Okay, good evening. We're gonna call our meeting to order and could you please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance. Correct. Who is? Okay, Mrs. Sugars, could you call the roll please? Mrs. Sheriffane here. Mrs. Gallagher here, Mr. Greenbaum. Yes, Mr. Mayor. Dr. Rood here. Mrs. Here, Ms. Stern. Here. Okay. We have a few items. For board recognition tonight. So just very briefly, I first wanted just wish folks who celebrate a happy lunar new year. Cause it's lunar New Year this past weekend and also recognize, African-american. History month. Make sure I get everything right. I'm sorry if I Double check all my making sure I get it on my right. Okay. And I also want to make an exciting announcement we have chosen. Our ninth board member. So I want to recognize. Quizzia at Nyaz. I hope they said your name right and congratulate you. So I want us all to be warm. Congratulations. So, Ms. Neaz is in the process of getting everything situated that is required for us to get situated before you can be sworn in. And as soon as that has been completed. You will be able to be sworn in, so I just wanna congratulate you and we're very all very excited to serve with you. Absolutely. So, thank you. And I know we have some fantastic presenters tonight. So I'm gonna turn this over to Dr. Martin. Absolutely. Thank you very much, Ms. Stern. We are very fortunate tonight to be grace with the presence of several multi-alented, outstanding young people from high school east accompanied by Miss Heather Locker. And the wonderful cast members of Mean Girls who are here tonight to do a preview of one of their numbers. The show opens up March first. And they're here tonight to preview that for us. So Miss Locker, you can come to the microphone and if. You can set up this number and then also I'm going to ask you before. They're done for them to introduce themselves, they can tell us what part they're playing as well. They can tell us what part they're playing as well. They can tell us what part they're playing as well. You've got, well, I'll let them do all of the talking Okay. Good evening, everyone. My name is Charlotte Lemair. I play Katie Heron and I'm here with a lot of the cast tonight. If they would like they could introduce themselves. We also thought it might be a little quicker because there are a few of us here if I just quickly ran through it. So over here is Ever Garcia. He plays Aaron Samuels. Right over there is us for Aslam. She plays Mrs. Norbury and then kind of scattered throughout. We have a lot of the featured teenagers who have like a lot of lines, solo seeing everything. We also have Karen joining us who is Natalie Borowski right down there. We have, we have Emma Grazer, she's playing Janice. And we have so many amazing kids here. So just wanted to do us. Thanks. Oh, and please come support us the first 2 weekends of March. It's gonna be great. So. Great. Hi, chapter one, limits and their properties. Now what the heck are a limits? Okay, well, if I write up the equation, the limit as x approaches one of x plus 2. Now the function is what we're taking the limit of. Not just yet, but x equals 3. Yeah. Right, actually. Okay, let's try another one. Find the value of K. First's always going to exist. Now for the limit to exist, we need to cross x minus 3. Tables nigger 3. Yeah. Damn, girl. Wow. Are you trying to make the rest of us feel dumb? I'm not trying to, it's just happening. Okay. Okay, you look just like how JRs been got better when the bronchit When I saw it, I fell in love. This piece for guys Soul. It's made him laugh, which made me. But. My third. Yeah. Come see Good. Okay. Thanks. For me there to bring me joy. Thank you, Now, me, you, like someone who's even peace like And, Hi, hi, I want to text I want to carry it so I've been with I can get it now. 2 over 0 is under vine. Thanks. Hi, I'm sounded and I'm lost. Come on, let me just take away that gun. It's not. Now there's me It's also safe ! But I can get it Watch this So I can That is Just way Joshua Learning, Yeah. Alright, same on any of us who don't go see it. It was all I have to say. You guys were amazing. Thank you all so much. We appreciate your coming out tonight to work. You sure you don't want to stay? The meetings are riveting. I promise, I promise. Okay, okay, and probably do a little homework. Thank you guys. We'll see you at school. Alright, the rest is all downhill. So just don't have any expectations. Yeah. Thank you for arranging that. All right, we are moving on to administrative reports. Don't believe we have any tonight, Dr. Morton. Okay, so the dates of the shows that we can announce? You said she just said it was the weekend. The first weekend in March? We do. Yeah. March. First, second and third and then eighth. Ninth and tenth as well. Yeah, it's good. It means hopefully, yeah, you bring your girls, right? It's great. Okay, so now we go into correspondence. That's a really good segue, Mrs. Winters. I'm putting on the spot for correspondence because you know, shows, shows that our Yeah, I was actually just going back through my calendar because I feel like it's been forever since we've had a meeting and so many things have happened. But I think the first thing I want to talk about is Romeo and Juliet at West. Which we both saw, Mr. And I went on Saturday night. And it was spectacular. It was really great. I brought my freshman with me because he's just doing the port right now for Shakespeare, which as Thank you. I can't say anything about it. That's great. Okay. Okay. So that was a really neat thing to do. With Nick and rhyming to the first graders. They were into it, they liked it. So that was cool. I got to go to the Jazz showcase last night at Rosa. Dr. Morton was there with me. It was, it's such a neat night because you get to see the jazz bands of all 3 middle schools and both high schools perform together in the round. Which is neat. So the the bands all face each other and they each play 15 min of music and it rotates around. So I was reflecting on it and what I was thinking is it's such a cool moment because it's a moment where the schools come together and support and collaboration. Rather than competition. I mean, I, I love sports. You all know I love football and it's great. But sports are by nature competitive. Last night felt as I watched the kids cheer for each other as they were doing solos. It just felt so collaborative and supportive. It's nice to see the middle schoolers aspire to be in one of the high school jazz bands. It's nice to see the high schoolers return. To see the middle schoolers. Whether they went to Rose or or back or Kurusi, all the bands are there. It's cool to see the band directors collaborate with each other. It was cool to see our new coordinator of music there. Leading the charge I'd have to give a shout out to Ms. Market Rosa who coordinates it every year. It's just such a great time. So and y'all know I'm a sucker for jazz music, so I was in jazz bands in high school, so it was kind of my thing. I loved that. And then I got to also go to both high school open houses. I went to West with Miss Sheriffin and then east with Miss Gallagher. Alan Joel, sorry, Joel. But Joel, Well, Joel's always at West, so at this point I feel like, do we notice anymore? No, just kidding. I'm kidding, Joel. Both phenomenal high school open houses. Really need to see everybody there. Some of the middle school principals also attended, which was nice to see. Then there to support their middle schoolers their eighth graders will be rising ninth graders checking out both high schools Each high school shined, which was wonderful and amazing to see. The unique and special things that make each high school a home to the students that go there and the pride of the high school students in their schools was evident to see. As they communicated that to the eighth graders so just you know really really good all really good stuff I had a great 3 weeks is what I'm saying Well, thank you. Mrs. Alright, so, Mrs. Winters mentioned that we went to the eighth grade night at east. Last Wednesday, the Camden County Educational Services Commission met. And new members were sworn in and the biggest part of the, agenda was that we passed the budget. We should take a note. Their meeting lasted about like 30 min. So, and this was a long, this was a long meeting. So, But yeah, so the major, the major part of, of the, of the meeting was, approving the budget for the calendar year. I did a offer to sit on the transportation committee for the commission. And I look, I look forward to learning more about the complicated topic of busing. Last. Thursday, Mr. Greenbaum and I. Joined the Beck PTA meeting. The executive team gave overviews of various events going on at back. Dr. Morton and Mrs. Metzger answered questions submitted by parents. Not that I am part of the Beck PTA, but if any back parents are listening, it was mentioned that the Beck TTA needs executive members for next year in fundraising and as a treasurer. So if anybody listening is interested, they can contact the Beck PTA president. So thank you. Great. Any other board members have correspondence? Mr. Greenbaum. Thank you. Aladd, I joined Mrs. Gelger at the Beck PTA meeting. I don't have much to add other than thank you very much to the Beck PTA for having us. It's really great to join you and hear about the great things going on there. Thank you to Dr. Morton as well who fielded everyone's questions and didn't leave much for us to answer, which was okay and definitely appreciated. I also want to mention fair funding committee. This was almost a month ago. But the last fair funding committee, we talked about focusing on what the district has accomplished over the last few years, increased state funding year over year, all of the grants and other funding streams that we've received. And using that as part of our outreach to lawmakers. As budget season approaches hoping for the same or better funding later this month and I'll give a plug. I believe Thursday this week is the next fair funding meeting. Hopefully, Ms. Jarres can. Provide some additional details later and If anyone's interested in joining, I believe it's Thursday. Thank you. Thank you. Any other board members have? You already said that I was at Rem and Juliet. That's all I got to this time. Very impressive. We have a really thriving. We, a performing arts program in our district and I was very sad to miss the jazz showcase last night. Truly an amazing event so Alright, we will now move on to our first public comment. There are 2 opportunities for public comment this evening. The first public comments section is for board action items only, items 17 through 20. And there will be another public comment section for any topic at the end of the meeting related to our school district operations. If you are a student in the district, you may comment now. Or then, either public comment session on any topic related to our schools. So you have a lot more free than the adults in that way. Please identify yourself as a student. If you'd like to speak. So we know to call on you first if you're online or if you're in the room and you'd like to speak please come to the podium first. If you'd like to speak now, please identify the agenda item and clearly state your name and municipality. For the adults, we will alternate, alternate between speakers here in the room and those who are online. Each speaker will be given a maximum of 3 min to speak. The timer on the screen will indicate the amount of time you have remaining. Public comment is enough opportunity for members of the community to comment on matters relevant to the operations of Cherry Hill Public School District. Or within the authority of the Terry Hill Board of Education. The board welcomes diverse opinions on relevant matters. Under established federal law governing reasonable restrictions on speech and public forms. Statements which demean individual community members or groups. Where we are irrelevant to the operations of the school district or our repetitive will not be permitted. Community members who would like to present information not relevant to the school district are always welcome to communicate directly to the district superintendent board president and all board members via email or other alternative means. Okay, and we will start with you. If you are a student, okay, so if you kindly say your name and your municipality, which for a lot of people is Terry Hill, may not be yours. Yeah, Matt Bercury, Cherry Hill. I just wanted to touch a little bit on the issue of class rank at Cherry Hill East. We've been discussing potentially removing class rank. This has been a point of contention for a lot of students and I'm sure a lot of community members alike, especially those who are involved with the Cherry Hill community, Cheryl East community. One thing that we really touched on particularly in our school newspaper East Side, we ran a double truck story on, particularly in our school newspaper East Side, we ran a double truck story on what this might entail and what some of the ramifications of removing class rank might be. We ran a double truck story on what this might entail and what some of the ramifications of removing class rank might be. One thing In the current senior class, there are 25 people with a 7.0 GPA and the way the GPA system works if those students were to maintain that 7.0 GPA, they would all be labeled valedictorian at the graduation ceremony. With that in mind, there are a lot of students who have taken one class that isn't qualifiable for that 7.0 GPA. So if you take an accelerated level class as opposed to an honors class, that's weighted as a 6. That immediately eliminates you from that running. I know a lot of people who are in that position and they're 20 eighth in the class simply for taking one easier class or those students who have one B and they're 20 sixth in the class. So it's pretty unfair essentially to a lot of these students. We also discussed disparities in course difficulty between different teachers. So particularly in certain AP level classes, there are teachers who assign a lot more work than other teachers. They grade a lot more harshly than other teachers and this results in disparity and difficulty in those courses thus these students are unfairly receiving lower grades and a lot of what this conversation and this discourse has centered around is removing class rank altogether rather than. Jumping through all of these hoops to tweak the GPA system. If we keep the GPA system as is, it will encourage students not to feel pressured to go for that 7.0 GPA solely for the title of valedictorian and they might be more encouraged to take classes that they're interested in, regardless of how those are weighted. So a lot of people will take weighted more difficult classes solely to boost their GPAs and it kind of detracts from students taking classes that they're interested in. So essentially what we've come to conclude at East Side and what a lot of students have concurred with is that we might as well just remove the system of class rank because it will. Better impact, these students who feels so pressured or so upset by the fact that they're not. They take one class that isn't waited at a 7.0. They make one mistake and they immediately lose that validatory entitled. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for coming to our podium and speaking tonight and I know Dr. Morton is taking. Notes. So I'm sure there'll be some follow up. Thank you. Okay, we go to the line now and, I don't see any student hands up online, so I'll go to the first non-student hand and it's a phone number that ends in 7, 8, 8. If you would please state the item, the action item you are speaking on tonight and your name and municipality. My name is Jeff Potter once and I live in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. This is 17.6 resolution authorizing submission and acceptance of the advanced placement. Of the advanced placement and IB chorus expansion grant. Please Google that. Google, Google search and I'm kind of reading from what I when I search that online of this from the from the DOE. 9.1. Please advise that per the open public record act all applications for discretionary grant funding received September first 2,003 or later. Will will be matters of public record and be available to public of members of the public on request. That's important. That means we can. To a request for that. 11.3, listen closely as part of this application process, LEAs, that's you, the school board, school administration, please outline how the training of additional staff to teach APRIB. No. Sorry, Mr. Potowitz, just I want to make sure you're sticking to item 17 to 20, or is that what you're referring? Okay, I apologize. I apologize. Keep going. This is this is yes this is the exact this is This is when you, this is when you go to the website and find it. Staff to teach APRIB courses will result in one or more of the following, expanding their current APR IV programming to New Jersey disadvantage and high need student populations. Students with disabilities are included in this. These student populations. There, this is about increasing access to AP and IB classes. To do that with students of disabilities. Okay. Our school district. Has to provide support for those students with disabilities. In those classes and also other classes. Before that to level the playing field so that they can qualify for these A, P and IB courses. They also have to drive supports an example of support is in-class resource to accommodate these these students in these courses these AP and IB courses and the courses before that I'm not so sure that's happening in Cherry. I'm not sure that the playing field is being leveled for these students and I think the something that needs to be done if you want to expand the amount of students with disabilities that are taking these AP courses. Thank you very much. And I think that needs to be considered that it's not just this. But it's other things that need to be done for these students. Okay, we go back to the room. Oh, we have another student. Name and municipality, please. I'm Matthew Dellas Cherry Hill, another Matt from East Side and Sherry, least. I'd just like to speak in support of everything that Matthew Burke just said. With insideside, we have a 37 member board and on top of the double truck story that we released, we released an editorial. And that means that 37 all 37 people on the board agreed with the message that we put across with that editorial. And our message was that we believe that class rank should be abolished. Now, in interviewing multiple, senior students who aren't tracked to become valetorian, a number of them actually said. Oh, I'm in favor of abolishing class rank. And when the people who are being honored by this this system say that this is a system that should be abolished. I think that really speaks to the fact that this is a system that is not truly there in its allocation of that honor and not truly fair and how people achieve that rank. So. On top of that idea if people who are not validatorians and people who are valorians are feeling this way about the system, who is it really benefiting? The one thing that I will say is that it is good to honor those students who have excelled academically and have performed so well throughout their time at any high school. But I think you can do that at the end of their time at high at the high school, honoring them at graduation rather than releasing these updating rankings because those don't truly help them. It really just creates a toxic sort of competition. Where people are worried about where they fall. Within the other within the other students in their class when they really should just be worried about themselves doing the best that they can in their classes, maintaining the best grades they can in their classes. And not worried about where that means, where that means they're placed within the other students. And then those at the top of their class can still be honored at the end of the year at graduation and receive that sort of honor. That's pretty much it. Thank you. Thank you, Matt. We really appreciate your speaking as well. We go back to the line. There are 2 names. I just want to make sure that neither of you are, well one I know is not a student. The other, I'm not sure you don't know your name, so I apologize. If you are a student, please make sure to put an S after your name so I can call on you first. But. Neither has an S after their name, so I'll go next to Harvey Vasquez. If you could please state your name, your municipality, and the item on our action agenda that we are you are speaking about. Mr. Vasquez, I think you've unmuted, but if you could please we can't hear you if you're speaking. Okay, I think we'll go back to the room and Mr. Vasquez if you'd still like to speak if we'll come back to you. Basket as if you'd still like to speak if we'll come back to you. So you'll ask you maybe to raise your hand again. Oh, wait, there you go. Let's try. I'm sorry. This is sugar. I'm sorry. I think we can try again. Mr. Vasquez, go for it. If you could please state the action item you're speaking about and then your full name and municipality. Okay, we'll try a third time after this. I'm going to go back to the room. I apologize. I can't hear you. So perhaps you'll try to call in again. Does anyone, excuse me, would like to speak in the room? Please approach the podium. Please state the action item you're speaking about and then and your name and your municipality. Hello, my name is Constantly. I'm from Collingswood but I do have young grandchildren here in Cherry Hill. I'm speaking tonight on the issue of the standards based climate change education for K through 12 action items. It's in the 17. Funding for standard space climate change. Is that tonight? Okay, yeah. Thank you. First off, I take no issue with the topic per se. I really don't. My questions point to the issue. I raised a few weeks ago about balanced content in our coursework, diving into controversial topics and possibly presenting one position without the benefit of students learning how to think and reaching their own conclusions. Some of the courses courses I question are on the books and this one is new, so maybe now is the time to address the usage of funds. I raised 3 questions. What is standards-based climate education? This is new. The topic is the course of studying K through 12, I believe is new. And topics like this used to be couched under current events or possibly in physics. Civics and what is standards based and whose standards? Science evolves as dictated by the scientific method to continually question. There are many aspects to what degree climate change is dangerous to humans. For example, in September, some 1,600 scientists, including a Nobel laureate, signed a petition challenging the seriousness of the predicament for humans. With will all perspectives be considered in standards-based? We have in our back backyards here in Cherry Hill at the beach. Why are windmills at the Jersey shore which interrupt our ecosystem largely accepted and being pushed through in Jersey legislation. In other words, while our students give an opportunity to do their own research and be led to rather than be led to fate conclusions. Second, will this be incorporated into a science class or are you entertaining a separate class? If the latter, what is being taken out of the curriculum to accommodate it, accommodating current events means important core academic courses are getting short drift. Students have a full plate, climate change does not need separate attention in K through 12 coursework. However, if you're going to accept funds, I urge you to cut them back. Couch the topic in junior senior level science along with current events under civics or in science. Use the funds for course materials that provide debate and opposing viewpoints. Charge students with doing the research. Use the funds to sponsor a debate night with pizza. A great format for upper grades, challenging students to think, research, and arrive at their own opinions. I urge you to dispel notions of a separate elect, of course. Maybe you're not, but I don't know that. And not to offer much thought, opinion, money, or direction. Let the students do the research. They know the internet better than all of us. In closing, this comment pertains to my concern for age-appropriate balanced content with opposing perspectives presented and not leading our students on topics of controversy to a singular viewpoint. Maybe I'm the one jumping to conclusions, but I really don't know where you're going with it, but get balanced content has been questioned. Thank you for other courses. Thank you. Mayan, we're up here. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your for your comment. You can come back to second public comment if you if you'd like to speak during that time. Get a second chance then. Okay, we go to Harvey Vasquez. I'm hoping that your audio and microphones working. Yes, hi, can you hear me now? I'm sorry. You know, that's fine. Yes, please. If you could just date the item you're speaking about, item 17 through 20 and your full and your full name and municipality please. Yes, thank you. Harvey Basket, Cherry Hill. The following comment is on behalf of the Trevi Hills Special Education PTA. And I am delivering it as an executive board member of said PTA. I would like to address topic 7.17 point 6 and 19.1 of the board agenda. 17.6. Based on the document that we have read on the 17.6 there are no current ICR classes for EP honors or IP classes. Chaceta would like to know on the 11.3 of said document, how will the district comply with the grant for children with disabilities. Oh, 19.1. Chisepta has noticed that there are many special education vacancies are occurring in 19.1. How will the district fill these positions without disrupting the education of our students in special education? I must note these educators are also providing compensatory education. Changes to structured education services do not bode well for children with disability. And this results in adjustments. That may take weeks for our students to adjust to. Is the district reaching out to the parents of those affected with ample time for parents to assist with this transition both in school and compensatory services. Finally, what is the requirement for the teachers filling those vacancies that they are not permanent replacements? To ensure our students are not receiving a sub-part. Education compared to their general education peers. Thank you. Okay. And we go back to the room. Anyone else would like to speak in our first public comment? And our action items, if you would like to speak, please approach the podium. Why? You could please say the item you're speaking about between item 17 to 20 and your name and municipality. My name I live in Cherry Hill on Sheridan. My name is Al Harvey. I'm here because my son's a Student at Chry Hill West and I want to know why there is no shop classes. Okay so you can speak about any item related to our schools in our second public comment, which comes at the end of our meeting. So if you just come back at that point, thank you. And we go back to the line. And I don't see any hands online looking back in the room. Nobody's at the podium in the room and I'm gonna close our first public comment. I'm sorry. There is a hand online. Gonna reopen public comment for the first hand that just came up. I would. And the name is I believe Rakhana Mohan. If you could, it looks like you're a student. Thank you for putting us after your name. If you could please. So your full name and municipality. Hmm. Right, my name is Raja Mahan. I'm not really sure which, I'll be talking about but as both Matt's emphasize, ESI did a full valedictorian spread. And, in the spread that we found. A lot of students are very, very unhappy with their ranking system employed at East and I and many other students emphatically encourage the board to abolish class rank. At east it is a highly competitive environment and to be fully immersed in their environment for 4 years is very, very taxing. Just an exact as an example. I moved to the district, my freshman year. I have, I've tried my best and take in every high-level course except one which was math. I have an approximate 6.9 GPA. There are 23 valedictorians in junior year, but not only will I not be ranked second, I will be round 20 fourth. Not only is that unfair but it really is robbing me of my academic standing in a very competitive school and I find that to be the case for a great many people. And in that valedictorian spread If you read it, the board will find that a lot of students feel that they're being robbed of their academic standing. So there are 2 things that can be done. Either turn the system on its head and move to a 5.0 scale which is Not only more accurate, but would make a tremendous amount of students extremely happy or you have to abolish class rank to eliminate that stress. That's just my personal view. And I really emphatically. Encourage the board to consider this as both previous students have said before. Thank you so much, for your comments and for calling in. Okay. Looks like. We might have another student public comment. Is that am I am I getting that right? Okay. Oh, thank you. Just your full name and municipality, please. I'm Natasha Bailey. I'm from Cherry Hill. And, I think the class rink. Conversation is really interesting. We have a similar conversation that West. I remember last year we had a meeting with Dr. Milosh at the time who was a superintendent and he we spoke on the situation of class rank and a lot of students there either who have graduated, they have spoken on wanting to get rid of it. But most interestingly, like, I remember recounting the conversation in class, the next day or 2 and then I know one of the valedictorians at the time like she overheard me she stopped taking her test she put the pencil down she turned his pale as it goes and she was like oh my god no and she was like horrified at the concept of them taking away the rank system which goes to show how much stress it's like giving people who's, I mean, she's a genius. I mean, like, my god. I'm like, it's like a number. And I'm very close with 2 other valor experience this year. I know one of which. For both of them, actually, it's caused them to have like strain relationships with their parents for like pushing them towards it even when they don't really want to. A close friend of mine is actually about to get a B in AP bio so he can get away from the competition. Because it's so hectic. And it's from someone who's also a transfer student I came to West by freshman year. My guidance counselor recommended me for an A-level class. Based on my middle school transcript so that decision was made for me. I was out of the standing of a freshman. Like, so. People like assume that I'm in the position and I'm like no not really like I had one guyance counselor in freshman year take that opportunity away from me. And I do think, and the discrepancy between like the validatorings is interesting because like I said The person I mentioned like a genius and then we have like other ones who like. Cheat through everything. So it's like, so it's a really weird dichotomy of who because you max out at a 7 of like the people who get that honor and the people who don't, it gets very, very smart people I know will never come near having that position. So I think it's, it's an interesting conversation to have and we should move forward to it. And I think West agrees with. What you guys are saying. Thank you. Thank you so much. So great to hear your view and also to hear specifically your view at our other comprehensive high school. Which hasn't this first time we've heard that represented tonight here from a student from West. So thank you. You guys are very courageous students, all I have to say. All of you, thank you. For the record, I was a solid B student and I only I never took honors classes. So 2 APs. That was it. Okay. No one really cares about my high school record, but we're being right along. Alright, I think we're gonna close public comment. I don't think there's anybody else here We move on to our board work session. And I will ask Mrs. Winters if you could kindly provide the CNI committee report. I would be happy to. So CNI committee met to receive 2 presentations. I'm the first presentation and just. If anybody's interested in the presentations, they have been posted on our board website. I'm sorry, district's website. Click on board of education and look under presentations. The full presentations that the committee received are there for anybody who wants to view them to view them. I'm just going to give a quick summary tonight, but all the information is there for you. So the first presentation was given to us by Ms. Christie Blondeto, who is the CNI supervisor for secondary math and science. She gave us a presentation on the secondary math curriculum changes that have taken place. Beginning all the way back in the 2020 21 school year. And provided information on proposed changes to seventh grade math for September of 24. So this coming September. So she presented on changing the seventh grade math course to an accelerated 7 and 8 eureka math squared course. Which will be, which will give us the ability to offer all students taking seventh grade map the opportunity to master both seventh grade standards and eighth grade standards. The idea is that this will support both the cohort of students that are going into Algebra One as eighth graders and actually hopefully boost that number of students taking algebra one as eighth graders, but also give additional support to those students who are continuing to take eighth grade math and eighth grade, the eighth grade math course. It will better support those students, those who are taking eighth grade math because they will have previewed and learned a majority of the eighth grade standards. Seventh graders. So when they come into the eighth grade course, they will directly support their algebra readiness in ninth because they will be looping those standards again and it will be reinforced and get them more ready for algebra. I wanted to mention as well that this is directly linked to the mild students of achievement that we put in the district goals, which had to do with algebra readiness and it is also directly linked to the conversation that was previously had with the NJSLA data where the CNI committee had a lot of questions. About that cohort of students, which is I think about 40% of students who are taking eighth grade math as eighth graders and looking to really help those students achieve as highly as they can and get ready for high school algebra and the classes going forward. One thing I did want to raise, which links to some of the comments that were just made in first public comment about supporting students of special education. Is that all students will be supported during this change. So there's going to be a focus on differentiated instruction, which will create the curriculum that is accessible for all students with opportunities for both remediation and enrichment. And that there has been collaboration with the special ed supervisor, ICR and resource room teachers and planning and professional development. And the committee was very intentional in asking questions to make sure that special education students were considered and included as part of this conversation. And they'd be able to access the course material so that they can participate in this accelerated course as well. And as I mentioned before, again, this is just a very brief synopsis. Miss Ploneto did a fantastic job explaining the full presentation is available for you to view with lots of graphics that explain it better than I ever could on the district website. So that is the summary of that presentation. She also did touch on the other big change that's coming, which we've discussed previously, which is the math pathway courses that are being implemented in the fall, which may be the thing that people like the most that we've ever done. I think that might be true. Because that's also coming for September, the 20 fourth. So to summarize 2 big changes in 6 to 12 math. Seventh grade math is going to be a 7 8 accelerated course and then math pathway courses at the high school and then at the kicking it backwards towards the elementary level. We're also going to be fully implementing Eureka Maths Squared. So for everybody who's been listening and playing along at home. This is a combined effort from the administration with the committee work in support. To really look at how we're teaching math and Cherry Hill and how we support all students going forward. And I'm really excited to see the results of all of this hard work that the administration has done on math this year. So that is the first presentation. The second one had to do was given to us by Miss Allison Staffan. Who is the CNI supervisor for ELA and social studies and it had to do with community service and service learning opportunities, which is something I'm very interested in having been a youth minister for a decade and very steeped in. Service learning. She discussed the differences between community service and service learning and how we're transitioning from just community service projects. Individualated projects on a topic to a service learning model. And the difference is that service learning, ties learning experience to the community service opportunity. So it's not just a one-off everybody bring a can in. It has to do with tying that to a learning experience to the curriculum so that kids have a deeper understanding of what they're doing and why. They can work on real-life challenges and reflect on the challenges and their core values. What I love about this is that it's experiential and interdisciplinary. I feel like there's a lot of value in students applying the skills that they learn in a variety of courses and getting to stretch their wings with collaboration and real world problem solving together. I really think that moving forward, the work that we do together as a team, that team building, being able to stretch your mind being able to collaborate and problem solve together resolve conflict together. Those are skills that will benefit our kids going forward towards graduation and whatever they choose to do beyond our school district. There's also going to be opportunities expanding with internships and job shadowing. So that students can explore career paths and gain practical experience, which I think is key. As kids move towards deciding what path they would like to follow after high school. So again, that is a very brief synopsis. Miss Staffan did a fantastic job going through it all the full presentation is available for all of you to view and your leisure. On the website and if you have any questions you can always email the CNI committee. We are always happy to hear from you. To any other CNI committee members have anything to add? I feel like I use a lot of word to describe what the visual did much better than me, so I do encourage everybody to look at the presentation that will make more sense. Alright, so that was our committee. It was 2 presentations well received. Thank you so much. Thank you. Okay, we move on to Mr. Greenham. Could you please provide the business and facilities report? Thank you. So we're moving into budget season and I believe Mrs. Sugars has presentation to share on where we are with the draft budget. But my microphone and that would be helpful. This is some information that we've already shared with the board just sort of getting our feet wet kind of acclimating ourselves to where we landed in 2324 as we prepare to go into 2425. So one of the things that we had talked about back in December was kind of where our tax levy was as we know tax levy is a significant portion of our budget. And so when we take a look at our general fund tax levy, kind of where we have moved in that. From 2019 20 to 2324 we have had increases in those years. We had a large increase also in 2324 and our debt service fund. A debt service is not a part of our budget in the sense that it was already approved when the referendum was approved, but we do factor it into when we're looking at our numbers and what the tax impact is. So if you look at the total tax levy from 21, 1920. To 2324, you can see that there has been, increases each year. The percentage increase last year was at the full 2% after discussions with the board about the importance of going to the full 2%. And then we can see what the tax impact was. The average assessed home is around $250,000. So it was $104 in the general fund and about $328 in the debt service fund, which was good news because we had predicted that the debt service fund would be around 399. So That's kind of where we're starting off in terms of what the tax levy looks like. We also talk about state aid because that's also the next largest. Factor in our budget. You can see here that our state aid has increased as well over the past couple years. It's almost doubled since 2,01920. Which is good news we're moving in the right direction we're moving in the direction we should have been moving a long time ago. So we've had some significant increases in state aid. We also last year for the first time start in a while started to receive debt service aid. We hadn't seen that since 2,018. And that was because of the bond referendum. And so we saw some. Significant increases over the past couple of years and I'm not making any predictions about this year, but we will find out in a couple weeks what that looks like as well. And then when we look at our total budget, our general fund budget, as you can see, has increased as well. There was a large increase between 2223 and 2324 a lot of that had to do with. Funding that we used in the Capitol Reserve account. We'll talk about that. And then you can see also that our debt service budget, which is just the payment of principle and interest on our bonds was we had a debt service budget for the first time in a long time last year as well. So last year we used a lot of capital in 2324, we used a lot of capital reserve dollars to fund. We had the opportunity to apply for rod grants. Rod stands for regular operating district. We had 5 opportunities to apply for grants. 2 of them were called regular rod grants. Those were for some enhancements that would complement what we're doing with the bond referendum funds. And then the final 3 were for preschool projects. Classroom editions at Malburg classroom editions at Kilmer and then bathroom editions at Malburg. We have preschool classrooms at Malburg that currently do not have bathrooms in them. So this was our 60% share. The state would provide 40% share of the funding and so we were not funded on the first 2. We were funded on the last 3. So we didn't use quite all of this capital reserve money, but we had planned to last year use this funds to provide our local share of those grant applications. So what when we're talking about what it may look like this year in terms of capital reserve projects, we're looking for things that will enhance what we are already doing with a bond referendum or not included in the bond referendum. And so we have a couple things here that, you know, are on our shortlist right now. One being the main entrance enhancement here at Lewis, which we had applied for the rod grant for last year. We have some underground storage tanks that moral crust that need to be removed, back flow preventers. This is a state mandate. We need to do this at several of our schools. And so we are looking to do that project and then. Couple of things that Khrushi and Rosa would be things that would complement what we're already doing with the bond referendum. Some HVAC units for server rooms for our technology and then a fire alarm system at Malburg that needs to be upgraded that was not in the bond. So we're taking a look at things that, certainly will not be spending or allocating 12 million dollars next year, but some projects that will enhance what we're already doing through the bond referendum or things that need to be done. We also have banked cap. We've talked about this as well. Bank cap is money that is it's it's taxing authority that we have set aside. So in the past when we did not go to the full 2% tax levy increase, we can bank that taxing authority. It's on a three-year rolling cycle. You either use it or it expires. So the bank cap that we generated in 2,122, which is about 2.7 million in taxing authority will expire this year if it's not used. And the bank cap generated in a 2223 which is about 1.3. In taxing authority would expire in 2526. Basically what that means is it allows us to go beyond our 2% cap and expand. Our taxing authority with those parts of Okay. So if we talk about, we often talk about how our budget breaks down and we take a close look at our 2324 budget and as we often talk about 70% of our budget is salaries and benefits. We are a personnel driven organization and so a large part of our budget, 70% of our budget is definitely related to personnel, salaries and benefits. Last year, about 6% of our budget was capital reserve. And 24% of our budget fell into the category of other. And so that may sound like a lot of money, but as we have talked about over the past couple of years when we have done budgets. We have talked about really what that breakdown is and what exactly is that other, which makes up just about 61 million dollars. What does that entail and what are we spending that money on? So these are quick numbers, you know, just kind of combing through our 2324 budget and pulling out various categories of expenses just to sort of demonstrate. How quickly and and necessarily this money is spent. So we start out with, $60,962,577 that falls into the other category. And as you can see by the list here, we are quickly spending that money. On things that are necessary. So we pay tuition to add a district placements. That can be for private schools that can be for for the disabled that can be for Camden County Votech. So we, pay, tuition to place our students in other placements. That's a large category. Our largest category is always transportation. So we've seen some significant increases in those costs over the past couple years between drivers and the cost of gas and all of those kinds of things. Substitute teachers 2.8 million dollars budgeted for substitute teachers because whether the teachers show up the kids are still coming. So we need to make sure that we have adequate substitute teachers when our teachers are not well or need can't be here for a day. We also have special education services. We spend significant amount of money in special education, ABA, speech. Audiology, OTPT, all kinds of services that we are providing. So those are that's another significant category. Homeb instruction for students that can't come to school. We do part of that salary and part of that with services. Job coaching. In school nursing services, we saw a significant increase in this category and this is for students who may need a one-to-one nurse or may need a nurse to ride on the bus with them, among other services. So we've seen this significant increase in that category in the last year. We have our professionals. We have our school physician. We need to be audited every year. We have legal fees that we spend every year. And then we have utilities. We spend 3.7 million dollars just to, you know. Keep the heat on, keep the lights on, have internet access and telephone access. Waste removal insurance, 1.7 million dollars in insurance between property liability and student accident insurance. We have a state assessment fee that we pay each year. For rod grants that we have been awarded in the past. Just to make copies. We spend half a million dollars each year just to make copies. Almost 32,000 for postage. We have our New Jersey school boards dues which we have to pay, 27. 1,000 and then just our basic things that we use to protect our district in terms of firewalls and we have to keep things going like Genesis and Blackboard and board docs which we're using tonight. All those kinds of things is about 2.5 million dollars. So once you take those out, we're down to 15 million. And that's about 7% of the budget. So on top of the graph, we have some other categories that we can look at that maybe we have some more flexibility with. Supplies, textbooks, we have furniture maintenance custodial on grounds, our extracurricular in athletics and our professional development. I would say these categories are probably the first categories that we start to look at when we need to make cuts in our budget. So we have those categories as well, which like I said, we have a little bit more flexibility with. And you can see the breakdown here. You know, when we kind of take all of those things out, we've got about 2% of our budget left and that's about 4.5 million dollars and I'm sure there's things that you know, we could have included that, you know, that we didn't categorize here. But so when we talk about, you know, what we really have that we can spend that's. You know, flexible or that or nice to have kind of things. There's a lot of other things that come before we can get to that. So we've talked about this over the past couple of years. I think it's just a good reminder to see that even though we have a very large budget. We also have very large expenses that go with it as well. And then if we look at our budget from a revenue side, you can see here that 75% of our budget is funded by taxes. And 15% of our budget is funded by state aid that state aid number has increased over the past couple years, which is a good thing. This is just the general fund budget. This is not a special revenue. So this is not including some of the grants that we have been talking about. But you can see that we are heavily supported by our tax base. So, what I really want to talk tonight about is timelines because, you know, we are actively working on the budget each day, but. It's kind of, you know, we don't get our state aid figures until the end of February. And so we kind of need those. Numbers in order to kind of finish up our budget. So we're doing our budget update tonight. We know that the governor's address is the fourth Tuesday, which will be February, 20 seventh. We expect our state aid numbers to be released on February 20 ninth. And the problem with that is that we have a board meeting on February, the 20 seventh and we have a board meeting on March, the twelfth. We need to submit our initial budget on March, the twentieth and unfortunately we don't have a board meeting. In that time frame where we would really have an opportunity between getting our state made numbers and submitting our budget to kind of review everything and talk about it. We'll have some opportunity to do that at the BNF Committee meeting, but not with the full board. So we talked at our last BNF committee meeting about scheduling and additional board meeting. Between March 12 and March twentieth in order to have the opportunity discuss the budget on the twelfth. Go back, make any changes that we need to make and then approve it on. The nineteenth before the twentieth deadline. So. I know that you've had lots of extra board meetings and probably would not be looking forward to another one. But unfortunately I think it is the best way to make sure that the board is in a good place and understands what the budget looks like. And then once we get that approved, we submit our budget to the county office. County office has to review our budget. Once we get their approval, we need to advertise that budget and then we can have our public hearing. Public hearing must be held between April 20 fourth and May seventh. And ours is currently scheduled for April thirtieth in that time frame. So that's kind of what we're looking at right now. It's kind of, you know, we're putting the finishing pieces in. We have to wait for those state aid numbers to come before we can finalize everything. And then we can go from there. So, you know, as of the BNF committee last week, they had not released the state budget software. They have released that now, so we are able to start working with that. They also released the CPI, which influences our transportation renewals. So our contractors have the opportunity to renew their contracts within the CPI or we have to put it back out to bid, I think with that CPI we won't have to put a lot back out to bed. So that's good news. We have to finish up our our revenue analysis and we need the state aid figures in order to do that. As superintendents council needs to finish our administrative review, we need to review our additional funding requests that we have received and decide and prioritize those so we can finalize our personnel recommendations and then we need to get our state aid numbers which will come at the end of February. And also a big piece is our health benefit estimates. We typically get those pretty late as well just because it's actually to our advantage to do to wait as long as we can to get those numbers so we anticipate that we will have those numbers by early March. So we're just waiting for a couple more pieces of the puzzle. We have been working. We have all of our current employees into the budget. We have our position control roster done, which we have to submit with our budget. And so we're just waiting for a few more of these pieces in order to finalize everything. And have some pretty robust discussions after February 20 seventh. Alright, is there any questions? Sure. Do you by any chance off the top of your head know the figures for the bank cap in percentage of taxable? Authority? I don't. I don't know that off the top of my head. I would say let's go back and look at that. Yeah, so we know that 2%. Our current tax maybe 2% is 3.7 just about 3.8 million. So it's not quite the full 2%. But I don't know what the number is off the top of my head. This is That it. It shows what we did the previous couple of years. So, the percentage over 2%. Yes, so, 2% of our current tax levy is 3 million. 786,003,786,329. So our bank cap of 2.7. I'm gonna guess would be. One and a half. One Yeah, but no, I don't have that percentage in front of me. Ms. Gallagher. In the list of capital reserve projects, the one, I forget which one it was, but it was like a state mandated. Yes. Sorry, I'm going to question down. Is there like a timeframe that work that work has to be done? Yes, sooner rather than later. Yes. So basically what that is is because we're tied into the. The, you know, the water pipes. We have to ensure that if there was ever a backup here that that wouldn't flow back into. The community water pipes. So it's work that that needs to be done. Just a comment. My very, very rough math, but it looks like. If the busing contracts are transportation contracts, if they were to take the CPI, then we're looking at an additional $813, at least. Just, just to get. Next year's buses. Yeah, so it's always. You know, you try to work with the contractors. The CPI has been very low over the past couple years. This one actually surprised me a little bit, but. You know, if you don't renew, then you're putting it back out to bid and then you don't know what you're going to get. So we're putting it back out to bid and then you don't know what you're going to get. So we typically feel that it's in our best interest to work with the contractors that we currently have. Yeah, and I just think as like we all consider but like our budget like It's almost, I mean, it's just shy of a million dollars just to get the same buses we have this year, next year. Yes, right. So I mean, I just like think like when we think about That's always startling to me and that's just one part of our and we don't know what our health benefits are going to be, right? Right. We have other salary considerations that are in discussion. Like there's just a lot. Yes. And, and we have, and we have mandatory classes because we have students that we need to, that we are mandated by law to have services for so we know. That will be coming as well. Additional classes. So those are additional. I mean, I think pretty quickly. Yeah, we're getting there. So I think I know last year. In previous years, you know. And I think the additional meeting is coming. So. Everyone brace yourself for an additional meeting. Looks like we're, pretty close on that. Firming that up but I think also like, you know, if we're going to do our work well, we really probably have some individual conversations we need to have amongst ourselves in smaller groups because Otherwise, we won't be prepared to do the work in the room, so. I think those probably are. I'm assuming. Greenbaum, you can be targeting us for conversation. Any other questions? Okay, thank you. Alright, so can continue with BNF. Thank you very much, Mr. Sugars, for that presentation. In our committee meeting, being enough discussed the same presentation that we just saw today. State aid numbers are expected at the end of February and I look forward to a good discussion in the March BNF meeting focusing on board and administrative priorities and any funding challenges or lord willing unexpected wind false but we'll see. And as Mrs. Sugars mentioned, will likely have an additional special meeting in March to allow for sufficient discussion of the budget that data is still to be determined and I will defer to Mrs. Stern for for any scheduling of that. We also briefly touched on food service. RFP. The board expressed a desire less year to put out a new RFP for food service with the hope of improving the quality of our food service offerings or at least get out from under the current cost model which puts a lot of restrictions on what we can do with our funds. The timeline is still to be determined, but it sounds like we're likely looking at the time frame after we get through budget season. And looking forward to some of those opportunities there. Leslie, I will go through a construction update with bond construction and capital projects. I'll do my best to keep this brief. This is paired down from about 4 pages of notes, most of which you're just saying things are progressing as expected, which is always good news. So we met with Garrett, representatives from Garrison Architects, New York Constructions, ERI on February, the fifth. Roofing projects have been completed for some time. We're just waiting on close out paperwork and final checks. High School East Stadium. New lights went up in December. We're able to pour the home and visitor bleacher slabs on January, the 20 third with materials for bleachers arrived. February fifth. It's on schedule for completion for the first home game in in this Excuse me. In the spring and we'll keep tracking that. Big thing going on now is construction of APRs. Constructions moving forward at various sites, weather permitting. Lots of mud this past month with all of the snow and rain, but moving forward, concrete pads and site work are done. Moving forward with planning of floors, colors are selected. Each school will have its own logo at center court, which is Kind of exciting and exterior wall panel colors have been selected to match existing buildings. Same thing with metal trim. Roofs things like that. So, lot of good progress there. Next big thing coming up is Karuse. It's gonna be a lot of work going on there over the next 3 years. They had a favorable proposal for a temporary classroom units that have been integrated into plans, lots of work developing the layout and currently doing a deep dive into scope and logistics of aatement. They're going to have some additional crew for summer work. With all that abatement, we're kicking off over the summer when nobody's in the building. And expected to go to New, New Jersey Controller's office. I believe later this month. With Beck looking at redoing the media center flooring that's also to be done this summer starting late June once the school lets out. And as I mentioned lots of other work going on, just wanted to hit the highlights but a lot of good progress and glad to see things moving swimmingly. Alright, with that, any questions? Alright, thank you very much. Okay, thank you. We move on to the human resources. Report. And. As usual, I'm limited in what I can say, but. We did review the job description and updates for. Administrative assistant to superintendent. This is Cohen has been in that job for so long. That. It was hard to even. Imagine that the job description that she originally was under it was even fits for current day current I work so definitely thank you to Mrs. Lieber for taking the lead on updating that and working with Mrs. Cohen and everybody else on that. We also had, some really good discussion about, ongoing efforts for Hiring and also retention, which is also really significant and important. And Mrs. Lieber who is. At the helm this year has really brought in some made some new efforts to connect with our new hire staff and make sure that they're, you know, we're getting good, like a good feedback loop about their experience working in the district. So just lots of proactive efforts with that. So really appreciate that. You know, hiring and retention affects It's 7 obviously 70% of our budget is our personnel. So hiring attendees are really important. Piece for us. You know, we want to always be the district of choice for candidates. There are a lot of moving parts to why people would come to work here and why people want to stay working here. So, you know, just a lot of different efforts from a lot of different angles on both fronts. So, just really want to thank you for that. And then we had some nice ideas from our committee members about. Hiring and how to attract. And make sure, you know, we're attracting and, and retaining our, you know. Our critical human workforce. So. And there was a preschool job fair, which we talked about as well. So, we had some, good candidates come out of that. And that's all I can say. Any comments from committee members? Okay, any comments or questions from board members? Very good. And we move on to policy and legislation, Mr. Mayor. Sure. So this will be a fairly, fairly quick update. There were no legislative updates. At, at last week's meeting. So nothing to review there. We did, bring up, not so much for discussion or review. Just noted that it is budget season. Thank you to Mrs. Sugars for. The presentation she just did so the policies that were on our agenda last week specifically 68 1062 20 and 62 30 all of those or the specific policies. Which place upon all school boards including ours the the requirement that a we have a budget and that we prepare a budget and that the software and forms and guidance directives. That are used are those promulgated by. The commissioner of education. And with, with respect specifically to policy, 68, 10. Financial objectives, that, that we know, and take very seriously the fact that As the board, we, we are stewards of. The finances for the district and that finances are to be carefully considered when constructing a budget. And publishing that but that budget for for the community to review as well together with the fact that there needs to be a specific budget hearing as Mrs. Sugars. Mentioned as well so and there were most importantly, most relevantly, no additions, no revisions. To any of those policies they are exactly as they have been for the last. Over the last several years. We had a very brief discussion. Not really so much of a discussion about the need to address the 2,026, 2,027 calendar. That where we will not be in a position to. To do that or to finalize that until we can see from the state the specific dates. That will be approved for school absences. This this date does. Publish a list they have yet to to publish one for 2627 we'll probably come back to that either in in committee or again in at our next public meeting. The discussion, there was a very short also discussion and and some understanding that that we have had over the course of the last few weeks of the, the importance of expanding, existing school policies to address. More than just what is currently listed, specific policies being most appropriately our HIV policy and our code of conduct policies specifically those are 5,655 12 to include, for instance, I not, not limitation. The types of behaviors that are covered under those policies. Those would include anti-Semitism and it would include Islamophobia as opposed to a brand-new standalone policy. The poly, the policies that we currently have that have always been in place. Cover behavior expected behavior of our of our students in all of our and all of our schools. They don't, however, always specify and it's it's impossible really to specify every particular type of behavior which could be covered but that doesn't mean that we can't look at those and see is there an opportunity to include some additional language in those relevant policies. So that's what we're doing. We're doing that in also, in conjunction with Mr. Green, our attorney. This is, this has been going on for few weeks or so that we're looking at those particular policies. Those 2 I mentioned because they're the ones that are most likely and most appropriate and most comprehensive. Doesn't mean that necessarily the only one. So we'll, we'll take a very broad look. But that was it. There wasn't any specific. Just the description of the policy. No need to go into that in a detail. Any more detail this evening. Finally, because there are a few trips coming up for our high school students which will necessitate. They're missing 2 or more days. Of school. A waiver is required. Specifically right of Reg. 2340 for field trips. Those specific 4 trips are the Cherry Hill West. Baseball team will be traveling in Myrtle Beach for a tournament. They will miss 2 days. Of School Churchill East's team will be traveling to Orlando that will They're gonna miss 3 school days for that trip and then the, the upcoming state competition for DECA, which is, March, fourth, fifth and sixth upcoming. Both Jerry Hill West and Sherry Elise have a number of students that will be competing. And they will miss. 2 or possibly 2 and a half days of school in order to compete represent Jerry Hill. Not just represent their schools but our entire community. I'm looking forward to that one in particular. I'll be judging as well. Just state competition. Because ethics does not allow me to judge any Cherry Hill students. I can't do that. But I'll be rooting for you nonetheless. That covers the agenda or did I miss any other P and L members any issues that I did not bring up? Good. Any questions? Any other questions from board members? Yes. So those absences traditionally are covered by spring break. Is that the case? So we're waving that because they or not necessarily. Yeah, yes, that's correct. Yes. So the the West trip takes place during the spring break but the last 2 days wouldn't be covered in. By spring break children from east will be observing the holidays during that time so they couldn't go during that. Time to ethical during another time. Okay. Okay, that is it for Piano. Okay. And. Dr. Rood, can you please give the report out for strategic planning? For this should be pretty short. The first item we, lid triggers give a brief update on the demographics study. So the demographic study, this has been done in the past in the district. Through a demographer, Dr. Grip. So many of us have seen the previous rip report. This demographic study is to kind of study you know where people are in the district and figure out kind of how the population is. Is currently how it is present and how it's changing. So Dr. Griff is in the middle of that study. He's been currently reaching out to the township for housing and building information. There's a little, I won't call it. Not a problem, it's a little bit of a hiccup with with trying to figure out how to account for the preschool students in the district since there it's a little bit more complex because they don't have like a simple explicit sending. Sending zone so that makes it a little bit more complicated so administrations working with Dr. Grip to figure out how to accurately count and and predict preschool student. Populations. Next we got a up date from Barbara Wilson on the communications audit. So this is This is a major undertaking for the district, the communication audit. Looking at all things communication. So that might be, you know, how things are communicated out to parents or how things are communicated internally between. Administration and teachers, the website, all kinds of avenues for how information is shared and disseminated with within the district and with the district in between district and community. So there have been, there have been surveys that have been out and hopefully people have been filling out those surveys and sending them in the more information we get the more comprehensive a look we can take at what we currently have and the better recommendations for changes we can get from. From the company that is completing the survey for us. Let me see, sure. Let me see, so this has been advertised on Genesis and on posters throughout the district and at the library. So if you're looking for information on that survey those the places to find that. Township will also send out reminders. Focus groups are going to be meeting on February, the 20 first and 20 s. And a team of 7 people from NSPRA which is the the audit firm are currently working on the audit. See, sustainability committee met on February, the first. There, there just now beginning to put together their comprehensive sustainability plan. So a lot of, lot of work to go and some big things to comes that's. We're looking forward to seeing more of that. As it develops throughout the spring. See, in all the new business, Mr. Mayor and Gallagher shared a state of the district report from another school district report from another school district report from another school district just showing kind of. Different ways the schools you school districts use to disseminate information and to kind of. Share the highlights of the highlights and the details and kind of like an info. Info pamphlet about how how things are progressing. And we discussed that. And other ways to communicate. All the great things that go on in the district to the community as much as we can try to do that at the microphone here at our meetings. We don't always have the largest viewership, so it'd be nice to have other other avenues to share share the good news. And that pretty much does any questions? Okay. Nope. Just a, update, which I think you would have seen as well, but. The Mrs. Gallagher brought to the attention that the the community. At large outside of, if you want to speak to that. The link for the communication survey was not in the township. Email that went out last week. So it will be in. I don't know, I think I got that email on Tuesday, so it will be next week. I mean, I think what we do know is we can't speak for what the township will bring, but we know the deadline. Oh, the deadline has. Excuse me. Sorry. I can speak to that. The mayor's weekly message comes out on Thursdays. So it'll be this coming Thursday. But the deadline has been extended for everybody. Do the seventeenth. I don't know a day of the week that is. What's today? Saturday? So 4 days from today, Saturday. Someone's telling me. So thanks. Okay, so another reference to the to the communications audit survey is going to be coming out through the through the mayor's office. We encourage you to look for that and take action because the window to participate in that process. Is closing this weekend. So, so look for that in 2 days and get right on it. Okay. Okay, thank you very much. And now we move on to our special action agenda. We have curriculum and instruction. And Mrs. Winters, if you could please move the CNI agenda, I would love to. The superintendent recommends and I move the following, 17.1 approval of attendance at conference and workshops for the 2324 school year. 17.2, approval of rider to professional service agreements for 2324 school year. 17.3 resolution to approve professional development ELA coaches 17.4 resolution authorizing submission and acceptance of the building capacity for career pathways and comprehensive schools cohort 2, cycle 3. 17.5 resolution authorizing submission and acceptance of the school climate change grant. 17.6 resolution authorizing submission and acceptance of the advanced placement and international baccalaureate course expansion grants. Do I have a second? Mr. Mayor, are there any questions? Miss Sugars, please open the voting. Okay, board members, you may catch your, your votes. And the motion carries. Okay, we move on to business and facilities. Mr. Mayor, could you please move the BNF agenda? I could, but I'm gonna pass it over to Mr. Green. I Thank you. It has been a long die. Could you please move the PNF agenda? Absolutely. Thank you. The superintendent recommends and I move the following. 18.1, approval of bill lists. Do I have a second? Is it your fain? Any questions? Seeing none, Mrs. Sugars, please open the voting. And board members you may cast your votes The motion carries. Okay, and we move on to human resources. The suit acting superintendent recommends and I move the following. 19.1 termination of employment certificated. 19.2 termination of employment non-certificated, 19.3 appointments certificated. 19.4 appointments non-certificated, 19.5, salary change, non certificated. 19.6 other compensation certificated 19.7 affiliation agreement. Do I have a second? Dr. Rood, any questions? Seeing none, Mrs. Sugars, if you could please open the voting. Okay, board members, you may cast your votes. Okay, motion carries. Mr. Mayor, it really is your chair. I don't want Mr. Greenberg. I'm Mr. I think I want it to be you. Please. The acting superintendent recommends and I move the following item number 20. The acting superintendent recommends and I move the following item number 20.1, and I move the following item number 20.1, approval of harassment, intimidation and bullying, 20.1, approval of harassment, intimidation, and bullying investigation decisions. Do I have a second? Mrs. Winters. Are there any questions? Seeing none, message sugars, would you open the voting, please? Board members you may cast your votes And the motion carries. Okay, and we have nothing to be booted on for strategic planning yet. Hopefully in the future someday. We move on to new business. Do any board members have new business? This is your pain. Just something little. I think this goes on Miss Winter's radar. Sorry to add stuff to your agenda, but I attended. I attended the Camden and Gloucester County. Board meeting this week and they had mentioned that there is a strong initiative to include gun safety training in schools. I'm not sure to what extent if at all we do that. But I thought that was very interesting. It was very long presentation. But the gist of it was it's the kind of thing that nobody thinks about it until it's something to think about. So I just figured I'd pass that along as something to think about. Okay, any other new business? Any other old? Okay, we move on to old business. Does anybody have any old business? Mr. Greenm. Thank you. So I would like to speak briefly about some district policies that recently came into question. In our last meeting, we heard a public comment asking the district to repeal a long list of policies. That were claimed might be unconstitutional or discriminatory. This isn't the first time we've heard this comment. We've heard it at least 7 other times. Just from my notes and December, November, September, just going back throughout the last year. They're always listed by number. I think most people don't have our policies memorized. I doubt most people take the time to look them up. So I thought there was some value in listing out what these policies are. They are 1140 affirmative action program, 1,523 comprehensive equity plan. 2,100 anti-racism. 2260 affirmative action program for school and classroom practices. 51 16 education of homeless students and youth. 57 55 equity and educational programs and services. 57 56 transgender students and services, 57, 56, transgender students, 84, 66, transgender students, 84, 65 bias crimes and bias related acts and 88 10 use of cultural ethnic. Or religious themes in our educational program. Every one of these policies enumerates rights and protected afforded to our students, and every one of them is based on state or federal law or both. I honestly don't know if we could repeal these policies if we wanted to, but I think a more important question is why would we want to take rights away from students? In my opinion, the only thing these policies discriminate against is the act of discrimination itself. I could certainly understand why some community members were appalled or offended. It's my view that as board members, our first priority is to ensure every child feels safe and supported while in our care and everything else follows from that. With that being said, if anyone wants to learn more about these or other policies, they're they're all available online that's fully transparent. It's around the district website under our district policies and procedures. You could look them up by number or by keyword. And that's all I had to say. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Any other board members? Will have any other old business? Mr. Mayor. Just, you know, it, Sometimes I know I personally will take for granted things that I know because it was a life that I lived as a prosecutor. So I see those. Policy numbers, I know what they mean. I know what protections they afford. To our students. Many of which are the most Often victimized. And but I I appreciate that you took the time to enumerate those because like you said, you know, most And I often don't know. I certainly don't know all of our policies by number. So I appreciate that. I mean, it's important. To bring it out to shine light on what you know, some in the community. Believe should not exist protections. So I appreciate your bringing that up. And if that is a discussion that we're going to have. I'm ready to have it. I'm ready to have it in a way that is not gonna make those who want to abolish those policies happy. But again, I'm speaking for myself. I don't speak for the board, but I appreciate your bringing that out and bringing up the those specific protections and the the source of of where those protections come from. Okay, any other old business? Okay, seeing none, we move on to our second public comment period. Have notes here. Okay, this is our second public comment period and this is a time in which you may speak on any school related topic. As I think a lot of you know, we will always start with our students. Because they are our priority and they are why we are on the board. My, but many of us are here. We will if you are a student and you are online, I do ask would you please put an S after your name so I can be sure to allow you to go first. Early on. If you are a student in the room and you'd like to speak, I would ask you to please, if you're comfortable, approach the podium first. The timer on the screen will let you know. That your time remaining, you will have 3 min to speak. Public comment is an opportunity for members of the community to comment on matters relevant to operations. Of Terry Hill Public School District or within the authority of the Terry Hill Board of Education. The board welcomes diverse opinions on relevant matters. Under established federal law governing reasonable restrictions on speech and public forums. Statements which demean individual community members or groups. Or which are irrelevant to the operations of the school district. Or our repetitives will not be permitted. Community members who would like to present information not relevant to the school district. Are always welcome to communicate directly to the district superintendent. Board President and all board members via email or other alternative means. And with that, we will go to the podium. You would please state your full name, your municipality. Yes, good evening to all. Harvey Baskets, Chevy Hill. I would like to follow up on the email data, 19 January, 2024. My wife and I address 12 of the distinguished members. Of the board present here today. I also spoke briefly about our request during the public hearing on January 20 third. As per somebody real out of office replies that we got. It's stated and I quote. In accordance with the provisions of New Jersey law and board policies. All responses to your questions and concerns. Will come from the board president and or the superintendent on behalf of the Board of Education. I am here to report that as of today we have not received any response. Neither from you, man. I'm president. Or the acting superintendent. The boarding school district has emphasized their desire to have better engagement with our community. And most recently, a survey was sent out to Gage. How you can improve. Such engagement, which is stakeholders here in Trevi Hill. Perhaps the example could be set by reaching out and or responding to parents on their concerns that our times are presented here. Via email. But this does not prevent us from continuing to engage in a meaningful process. Of solving issues related to education of our students. So we hope to hear from you soon. Thank you. We go back to the line. And the first hand up is the phone number. 7, 8, 8. If you could please state your name and municipality. Okay, my name is my name is Jeff Paddle. I'm in Chiri who I, I live in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. From East Side Online, so they were a, 2,024, the East Mental Health Committee creates, create a give what you can wall. Our intentions right now are to focus on the deep root causes of the mental health stigma at East and the competitive environment using survey results from macro level surveys, etc. The autoca continues. Many students live in environments when where it is hard to find. Resources. You often feel ostracised and shamed if you want to ask your parents. With the board the color with the board the color committee hopes to be able to create a sense of unity that we're all in this together and you're you're not alone in feeling sogic and unmotivated root causes what about the learning loss that was created by the Covid-nineteen epidemic and the lack of guidance by our state DLA as to how to best institute distant learning. What about increasing educational supports in the classroom? What about decreasing class size? Where students, so student would be more, what about students being more prepared for the rigors of high school? In middle school. All right. What about providing adequate supports in classrooms, especially for the students with disabilities. Identified or not, that is approximately 20% of our student population. When it comes to this population, what is suggested by the statement? You feel ostracized. You often feel ostracized and and you want to ask your parents well referring to those students with disabilities that should need to be suggested those students with with disabilities need to talk with their parents. They must. Talk with their parents and very few of them are ostracized if any that shouldn't be suggested at all in an article like This. But it was. But students with disabilities, unfortunately many times, It's the student. The child. Parents that are actually advocating for their child with the school district. All right, and not necessarily getting supported by the school district. Alright, no. That should never, ever been mentioned in that article. St, parents with disabilities. They're interesting. Thank you for your comment. Thank you for your comment. Let me go back to the room if anyone would like to speak, please approach the podium. Please don't be shy. That way we can keep things moving. Thank you so much. I'm pleased that your name and your municipal, your full name in your municipality. Yeah, my question is to the board is why don't we offer shop any shop classes to, the high school students. It's a reasonable thing, no wood shop, no electric shop. These are skills that No, most students can use even after if they go to college or not go to college. This is something that we should have. And when I brought it up to the teachers, they said, we have to ask you. So my question is to you, why don't we? Can anybody please? It's a real question. Can I get an answer? No, I guess not. Just to be clear, during public comment, it's not a dialogue. Just we record your comments and at the end I'm the superintendent will respond to some. It might be your first time going through this. So thank you. Okay, and we go back to the line. My glasses on so I can read the name. It's Hopefully I get this right. Arlynn Camp, if you could please state your name and your municipality. Good evening, my name is Erin Camp and I go to Cherry Hill High School East. I just wanted to speak about the possibility of AP subsidies for high school students who take on a lot of AP courses and coming the time of May have a lot of expenses to pay or already paid for. Currently AP courses are around $97 without tax and then an extra $40 late fee if you sign up after a certain date in February like earlier this year I could forget the exact day I'm sorry but This is a huge financial burden on many students and I've discussed this with many of my classmates and a lot of us are paying upwards of 600 $700 currently. And we understand that there are current subsidies for, on the free lunch plan and such, but I've discussed with many of my friends how much, but I've discussed with many of my friends how we would definitely feel that the school would benefit from. Subsidies for students who take on extra AP courses because we believe that they should not be punished for this but rewarded and it's definitely feels like we're being take like there's a step back and a hindrance from taking these courses and definitely second guessing from taking the test. And I believe that it would be best if It was not an idea of how much money it took to take these tests, but just how ready we were and that this would better reflect our schools as a whole. So I just wanted to come here to say that. Thank you. Thank you, Erlyn. As I said earlier, we really appreciate, especially hearing from students and the takes a lot of courage to call in and make a comment. So thank you. Okay. Next in the room if you would kindly state your name and your municipality. My name is Amina Ahmed. I'm working with a lot of the Cherry Hill youth at the GCLA Center. Here in Cherry Hill. I just wanted to take a moment this evening to express a deep and sincere appreciation from the Muslim community for our acting superintendent Dr. Morton for coordinating the ethnic, I'm sorry, understanding ethnic and cultural perspectives training, which we were casually referring to as the Assembly of Training. It truly means a lot to the community. And the families and they are eagerly anticipating the finalization of these plans. And we sincerely hope that it paves the way for greater knowledge and understanding for all students in the district. And after hearing news of the appointment of Miss NEOs, I just want to congratulate her and express my hope that her perspective will be a benefit to the board and that she will serve to Thank you. Okay, and we looks like there's nobody else online. So we go back to the room. If you could please stay your full name and your municipality. I'm glad that the board member Review the board policies and the titles because I'm here to talk about. 57, 56, which. Is the transgender law. And it is one that I feel that is not safe. In fact, it can be dangerous. It is not, it is discriminatory and it is, No, not supportive to several of our students here. But the benefit of some of the board members, this is the the policy that would allow. A young man who thinks that he's a girl to participate in girls sports. And when you have a situation like that. If you have a situation where a boy feels that way, the answer is not going to be in girls sports. This is one that I, this particular policy, I sort of look at it as the gone girl policy. Because once you put a male body onto the field of a girls sports. You're put in an individual on the field that has greater lung capacity than the girls. Greater bone density than the girls. Greater muscle mass in the legs. Chest, shoulders. And the neck that this is not a this is very dangerous for the girls. So what I like to do is remind you about 3 months ago. There was a case in Massachusetts. Where a boy was on the field hockey team. With the girls and he. That are shot on net hit a girl in the mouth. Noted out all of her teeth. And injured her her jaws. 57 56 allows this situation to occur. So it is not safe, it is not supportive. This girl that got hurt is the going girl. She's gonna be a gone girl. And so with her teammates and that's why I sort of look at this. As a gone girl. What I'm here to ask is the board to reconsider that is not quite as simple. As it looks like on the surface. That this can be very dangerous to the girls on the fields. For the track team for the swim team. For the girls that don't make the finals. They don't get into the finals where They're in front of the coaches. They have the benefit of scholarships. Opportunity for Olympic trials. They're all shut out because you have Male swimmers, male track athletes that are pushing these girls out. So I'm asking that you reconsider and maybe repeal this. Vineland school system repealed it 2 weeks ago. Many other districts in New Jersey done the same. Thank you. Okay, we don't have any other hands online and we go back to the room if you Please, anyone would like to speak? State your name, your full name and your municipality. I wanted to tap into the matter of. Class ranking that students were talking about. So I'm talking to the students as well as the board here. I very much endorse the students who think we should continue with class ranking and I think the school is doing you a favor to continue class ranking. I think the school board. Bends over backwards to accommodate students. I and I do want to thank you for your service. That was the line I didn't get to say before. I appreciate your service to our community. You bend over backwards, you accommodate students with the culture proficiency you started in 2019, the teaching of. Of controversial topics, which I may or may not agree with. Doing that. But the point is they're looking out for students. They're trying to prepare you for the real world. The real world in the job market has ranking. That is the bottom line. Anyone that's been in sales knows that You are ranked. You have to get your numbers in and you can't tell your boss that's not fair. I mean, the real world. This is it. And even if you're not in sales, I mean, I was in sales for a while, did my best to make that 70,000 extra. Guess what? I made 100,000 extra, but there were 7 people in front of me that made more. Was I frustrated? Yes, I was, but this is the real world. And secondly, there are plenty of jobs that are not in sales where you have to make your ranking, you have to bring it in wherever they want, and you are ranked. It's the world. As a senior, you are shy from that job market by year. And I don't think it's the time to. To suggest that, well, we don't want to do this now. I really think it needs to stay in place. It's been place for a lot of years. That's the way world is. And so I would encourage the school to keep with it. Thank you. Okay, again, no hands are online. We go back to the room. Please set your full name in Municipal. Rick Short Cherry Hill. Miss Sugars, thank you for the, bleachers coming in at the middle schools. That's good news. I like to see that. I stand here again asking the same question about DEI. There hasn't been a person that's come up yet. And found a district that's done it for 10 years straight and shown academic success. DEI is just ideologies that mean nothing and one of them is diversity. Terry Hill has plenty of diversity, ladies and gentlemen. We don't need a micromanage or diversity and break people into groups. It was a person in the public that once said, who's now a board member said, publicly on a mic said Russell Knight is the whiteest school district in the district. And that's a problem. It's not a problem for me. Problem for some people in this room. I don't know why. I'm a problem with it. You know about 2 years ago I stood here and I said I quoted President Biden, I said, Dr. Kenday is the biggest line stone pace. Mr. Short, you stay on item manners relevant to our public school district. Please make sure you take your topic to that. Okay. Well, you're teaching Dr. Kendi. Is in the African American course so I'm trying to make a comment from 2 years ago that you allowed me to make. 2 years ago, I was allowed to say that. Quoting President. Biden. Dr. Kenday is the biggest lion stone face pony. I did say that publicly 2 years ago And it comes to show. That it sounds like he is after. After all of his work with the Boston University, 38 million dollars. He, Spurly only has, he lost half of his staff because he couldn't find enough racism in a world, I guess. You know, all these things, the 6 years of culture proficiency that we've been focused on, we've totally forgotten about. The 3 R's, the No Hit campaign and the district, just more propaganda. Oh, and my favorite, the second graders that have to do a practice protest. I mean, if that isn't the most absurd thing I've ever heard in my in my life, ladies and gentlemen. I don't know what is and then You know, I've just come down to this, synopsis that by far. Cherry Hill Schools. Is the biggest race hustling school in America. There is nobody. I say that often. There is nobody that does it like Cherry Hill schools. So the next question is, what are we going to do with all the stuff that we're not teaching in the African-american course? Right from the mission statement of the African-american course. In the national black. Well, I'm gonna run out of time here. So I will be back talking more about Black Lives Matter and the misinformation being sold to the public. Okay. And we move on to our next public comment. There's anyone on the room who would like to speak, please approach the podium. These state your full name and your municipality. Benjamin Rood, Cherry Hill. I'm feeling inspired by a few of the comments. Let's start positively. I agree that, hands on education is really important. I know. Having conversations with the all CT is a major topic. Amongst the board that's career and technical education for those in the public. And my own I have a kid who She she asked me once, Dad, do I have a smart person job? She probably said that because she has a scientist father and a sister who is just all intellectual all the time and I told her no you don't have to be a do a smart person job you do whatever you want. She's very hands on. And wants to be a firefighter and I've Just so excited that she's saw opportunities in the community to do that. In my own personal experiences, this relates directly to CTE, I remember making a duffel bag in HOME. Back in like I don't know, 1989 maybe and I use that duffle back to bring my gym clothes all through all through high school all through college. It meant a lot to me. It kind of weird thing. I grew up sewing with my mom. I loved shop. I had a family full of woodworkers. I think it's really important that we think about those hands-on skills in my science lab if a person comes in looking for a job and tells me that they're really good at biology. I'm like, great, lots of people that want this job are good at biology if they come in and tell me that they play a musical instrument. I'm like you have good hands come work for me because it's a lot about that. So I really support us thinking about initiatives. I think encourage the board to think about initiatives that have lots of hands-on education. There's lots of things in this world that don't require books that are really important and are learning. I want to add, Can we have more classes practice protest, please? In the first of in the in in the Bill of Rights, the First Amendment guarantees our right to to demonstrate to protest to stand up for what we believe in. And I think it's become such a negative thing in our society. People don't respect protest. They don't respect that right. But we have that right to stand up and speak for what we believe in and in teaching children to do that in a civically responsible way. What a great thing and I do believe that that was in reference to a. Civil rights march. And not necessarily a protest as you might expect to see on the news. So I definitely encourage more of that. Okay, and we move on if there's anyone else who would like to speak, please approach the podium. The state your full name and municipality. Alani Harris, Cherry Hill. Today I received an email, telling me that it was time to schedule my child's annual review with a calendar invite of one it was scheduled for. And I responded back asking which child it was for. There was no name included. There are 10,708 students in the district according to the website. There are 5,212 families in the district. That averages to 2 students per family. 18% are special needs but if we're averaging 2 students per family the assumption is when you email me about my student having an IIP meeting that I have more than one student and it's possible or more than one child and it's possible that I have more than one child with an IEP. So I wrote back asking which child it was for. So maybe if the district staff could include a memo or a name of a child or a student ID just so that when I get an email, I know which of my 5 children it's for that are enrolled in the district because I have 5 of them in the district. Yesterday I attended a program at the Terry Hill Library. They showed the movie Till. I know the story. I was brought to tears watching the movie. I have a lot of questions about when Emmett Till is taught within the district. It's currently Black History Month. I think it's really important that the students learn about Emmett Till and what happened in 1,955 because it's 60 68 years later. And sometimes I feel like I'm watching things that happened in 1,955 and it's 2,024. Within our own district of Cherry Hill and I want to make sure. That students are learning and have their eyes open to everything and everyone that is different than them so that they can learn and be better people when they are adults in the future. And I want to make sure that their needs are met and always possible and if that means that they our gender fluid and present differently than how then the gender they are assigned at birth. They should be allowed to do that. They should learn about those that are different than them and they should be able to find that school and everywhere around them is a safe space if they live at home and it's not a safe space, they should find that safe space if they go to school and it's not a safe space they should find that safe space but I just want to make sure that we're offering a safe space for all of our students within the district. And that includes. Names and emails to parents. However, It is in Genesis, however, a student feels that they want to present themselves in school versus to their parents. So thank you and keep up the good work. Okay, anybody else would like to speak? Please approach the podium. You see your full name and municipality. Dr. Youoni, Cherry Hills, one we got to do in person. Usually it's online when we follow each other. I'm little all over the place so I apologize as they're not totally connected. Is it possible for us to move the board hearing from April 30 Passover ends at not nearly 9 o'clock that night and the spirit of the law was that it should be open to everyone when you're now doing the budget hearing in lieu of having a public vote. I'll put it out there. I never want to go back to public vote. Those are terrible times. Having lived through being a student when a budget has not passed but I think it is important that you The public have a chance to voice their concerns to be part of the process and not being exclusionary of when it occurs. Since it is continuing on budget season, have we looked at expanding the number of special education teachers to allow for full inclusion of social studies courses. We are nearing the information of unified standards in the state of New Jersey, which means that instead of having standards for math standard for science, they're going to be unified in the approach. It already occurs in NGSLA with the research. Stimulated task. And yes, please try sharing that 10 times fast. Where that pulls from science and also pulls from social studies. The students need to be exposed to those types of questions and processes in their science and history classes in the district. I know that in this research that I am now leaving, that's what our approach was doing and it made a difference because for example speaking of protest, a sample question from. Not that long ago was a video analysis and 2 articles related to the nonviolent protests at Gandhi and Martin Luther King and I said in protest, the cafes in the South. Students need to be exposed to that in class so they can get used to what the state is looking for. I learned how to beat the test, not test to the test. Also if we could block out the budget hearing date for concerts and other events going on so that every community member has an opportunity and is not faced with the choice of going to this child's event or having their concerns heard about the budget. We all care about where our funding is going. As a proud to decide alumni, it is very disturbing to me to see our community member bashing student writing. I think the communities to realize that east side. And I always forget the lions were. I will finally get it right for West our student newspapers. And we are very embraced the fact that those principles going long ago have not exercised prior review and have allowed student boys to be heard in writing where there are districts across the country and across New Jersey that have Block student voices because they didn't want stories being told. And I never want that to be the case in Cherry Health. If we should, is that a focusing on AP credit? Can we start focusing more and more on dual enrollment and do a credit. Door credit is guaranteed success as long as I believe you're gonna be your hire in New Jersey. Hey, you're going to have G and ship across it and all higher education. They want to do everything possible to park their bottom line, which is if they can figure our way to stop a food with a 5 getting credit, they're going to do it. Because they want to make all the money possible from students. By dual credit, we are guaranteeing they are getting our college transcript. I really recommend reading, the book, which I thought it but I know, I'm short-changed by Annie A. Abrams that tackles just how bad the AP crisis is in this country. And really our offices should be on dual enrollment and dual credit. Thanks. Okay, any other community members who like to make public comment, please approach the podium. So your full name and municipality. And I'm home shareholder Jersey. So I'd like to reference a caller earlier about the honors and AP credit for our special ed kids. I brought that up. At least a couple of board meetings ago. And I think that's something that the sports shortly should indeed consider. They deserve that credit as much as any other student. I heard the discussion about Eurika Math squared is a old elementary. And if that's the case, and we're moving to more flow in our math programming. Why do we have pilot programs and at least 2 of them elementary, elementary schools in math? I'd like to know what that's about because how can we get them all in the same platform? I just the one name escapes me. I know that Kingston is not Has a pilot program. I did very, I kind of had a red flag when Earlier it was said, we're going to do some smaller group meetings amongst board members concerning the budget. Mr. Green might have to do some advisory capacity on that because it just weighs a red flag for me. We had a hiring fair, but are we gonna have a hiring fair to fulfill the positions that we currently? Have not filled and we're just adding additional classes to our teachers. And if we can't do it on our own, how about if we partner with another district that maybe have the same issues. It was told to me today whether to act or not. That the ESY program is early going to be at ESE side schools. I think we need to look into that. It's a big school district. We have children on east and west sides of the town. The other thing I'm gonna bring up. By the way, welcome to our new board member. Congratulations. I'm sincerely hoping that after this we're going to have a 9 member board because lately we seem to be one missing one consistent board member meeting after meeting not just for the board meetings but for the committee meetings and hopefully as the leader, Miss Stern. That you can speak or Mr. Green can speak to that board member because as a community member I'm insulted. Yeah, the only thing I'm going to say, and maybe I'm making too much of this, but a West didn't spoke earlier, quite eloquently. And a board member said. Thank you so much for the other comprehensive high school. It's called West. Thank you. Okay, if anybody else would like to make a public comment, please approach the podium. You state your full name and your municipality. I'm Matt Rangellis, Cherry Hill, me again. So there's a lot of things I could respond to love interesting comments that were brought up. But I'm going to respond to the class rank comments, the defensive class rank. First of all, It is a lot harder to quantify a student success than just numbers that, and like a salesperson, right? And with a sales person, you have a set number of how much that person has achieved in terms of their selling. With students, it's far different. Students have choice in what classes they're taking. And because of that, you can have a student who is more interested in the STEM field than we're interested in the social studies field. And it's very difficult to compare those 2 people based on their strengths and weaknesses in those fields because they're taking so such a different range of courses. Additionally, I think there is a fundamental issue with our current system. In our current system, a student can get ninety's in all of their classes and be a valetorian. Another student could get 90 nines or hundreds in all their classes and then 180 nines or hundreds in all their classes and then 189. Guess who's gonna be ranked higher than he did with all the ninetys is going to be right higher. That goes against the sort of system that one person was advocating for where a person is ranked by their numbers or like a sales person. So I think that that is a fundamental issue with our current class rank system. And if you are going to advocate for this idea that, oh, we should prepare students for ranking. And I think it's really a harm rather than a benefit because we're already being judged with every test score we get with every in extracurriculars with every competition we compete in. We don't need this extra like system of ranking that doesn't actually reflect anything true and add stress and adds an idea that we need to compete with other students rather than collaborate and help each other attain and become the best people that we can. So yeah, thank you. Thank you. Okay. Anybody else would like to speak? Please approach the podium. There's nobody at the podium. There's nobody online. I'm gonna close public comment. And before we move on to our acting superintendent comments, we're working a lot on communication. Trying to really kind of off all corners of the earth to improve our communication. And I just want to clarify. That it is in fact accurate that the board president is the person who speaks on behalf of the board and is the person who responds to emails when it is appropriate. And there are times when it is not me who responds to emails or are times when our superintendent acting superintendent or other people who are designated on behalf of the acting superintendent to respond to emails. You know, I think a lot of you do get my responses when you email me, but if you don't, I want to be very clear that it does not mean that there has been no follow-up or no consideration of the email. It just means that there are other people who are more appropriate to respond and are taking care of that. So. Just wanna be very transparent about that. All right, moving on to acting superintendent comments. Thank you, Miss. And I actually have a few comments this evening. First and foremost, thank you to all of our students who spoke tonight about class rank and the stress that it has caused on them. That's a perspective and that's, that's real to our students. You know, I think, It's unfair to the children who are experiencing this and going through this for us to refute. What they're telling us. As we move forward, we will explore the conversation. We'll figure out a pathway in terms of moving forward. It isn't necessarily an easy answer, you know, where you just come up with a solution tomorrow, but we certainly will engage in the conversation. I'm always so proud to hear the kids speak and to hear them vocalize and to see them display their talent and their excellence. We, we truly have outstanding children. And there are so many wonderful things that are happening across our schools as it relates to our musicians and athletes and desbians that we saw this evening, scholars, there are some fantastic things that are happening in our schools and our children are truly amazing. I think it's important for all of us to have an opportunity to take part in activities. To visualize what's happening and you'll also share the perspective that I have as well. It's critically important for us and it's a bottom line, non-negotiable. Piece for us to support all of our students. We absolutely embrace the diversity of our children and what they represent. We absolutely and wholeheartedly ensure that they are included and that they feel that they belong. Because they do belong here in our district. So that's that's essential. There was not a student, a second great protest. That happened in the district. Our children took part in something called the Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day. It's Black History Month this month. So for those who do not know about Ruby Bridges, let me tell you who she was. 1,960, Ruby Bridges became the first young lady. And a lady of African-american descent in New Orleans to integrate. Her elementary school as she walked into the schools, she did so with. What seemed like mobs of people. Who were adamantly against. Diversity, inclusion and belonging. They didn't want her there, but this little 6 year old girl walked into school every day with people yelling and screaming at her as well. So our children took part in a remembrance of that courage that that young lady. Displayed and just think about how much more wonderful our schools are with the diversity that is represented. Ruby Bridges Act was key as part of the Civil Rights Movement and ensuring that all people would be included. That's what I children were taking part of. Very important remembrance and recognition. Just to speak about the AP grant, so the intention of the AP Grant truly is to provide training for our teachers in the area of. Pre apron, a preap. So there's a program called preap that allows us to teach children concepts. And strategies that would help to promote. Their success in AP classes and college and beyond. The beauty of it is that the preap designation is not. It's not similar to the way in honors or an AP class works where it's a singular course that exists. Designation is applied to every level of course that we have. Teachers are trained in this in the strategies. So the strategies really helped them to teach students how to read for evidence, craft sentences that support claims, interpret data. Things along those lines and it's applied to every level so irrespective of whatever destination a child has and what level they're in. We believe that this is a pathway for creating more opportunity for our children. So when we talk about neurodiverse children. This will eventually give them an opportunity to be able to springboard and to take AP classes at a higher level if that's what they're interested in doing. Climate change saw climate change grant so it's part of our district goals we've established sustainability goals. So our climate change. Grant or the application that we're applying for allows us to further our sustainability goals. So one of the things that we had said is that we would re-establish green teams at every school. And that green teams would have a project that they would work on implementing. So the climate change grant is for approximately 32,000, but what it will do is allow us to establish pollinator gardens at every school across the district. The green teams would be responsible for doing that. We thought that that that project was done last year at Rosa Middle School. It was a fantastic success. We feel it's something that will allow us to step. Our foot into the sustainability world as we also do our sustainability five-year plan as well. Teacher vacancies absolutely you know it is incumbent on central administrators building base. Administrators as well to ensure that our classes are staffed with the highest quality, most outstanding teachers. There was an article in the Philly Inquiry this week that talked about teacher attrition and the loss of teachers and what we're seeing across not just the state but across the country as well. Teacher retention. Teacher recruitment, very important to us. This is a pivotal time for us. The assignment of additional class periods allows us to establish continuity with where students don't have a great disruption. Now, there is a point of critical mass. And I think that's what some of the comments speak to. But we're working diligently. I know Miss Lieber and her team as well, something to be innovative to find ways to increase the pool and ensure that we're not only retaining our teachers but that you know we're attracting others and to the district. So we can ensure that there's a higher quality of instruction that contains to take place. There was a comment about Shop classes being offered. So we have a partnership with Camden County technical schools. So a student that's interested in taking technical vocational type courses as an opportunity to elect to go to. Kendi County technical schools as well. Our course of study catalog. Is robust. I mean, we have a number of courses that we offer that we believe are engaging for our students from, you know. The traditional academic courses to design and build. Culinary arts broadcasting graphic design Computer science, you name it. So there are a number of opportunities for our children as well. This year we piloted. Eureka Mass squared in elementary this year to give us an understanding. Of nuances as we look for full implementation next year. This is one of the things that we learned when we initially implemented their initial Eureka curriculum. So by having a couple schools go through it and pilot it this year, it gives us a better understanding. So that when we roll to full implementation, we'll be able to do that with full scale without any hindrances. And reference to ESY. So obviously there is a tremendous amount of construction work that's scheduled for this summer. Some of the schools that traditionally would host an ESY program will be under full renovation. Therefore we need to look for other sites and find other places for the programs. I'll finish last 2 things again. We're excited. This is Black History Month. It's a wonderful time for us to celebrate the contributions and achievements of African-american people in our society. Again, happy lunar new year. I believe this is the year of the Dragon. Alright, so congratulations to all. Thank you. Thank you. For so many. Helpful understanding. Informative comments. Okay. So I know Mrs. Gallagher commented on a 30 min meeting. We certainly did not hit that mark tonight, but we are at the end and it is before 9 o'clock, so maybe we should just keep going because that's unheard of in our history. OK, just kidding. I make a motion to adjourn. Do I have a second? Mrs. Winters