it's so far away there's usually 250 Middle School true that's true that's true yeah he said there usually get good evening everybody and welcome to the Caldwell West calwell Board of Education meeting taking place tonight Monday November 20th 2023 this evening at 6:00 p.m. the board met in private executive session here at Grover Cleveland Middle School in the library media center the purpose of that meeting was to discuss Personnel litigation miscellaneous and old business matters the meeting has been advertised and is in compliance with the open public meeting act and njsa 10 4-6 also known as the Sunshine Law the matters discussed will be made public when confidentiality is no longer required and formal action pursu it to said discussion shall take place only at a meeting to which the public has been invited the regular public meeting today taking place right now at 7:01 p.m. in the Grover Cleveland Middle School cafeteria is also being live streamed all Community questions and comments will be welcomed here in person the calwell West calwell Board of Education regular public monthly meeting is also in compliance with the open public meetings act n njsa 10 col 4-6 also known as the sunshine Laine notices have been sent to the progress in Cadwell New Jersey The Star Ledger in New York New Jersey and tap into West Essex notices have also been posted at the Board of Education offices at the Harrison School building Grey Street West Caldwell and have been delivered to the clerks of the burrow of Caldwell and Township of West Caldwell for posting Brian can you please take the role yes student representative representative mad mine Alberta miss the martini here Mr Elco Miss Mack here Mr dimola here miss Gro here so we have four members present uh one absent we have a quum thank you Brian can we please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and Brian are there any Communications for the board uh there were none okay so we'll move to the superintendent report um I just wanted to provide an update on the hate hateful anti-semitic acts at the middle school um the administration at the middle school continues their investigation regrettably um we have not been able to identify the perpetrators and no one has come forward with any additional information or accept their responsibility however please understand the investigation is ongoing and will remain open we continue to educate our students and families we partnered with the Jewish Federation of Greater Metro West New Jersey and Keane University to educate our students about tolerance respect and empathy towards all individuals regardless of their background or beliefs we are hosting a holocaust Sur Vira to speak to our students and Keen University Holocaust Education Center is scheduled to attend the Middle School's virtual HSA meeting on November 21st and provide a brief presentation followed by a Q&A session we continue to explore other educational opportunities including a biased crime presentation from the wars County prosecutor's office and we are scheduled speak to Dr leens who is the director of rmao College's growth Center for Holocaust and genocide studies who has offered his assistance to advise provide resources train teachers or help with Holocaust and genocide education please know these hateful and discriminatory acts do not reflect the values and principles we espouse as the school Community we are dedicated to providing a safe inclusive and welcoming envirment for all of our students regardless of the race religion ethnicity or background on another note the district continues to prioritize the Safety and Security of our students and staff both physically and emotionally in light of the anti-semitic threat reported by the CUO police this past weekend each school's Administration has proactively reviewed our emergency response plans access controls surveillance systems visitor management protocols and communication systems and protocols we continue to reinforce the importance of our monthly safety training and drills the district closely collaborates with the Caldwell and West Caldwell police departments to enhance our security and ensure the safety of our students and staff please feel free to visit our website where you can find additional information and resources about Safety and Security or contact your building principal for more information thank you great are we gonna do the presentation now yes I'd like to invite Mr bolo up to provide a presentation about the wonderful things going on here at the middle school we just have to give him a couple of seconds while he Wheels himself up here so when you're run in the marathon Mr bro that's what happens yeah unfortunately I have a nice metal to go with this though just give us a few seconds to get the presentation all right good evening everyone and welcome to Grover Cleveland Middle School we are honored and appreciative of the opportunity to present an overview of the great things taking place at Grover Cleveland Middle School I want to personally thank the Caldwell West calwell Board of Education and Dr Conklin for your continued support in helping us create a positive learning environment for our students and I'd like to thank the students presenting tonight who volunteered their time to be a part of this presentation as a former social studies teacher I would be remiss if I didn't talk a little bit about our own history Grover Cleveland Middle School began as Grover Cleveland High School and officially opened for classes in 1926 at the time Grover Cleveland High School received students from Caldwell West Caldwell North Caldwell Essex Fels Fairfield Livingston Pinebrook and rosand wow we officially became Grover Cleveland Middle School in 1960 when the high school was moved to the newly constructed James Caldwell High School on West will AV we are excited that our school will soon be 100 years old and look forward to working with the Grover Cleveland birthplace to come up with some fun ways to celebrate our Centennial in 2026 pictured here is our wonderful Grover Cleveland Middle School staff I am proud to be the principal of such hardworking and dedicated staff members who have our students best interests at heart thank you to those in attendance tonight and those watching at home to support our students who are here tonight many of our staff members volunteer their time to help create positive experiences for our students including running our after school clubs leading our monthly enrichment program improving their own teaching gra craft by attending our teacher study group or supporting our students outside of school at their own events the crover Cleveland Middle School staff live by the motto make a difference today Although our building may be 97 years old we continue to keep it in really good shape and provide it with necessary updates and upgrades please take a look at the following upgrades as you can see our brand new Auditorium over the summer we had our black tops repaved and the HSA purchased for the school the painting of the new basketball courts there we go uh some upgrades to our main office we have new carpeting and new floor an upgrade to our media center where we purchased some new furniture for students to spend some time in uh during lunchtime or after school and it has turned into a presentation space for teachers and um other organizations to use during the course of the day if you've ever walked through the Halls right outside the main office you'll find our photo wall which features me memories from years past uh outside of gcms uh thank you to the CWC for providing us with a grant to purchase some Greenery additional signage throughout the school which you saw as you walked in tonight the cafeteria and the Jim Brown gymnasium I truly believe that it's important to always have some kind of school branding so you'll notice all around the middle school um there are different opportunities to see our logo and really promote what we're all about inside the gymnasium you'll find our house Championship banners which our students will be talking about later on tonight and finally uh some upgrades to our security system where over the summer we had several new cameras installed as well as new entry point doorways for staff members the middle school is very proud of our house project please welcome two of our house advisers Adriana halus and Melissa Silverthorn to speak a little bit more about our house project good evening Board of Education parents staff and students um my name is Adriana helus Mrs Silverthorn and I are going to be talking a little bit about the house project so Grover Middle School house project was established in 20 2 by Mrs Silverthorne Mr Bishop and myself with the support of Mr Brown has served as a way to school to build school pride provide students with leadership opportunities promote friendly athletic and academic competitions develop community and team building and increase and strengthen relationships between students faculty and staff our program integrates itself into daily activities after school activities and full day events at the middle school our house leaders play a vital part in making sure the program is a success they will be speaking a little bit more about the house project and help and how it helps to incorporate the pillars of academics Athletics art and Community the remainder of the presentation is broken down into four parts academics Athletics arts and Community each student will have four Cycles during each of their three years of gcms to get a little taste of everything I would like to briefly highlight one cycle class from each grade level our newest cycle class is executive functioning for sixth graders so how do you eat an elephant in executive functioning students learn about the parts of the brain and how they function they learn how to set goals for themselves and they learn how to develop routines to help themselves be successful in Middle School such as how to use a planner to write down homework check student email and create checklists to help an overwhelming task feel more manageable so to answer the question how do you eat an elephant by taking one bite at a time students will get three years of stem beginning with Innovation and research in sixth grade and completing stem in seventh and e8th grade stem brings together science technology engineering and math to introduce students to different Hands-On activities including the Marshmallow Challenge where students students need to work together to create the tallest freestanding Tower made out of spaghetti tape and of course marshmallows the school motto of gcms is make a difference today in September of 2018 an eighth grade all eighth grade students were introduced to a new cycle class called service leadership our late principal Mr Jim Brown strongly believed in the value of service to others and the qualities of leadership his vision extended into the classroom where all e8th grade students were expected to complete a minimum number of hours of community service his Hope was that our middle school students would move on to high school college and life instilled with the desire to make a difference we also have some Advanced course offerings for gcms students including pre-algebra for seventh grade ERS and Algebra 1 Spanish one Italian one and I stem for eighth graders to push and prepare them for high school our gap program also pushes our students to think outside the box projects include creating their own roller coaster and creating their own business and product to sell at the annual bizaar event in the spring I would like to spend a moment re-sharing ing some student achievement goals from the last Board of Education meeting gcms is proud that last year our sixth grade reading levels jumped from 66 to 84% our 7th and eighth grade ELA passing rate on the njsla increased from 2022 and our sixth 7th and Algebra 1 scores increased from 2022 we look forward to continuing to work on these goals throughout the 2324 school year we are also proud that every social studies teacher received sheltered English instruction training this summer to help support our increasing ml population we are also fortunate to have a full-time staff member who is solely responsible for teaching ESL and pushing into their classrooms to help support them in as many of their subject areas as possible I would like to call up student counil IL president and house leader Henry [Applause] shy hi my name is Henry shot and I'm one of the house leaders for the house of courage today I'm going to be explaining to you what the house project does to incorporate academics the house project endorses is a readathon and an annual academic Bowl the readathon is a reading competition where students race to complete the most reading hours in a given month this encourages students to become readers who truly start to enjoy literature the other main thing that the house project does for academics is hosting an annual academic bow this event includes trivia questions about a combination of all different School subjects in addition to various fun and random General Knowledge Questions this event encourages students to push themselves to want to learn new ideas and topics which create a more diverse student body both of these events help to promote the pillars of academics in the gcms [Applause] community these are just some of the clubs and activities that gcms has to offer including student council and some other club offerings including service and honor School Publications and other special interest groups as I mentioned previously many of our Grover clevela Middle School staff members volunteered to leave lead these offerings and students are extremely appreciative of having these opportunities another volunteer opportunity for our staff includes serving as an adviser for our monthly enrichment program as you can see these are topics that traditionally are not offered in school such as BattleBots fly fishing and trompo and yo-yo I would like to introduce seventh grader Aurora Gallow to talk about the enrichment program that she is involved [Applause] with Mr Poo's Marvel enrichment is a community for enthusiasts who share a love for the Marvel Comics and movies this enrichment provides a platform for us kids to get together once a month to discuss the exciting world of Marvel we gathered to talk about our predictions for what is to come up in future Marvel projects we also discuss our favorite story lines and characters in the MCU last year we were all able to get together on the weekend and watch Guardians of the Galaxy 3 on the big screen at the movies it was a great experience to watch the movie together as a club that day was awesome but my favorite day last year had to be when Mr bro brought in all of his Marvel Collectibles to the enrichment club for a meeting I took some funny pictures posing with Thor's hammer and Captain America shield I always look forward to talking with the other kids and Mr bro in this enrichment Club each [Applause] month GCM students are given opportunities to learn from experts in their field through in-person educational experiences such as assemblies some examples of assemblies over the past two years have included the Monclair History Center presenting on the story of the women of the Glen Ridge Avenue YWCA sergeant Tom Rich of the summit Police Department presenting his program always connected on the digital footprint each year we have been fortunate to have a holocaust Survivor come and share their experience with our students and we had Keen University's Holocaust Education Center present to our students in October of this year a quick plug for tomorrow night Kean University will be joining our HSA meeting virtually with a brief presentation and a Q&A gcms parents you should have receive received the zoom Link in your email earlier today we were also able to bring the organization wrestlers for change to gcms in October to present an action filled assembly on sportsmanship we are also very lucky to have scheduled an assembly in December with author Asia mayck who wrote the survival guide to bullying she will talk about her experience with bullying and how she overcame it thank you to the Caldwell West Caldwell Education Foundation for funding this program we will also have minding your mind joined us in the spring they've been presenting a gcms for the past 2 years and we'll talk about the importance of mental health awareness and how to care for yourself as I mentioned earlier our staff is dedicated to making gcms a positive environment and want the best for our students one of the ways they do that is by learning from each other through our teacher study group please welcome Erica ther and Christine haar to talk a little bit more about our teacher study [Applause] group good evening thank you for having us the Board of Education um so teacher study group for us is ran through the teachers uh me missar and then also miss tinsky um have taken over it and like m too said we created this group basically because it supports collaborative work in a variety of areas such as examining teaching practices to for meting ideas for classroom curriculum um we go through trends of choosing a book together that we as a staff want to read and we read the chapters we present them to each other to the past two years have been about you know what do we want to learn and what do we want to know so then we take a poll for the staff like last last week we learned about how to utilize par Professionals in our classroom the week before that you know last year we did one on chat GP how do we use it in our classroom um and it varies week to week based on um our needs there and we always make sure that we provide each other with our favorite which is breakfast yeah always breakfast yeah hi I'm Christine haar um so basically teacher study group it's just a collaborative group um organized by us teachers um and it helps us strengthen our professional development um in areas that we're all interested in learning about um we provide important structure for gaining autonomy and a major means for growing professionally while also building community and clearly this picture was taken right after Co I think we need to take a new one next meeting yeah please welcome house leaders Emily Greenley and Jacob olinsky who will talk about our advisory [Applause] program good evening everyone my name is Emily Greenley and I'm the house leader for citizenship and I'm Jacob olinsky and I'm one of the house leaders for knowledge today we are going to talk about advisory advisory began at Grover Cleveland Middle School in 2017 each Advisory Group has about 10 to 12 students and one staff the staff consists of teachers guidance counselors Bridge counselors case managers and administration the groups remain the same for three years and the students are in our Middle School uh oh for the three years the students are in our Middle School the purpose of advisory is to help students grow academically morally socially and emotionally advisory creates a sense of community and helps build a positive School climate the main objectives are of advi of advisory are to provide an environmental and activities that will Foster bonding within an advisory group so that students will feel accepted and valued by the teachers and peers help students cope with academic concerns and set goals which will facilitate positive School experiences and it gives students Avenues through which to discover their uniqueness so that they might come to appreciate the many differences among us or among people advisory also helps students develop positive relationships through experiences that utilize group dynamics it also promotes critical thinking skills throughout discussion and problem solving activities so that students can learn to make responsible choices it helps develop listening skills and an understanding of the roadblocks which hinder effective communication again it also builds self-esteem in students that they might become confident capable young people who accept responsibility for their own actions it also heightens students awaren student awareness of good citizenship through providing opportunities for Meaningful contribut to their school and Community advisory can help students achieve a a safe space to talk it can help develop connections with peers and staff can help them learn to become members of a community and help them learn how to support each other and some of the topics our advisory groups will be exploring this year are organizational skills goal setting countering hate speech how to help a friend self-care exploring integrity and gaining self-awareness thank you thank you last year with the Board of Education support we were awarded the opportunity to begin a National Junior Honor Society at gcms please welcome house leader Anna D and e8th grader Grace hemsath to talk about their experiences with [Applause] njhs hi my name is Anna D I'm a house leader for endurance and also the public relations officer of National Junior Honor Society hi I'm Grace hemath and I'm a member of the National Junior Honor Society National Junior Honor Society is a student organization in which students must represent Five Pillars to be accepted these five pillars are scholarship service leadership citizenship and character before being accepted candidates are required to fill an application and are judged on these five pillars there are currently eight eighth graders in njs and every Monday and Thursday we hold peer tutoring which is a program Open to every student at gcms after school from 3:00 to 3:30 peer tutoring is a free program offered to all gcms students all members of National Junior Honors Society come on either Monday or Thursday or both days to help students with homework studying projects and much more this program is a great way for students to get help if a teacher is not available after school our tutors assist with many subjects such as math science language arts social studies Spanish and Italian we aim to help students in every grade who are struggling with any subject to increase the academic performance of our [Applause] school last year we were also fortunate to begin our peer leaders program at gcms please welcome eighth graders Liam amazes and Lucy sandor to talk about their experiences with our peer leader [Applause] program good evening board of education teachers administrators and Families my name is Leeman proes and this beside me is Lucy sandor we are eighth grade representatives for a program called peer leadership at GC C Ms and Lucy is going to give a little background of how this program started peer Le peer leadership started in 2021 and through an application process students were chosen to participate this included a three-day training program created by the anti- defamation League or ADL that came to Grover Cleveland Middle School we were introduced to different ideas about peer leadership and how we could take some responsibility to create change in everyday situations now we look at the problems that our school Community has and try to work together to find solutions that work for every aspect of the community the kids chosen for peer leadership aren't just from one grade but are sixth seventh and eighth graders in this way everyone contributes to the climate and community of the school thank you luy here in this program students attend monthly meetings where they learn strategies and skills to become leaders in and out of the classroom some of the activities that we participate in in include team building exercises real world scenario role playing and finding solutions to Common Middle School issues this year we plan to take some of the exercises used in the training session and apply them to the new wave of peer leaders this way every new group of peer leaders can have access to the skills taught by the ADL thank you for your time we appreciate this opportunity to tell the calwell West calwell Community about the work we have been doing as peer leaders [Applause] Nina if you would like to join us as well I am also really proud to announce that eth graders Lucy sandor and Nina Deng were recently accepted into the New Jersey Department of civil rights as youth ambassadors please welcome them to tell you a little bit about their involvement in the program hi my name is Nina and I am an eighth grader at Grover Cleveland Middle School recently I was accepted in the youth ambassadors program and today I would like to talk to you all about what this program aims to do this program is organized by the New Jersey Division on civil rights which is responsible for enforcing New Jersey's civil rights laws and addressing bias the youth ambassadors program's main goal is to encourage people to eliminate bias and discrimination in their communities by inviting young people ages 13 to 19 who take an interest in civil rights to participate in a 10-month course they offer mentorship education and leadership opportunities to encourage students to positively reinforce a change into their towns we are taught to develop confidence participate in research work together as a team and more 50 chosen participants all from different parts of New Jersey attend bonly workshops full of projects to help the program achieve their objective to apply we needed to answer multiple essay questions about how we felt about discrimination bullying and making changes in our communities now Lucy is going to be talking about what we actually do in the program hi hi I'm Lucy sandor I'm in e8th grade and I was accepted into the youth ambassador program this year along with Nina we started this work in early October and will'll continue the program through June as Nina pointed out the program helps us asks us to help combat bias in our community so far they have brought us closer to that goal by explaining different cases the state has taken up and how using the law they were able to identify and resolve situations of bias but there is also a discussion of how at the community level we can keep their good momentum going Nina mentioned our training sessions on the law against discrimination and we also have an upcoming training about implicit bias our main project is to create a podcast talking about a particular area of bias such as race gender religion disability or sexual orientation part of our work may involve talking to other gcms or SE calwell West calwell students and learning from them regarding issues they want help with or solutions they think could work each week we meet with other DC DCR youth ambassadors for training we are Guided by a community relations specialist from the division of civil rights or another representative from the state of New Jersey they support our ideas and help them develop help develop them into solid plans for change we look forward to telling everyone more about the final outcomes of our project in a few months we hope the work we are doing helps create inclusion and in a school Community where everyone feels welcome and respected thank you for your time [Applause] I would like to call up house leader Joshua wling to talk about some of the athletic opportunities for students at [Applause] gcms hello Board of Education and community members my name is Joshua worling and I'm a house leader for the house of knowledge at gcms and I'm here to talk about the athletic pillar of the Grover Cleveland Middle School house project now what are the Athletics that are part of the house project well for starters every month there are after school tournaments whether it is handball or whiffle ball these school activities are really a really good way to earn house points and show how spirit for your house Athletics are always incorporated into every single house day whether it be hble on the gym in the winter time or flag football in the late spring there are always athletic ways to earn house points during each house day house day also support super paloa which is a basketball tournament where winning teams from each grade play against the teachers to see who's the best team and the grand finale gcms ends the school year with field day the field day is a fun day scheduled with competitive events for students to compete in to earn house points thank [Applause] you I would like to call up house leader Noah Simo to introduce some of the Arts programs we offer at gcms hello I am Noah Simo and I'm a house leader for the house of leadership the house project here at Grover Cleveland Middle School lets the students demonstrate their skills in the Arts the Arts consist of music dance crafting sculpting drawing and writing to start off we let our students and house leaders create scarecrows at the beginning of every fall to help decorate our school we also let them show their drawing skills when they decorate Jacko lanterns during the Halloween season for everyone to find The Wanted ones around the school to get a prize for the holiday season students get to demonstrate their sculpting and building techniques in a gingerbread house contest where the school votes on which house they believe is best Additionally the house project attempts to feature music in their assemblies as we have our own orchestras for before our lipsync battle which incorporates the themes of Music and Dance the lipsync battle is when we get the house leaders and some teachers to perform in front of the school to dance and lims sying to a song so students can pick their favorite group to win the competition during Valentine's Day we also hold a poetry contest for the students who want to showcase their creativity and writing skills on paper overall the house project pres we we present here at gille Cleveland Middle School let students show their talents and likeness for the Arts thank you for your [Applause] time we also have a very fruitful music department at gcms including band chorus Orchestra and the Jazz Band I am very excited to bring up Mr will Downey to introduce his conbo performers I believe they have something special planned for tonight's presentation hi everyone I have a few members of krio here tonight we have Jacob olinsky Anna D and Grace hemsa who uh you've actually heard from all three already but now you're going to hear them play a little bit just bear with us a couple minutes while we set up while they continue to get settled a little bit the piece they're going to play for you is called aalan it's by one of uh Goan Sebastian box the most famous boach one of his 20 children William friedrick Bach um and obviously it's a trio we have three players here violin uh Jacob Anna en Viola and Grace on cello and uh like Mr Bola mentioned this this is krio Comon is an auditioned group here at the middle school um but we have all sorts of curricular groups groups that meet during the day that are not auditioned as well as some other After School Musical ensembles as well so go ahead guys [Music] [Applause] J I would also like to introduce seventh grader Franchesca Gro who will talk about our theater [Applause] program good evening I'm Francesca Gro a seventh grader at Grover Cleveland Middle School today I stand before you to celebrate the transformative power of theater that gcms holds the stage that not only entertains but also serves as a sanctuary where one can truly be oneself it's very easy to get lost in the crowd especially in middle school when you are truly trying to find yourself but fortunately we have a great theater program here at gcms it's a comfortable safe environment that helps you find yourself with the support of others assisting you throughout that Journey my experience with theater at gcms has truly been a great one I've made so many great relationships with people and explored my love for the Arts I'm so excited for the next gcms musical you're a good man Charlie Brown and I hope to see many new faces auditioning for the musical realizing how great theater truly is I hope to see you all there thank [Applause] you once again I would like to call up house leader Anna D who will introduce some of our community programs we offer at [Applause] gcms hello again my name is Anna D and I'm currently a house leader for the house of endurance and I'll be describing how the house project creates the pillar of community at ucms the house project creates community at the school as each house is made up of sixth seventh and eighth graders who all collaborate and work together it is a great way for students to meet and talk to people who are in different grades or someone that they normally wouldn't talk to in class also this project gets everyone in the entire School involved and creates competitiveness and teamwork in the school environment there are also various projects such as the Thanksgiving food drive to have the students at gcms give back to the calwell community this year we collected over 400 canned food items to donate to the calwell food pantry thank [Applause] you students will be hearing more about our partnership with the Tom coflin J fund during our next advisory day on November 29th gcms has had a partnership with the J fund for many years including our upcoming service project benefiting St Joseph's hospital and nor Beth Israel Children's Cancer unit Grover Cleveland Middle School is also thrilled to spearhead the districtwide make a difference Thanksgiving food drive in honor of Jim Brown whose favorite holiday was Thanksgiving this year the Caldwell food pantry informed us that thanks to the donations as a district they will be able to feed 84 families in need this is a great example of not only only gcms but the entire Caldwell West calwell Community getting together to make a difference as mentioned earlier Mr Brown created the cycle class called service leadership in 2018 in an effort to extend this mindset to all students at gcms Mr Brown envisioned a day where students staff and the community would come together to recognize and celebrate the many achievements and Charities of of others our first day of service and Leadership took place on April 10th 2019 in 2021 the event was renamed make a difference day in honor of Mr Brown while the event has evolved over the past four years students get an opportunity to hear from several presenters in addition to completing a Hands-On service project these are just a few of the presenters from previous years and look forward to seeing them present again at this year's make a difference day on March 28th 2024 and a special thank you to the current Board of Education members who have been involved in previous events as well I hope you will all consider participating in some capacity during our 2024 event in the spirit of making a difference gcms began a new student positive student initiative this year called I got caught making a difference recognizing our countless students who strive to make a difference each and every day all gcms staff members fill out a blue I got caught making a difference recognition slip when students are caught doing something good examples have included returning a lost item to the office helping someone pick up items they dropped in the hallway or helping a staff member at the end of each month five students are chosen one grand prize winner and four individual winers winners each receiving some sort of prize we look forward to continuing to recognize our students throughout the school year and all students presenting tonight see me tomorrow so you can get your caught making a different slip so as you could see Grover Cleveland Middle School has a lot to offer our students our staff is committed to providing a positive learning environment for our students and continue to improve each and every day thank you again to the Caldwell West Caldwell Board of Education and Dr conin for this opportunity and thank you to the students and staff members who presented tonight or came to the meeting to support gcms I hope this presentation has motivated you the way that this school motivates us to make a difference thank [Applause] you sure sure we're going to take a three minute break to take some pictures with the board members and all the everyone who presented staff and kids come on up so we can get a picture of everybody they all did so okay ready for me I just had I'm sorry I just had one more thing so I just want to say thank you to Mr bolo and all the staff and all the students that was an amazing presentation and we appreciate so much all your hard work and uh dedication so thank you so much for that um I did have one last thing um during this time of Thanksgiving I'd like to give a huge thank you not only to everyone presented and all the students but to everyone throughout the district the students their families the teachers and the professional staff our counselors our St child study team members our nurses all the support staff the custodians the classroom AIDS the secretaries our lunch AIDS the bus drivers and the bus AIDS and our coaches and the administrators for their unwavering commitment to establishing both the safe and positive learning environment in all of our schools and we saw a great presentation about that tonight Mr Rogers a favorite um TV personality of mine said that feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it so with that in mind I want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving may your holidays be filled with simple Joys cherished Moments Love the exuberance of sharing thanks with those dear to your hearts of course some delicious food and hopefully you catch some football too so okay have a Happy Thanksgiving that's what I have to say great thank you Dr thank you and just on behalf of the Board of Education Mr bero and Miss brovich who is here in spirit with us I just want to thank you so much for a wonderful presentation to our teachers who take the time out of your personal time to be here tonight and to see what you're doing with our kids you are amazing you are champions Our Heroes so thank you and to our kids I feel like in this world of so much negativity they are the light so thank you to the families and the teachers and the administrators for making those lights shine bright and especially tonight so we could just I know they're not here I want to let them all go but let's just give them a round of applause they can maybe look back at the video thank you all we as a board are grateful to to live in such a wonderful community and to share that Community with all of you so thank you all so much um the president's report uh I have a couple things before we move on to committee reports um I just want to point everyone's attention tonight to the agenda under Finance tonight the board will be approving FKA Architects um in an effort to be fully transparent with the public every step of the way the board of education has made the decision to move forward with exploratory phase of going for a referendum that referendum will happen in 2024 for any of you who don't know about a referendum process there's only a certain uh number of months a year where a board can propose a vote to the public for a referendum we're looking for late 2024 Pro probably December FKA Architects will be approved tonight by the Board of Education as the architect to move forward with that Dr Conlin I will pass the Baton to him in a moment um next next month in December principles will be um sending out information to parents so anybody I hope people listen and any parents that are here this evening teachers please pass that on if you live in the community um steam committees will be formed at each School level we welcome all parental input um please volunteer to your building administrator follow the procedures get on a steam committee we are here to hear hear your voices the board's promise to you is that we will be transparent every step of the way for this process and continue to welcome Community feedback okay I'm going to pass it to Dr con to go little so the what we're calling steam teams um steam stands for science technology engineering arts and math so we saw a lot about stem we're extending that to include the Arts um so the each individual principal is going to be uh contacting the school community that they service and looking for feedback and input from parents and then participation so you'll see something come out in December about participation in creating these steam teams for for January so look for that and information from the principles coming out December and then I'm just going to um just put it out there right away that there will be no tax implications on the public Brian if you want to say it in the very fancy way and then I'll say it in the very cut and dry way go ahead R sure so we have um death service that will expire um at the same same time concurrently where we hope to put on uh new debt service so there will be no potential tax um impact for the referendum um if all goes as planned right so basically we have our old referendum will be rolling off the new one will hopefully if the public Community votes it in will roll on we are going to be borrowing the same amount of money so there will be no tax implication for the referendum obviously your taxes go up every year but it will not be because of the referendum okay um again we're going to be very transparent every step of the way but in an effort to do that it's very important for us we are approving an architect we're not going to bury it inside the agenda we're going to call your attention to it so that you know that we're being honest and open and we welcome the community to come to meetings be engaged at the process at your building levels and ask as many questions as you feel you need to ask okay we will be doing presentations as those plans unfold okay um that's it we're going to go to committee report so I'm going to pass it to miss m for curriculum and Technology all right so the curriculum and Technology committee met um last week and in attendance were Dr Conklin myself Miss Greenley Miss Jacobs um Mr Miss bin Miss Jones uh miss and miss Blackman and also miss madaras there were a lot of us in attendance um just some highlights from the meeting Miss Blackman had proposed adopting a new Elementary counselor curriculum program to ensure that there's consistency across all of the elementary school buildings and one that complements the um the Middle School advisory so after reviewing several programs they landed on a program called counselor collab it's a program that's designed by school counselors it aligns with the American school counselor Association um classroom topics include um kindness respect empathy friendship con conflict resolution and bullying to name a few and we're excited to have this program roll out in our elementary schools soon um another highlight was that our district is exploring options to expand our dual enrollment course offerings so right now our District offers eight courses through fdu seen Hall University and Kane University we're looking to expand the number of courses and our Partnerships so we're looking towards um cwell university and Essex County College um to hopefully build some relationship relationships with them and offer more um dual enrollment offerings so that's exciting news for our high school students and then finally um we're in the early stages of planning for a department of energy lab scientists to visit our fifth graders for an interactive stem uh program uh this program is run through the Princeton plasma physics lab it sounds like a very cool learning experience and our fifth graders will be engaging in that um I think in the spring so lots of exciting things that's it great thanks again and then uh just finally we had a shared services meeting um the Board of Education the West cwell Council representatives from the West pwell Council and representatives from the calwell council we met on October 18th from 5:00 to approximately 5:32 in room 105 at James cwell high school um in attendance were Dr Conlin Brian McCarthy myself Mr Dan bua and Chris Marcel who is our facility supervisor a b big shout out to Mr Marcel he is amazing we are very blessed as a district to have him leading the Helms of our buildings he knows them inside and out and he is so well respected amongst both townships so it's it's very beneficial to have him in those meetings um for West Caldwell we had councilman walski councilman helic and council president doov um and for Caldwell councilman Brown and councilman denowitz were in attendance um we discussed Dr Concklin discussed with the West Caldwell because it it falls into their purview providing a crosswalk for Ravine in Grey Street um councilman helic noted that Ravine is a county road so they were going to speak to the county as well as to the West cwell Police Department we'll get follow up on that um we are going to join one of our shared services with the township of West cwell is our grass cutting bid Mr Marcel did express interest in rejoining that bid we're about to go out to bid for that so we will be part of that again um and then finally the Harrison school project when will the Harrison field be done that is the question but it is getting done yes it is councilman hel adic um informed us that the um total amount for the project is going to be a little bit over $2 million the uh transformer for that project to begin started will be installed in December and based on weather hoping to break ground between winter and spring so um hopefully let's fingers crossed by 2025 we'll have a a nice turf field at Harrison school and thank you to both townships I know that Caldwell reallocated money um to West Caldwell for that to happen um we're very very grateful for our Partnerships with both townships and then I think that's it yeah we're going to have our next meeting sometime in January um we've really been very diligent about meeting with the townships four times a year and so very very Again part of our gratitude celebration very very grateful to both councils for their support of the Board of Education in our school system and I think that'll do it for committee reports right do you want to mention the thank you my goodness Danielle thank you yes yes well I'll start um I had uh I was at the high school play this weekend it was amazing fantastic we have such talent um at our high school level and obviously now after seeing the presentation tonight it starts here so I think that just reiterates why these programs are so important for our school to Foster um it was wonderful everybody I enjoyed it thoroughly I'm excited for foot loose in the spring so me too yeah me too I know my my 17-year-old was in the play and probably is throwing something at the computer screen right now that I didn't say it so thank you Danielle um yes but it was Peter and the star catcher Mr bobish our High School director did a wonderful job it was fast-paced it was fun it really was the story of how Peter Pan became Peter Pan the kids did an amazing job they are so so talented even just from the stage crew to the scenery right Danielle um and and the performances themselves Foot Loose should be awesome and exciting that's going to happen in March I please encourage everyone please support our kids we're always we pack the stands at the football games but we don't pack the the crowd was light this weekend and it's tough I know it's it's Thanksgiving the weekend before Thanksgiving but we really need to get out there and show them an audience um we're going to Hopefully Dr Conlin have them come perform at a board meeting for foot loose and you know and get the community excited and really come out and support them I think as we see there has to be it's wonderful Mr Berto I mean you have the Marvel Club all these there's there's niches for every child right every child Isn't So mainstream right and we have to have opportunities for every child to shine and grow so let's make just sure as a community that we support the whole child in that way so great anybody else have any comments anything good okay so then we're going to move on and kind of blow through this a little bit let's me do I have a motion to approve the minutes please I'll make a motion okay and do I have a second a second okay Brian can we take the roll when you're ready yes Mr Martini yes Miss Mack yes Mr dimola yes M Gro yes 4 Z motion carried okay we're going to move into the public comment portion of the meeting this will be on agenda items only we have a small group so I'm only going to read our preface statement once knowing that it applies to this com public common session as well to the one at the end of the meeting so public participation shall be governed by the following the participant must be recognized by the presiding officer and must preface comments by an announcement of their name and address statements are to be limited to three minutes duration participant may speak no more than once on the same topic until all others who wish to speak on that topic have been heard all statement shall be directed to the presiding officer boards use the public comment period of the meeting as an opportunity to listen to Citizen concerns but not to debate issues or enter into a question and answer session or a cross-examination between the public and individual members be aware that not all issues brought before the board this evening will be resolved boards May respond to public comment by seeking additional information or by delegating the authority to investigate the issue to the superintendent or his designate the presiding officer May interrupt warn turn a participant's comments if it exceeds the allotted time or is objectively obscene participants may be civil liable for any obscene defamatory or slanderous statements made during public comment so at this portion in time does anyone have anything to say about items on the agenda only okay all right great then we're going to move on to um different so curriculum and Technology sure um a motion upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools a motion to approve items a through K under curriculum and Technology on this evening's agenda okay and do I have a second I'll second great Brian can you take the role yes Miss D Martini yes Miss Mac uh yes to everything with the exception of item a number uh 407 I'm going to abstain okay noted Mr deola yes Miss Gro yes 4 Z motion carries okay we'll move on to Personnel uh Personnel upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools motion to approve items a through I under certificated and items A and B under non-certificated uh under non-certificated under Personnel on this evening's agenda great and can I have a second please I'll second Brian can you take the wall please yes Miss D Martini yes Miss Mack yes Mr DM Bola yes Miss Gro yes 4 zero motion carried okay and finance Finance facility uh under the recommendation of the superintendent of schools motion to approve items a through j under finance and items a and item a under facilities on this evening's agenda wait and can I have a second please I'll second and Brian whenever you're ready Miss D Martini yes Miss Mack yes Mr dimola yes M Gro yes 4 zero motion carried and then finally T policy okay upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools motion to approve items A and B under policy on this evening's agenda and a second I'll second and Bri whenever you're ready yes Miss D Martini yes Miss Mack yes Mr deola yes Miss Gro yes okay four zero motion Carri great okay now we'll open up public comments to anything on or off the agenda anything that that anyone would like to come address to the board this evening well that's quiet all right well before we make a motion to enter executive session I'll open it up to any board member that would like to say anything before we close out good no good just want on behalf of the Board of Education want to wish everyone a very Happy Blessed peaceful Thanksgiving just remembering all the turmoil in the world to just take a moment of silence to be grateful for what you have have and to really uh take a moment to think of the people that are suffering all around us okay but Happy Thanksgiving everyone um can I have a motion to close the public meeting and enter into executive session right now at 806 p.m. and go return to the gcms library media center I will make that motion and a second I'll second Brian all right all in favor uh I against nay extensions motion Carri thank you thank you everybody for coming thank you