hello and welcome to the Monday May 13 2024 Hillsboro T Board of Education meeting in accordance with the state Sunshine Law of New Jersey adequate notice of the meeting of the Hillsboro attention Board of Education was provided on May 9th 2024 to the Hillsboro Beacon and the carer News uh Mr eer can we please take roll Mr Davis here Miss Jackson here miss Craig here miss Lanning beer here Mr Lee here miss nurse here miss stats yes Mr here and Mr mie here we have a um we'll take a motion to move into executive session whereas the open public meetings act chapter 231 of laws of 1975 provide the public body May exclude the public from the portion of the meeting of which the public body discusses certain matters for which confidentiality is required as permitted in section 7B of the ACT resolved by the Board of Education of the town of hillbo in the county of Somerset in the state of New Jersey as follows the matters to be discussed are a hi appeal and Personnel matters and two the matters discussed in executive session shall we disclose to the public when the need for confidentiality no longer ex exists can I get a motion in a second so mov second all in favor I all right we'll back around 7:30 thank you hello and welcome back to the Monday May 13 2024 Hillsboro Township Board of Education meeting we are now back from executive session uh Mr eard if we could please take rooll Mr Davis here Miss Jackson here miss Craig here miss Lenny beader here Mr Le here miss nurse here M stats here Mill here and Mr Marini here we have a quarum please stand for the pledge of Alle United States na indivisible I would like to acknowledge the correspondence as listed and we will move on to committee reports could we start with HR lers yes the HR committee met this past Wednesday we talked about several Personnel matters um we took another look at the budget and then we had a few minutes to go into the activities ad hoc committee um we talked about um some ideas for next year um we took a look at the numbers that um we have um for the year in terms of high school and middle school sports and clubs and we'll be meeting again I May 29th correct to talk more about that all right thank you um Miss Jackson education comme please so we um we discussed revised curriculum that will appear on tonight's agenda uh potential date change for our July meeting uh we saw a preview of the 2022 23 school performance report closer the mic please oh sorry I can hear you um we had a little discussion on the ongoing budget um issues and then uh we did some review of the Strategic plan all right thank you uh we did not have operations yet this month so that'll be reviewed at the next meeting um from the governance committee uh we basically spent uh a good amount of time going up over the ongoing budget discussions and the legislative uh updates in which there were some votes uh today uh legislation looking positive but it has not been signed by the governor yet um so hopefully at the next meeting we'll have some more uh information to share and potentially some changes uh we also took a little bit of discussion on the Strategic plan um uh around the wording uh of the Strategic plan and we also then talked about upcoming dates of meetings and we decided I think in all committees moving forward we're to include the next meeting date on the minutes just because there was a little confusion this month with some of the meetings so we're going to include that in the minutes moving forward um so that those are clear and I think that ends uh committee minutes and um all right so just I think for some of you are aware on the on the schedule this month we had the ability to meet with uh some of the um they HSA committees um so over the next couple of weeks next couple of meetings folks when they're ready we'll give an update they don't have to give them tonight not all committees have occurred uh HSA um I joined hes which was a fantastic meeting I went with Miss stats um it was a great meeting went through all of the things are that they're working on some of the fundraising activities they're collecting uh for fourth grade day and they actually were creative this year in that they're starting to collect funds at each age level so they can build their funding for their fourth grade day um and have better events and not be in a panic that they can't afford to have those events when those years come along um a bunch of things about maintaining the outside of the building a lot of those efforts one of the coolest things that they talked about is that there is a a book a school is more than two things I think it was called by Miss mag trying to make sure I read my writing here but um they have a book that she wrote about not being afraid of school and enjoying it and they're gonna acquire some copies for hes and use them in the classroom which was really nice I don't know Miss stats if there's anything else that I missed that you wanted to mention from that no that was very thorough thank you thank you um and is there anybody else that they want to tell the giving comments I know it's kind of the spot but if not at the next meeting when you go to your H HSA meetings you give an update okay that concludes the committee minutes and we will move on to the board president's report and we are giving out some awards today in recognition uh of some of the staff within the district uh the first is uh Miss Cindy poval director of guidance gate through 12 she was the 2024 New Jersey Counselor of the year so congratulations [Applause] um I'll just read a couple notes that I I pulled together here over a 30-year career uh Cindy has taking many steps to support the New Jersey school Counselors Association uh she's been president of the New Jersey school Counselors Association a delegate to the American School counseling Association and has presented at multiple conferences recently in recognition of her success in the district she was awarded the J Barry mcari heart of the council award in 2023 and after being nominated as the or selected as the summer County counselor of the Year this is yet another honor as the New Jersey school counselor of the Year congratulations on the [Applause] achievement next is Mr Christopher Island uh supervisor of visual Performing Arts in related areas as the 2024 outstanding administrator award by the New Jersey the association and this this honor is presented to Christopher Island for exemplifying dedication to educational theater through his efforts support and participation in Theatrical process he has promoted produ Productions by helping with the building district and Community to bring theater to as many people as possible congratul ulations for this great [Applause] honor all right next is Karen Randazzo science teacher at Hillsboro High School the 2023 2024 Robert E Jagger exemplary teaching award by the National Science teaching [Applause] Association the Robert E Jagger exemplary teaching award recognizes exemplary innovation in the field of Science Education this award acknowledges teachers who exhibit excellence and innovation in the field of Science Education have effective planning and presentation skills demonstrate the ability to motivate and challenge students showcase Proficiency in science and Science Education and participate in the professional growth activities ities leadership roles and involvement at professional meetings this award honors uh the award members namesake to make excellent Science Education accessible to students of the 21st century and beyond congratulations [Applause] and well I don't think he's here um we have another award for Mr Robert fener social studies teacher at Hillsboro High School the 20123 Mildred Barry Garbin prize by the New Jersey historical commission uh the mild Barry Gavin prize is given every year to a k to2 New Jersey teacher guidance counselor or School librarian for outstanding teaching of African-American history or outstanding performance in a related activity for curriculum development at this point Point I've lost count of the number of awards Mr fencer has received but congratulations for his continued recognition am I correct in that Mr fencer is not here okay great we'll hold on to this all right and that concludes and and just you know we do this multiple times per year so we will continue to recognize our best-in-class teaching staff here in Hillsboro so thanks again for the entire District uh teachers and staff thank you [Applause] thank you Mr President I wanted to point out uh some good news first I wanted to thank um Mr goodu who's sitting in the back along with Mr puko our director of human resources and Dr phry Who didn't know I was going to be doing this for her uh shortly um the the board isn't aware of this yet or the public um Dr phry spearheaded the effort with Mr Good Hugh and Mr puko to get a $200,000 Grant uh for the Hillsboro Township Public Schools uh in relation to ways to look at our evaluation model and hopefully find ways to make less of a burden on teachers and more of a focus on students so we'll be working on that over time and Dr felt I don't want to put you on the spot but do you have any idea about how many hundreds of thousands of dollars you personally have procured for the district this year have you had a guess yeah okay it's over half a million dollars $500,000 and I think that needs to be recognized and also again thank you to Mr goodu and Mr puko who are integral in getting that $200,000 Grant which will be a board approved probably at the next meeting I'm think or is it on this one is the next meeting next I can't remember yeah oh we already approved we haven't officially yeah once it's official but trust me it's coming it's coming uh the other thing I wanted to uh to thank was I wanted to thank uh Hillsboro mayor Robert bring um in case you didn't know it New Jersey news12 came here last Friday at like 4:00 a.m. in the morning and then it was broadcast I think on the 7: am or the 8 AM broadcast for New Jersey news2 as mayor Brit was extoling all of the virtues of the hills of Hillsboro uh the one thing one of the things that he pointed out and I quote was our really great school district and I had tweeted out after that to Mayor Brit that I couldn't agree more so I just wanted to point out that um so coordination between the township and the school district and I agree we have a really great School District uh speaking back to what president Marini had mentioned as far as a budget update keep the township of Hillsboro aware um last week the Senate budget committee moved a bill through for the uh full Senate today the full Senate passed and voted on a bill for a 45% return of our state aid cut for this year um that would be a one year only it wouldn't go back into our Baseline so we're already starting to have conversations at a as a board that if the governor signs that hopefully this week where do we start to look at restoring some of those cuts so I think you will see another budget presentation unfortunately um those aren't the most exciting things but if I am presenting again that means good news that means some way shape or form we are getting money back and there may be other options within those bills too that the Board needs to consider over time but some of those cuts that I put on the the the display behind me in previous meetings I don't think those are necessarily going to be uh permanent Cuts so I said stay tuned at our final budget presentation I'm asking you to stay tuned again because I think we are going to be moving in the right direction um also tonight Dr phry is going to be uh reporting out on the 20122 23 school performance report um I'll be putting that on the board behind me and then Dr Fel you can take it away this is not nearly as exciting as the awards we had earlier but it's a necessary evil so you can advance to the next Slide the school performance reports reflect the New Jersey Department of education's extensive efforts to engage with parents students and school communities and share the information that is most valuable in providing a broad picture of overall school performance this presentation highlights key information about our schools but the entire report can be found on NJ School data.org a link to the 2022 2023 school performance reports can also be found on our website and this presentation will be uploaded to the website as well after tonight the 2022 2023 school performance reports include all data that was previously reported prior to the covid-19 pandemic which includes all assessment student growth and accountability data please keep in mind that due to the impact of covid-19 on student performance the NJ doe cautions against comparing data from year to year the school performance reports include data for the categories listed in this slide I will not be going through it all but it is all on that website enrollment data reflects enrollment reported at the end of the school year and only includes students attending the school students that attend programs outside the district are not included in enrollment counts and percentages and this is a comparison from 2019 2020 through this school year or last school year sorry student growth is a measure of how much students are learning each year each student gets a student growth percentile or SGP that ranges from 1 to 99 for English grades 4 through eight and Mathematics grades four through S that explains their progress compared to students who had similar test scores in the past otherwise known as their academic peers the 2022 2023 school performance reports include student growth data for the first time since 2018 2019 n SGP between 35 and 65 is considered typical if the student growth percentiles for all students in a group for example a district a student group or a grade level are ordered from smallest to largest the median student growth percentile for that group is the percentile in the middle of the list NJ doe standard for school District accountability um purposes is a median student growth percentile of at least 40 since administration of the njsla occurred in the spring 2022 and the spring 2023 student growth data was collected for the first time since 2020 and sgps were able to be calculated for the 2022 2023 school performance reports since we fell between 40 and 59.5 we met the standard this table shows the median student growth percentile for both English language arts and Mathematics both overall and for each student group with comparisons to the state this table also shows whether each MGP msgp median student growth percentile met the standard of falling between 40 and 59.5 as required by federal accountability the school performance reports contain information about student participation and performance on the njsla which we're in the process of taking in the district the dlm uh which is for our special education students who don't take the njsla and the access test for our multilingual Learners as well as the NJ GPA which was given in the spring to our 11th graders these graphs show Trends in the proficiency rate for federal accountability over the last two years and show the percentage of students that met or exceeded expectations on the assessments the expectation is that a minimum of 95% of the students participate due to the cancellation of the njsla in the spring of 2021 participation and proficiency rates are not available for the 2020 2021 school year as data over the last three years was impacted by the pandemic in various ways the NJ doe recommends caution When comparing the data from year to year there were no graduation assessment requirements for any students who graduated with class of 2023 as a result of um PL 2022 C60 which is a law sign by Governor Murphy on July 5th 2022 as a result no graduation pathway data is reported for this school performance report and students in the class of 2023 were still required to meet all of the other state and local graduation requirements including but not limited to number of credits the curriculum uh meaning curriculum standards and attendance requirements next one sorry next one oh wait yes that one sorry beginning in 2021 the NJ dooe was required by the US Department of Education uh Federal performance review report to make changes to graduation rate calculations used for federal reporting and accountability the NJ dooe began calculating and Reporting two versions of the graduation rate the federal version aligns with the Essa requirements and um the US Department of Education guidance that will be used for federal reporting and school accountability the state version continues to use the same methodology used prior to 2021 and reflects all students who receive a state endorsed diploma the federal version of the 2023 graduation rates um or for the federal version students with disabilities who did not meet either the state course requirements local attendance requirements and our state assessment requirements for graduation because of a modification or exemption in their IP were not included in the graduates count the numerator but remain in the adjusted cohort count the denominator it's important to note that these required Federal changes only change how the graduation rates are calculated um and not the requirements of how students have to earn a diploma or the type of diploma that the students are awarded so now um State graduation should be maybe it was before do you have a different version okay go one before that go to 14 yeah so s right it's okay maybe I switched did put the right one fouryear graduation rates are calculated by dividing the number of students who graduated within four years of entering grade nine by the total number of students who started High School four years earlier five-year graduation rates are calculated by dividing the number of students who graduated within five years of entering grade nine by the total number all right so now feral yep that one so this table shows um the four-year versus The Five-Year graduation rate um I just described how the special ed students um uh are counted in in the in the differences what we want to note is we have a very high graduation rate much higher than the State student absences provide information about our school's culture and climate research shows that absences impact the students ability to succeed in school chronic absence ism is defined as being absent for 10% or more of the days enrolled during the school year and this doesn't matter whether it's excused unexcused or for disciplinary action this graph shows the percentage of students by grade level who are chronically absent during the school year in comparison with the state and I'm pleased to report that we are lower than the state absent chronic absenteeism rate which is what we want we strive to keep our children in school as much as possible the College and Career Readiness section of the report shows information about college ENT entrance exams Advanced coursework Career and Technical education programs and participation in coursework across subject areas dual enrollment courses allow high school students to gain college credit for courses prior to their High School graduation Career and Technical education concentrators have completed two or more courses in a single approved CTE program or have completed the entire CTE program students enrolled in shared time Career and Technical education programs in a County Vocational School District are included in the percentages for both the County vocational school and their stending school so any school or any student who has shared time with Somerset County vocational school is is shown here and seals of biliteracy identifies graduating high school students who are able to demonstrate Proficiency in English in addition to one or more languages the College and Career Readiness section includes participation in Visual and Performing Arts coursework for students in grades 6 through 12 in grades 6 through 8 students cycle through related arts and in high school these courses become electives we do not have dance or drama program at the middle school or the high school levels this table shows the number of incidents reported by type a single incident may be counted under multip multiple incidents types the total unique incidents row provides an unduplicated count of incidents the last row shows the rate of in incidents for every 100 students enrolled which is very low to provide for student safety the building is secured throughout the day visitors must sign in upon entry and will be stopped at various points throughout the building to check for visitors passes students and staff are trained annually on the standard response protocols for lockouts lockdowns uh evacuations and shelter in place scenarios the uh drills in these areas as well as fire drills are conducted monthly thanks to the support of the community and passing the referendum this past fall we now have building monitors and a coordinator of school security operations the entire School uh community and population plays an active role for for preserving the safety of the school Community this table shows the number of students in full day and halfday prek and kindergarten programs for the past three years our halfday prek program is our preschool disabled program and our full day pre prek program is our preschool autism program as you know we have a halfday uh kindergarten program in Hillsboro the general population does not have access to the full day kindergarten as our full day kindergarten programs are found in our Title One schools as a means to service our most atrisk students for early intervention this table shows ratios of students and staff members in the district compared to the State the numbers in green indicate that we have a better ratio than the state and the numbers in red indicate that we have a worse ratio than the state the data indicates that we have fewer administrators nurses child study team members social workers and school safety Specialists compared to the State Child study team members include School psychologists School social workers and learning disabilities teacher Consultants the ratio for the child study team Compares students with disabilities instead of all students the numbers for school safety Specialists will improve next year thanks to the community passing the referendum this past file thereby supporting us in hiring building monitors and the coordinator of school security operations and that concludes my report thank you Dr phry one of the things I wanted to point out to the big takeaway that Dr phry said is is earlier on we're meeting the standards uh you saw a lot of green there and I think that's really important to to point out because if you follow me on social media I've been putting some um some data and some information out there uh when it comes to per pupil expenditures in the county we spend the least of any District on Administration we unfortunately spend the least of any District when it comes to teachers supplies and textbooks and they need more we are fifth from the bottom when it comes to teachers salaries and benefits uh per pupil in the county yet we are one of the top performing school districts in the county and that's because of what my staff and administration do on a daily basis and hopefully uh I think I know why some of you are here today hopefully with the legislation that I spoke about earlier as we get some of that money back uh we can restore some of those cuts that I talked about we can get supplies for my teachers we can take the pressure off of people's back and give them what they need to give all of our students an outstanding education because make no mistake about it the best thing about the Hillsboro Township Public Schools is the people in this District they work incredibly hard to meet the needs of students and it would be awfully nice if someday we we move higher in the the county because I'm able to do things like buy instructional supplies and textbooks make sure that people get timely and accurate feedback and that we can meet all the needs of our individuals kids so kudos to all the staff of the Hillsboro Township school public schools for despite where we are in spending for still being one of the top reforming school districts in Somerset County means a lot to me as a parent so Dr feltre had to by code present that to the public even though I have followed up with some nice comments and I also have a mandatory reporting report behind me um behind me you will see the 2023 24 student safety data system reporting and this is for the reporting period between July 1st and December 31st by code uh we have to report that uh six-month period um in the following six-month period so behind me you will see a list of all different kinds of disciplinary incidents that came up at each of our individual schools um that involve uh violence vandalism substances weapons HIV confirmed other incidents leading to removal and alleged hibs not necessarily confirmed hibs what we do over time is we track these this information we report it to the state and we look for Trends over time and if we see Trends where things are going down we want to know what we're doing right in order to uh continue that Trend down and if we see Trends going up in some areas uh we want to make sure we are we are stepping in and making sure that we um Can can Rectify that I do want to say for the next um six-month report you're probably going to see a higher um other incidents leading to removal particularly for the high school and this is something I spoke about with uh principal Doo and I think is very important to me um if we ever see students that are engaged in any kind of altercation what I want other students to do is to be upstanders and to get other um adults involved uh to report people and hopefully to help out and bring that to uh a quiet conclusion what I don't want students at the high school to do is when they see something like that whip this out and start recording and start cheering and Mr Doo asked me if I see students who are who are egging on a fight or egging on violence Mr vuli can I uh give them an out of school suspension and my answer is absolutely 100% yes it is unacceptable for me in any circumstances to to cheer on any kind of fight or to record it and put it out there on social media so that being said when I report this 6 months again from now you may see an uptick there I'm not so much concerned about the numbers I'm concerned about the way we are raising our kids in Hillsboro and I'm concerned about um how they are acting in our schools and that is something that is very important to me uh if we see other Trends over time that are causing upticks that would be concerned but I will certainly report that out to the public and that is the student safety data system reporting report for July 1st through December 31st thank you for your attention you you know have to app for that that's okay and um did you have something else president Mar does that conclude your that concludes my superintendent report thank you all right well now we move on to the approval of minutes uh 9.1 motion to approve executive session minutes 42924 in motion to approve regular meeting minutes for 2924 can I get a motion in second so move second any discussion all right seeing none all in favor I thank you we'll now move on to comments from the board public we very much welcome input from the public during board meetings there'll be 2:30 minute periods of time the meeting will be open rep public comment where members of the public are invited the comment which may do if they are attending in person during the first public comment period members of the public May comment about items that are listed on tonight's agenda before the board votes during the second public comment period members of the public may come on any school or School District issue the member of the public Fields may be of concerned the residence of the school district at Balo 0167 before you st your comment will be ask to provide your name and address there's a three limit on public comment please understand that our public forms are not structured as question answer sessions rather offers opportunities to share sh your thoughts of the board in instance where the board leaders of misunderstanding or in accuracy the board president or superintendent will address the comment many times when the member of the public makes a comment or ask a question about personal hiring decisions col not the public meetings Act and the private right public employees in compass there and do not permit the board to discuss Personnel issues in public session I know I mentioned the first session is for input on the action agenda I know it's a school night I see a lot of kids here so if there's any students that want to take part in the First public comment period we'll allow that just so you're not here till all hours of night and can have a reasonable that time hello my name is Kate rling and I am currently a seventh grader at the the middle school I am here tonight to tell you why I think it is important to keep Middle School sports in the budget I was on the middle school basketball team and I am now on the Middle School lacrosse team one of the things that made me excited for middle school was having the chance to play sports for the school I've always played on a travel and recck team teams for basketball and Lacrosse but something about playing for my school made it a whole different experience being on a team brought me closer with my teammates not only with girls in my grade but in the year above me we won as a team and lost as a team but even when we lost we always had each other to give motivation and support not only our Middle School sports good for friendship but is also good for life skills and development both physically and mentally in school we we spend a lot of time on our Chromebooks and sports gives us the chance to be active so please keep this in consideration and remember that there are seven Sports at the middle school that will be affected thank you for your time thank you [Applause] good evening board members my name is keny rard and I am a seventh grader at Hillsboro Middle School I'm here tonight to ask you to keep Middle School sports in the school budget to me and many other student athletes Middle School sports means building friendships learning time management skills and a healthy way to spend my free time if Middle School sports remain in the budget these opportunities will be open to many other middle school students thank you for your time [Applause] hello my name is Ava Thomas I'm a seventh grader and I go to Hillsboro Middle School I'm here today to explain why it's important to me that we don't take away Middle School sports from the budget I was on the soccer and basketball team this school year playing sports for the middle school was one of the main reasons I was excited for the new school I think being a part of the schools the sports teams was really important because it helped teach me more responsibilities like time management I'm always the happiest during the Sports Seasons and the middle school teams gave me a chance to be on more teams with my friends even if I was in a bad mood at school practicing games always made my day better it was a good experience to be on a team with so many girls and spend so much time with them it helped build friendships with people during the season that I never thought I'd be friends with and it always gave me something to look forward to going to school taking this away from our school next year would take the opportunity from the students in the grade below us it the students that didn't get to try out a chance to be a part of something for our school thank you for taking the time to listen to this thank you [Applause] com good evening superintendent and members of the Board of Education my name is Carly marcero I'm a sixth grader at ays looking forward to Hillsboro middle school next year I'm here tonight to ask you to put Middle School sports back into the budget School sports provide exercise support mental health and contribute to the town Pride thank you for your time any other comments on the action agenda before the board votes all right seeing none I'll close the first public comment period and open it up to the was it was there somebody else that wanted to speak hi um my name is Jenna um I've lived in Hillsboro all my life right now um I'm a college student at Ruckers um my sister is a high schooler she's a freshman right now and I'm here along with a lot of other people in the Muslim Community um to plead our case as to why we should have a day off for our e celebrations um my sister right she she's one of those very studious kids right she she's always on top of her work she loves to get things done and it it's just sad to see that whenever we have Eid right and we have to take a day off because the school board is not um already give us off that she's worried about making up work she's like oh well I don't want to take off because we're gonna have a test tomorrow and I feel like I'm gon to be behind and it it's just unfortunate because eat is a very important holiday for us we obviously we spend it with our family we go to the mosque we pray and like I know a lot of you probably already celebrate chras Christmas and other religious holidays and I just want you to imagine what it would be like to like wake up that morning and then like have your celebration have a great time but then at the end of the day have to worry about the work you're going to have to U make up or like a test you have to retake and it's I mean like I I understand that Muslims we may be a minority in this town um but as you can see here we have quite the presence and also even if we are a minority um the government here in the United States is set up to uplift minority voices right that's why we have the Senate that's why we use a system called The Electoral College to determine our elections um we cannot have a tyranny of a majority and also I don't think any of the kids in any of our schools would necessarily object to having an extra day off so thank you so much for listening and I hope at the end of the day you make a decision that benefits the entire Community thank you thank you [Applause] so we we are opening up to students right now if you're a student feel free but for the open comments not on the action agenda we have a second public comment period for that hi uh my name is z Mona I'm a senior at hbor High School uh I went to Second what was said before uh about getting a day off for Eid which is an Islamic holiday uh thankfully recently Hillsboro High School has taken steps to acknowledge religious clubs as well as cultural clubs um so I think getting this holiday off would be taking the next step uh to making these communities feel safe uh as well as reinforcing uh this feeling of inclusivity for everyone within the high school uh thank you for your time thank you for coming all right seeing no others we'll close public first on the action agenda thank you my name is Tiffany Neil and I live in Hillsboro I'm speaking to action agenda item 14.1 I'm a public health professional and Hillsboro parent and I'm here to advocate for healthy school hours as I have described before kids biological clock shifts about two hours later during puberty early school start times prevent adolescence from getting 8 to 10 hours of sleep they need I was glad to see an overview of the strategic planning results presented at the last board meeting your new mission statement is empowering all students to excel while finding purpose and joy in every aspect of their educational Journey if we want to empower all students to excel first we have to stop doing things that harm them when we start Hillsboro High School before 8:30 a.m. we are sabotaging our students academic potential and their health I would like i' like to discuss several objectives from the Strategic plan promote academic achievement teens who sleep less than eight hours lose memory consolidation at night have trouble paying attention and learning the next day and show reduced academic performance quite simply healthy school hours promote academic achievement coordinate and strengthen prek to 12 mental health structural supports I am glad to see the school district prioritizing the youth Mental Health crisis however many mental health interventions are either very expensive such as increasing counseling staff or don't have much impact such as activities to raise awareness on the other hand you can Implement later school start times without increasing costs and they have been proven to decrease depression and substance use among teenagers ensure we are optimizing student growth and development if we want to optimize student growth and development we need to ensure that our school hours match their developmental needs early school start times clash with the delayed circadian rhythm of teenagers leading to worse mental and physical health develop and Implement long-term facility and transportation Improvement plans I encourage you to prioritize healthy school hours when you develop and Implement these Transportation Improvement plans Mr vulpi as a superintendent you will develop action plans to implement the objectives from the Strategic plan as you do so I urge you to remember the first core value in that plan act in the best interest of the student this should be your guiding star you can and must overcome any logistical challenges to healthy school hours so that you can act in the best interest of all students in Hillsboro you owe it to our youth to do the right thing thank you thank you for your [Applause] com hi Amy Salinger teacher at Aon Road and uh AKA Treasurer I'm not sure uh When Miss Neil got up to speak about 14.1 in the mission statement she reminded me that when you displayed it at the last board meeting I had um some thoughts about it and I don't know if it's a something that can get changed or whatever but I just wanted to add my comment since you're going to put it up there again um I love the idea of a mission statement I just took I want to say took issue I had concerns about two of the parts of it one where it said Excel and one about every aspect along the journey and I thought there was some discussion about that at the last meeting so I wasn't sure if it was going to be amended or not um I love the idea of excelling I just feel it it's a pressure word and it could also be optically seen as an elitist word I would love to see the word Thrive there instead because that's like it's that's just Thrive be your best not the best um and the other part was I think Mr said something about at the last meeting every aspect along the way maybe if it just said along the way instead of every aspect and again I probably can't be changed for tonight and I didn't know if we were going to do community input at the community night or something like that but since it's on the agenda I just wanted to offer that thank you again for the idea of a mission statement I love that and just wanted to offer feedback thank you thank you for [Music] your seeing no other comment we'll close close public comment for now uh any board uh comments before we move to the action agenda I just wanted you know I always appreciate input from the public I really wanted to um thank our outstanding and articulate students uh you do your teachers proud by uh the way you advocate for what you want and how articulate that you are so thank you all right okay okay so we will move on to the action agenda thank you Mr President in the area of Education I would ask for the board's consideration to approve the following motions uh professional travel related expenses affirming the superintendent's HIV determination revised curriculum staff stiens for staff attending summer science institutes applying for and accepting Hillsboro Education Foundation grants thank you HF uh field trip destinations curriculum writing the submission of an amendment for the accept and the acceptance of transfer of funds within the ARP Esser Grant revising a prior action item 11.9 revising a prior action item 10.6 revising a prior action item 10.4 revising a prior action item 11.3 as listed uh continuing the long-term suspension of two students and Mr reer or president Marini I believe there's also a walk- on yeah there's education 1114 resolution recommended recommendation is to affirm the superintendent decision in the case uh HS 20232 24- 003 following an appeal before the board can I get a motion a second move second any discussion by the board seeing none we'll move to roll Mr Davis yes Miss Jackson yes Miss Craig yes Miss lny beer yes Mr Lee yes Miss nurse yes Miss stats yes Miss tro Yes except I need to recuse myself for 11.5 thank you and Mr Marini yes motion passes thank you in the area of Human Resources I ask for the board's consideration to approve the following motions uh suspensions of Staff members increment withholding for 2425 retirements and resignations leaves of absence this is going to be a long list people appointments for 2324 appointments for 2425 change in employment status seven period coverage Mentor extra coverage the renewal of the business administrator board secretary for 2425 the renewal of the the assistant superintendent of curriculum instruction for 2425 the renewal of non-tenured certificated staff for 2425 the renewal of tenure certificated staff for next year uh the renewal of registered nurses for next year the renewal of instructional assistance for next year the renewal of lunch aids for next school year the renewal of haa office Personnel for the next school year the renewal of clerical assistance and a parking lot attendant for the next school year the renewal of bus drivers and bus aids for the next school year the renewal of cust Ian mainten maintenance and mechanic workers the renewal of building monitors for the next school year the renewal of non-tenured and tenured hpsa staff for the next school year the renewal of non-tenured and tenured unaffiliated administrators for next school year the renewal of unaffiliated staff for the next school year the summer enrichment program for 20 uh 24 the summer athletic camps for 2024 the extended school year program for 2024 and the motion to approve the development of the comprehensive Equity plan if required by the state that's it that is it for HR so we will take uh a motion in second so moved second any discussion by the board seeing none we'll move to roll Mr Davis yes Miss Jackson yes Miss Craig yes Miss Ling beer yes Mr Lee yes Miss nurse yes yes Miss stats yes Mr tro yes and Mr Marini yes motion passes in the area of operations again asking for the board's consideration for the following motions to affirm the uh New Jersey qack scores in which we were a high performing District uh approving monthly bills approving out of District placements for 2324 school year motion to accept tuition students motion to approve a quote from suun for Access Control door work at Aris and sunny me schools motion to award a contract to Murray Paving and concrete for work at Hillsboro High School motion to award a contract to commercial Interiors direct for flooring work at Hillsboro High School and a motion to accept donations I get a motion in second so moved second any discussion seeing them we move to rooll Mr Davis yes M Jackson yes M Craig yes Miss lenning beer yes Mr Lee yes Miss nurse yes yes Miss stats uh abstain for 137 and uh yes for everything else Mr tro yes and Mr Marini yes motion passes then in the area for strategic planning um I take up my time going through this uh slightly briefly um this was presented at the last board meeting so all of the information in here is the same for the portrait of the Hillsboro learner it's all the same for the mission statement it's all the same for the core values it's all the same for the Strategic priorities under the Strategic objectives there is one change one word change and I wanted to make sure the public as well as the board are aware of this under facilities and Resource Management uh it used to say strengthen and enhance advocacy initiatives to address long-term budgetary challenges effectively that has been Chang the word advocacy has been removed and it says strengthen and enhance initiatives to address long-term budgetary challenges effectively and that was after board discussion everything else in the strategic planning document is the same and at this time I'm asking for the board's consideration to approve that strategic plan okay I get a motion in second so moved second any discussion by the board so I just wanted to bring up again I wasn't part of any um the committee discussions um so last time the last meeting I suggested perhaps changing the word joy to meaning and actually on hearing miss salinger's public comment about the word excel I do actually like the word Thrive I recognize this is perhaps words missing but and and perhaps it it passes tonight as is and that we continue to look at it but I do like the idea of um using the word Thrive instead of excel because it does allow every student to or every person to become their best the best version of themselves and um and I do like the word purpose and meaning it just it has a different connotation than purpose and joy and I know we talked about it at our strategic sessions and if there's no um other support then I'm fine with the Strategic plan asib but I just wanted to bring that up um with respect to in every aspect of their educational journey I did not mention that last time um I'm okay with that but I I do like actually the public comments um changing Excel to thrive I I'll actually second that I think Thrive is actually a stronger word to use in this case if uh that's up for consideration I would support it as well I like the word excel hope that I interrupt someone no I'll apologize uh you know of course I'll go along with the board and I understand uh the emotion behind the conversation so if somebody wants asking I'm sorry having a a goal or a standard or a hill to climb that is beyond expectation can in and of itself be motivating can encourage people to find more of themselves than that with which they are now comfortable and I think that is part of what the school part of what growing up is about it's it is about finding that you can go past the point where you ever thought you could and it's not just about doing the best you can where you're at it's about finding new places to go okay um if we would like to change Excel to thrive oh sorry j i I also like the idea of a Thrive and I um I also wanted to keep the word Joy but I had a problem with in every aspect but miss allinger if we were to reward it we could have finding purpose meaning and joy throughout their educational Journey that way we can acknowledge there's no way they're going to find joy in every aspect but I do want it to be acknowledged that it's it it can be aspirational and achievable at least sometimes I just had a a side thing I just want to advise the board that any any changes you are recommending at the day there will need to be a motion for each change so I just want to you to keep that in in mind as you're starting to look at all this so if we want there seems to be a number of folks wanting to change Excel to thrive if somebody wants to make a motion and second board can vote on that change if it passes we would then vote on that change language if it fails we would vote on the original language so I will allow any board member to make a motion to change Excel to thrive um if you would like to change multiple things I may suggest you individualize them so they're not collectively shot down um that's just can you repeat that I couldn't well no if you make a motion for Excel or change if you make one motion for all of it and it gets shot down none of it gets accepted so if you want to break apart something feel free um can I try one and we can if if it gets voted down we can do it one by one but I just wrote down incorporating everybody's suggestions so if I make a motion to change the mission state from the way it's written to empowering all students to thrive while finding purpose meaning and joy throughout their educational journey is that yeah so if if we were to let's say this got voted down what that as a whole chunk does that mean can we then do it work you know each specific change or do that like you could be here all night yes 's no limit to the number of but it could be but it could be a time saer if it does pass just I'm here to serve so if there's no second then we can go back to oh second can you read it one more time please sure empowering all students to thrive while finding purpose meaning and joy throughout their educational Journey okay so any discussion before the board votes on that change I I I just want to say I I don't mind the changes at all I I do like Thrive um but I do like Excel I just the one thing we made decisions as a whole group and and I like the the input that we're getting but I feel like there's several people who were not on the board who are also involved um I don't want to delay I don't know what the best way I I I guess ultimately it is the board's decision but we are then cutting out several people that have worked just as hard and diligently as we have um on that so I'm not opposed to anything I just feel a little uncomfortable cutting those people out and I don't know if there's a way to make may not feel that way I'm okay with the way it is it's it's not that I just thought it would be better and I'm fine if if it gets if the motion does not pass I'm happy to pass this tonight as is and have further discussions I just wanted to include all of our students and I do feel that as I said at the last meeting I think Joy is I just think it's aspirational and and not necessarily um measure of reality and so and that's why I was suggesting meaning with respect to excel I I do think we want all of our students to excel but I think Thrive also does the same thing without that I think um almost a connotation but I do understand as nurse what you're saying about that we did spend multiple sessions doing it I just wouldn't want that to be the last word if there were additional improvements that could be made so I'll just make just one to the one thing you said a mission statement is aspirational I know you said Joy is aspirational the idea of a mission statement is is something that's aspirational so I I I to myself I don't have a problem with the word Joy because I think it is an aspirational statement um I I don't I kind of I kind of feel a little bit bad excluding the other half a dozen folks or or more that were involved in this final product Mr that's but from what I recall we um we really did we only we discussed the mission statement the very last meeting so I think there's value to be had what to um to uh mle over and think over things over time and um I think that's where some of the changes the suggested changes have come from um so that's why I think there's value in changing it and without discrediting uh the input of of um the other people that that were there but it was all this this was designed in the very last meeting so so I might suggest that you can tell me I'm I'm dumb we could approve this we could send a survey out to the full group of individuals with some optional things and we could always make a secondary change to this if we wanted to correct whatever the board wants to do right so if we want to approve it we come up with some options we send it out via survey to all those included and if there is majority agreement we could follow up yeah I I just wanted to Echo I think it's important that we do hear feedback from everyone involved in the process before we make an ultimate final decision but if there's majority agreement to adjust some of the language um we can bring it up at another meeting and make the change to this so are we suggesting that we're going to move to keep the wording of the mission statement open so I think we already made uh a recommendation to change I think we would then need to vote on that we would if we choose to keep it we would then vote that motion down we could then approve this as is if a majority of the people feel strongly enough and want to change it now that's the will of the board um and then we would vote on it that I think what I think what I'm hearing is that there's enough is enough a motion that U we we cannot say tonight this is the final word I just I just want to say Mr Davis there is a motion on the Das right now so my understanding and you correct me if I'm wrong for for your if you wanted to if you vote in the affirmative you're going to change it to what was proposed if you're voting in the negative you're going in this other direction but there is an active motion there at the table right now so if you vote Yes to this motion it's a motion to change the mission statement we would then vote on the entire strategic plan yeah or nay this motion that's on the table right now and the comments we're discussing right now are on that motion so folks want to shoot down the motion for now you would vote no but if we just a question if we vote no on this motion it we are not voting necessarily to approve and accept the wording as originally stated we're just voting to not accept the suggested changes right now yes this immediate one on the table right someone could then open another motion to make a separate change but at that point in time we'd be at where we are right now miss nurse I understand that there's it has been seconded so I'm just gonna I don't plead is too strong of a word but it's the only word I have right now is to plead to the nine or eight others of us here that we do not vote to make a change change without the other people who worked hard I if it was me and I wasn't here after all the hard work that I've done I would be a little upset so I would prefer and I'm going to vote if it comes up to keep the original language and then we need to figure out how to work with uh Mr vuli to get the other people who were part of this to look at the suggested language I'm open to it but I think it needs to be a collaborative effort with everybody devoting so much time to it I agree all right um so we're going to be voting on whether or not to make the change that Mr proposed correct and if we vote no that would [Music] mean possibility for another motion to yes to yes to uh delay or and possible and create possible changes involving people will be on the other people that were involved the intention would still be to vote on the plan and approve it with an amendment potentially in the next meeting if there's feedback that we agreed to so this is not locking this in for five years we can come back to this and make an make an amendment that way we can start or the district can start working on the plan it's approved tonight there's more than just the mission statement here that we're approving okay so s other comments I will take rooll on the change no to stay yes to change the wording of the mission statement Mr Davis no Miss Jackson yes Miss Craig yes Miss lenning beer no Mr Lee yes Miss nurse no Miss stats no Mr he yes and Mr Marini no motion fails um the the Motions back back on the table Yeah the existing motion is on the table for the full plan for the full plan so if somebody wants to make a separate motion they can or we can continue with because we're in discussion still of the question so what just happened what just happened is we're back we're back to where we started we're back to where we started so if this motion passes then it's not nothing said in install is pretty much it's approved for now and we're can begin on building the action to support the Strategic plan and then we can discuss in committees and come back if we want to adjust the mission statement we're not putting it in concrete in the side of the high school tomorrow so we don't need a a motion to to uh allow for the possibility of the mission statement to be changed no it's not locked permanently it's I don't know if you need this or not but I'm we already have a motion we're just we're in discussion still we're back to that so if there's no other comments we'll move to roll to approve the plan as this pause one two three let's move to roll please Mr Davis yes Miss Jackson yes Miss Craig yes Miss Lanning beer yes Mr Lee yes Miss nurse yes Miss stats yes Mr yes and Mr Marini yes motion passes democracy its F yeah there you go all right to we will now move to the second public comment period we very much welcome every from the public during board meetings there'll be 230 minute periods of time the meeting will open the public comment members of the public are invited to comment which they may do if they're attending in person during the second public comment period members of the public May comment on any school or School District issue that a member of the public FS may be of concern to the residents of the school district as for v0 VW 0167 before you state your comment you be ask to provide your name and address there's a thir minut limit on public comment please understand that our public forms do not structured as question answer sessions rather as offers as opportunities to share your thoughts with the board in instance where the board misunderstanding or inaccuracy the board president or superintendent will address the comment there may be times when the member of the public makes a comment or ask a question about personal hiring decisions kind not the public meetings act and privacy rights public employees andc their end not the board discuss Personnel issues in public session hi good evening my name is n faruki I live at 28 Jing in Hillsboro you talk really fast so if I say anything wrong let me know um I'm here as you can imagine um reflected by some of our students who spoke earlier to talk about and um I'm a mother of two third on the way uh I'm an academic physician and a lifelong student um and I think what we're talking about today is not just the inclusion of holidays but just inclusion in general um I was a student in pamis New Jersey I later went on to complete my high school education in Bergen County acmy um like I said a lifelong student in Academia and uh Sports to be honest I admire the girls from earlier were key and Central to My Life um I also at that time was um giving my age away was was experienced 911 as a freshman student in high school and uh that was one of the most traumatic days of my life like most Americans it was of my age um especially because my mom worked in New York City we couldn't reach her and I think that trauma was especially in fortunate for Muslim Students because it was trauma upon trauma first the trauma of the day and the trauma being forced to apologize to it for the rest of the for the rest of the year and then continued onwards I remember being um facing uh bias and discrimination from students from teachers as well and I was lucky to have one or two teachers in my corner who understood having gone through similar situations in their life um unfortunately that is not an isolated ins uh incident um in the United States Muslim Students face a lot of hate crime a lot of bias uh High rates of ADHD and depression according to care of the Council on Arab Islamic relations and I think uh hate crime is actually up 170% among just New Jersey students I don't have the stat for hillsbury students um and a lot of that is fueled by media and U by a US foreign policy which students have nothing to do with and shouldn't be forced to apologize or answer for um and you can imagine that's going on today as well I was encouraged by my conversation earlier this year with Dr phel there was a brief conversation I'm not sure if you remember about inclusion uh not only for MIM students but for a lot of our minorities who are not included in our our history books um and make it very difficult for students to thrive when they feel like they have to continue to uh prove themselves instead of just learn and enjoy um so our ask today along with changes to the curriculum um is through the holidays of e f and E off for the 2025 2026 Academic Year if possible if there are snooties remaining for those holidays to be put into effect for 20 2024 and 2025 um many townships in Somerset County have adopted these two holidays as days off not just observed holidays including Franklin Lakes Wong North planfield and Warren and I simply asked that we recognize that Hillsboro is as you mentioned a Township that recognizes our minorities um has a lot of interface there a lot of inclusivity we should make sure we support our students the best way we can um I thank you for your time and for all the hard work you do I look forward to your response thank you very [Applause] much hello everyone um my name is a sadiki um this was actually my wife who just spoke a few minutes ago I'm also live at 28 draw Lade in Hillsboro New Jersey um I'm also here to advocate for U the two eeve holidays um as uh I just wanted to uh shed a little bit of light on on my own story I grew up in Randolph New Jersey I was a public school student my entire life um and up until about Middle School my parents would make it a point to take me out of school to celebrate these two holidays but in middle school I um I was was in my one of my math classes and um Eid happened to fall on a Thursday came back to school on a Friday after taking that Thursday off and on that Friday there happened to be a pop quiz and more than 60% of the lesson that came on that Thursday was on the pop quits on the Friday and I told my teacher that I didn't learn uh any part of that because I was off because of a religious holiday but they did not accept that they made me take the quiz anyway I ended up failing the quiz because I did not learn any of the material on there and it affected my grade and after that particular quiz my parents stopped taking me out of school for Eve so you can understand the impact that uh students have to go through now because there are there are some teachers that just don't understand that there's a religious holiday and they still um make you feel like you need to learn the material even though you were off so at that point you know I didn't celebrate e again until I was in college um I lost several years of celebrating the two religious holidays we have every year and I just want to change this um now just to affect future students I have my son is about to start kindergarten in the Hillsboro School District I want him to be able to enjoy it um and I want him to enjoy it every single year and I won't take up any more of your time I know there's plenty of other people that want to talk about this but I just wanted to shed some light on my own experience thank you thank you for your comment hello uh my name is Anise Karachi and first of all I would like to highlight uh I just listen to the mission statement my children uh both my kids have thrived and excelled with the hilsboro Township school system I've been a resident of hsbor for more than 20 years um I work for Johnson and Johnson up in Ron I'm here just to highlight um it's an opportunity for all of us together to demonstrate Dei diversity equity and inclusion um by allowing our children to be able to celebrate a cultural holiday just makes them stronger uh more confident as they grow and I just request the board to please consider please consider the opportunity to demonstrate that to our children and to the uh Community uh hardworking Hillsboro residents um and I I can share one experience of my own son this uh this year he's in 10th Grade he's doing extremely well with the hillsbor ship school system and my daughter is already in college uh he could not attend the prayer because on that particular day he had an important math test and he's doing extremely well in school so he did not want to compromise that and he said dad I will pray at home and then he went to school so that's okay you know I understand we adjust but going forward this may be an opportunity for all of us to work together as one large community of Hillsboro and we will cooperate with the Board of Education to see how we can Avail this flexibility to students so they can celebrate a cultural holiday if it happens to fall on a weekday if it happens to fall on a weekend there is no issue so I really want to thank you for this opportunity thank you thank you for your comment good evening my name is Sabina monila I'm a parent of two alumni and a current high school student I'm also a higher education administrator supporting Early Education research so supporting equity and education and the emotional and mental well-being of students is important to me both personally as well as professionally so as my um friends have mentioned that the amount of stress that our kids go through of missing a day for having to worry about the amount of instruction they're going to miss about worrying about submitting an assignment late um about having to explain to especially when they're in the high schools multiple teachers why they're out and why it's an excused holiday puts a lot of tax on the student emotionally and mentally it kind of isolates them and makes them feel alone and not having any support from the administration so tonight I'd also like to request both of the E all holidays um for Muslim Students um the Hillsboro public schools have a diverse public um population the holidays on the school calendar don't reflect that diverse population um accepting and adopting e as a holiday on the school calendar would be a great great show of respect um for diversity equity and inclusion for the Muslim Students I appreciate your time and listening to us thank you thank you great [Applause] coming good evening respected board members and residents of Hillsboro my all already my folks they already talk about it I'm a Hillsboro staff plus uh to Al and I from Hillsboro High School and my two kids still goes to Hillsboro middle school I just wanted to say the growth I seen in um Hillsboro I've been living in Hillsboro for last 24 hours um and obviously this is the place this is the town I feel like the when I see the growth of diversity that's mean this is the town can do something uh because when I first move here from Long Island the diversity wasn't here and today what I see definitely I always get so respected in my school I always get like so much um respect in town too as my neighbors as my um other friends um but this is one of the aspect that I feel our student do feel that they get isolated and um as as a staff as you can see on the staff list is the staff list is growing too and we need to have excuse for our day off what excuse we should put obviously we don't want to put sick day because it's it's a lie like you're putting sick day but taking a personal day I totally get it you can take a person up but it's just one of the thing that we really wanted to have it on in our calendar as my folks said that it we will feel very respected and we will feel we are included in our town so thank you so much for giving us time and good evening again okay thank you very [Applause] my name is Tiffany Neil I live in Hillsboro I am not here to talk about Eid or healthy school hours I'm here to talk about the auton road arsa family stem night that is coming up we want the whole Community to know about it it's gonna be a lot of fun Tuesday May 28th from 6 :30 to 8:00 pm this is a family event um it's aimed at grades 4 through six so AIS students as well as slightly younger students but the whole family can come so parents if there's younger siblings who are interested it's only $5 for the whole family together uh we're going to have some great activities including coding dissection uh police forensics and star laab inflatable Planetarium and a lucky student will win a $600 coding camp for the summer um and it's very easy to register on community pass ays students would or ays families would have gotten an email about it but we're also promoting it on Facebook um or you can check out the arsa community pass website thank you thank you for your [Applause] comment okay seeing no others I will seeing know Henry Goodhue I will close public comment all right if you have any board members who want to make any comments before we close the meeting you need me anyone Miss DS I I just wanted to uh say that I attended the uh high school performance of ranked uh a musical and uh of course as always uh they were so talented and uh their singing and their acting it was very enjoyable and very and funny and but had some poting moments as well and uh also uh for the past few years the director has been uh Miss balone and um I'll be sad to see her go because uh I I saw on the agenda that she she has resigned so it'll be lost to the district and I wish her luck thank you Miss DS yeah I do want to uh just touch upon the school holiday question and uh just a little bit of History why I don't want it sounds like why when I was a boy besides walking up Hill both ways in the snow to get to school but uh days off at the end of December and into the new year were called Christmas break and the days off that we took in April were called Easter break because the majority of the culture the people were all you know Christians and that was the calendar and I think what's happened is is we've inherited a a habitual layout for the year you know well we've so the the solution was the days off in in December became winter break and the days off in April became spring break because we didn't want them to be religious not withstanding you know what the most people in the community wanted because there were folks who weren't Christian and so that that seemed like a good thing to do but there are also legislatively X numbers of days of school that you you have to be able to offer you can't just take a day and decide that because you know we're legislatively required to have certain number of academic days so it may just be time to be willing to look at the calendar and say well you know do we not take that whole week off in the middle of the year and we'll see you know how many folks would vote in favor of that who plan their vacations or going down to Disney World say well we're not going to have winter break anymore we're just going to have three or four days around Christmas and use the other days elsewhere so there's a there's a lot of logistics wrapped up in in the question you know there's a teachers convention in November you know we we all take days off for the teachers convention well maybe we take one of those days away and give it to a religious holiday to whatever group we feel needs to be recognized that's not going to be comfortable conversations for anybody because people have planned their lives around the habitual calendar uh so it's not a reluctance to want to address any given minority or or look at you know what would be meaningful days for any group but culturally the rhythm of the culture you know people have planned their vacations around the fact that we're going to have these 10 days off but maybe it's time to just revisit all that and say let's start from scratch a rhetorical comments appreciate the comment yeah I mean there is a lot of complexity in building a school calendar with the stuff we know we need to take off and then trying to fill I'd like to call Christmas break but what do you know yeah I I actually I think that's a really just close to the mic want hear you to say I think that's a really good pickup because I think we if we're going to consider giving more religious holidays I think we should revert back to call other holidays that have been genericized actually what they are yeah I mean we can we can have a discussion on the school calendar and and and review it it's always an option but it's a worthy question yeah no it's it's uh it needs to be representative of the community so this will be discussed in and I guess by the education committee this will be discussed by the HR yeah I just wanted to uh traditionally and and we can float this to all the Committees but traditionally the education committee has had the final say on the calendar and then presented that to the full board I do want to just keep all board members in mind that you have already voted on the 2425 calendar so there is an existing calendar and I think even member of the public had recognized that that they were looking for 25 26 the board can do whatever it chooses but I did want to just make it clear that you have already voted on a 2425 calendar but uh to the members of the public who have emailed me um I have emailed you back and said the board will take this into consideration and I and I know it is and I don't have any problem recognizing anybody's religious holidays whether it's on a calendar or or otherwise so uh the board will take this into consideration and um discuss yeah I think in general right we're Bound by the beginning of September and then a set graduation date hit 180 days we do have contractual obligations as to when we can start the school year and then we have graduation that is off site uh typically it has been at Jersey Mike's arena in ruter and that has to be our last day of school and we usually get that date the year in advance so to Mr Davis's point in general we know what the start date and the end date is it's not as easy as we can't really start earlier we can't really go later so we're playing with the dates in between and that's what causes uh the the greatest discussion but we do commit to reviewing it so absolutely problem we'll see what happens I just wanted to thank everyone who came and spoke tonight just to make everyone more aware I appreciate the discussion and I hope we can continue to have it so thank you yep all right any other comments by board members okay seeing none I'll take a motion to adjourn so second all in favor I thank you