we're going to call the meeting to order this meeting is being held in compliance with the Sunshine Law having been advertised in the Press of Atlantic City and notices posted at the township clerk's office M Landing post office M Post Office Atlanta County Library as well as all schools of the district this meeting is being recorded s here S Bar Dr Serena here Mrs Jackson here Dr here Mr Mrs P Mr R Dr nson now take a motion to conven into executive session Jackson second Miller all in favor we're now going to convene into executive session this meeting is being held in compliance with Sunshine Law having them been advertised in the Press attic City and no posted in Township Clerk Office B Landing post office Mah post office ATL County Library as well as all the schools in the districts this meeting has being recorded there are two opportunities to address the membership of the board the board value and welcomes comments and opinions from the residents as long as they remarks are personal are not personal and discour the public comment portion of this meeting allows the board to listen to the community members and hear their opinions on school policy and operations the first portion the first portion is reserved for persons wishing to speak about agenda items only the second portion following the action items is when the residents May address the board on any un any school related issue each speaker has asked to limit their comments to 3 minutes and you are not permitted to yield your time to public comments portion of the meeting during both sessions will not exceed 30 minutes upon being recognized persons wishing to speak should stand out and identify themselves name and address I please everybody stand the flag the United States of America to the stands nation under God indivisible lice moment of silence for prior reflection at this time can I please have a motion to approve the minutes of regular and executive session meeting of January 31st 2024 motion by Dro second second by Miss Miller R call Mrs an yes Dr Sereno yes Mrs Jackson yes Dr MW yes Mrs Miller yes Mr Rogers yes Dr Nelson yes at this time I'd like to call uh Mrs bryantown with the reading challeng winners for February and March come on down guys okay so our February winner is Quinn Robins in Miss LMA class Miss LMA said plan always drives her best it's no surprise that she won most improved reader this month and the reading summer reading challenge keep up the great work quen okay in March our winner is Lana Lana is confident positive and a great role model for her classmates her love of reading is obvious because you can always find a book in her hands congratulations onal of the curriculum department and the Board of Education a Qui picture please not just a grandma come on now thank you [Applause] guys and at this time can uh Mike would you be uh cour enough to put on the February staffle to of the month videos first please all right our [Music] shaders month St of the month St of the month St of the month a thank you guys love [Music] special announcement to make you ready to give this announcement it's that time of the month you recognize our best for St buzzworthy staff member of the month and this month it is drum roll on your desk this is po yes and so what what Mrs Po's colleagues meaning the other teachers and people that she works with said is that Mrs Polo is like a ray of sunshine each and every day she greets her colleagues and students with a big smile and positive attitude Mrs Polo is a team player always willing to help out her lessons are fun relatable and interactive I think students here giving a two thumbs up on that right yes she's full of energy and her students feel that energy her energy attitude and teaching style drives them to succeed so can we give a big round of [Applause] applause in our pajamas today p is El thank you Mr Elmo take el el awesome let's [Music] Mo so I wanted to just let everybody know that this is a very important day very special day okay so we have every month a staff of the month and the staff month member is in this room so this person does an amazing job with her students she treats her students with so much love and compassion the same way she would her own children she does multiple things multiple times a day without complaining she is so patient with them she has a heart of a saint and are very lucky to have her support [Music] [Applause] conat my job thank you than congratulations to the teachers thank you very much um at this time I just go through my uh superintendent's report um some informational item um since our last meeting I've read to the students on multiple grade levels uh yesterday we attended Dr Nelson and I attended the eighth grade dialogue uh we met with staff and administrator to discuss the upcoming strategic plan uh we I attended the most improved readers uh program with Mrs Brian over at the half School uh we attended the be uh the board of budget Workshop participated in the htpa auction which while I have everybody on was an amazing success and I want to thank the board members for your participation and donations and all of our staff members and community that pulled through on that we did a great job and we're able to raise a lot of money for our students uh participated in superintendent liaison trained staff on nwaa and the njsla results to determine candidates for the intents about their school programs at at school and Davies scheduled meetings uh with um Mrs Richardson on ASA to increase productivity within the system um we've met with personnel and for you you please see the registration enrollment discipline reports and HIV reports I do also have a quick letter from correspondents uh this is to Dana seber from the high school from the kids heart challenge American Heart challenge it says Dear Dana seber on behalf of the American Heart challenge Heart Association thank you very much for raising 8,8 $84.99 with your school's recent kids heart challenge American Heart ChalleNGe Program families and and schools are critical links in providing foundation for cardiovascular Wellness in our country your support and participation in the kids heart challenge American Heart challenge makes a tremendous impact in helping the millions of Americans through increased awareness of cardiovascular disease life saving scientific research and critically needed education efforts the American Heart Association gra program offers participating schools grants up to $250 to $2,500 for health and wellness initiatives including physical activity equipment um eligibility requirements are found there and we did um uh win and are very happy with the results and I want to thank all of our families for participating in that program thank you thank you at this time I'd like to open up uh receive comments from the public on tonight's agenda items in accordance with the board policy of participation at board meetings each person each speaker is asked to limit their comments of 3 minutes and not per permitted to yield your time to anyone else see none uh open up for board comments move to close public portion a motion and close public comments no okay more member comments um I just wanted to give kudos again to our amazing music department who did a great student performance tonight um they really did such a good job and I know that our our teachers in our department do not need to do all the extra that they do and they really really um gave a night to these kids that were were amazing they did a great phenomenal job so just another kudos to that department Dr um first I want to say the the auction was amazing so much work went into it and I'm so grateful um for all the hard work our table did have the most food I just want to say that because apparently we like we like to eat at my table but um it it was just there was so much to look at and do and everybody had a great time so I just want to thank the PTA and everyone involved who put that together uh the second thing I wanted to bring up is read Across America so I had this is the second year in a row I had an opportunity to go over to Shaner and read and it's it's amazing reading to those little guys they they just like drink in what you're saying and they believe it or not don't mouth off to you and they they're very well behaved but it was it was a true blessing for me to go there and to read and I actually got to sit in on my nephew's class and and he was surprised and almost fell off his seat when I walked in because I had like goofy glasses on and a Dr Seuss hat and everything and the book I read was called your mouth is a volcano so um it was about interrupting so but it was so well put together Laura did a great job and I just want to encourage um them to continue that because it was an amazing opportunity and I did see Dr zitto over there with his delightful two little yeah so you got to just go to see him if if you can thank you and I just want to give um the board and the township an update on therapy animal program that we launched at chainer um at the beginning of the year so our um committee met I think it was two weeks ago or three weeks ago and uh Mr cartright was able to share with me a couple of emails that he has received as feedback from um some of the staff at shener in regards to how things are going with the Therapy Program so I figured I would just take a second to to um read some of the things that the staff had to say um so this comes from a self-contained par uh par professional in the kindergarten class they said having Austin in our Halls have lessened depression encouraged communication it decreases anxiety and has did I say increase decreases anxiety and has increased socialization for our students he has helped calm fears relieve anxiety and stress within our classroom having a therapy dog like Austin has helped our kids in more ways than one Austin has been such a pleasure to have in our room the students teachers and poers look forward to having him around we have definitely noticed a change in behaviors and overall mood when he is present he has helped us all in a positive way and we're grateful for him we love having him walking around in our Halls um from another self-contained substitute teacher I'm writing to you regarding our class visit with Donna Malone's therapy dog Austin yesterday we had the pleasure of having Austin in our classroom and with us outside for recess it was such a positive experience for everyone the children were very patient and kind with Austin and did a wonderful job taking turns with him the most challenging students were especially good with Austin and truly made us all proud thank you for this opportunity and experience for the students and then I have one last one and this comes from a teacher that came from a different um district and has prior experience with therapy dogs and she says I just want to express my gratitude for the ability to interact with Austin and give my students a fantastic opportunity as most of you are aware of all nonspeaking students in my preschool self-contained class at this time the student pictured below was infatuated with Austin at one point we were working on an intraverbal language skill I asked the student what does a dog say and he verbally expressed woof woof he then attempted to say woof woof woof two or three more times un prompted this was a huge achievement and it was all thanks to the engagement with Austin as a therapy dog handler in the past and someone who's extremely familiar with the process and programming with therapy dogs I cannot thank you enough for this opportunity for my students however the time comes that we can use Austin for incentive time I have several students who have shown interest and I think this would help their current behavior concerns we welcome Austin any time or day and cannot wait to see what opportunities present themselves with Austin around so it's going very very very well um and we're they're starting to do more inclass sessions um over at Sher and we're just really looking forward to what's to come but that was I wanted to share thank you Mr anybody else um I had a couple comments I wanted to also uh shout out to the PTA on the basket um event and that the uh it's really hard to tell where PTA stops and starts and the staff picks up um they they both uh it's hard to tell even who ran that because it was so well put together and everybody working well real real well together so um I do appreciate the staff uh not only helping with the PTA but joining the meetings and showing up to those things along with that I would like to continue to say thank you for showing up for board meetings like tonight uh it doesn't go one notice um I know that you guys are very busy and I've even heard comments uh on the outside where I just happen to listen and they uh especially last night at the eighth grade dialogue the the Sanchez family didn't know who I was sitting behind them but they saw um you guys walk in and uh they were excited to see you guys and the fact that and I look at Jen Jeff and you around but uh they were very excited and their comments spontaneous comments just between them was uh I I don't know how they get it all done because they're always at all the events so I know you guys have pledged to show up to events if somebody asks you to and it's paying off so I want to personally thank you for doing all that hard work putting all the extra hours um so uh did do the eighth grade dialogue it was quite interesting I would say that it was kind of long but it was well put together and some of the questions were very good to hear uh the responses were nice to hear what's important with him and what's resonating with them um and what is interesting is uh some of the stuff that was said was stuff that we're already doing when it comes from the other District saying hey they would like to have this or they' like to have that and between Ian and Jan and Jeff they were both like we already do that so uh very proactive uh in that regard so thank you again um I did see the pictures of you at the reading cross America it was very impressed and thank you for participating on that and I invite more of the board members to uh to work on that and speaking about the board members thank you for all showing up to the um ETA basket um for ones who were in town um but uh I wanted to say thank you for showing up I think we had seven out of nine of us yeah and we even had uh a lot of other board members including um greater egg President we had Mica and we had a few uh politicians there as well so it was very well attended um I also got to see the volleyball tournament here and that was very very well put together there was a lot of teams but what wasn't there was a Board of Education team Dodge what I say volleyball I mean dodgeball sorry dodgeball yeah either either the the staff Board of Education or you know the we don't need to put that in City I think we need to participate so um and then I wanted to also recognize our uh Super Bowl uh famous person for tackling the naked guy so you guys didn't see that that was our own Uso that was there to tackle the guy in the field so we're all over the US and all over prime time that's very embarrassing and then last one is uh there is a blood donor um event at Shaner in this weekend Friday Saturday Saturday following Saturday I just know that they're not getting a lot of participation for whatever reason this year so if you haven't signed up please sign up usually it goes out very quickly and it's hard to find a spot this year for whatever reason maybe it's because it's on a Saturday I don't know uh there's not get many people this out it a lot of people aren't signing up so you can find on the Red Cross app or I'm sure we have links other words but you can go to the Red Cross find it at Sher it's a long standing event but for whatever reason we're not getting much participation this year so you normally do and miss it for some reason maybe rethink it that's all I have at this time I'd like to uh turn it over to Miss Miller for the personnel and policy committee our committee met on February 28th at 5:00 virtually um I was there Tony Richardson Ryan Jackson and Dr zto the committee discussed and reviewed Personnel matters including um a host of personnel discussions including a new onboarding um streamlining for for new employees and it just seems amazing we went over multiple policies and we discussed um J job titles that need to be deactivated action um I'd like to make a motion to approve the committee items in section n a motion second second second by Miss Jackson com question comments yeah comment the job prescriptions to being activated it's pretty ly list U what's what's driving this do you want to into that or okay absolutely uh Mr Rogers uh one weekend I took we have a huge notebook of job descriptions that hadn't been edited since the 70s and I went through them one by one and found all the job titles that no longer exist um and so those are the ones that we're getting rid of they're about you know a few decades worth of job descriptions that EXC don't exist anymore you hear puring spring clean and just just to be clear because I did have a couple comments and questions specifically about that we it's not we're not reducing any head towns these are positions that are unfilled remain unfilled and like like do said it's since the 70s that nobody's done this so that's that's the ration now and that's why it seems to be quite lengthy cuz some of the questions like I've never heard of that role before who has it today what are they going to do instead now so they aren't because they aren't people that were getting rid of it's just unfilled location uh positions any other questions comments roll call please Mrs Anor yes Dr sheno yes Mr Jackson yes Dr law abstain from 9.17 yes the rest Mrs Miller yes Mr Rogers yes Dr Nelson yes thank you M Miller uh Finance operations Dr Leo the committee I'm sorry ster do we have anybody that attended that's a new hire sorry to interrupt thank you sorry about that I forgot appreciate um so the operations committee met on February 27th um in the meeting we discussed the reconciliation updates and bank account changes fixing the use of facilities calendar um the purchase of new vehicles for maintenance and food service facility updates duerson update and update on Transportation um at this time I motion to move section 10 motion do have a second second by Dr Shino questions comments I'd like to thank Chris on all the work he put together on the budget it was very well put together and um anybody that didn't have the opportunity to join us on a Saturday morning to go over numbers missed out uh but thank you for putting together and uh well balanced and also U we're making uh we did pretty well compared to our neighboring towns and townships so thank you very much welcome anybody else wel call please Mrs aner yes Dr Serena yes Mrs Jackson yes Dr M yes Mrs Miller yes Mr Rogers yes and Dr n yes thank you Dr L out here okay the curriculum committee met um virtually on February 27 um myself n Dr Z were present um we discussed um the new language arts program that will be um will be implementing um next year some of the things that were discussed at the homework ad hog homework um policy committee um discussed the presentation that will be coming up this week um concerning uh the Holocaust uh at in school and some of the professional development that is underway for the 2425 um school year I like to make a motion to move items in section 11 a motion is a second second by Dr fin questions comments call please this yes Dr Serena yes Mrs Jackson yes Dr mahik yes Mrs Miller yes Mr Rogers yes and Dr Nelson yes you miss Anor uh there is no old business listed any new business new business this is a public comment students parents employees and community members or comments on any item of interest uh at this time receiv receiving comments from the public in accordance with the board policy and participation at board meeting seeing none is there any need to go back in executive no I would entertain a motion to adour motion by Miss second second by Mr Jackson all in favor all oppos thank you