that has been completed roof repairs were also completed there maintenance department was able to assist contractor to fix the ongoing issue with power supplies to the fans used playground wood ships were also spread throughout the playgrounds there and that has been completed William Woodruff playground chips also been spread throughout the playground that has been completed there uh Columbia Middle School uh Building Maintenance system for HVAC was not working properly has found that there was a spliced wire which was has cut off communication not allowing the program to run properly has now been fixed and is in good working order Fire Company installed a new beam detector in the Gold Gym this allows the alarm to go off when smoke breaks the beam District y we had a temporary transfer of the head custodian from CMS to assist at Mountain uh Mary a new interim uh interim head custodian was assigned to oversee custodial operations at CMS a winner of the New Jersey school buildings and grounds central tractor scholarship was chosen from Governor Livingston and the scholarship was $1,000 graduation preparation was underway and all tasks have been completed custodians are ready with their team with their team members lighting projects for over two years of research and meetings would have arrived iy of vendors uh the Berkeley Heights Boe has taken a massive step toward continuing the goal of becoming more en uh environmentally green a final vendor was chosen based on several meetings and inputs from maintenance department to find the right LED lighting program that fits our needs we will be implementing a program to install over 400 plus lights in two sizes for uh for all six of our schools this project would cost over $22,000 however in working with the lighting p partner we're able to utilize a program with instant rebates this will save districts of thousands of dollars um I think the uh actual cost would be $199,600 the savings will not only provide savings on the actual cost of the bulbs but on a lighting of the ballast manh hours maintenance and overall cost to our electric bill uh I believe the bulbs there was a count of 1,628 bulbs I believe that savings would be $1 14,522 76 with the bulb savings ballast that wouldn't have to be purchased that cost would be $1 4,231 44 uh this is the first stage of what we hope would be many more upgrades to our lighting system with our new uh LED lights will be providing safer efficient and even lighting for our students staff and all those who enter our building lastly we have a new a new company was hired to perform our esus inspections going forward and that concludes my business administrator report thank you uh comments from the public on agenda items during this portion of the meeting District residents and staff are invited to address the board of education on agenda action items only the board requests that individuals State their name town of residence or School of attendance for the record all comments should be directed to the board president and depending upon the nature and complexity of the question it may or may not be answered during the meeting by the administration if so the response would occur after the public portion of the meeting has concluded although the board may not respond to all items raised during the public forum all public comments will be considered the board ask that members of the public be courteous and mindful of the rights of other individuals when speaking specifically the comments regarding the Personnel matters are discouraged and cannot be responded to by the board students and employees have specific legal rights afforded by the law of New Jersey the board Bears no responsibility nor will it be liable for any comments made by members of the public please note that if any member of the public becomes disruptive during the meeting the board president May terminate the participant statement continued disruptions may result in removal from or adjournment of the meeting we will will take public comments first then we will move to our Zoom each speaker statement will be limited to 3 minutes in duration hi Debbie chero um first of all I just want to say I love this time of year because we're honoring our students in the district so thank you all for uh making sure you acknowledge our kids um tonight was amazing that we were able to honor the Educators in the district and celebrating them for all they do of of course all these awards are welld deserving as well as some of the teachers that haven't been acknowledged tonight because they are all great Educators so thank you I know that Miss Bradford actually mentioned this before so I just wanted to touch on this um because I want the community to be aware um Berkeley Heights um announced today on the Berkeley Heights website um regarding the E Rider safety campaign um regarding the children's safety on the roads this summer I want to thank Dr I mean Miss Bradford and Mr Nixon um specifically for um exped expedience responding to ensure that the number one priority of our children and their safety you both along with the Berkeley Heights Police Department in the township were instrumental in collaborating to make that happen so thank you very much for putting our kids first anyone else in person Mr Marx do we have anybody online okay Mr mcz you have a comment for this evening Mr muez you have a comment for this evening Mr mcz do you have a comment for this evening okay thank you can you hear me now yes we can hear you Mr MZ you're I was like talking for two minutes hi uh which you know probably you didn't want to hear anyway uh John MZ Berkeley Heist New Jersey I thought the two speakers did an excellent job um it was probably it was really nice to hear uh folks from the district um validating parental concerns but also kind of asserting themselves it was just a nice respectful straightforward uh noons presentation I just had two questions because I'm not too familiar with this obviously is is the is this model is it a model or is it a collection of practices you know that's that's the first thing like is it sort of this eclectic pool that teachers are going to be traded on and pull uh uh evaluated on or is it like this sort of um model that you know someone's going to follow and then the second question I guess I have it feels a little underfunded I it just feels that way intuitively and I just I wonder how is Fidelity going to be maintained like how are we going to be how are teachers going to be supported and evaluated because I think one of the best biggest things to system change is sort of this feedback loop um and you you know if it's not a model how and it's it's a bunch of these like eclectic practices how is Fidelity to that determined and I guess because this is a starting point those are my two big questions or main questions I'm sorry I don't know if they're big but they're main questions thank you I see no other um participants on Zoom at this time um Mr Nixon can you address anything I think we can share both of those questions uh with Dr Curtis and Miss Rush uh just to kind of get their feedback specifically I know from what uh Dr Curtis said um it's based upon um research-based best practices um so it was he was asked was it a specific model or a set of a set of practices um but we can get both of these questions to them and have them give a little bit more clear specifics thank you so Mr MZ we will get back to you on that moving on now to Administration resolutions a through n all board members may I have a motion for the resolution so moved so moved by Mrs Jolly second second Mrs Conor any discussion I do have a question on D um authorized Personnel start dates between board meetings the last part of the resolution is any such action shall be presented to the board for approval at their next regular meeting um would it be better to just be next meeting special or regular without making that distinction would that be faster to get to that approval I didn't I didn't make the resolution or a suggestion I can't answer that um yeah I mean I would imagine that that that would be quicker I'm assuming this is the common language this is something this is language that's on the agenda for an approval each year um so typically it is the next regular meeting we do have a lot of special meetings coming up so if if business can be um conducted at those meetings based upon you know how many board members we have available and what and what topics can be covered at that meeting because I know some of them are special meetings related to the superintendent search um so if possible sure certainly um I have a followup this is for the whole of next school year right this resolution is not just for summer for the whole year so I think um we need to have that as the next board meeting if we can make an amendment to that resolution if you're fine with it because if this is going from now in June till next next um July or June we would want to I think superintendent search will be done by hopefully by January so I'm hoping uh we can amend the resolution if that's okay with you Mr Nixon just to change Mr dler so no issues leg from that just reminder with your special meetings you just have to make sure that they are advertised accordingly tocl that on there because sometimes special meetings they're not advertised that then notify the public so basically any special meetings uh on the calendar for next year needs to say formal action may be taken if we are approving anything that that's not the case it's normally and as I've stated before anytime I have to advertise for a meeting I have to include what we're going to be speaking about okay so if this resolution changes to the next board meeting then maybe we can effectively put like a disclaimer goes to all special meetings you just have to add your special meeting advertis subject special meeting okay do we want to uh do the amendment on this resolution D now yes okay do we have a motion to amend resolution D motion to amend resolution d uh to be to change to next meeting so just yeah remove the word regular do I have a second yes I'll second it uh roll call vote Miss Connor yes Mr Kiri yes Dr forer yes Mr Hyman yes Miss Jolly yes Miss Stanley no Miss Bradford yes we have KY yep I'm Crossing out names on my little sidebar here hold on one second um hold on H Nagle Miss huffnagle yes motion passes okay then we'll continue on resolutions a through n we have a motion wait wait we have to do the vote for now that was just the amendment now we have to go back and do the roll call for the for the the rest right okay roll call for Resolutions a through n under Administration uh Miss charie yes Miss Conor yes Mr Ki it's a yes to all I'm abstaining on B and K and L because we haven't seen these K&L um manuals yet so yes to all abstain on B K as in Kanas L as in Larry thank you Dr forer um abstain on B K and L A yes to the rest of them Mr Hyman uh yes to all accept abstaining on uh the two NL so under B it's 26499 and 26516 these two okay so you're abstaining on those correct otherwise yes toall okay so that was 264 I'm just going to put the last two okay last two Mrs Jolly oh I'm sorry I have you already okay Mrs Stanley no to C and D yes to the rest Miss huffnagle abstain from B yes to the rest Miss Bradford yes to all okay so we have one two we have three exensions two and three I'm GNA uh Mr dla might need a little hand here because we had this issue the last time I just want to make sure we have these correct uh I believe that with out of the two extensions definitely the first case there's one two three there will be four now do we have we go to one two three four members that are voting that first case now becomes fails uh with number B under Administration with the hip case because we have the first case we have four members that have abstained and we have that is correct so we have four members that have abstained on that one all right we have four members that have passed that case now becomes aome this is the second time and I just want to make sure that I'm correct so we take out our extensions then it should pass can you just clarify the four who are the four abstentions you're talking about the first case far left right yes four cases who were the four Obion it it would it would pass and then the rest of them would pass as well I just want to ensure that right just want to clarify right I'm only abstaining to two of those three yes I I'm I'm I'm going by the first and the rest would all pass I'm just want to make sure that it's it's four four extensions just on the first one and then that would mean the other two cases then would then would definitely pass yeah if I can jump in and help it's yep on the GL vote there's five yeses zero NOS three extensions correct yes I'm I'm just concerned about that the second two are four yeses zero NOS four abstentions okay so you're not even though it says all board members you're consider yourself not eligible to vote that correct and that drops you down I minimum that's correct they they they all passed that's that's what I thought and I just wanted to make sure that so Mo motion passes on on all Le Mr secretary may I proceed yes thank you education resolutions a through L all board members may I have a motion so moved Mr Heyman moved a second I'll I'll second Mrs Ziri a second discussion Mrs Doan so I had a question um about Item B so um I know that we uh in previous you know last year um we had educere on as a company as well and they provide a virtual services and I think in curriculum committee we had um been presented with proximity learning to take out Eder but we never got Clarity on pricing so it was never put forth so I don't see Edis there here or there was one other company that we contracted with last year for virtual instruction so I'm just kind of curious where does that leave us with respect to Virtual instruction we still have one meeting coming up uh June 20th so we some items we've that we're working on we've moved to that agenda thank you Mrs Stanley so I just wanted to thank the bhea for working with us on the sidebar agreement for summer curriculum writing I think it's really important for our district and I really want to thank everybody for working hard on that because I know it wasn't easy this year thank you roll call vote Mr Heyman yes to all Mr Kiri Dr yes yes to all Dr forer uh yes to all Miss Jolly yes to all um Mrs Conor yes to all Miss Stanley yes Miss huffnagel yes Miss Bradford yes to all motion passes moving on to Personnel resolutions a through K all board members resolutions l through o Berkeley Heights only uh Mr Heyman motion I so moved uh second second Mrs con second discussion are we missing a c was there a c I just missed it Miss Huff Nagel's asking if there was a c okay yeah just want to make sure was something I was missing thank you we can send a search party Mrs no other discussion uh roll call vote Please Mr secretary Mr Heyman uh I'm a no to uh girls head soccer coach at GL uh otherwise yes to all that's under D oh sorry 80k is what I'm allowed to approve so a no to just that line item with in D otherwise yes on a through K and that was a soccer coach that was a k Mrs Conor I'm just going to give you the nose um no to the GL head girl soccer coach no to item I and yes to everything else so it was D and I D was is uh Saka coach girl that's right me and I and every uh I to everything El uh yes to everything else okay yep Mr Kiri um so it's a no to girl soccer coach and no to I everything else is a yes Dr Forger okay so it's a no to the girl soccer coach on in D and no on I and yes to everything else Miss Jolly I'm actually gonna abstain on D for the girls head soccer coach and I'm a no to I and yes to everything else Mr staning I'm a no to the girls soccer coach but yes to everything else Miss Huff I'm a no to I and yes to everything else Miss Bradford no to girls uh head girls soccer coach yes to everything else okay it looks like every everything passes except for girls soccer coach and it looks like we have one two three four four on looks like five I so I does not pass either and everything else does Mr dler would you like to explain a little bit more at this time yes so I appreciate one patience me on the last V I just pulled your policy so I fig now there's no better time than the present to kind of make sure we avoid your M can anyone hear me oh wow that's way too loud I've never had anyone not be able to hear me before so I appreciate that uh so I appreciate the board's patience with me as I was reviewing the policies I fig Now is better time than any to just kind of f walk the board through and the public how many votes are needed to pass so uh I was looking at your board policy that's 0165 um that's your policy on voting so with regard to extensions and I should say there's no legal requirement when it comes to this there's some court cases out there but for the most part your board policy will control when a motion passes and does not pass so if you look at 0165 it talks about extensions so the way your board handles it via policy exstension does not count as a vote it is recorded but it does not count in the purpose of cting the vote so your board as many boards do but not all does have a minimum threshold and what your policy talks about is that even if everyone abstains except one vote right that's the fear that only you know could could you pass a one o and your board policy does not allow that it set sets that the minimum the number of affirmative votes is at least a majority of the boards form so in your perspective it does not matter whether they sending rep or not because when you have eight board members majority of eight is um five five so majority of five is three and when you drop to seven that's airum is four majority of four is also three right in both cases you require at least three affirmative votes so if you have three votes and it's three 31 or 32 a motion passes any questions on that um I thought there is a Supreme Court decision that abstains are neither yes or a no so when you have eight board members which is what we had here and there are four extensions and you're not counting them as a yes or a no you don't have a quorum so the the quarum in my view has always been I could pull your definition it's they are still there in present they're able to vote they're not conflicted out they've just abstained and so my mind the quarum that you're talking about here right because you could set it at minimum number of individuals voting you specifically indicated it's your number of individuals who are purpos of aarum right because they are present they are voting members and your policy's clear they're recorded but they're just not counted as purposes of the vote I'll send you my question back yeah that's fine I I'm happy to look at it again I'm pulling your policy and I agree with you and Obion is neither a yes nor no it's pulled out of the account but it's just for purposes of calculating what a minimum is required so what would happen if the those that obstain just stepped away from the table that wouldn't be a board Quorum at that point right uh so i' have to do if it's just three people voting yeah yeah that would not be a quarum okay so you would not have a quarum for the meeting and therefore the meeting would discontinue at that point yes but that's why again that's the difference right they're abstaining so the vote moves forward but again we're talking about the minimum threshold required okay but you feel free to send me I'm I'm always happy to look into I'm am not perfect I will the first to admit that so if there is cases out there that say differently them I'm happy to look at them I have my computer so I can't pull up the case law but I it to you email to me I will take a look at it again I'm I my ego is not too big to ever admit I'm wrong if I am but again I'm pulling your policy I've looked into this issue in the past and traditionally I do agree with you the what the cases to say about what an exstension is I think we slightly disagree on whether that the effect on airum but I'm happy to look into it thank you and that would be email to the board secretary yes you want if you would like to send that to the board secretary I will look into it I'll send it back and then my preferences of course then any board questions remember the questions in it be shared out to the full board I wasn't planning to send it directly to you I was going to send it to Mr Nixon to have it either is fine again I'm not I'm not picky when it comes but I think just having a process in place place is always helpful for me thank you no problem okay moving on to business resolution resolutions a through S all board members resolution T is Berkeley Heights only may I have a motion so move Mrs Jolly moved a second second Mrs Conor discussion yes Dr Forge yeah I just have a question on these on this Transportation contract does does does a yes vote here constitute approval of the actual routes or are we going to get that later later there was an email sent earlier today because the question came up and I addressed it to the full board H what time is that um after I've sent out many of them I don't recall okay uh all right so um okay that's fine thank you Mrs Stanley Al so first I just want to thank everybody for um especially you AJ for working with um the facility fee schedule uh working with pal to try to come up with something that was feasible for everybody so I think I'm moving forward everyone will be happy um my next one is I did not see this when I was looking at it but I saw it tonight so I'm confused on number o I'm sorry sorry letter O So this kind of looks like our extra duties but it I'm I'm confused because Hib is not on this list and I know Miss nardy also has a extra um thing and I don't see it on this list either do we know if it's just missing or if it's comes out a different time of year or because we have we have all the other principles and there duties I'd have to I'd have to take a look maybe it got separated when we did this because maybe at the time it wasn't I'd have to go back and take a look okay is there is there any reason we couldn't table this tonight I just did it because I only had only a few items on here and I was trying to over uh alleviate an overload for the 20th yeah so that's why I put it here as I suggested I had a lot of stuff that was back for the reog meeting back in January but I said was going to take some of that off and put them where they should be which is in June um June meeting and that's what I was doing yeah I'm just I'm so I'm going to make a motion to table number o um just because I believe there is two principal um I know Mr Morris so it's the homeless lays on but he also is an Hib um coordinator so do I have a second I don't I think some of the annual appointments were approved last meeting Mrs Jolly um Pamela I think that there was one that is missing um here because on the original version it was a TBD so I wasn't sure it was for that was that wasn't that that's for the assistant superintendent who we don't have at the moment um or the end of the so I'm just but I yeah nardy and uh the Hib is missing could we add those at the next meeting on June 20th right so I'm just asking if we table it then we can do it at the next meeting like this doesn't need to be done tonight we've already approved the hivs hi coordinators we did yes so Mr Mora so is missas what about Mrs nardi's position we can look into that one yeah so I'd still like to make the motion with anybody second it and we can move it to the the June 20th meeting sure I'll second it thank you can I ask uh how many votes are needed to table to the next to the next meeting what is it a twoth thirds hold on well I'm a little concerned with that answer being before we vote right because it looks like we're going to try to play with the votes and that's disingenous we need to clarify all second might Happ I believe it's a majority and then at the next meeting to kill it it would be a 2/3 so if you want to vote vote I believe it's a majority I will double check as we are doing but I don't want to hold up the meeting okay so there's a motion on the floor to and there's a second to table item o um at this point so Mr secretary we need a a roll call Miss Stanley yes Miss Charlie yes Miss Airi no Dr forer No Mr Hyman yes Miss Conor no uh Miss huffnagel yes Miss Bradford no so we have four yeses and four NOS which means that motion fails so we'll get back to our roll call vote on sorry excuse me we are on business business thank you um discussion right can we discuss Mrs zakira you have something else for discussion yeah on D um approve the transportation contract TR this is for starting from 2024 is this for the 2024 2025 school year is my first question and the routes on this uh we are not approving the routes we're just approving the transportation contract this is transportation contract which includes routes these are the routes that were done by first student that we approved last year these are the renewals for those same routes it's missing one route that they didn't want to take on so the one route that they're not taking on is going to be done I Believe by morish Union jointure commission which we don't have that contract yet from them so these routes that are included in contract um the transportation contract for D are the 15 routes that um Mr Nixon had recommended that we continue with for this school year I believe that's correct I don't know how many routes off the top of my head I don't have have that number okay you you there was an attachment that was with it um no there was a presentation that was made by Mr Nixon on how many existing routes but I'm saying that in in in this there was an attachment for that with those routes so I I don't know or remember off the top of my head okay M Dr forer okay I you can correct me if I'm wrong here I think we're just approving when we approve a route for this at this point it would just be approving the beginning point the ending point and the times but the intermediate details of what's actually what actually is the entire route that's going to come later is that right is okay my understanding is all we're doing tonight is approving start time end time beginning and ending of a r outout but anything intermediate is still up to Kelly to refine and based on whatever information she has and that the detailed route will actually be approved later on is that right right Kelly's specific feedback was on the agenda what is listed is not an actual route but approval of the renewal of the first student contract for next year included in this contract are only the routes that first student drives there are various routes throughout the district that first student will drive but not exclusive but not inclusive of all routes okay but it I think the contract sort of locks Us in though to start times and end times doesn't it okay we would have to ask Kelly specifics on that and and you know the uh where you pick up and where you drop off I thought that was right basically right in there which building yeah I mean the contractor wants to know who they when when does the route start and where and I thought that's what this contract says that was in the attachment okay Mrs Conor so one quick clarification Mr Nixon um my understanding of the process is Kelly's working through the sort of detailed routes now that she knows how many students that are qualified how many students who are who want to sign up for subscription busing this contract that's up for Renewal gives us if I remember right I think it was 10 routes with first student and this is maybe one less perhaps don't hold don't hold me to it but that's what I remember so fair to say that the district will assess the capacity needed to support those interested in the busing in the subscription busing and then uh we'll have to figure out maybe there's a District bus that will support the route or we have to go to mujc or another vendor to support this for the next school year is that the sequence of events right now generally speaking yes Mrs Sheen is in the process of evaluating all the routes and what we need to do to make sure that they're all properly you know running so these routes are the same routes as last last year right there's no additional there's no subtraction of the routes right this with this contract with this vendor um so it's the same as last year which is what you know we've been discussing um the other right the other equation is that we have other contracts and we have other buses that are district buses that we do have the flexibility to change where this one we don't right because we're in a contract and then then that's the biggest problem is that we would have right if we had to we would have to go out to rebid and we know that that would be extremely costly at this time of year so um so it's the same routes um not any additional I think we subtracting one route though from a we are not keeping it as ease as last year we're subtracting one in this contract okay that's what I stated earlier yeah so when I'm just clarifying that it's not uh I have one other discussion item on e um I did see your email around 3:00 AJ thank you for resp fonding so on E approval to return unused balance of capital projects to capital reserve account if we don't approve it this money doesn't stay allocated to these projects instead it goes into the Surplus is that a correct assumption that's correct um how how do we put it back if these projects have these were wetted I think some of them are Roofing projects so if you want to bring them back on can it be done before the budget session can it be done between now and next year that's the first part and the second part is let's let's go one part at a time okay if I want to do these projects at any point in time all I got to do is a resolution bring them back on and I add them back into the budget it's all I need to do okay so why and the one with the roofing those projects probably won't be done until the 25 26 year because they would probably be done in the summer of 25 um okay um so when you say you want to put them back on you do need so what are why are we removing them is it because we didn't get the state approvals on time or I did not get the paperwork yet as I've stated in the two budget meetings we had April 24th and 57 when I gave the presentations I spoke of those in both those sessions that the state the paperwork from the state has not come yet nobody has gotten it and it is way too late to go to bid and those projects have to be done in the summer because they take multiple weeks to do it and they have to be done while the kids are out of school because they'll be creating a smell that'll be be taken right into the duck system so we so every school district is waiting for this paperwork from DCA that is correct if the paperwork does come in the next 6 months or let's say it comes in December or January let's be hopeful so when you do get them back you're going to let the board know that the paperwork is approved or and then we can immediately put a resolution on the agenda to do these projects or how does the process work well if I that's what probably what would happen and then from there I'd get the once that happens I'd put a resolution back on I'd get the architect to start working on the specifications and then we can go out to bid so and then and then we would probably well I don't know about going out to bid I can't go to bid that soon and I have to wait till later later I'm probably say January in order to go out to bid yeah so is this DCA that's holding up which is the which is the Garment body that's holding up the paper that is correct there's not a hell of a heck of a whole lot of people that work down there so that that's what hold up the process okay so maybe a trip down trendon thank you yeah well you're not going to get a you're not going to get a somebody to probably even answer the door or the phone we can try a field trip okay thank you roll call vote uh Miss Jolly I'm uh yes sorry yes on everything except um check number two Z that's Finance oh that's Finance I'm sorry I think I'm I Mis labeled I apologize I'm yes to all Mrs Conor yes to all Mr Kiri yes to all Dr for yes to all Mr Hyman yes on items a through S this Stanley uh no to O because I believe it's incomplete and yes to everything else and thank you for the donation of the ice pops uh Mrs huffnagel yes to all Miss Bradford yes to all motion passes moving on to finance resolution a all board members um who looked at the bills I was allocated and I did thank you Mrs Ziri uh a motion for resolution a so mov Mrs Conor moved second second Mrs Jolly second discussion he roll call V vote Mrs Conor yes to everything except no to check number 21101 97 check 21254 check 21284 check 209 968 check 2 was the last three numbers on that last check 968 968 and finally check 21 0137 yes to everything else Mrs Jolly so I am uh yes to everything except check number 209 968 210 wait that was 209 968 okay 210 210 137 137 21084 184 21254 254 and 2101 97 197 Mr kir yeah it's yes to everything except um no to 210 254 210 1884 21101 97 209 968 210 137 Dr forer uh yes to all accept check number 21097 check number 21254 two check number 21084 uh check number 20 9968 and check number 2110 137 Mr Heyman yes Miss Stanley yes Miss huffnagel yes Miss Bradford yes one two three four okay so just give me a little moment to tally up the checks I have 20 1 1 97 there's one 2 three four so that does not pass 21097 I have 21254 there is one two 3 and four that does not pass 2 one0 184 there is one 2 three 4 that does not pass 209 968 that's two three and four that does not pass 210 137 we have one two three and four those are the one two three four those are the five checks that do not pass everything else does at this time we're going to have comments from the public on any topic uh during this portion of the meeting District residents and staff are invited to address the board of education on any item the board requests that individuals State their name town or residence or School of attendance for the record all comments should be directed to the board president and depending on the nature and complexity of the question it may or may not be answered during the meeting by the administration if so the response would occur after this public portion of the meeting has concluded although the board may not respond to all items raised during the public forum all public comments will be considered the board ask that members of the public be courteous and mindful of the rights of other individuals when speaking specifically comments regarding Personnel matters are discouraged and cannot be responded to by the board students and employees have specific legal rights afforded by the laws of New Jersey the board Bears no responsibility nor will it be liable for any comments made by the members of the public please note that if any member of the public becomes disruptive during the meeting the board president May terminate the participant statement continued disruptions may result in removal from or adjournment of the meeting we will have our public comments first then our Zoom comments each speaker statement will be limited to three minutes in duration is there anyone from the public good evening and Debbie TR again um Barkley Heights um first of all I have to say that your meeting was a lot smoother tonight which is really encouraging so congratulations um for the fast seven years I've been involved in the PTO and I've remained relatively neutral now my duties are coming to a close as the BHP president and so I'm going to tell you a little bit about my truth here um I'd like to address that the Berkeley Heights teachers and staff's morale um is at an all-time low um if you don't believe me read the two letters the editor and tap into both written by well-respected Educators in our town it's shameful that you've allowed our Educators to reach their breaking points um these are Educators that are teaching our children so please consider the decisions and things that you do it does impact them also um I'd also like to commend to counselor that came up here last time um making an outstanding statement about the five HIV cases that were overturned um the cases were likely biased to Nature and should never have been overturned and then tonight um there were three additional HIV cases that almost got overturned what are you doing um you know with the exception of Mr um Heyman abstaining because the case is not involving GL students I don't understand the whole abstain thing and to my understanding when you're abstaining unless you have a direct conflict of interest you should be explaining why you're abstaining because you're putting at risk the fact that these cases could be overturned by doing that so you really need to be thinking about what you're doing and the risk that you are putting this town in when you do that we could get sued think about the decisions you're making and let me also remind everybody that you are not the subject matter experts and the thought of overturning HIV cases puts this town in great Jeopardy thank you good evening I'm Marcy helmstead president of the Berkeley Heights Education Association and I've been a teacher at Governor Livingston for over 20 years like me many of the bhe members have invested our lives in the future of the children of the Berkeley height School District I believe it's time for me to speak up on behalf of all of us the work we do and the concerns many bhea members have about the instability we faced in the running of our school district those who have dedicated themselves to education no matter their role have the opportunity to make the world a better place the work we do matters greatly it is some of the most important work there is for the past three years as president of the BHA I've faced many challenges there's a complexity to dealing with the Myriad of personalities and diverse opinions and being able to compromise and find Solutions but it's not only possible it's absolutely necessary in order to move forward in my opinion some the marks of a true leader are the ability to admit to admit that you do not have all the answers in reality none of us do to have a willingness to admit when you're wrong because of all of us are at times to quote John F Kennedy leadership and learning are indispensable to each other to come to the table to focus on the solutions and not a preoccupation with the problems to keep a focus on the larger goals and not allow ones to be Quagmire by the minutia that inevitably comes with achieving them this this district has been here before most of us were will most likely continue long after we're gone from these roles but you have the opportunity to promote Excellence to show leadership within the community and to accomplish something great now do not squander it on Petty disagreements and inviting please realize the public face you show the community is how the district as a whole is judged while I know you've been contacted by individual teachers regarding their concerns I have not been publicly vocal till now I see my role as where I should remain neutral regarding the politics and continue to work within the system for the benefit of students and staff but you may not realize the impact that you have on the district as a whole the results of constant conflict and dissent at the top trickles down it crushes our morale it keeps us from getting necessary work done in the running of the district and it keeps us from being able to do what we are experts at doing what we're all here for educating children the bhaa will continue to advocate for good faith Good Will and honest policymaking by the elected members of the Berkeley Heights Board of Education the board as a whole should advocate for thoughtful and meaningful policy that supports District growth positive morale among staff members and positive and conducive environment for Learning and instruction and the outcomes this educational Community deserves there are very good and caring people at all levels on the board in our Administration in our classrooms and in many other services to our districts and it's time for you to give those people a voice and set a new course for our District it is time to move past old Grievances and it is time to come together in the spirit of cooperation collaboration and move forward with the sole intention of providing meaningful positive outcomes thank you speaking as a resident so on the eye where the um it was did not pass where the library Lea Zone is that a requirement for the library board to have someone from the school district or not because I know it's a whole committee that meets and I thought that there had to be a representative from the school district on that board I might be wrong I often am specifically my understanding of the position that somebody from the school district has participated as part of that board uh it has been Diane as alone for the past five years um that person is part of um a voting member and and part of the that committee yes that's my understanding as well so quick follow up then um so I'm not so who's going to take that role if that I did not pass who's going to take that role we're GNA have to figure that part out next okay that could be a pro I mean I know there's a lot of connection in in the community with the library through the township and the library board and the schools so I think that needs to be worked on thank you um Mr marks is there anyone online do you want me to hit that button okay Mr Bez you have a comment Mr uez do you have a comment Mr Marks I can't unmute him Mr mcz you have a comment yes so I I'm not clear so I'm not really clear on the instability in the district has been the product of years it didn't occur in the last six months and I I there's was a lot of investment and a lot of noise as to who should be the port president for the first month and a half of this board um and that individual you know ended up not serving so the instability has been around for a while and I think in the last five months there's been a lot of corrective actions in terms of what the community has asked for in terms of both transparency um minutes being posted remote access um I know that the transportation decision wasn't necessarily popular but I think it's fair and it's something that we can sort of build on it's certainly a much more informed policy than it was um I will say that the like this attorney way better uh a lot fairer um so I think there have been a lot of improvements over the last five months and and I do feel like as we're getting closer to election time um that the narrative is all about crisis mode not getting a president was a crisis the transportation issue was a crisis and all these problems are sort of getting worked through and resolved um and I have not agreed with everything that this board has done I wasn't happy with the expenditure on the athletic trainer the increase on security there's a lot lot of things that I just didn't agree with but I I think the decision- making was a lot better and I I think Mr Nixon and the board are despite the conflict has been a lot more professional in its presentation to the public and in its treatment of the public it's a testament to this board that people are so willing and freely speaking to the board about their concerns whereas for the last three years that has not been the case uh in terms of our Educators the second thing I'm I'm a little worried about is the this public discussion of Hib I as a member of the public I have no idea whether a Hib should be overturned or supported and I I don't I'm getting this weird feeling that we're rooting for hibs to be approved Without Really knowing the evidence about it from what I heard last meeting one paragraph was given to the board it's not for example just kind of using something analogous to the court a court of law a judge isn't going to reach out to a prosecutor to say hey give me more information so I could support this hi so I'm gonna kind of restate my my concerns from last meeting that we we kind of not bring this into sort of a political football and we kind of look at the overall process and what can be improved uh in terms of how these are looked at so that everybody in the community has a bit more confidence again I have no idea whether these hibs should have been approved or not approved um I have to believe that there were good reasons why they weren't um and maybe that's it and there were good reasons why people voted for them I'm sure there were good reasons on both sides of that vote but to have this to have kids cases like the other side of this we're talking about kids here that are being investigated and we're kind of having these discussions publicly and that that kind of concerns me that's all thank you so much great job tonight all of you I see no other uh comments from the public oh wait a minute yes there is one Mr Marks Miss hi can you hear me yes okay hi uh Louisa Grossman 194 Princeton Avenue um I have a question regarding the um back to the presentation that was made at the beginning um um about the the math um the way we teach math in our district and um one of the um and there was that back and forth between 75% or 35% or whatever percent direct instruction versus um uh collaborative instruction and um mury had mentioned something about other districts um doing it successfully at 75% direct instruction and um the Consultants um or the the people presenting had mentioned um uh that they had um uh that they were also looking at other districts to sort of Benchmark where we were going to fall the direction we were going to head in so I was just wondering um have we looked at um all you know the districts that we like to compare ourselves to and are they using um direct instruction for their math curriculum closer to the 75 or the 65 or is it more 35 for direct construction and the rest collaborative but I'm just curious um where you know where they are because Miss Sakira had brought that up um that her understanding was that you know there were some that were closer the 75 so is that something that we can look at and maybe use that as a you know use them as a benchmark thank you thank you I see no other hands raised at this time Mr Nixon is there anything you'd like to address not in particular no but we can we can in regard to the last part from Mrs Gman um we can certainly look into some of those things and the library yep okay thank you we'll close our public portion in person and on Zoom looks like there's no new business we will move to adjournment motion to JN Dr forger moves to adjourn second I'll second that Mrs Jolly all in favor I I great thank you