Miss Munos will you please introduce yourself good evening everyone I'm Rosa munes I'll be The Interpreter for tonight's meeting thank you thank you welcome to everyone here and those of you um joining us virtually to this February 20th over Board of Education meeting for those who wish to provide public comment remotely a Google form was posted on the district website at 6:30 p.m. and those remote comments will be addressed in the second public comment section this meeting which is hereby called to order at 6:32 p.m. is in compliance with the notice requirements of the law public notice was posted in the office of the Board of Education and communicated to the min municipal clerk and daily record on January 9th 2024 can we please rise for the flag salute I pledge allegiance flag of the United States of America to the stands na indivisible and justice for all Mr sabahu may we have a roll call Miss ESO present Miss DS present Mr Miller here here miss nothing here miss Phillips here miss peles here Dr Senor present Miss soles here miss mandes here um Miss towns I'm sorry I didn't um um ask you in advance will you please read our mission statement sure uh working together as a community our mission is to Welcome All and provide opportunities for our students in a safe and accepting learning environment to become creative empathetic resilient and and who choose to make an impact thank you uh we do not have any presentations this evening so we are moving right along to public comments on agenda items only the board recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to express themselves on school matters to ensure fair and orderly expression of such content each statement shall be held to a time period of 3 minutes public comments limited to items on this agenda shall be entertained for approximately 30 minutes upon the discretion of the presiding officer please understand that public comment portions of our agenda are not structured as question and answer sessions but rather they are offered as opportunities to share your thoughts with the board the board may or may not respond to public comments however all comments are considered and will be investigated and addressed as appropriate please be courteous and mindful of the rights of others when providing comments comments may not be abusive obscene threaten anying or irrelevant please understand that students and employees have specific legal and privacy protections the board is not permitted to respond in public to comments about students or employees please be advised that you are commenting at your own risk any public comments that are directed at a particular individual or individuals could subject you to Legal liability for defamation with that public comment is now open is there any member of the public wishing to speak on agenda items only okay can you hear me um Susan Cher 346 West Clinton Street in do good evening everyone um I wanted to thank the board for the um early uh release of the calendar the academic calendar for the school year that's wonderful I know that that was one of the requests of the community advisory committee so thank you very much for listening and thank you for doing that um also on the agenda tonight and I believe it was on the January agenda but then pulled last minute there is a litigation that has been longstanding so I'm aware of how it began um I am disturbed over what appears online with the litigation and I know there shouldn't be any comment about it from the board board but I have to comment because there's an issue involved embedded in this litigation that is longstanding with um a couple of members from the board who are no longer here on this board but I hope that this board takes the actions that occurred in this litigation because of the actions of a couple of board members that were warned not to take these types of actions when when they were on the board I hope that the board now uses this as a learning tool for training that what you say and do on social media no matter how many times you say it it is in your personal capacity is not you never take off your hat of a board member it's unfortunate that you give up that privilege when you take these seats and when you take the off office but you do and we can say that we are still all have our freedom of speech but you really don't what you say uh does make an impact to the people around you and our community so I hope that the board takes this seriously it was not the first time it was the time that was caught so thank you very much have a good evening thank you Miss shower are there any other members of the public wishing to speak on agenda items only good evening Mary savra 217 Baker Street I just have to point out that um on page 15 of this agenda um there in the roll call section or all members of the board are listed on there um um I understand sometimes it's a copy and paste situation um and an all agenda but it's just the little thing um we go back to again communication uh I mean there are many members of the board that could have PR this I we're talking about education um and also I know you haven't gotten to it but there's a um notification here for a special meeting on February 27th um that is a date that's currently set for a town hall meeting our town is currently going through a lot of issues I'm not sure I'm not aware yet if this special meeting is so only board members or if it's open to the public um but it leaves the public not a chance um even those that don't attend the meetings physically um a lot of people watch it live um so it's something that you leave people like you know which one am I watching tonight kind of idea and uh there are matters that are important in every one of your meetings as well as the town hall meetings um I I come back to the other um section but I I will pck back on what um the other Community member mentioned about the litigation and what is being um how board members are listed on there past board members I should say um it is true I mean uh you guys represent everybody and although at times it may be particular comments on your own personal opinions it's the representation that you guys are given you guys were all voted in by community members I mean your campaigns are amazing going to people's Doors door too English Spanish to the whole Community you represent everybody and when the do Board of Education there's a litigation out there it goes on the community goes on the students it's money it's time time is money um thank you thank you are there any other members of the public wishing to speak on agenda items only seeing none public comment is now closed uh Miss Phillips I'm trying to look for the Town Council schedule of meetings because we I feel like we made a really concerted effort not to have any conflicts and I don't know how this happened can you find it for us training the special meeting is just for training the public is welcome it will be live streamed but I I I um I really did not want to have any conflicts at all so I don't know how it is the 27th Miss Mendes it the 27th is yes what is that on their original reorganization agenda oh I'm not sure CU I'm just trying to see if something changed no no I know we have a special meeting on the 27th I'm trying to figure out if the town what happened there Chang yeah either way we can um come back to that under uh new business um where the heck are we is there a motion to approve the minutes from January 23rd so moved is there a second second we have a motion by Mr Miller a second by Miss ASO is there any discussion seeing none uh Mr sabahu may we have a roll call vote Please Mr ESO yes M STS yes Mr Miller yes Miss nothing yes Miss Phillips yes Miss pelis yes Dr sener yes Miss SES yes Miss madis yes we are moving along to Communications um the uh whole board communication I am aware of is from Miss shower on January 24th in reference to our recognition ceremon is there anything that I missed okay seeing none we are moving along to the student representative to the board report Miss Calderone Alvarez good evening the month of February is notorious for the celebration of Valentine's Day which is a day where people Express their love and affection for their friends and loved ones the classes of 2026 and 2024 didn't miss their opportunity to make the best out of the celebration sophomore sold back bags with a special personalized card in the front of the r in front of a Rice Krispie Treat along with little Hershey kisses and lollipops these mini bags were sold for a price of $2 each during lunches on February 14th seniors continued their selling their Valentine's Day lovers bundles during breakfast lunches and at the end of the day as well this bundle included a mini teddy bear along with a heart-shaped box of chocolates for $5 they sold other items such as flowers light up roses balloons and lollipops although the snow day ruined the class's plans to sell on both Tuesday the 13th as well as Wednesday the 14th they managed to organize and carry out their plan to the best of their ability an issue that I had presented to Mr Nunes last month was regarding the Stalls in the girl's locker room one of the Stalls had trouble closing due to the loose latch which caused the doors to swing open towards both directions the second stall did not close at all because the door was bent and did not line up correctly with a door frame this forced it to open towards only one side but it did not manage to remain closed something that I was accustomed to seeing were girls holding the door shut for others in order to for them to properly use the restroom I am very happy to share that as soon as I brought up this issue to Mr Nunes he sent out an order for the Stalls to be fixed now there is no rush or worry when using the Stalls since they fully closed and lock in addition the boys bathroom do not have bathrooms do not have any mirrors due to previous incidents where students did not respect the school property and made wrongful decisions ending up with broken mirrors the I commented to our principal about installing mirrors back in the bathrooms and he mentioned that some type of reflective surface will be installed for the students to be able to see the reflection except it will not be made out of glass this decision was taken in order to avoid any other incidents like the previous ones that have taken place thank you thank you Miss Calder AZ are there any questions based off her report seeing none we will move along to the board president's report um my report tonight will be focused on laying out the road ahead for our superintendent search um I am happy to report we have adverti um for proposals from superintendent search firms um the finance and Facilities committee will be into intering these firms in early March and will make a recommendation to the full board at our March meeting additionally we have advertised for the position of interim and Acting Superintendent with a submission deadline of March 1st at which point we will begin to intervie interview candidates as a full board between March and April this is a necessary step to avoid rushing the process our road ahead will include input from stakeholders such as staff and Community more to come on that the task of selecting our next District leader is perhaps the most important role our board will serve together as a board a district and Community we will shape the future of our district um and I just want to say please reach out to uh Miss Phillips and I uh with any questions or comments on the process in the meantime and that concludes my report report are there any questions or comments based off of my report seeing none we are moving along to administrative reports Dr mlan thank you good evening as you may know Governor Murphy recently signed legislation dedicating the month of January as Muslim Heritage Month in the spirit of this legislation the do schools will celebrate this first official year of recognition during the month of April 2024 thereafter beginning in 20242 school year the district will observe buz heritage month during the month of January last week snow day officially completed the built-in for emergency closing days for the 2023 2024 school year should an emergency closing become necessary Friday May 24th will become a school day a notice to this effect will be posted on the district website it congratulations and recognition are offered to the following individuals Edgardo Rivera Rosales will be honored by the great am Mars County chapter of the National Football foundation and college Hall of Fame congratulations at guad congratulations to Shayla Graham of do high school for having her work featured at the AJ emerging artist exhibit that was held at Kan University we also extend our uh congratulations to shadeless teacher Mrs Peterson and kudos to the do Middle School PTA for the outstanding Harlem Wizards event on February the 7th approximately 650 tickets were sold and those who attended I I'm sure will confirm that this was truly a positive and happy experience Mr Dixon has also provided me with some updates regarding our sports team bowling had an incredible season making it to the state playoffs and defeating pamis in the first round although they fell short in the second round it marked our program spe season yet and bowling is still an emerging program with us still in its infancy so I think that's great that they've had such success this year our cheerleaders made a return to competition after four years they secured a top four finish in their debut and clinched the first place in the varsity game day cheer at their next event congratulations to the dova cheer team for an outstanding season in wrestling we saw success at both the county and the district's levels uh Jaden Mendes was the county rounder up and District runner up this year earning a spot in the regions Matthew Lee also qualified for Regions uh putting it in perspective Mr Dixon indicates that the regions feature the top three finishers from each of the 32 districts competing in one of eight Regional tournaments so some really great success for our wrestling team and on a side note Mr Dixon has mentioned that we've had two division one schools come to meet and inquire about our student athletes for football notable names among these are talson and Ruckers in response to a previous request in the Board of Education we now have an all events C calendar view on our website uh individuals can click all events and calendar views for a comprehensive look which enables the viewer to see the events for each day inclusive of all the schools clicking the events calendar in the do app and hitting the store Key and uh uh the uh District uh view also permits a view of all events uh there is a video that has been posted on our website just uh to make sure that everyone knows how to do this both for our website and we are adding the do app instructions as well uh but uh basically what this means is that if we're looking to see what's happening on any given day in all of our schools uh we are now able to do so and uh I thank Mr levit for his work with our School principles and making that happen and that completes my report thank you Dr mclin are there any comments or questions based off of his report Miss nting there was something you wanted to mention mention about the calendar no it was already kind of compens it again by our public so thank you Miss shower perfect for mentioning that um misss I've um been able to witness the wrestling team this year and I did see the cheerleaders and from last year to this year it was a smaller uh group last year and this year there um it was there were so many on the team and they looked fabulous and they sounded very enthusiastic for our our wrestlers um so I I even complimented the uh advisers on on that at one of the matches um and it has been fun watching Jaden and Matt wrestle as well and come so far um the regions are this weekend at Roxberry for anybody who's interested and the um states are the first weekend in March in in Atlantic City thank you Miss pounce um I will say that I follow the cheerleaders on Instagram and social media and I enjoy all of their posts um and then I'll put a disclaimer out there although I wish I was I'm not related to jayen Mendes so I can't take any credit for um his efforts um are there any other comments or questions seeing none we are moving along to Mr sabahu business administrator report good evening everyone we re the draft report for 2022 223 audit Dr ML and I will meet with the Auditors in person to read the report on Thursday hopefully it's going to be uh up for approval next board's meeting we're in the process to prepare RFP package for the Food Service management company for next school year this year is the final year of the contract as Allowed by the state uh currently we have Pompton your food services we are almost done with the budget meetings uh internally so we will get the T budget ready for next part at months board meeting and finally we receiving $ 87,4 N3 from the state for Capital emerging projects uh we send certification we will be using these funds for security vable and replacing the doors at East door Elementary School this concludes my report thank you thank you Mr sabahu are there are there any comments or questions based off of his report seeing none we are moving along to Boe reports Mr Miller any updates from the Morris County Education Serv Serv commission uh yes I had a meeting last week um and I brought up uh the need for a new program uh that Dr mland had talked to me about with um helping 12th graders with various needs and I know that um Dr mclocklin is uh has already been in contact with Dr valard and they're going to meet and they used to have a program uh like that a while ago and there may be some interest that would also help us with space issues but uh but be be able to provide some of the 12th graders um some of the special needs they may have at that point in their school career awesome thank you that is a wonderful update to learn um we are moving along to our legislative report Dr serer thank you um I apologize in advance I tried to make sure that I wasn't duplicating anything um Miss Phillips has already reported on uh first thing is youth suicide prevention advisory Council report requires the New Jersey youth Suicide Prevention advisory Council to prepare a report regarding suicide prevention instruction in public schools um certification pathway for par professionals requires the State Board of Education to authorize a teacher certification pathway for Paras alternative teaching certificate permits the State Board of Education to authorize alternative teaching certificates transferring College county college credits to meet EP requirements and in this bill would limit the number of County College it prohibits limiting I apologize it prohibits limiting the number of county college credits that may be applied towards educator preparation programs and teacher certification requirements compostable food waste authorize schools to receive certain food waste from other schools and provides exemptions to receiving schools from certain D permits School audit delay pilot will temporarily extend deadline for completion of the school District's annual audit the qpa award of certain contracts this adjusts the bid threshold amounts for certain public research universities and permit certain contracts for school districts municipalities and counties to be awarded by a qualified purchasing agent um electric School Bus program Appropriations make supplemental appropriation of $15 million to the D for implementation of an electric School Bus program school facilities project reforms revises various provisions of the law governing construction of school facilities projects and operations of the New Jersey SDA establishes um a charter school and Renaissance school project facilities Loan program as part of this as well the emergency bonding Authority authorizes certain Boards of Education to issue bonds to repair damages caused by natural disasters in certain circumstances innovation in dual enrollment to pilot program which establishes a program to Pilot these dual enrollment programs youth disconnection prevention establishes a position of Youth disconnection prevention and Recovery om msbd person and establishes a school disconnection prevention task force um and they receive $200,000 to do this excused absences for civic events this per this law permits excused absences for students who attend Civic events um most significantly ly and pertaining to our district is uh the eliminating the April budget vote um this law eliminates the vote on school budgets for type two school districts in April elections except for uh separate proposals to spend above the cap so this would allow us to change our um move our election date from November to April um thank you to Dr mclin for uh reaching out about this um and letting me know that it had been passed I reached out to R njsba rep Charlene Peterson um Who provided some um additional details um some things that we should consider as we uh may or may not decide to look at this is that um if we were to decide to do this in the year of the switch the terms of those board members whose terms are would be up in January would be shortened there is a larger voter turnout in November um as compared to April um um it has been suggested that voter fatigue exists in November because there are so many other things to vote for on the ballot voters are checked out by the time they get to the school portion of the ballot um in April petitions are given to the board secretary versus the county clerk in November um currently East Hover is the only Morris County School District with an April election so there are not many other districts to share costs with there is a shortened period between the election date and the reorganization date in an April election and now it it would be even shorter um with board terms ending on April 30th this does not leave election winners much time to get their background checks fingerprinting done so that they can be sworn in at this new reorganization meeting and um the Newark School District um asked uh had a concern about this because sometimes they are waiting on the county to certify the election results so that would um potentially cause a little bit of a snafu in April um on the other hand there is a less there is a shortened time period for a quote unquote lame duck period um there are questions up in the air about what would happen if there was a send receive relationship like we have where one district has the April election the other one continues with the November election um an advantage would be that for boards that do their professional appointments at a spring meeting switching to April would eliminate the meeting eliminate the need to have two meetings that include annual import I'm sorry include annual appointments um and in terms of the board's work it could be beneficial to align the board year with the district's year so that new members are not starting their terms six months into a school year and inheriting previously established goals um there is a process uh to change that date it would require an 85 day we would have to pass a resolution uh there would be an 85-day notification requirement to the county clerk uh if we decided to move from a November to an April election so that kind of takes it off the table for this year but I do think there are some pros and some cons so perhaps this would be something for uh the governance committee to do a little bit more research on yes um Dr serer thank you for that fabulous um first legislative report um I I definitely think that I heard a lot of Pros um but there are also a lot of cons to consider so um perhaps Mr Miller is that something that the governance committee would be willing to take on and explore sure yeah I think it would be helpful to know the cost right um and then maybe just literally laying out in a document the pros and the cons for then um all of us to review thank you um Miss Downs the moris county njsba report good evening um the mcba uh had a meeting on February 8th and um it was held virtually um approximately 95 attendees representing Morris ber and ESS Sussex and Union counties were present do Board of Ed members present were Dr Ser um Miss nutting and myself um there was a brief explanation of the mcba meeting from new board members winter months the meetings are held virtually there are approximately four to five meetings per year the February 8th meeting had three guest speakers Eileen Leb leev who is the imediate past president of MSS mcba and Charlene Peterson the senior field representative of the New Jersey school boards Association had a presentation on how does your board handle this John Burns um Esquire uh he's the senior legislative Council for njsba had a presentation on governmental relation updates Justin Mella uh from Paran Troy Hills uh councilman had a presentation on pilot programs and each guest speaker had an opportunity to answer questions for mcba members in breakout rooms Robert asera the county activities coordinator for the njsba discussed the next mcba meeting to be held um at CCM dragonetti Auditorium on March 20th 2024 um checkin is at 6:00 p.m. with the program beginning at 6:30 the DS uh do High School administration nominated 12th grader Jenner Gonzalez for the unsun heroes for our district congratulations to Jenner on this nomination we are very proud of you the student and family registration should be completed by Wednesday March 6th 20 24 if you'd like to attend and then the board members and guest registration deadline is March 13 2024 this concludes my report thank you Miss NS for that report um we're moving along to administrative approval is there a motion to approve EXC excuse me Madam president if I if I may interrupt um there is one item on the administrative approval that should be withdrawn prior to the to the motion that is item D if there are no objections from the board we are removing item D from the um administrative approval are there any objections no so is there a motion to approve items a through C so move second we have a motion by Miss ESO a second by Miss nutting yeah is there any disc discussion seeing no discussion uh Mr sabahu may we have a roll call vote please miss ESO yes Miss DS yes Mr Miller yes Miss nothing yes Miss Phillips yes Miss peles yes Dr senner yes Miss SES yes Miss mandes yes we're moving along to Personnel Miss nutting Personnel I would like to make a motion upon the recommendations of the superintendent and the board of following Personnel resolutions for 2023 2024 school year as listed in one through 10 second we have a motion by Miss nutting a second by Miss Phillips is there any discussion Dr s um a comment first it's always nice to see uh so many student teachers starting their careers here in do maybe hoping to stick around once they're looking for a permanent position um and Dober alumni coming back to either student teach or work for us that is always a pleasure to see um I have a question in regards to a job description listed for approval and policy but it applies here as well as we are filling this position um we are hiring a Special Olympics unified Champions coordinator um how do you envision this new position coordinating with the existing do area Special Olympics that is not affiliated currently with the do Public Schools as many of our DHS students already participate in these special Olympic events how will we ensure that our students are able to participate in all aspects of Special Olympics and that we are not causing a conflict yeah uh we've been uh working for a while to try to reestablish an official Special Olympics presence here in the High School uh we we are working with Special Olympics so anything that we do will be coordinated through that agency uh and we're also starting small uh we're not we won't be going into every aspect of Special Olympics uh right away but we will be um growing the program as we move along and certainly making sure that uh we have the capacity to carry out the program in a quality matter any other comments or questions from board Miss Mendes if I may yes Miss ASO um the uh I'd like to know what the course recovery Mentor is if you can elaborate on that the course recovery Mentor is someone who works with students who have been identified as needing to uh require credits uh uh we basically use Saturdays as a uh as a credit recovery opportunity and the mentors are here with students overseeing work that they are doing to okay make up for that all right thank you any other comments or questions from the board seeing none we have a motion wait where am I a motion by Miss nutty and second by Miss Phillips uh Mr sabahu may we have a roll call vote please mrso yes Miss STS yes Mr Miller yes Miss nothing yes Miss Phillips yes Miss finales yes Dr senner yes Miss SES yes Miss mandz yes we are moving along to negotiations Miss nutting is there anything to report no there's nothing to report at this time thank you uh we will move along then to governance Mr Miller okay the governance committee met on February 13th um our agenda we wanted to recap the onboarding process and the documentation um uh that we used this past year uh Miss asedo had reached out to our new board members just to see you know how did we do when we we provided them that information and they felt that the the information was very comprehensive but we're going to continue to try to improve it for the next uh new board members that would come along um and we're going to add a revision date so that we make that document official so that any groups that come forward you know will continue on with that documentation we also were reviewing uh the board docs training schedule and implementation plan uh as you all know our training part of that training is on February 27th and at that point depending on if it seems easy enough then the hope is that we would go live in March with using that uh tool to manage all of our documents uh we also reviewed interpreter documentation that was provided by Mr ois he finished before he left like on December 30th he passed it on and um so we're we're looking to incorporate that into maybe some existing bylaws so we're we're looking at that and eventually you know that will come around so that all the board members can you know review that and the idea is that those guidelines would be posted in English and Spanish you know on the website and before each meeting so that people to understand the process that we're going to follow going forward between the headsets and the the live interpreter here as well um and then we started to review one of the the goals of the governance board is to document our board goals and the progress that we're making against them so uh and we're to do this quarterly so now we're reporting I'm going to report now on the first quarter of our board goals the board goal number one promote and support Equitable student achievement and we had three action items one was regular discussion of student achievement with data uh and I recorded that we had two items uh that fit that category class of 23 graduation statistics and the njsla results that were presented so now we may have missed some things so if you think of something that we need to add that fits the category please let me know uh the second action item was the hi to highlight the agenda of student achievement and as you've witnessed Dr mcglocklin regularly reports on student achievement at each board meeting as part of his report uh and we did have a presentation 2023 National Hispanic uh recognition Awards so there may be more please let me know and then um the third one was increasing board knowledge of student needs from the community's perspective so community relations um has reached out uh to many community members along with uh the creation of the community advisory committee so we're getting a lot of good input there uh but now we're about to kick off our school-based forums and we have those all scheduled East over is actually this Thursday do Middle School 328 do high school 425 uh preschool uh Delk 1 on May 9th uh Academy Street and 523 and North do on 6:13 and just so everyone in the community is aware you can attend any of these you don't have to wait for the school that your student goes to you can come to any of them so we're hoping to you know get a lot of good input from the community there our Bo board goal number two was to increase training for all board members in the following topics Finance student achievement diversity and Equity so our three action items add upcoming board training to meeting agendas which we have done uh schedule whole board training one per semester so our first one is on the 27th and we'll be SCH scheduling a second uh board training um each board members shall commit to attend either the njba convention in October or a minimum of two individual trainings and so I I'm pleased to report we're 90% complete there so I'm sure by the the uh the next time that we report we'll probably be 100% our board goal number three is to promote and increase the board's efforts in sharing the factors that impact the district space needs as well as gather feedback from the community um action item number one each committee shall provide relevant information regarding space that needs to be shared at monthly board meetings and the citizens advisory committee um so we've had discussions with a lot of our reports here uh talked a lot about the need for space um within our communities and that is going to be an ongoing topic the second action item is to host a community Forum at each school including one forum for prek parent parents uh which we are doing that so that that goal is kind of meets two of them yeah so we're doing good there and then the third action item was to continue to advocate for student needs outside the community with all necessary stakeholders so we have an Education Foundation partnership uh connecting do participation Do rotary town of Dober Administration there's a lot of uh communicating going on with community uh Partners uh so if there are more please let me know so that I can add that so our next report uh for the second quarter will be in April our third quarter report will be in June and then we'll conclude with our fourth quarter report in August that concludes my report for governance thank you Mr Miller um I am pleased to hear that we are making great progress on our board goals um and I'm so happy that we decided to task the governance committee with reporting on them on a quarterly basis I feel like that is extremely helpful um so are there any questions or comments on our board goals Dr serer um I also wanted to thank uh Mr Miller and the governance committee but I did have a question about the community forums uh they're being held at each school is it your expectation that the governance committee or the community relations committee or will I for example I represent the high school should I be to be present at the high school one those that represent those schools are the ones that are going to be there thank you yeah so miss Phillips and I are Thursday I believe I've sent an email with that reminder yeah um any other comments or questions on board I have a comment so just circling back to what we were talking about earlier about the the February 27th conflict with the town meeting so February 27th is on the town's original schedule as a meeting date um um but when we surveyed the board for what dates were available this month that was the date that everyone was available and since it was a board training where we're not actually conducting board business and because we had committed as part of the goals to get that done we were on a timeline and that's the reason why we decided to move forward with with that date knowing that it was conflicting with the town thank you Miss Phillips and I will take ownership of also just that over site um but as Miss Phillips mentioned we will not be conducting board business on the 27th it is just a training um we actually had the option to not uh record the meeting live stream it and we decided we would live stream it um regardless um so yeah I I I although it is a conflict which breaks my heart um I think that we made great progress um con considering there are no other conflicts crossing my fingers um so but I do apologize and I do take ownership for that oversight we we are moving along to what are we moving along to student achievement and curriculum Dr serer thank you uh student achievement and curriculum met on February 6th um the agenda I think it is seven pages long um the first I think five of those pages detailed the professional development offered in both January and February um I do not think I'm overstating things when I say that every staff member every department and therefore every child in the school has been touched by the extensive professional development offerings on anything you can think of and so I wanted to thank the administrators that organized that and also the teachers for um I know uh participating in that and then taking the the information that they learned back to their classrooms for uh you know to help our students uh learn even more so thank you for that um we also got an update on the g&t program from Ms gensinger um there has been data retrieved from Genesis our Consultants are analyzing the data um now in February we'll meet with the administration um there will be classroom visits principal visits classroom teacher visits and um in March uh the district will receive the final report and a meeting with the administration and in April the uh our committee will be presented with the information from um that program uh we received an an update on our dual language program from um Ms Rodriguez uh currently uh all second graders and uh oh I'm having trouble reading my own notes uh currently we have students uh the entire second grade um and then first and kindergarten some bilingual classes um the model the current second graders who are all in dual language will have the option to stay in dual language or move to a monolingual classroom and all current second graders will go through an identification process um for g&t um there is significant work happening behind the scenes to support our um dual language teachers um and you know that involves doing some uh PD in terms of strategies to meet all of our students needs um we were presented with two uh science and technology curricula for approval by Mr kazinski um emergency care and Final Cup Pro two which uh continues Mr clear's work in uh making that program available for our students once again those students will be able to take the the exam and get Final Cut Pro certification so that's something that they can leave do high school with and potentially help them get a job straight out of high school um we had a discussion on um the American Muslim Heritage Month in January um that will be um because that came in in January we will celebrate it in April this year um but revert to the actual month of January moving forward um hang on we are we had a discussion about Civics education um I could probably go on for quite a bit about this but we received a presentation of all the different activities that our students participate in from K to high school um I wanted to highlight that um not only did our students make Veterans Day cards at in school they actually brought them in and they had made them with their families and so we had collected thousands of cards uh for Veterans Day and sent to various organizations so that's a program that um Miss Mendes asked me to highlight I think it's just speaks high so highly of our children and their families that they wanted to celebrate our veterans um we received an update on the program of studies from Mr Carl and Mr sonier um there are some new courses that will be um offered in 2024 25 including AP African-American studies Ceramics 2 and sculpture Guitar Building they're going to build their own guitar and get to keep it that's cool um the E the Final Cup Pro students will be working with multilingual telen Noll class to uh write and perform telenovellas uh medical math dual enrollment experiences in literature dual enrollment intro into creative writing exercise Sports and society and then um a a few other courses and then we also got to see the Dober high school program of studies which uh will go live after tonight if we pass it um so that uh Dober high school students can start their scheduling process with that I would like to move that the board approve items 1 through 12 second we have a motion by Dr s a second by Mr Miller is there any discussion Dr s um just one additional comment um again this month there's a tremendous amount of professional development I wanted to thank the administrators for allowing multiple Math teachers to attend a math conference at ruter I think it's really important that as many it certainly creates a hassle for the high school administration when there are a bunch of Math teachers or a bunch of any kind of teachers are gone um but thank you for allowing that to happen because I think there is a significant difference in experiencing professional development firsthand as opposed to turn keying I think it's tremendously important important and thank you for making that happen any other questions or comments for the from the board seeing none we have a motion by Dr serer and second by Mr Miller Mr sabahu may we have a roll call vote please M ESO yes Miss D yes Mr Miller yes Miss nothing yes Miss Phillips yes Miss penales yes Dr sener yes Miss sness yes Miss mandes yes we are moving along to community relations Miss thank you Miss Mes um good evening the community relations committee met on Tuesday February 6th board members saso Phillips pinales and solz were present new members were apprised that the do Board of Education recognizes the importance of meaningful parental and Community input and advice and that the citizens advisory committee will serve as a channel for feedback advice and information on matters affecting the school district and allowing the Dober Board of Education to hear directly from the community and Foster a healthy working relationship a tentative meeting date was set for Thursday March 21st at the administrative building at Belmont AB that's for the uh CA CAC citizens advisory committee and that concludes my report thank you Miss ACO we are moving along to policy Miss penales can I just add something relations yes Mr I just wanted to mention um the do high school speaker dinner fundraiser that was here our students did a fabulous job in serving and I want to thank all the volunteers who cooked um I mean as a band parent and that did it for many years it's a lot of work but it was a it was a great time for a lot of families and for the community to come out and see our updated facilities and to see how great our students are thank you Mr maner yeah I was there um oh so good I can't wait till next year uh are there any other um community events that any board members would like to highlight before we move on I'm sorry I didn't mention it before no okay uh Miss pinales um the policy committee met on February 6 was a long meeting M hold on missal it's really hard for me to hear you is it her mic or you have to bring it closer closer yeah there we go can you hear me now yeah yes um board members Miss Mes s and n were present also Administration m was present too and the director of special services Mary hen the first order of business was to select a share to which I was chosen um and we discussed new policy and regulation called the tire collaborative program okay I think you can hear me now better yes here okay um under item 16 under their policy item one the tiger collabtive program is about a paret IEP to offer students the opportunity for work based learning and life skill courses Community will serve as a classroom we will be responsible for finding job sites the goal is to guarantee employment for the students postsecondary schooling there will be travel training the students will be provided with training in the use of public transportation and other means of travel the Staffing will be dependent upon the number of students it related service providers that will be needed are speech therapeutic social workers par professionals register behavioral technician transition skill coordinator which is will be the only person needed to be hired and which job description we need to approve today program will start approximately with five students there were safety concerns and benefits and barriers of the program discussed by board members such as undertaking this new new program with everything that's going on with the school system right now and extra space that will be required which Administration said will not be necessary the tenative date to start this program will be September and also we discuss the Special Olympics inclusive opportunity which is an steppen position moreover we discuss the use of school facilities with the possibility of charging for our premises um our next committee will be on March 5th and that concludes my report with that I would like to make a motion to approve item one through three under policy is there a second second we have a motion by Miss pinales a second by Miss nutting is there any discussion Dr serer and then Mr Miller um first of all I apologize I missed sending this question in so I understand if you do do not have an answer on the spot but I bet you do um regulation 7510 requires quote uh B the use of the kitchen requires the services of the school district's Food Services vendor um speaking of the spaghetti dinner the band boosters have utilized the DHS kitchen kitchen for many years for their spaghetti dinner will student and parent groups such as the band boosters be required to pay for the Food Service supervision I think well one of the things that the regulation does is it gives the uh the district and the board the ability to make exceptions um but the key piece is with the kitchen we do need someone who is qualified to oversee the equipment there so um if that was uh a group uh for example let's take something easier let's say it was an outside group who was using this facility for some type of food reception and preparing food we would we would charge them for that person being here if it was something connected to the school district where the board wanted to absorb that course we could make that decision okay and then uh additionally under H um would such a group again I'm using the the band boosters because we were just at the spaghetti dinner um but I think a lot of our student groups and some of the sports boosters have in the past used these spaces as well um would we also potentially provide exceptions for custodial over time and a kitchen use charge um were those to come into play yes the exceptions can apply wherever the district and the board feels you know it's appropriate uh what we did not have in place what were these itemized list of charges and that's what the purpose of this regulation is Mr M um so um the one of the concerns I have at this point is uh the transition coordinator and hiring a new person um I think it's great because that was one of the things that I know um that was a concern for several years where there wasn't a viable program for students to transition to what's life going to be after school um I'm kind of concerned to hire a person I don't know enough about what I read to understand what it's going to be is it possible for us to to table that particular piece so that we can have more opportunity to look at that because part of what I'm I feel but I'm not you know I might not know all the details is that the all the professionals that we have there now should be able to do that so I'm not quite seeing the need for a person to start a program with just 10 students it's required that you have a certified individual ual who fulfills this function it used to be called an SLE they've changed the terminology just recently uh they go through State training it it really can't be a person who's already here uh one just to quickly go through this with you one of the chief duties is to um recruit work sites and inspect work sites and work with work providers so that uh when they are working with students with special needs they understand their role what some of the challenges students may have who are coming in and what some of the services are and making sure that that's all uh something they're prepared for the other uh item is that these students are specifically trained for their workplace by this individual so uh if uh for example it was uh someone who was working in a retail establishment um I'm just going to pick something stocking shelves they would have to know the importance of coming to work on time uh dressing appropriately reporting to a supervisor if there were concerns who would go to Etc so that would be a very difficult uh function for any anyone else to absorb the uh the teacher of the the academic teacher of the class would continue to be teaching during the day uh related service providers um were mentioned uh they would continue to contribute at their level so like a speech therapist may help with um with verbal expression and with uh with ways that students um are indicating their needs but they would not be an individual who could take on this it's it's a very having done this before it's it's a very uh intensive position uh person also has to be prepared they have to know oosha regulations they have to uh be aware with uh what type of safety regulations the state puts in place for these types of programs uh they go through through a program with with the New Jersey Department of Education so that they're qualified to do that that would be the only position that we see necessary for this program to move forward I do need to mention if if a student needs this type of program and we don't have it it's something that we then have to Outsource which is um from a financial point of view not coste effective because we we typically will pay much more were're an outsourced provider then we would for our own plus that provider has the disadvantage of not knowing our kids as well as somebody who would be in house but you're saying it's only for 10 students this would be for a small amount of students we we're projecting five students for next year being involved in this but each of these students does this for at least half of their day so you they have instruction in school and then they go out into the work workplace and they they also have to have a level of supervision while they're in the workplace and uh what is the salary range for that it would be based off teacher contract okay are there any other questions or comments from the board I would like to know something I would like to know how will you guarantee that you have the job site SEC before um bringing the students in right that's that's part of the role of the uh of the SLE provider uh is to ensure that you have job site secured so if we were to begin this program in September students wouldn't and even if we had this program in exist and students wouldn't immediately be going out to the work sites more likely they would be going out to the worksites uh for the second semester once uh once there were job sites that were identified uh we do have some um employers that we already know in the community because of the um corporations they work for that that they're already involved in this type of work maybe not in their local uh areas but uh through their corporations so uh that would be where we would start uh with with those types of employers Mr Miller so but it wouldn't be limited to five people I would think that one person should be able to to do do this with a lot more students than just five this is for a specific uh uh student with with profile of needs that fits the program uh eventually we would see the program servicing more students but this is a lowi incidence population uh meaning that you know we we're not talking about students who this is not a general school to work program this is a school to work program for students who need um significant support so if do we know the difference between the cost if we outsourced it versus bring it inhouse I will tell you that and this is old data so I'd have to get you new data but a uh a contract for one student uh and and I'm going back now several years but just going back on my own experience as a special services director was typically $25 to $330,000 per student then uh I'm sure that it's an increased cost now the other part of the issue is when you're dealing with that third party contractor since they're coming from the outside their familiarity with with local local business is not uh it's not as intense uh and uh They Also may not have the schedule availability since they're coordinating with multiple districts around their needs are there any other comments or questions from the board Dr s when we're talking about the five students are um are the these students currently in a program provided somewhere else and we'd be bringing them back into do they they could be students who were somewhere else or they could be students who would who are moving towards this part of their educational experience so in the event uh you know just to describe this in general I don't want to identify students but these are students who typically whose IEPs require services from through age 21 whether or not they meet graduation at 18 they're entitled to Services through 21 to meet other needs that they have and so uh we have students who are moving into that age range we do have some students who presently are out of District who might like to come here and work because I'll just pick this is uh no way um specific to a student I'm just picking something out of the Hat let's say a student goes to a school and Lincoln Park if if they become um attached to an employer in Lincoln Park and they exit services at 21 now they're back here in Dober and have to find a way to get to Lincoln Park if if that if they've attached to that employer so this sounds like either we are bringing students back who are already out there or we're preventing students from leaving the district because they need these services and we won't provide them is is that cor correct correct that's correct um I I have a number of concerns and I want to prace this with I understand the value and the positive impact that this um can have on um students with uh IEPs my concern is uh this program seems to be a heavy lift considering all the challenges that we currently face um we are on the search for a new District leader um and then I I I also hear that you know potentially at some point you know we'll be bringing in more students um into the district we have been for the past I don't know however many years we have been screaming and crying and asking for $69 million because we need more space but we are now um looking to start a program that at some point not right now right we're going to start it off with five students see how that works but at some point we're going to be wanting to bring more students into the district that we don't even um currently have space for um can you I know you said that the salary will be based off of a teacher's contract can you give me a salary range well uh our teacher guide ranges uh from the uh mid-50s um through almost $100,000 depending on uh the level of experience and the level of uh graduate work and that that would apply to Any teacher who comes to us so when that teacher comes we evaluate uh their level of experience we look at their credentials in terms of their degree work and we make a placement so it could be anywhere in there um is I guess my final question is is this program the tiger collaborative program and this position absolutely necessary at this time or is this something that we can table and revisit um once we've figured out some other things candidly I feel it's way overdue um these are Dober students they live in Dober I I believe they have the uh the right to be here in do if we can provide a program for them we really try to provide programs for all of our students uh over a range of needs and and I would be um really remiss if I were to say that these students needs somehow don't rise to the level of other students who we're putting in uh dual credit programs or Pathways to uh to job success uh that's what this is about uh it also I have to say you know in coming to the district five years ago uh the the group that I heard from first and and and really strongest from were our group of uh parents who had students with IEPs we have been trying uh incrementally to build those Services up um we've had public comment here at board meetings that if from parents who feel we're not moving fast enough this is definitely a program um that has been a need and that our students continue to exhibit a need for so uh I I do believe I do believe the time is now to do the program and I I do have to say we have a strong uh we have a strong leadership in our special ed Department um both with our director of special services and our supervisor uh of special services who I'm very confident will see this program to success Mr Miller so but we are doing this now we're pro we're providing the assistance for students that need to transition to a workplace but we are doing that now we are not doing this present for the students who are in do programs we have do self-contained classes here with students who need this if we don't provide the program we will have to provide the program either by sending them totally out of District to a program that provides this or by Contracting an agency to come in as I described before so we're Contracting for those students now presently right now the students who are being serviced are being serviced through an outed District placement okay and how many students are is that I could get you that information I want to be precise if I give you an answer yeah because I just wanted to understand the level of service and the cost breakdown I guess the other question is the if and I certainly understand what you're saying don't get me wrong the this person what would be their capacity to be able to handle how many cases at the maximum once the program this is always going to be a low incidence program so when I say starting with five uh if if you would if a district like ours of our size would have 10 students or even a dozen students in the program that would I would probably see that as as the high point uh if if if when we get to that point so but with the opposite happened and we ended up with two students what do we then do with the person who's only handling this for two when we could use those resources for other programs like that's what I'm trying to figure out how do we balance that yeah if we had the person the person has to be credential they're going to be a special ed provider uh with with that state credential if we found ourselves with less students than we expect I'm sure that we could use that person in a mixed capacity with maybe they could teach a class or two classes if if we needed them to right now we're pretty confident of the five students having that need Dr serer yeah I this is an appropriate way to serve these children if we don't offer this we have to send them out and pay more so while I understand uh other board members concerns if this is the level of Education that those students need then it's what they need and it's our duty as a district to provide it to them and I it certainly seems cost effective to do that here as opposed to doing it somewhere else and I also think the the you know the hypothetical hardship that Dr mcglaughlin described where a student trains in a job and you know pick a town that's not over and then has to find work somewhere else why would we not facilitate building those Partnerships within our community and also making it easier on those families um you know past the age of 21 when those students leave us Mr Miller I just want to say I totally agree with providing the service but we have to look at the whole picture because then we also have parents who are screaming at us because there's 28 kids in a classroom and so if we have overcrowding in the classroom and you know how do we balance it out for everybody I understand all all the points it's just that we have to look at the whole picture yeah and that's that's kind of where I'm at like I I see the value but considering the entire picture I have I do have um concerns with um the right now part of it right um are there any other comments Miss Phillips so can how do I want to say can you give an idea of like what the implementation of this program looks like because like I've said it a lot of times I feel like you know when I feel like a lot in a lot of ways we don't have the infrastructure to handle the students that we have right now we talk about overcrowding and you know not being able to provide certain things I'm never comfortable bringing in more things when we can't properly support what we already have so given the fact that you will not be here so you're looking at I know you said the the people that are here and I forget the names I'm terrible but you know that that's going to be a new superintendent whether it's a permanent or an interim at that time I I just would like if you can provide like an understanding of what that looks like for someone who may or may not even be that familiar with that program you know coming in and what the implementation for the district as a whole would be so the the program consists of uh working with an identified group group of students who have the specific need for work rated skills and for transition postsecondary transition uh which is a required part of the IEP so that's it's absolutely required whether we send the student out whether we uh contract with an agency or whether we do it ourselves it's absolutely required for any student who has that need in their IEP the the individual um and I know we're concentrating on that one you know that one individual so the the person who works in this SLE capacity the structured learning experience capacity is is an individual who works to First recruit employers who have appropriate settings that will fit these students needs and um it's more than just a phone call obviously you know they've got to uh they've got to uh check out the facility make sure it's safe uh make sure that there's appropriate supports that they're receptive to a coach coming in um and working with a student who may need that level of support uh the individual then would work with uh in conjunction with uh the students teachers to teach uh those skills that are needed uh in preparation for the workplace with the students so students would need to learn how to fill out an application they would need to learn again how to professionally dress for the workplace how to interact with other employees how to uh adhere to a schedule uh travel training is often required so if uh if the student did have to take let's say the train for a stop you know um how to access the train to buy a ticket you know when to get off that type of thing um or to use uh the the link service that's provided through New Jersey Transit which a lot of our students are eligible for they're the key person to work with DVR the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation and DDD which is the division of development disabilities to make sure that those agencies are primed to take over supports when that student graduates at age 21 and to help parents through the application process because it's a it's a significantly involved process um the amount of time the the students are in the building again these let's just take the example of a student who's already here in their 18 and in their 19th um year uh their 19th age year they're going to transition to the workplace they would would most likely be here let's say in the morning although it could work either way uh where they're here in the morning and they have classes uh that help them with the skills I mentioned and then they are um um assisted in terms of getting to the workplace going to the workplace uh this the sle uh teacher makes visit to the workplace to evaluate their progress to evaluate their levels of supports hopefully over time to gradually uh with withdraw some of those supports so the student can be as independent as possible or to transition with one of the agencies I mentioned so that those agencies can take over the coaching and support uh in the workplace so um that's that's basically what the program would look like Miss nutting and then Mr Miller understanding that this program would um benefit the the students that have IEPs um I didn't send this but it just kind of came to me as I was listening listening to you guys um what legal Holdings would it put us in if we didn't provide it since IEPs have to be they a legal binding document what position does that put us in if we do not have a program like this well no one can force the district to have its own program but in lie of not having its own program we would have to provide the services uh we would either send a student out to a placement that does this um as part of of their work and many uh specialized added District placements do work with students at this Advanced age uh to transition them to the workplace or as I mentioned before we would have to use an agency for example like the arc who would who have this service would meet with the student get to know the student do an assessment of the student's uh vocational abilities and skills and aptitude and then try to match them to a workplace uh I've worked with agencies like that and again the challenge many times is their familiarity uh and the amount of time it takes them to become familiar since they're working in multiple communities with multiple school districts to know the the employer um uh you know Community uh that's local to the student which really uh is is critical it's it's critical many of these students will continue to live at home uh after they uh after they leave us and having something that's local and that they can actually travel to is really important Mr Miller so let's just say for our five students this person finds the vocation for all of them pretty quickly and has already gone through a review you know the first couple of months where the students are actually on the job what does that person do after the first two months the rest of the year if everything's going well they continue they continue to work and support the students because they need to be visible at the workplace they need to do evaluations uh to show the progress of goals that the student's making and then hopefully to advance the student so a student may begin in a certain position but they also may be able to advance during the time that they're there if they build their schools like anybody else who's in in the workplace uh the other thing I do have to mention is that you know many times the first place does not work out uh it's it's you you try to make the best match uh you support the student but it is not uncommon for a student to need a second or a third choice before you find that what works um plus it may be five different places so that means they have to go to five different places but how often do they go to observe that's that's going to depend on the student you know um there are students with really really significant needs who may need need that person there almost all the time uh when they first start uh there are other students who might not need that level of support um you know it it really differs especially when it comes to to these individual cases is there something that you can that can be done with that job description that would describe that um if they fulfilled what they needed for the students at a certain point then they would do other work that's necessary with within the district like how how do you figure that out like you said they could they could do other things right I don't think You' need to put it in the job description because they could fulfill we have people now who fulfill two you know a mixture of two different job descriptions uh so if this SLE transition coordinator position uh was not one that uh that they needed to fulfill through their whole work day five days a week and and as I said before they could take a first period class or a last period class or maybe two two periods at the end of the day they would just fulfill the the job description of a teacher in those in those instances Dr sner Dr mlin if the student were to be placed out of district with one of the organizations that you discussed would the district be responsible for transportation to that facility Andor the place of employment since they are officially do students yes and same respect we will be responsible for transportation when they're within the district as well right correct okay um I'm going to make a motion that we table the policy regulation and do job description so the tiger collaborative program policy and Regulation and the job description of transition coordinator until such time the board has had um more time to consider this item I think there are still too many questions and concerns and we're not ready to take a vote on this is is there a second second we have a motion by myself a second by Miss ACO is there any discussion Dr s Miss Mendes what do you anticipate will happen between now and a further time period to help us make this decision well I think that this is going to have to go back to committee um number one and I think in the meantime it allows board members to sit with the information a little bit longer we also I mean this is no fault of Miss Bales we didn't get the minutes updated into the share drive until today because we didn't give access to miss Bales to do that so board members have only been sitting with this information for a couple of hours um so yes is there any other discussion Mr sabahu may we have a roll call vote please misso yes Miss STS yes M gales oh sorry I'll start roll call again sorry Mr fto yes Miss STS yes Mr Miller yes Miss nothing yes Miss Phillips yes Miss penales yes Dr sener yes Miss Tes yes Miss mandz yes okay the motion on the floor um by Miss pinales and seconded by Miss nutting is to approve all the other items under uh policy uh if there's no further discussion seeing none Mr sabahu may we have a roll call vote please miss ASO yes Miss DS yes Mr Miller yes Miss nothing yes Miss Phillips yes Miss peles yes Dr sener yes Miss SES yes Miss mandes yes we are moving along to finance and Facilities Mr Miller the finance and Facilities committee met on February 13th um we received a an update from the board architect U Mr ke Pete kesio um he is soliciting a time and material contract with the H 100 County cooperative to uh install a new freezer at the do High School uh in the back uh the loading dock area um and um they're expecting a bid of around 325 k um and there may be a need to use some of the the general fund to cover a portion of this cost um uh in addition to some of the cafeteria fund so we'll see how that turns out uh the director of facilities uh Mr O'Brien gave his update um he talked about the painting of classrooms repl replacing ceiling tiles in each of the schools which has been ongoing um they're budgeting new gym floor for the Middle School uh they're budgeting new floors for East over um as a result of some uh old Plumbing settling in the old section of the school um and they're planning a hallway renovation in the high school from the cafeteria area all the down to like the utility area the next intersection of the school um Academy Street Building Construction is ongoing um and this is the area in which we were getting a lot of the flooding so a lot of the the framing and the electrical and sheetrock is being um uh put in um and we're waiting for building permits for the East and North over modular classrooms uh they completed the East over playground the East over Band Room LED lights and the Academy Street second floor hallways were painted some future projects uh High School generator um we're looking at um what would be all of the um appliances or utilities that would need to be connected to the generator um in case of an emergency um one of the things that we noted was the high School serves as a shelter for the town of do uh for the uh do Emergency Management so it' be great to have the refrigeration and the water and some other items available depending on the time of the year um they're looking to construct a security vestibule at East over middle school so they're looking at some initial Concepts now um and then our Architects um are going around the district and documenting the current layout and usage of uh space um looking at the age of our windows and uh furnaces and all of that so that we have a comprehensive list uh to manage and build a uh long range facility plan and and obviously as they're going through our schools they're looking at spatialization to see if there's opportunities to uh utilize space more effectively and maybe some small construction projects that would help to alleviate some of our space needs um under the finance portion um there was discussion where we're budgeting now for the School Musical 15,000 and the school play for $7,500 um this is being proposed instead of having to raise funds through ticket sales um when you look at you know all the other budgeted items for all the sporting events events everything is budgeted so that they can um hold all those events and that it just seem to be the right thing to do also for the Performing Arts uh so that will be um it put in place and then uh tickets uh to come to the school place would be free people would just need to make a reservation when they would come U but it would be open to the public just like all the sporting events are free for the public to attend um a budget meeting are all being set um um I'm not sure if you mentioned the receiving um some Capital project funds uh you did mention that yes in my report ition okay that's good it was so long ago I don't remember now so um and then we were talking about um the fact that um we may have to raise lunch prices because of a shortfall in some of of the proceeds that are not coming in so I guess that will be something that we'll be looking at for the fall and um and we've already mentioned the fact that we were um looking for a search firm for the superintendent and that will be uh we'll be conducting those interviews next month and with that I would like to make a motion that we approve items 1 through 12 is there a second second we have a motion by Mr Miller a second by Miss Phillips is there any discussion Dr s um there are a number of checks uh for Roxberry with the notation maintenance special could you describe uh for a total of several thousand doll could you please describe what these charges are for uh we have cost share agreement for transportation so our buses get uh serviced over there okay thank you um and then we are approving um the New York Road Runner strides program could you describe what that provides for our students please sure this is a uh free program that promotes students walking uh tracking uh walking as mighty MERS uh this uh allows students as part of their recess time uh to give students the purpose of walking and tracking their progress um we have a uh an individual who already is interested in being the program lead for this program uh it's a free Nationwide program uh aimed at helping youth develop the ability confidence and desire to be physically active for life thank you any other comments or questions from the board Miss Mendes uh Dr mlon can you explain the grant uh the snap grant that the district is receiving for the public please which Grant uh the snap supplemental snap Gap Grant uh this is the second time that we've been awarded this grant so SNAP benefits are provided to those who economically qualify uh the reason it's called the snap Gap grant program is because uh Dober according to the state uh should have a lot uh more individuals who uh receive uh SNAP benefits uh which provides you know a whole host of economic assistance uh to families who qualify the snap application process is not necessarily an easy one what this uh program does is it allows us to um basically pay senss to individuals who will do one toone time and help our parents complete those applications last time through we had a significant amount of applications that that were able to be completed uh in addition to the benefit that it provides to the families it provides a great benefit to the district um if our district did uh hit the the number that the state uh identifies as the appropriate uh amount of snap uh qualifying families uh we would not have to complete uh our families would not have to complete free and reduced uh lunch applications so we're continuing to work uh through this um uh because you know there's a uh both I think a challenge for many of our families and sometimes of reluctance uh because uh there's not enough known about uh what snap is about uh are the individuals who work uh with the families get trained uh for example through zufall SNAP program they would uh train the individuals here uh I expect that many of the individuals who are be interested in working with their families work through in the last program as well uh it doesn't cost us anything this is all done after hours uh and um I think it's a really positive both for our families and for the district thank you any other questions from the board seeing none we have a motion by Mr Miller a second by Miss Phillips Mr sabahu may we have a roll call vote Please Mr ESO yes M STS yes Mr Miller yes Miss nothing yes Miss Phillips uh yes with an exstension to payments to vendor 1950 Miss penales yes Dr CER yes with an exstension for check number 836 836 Miss sones yes Miss mandz yes we are moving on to some informational items upcoming Board of Education meetings February 27th again um I apologize for the conflict but I just um want to note that this meeting is just a train training um there will be no board business conducted at this meeting um March 19th and April 23rd tentatively we will address that under new business um Dr s are there any trainings you'd like to highlight I would um njsba is bringing back um there's a leadership series of three trainings um I don't have actual details I'm not sure that has been posted um but you'll notice there's one on March 2nd on personnel issues one on March 16th um School finance and one on April 12th uh communication they are located south central and north but they are also virtual and I hate virtual training but um that is a way and I would uh it's been a while since they've offered these Saturday you know morning trainings but they used to be really great so I would um encourage anyone to attend in whatever capacity you can thank you um use of fac facilities we have a number of use of facilities requests um including the Academy Street School PTA for the Tricky Tray one of my faves um the Dober liaison department for getting to know Dober I thought we had decided that if it's a school department they don't need to be on yeah but that doesn't really need to be on there but it's cool to know um I have a question yes so can't help myself but the American Christian School applied to go back to their old school they did they had a um a tough situation getting gym time they are a nonprofit they we have worked with them in the transition so it was two games and okay I just wondering I will weigh in on that because they asked me about it first that was their senior night for the boys and then senior night for the girls so where they play now is very small they don't have a gym at their school so they had asked if that was something that we could consider so I directed them over here but that was the reason and they were very happy because they were able to play on their senior night I will say do girls won that game too oh very good and and the gym floor does say American Christian School even though the church didn't know they were doing that when they redid this the uh the gym floor thank thank you for that um we're moving along to Old business is there any old business seeing none we are moving along to new business um there is an item under new business that we need to discuss and that is the rescheduling of our April 23rd Board of Education meeting um Dr mclin or Mr sabahu who wants to take that to give us a little bit more insight as to why that um is a need okay uh the earliest uh budget hearing should be April 24th according to the election calendar just released so uh budget calendar is going to be changing also so we have to have a meeting uh between April 24th and before May 7th actually does everyone grasp that concept so is it the actual budget hearing for the public or just it's a regular board meeting it's a regular board meeting I uh we I think we always had them together regular board uh meeting for April and also budget hearing at the same time so okay that's what I'm saying so it's also the budget hearing date for the public yes so essentially the state has handed down a new mandate and directive that we cannot have a hearing until April 24th or after so we have no choice essentially but to reschedule our April 23rd meeting or schedule a special meeting specifically for the budget hearing nobody wants an extra meeting so let's reschedule our April 20 3rd meeting um and I again it was already brought up here tonight and we already have had one oversight with our meeting on the 27th I know having a meeting on a Wednesday is not ideal but it to um keep with our commitment with um having our Town Council um meetings not conflict and obviously with the um cards we have been dealt with the state calendar changes um I moved to reschedule our April 23rd Boe meeting to April 24th second we have a motion and a second is there any discussion seeing none Mr sabahu may we have a roll call vote please M ESO yes Miss DS yes Mr Miller yes Miss nothing yes Miss Phillips yes Miss peles yes Dr C yes Miss SES yes Miss mandes yes is there any other new business seeing none we are moving along to public comment uh the board recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to express themselves on school matters to ensure fair and orderly expression of such comment each statement shall be held to a time period of 3 minutes public comments not restricted to items on this agenda shall be entertained for approximately 30 minutes upon the discretion of the presiding officer for those who wish to provide public comment remotely a Google form was posted on District website at 6:30 p.m. remote comments will be read by a member of the Board of Education the Board of Education will alternate between iners and online comments please understand that public comment portions of our agenda are not structured as question and answer sessions but rather they are offered as opportunities to share your thoughts with the board the board may or may not respond to public comments however all comments are considered and will be investigated and addressed as appropriate please be courteous and mindful of the rights of others when providing comments comments may not be abusive obscene threatening or irrelevant please understand that students and employees have specific legal and privacy protections the board is not permitted to respond in public to comments about students or employees please be advised that you are commenting at your own risk any public comments that are directed at a particular individual or individuals could subject you to Legal liability for defamation with that public comment is now open is there any member of the public in person wishing to speak good evening my name is Maria chakon I live do I have to say my address like we do at the town all right okay um I want to welcome the two new board members uh welcome to to the board um uh I'm going to start off with the pilot um for IEP students that was just discussed for me as a parent um with a child who has an ie um it's this heartening to hear that the focus of some board of education members lean more towards Financial concerns rather than the well-being and educational growth of all children I was informed that sending a student out of District can cost around 30,000 a year underscoring the superintendent point that parents of children with special needs have been seeking assistance for many years this pilot program rep represents a crucial step towards providing the necessary support and resources for every child affirming that our priority should always be the holistic development and inclusivity of all students within our educational Community it's frustrating to see that students with special needs would lose this pilot opportunity because of what certain board members see is not as important at this moment because of budget constraints the next uh topic would be lgbtq workshops during my review of the do school district website I noticed a lack of information regarding educational lgbtq workshops for students staff and Board of Education members upon inquiring with my child it appears that there still has have been no programs presented at the high school could you um inform the public if organizations like Garden State equality and Edge will be invited to conduct such workshops in the future like they did in the past um the other comment would be search for superintendent thank you for the inclusion of do stakeholders that that was mentioned today um such as parents caretakers I hope it also includes the most important most importantly our students in a survey for the selection process I hope that their uh voice is heard I'm hoping to see in person sessions and online surveys our insights and needs are crucial in identifying a leader who will not only Excel in administrative duties but also genuinely connect with and understanding the community they are set to serve engaging these key stakeholders in the decision making process ensures a more transparent inclusive and effective selection that that aligns with our District's needs in a district P predominantly comprised of people of color and students with different needs prior prior prioritizing diversity Equity intersectionality and inclusion in selecting a superintendent is critical it ensures the leaders the leader understands and reflects the community's rich culture background addresses systemic inequalities and champions policies that uplift all students this approach Fosters a more Equitable inclusive School environment where every student identifies and experiences all are valued laying the uh groundwork for their success and empowerment excuse me Mr your time's up so please finish up yes I'm almost done um this approach will really represent what the words one over really means and lastly I want to express my gratitud toe to the superintendent M Laflin for his dedication and the considerable time he has invested Ed in enhancing our schools during the times I was addressing harassment intimidation and bullying incidents I deeply appreciated your prompt responses and the immediate support I received through your emails and phone calls thank you for showing genuine care for all children and for the support initiatives like the novaris art contest our schools have made significant progress under your guidance without your support navigating The Bullying incident my child experience in middle school would have been much more challenging thank you thank you Mr con are there any um remote comments no uh hello again uh Susan shower 346 West Clinton Street in do um I had several other items that I wanted to discuss but I just dumped all of those uh I did want to though thank the governance committee Mr Miller your committee and then the rest of the board also for holding yourselves accountable to the board go goals that you set that you sat down you set goals and you planned on how you were going to get to your goals and you're holding yourself accountable to that now and I truly appreciate that it's refreshing and it's encouraging um one of the problems that I see and I'm witnessing it right now and this is why I changed what I wanted to speak about Miss Chone indicates that there are board members that don't support this um new transitional coordinator and program I see what they don't support what they don't support is the lack of information and planning towards the Implement implementation of the program to succeed and for any program to succeed there has to be planning the board has to have complete information so that they can vote on it to be told tonight we want you to vote on a job description we want you to vote on hiring somebody in the future in the near future we want you to vote on a program and saying the cost is on the salary guide in Alli in Alliance with the teachers cost and to say that it's cost effective when you don't have the cost I don't know how you did that uh I'm going to try passing that off through my husband when we talk about our budget the next time that's not going to work you have to plan these things and if this is a crucial component which it sounds like a fabulous program I am a graduate of a co-op program in high school mainstream but still a co-op program where I went to school in New York City and gained more in three years than I could have in 10 years of school so I think it's a fabulous program the idea itself and long overdue but you have to have the information in the planning in order for it to succeed and I don't see that in the five years if this was so important why has it been five years why is it now as there is one foot out the door W's retirement and an absent assistant superintendent you are missing half your staff and to say we want to start another program with that as I'm walking out the door it just seems ill planned if there has been five years to plan this why wasn't it planned and why didn't the the public hear about this and why didn't the board because it seems like there are board members here tonight that don't know the plan don't know the details of the program the Special Olympics coordinator again long overdue do the demise of the Special Olympics link from do here was because of the retirement of the longstanding volunteer who did the fundraising to keep the program going there's no plan there was a $38 an hour cost for the coordinator but where's the plan because there's a significant cost to run a Special Olympics program from the district there's Transportation there's other costs and these are weekend transportations when you also have football basketball soccer games and kids traveling with those buses I didn't see the plan it's great that you want to do these things it's absolutely fabulous for our students and for our community Excuse Me Miss shower your time's up so please finish up um but the plan the community needs to hear the plan and then we can support you because we do want to support you we want our kids to be the best they can be give us the tools to do that with the information thank you thank you are there any other remote comments no Mary sa 217 Baker Street I just want to uh point out um one particular expense uh is a 64 Cent that came in the mail I'm sorry I owed money to the cafeteria my question is why is this the first form of notification to parents when we all have to sign contracts online our our students are are some students are getting picked up by parents 64 cents I literally live a block away from the school I'm not sure if this was in the business administrator's cafeteria report it probably goes to postage through Pitney Bose is it allocated to to an expense of collecting the money from parents for the the meals it's just a general question to make sure that you being aware I don't know if this is a particular school doing it if all of the schools are doing it my my child comes back with a folder from the teacher I have an elementary school student nothing in the folder to begin with no phone call to follow first formal communication 64 cents in the mail and I'm talking one I'm talking a couple that I know I don't know if you have the reporting is how much was spent to collect the money from the parents um again this was mentioned by the our business administrators our cou U meetings back asking parents to make sure to stay up the date otherwise it comes from the general funding um it's just a point I wanted to bring um up to your attention um thank you Dr s for um giving a little insight on that gifted and talented program and dual language as well as part of your report report I love your report by the way um and it it's just I did not mention anything with the parents um these are second uh grade students going into third grade any feedback from families if that can please be something that's requested as part of the analysis of the programs um and again this goes back to the whole planning of it uh stopping programs some yes some no uh I mean now we know that second graders are going to continue maybe if they have a chance to go depending on teacher availability I'm guessing um and um Mr Miller mentioned the whole um performance arts performance play um our community our school calendar doesn't even show when the play is going to be how are we expecting participation from the community to come to our events it's I go to many other local school uh plays during this season and it's our most affordable one it's literally five dollar I don't know if you've uped to 10 I would love some more funding obviously to make up for that but let's communicate let's invite a family members uh uh I mean if anything give the free ticket to two per performer or something like that but yeah I mean I would love to come for free but we're missing that support from the community and right now it's not on the calendar so people are already not knowing that it's coming in March excuse me ma'am your your time's up so please finish up and um I just have to say I I'm not yet High School parent but the students report is the second time that we hear from the students report from the do high school that all students are paying for somebody a few students mistakes first the bathrooms are closed mid period because of some I'm sure not all students are vaping in the bathroom and now some have to pay for no mirror for something that somebody does it's it's the second time that's included in the report to being brought up to your attention this whole what you're doing with the students as far as everybody paying for the others making the mistakes it's it's a little too much if we're hearing about it at the meetings thank you thank you are there any remote comments no any member of the public in person Angela Ramos Gama 326 Washington Avenue okay um I'm gonna I'm gonna try to be our the most educ and polite I could be you know English is my second language so please bear with me and my mouth I just come from the dentist so my mouth is full is a little bit on so in June in June 4th 2019 90 a.m. p.m. we had a board meeting where Mr mclin uh present his goals right one of his goals as you hear this the uh this tonight was Special Olympics having a program for special EDS and mostly I wrote all his goals right here and I could share with all of you because all some more more a lot of you you were knowing that meeting with Mr MCL he get hided so just I want to say thank you because since June 2020 before he was hiding we have the technology we didn't have before Community cannot complain we don't he we don't the school distry doesn't have communications because before we didn't have it we didn't have a website where we can go in the website and check out our schedules who were the teachers who were the directors of this of the schools before before and this I will say this really loud I want to say thank you to your voice because that was the change I really really seen I'm really feel so sad Mr mclin is leaving because he did a great change in the school district you were here before 11 10 years ago that was this was different and we will not be talking like this right now so I want to say thank you so much for everything I know when I met you I said you were getting the biggest challenge maybe in your life I don't know but as as you can see it's still being a challenge it's sad for some of us you are leaving so just I want to be sure you know we are really grateful you were really open to the parents you were Insurance the parents feel welcome in the district you were you are a great communicator with everybody and whatever wants to reach out we understand some of the goals are not being complete and we see why they are not being complete and we see the challenge you you have to face to but we want to say thank you for your leadership the same in the same time I I know he maybe he can hear the meeting but Mr Lea one of our special teachers his his retirement and we want to say thank you to him as as for all his years of service maybe this is not possible for all of you but I really really wish if you can just get educated about how special ed works and how the transition plans are and how ANP is each a student who's in nip who has an IP has a different different lives different talents different abilities it's not just about they you're going to get in 18 and 21 years and you are trying to fit them in a transition program or in a pilot program each one has a different talents we have parents in the community who doesn't know what to do with their childrens's once they graduate because they don't know the laws they don't know know they can have a transition programs they don't know if the district they don't provide the District programs they can go to a different district and find the program and that's most costly for the district excuse me ma'am your time is up so please try to finish up soon thank you and when you start with some with some with just five or six childrens that's the correct way to do it because all those have different abilities and all of them they will not have the same the same way to transition at different at the program so thank you Mr mallin even if that doesn't go true I know issues are the budget but this is as somebody's just mentioned this has been overdue for the community and has been overdue for all the students and I think for some of you are been seting so many years in this chair and you are not being looking out for toward this and not because I have a son in special because I know the lows and I know what can I do after he graduates so he doesn't graduate but some of the depent doesn't do doesn't know and they don't have no idea thank you Mr M are there any other remote comments Miss Phillips no any other member of the public wishing to speak hello um Marie hardenberg I just want to say um aside from being a little disappointed tonight that the policy uh the regulation and the job description were tabled I do want to say that I look I look forward with to working with the policy committee the board to address all your questions and your concerns that you have about this program and that hopefully that you'll be able after some dialogue um with myself and our supervisor and Dr mclin see the tremendous value of this program and the curriculum that it offers for our current and future students that need this level of special education programming thank you are there any other remote comments is there any other member of the public wishing to speak seeing none public comment is now closed um I'm disappointed that the takeaway from our discussion was that it only came down to finances our decision to table this matter tonight was not just about finances it was the fact that we did not have enough information there are clearly board members that have plenty of more questions and as a board we cannot just consider one factor we do not just consider the finances right we have to consider the overall impact on the district the long-term plans we have to consider the climate that we're in right now so there are multiple factors that we have to consider I don't think one person on this board said that they disagreed or did not want this program what we said was we need a little bit more time to get more information and I don't think that we should be chastised for that um excuse me your please maintain the quum please public comments over um additionally um I can tell you that uh Edge New Jersey has been at the middle school um uh some of you may or may not know this I actually work at Edge New Jersey and they have been at the middle school I help to coordinate that um and I do know that they will be at the high school um providing PD to some of the staff right Dr mlin [Music] um I have so many things on my list uh the play being on the calendar uh is that something we can Rectify fairly soon yes yes um parent feedback for um some of the programs mentioned in Dr Sen's report um can you provide a little bit more insight in that I I know we talked about it in committee but I'm not sure came across in the report I'm sorry could you repeat the question the parent feedback for I believe it was gifted and talented I think parent feedback came up with with dual language and um all the parents who have children in dual language have been contacted each and every one of them through both written survey and through phone calls so that was a and when uh Miss Rodriguez gave her um uh report to the curriculum committee that was a a key piece of parent involvement and how uh parents uh input was being solicited thank you um there was a comment brought up about um notices being sent out for money owed to the um cafeteria fund Mr saahu is there anything that you'd like to add to that and I I know there was are we allowed to um share the amount of money that's owed or is that EX executive it's not executive let's share the amount of money that's owed so that not about a specific person no no it's not specific The Total Money of uh the B parents is $160,000 uh most of the districts use this uh sending by letter because some some of the parents they don't check emails they don't have internet so that's the best way and we also have people calling uh from the principal's office and we have a one person dedicated in uh the uh actually Board office but we have uh 35 500 kids so there's no way we can call one by one that's why we're sending the letters I think it's also important to note that we cannot send bills home with students we cannot send bills home with students in their folders it has to go to the parent oh yeah that's that's why we s separately so that Miss Mendes may I add something to that yes um I just found out um that I am also delinquent on my school lunch bill um it is in Genesis I can't tell you off the top of my head head how to find it but I was looking for something else and discovered that so uh that is that information is available it does not contain your balance I know that I we prepay so that our daughter can eat lunch um but it does show uh deficient balance um in Genesis so parents may want to check that out as well thank you are there any other comments or questions from the board Dr mlen is there anything that came out of public comment you'd like to touch on no not at this time a see nothing else is there a motion to adour the meeting at 8:36 p.m. so moved second we have a motion by Miss Phillips the second by Mr Miller all in favor say I I any oppose good night everyone meeting adjourned