i al to the flag of the United States of America stand naice all may I have a moment of silence please this is a regular meeting of the Glen Ridge board of education adequate notice of this meeting location and time has been provided in that this board notified the Glen Ridge paper and the Star Ledger on December 8th 2023 said notice was published in the Star Ledger on December 13th 2023 and the Glen Ridge paper on December 21st 2023 the date time and location of this meeting were also emailed to all recipients of the annual schedule of the board's meetings the results of the annual School Board election are as follows board member total votes for three threeyear terms Darius danad 1,149 votes Joselyn gotle 1,210 votes Duval Graham 1,175 votes elected are Darius danad Joselyn gotle and Duval graah at this time I would like to swear in the elected board members Mr Dad please raise your right hand the for I [Applause] that's un government EST unit States off [Applause] hi s for [Music] [Applause] all right we were gotten that right soon or later congratulations and welcome to our new board [Applause] members I will now call the role Miss Akin wand hi Mr Bonnet pres Mr Campbell here Mr Denard Miss Ginsburg here miss scle here miss Graham here miss O'Neal here Dr yarus Ramos here we we have a quorum we will now move on to nominations for president may I have a nomination for board president I nominate Betsy Ginsburg board president may I have a second I'll second are there any other nominations seeing none may I have a show of hands for Miss get Betsy Ginsburg as board president all in favor thank you none opposed it's unanimous congratulations Miss Ginsburg the meeting is yours thank you thank you all now I will accept nominations for the office of first vice president may I have nominations I nominate David Campbell for first vice president thank you may I have a second I second any other nominations seeing none may I have a show up hands all in favor of the nomination of David Campbell for first vice president raise your hand it's your congratulations David and now may I have a nomination for the office of second vice president I'd like go ahead to nominate Joselyn gotley for second Nom may I have a second second second from priston are there any other nominations see none all in favor of the nomination of joelyn Jocelyn as second vice president all raise your hands unanimous congratulations JN and I think before we do anything else let before we do anything else I think we have a special performance we do it's always a fun time uh of the year when we have this performance this past fall our marching band performed at multiple varsity football games and despite the Rainy Saturdays that happened month after month in the fall they managed to squeeze in uh competitive schedule that included seven contests spread across New Jersey and New York their season culminated in state championships at South Brunswick High School and US bands national championships on the turf at MetLife Stadium I'm happy to report first of all that on October 28th our marching band won the New Jersey group one state championship with a with a top seating score coming out of states the Glen Ridge entered Nationals as a favor to medal our students did not disappoint winning the group One National bronze medal in MetLife Stadium and in the process earning the highest visual performance and visual effects scores in the nation they have joined us this evening to share a portion of their 2023 fall production Pet Sounds the beach boy Sonic Masterpiece the Glen Ridge High School Marching Band Dr Darren g taking the lead can I uh can I say a few words uh first I wanted to um uh this is kind of a special meeting because it's the last time that we get to perform as a marching band for superintendent Phillips so just wanted to tell tell a quick uh story if you if you'll humor me um so I've been the full-time band director for nine years here at Glen Ridge but I've taught the marketing band for 33 years and um very close to the beginning of that time nearly 30 years ago um I was chaperoning one of the the school band trips and an ambitious young classroom teacher came along as a chaperone and um little did we know how ambitious he was because uh he would be climbing through the ranks uh uh until this very day um but that was um that was jerk Phillips and he and I became friends on that first trip which I think was to Colonial Williamsburg and then I think he even and that was when back when Stan Jackson was band director and I was the assistant band director and I think he even went with us on the next trip which might have been to Boston and that might have been with San or might have been when Kevin logos had already uh taken over the band directorship but I wanted to um mention because it it means a lot to me that for all those years um Dirk has been not only a friend to me but a friend to the band and um a friend to music in the district and that's so vital and um and seeing his uh his leadership from a lot of perspectives from as you know an assistant a lowly assistant band director all the way up to being the full-time person here in the building um we couldn't have done so many of the things that we've done over the years without his leadership and his tutelage and um he was a friend to the band when he was a classroom teacher when he was the principal at the high school and uh when he's been superintendent um so I just wanted to you know from from my heart and from from the band just wanted to um to thank um superintendent Phillips for all that he's done for us um and tell them that he will be uh missed by myself and the music program and um and we'd like to dedicate uh this performance uh to [Applause] him [Applause] going [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] d [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] the [Music] e [Music] [Applause] that was wonderful thank you thank [Applause] you I don't know how many uh board members get uh inducted to a marching band so very unique experience I'm very appreciative of the band the hours that they spend in the summer and after school uh to master their craft and and get the performance down it's it's amazing uh to watch them and I'm I'm very fortunate to have that pleasure every year um and to Darren thank you for the kind words uh I do remember those field trips very well uh Darren and another band director um our former head band director Kevin logos and I we all had the same sense of humor and I just remember walking through Williamsport and we didn't say uh Williamsburg the Bush Garden we just look at each other and just started laughing we just we didn't have to say communicate at all um and it was a terrific experience but um to watch then the the bands to perform at these um venues too was amazing and um I'm glad that uh Glenn Ridge has been able to maintain history of uh Excellence with the marching band and and they continue to amaze us each and every year so congratulation again to the marching band I wish we had them for every meeting okay um we've had uh no written communication since our last meeting which was early in December now seems like a long time ago um every year year the board is reborn and this year is no different um as you see we have a new Arrangement uh as well so happy New Year to everybody and welcome to Darius Denard our newest member we are so pleased to have you with us um before we go on I'd like to draw your attention um to the recent passing of a Glenridge High School alum alumna rather uh Sonia Kavala class of 2016 who died in December uh please keep her and her family in your thoughts uh and now uh I'll give you an update on the superintendent search uh sad as it is we are uh will be saying goodbye to Mr Phillips in June but we are proceeding with our search and the results of the community survey have come back and been tabulated and those results will be available on our website uh starting tomorrow but I wanted to give you a quick overview of the qualities rated essential for the next superintendent uh many other qualities were um rated in varying degrees of importance but these were the most essential the first was experience as a teacher the second was skill in short and long range planning the third was skill in working effectively with an elected Boe which makes us all feel good uh the fourth was skill in budgeting and facility planning skill in instructional leadership curriculum development skill in public speaking and written Communications experience as a school principal skill in public relations community outreach and collaboration with stakeholder groups and finally skill in the area of personnel and Human Resources so those are the qualities you considered essential for the next superintendent and the board each of us have made lists of our own uh essential qualities um we'll take those and these uh into account as we go forward into the next phase of the the superintendent search process and the deadline for applications has now closed uh as of today we've had a total of 31 résumés this is a very good number uh especially considering the uh scarcity of Educators at all levels right now uh and that number includes a significant number of individuals who may be invited for screening interviews uh the Personnel committee will meet shortly to discuss and set up those interviews for likely candidates dates uh so the process is is we are on schedule um to uh to finish the process um also uh the legislature is in its lame duck session and for those who don't know what that means it started November 27th a couple of weeks after the general election continues through January 8th um the new legislature will be sworn in January 9th but it is a time when much much much l legislation literally hundreds and hundreds of bills go through the legislature um we have been looking at closely education people have been looking closely at two bills uh one of which would have greatly changed the schedule for evaluations of tenur teachers rated highly effective or lengthening that schedule considerably second bill would greatly limit the ability of districts to um hire online uh Educators when they cannot find teachers as you know we have a critical shortage of teachers at just about every level in New Jersey uh while steps are being taken to remedy that it's a long-term problem uh wasn't didn't start yesterday it's not going to be resolved for five 10 years so in the meantime when uh districts cannot find certified teachers for in-person instruction districts sometimes have to go to to online instruction this bill would would greatly ctail the ability of Administrators and Boards of Education to do that and the eventual result with of that could be that sections and classes could not be offered because of the unavailability of instructors of any kind so um we're hopeful usually the process with bills is if a bill is really seems like it could have serious repercussions uh people in the education organization organizations rally uh to try to make those bills better with the observation bill um instead of uh lengthening scheduled observations uh The Substitute bill will establish a task force to look at teacher evaluations and the teach New Jersey act which was uh established 12 years ago inations so that will um that will that is a good outcome for that bill we're still working on the online education Bill hopefully it will not be um go all the way through the legislative process in the lame duck session but uh the lame duck session is is like a giant revolving wild card in the legislative uh Arena so we shall see but those are the developments in treton on the 9th the new legislature will be sworn in the governor will give his State of the State speech in Trenton and the legislature will have its Ann its biannual rebirth uh just as the board has had its annual rebirth and that is the end of the president's report thank you uh I want to wish everyone a happy and healthy New Year I want to congratulate the newly elected and reelected board members and uh tonight we also have another special treat Dr Harris is here to give us an upate on Central school so I'm going to turn it over to her for now good evening and good evening to all of you all right I'm very delighted to share with you a little bit about Central School where we've been I think the last time we got together it was a year ago and I told you about some great initiatives that we would be doing let's talk a little bit about them okay let's get okay all right so our emphasis has been on empathy compassion sharing and as such we did a food drive for Tony's kitchen and as you'll see reflected in both of these pictures we really bring to home what we say in terms of considering one's neighbor every Home Room was given um a list of food items to bring and then we put them together into bags and as you can see we fed well over a hundred families very proud of this initiative I very you know very much believe in children getting their hands you know inside of the bags and understanding where the food is going and why it's important to be a contributor pardon me Mr Barney it's okay um I spoke a little bit last year about calm classrooms and the need for students to be able to self-regulate having them calm down having them come into the classroom setting take deep breaths count whatever it is to position themselves for the day and it's not just something that our students do but faculty as well myself included I'm in my office deep breathing sometimes I have to hit the paws and redo it again because I find that it really does take the edge off the morning but it also puts us in a positive frame of mind and then in the middle of the day we have a midday reset this is a time of day where students come in they're charged up from Recess who did what to whom everyone has a story and sometimes you just need to be quiet sometimes you just need a sleep story I find that sometimes so do we and I won't play you're welcome the entire meditation but I want to give you a little bit of insight into what it is that you might expect in one of our classrooms hi there relies with a special belly breathing exercise first go ah you can sit or lay down C oror whatever feels good for you now close your or you your belly up andow breath out a ni side again take bre your belly I wonder how many of you actually did the exercise I know it's like our students at first everyone is self-conscious they're looking at each other are you doing it are you how about you and then eventually it becomes a culture first year took a little bit right everyone was a little self-conscious everyone was a little awkward we were all a little like I don't know is this going to work is this crazy is this new fangled and now it's an expectation and it's becoming a part of school culture which is what it is that we wanted for it to become a part of your everyday where you come in and you reset it's good for students mental health it's good for our mental health as well and I have found that behaviors have decreased I have less students coming to my office because they simply take a moment to reflect and to regulate themselves did I go one okay all right lights camera and the reason I have action is because that's the name of the dog I know right it does making a I know so um from Creature Comfort we have a therapy dog a therapy pet and the students read to the animal they pet the animal um it's been wonderful I think when the animal passes through the office I as well as Miss wall pet the dog probably more than any of our students so you know this is actually I have to be honest something that I remember doing at Ridgewood Avenue school and having this therapy animal carries over very well and I believe all three primary schools at Dr caravella's and Mr Murphy's school as well have a therapy dog level up Village we spoke a little bit about level up Village last time we were together and I told you about a wonderful program that Miss jars white um had come to me with and I said okay let's do it and we did and we're beginning to expand last year we only did second grade this year we're doing every single grade except prek we're not there yet um however our second graders have Mexico and with Mexico they've been building bridges I want to show you a brief part of the clip I'm not going to show you the whole thing but want to give you a little bit of an idea of what they're doing in their classrooms so you'll notice that they're building bridges in a moment the sound will kick in as well and they are tasked with building a bridge with materials that they find in the classroom and some that are suggested and provided and then they record video of showing if they've been successful using various items like batteries and things like that to make their Bridge stable so in a moment you're going to see some attempts to see if their bridge will stay put or if it's going to crumble this is a good activity for students it definitely represents Steam and here you go wdge that's it you got the you got three the four was extra good at a good good job so students are filmed putting their projects together and then they share it with students in Mexico so they also receive a video from the students in Mexico brief like so as you can see students engage back and forth with their you know their cohort in Mexico and um they're enjoying it we look forward to seeing um what new countries that we're going to interact with for first grade as well as kindergarten let's keep this going there we go and then they're just a few photos of them while they're working and progress it is a collaborative effort which I love and you know along with working together what I also like is that it doesn't always work out well the first time or sometimes the second time and that's helpful because it teaches them resilience everything doesn't go right all of the time and what do we do to counteract that and what do we do to then go back and correct it if we can that is very important for students it's important for us as well and also I want to shout out Miss wojack who also runs this program also we have adopted what we call diversity pillars at Central School Miss Patterson and Stephanie applebe and I sat together and I want to give them a lot of credit we looked at the months and we started to assign various things families culture um abilities of all kinds minds of all kind um language expression all of those things things that we wanted to focus upon and that we wanted to actually you know explore a little bit more so what we've done is we've gotten together we've paired with our parents we put out a sheet every month or two that has all of the resources that we're going to be using within the classroom so that they are able to um look at these diversity pillars and they're able to break them up they're able to um have conversation about them they're able to now explore diversity in new ways everything is not always color right but we have all types of things food dance tradition religion language expression abilities we're doing all of that at central school and then I spoke to you about the Bookworm vending machine last year well we had our soft opening I'll call it we had our soft opening as you can see the vending machine is now full of books and we have our seal stars or social emotional learning Stars those are our students we looked at kindness as being what was most important and when we found students um in acts of kindness they earned little tokens they go inside of a little bucket and their names get picked out monthly and they get a coin to put into the vending machine then take their little picture I'm still working on the Polaroid action there a little bit but we're getting it together and they go on the board we don't throw away any students names so it's not a refresh every month so we just keep on you know pulling names and last but not least um our home in school is the best you know I always want to shout them out as well because a lot of what we do is funded by parents in the community a lot of the great activities that we have funded by parents in the committee and so even right down to those last drawings there in the crest that you saw at the beginning slide that came from a parent so to Lindsay Browski she created those and I want to make sure that I honor her as well that's a little bit about what's going on at Central School I thank you for your time and for your attention on Monday but keep an eye on it I want to actually use this moment as a reminder to make sure your contact information is updated on our uh Skyward if there is a change in the school schedule we'll send out notice through email phone calls text messages and we update our web page on it um we do our best to keep the schools open if it's safe uh so we we'll be tracking the weather throughout uh you know that evening into morning and and uh I try not to make a decision too late um I did get a late call when uh the the morning we had all that rain and and um a request from the police department to have a delay and that was usually later than I'd like but um you know when I hear from the the police department I I weigh that very heavily and and we did have a delay that morning um so just please uh keep an eye out and make sure that information is right for on Skyward and the last thing I'm going to mention is we are starting to delve into um the 2425 school budget um the budget calendar is up on our web page if you want to know more details about the process but we're going to start uh breaking down um the requests from the different um school buildings and departments we're going to be looking at our our funding um and in the next couple months really try to um get a budget that that works for everyone as best as we can we'll be meeting with the new finance committee and um be presenting our initial budget come the March Board of Ed meeting thank you okay normally this would be the time when we would have committee and liais on reports but we are as we do every year in the process of reformulating our committees but do any board members have any timely reports no okay just just one quick very quickly the Ridgewood Avenue home and School Association is meeting for the first time this Friday morning at 8:30 very sorry 8:45 so if anyone is interested that is the time to be there okay thank you and we should have committee and liais on assignments um formulated by the end of the week so the committies can get going um with their important work so now it is time for the first public comment period I'm sorry oh I'm sorry I forgot all about you Dylan I am I do apologize when there's nothing on the paper there's nothing in the brain please D O'Neal please go ahead yeah there hasn't been much going on around the schools the past couple weeks we had a calm end of the year with a very fun Rider day where we celebrated all of our winter teams and we had a lot of great competition between students and teachers alike which was a lot of fun and in during break we both of our basketball teams were very successful in winning their respective holiday tournaments which is really fun and a lot of the school it's excited to keep watching them and a bunch of our other winter sports teams throughout the rest of the season and lastly we had successful New Year class meetings today and we will finish those throughout the rest of the week led by Mr Lawler and Mr Phoenix in which they kind of just keep up the expectations of what students need what rules students need to be following and how to finish strong with this year okay board members any questions for Dylan thank you you all right now it is time for public comment I don't see a lot of the public here but uh just in case anyone wants to make a comment please step up to the lecturn uh tell us your name if you have any comment let us know and you have two minutes does anyone in our audience uh have any comments okay we will continue with the meeting then all right we have a set of minutes in our packet from the Glen Ridge board bed meeting of December 5th uh both exec session and regular session does anyone have any changes to those minutes no okay um David would you move the minutes I M1 I have a second second second from Anthony uh since we have no changes Barbara would you call the role Miss Akin wand hi Mr Bonnet hi Mr Campbell hi Mr Denard Miss Scot Le hi Miss Graham hi Miss O'Neal hi Dr yarus Ramos hi Miss Ginsburg hi motion carries okay before we move the uh administrative items uh I had volunteers for the positions of njsba delegate and Alternate uh Joselyn and Duval did you resolve who's going to be the delegate and who's going to be the alternate yes I I'll be the delegate andon will be the alternate so we will resolve that Duval Graham will be the delegate and Joselyn gotley will be the alternate so that gives us a finished uh resolution A2 uh that being the case Jocelyn would you move the administrative items please I move administrative items A1 through a A1 okay we have a second second from David um any questions or comments from board members on the administrative items all right Barbara would you call the rooll Miss aen wand I Mr Bonnet hi Mr Campbell hi Mr Denard miss gotle I miss Graham I miss O'Neal I Dr yarus Ramos I miss Ginsburg I motion carries all right Personnel Anthony would you move the Personnel items yes I'll move items P1 through p8 including the items on the agenda okay may I have a second second second from Jocelyn uh in keeping with our um rules and the board members code of ethics Perell items are discussed in executive session uh that being the case Barbara would you call the role Miss Akin wand hi Mr bonnet hi Mr Campbell hi Mr Denard Miss gotle hi Miss Graham hi Miss O'Neal hi Dr yarus Ramos hi Miss Ginsburg I motion carries okay Heather would you move the curriculum items sure I move C1 and C2 all right may I have a second second second from Anthony any questions or concerns about the curriculum items all right that being the case barbar would you call the rooll Miss aen wand hi Mr Bonnet hi Mr Campbell hi Mr Denard miss scly I miss Graham hi Miss O'Neal hi Dr yarus Ramos hi Miss Ginsburg I motion carries okay before we do the business items I want to call your attention to the donations listed under B3 uh the Gavin family drum set with symbols for Ridgewood Avenue School band and music program a $770 value thank you to the Gavin family and now David would you move the business items I move B16 okay and I should have mentioned that the addendum has a donation also which I will read out now um we are accepting with thanks the donation from the Glen Ridge Education Foundation for tuition for five staff members to attend four semesters of Forton Gillingham certification through Fairley Dickinson University uh again from the Glenridge Education Foundation books for the spring 20204 semester for seven Orton Gillingham cohort 2 students and also from the Glen Ridge Education Foundation books for the spring 2024 semester for five Orton Gillingham cohort 3 students Al together that is a very very very large donation uh from the Glenridge Education Foundation so thank you to Fran Wong and her colleagues on the foundation and now um David you move the business items did I have a second yes I'll I'll second thank you um any questions or comments on those okay Barbara would you call the role Miss Aken wand hi Mr Bonnet hi Mr Campbell Mr Denard Miss scle hi Miss Graham hi Miss O'Neal hi Dr yaros Ramos hi Miss Ginsburg I motion carries okay it's time for the second public comment um our audience has been very attentive do any of you have a public comment all right um because we did not have an exec session prior to this meeting uh will'll now adjourn to the exec session uh in one moment so the public portion of the meeting is concluded and thank you to all of you uh now may I have a motion to go into exact session mooved by David may I have a second I'll second second um