i s congratulations to the flag of the United States of America and to the repic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all you notice that this meeting has been provided tost ads on January 5th 2024 roll call M dingley here M Desi here Mr Kendall here Mr Lex here Mr Richie is absent Miss Rodman here M St here miss Willams here miss s here moving on to section two minutes can I get a motion to approve item 2.1 the regular meeting and executive session minutes from June 13th 2024 so move second all in favor I I uh can I get a motion to approve item 2.2 special meeting and executive session June 10th 2024 so move second all in favor do we have any correspond yes we do um so we received two letters from two of our graduating seniors thanking uh the board for their scholarships the first letter was from Katherine Smith who was the valorian uh she received the valorian award she appreciates and acknowledges our generosity um proud of my graduating class in my town an award is an honor to receive look forward to using such a gener gift to F my college education at fost univers day um the next one is from Sam Oliver he was the um Salud atorium for class of 2024 um he hopes that his future years of education are just as fruitful as my former years and this award has given me a positive note to start those future years on thank you Sam so that's from Sam and Cath great thank you all right moving into section four public comment this is our first public comment section of the Eventing evening for items on tonight's agenda you have a public comment please stand up state your name and address all right seeing none move into the superintendent report okay thank you miss m all right welcome back everyone it's excited to begin another year we're officially turned the page on uh 2023 24 lot to discuss here tonight and I know we didn't get through all the business in work session so you can make this discussion as well just want to just dominate the the time here um I think we're making excellent progress with the bond uh not only in the work that you heard uh from Bruce and Scott earlier tonight but I have to tell you we meeting biweekly uh with new Pro construction and this pel group The partnership I think is going very very well the meetings are organized there's action items that are sent out within 24 hours after the meetings folks are working together like a team team um Jen's doing an excellent job Mr Bruner's at the table um so we're very pleased uh with kind of the opening Innings of of this work um we are going to continue to develop focus groups uh for things like the the synthetic field um in the work session earlier tonight we talked about the lights and two different um community members could join us to share uh preferences for for these types of fun projects we're working fast and hard to complete the allpurpose room floors to renovate the allpurpose room floors each the elementary schools and uh to minimize the water infiltration in the music room so we can begin those programs regarding some policy adjustments the grading scale that was uh recommended at the last meeting will be is up tonight for a second reading and adoption but in addition to that we um I adjust it I'm recommending some adjustments regarding other parts of the policy that concern um midyear GPA are not something that we calculate gpas are completed at the end of when a final grade is issued we don't mail uh report cards at all levels anymore so I remove that language making a recommendation to include language around having transfer students when they come in before 11th grade the first day of school 11th grade they their previous academic performance would count towards class rank um but after 11th grade we would accept their credits but not uh permit them to participate in class rank because more than 50% of their schooling would be at another high school um been had en capture my recommendation along with the administrative team is to continue to utilize the current GPA calculation as part of the class Rank and as a weighted GPA uh as on the transcript but to also include an unweighted GPA as part of the transcript so if colleges want to take that unweighted GPA and they'll have the numbers on the transcript with the new grading scale on the academic profile which we're revising um they'll have all the information they need so you know to to to wait those courses really in any way that that they want to and throughout the last year we've learned that differences among how colleges prefer to do this type of work so this was a long journey to get to this point I think we have all the boxes kind of checked here and um you know we're ready to turn the page and and kind of move forward any questions with any of these items from the board just one followup question should a middle or High School family not have internet access what is the most appropriate way for them to request a copy of their child's report card from the school administration just m secretary call the secret oh I'm sorry call the secretary call the school I just a quick thought um and and Jim you kind of made me um think of this um when Jim had suggested for like the um like behind the theater or the high school like maybe adding color to make it you know stand out more um I know in the very very beginning process of this um I think I suggested maybe getting a group of students together that maybe are interested like Junior seniors that maybe want to do design like they might be you know to maybe have them or architecture like maybe they you could get a group of interested students and they could think it's a good idea look and be like hey like they might have a better sense than us you know I mean how to make their school look better so just like a a thought to get kids involved yeah I think I think let's add to students as part of these focus groups especially when it comes to design components and you know exterior design and things like this it's good good idea okay uh some areas that I think that we need to improve it's in the area of organizing many of the things that we're doing in in hand Township and sharing the rationale of why things are how they are and um you know sharing them in a more strategic way uh proactively so there aren't questions about our Honor Society or qualifications for our academic dinner or the website we are rolling over to a new website by uh August the 15th it'll be a brand new website it's not that the old website is turning into the new website it's a brand new website uh and I'll probably be putting a goal before you uh in August Place one of the existing goals communication structures mostly externally internally we communicate pretty well uh externally I think we're doing okay but there are specific things that have come up through the course the year that we don't have materials ready and easily accessible for parents to understand the history around certain things and you know some of the initiatives and programs that we have next uh we uh Shantel and I attended a dinner that was sponsored by the Hat Township Equity initiative that came to be from an article that was written in the Philadelphia inquire melan Bur wrote the article about the disproportion and amount of minority students being suspended uh across you know Del Valley sort of speak and some data was in there um that was very concerning um regarding Haden Township and we attended this dinner and the dinner was excellent uh the conversation was productive it was respectful there was no indictment on any particular School District uh I applaud the uh each of the groups were getting this type of conversation started you know on one hand uh some of the some of the inferences that were made in the article when we look into them are not true in hand Township that doesn't mean that uh we don't have work to do I had a follow-up conversation uh with with both newspaper reporters I also talked to Dr Zion who's done this work um across the South Jersey region a lot of school districts talk to a few other folks that have done similar work one of the remarks that she made that really resonated with with me it was at the end of the dinner she said you know what this data says regionally is something this needs to be looked into right and uh as School administration we're doing that we're finding some things and there's some things that we see contextually um that we wish that we could share uh but it be a little bit of a student rights issue uh I am not concerned about the suspension data as it was uh completed in our school district I'm not concerned I repeat every single suspension uh differences that were made are not accurate uh in in some cases okay and it's not be there anyone's fault it's just because the information that was on the state report is shortsighted and incomplete for example uh when suspensions are reported by the state it doesn't say how many of those suspensions could be repeat offenders okay which exuse things when you're dealing with small subgroups and small populations we wrestle with this today at at an administrative meeting um again we need to uh continue to have these conversations we need to be able to bring folks in um and there's certainly work to do uh so I applaud I have to the initiative for organizing the dinner I applaud everybody that attended and uh I really enjoyed theing anything else that you want to share on that topic no it was a very um good dialogue so I think that really um most people who know me know that I don't really keep short stories short I am very detailed but in this case I'll keep it really short it's just really comes down to the bottom line of continuing the work that we're already doing um with authentic relationship building embracing each other's uniqueness we've been doing this work um and we're going to continue to do the work it's not something that we're looking to like check a box or just buy something like oh we're going to do this to pick we are doing a lot of very good things and it's not a fast race but we're going to continue to do that work and continue to um work with different groups and you know just really really get to know each other's story so really we're just continuing to delve deeper into that so um we went as listeners and we got a lot out of it so thank you for organizing everything so I think the steps are this right give you a little bit more of a of an action plan this is still pretty fresh in our in our heads so we need to connect and organize things that are already happening right and inform community and uh the things that that we already have the fall going on such as challenge day that's coming up in the pH we have not communicated very much about challenge day um something that we're excited about so we have to organize and communicate then we may need some support for an expert in this in this field um maybe it's a listener maybe it's somebody to help us with strategic planning I don't necessar want to use the word consultant but somebody that maybe could help right um because this this could be it's it's not easy and these These are Sensi of conversations I think we need to you know acknowledge that um some of these things also have a some political overtone some this language it's an election year in in uh in the fall and we want to make sure that we remain that we what we do this work that we do it with complete respect for all parties um and compassion and uh in a thoughtful and deliberate and meaningful way for for for everybody um so we may we don't have a budget you know everybody's aware what the budget was orless we don't have a budget for any type of you know High page so I'm not thinking anything on a large scale I'm thinking small scale I you know they know me to be the type of leader to you know seek guidance when it's appropriate and I think this is an area where it may be appropriate especially with some of the things that have been reported and helping folks just understand why when who what where any questions on that it's a little bit soft but it's it's it is something that we need we're having these these conversations two years ago last year we you know did not and it's time to get back to them um do you think there's grants anywhere where we could get Consultants to come in yeah I don't know I don't know I I think I think what we need is ongo an ongoing um ongoing conversations right uh you know Chantel has led this work in previous districts a roadmap with multiple touch points for multiple different groups not a kind of one- siiz fits-all professional development beginning of the year or spring in service some some ongoing kind of there's going there could help that process and we've been having those conversations within our Equity committee and um with Dr palano and I we've been talking about staff initiatives trickling down from the staff initiative tring down to a student so again consistent work that is going to show up in the classrooms with you know an extend out to the community so not the one speaker you know P day just saying that be yeah small small things that could help with the process and fund that since we don't have a budget that allow us to and I think we're doing a lot of things really well I think we need to communicate what we're doing first um this morning I used the language you know really no Finish Line to this work and what I meant from that is when it comes to improving the students connections that they have at school students to adults students to students there's really not right you could always improve with helping students become more connected to other individuals in school and that should be prioritized Isis um one of the things I want to say is I know in the past I've asked about budgets and there was at some point uh set aside or some kind of allocation for Dei reled initiatives which is where this would fall yeah um so I would think there should be some money for something it shouldn't be that there's no money um also when you talk about discussing I know in other districts one of the problems is that you're discussing at a higher level we have children that attend this school I don't know if they're part of this discussion have you ask minority students how they feel how the culture of the school feels like it's adults talking amongst adults at an Administration level but that does not guarantee safety for the students in attendance and then lastly I would say that um I agree that there needs to be oh I'm also on the uh Equity committee and one of the things that I've heard is that there is concern with teachers not necessarily knowing how to address or feeling comfortable when it comes to racial tension or racial issues so that's from the teacher level from the parent Equity level I hear parents are not necessar not necessarily comfortable with communicating if they're having ISS with teachers or students or what have so I'm just concerned of where the information sources are coming from and how that will be improved okay I can answer the first one are we talking to the students I tell you yes I have personally had conversations with minority students about the connection or lack of connection that theyve had at school particularly students that transfer game somewhere between 9th and 11th grade right um I've also had conversations with parents on on the same ISS is in terms of you know teachers not feeling comfortable or parents not feeling comfortable coming forward I I'd love to have a followup conversation with you as a head Equity initiative representative to give you a little bit more of a some more information on that so I expect I think just having a neutral party where people can go and express concerns and then it be communicated back to the district it's just important whether that be a student or a parent or a teacher just someone but and as a as a teacher to follow up with kind of what you're saying um our district um was in this same position where I remember sitting at the end of the school year and going through and being told that you know it was way too many we were up we had a lot more minority students being suspended and we were in the same boat and it was trying to figure out how to how to change that in our district and it's been you know work in progress for a while now but to feel comfortable as a teacher to talk about that trainings you know I mean like it really did it took like you know the the right people coming in and helping us as as administrators and teachers and being able to break down that that wall of being able to talk about those conversations with students and I'm talking sixth graders so and and I don't want to get hung up on the suspensions because there's nothing to get H especially given the climate we assume to face and the need to be proactive so that if these things come up in the media teachers are not left in an uncomfortable position feeling unprepared and neither are students so this listen some of this may tie into that school culture survey that we were discussed at the last meeting I I saw Ela walk in earlier um you know get the information from teachers from students about exactly how do they feel because they would tell that that stuff shows up in a survey this this challenge is not unique to have in Township and it's not uncommon for private schools particularly to not fully expend their title funds so whether that's a private school for which we are in La laa or private schools in other districts but I'm wondering if there's potentially an opportunity for partnership here under title 2 to collaborate around some of those funds and bring in a higher level consultant than what we could afford locally to provide services to both us and perhaps one or multiple private schools that might have a similar challenge right one of the unique things about New Jersey fortunately and unfortunately is that our school districts are incredibly small compared to other states so because of that we just do not have the professional learning budgets that other states do to access resources in this area and it really comes down to collaboration so I think yes we can collaborate in the public school spaces but there's there's also private schools with title funds that are not being fully expended that we can potentially leverage here and what is the cost to even embark on something what do we know um if we can afford do we even know what that looks like in terms of what um a consultant or or something I mean it all comes down to the depth and the Breath Right consultant fees could be all over all over the M they can start I think about anywhere from a few1 per hour per person all the way up to a few thousand per day it could be up to 25 Grand to day depending on who you're bringing at yeah I just as a parent I would be concerned that the district says there's no money set aside you know to to deal with these kind of listen we did spend $66,000 2 years ago we brought in the E3 Network brought Dr liuse David liuse that money was specifically fell for that we did that work throughout the course of the year um and you know was not Bud again no we've lost um you know everyone knows the the budget fact to be like PD across the district as far as like it's not that there isn't money for Equity work it's even professional development has been you know we have to use the funds for like you know if there's a new teacher who needs training in foundations so I mean that's where we are right now as far as the budget goes there's good that doesn't mean we can't do something or um I love to find someone to donate time as well so um we are actively working on that doesn't mean it won't happen it just means weing we're going to have to be creative we're going to do more with L really what we do what we need to continue to do is pay attention to it um to stay connected organized with things that we're doing to involve our teachers more through all these concerns to involve our students more okay these are all things that don't cost us any money okay you're proactive on thank you but this is something that uh we can continue to stay on the top of but thank you music we're developing a plan for music instruction we are we did reproduce one full time ofy in the area of Music this is another area we need to think out of the box on we uh are able to deliver according to the current schedules General music to all elementary school students we are able to continue with all the other music instruction for middle school and high school students the one area that we are currently unable to deliver on in the same um structure in the same way is fourth grade instrumental music historically students receive instrumental music in fourth grade and fifth grade and upwards so right now we're unable to offer that because we're reduced a staff member fifth graders will continue with the instrumental music pull out um but last year's third graders they did not have an instrument um they're going to be fourth graders now in September and we don't have the same plan that we had uh in uh previous years because of that production so we're exploring all options we are going to explore working with universities to see if we can some resources from there uh we're going to want to other students recent graduates volunteers um it's not going to be at the same level U but we'd like to continue to have those fourth grade students at least having some type of orientation instrumental music uh so they're not starting cold therapy and uh so in the past the survey has gone home to fourth grade students and families at the end of the year to ask for their instrument preferences did we hold on that we help on that Sur yes we did we solve this as a potential issue gifting talet kind of the same thing uh Mrs tagm our school media specialist we met with her she's very excited about um helping design of programming for the elementary schools and um you know she will be uh playing a heavy heav heavier role in that area uh again considering that we are reduced one FTE and give the count it um so by next 30 days by the August meeting you'll have form a plan for how our gifted pent services are going to be delivered but it's going to be embedded in the elementary school class with some design and assisting I think from Mrs TM and oversight uh from um Mr sure and services will still be provided uh at the middle school level as well there's no increment raises for our Aids on tonight's uh agenda because we are considering a tiered pay system for AIDS who have been here over a certain amount of time kind of in the spirit of longevity right now all the AIDS are paid in the same way uh so again please stay tuned for that I anticipate some adjustments in the school calendar that the last day of school will be now June 18th Wednesday June 18th so mark your calendars for that adjustment but that will also be from up hopefully by next month unfortunately we did not receive the same level of extraordinary Aid that we were hoping for wasn't necessarily a reduction uh we were just we anticipated $187,000 more than we actually received that needs to be drawn against the end of last year's budget not this year's budget so it's ultimately withdrawn from fund balance um so I know Kelly's heading up a lot of this these school funding conversations regionally and on the state level um and but I need to report to you that we did come up $187,000 short what do we receive five 614 500,000 56 64 $640,000 okay what was the percentage of that uh you know I don't off the top I have it I can look have a so I will it was 72% last year [Music] right um many of you may may recall that we tried to do loss a graduate last year L Waton uh his parents and step parent have volunteered to um in Luke's memory coordinate the graduates named on the fence alongside cupfort prior to graduation and this is something that Luke was extremely proud of when his name was on the fence and uh his family is generously donated through time and resources to continue in that tradition in Luke's G so I thank the watch and family for this for their kindness and uh certainly gave them anite uh to continue right all of them except for one so now my classes on to see how many of our new staff actually got here two new staff members I see Veronica Veronica [Music] uh C we're very excited to have Veronica she you know interview multiple times I think three interviews uh with the committee then Mrs coner then myself she comes to us uh with experience uh but also with energy and youth and enthusiasm so it's a nice combination and we're excited to welcome you to hand Township it's a great place you're going to love working here we're excit thank you I'm super excited I was just in my room yesterday and I was just looking at everything I was like I know I can't move in until I'm going to start Monday but I just everybody I need is amazing so I'm really excited welcome welcome thank you and I held on the St because I don't seea here right okay so we are excited also to welcome Ola um sophano and I will be teaching our Chinese mannering program and um she is going to be a fantastic Edition uh she spent years studying in uh Beijing she comes to those with Advanced degrees she pass the Mandarin oral test with blind colors to receive the certification she's also eligible to teach elll and uh commend our high school administration for the interview process that they had help bringa here and she's from the Ukraine uh originally and uh we're excited to her as well I think I covered everything there any any questions about anything that was covered or not covered on this just one thing Bob on enhancing the communication materials as you go kind of read that those goals we had discussed as the board years ago putting some FAQs on the website related to things like how do I get my child into the district what are the steps that I need to take how do I determine where my child is placed so I very much appreciate particularly given some of the community concerns that have served used recently the focus here on secondary but I think through no fault of a no fault of your in sort of the transition over Co we sort of lost that momentum around some of those FAQs and if we can maybe consider both Elementary and um secondary in that as well no question about it and it's a good opportunity to as we roll into the new website for for me it's the organizational leader to Define you know who's responsible for what sections of the website how often should think should be update should there be you know additional um should there be additional pages that we don't have um through the state aid that was restored to the district uh we were able to uh maintain uh the network technici position that is working out very well um this is another growth opportunity and certainly we have suggestions uh EMA EMA me and it's an area that we can step up on no doubt about 61% Mr extraordinary 71 have I'm sorry okay I think that's all I have for my uh superintendent thank you for [Music] listening do we have any presentations doesn't look like all right moving into section seven finance and Facilities M Williams I'll turn it over to you sure we met earlier this month um we discussed the bond sale which took place July 11th we received seven bids K ke Bank won the bid at a rate of 3.9 63 dot dot dot which is lower than the estimated um rate which was like between 4.5 and 4.75 um% um the cops Grant we're still waiting on approval we are still hav gotten that yeah uh we uh for the 2023 24 year we're working on closing the fiscal year which ended June 30th um and expecting all additions to the fund balance um uh salary increases um we have budgeted salary increases and as uh Carol mentioned um looking at system um for the AIDS and then we are analyzing the salary guides um provided by new of school boards um any progress on that we can't can't discuss that un before we jump in did you want to add yes it just happened today so I have it written down uh I do want to acknowledge two of our administrators in some work that they recently completed in a very high level um in January I named Kevin greway and Kelly Risley co- safety Specialists uh for the district and then began getting the work right away reaching out to State resources they both attended multiple trainings uh Kevin Kelly was almost the same um talk about two individuals who taken uh a leadership opportunity and R with it and today they completed a whole safety audit they had Vis just walk through the schools they went to open up their doors and closets they looked at everything from Soup To Nuts A to Z and today we had about twoh hour meeting with representatives from cam County Sheriff's Office and the C and the had count Police Department chief hack was here and uh the materials that were shared were excellent with thoroughness um and the job that they did in the spirit of physical safety and strategy in terms of how to deal certain potential crisis situations um I applaud them and they should be acknowledged to the board and U you should know that a great job that was done um and just to clarify because we're in active negotiations with um the head Township Education Association we just we can't discuss the salary guides because it's part of Jo negotiations and the board is not able to discuss any of that until we um have a new contract on for approval so that's why we can share anything further unfortunately all right can I get a motion to approve items 7.2 through 7.26 second any questions so the toileting policies are for the kindergarten and preschool rooms just Che I I kind of figured I was just are they moving to new rooms or they the additional rooms that we're needing one of them is the same Edison is the same the other school is additional room that we need the um veg grant money are the ones that went is that the money that Matt raised that's that's that's a decent Chunk in change yeah I mean $23,000 yeah yeah one of the we committ you when you do your report you talk about tuition for The Sibling no it's in this one so I don't we go ahead and bring it up before everyone appr that so we raised tuition by $1,000 so Tu from 6,500 7500 if there's a sibling we would like to be able to allow them to attend for the old rate of 6500 to be reduce 5,000 uh in future years the recommendation would be siblings pay $1,000 less if this the situation rises again so that that uh politic change is coming with your support but we do have two siblings now one of them I think is on for tonight the siblings going to be on for the next month um and I like kind of some soft permission to extend that $1,000 so the first child would be the original rate that we already approved and then the second child would get the $1,000 and then subsequent there's a third child also call m Bley yes M Desi yes Mr Kendall yes Mr Lex yes M bman yes ster yes M Willams yes M hle yes moving into Section 8 instruction of program item 8.1 turn over to sure so both summer enrichment and summer school ended today uh students enjoy both programs additional students also participated in summer testing due to attendance gaps and summer placement testing for newly enrolled students Administration is working on the following schedules so Elementary they are looking to streamline their schedule among all of the elementary schools um the Intervention Program gifted and talented elll and special areas curriculum revisions are going very well with the newly formed curriculum Council the team is working to fill a few additional subject areas in regards to the curriculum updates and revisions uh the state has issued an extension of all School District's comprehensive Equity plans for the 2425 school year summer professional development is a caring for the following subjects and this is funded by um title 2 funding so it is for AP English World language reading intervention and meaningful literacy Mrs shter is working with the administration team to plan uh professional development for the upcoming school year and some of the areas of focus will be on core content seal and cultural proficiency Mrs shter is currently working with comp compliance cast via the global compliance Network um which is mandatory training for teachers to do um for the upcoming school year um sorry uh and qac audit task roles and responsibility for the coming school year and new teacher orientation will take place on August 20th to the 22nd it's actually like a short we have like you know two pages going here this was Qui than you can I get a motion to approve items 8.2 through 8.7 so move any question so the reading recovery that's for teachers who need training that is actually um for a reading intervention interventionist it's a um ongoing each year does our RTI okay thank [Music] you any other questions M Billingsley yes M Desi yes Mr Kendall yes Mr Lex yes M Rodman yes Miss yes Williams yes yes moving into section n Personnel turn it to you Mrs for your certainly so our committee met on June 5th or July 5th and the beginning of our meeting was really going over Personnel updates making sure that we're on track to be fully staffed at the beginning of the school year um a number of the items were already covered at other points in in tonight's meeting including the the tuition component as well as some of those minor revisions to the policies that are on for second reading um we also looked at some mandated as well as recommended policy revisions um for first reading some related to guidance counseling as well as code of ethics sportsmanship secret societies and vandalism um there were a few things there where we wanted the administrative team to have an opportunity to review before formally putting them on the agenda for first reading um so we wanted to kind of give them some space there um as well as give us a little bit of space it's it's been a very busy few months for our committee to be completely honest one of the things that we realized as we were sort of logging our policies for the year is we've gone through the same amount of policies Midway Point through this year than we did the entire year for both 2022 and and 2023 so um we're taking a little bit of a breather if I'm being completely honest um but hopefully that gives the the admin team an opportunity to kind of go over some of those components that you will see on the agenda for first reading in August and then you will continue to to see those items which you've already highlighted move forward to Second reading regarding reporting pupil progress the grading system Etc happy to take any questions move question for Bob are we fly staff or do we still have position oneth grade position at can I get a motion to approve items 9.2 through 9.27 a motion to approve any questions we have a lot of substitutes I see that's positive this year we raised the substitute value rate a couple years ago last year that's helping get we sub we lost our sub position heard a little bit consistency but we are pleased with the number of avable substitutes other questions Miss B yes Missi yes Mr Kendall yes Mr Lex yes M robman yes M yes Miss Williams yes Miss yes the section 10 student services and activities Comming a motion to approve items 10.1 through 10.13 motion to approve second any questions Miss Billingsley yes Missi yes Mr kend Mr Lex yes M Rodman yes M ster yes Miss Williams yes yes moving into section 11 policy can I get a motion to approve 11.2 our policies that are on for [Music] second any questions Desi I mean yes Miss Desi yes Mr K yes Mr Le yes M robman yes Miss T yes Miss Williams Miss H yes moving into our final section of the evening our final public comment section this is for comments for members of the public for any item doesn't have to be on the agenda if you like to make a comment please stand state your name and address for the record and limit your comments to 3 minutes all right seeing none uh any comments or final questions from the board I have I have a comment I love to drag about our school this so I was at the pool this afternoon and a young mom was there new Young mom I was watching my little granddaughter she was playing with this young mom's daughter and the young mom said to me after some discussion of course this is why we moved to head Township for the schools one of the reasons we moved to so that was really nice to here I thought I would let you know the shows so we have susal this weekend and next weekend will be Heathers so we get a chance to come out and see the tag shows they are $10 adults $5 for kids but Heathers is p so if you're bringing a child su's not so the last thing I have for you is uh last summer uh we went down to the cafeteria was part of a board retreat Scott came in and we had a very long retreat and that was really the turning point of the referendum because before that the previous December we retreating this room we had a whole bunch of different ideas everything was disconnected I didn't know we were going to get this thing off the ground but for something to be said for summertime or earlier in the year or there's issues that the board wants to discuss um at in a retreat setting when I say Retreat just a longer meeting right right to get some refreshments and S down just because we're not going to have another referendum doesn't mean that we shouldn't do it uh so you may want to think about listen we may want to take a year off the thing that comes to mind um that I think maybe worth discussing is are the current committee structures working for us are they optimal should they should they be change should should we as addition subtraction should we consider Comm of a whole I think the summer time as we inch closer to the opening of the school year is really the time for out of the box ideas it's important to be together you know and uh again I can't enough turning the page on last year moving forward and if you have ideas for how we can move forward in a productive way you know the administration's all years and another board president's all years so I think it's time to maybe think about some of these things I'm not pushing anything I just think it's worth of the conversation I know we had talked about potentially discussing that a little bit in court session today that was on the agenda we talked about that last month just didn't have time to get to that so we might have to figure out that out the no my my my first just up top mind is I think based on what we just went through last six months I think there's ways that we should get in front of the community and not this this is not the this is not the most ideal way to do this right I mean I think we and I don't know what the format is I'm just thinking in my head like like a form or something maybe we have like a some other way that have the public come in that it doesn't feel as like us versus them mentality this just this the way this is set up doesn't invite anyone to have any positive dialogue right it's someone coming in sitting in front of a board and you know almost like can be interrogated yeah um I think we need to try to break that down and then make this probably the board mean to me in my opinion is where we do our our our business right this this is have the but doesn't mean we don't have other things we shouldn't be doing outside of the board so and again I think yeah careful what you ask for right is that you don't want to have too many meetings right you don't want to have in that part but I think there is a disconnect between the board and the community on certain things and I think we need to better communicate with the community on what the board does and what some of our processes are and maybe get better Community feedback on on on certain things yeah I think it's yeah and if you think that the you know the thing that's tough at these types of meetings is Community member stands up for public comment public comment we really can't the rules don't allow us to get into the back and forth you know but there may be different ways to do that outside of these meetings if you think I should be doing community Forums on more regular basis coffee whatever you know refreshment with the superintendent and inviting support members i' be open to that idea difficult part is you can only have what four at a time you know we have colinwood does um like a rotating Community Forum like around a different topic and they'd have different board members who go to each meeting so they just rotate their board members in groups um to try and facilitate better conversation because Bo meeting are the right gy not the right space for that feel very frustrated I'm almost thinking do we take the opportunity in fall and do like a not all obviously it's very busy and not all board members but do you do like I don't know like welcome to school and then like maybe like I don't know October time like you know as the dust settles as you're you know you're kind of getting into what the how the school is working what's working what's not working again not to micromanage anything but just to get out like hey where what should we be looking at what should and again on a board level like just just to maybe get in front of what happened 6 months ago I would be open to hosting some listening sessions with few board members uh invite parents in just to just to talk um I that regarding the retreat idea I think one of the strengths of our board is we have a vared um number of professionals who are very strong in their fields and their expertise and because of that it becomes extremely difficult with only one month or even two months notice to schedule a retreat for an extended period of time outside of our regular board meeting and committee schedule so a recommendation I had made two years ago was that when we have our organization meeting we set aside not just the regular meeting schedule but one to two Retreat dates that we may or may not choose to utilize depending on our current needs but they're at least set forward publicly within our Board calendar as well as personally within our own professional calendars to make sure that there's space for them I think many of us find it difficult to engage in that type of extended Forum with a limited notice of anywhere to 2 to 6 weeks versus if we were to block that out at the beginning of the board hearing it would be much easier for for us to engage my only other thought would be if we're going to do like a retreat we should do it in August right because too many things happen in September like like I was suggesting yeah no I think that's the I mean if that if we have to no I shouldn't say this way but I'm going to say this way if we have to do it I would prefer to do it in August yeah in a runs into we just may not able to reconcile calendar corre so I'll fig out so maybe we just start collecting dates like can we make this happen before we decide if we are going to make it happen like send back out again I forget what was for like we all just put in like our check if we can you know there's certain dates one day and time we'll just see where availability is to make a determination what we want to prioritize and it's a good time because we have opportunity here right because the last you know last year was dominated by grading scale compensation the the the summer last summer was dominated by Woods in referendum last winter was dominated by referendum now we have like it's almost like a new start right and you know we have space we have the ability to think more freely and more creatively and it may be a good time we get together and and having these extended these extended conversations more to come on that y final thing I just want to share we have been Bob mentioned the like funding advocacy group that is happening um that I've been leading um if folks would like more information on the board or you want to be I know some board members are part of that um but it's been going really well we had our second meeting on Monday a lot of just excitement and enthusiasm folks in the community our community and neighboring communities um I think we have five districts represented through different board members District staff and committee members just looking for like where do we direct our energies in order to do what's best and advocate for our communities and our kids in the long term and so it's been really exciting um a lot more to come we need to organize organize ourselves a bit better figure out exactly what we're doing um but it's been good so far thanks for organizing that good job have a passion around funding formula that's just funding and general funding and general funding formula is part of that all right can I get a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn second all in favor can I see the negotiations committee [Music]