St like to call the meeting the order thank you all for joining us this evening Mr Cav can we have a roll call please Mr kapadia here Dr Liston here Dr Lou Mr Peters Dr R is not here yet Mr slotman Miss Williams Gano here Dr Wilson you have a quum wonderful thank you the New Jersey open uh public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of the act the hopal Valley Regional Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place thereof communicated to the Hopewell Valley News the times and the times on January 4th 2024 this meeting notice was also sent to Comcast cable and Verizon fos The Board reserves the right to enter into executive session during all meetings of the Board of Education the meeting is being recorded for the purposes of Board review future reference preparation for the minutes and viewing um on YouTube build do TV and the school district website wwwv rsd.org members of the public who intend to participate in public comment we ask that you please sign in prior to speaking this will assist us with uh recording recordkeeping excuse me with that said please join me in the flag salute okay um I would like to request a first and second to approve the minutes of the um April 29th meeting all in favor any opposed or abstaining okay minutes are approved and um we have definitely a full house this evening unfortunately we hope to have a little bit bigger space but the um High School spaces are booked for all the year- end activities so thank you for um joining us this evening and sorry you're a little uh pressed for with that said I will turn the um agenda over sorry to T good evening it is an honor and a privilege to present to the Board of Education recognition our 2024 class of retirees their combined total years of service in hopwell Valley is 452 years however much more important than years of service is the incredible work ethic dedication and professionalism each of them have exhibited throughout their career supporting students staff parents and our community each of our retirees will receive a certificate and a gift that read the following in recognition of your dedicated service and commitment to Excellence we extend our heartfelt appreciation for your hard work and professionalism throughout your tenure your contributions have greatly contributed to the success of our district congratulations on your retirement when I call your name please come forward to receive your gift you have to scroll down NOP go back there we go an Adams [Applause] John [Applause] agares Inga balis [Applause] Julie [Applause] Burman Jennifer Benelli [Applause] Bonnie [Applause] Brown Ellen Davis [Applause] Shannon [Applause] deck AA dun [Applause] Vince gof Scott Han [Applause] Jane [Applause] Kastner Deborah [Applause] Conrad Kathy Matthews Kathy prus Deanna price Melissa shees [Applause] Daniel [Applause] Styers Wanda Thompson [Applause] Dawn [Applause] wheeler and Carmen Wilson [Applause] [Laughter] the administration and Board of Education thank you for your service to the district we hope you enjoy the next phasee of your life and while doing so please remember to reflect on the many lives that you have positively impacted during your time in Hopewell we wish you all the best congratulations to all of our retirees please don't be a stranger if we can we would like to take a picture of all of our retirees out front very quickly that's okay with the board no really I I well REM I'm exced and I found each right away thank you very much that's word I grabbed when I was like you're welcome I may mock but I um no all right is everybody back thank you all for um joining us and acknowledging our amazing right retirees um I am going to pass the torch for this evening's reports to uh Dr Tres we have an amazing agenda this evening so keep it free we do we have um quite a long agenda so I want to keep things U moving I do have a quick celebration to shout out um duu kabia one of our newest board members just graduated yesterday from Boston University with a dual major in polyi economics and a minor in statistics so he did nothing for the last four years he just studying basket weaving no so congratulations we're so proud of you um again um Miss ham uh word president uh gallano shouted out that we tried to get the bigger room for tonight it was booked that's what you get but we learned we'll do better next year um you can't wait till the end of the year and try to get that room um so with that being said all the end of the year celebration are well underway we have um a lot of award ceremonies concerts um graduation will be the 18th uh kids are performing lifp up videos all the things are happening right now so we're very excited U to draw this year to a close our kids have accomplished quite a bit and we do have a student here tonight that we're going to recognize shortly so we're very excited to share that um school is going to happen on Friday we had too many snow days this year so it will be official day for anyone who cares to come we will be here on Friday uh for a regular day of learning we had our first official referendum talk last Thursday which is now it has been recorded and it's on the um the website that's available for information about the referendum all the questions that you have are up there answered if if it's not let us know we'll make sure we'll get you an answer right away and add that to the FAQ that's available in addition to the video we'll have another webinar uh not webinar a live session talk like that in uh early September um and there will be visits to each one of the schools where the work is proposed um for the PTO meetings where we'll present in person and answer any questions that you have um regarding the referendum um we we already honored our retirees I talked about the student and last but not least we'll be um getting a recap of the green week celebration that we had um where um we enjoyed a visit from the first lady but all the schools had many things going on so we will get a long report about those great activities in addition to um the rest of our our board uh meeting today so with that being said I pass back thank you Dr tce all right we are going to welcome Miss Hannah Chu for one of her last few um student update now that we're almost finished with May we're headed into the last stretch of the school year on May 1st we had a wellness day where students participated in four different activities promoting physical wellness mindfulness and gratitude we wrapped up the day with our spring pep rally which featured spring Athletics a demonstration by the robotics team the culmination of our March Madness competition and other fun activities we hosted the largest unified track meet in the state on May 8th um students from the athletic Council made posters to celebrate the unified athletes and it was a really positive event for everyone we are also in the middle of the spring concert concert series um both the orchestra and the band did an amazing job at their spring concerts last week um we're wrapping up advanced placement test and we're moving into njsla testing and finally over 100 students recognized at academic Awards night which featured students from HOSA model un model Congress and other groups as well as students who have won awards at the local state and National level in art and writing thank you thank you Miss Chu and again welcome to stay but understand if you need to go take care have a wonderful evening okay oh absolutely come on up hi everyone I'm sorry to interrupt um but this is hu's last meeting as our board representative because she'll be graduating um prior to the next meeting so I just wanted to thank you on behalf of hbcs for being an amazing representative for us um over the past year you come with a smile every single month you come with great information um and I know the board has really enjoyed meeting with you and I've appreciated your attention and your reports so thanks Anna oh my good we thought you had one more night with us okay so we're gonna have to come see you that's right you have Awards night the same night we have the board meeting so thank you for catching we will come see you because we yes who's SC wonderful all right good catch wonderful want to make sure we acknowledge her I thought we had one more I did all right well next up we'd like to invite Miss Gian Freddy come to come up we're going to acknowledge an amazing student thank you um I want to take a moment to recognize one of our Stony brick students via Krishna who won the species on the Edge Art and a contest um you can take a look up there that's some of her artwork um but this contest empowers fifth grade students to advocate for an endangered or threatened species from New Jersey through a well- researched creative essay and an original art piece um I won't read via's um entire piece but I just want to share the first paragraph to demonstrate her creativity I looked at the black path called a road by humans uh humans so filthy anyway this road used to be a swamp my first home many of my friends and family tried to cross the road in hopes of finding food and shelter it cost them their lives close your eyes and imagine you had no home no food no family car incoming back to the leaf pile you can open your eyes now few we're safe make yourself comfortable I'm the Blu spotted salamander as you might have known bica then follows her essay um with information about the animal as well as ways to help um save this Animal by reducing use of pesticides and not keeping them as pets so I just want to take a moment to recognize via we're so proud of her for her hard work as well as her language arts teacher Mrs Jimenez um for just guiding her through this process so congratulations thank you all right [Music] EX [Applause] just a quick note also on your agenda there was a second place uh acknowledgement from tolgate Samantha Lou um so just want to make sure we acknowledge her as well even though she was not with us this evening all right okay moving on to the green week recap good evening Board of Education Dr tce president Williams gallano thank you again for having me as well as uh our green week Representatives here um at at this evening's board we had a very busy week of green week uh it was the third week in April um and uh from I would say like a macro perspective at the district level we held a climate action committee overall just kind of the work that we've been doing um and we had number of representatives there um and from that we're actually proud that um we've started u an Eco PTO and I'm happy to hear happy to see that some of our uh representatives are here this evening U so we're excited about the work that you know that community and that those residents in our community are kind of forming and helping this great cause that we have and and as you can see it's starting to trickle which it has been for many years here at Hell uh where you can see the work that our students have been doing um at the high school level we had eco uh lunch and learns um we had a number of climate uh action uh speakers there as well as uh climate Solutions Fair um at the elementary level Hope Elementary School was uh very I would say blessed to have our first lady visit uh as well as a number of members from the NJ doe uh where not only we took the first lady through a tour of the wonderful offerings we have at hopo elementary school U but we're able to show them just our partnership that we have with sand Conservancy um as well as a number of the other different hopeall Valley education foundations funding of our Infinity Garden um and a number of other different things at tolgate uh grammar school they had a student green week Expo um where students showed off and showcased some of their different uh wonderful things that they were doing and some of the different ideas that they have but it was just really a nice little celebration of some of the things that we are doing on an everyday basis here at hopeall Valley Regional School District so um I know at our next presentation in June uh we will be presenting the formal hopefully the draft of the first climate action uh committee plan that we'll have a number of those different images as well as some of the different things moving forward but we wanted to thank you again for the board support in that um we look forward to partnering again as we continue our work so thank you [Applause] okay with that we're going to open um up for our first public comment members of the public are invited to address the board on any matter for a maximum of three minutes during this portion of the meeting so our timekeeper will be uh here to I left paddle you want to give any directions yeah just so everyone knows um at 2 and a half minutes when you have 30 seconds left I'll hold up yellow for you and then at 3 minutes I'll hold up red thank you public comments are now open good evening I'm Alison yakis from hopal Township um I just have a few questions regarding several different topics tonight um I am asking this question regarding my student to be junior um in high school I got an email earlier to clarify from Miss Riley but um I just want to know why option two Wellness is only available to seniors um students in their junior year are really focused on academics for college admissions um and they could really use this extra time for those that are in um rigorous um athletic programs after school um so I was just wondering if this option could be available to Juniors um as well because of that R um academic rigor um and then a couple of other topics um we have one of the highest costs per student um in the state as I've previously mentioned um and we have mediocre test scores um I think Stony Brook is probably the best out of the schools um but all of the numbers are aail readily available online I'm not in finance um but it seems to me that we're doing c-grade work with an A plus budget and um I just know in other organizations if you're not holding up your the level of acceptance then people get reorganized or like there's action plan involved and I'm just wondering what our district is doing um to help get our test scores up um because the students are in school to learn for academics primarily that's or the that's the first priority I should say um so this leads me into my next point which is I talked to countless families and not asking they just it's just a common topic I think that people say um they're leaving the district as soon as their kids graduate from high school and people are counting down the days to sell their properties because our taxes are so high um and it's the season right now if you watch you'll see graduation signs yay we're graduating yay we're moving for sale right next to it um I see it time and time again um and I just feel like you're taxing us right out of the district I know not you primarily it's that it's the township and the county and the state also but my concern is the referendum um hope wellb recently had an issue with their water supply increasing unexpected costs for them um Princeton Farm also issues with their sewer system no money was prepared for um repairs or upkeep so we're paying for it for repairs now um so on top of that we have inflation and next comes the referendum um I'm just wondering you mentioned the reasons for the Middle School Turf and how often are the students actually busted off site to turf fields I'm just asking because my kids have never experienced this how many other middle schools in New Jersey have turf fields how is the future maintenance PL being planned for in the budget um and a recent suggestion to me was that the township maybe should they they should install uh a turf field at their academic um their Township athletic fields the municipal complex maybe they should take care of a new turf field um so we can take that off of our referendum thank you anyone else do I just introduce myself and start okay absolutely um I was not prepared to talk today so I'm going to do the best I can with uh being succinct my name is Kristen brck I have uh three young children my oldest is a kindergartener at Hell Elementary and I am one of the co-founders of the group that Dr Patel had mentioned uh that we are calling e PTO and Eco comes from the Greek word meaning home or habitat and Justice comes from the Latin word meaning um fairness and essentially what we are working on is supporting and strengthening ecojustice initiatives uh ideally within the public school curriculum and uh where that came from was uh many things but primarily the health and well-being of Youth um as we know the surgeon or as some of you or hopefully many of you know the Surgeon General has put out um a major not only warning but um I forget the word he uses but a a red flag for the the level of mental health struggles that youth are facing and the research that we um not not only believe in but um subscribe to for ecop PTO is that uh nature connectedness and Community Health is what's going to um improve the situation and so what we are asking for is your support in um not only hearing out different ecojustice initiatives but also questioning um the autopilot decisions that are made dayto day and not specifically I'm not saying that you all are doing that I'm just talking about we all as humans make decisions mostly based on autopilot because they're the easiest um but the easiest choices have gotten us into this predicament and so again we are just asking for you to look at things with a fine lens and um have the priorities of nature connection and um social justice behind you with the decisions that are made any other comment good evening um my name is Julie cesary I have two small children uh one of which is a kindergarten at Bear Tavern Elementary and um I was not prepared to do this either but I figured seize the day there have been a couple of things that I have been wondering about as a first time um Public School parent so um I've noticed at assemblies and um school activities that the music that's being chosen while I personally enjoy it in my home uh it it doesn't really seem appropriate for elementary school children and um even noticed a couple of purse words slipped in and just the content is not not appropriate so I was just um kind of curious how those decisions are made and if the music choices need to be run past principles or um teachers anything um and also I am particularly concerned about the testing that is happening in the elementary schools I participated in the wellness day at Fair Tavern Elementary and I was with the fifth graders who were hearing up to do their testing um I was there teaching them mindfulness meditation actually and when their teachers mentioned that they might use it in the upcoming um you know for the testing I forget the nickname they had a a nickname for it that was kind of scary um NJ slle or something like that um I could just see their faces really drop and the stress come over and then just a blankness like a shutting down and so I understand that testing is not just put in place by you know districts there's things that are required from the state and possibly beyond that so my question is are we questioning that is there anything that the district can do parents or a whole can um how can we affect change and make sure that our children are being nurtured especially in the elementary level as whole beings um so that when they get to the upper levels they have the fortitude and the wherewithal and the uh the selfed that they're going to need uh so that they don't burn out um that's all thank you okay any other comments okay seeing none I will turn things over to Dr tce and we can kind of go down your list and you can appropriate um I'm going to start with Miss yakas is um there was a lot here and I know that I won't be able to answer all of it um tonight um but quickly I I know the taxes in New Jersey are are hot right I know that the taxes are very high um we've um I hope that we've done a good job of explaining why we decided that referendum was a good way for us to plan for the community to go after monies from the state because that's the only way we can access um some of the funding that we can get from the state to help support these repairs that we need to get done like HVAC and roofs and boilers and all of these things um a lot of these projects are things that we've had plans for for a while and we're just getting overwhelmed because of the AG buildings we're dealing with the projects we have planned where we keep chipping away and we've done millions of dollars of jobs both internally and outside of us by bringing contractors in we are just in a PL a place where we're just getting overwhelmed with these things and I don't want to get the district in a position where we have a catastrophic closure on one of our schools for something that we haven't dealt with and and all most of these repairs are that um in terms of the turf field uh the turf field will not just be used by the middle school although that's where it is it's for all of all of our student athletes um we've also heard some interest from folks in the community um some Rec folks that are also interested in having access Bob Cavita is working with some of these organizations to see if we can get some support with with funding and helping with this field as well um in the future also for repairs and those sorts of things and lighting and things like like that um the township and the other municipalities participation in the in our tur field um we are still talking to them about ways that they can support us specifically the township um those we're still having those conversations on how they can help support with any of these projects and again these things will not be all bonded at once um because we can't do all the projects at once so it will be overtime um these projects will be rolled out to alleviate the the um the impact to the taxpayer now there was a mention about our test scores being mediocre they're a little bit better than mediocre we're top the in the state yes they ought to be better um that's one of the reasons why we hired teacher leaders who are now who will be reporting to the education uh committee actually uh next month and we actually know where our kids are now we actually know how we need to move them up and we've actually seen Improvement since I've put the the um teacher leaders back in place and we have our Sim facilitators coming back which is wonderful um so you know our per people cost is high we do have a a a High um classification rate here compared to other districts that's because people come to us because we do such a great job and that and that costs money but we're going to do what's best for our students so that that's um that's part of the reason why we we spend a little bit more than other districts around us uh do did you want to add anything else yes I just want to also Point yeah I'll pass it off um I also want to point out that we have a unique infrastructure here with the number of buildings and the age of our buildings which um is costly and I think the the changes in the work that the administration is doing to uh bring H back into a more sustainable U and current contemporary um technology will help um but are there are many layers of things that affect our cost per student um other than our academic um delivery it is our buildings it is our transportation challenges and and things like that so anything you like to add I think you you both um tackled the questions well the turf field again is is not on the Middle School site it's actually um on the back timberlan site where the AFT fields are um we do send um students out to the municipal complex and also the uh Twin Pines complex nearly every day um from August when we start through the end of November um un uh I say unsupervised but the coaches are there but there is no way for them to get back once they're dropped off there's no athletic trainer over there um we also send them over there uh in the from March till May uh for practices and games as well so we felt strongly that we bring as many of our students back to campus as we can so that they have access to um emergency our emergency Personnel um our trainers and just being on site so that they're not they're not taking off um it's also going to help alleviate um Mist games and practices due to weather I mean obviously the last several weeks um we've dealt with rain almost you know every day every week we've dealt with a lot of rain um and we've had to cancel many events for our students um so we felt for and and again for the reasons we've spoke of um the community has been reaching out to me on almost a daily basis for you know when's it going to be done and how can we access the additional field so I'm sure there's going to be some Revenue that's going to be come in to help fund um those complexes so um for for those reasons I think think it's it was a a prudent thing to add to this referendum so the last question um Miss yakas had was about option two being offered for juniors and I know that there was a history that I can't recall right now um Vicki do you remember that history of why we don't allow Juniors to do it right off the end it's a so that's that's something that we will I will exp promise to explore with um um this plit this drit and principal Riley to see what the discussion was in the past I know there was a rationale for it of why we never offered it for juniors but I'm definitely open to exploring that again no problem I think I'm on there we go all other PTO presidents sit on a a committee with me so if you could please make sure that if you didn't leave your um your uh email address if you could put it up there for me that' be great is it on here is there an email address here that I can email you oh okay so if you could write it down for me before you leave and give that to me that would be great because we have a meeting tomorrow at 1 if you would like to join us um but we definitely you know we take this seriously we have an ad hoc Committee of the board um that sits um on the climate change committee that has been putting together a very extensive plan that we should have uh shared with us next board meeting about the district's um plan to try to reduce our carbon footprint in the next five years coming forward and it's extensive it goes into um not only what we teach and how we educate our students but facilities planning and things like that that we'll be doing moving forward um so we definitely want you to be part of the District Parent Council and to be part of those conversations moving forward so welcome and then finally to the parent about the njsla the uh New Jersey state assessment we would love not to have to give this assessment as many times as we do it used to be it was once a year in the spring sat down you did your your little Math and Science for a week and then that was it now it's it's longer it happens a couple times a year multiple times a year um it is a state mandate because it's linked to a federal mandate anyone who takes State funding and the state takes this Federal funding have to be compliant with with sort of these high State tests um we do complain often about the number of times that our students have to sit for these tests um but they are required so I we continue to complain um parents continue to complain but right now I don't I don't know that I can change that but I would love to I would love not to test our their kids as much as we do um but thank you for your com yes um could you send me an email giv me some specifics about that because I would need to look in that there should be no cursing in any of our in our music so I'd like to check look into that thank you okay okay thank you with that public comment is now closed um do we have any old business seeing none um I need a first and second to approve the consent agenda items Mo all in favor I any opposed or abstaining okay consent agenda items are p um okay we're going to go ahead and move on Alex sure finance and Facilities so we had a rather long discussion with folks from hennington borrow who came over to give us an update on the zoning issue with this property as well as Colgate um and kind of the impetus for discussion is they're in a process of working out a revised master plan for the borrow and so they're looking at all kinds of things and they noticed that the way the properties was owned was out of wh essentially there is own as pres um it um I minut so we had about an hour discussion lots of good information I'm going to try and summarize the bottom line the zoning does really impact us right now in any way because uh everything that we do to be approved by the Department of Education and they're the only ones that have authority over what school district with their property public that was an interesting little data that I C out but it does have some impact on what should happen if we decide to for example sell the property and the borrows one big concern is there is a historic value to the facade of the administration thing as well as the facade of the and they want to ensure that no matter what happens in the future um at least those facade and kind of the look of people when they're ENT the Lucen feel of the borrow is people drive on Main Street is reserve now we did assure them that we have absolutely no plans to uh do anything uh with either property other than to build on to togate which is in referendum and fix things um we've actually looked at um the idea of of selling this property at some point in the past when we had a committee that resulted with a kindergarten and it just doesn't make any Financial sense like the money that we make we would be able to to to relocate the administration so so we're not we've assured them that we have absolutely no plans we're not considering doing anything with the property uh but they do want to go ahead and propose a resoning essentially to an educational Zone uh which again doesn't agly impact ability to ensure or to have some control in ensuring thater some should something really unforeseen happen and we're not a so that's kind of the bottom line I think they they came in with a pretty large group they spent the time with us but they did um they did put in effort to give us an honest update I don't other point did I oh good um and then the and then we had a quick discussion um on the budget cycle which is about to start or as Bob says he's already started it and we made a request to Bob so for those of you who have been on the board for more than a year you know that we started with kind of departmental updates and then lead into a total budget we requested that Bob provide kind of a top level heads up total picture before we go into the departmental budget so that we have some context for what different areas are doing and we discuss different possibilities of doing that perhaps looking at a boardre during the summer something that so uh Dr and the administration are going to look into that and that's about it and we have no actions other than those in the cont agend perfect thank you very much moving oh and any questions by the way sorry a quick um with the current uh P zoning yes we would be in the same well same type of they were talking about E2 versus E1 and what that means will not be know they intent to make so what that would mean to the board is somewhere in the future Bo decided they wanted to sell this property and to gate the people that were buying it would have to also get educational kind of organization or they we'd have to go back to the the uh to the township and they probably would would agree as long as they kept the facade and did thing so they don't want to change the purpose is they don't want to change the face of M when you come in they don't want to see some big boxes here or something that takes away from the charm of the township is what they're trying and I think it's also important to say the master plan is looking out like 50 years right you're you know so we're we're saying there's no intention 10 10 years they mentioned adopted they they're looking to adopt it at 2025 and it's 10 years okay my my apologies 10 years I heard 2050 somewhere along the way but yeah they were flying some dates around but then kind of circled around that they said yeah that's what understood so beyond beyond some of our time here on the board and the bigger issue is it's not just this building right we have the transportation house behind here we have maintenance behind here we have no place to buses um should we you know sell the property so I just don't see this as fiscally um feasible we're not I don't think that it would be enough money for us to relocate everything we needed to nor do we have a space to relocate everything we needed to so yeah and we looked at when I was in that committee yeah well before I was on the board there was a committee of the public that looked at all kinds of possibilities so that was it was Prett C there's no financially reasonable alternative staying in building thank thank you for that all right moving on to our education committee hi everyone um we had a a relatively light agenda for the last education committee meeting um the first item was uh Mado discussed a title change um for a a new job posting um called the child study team interventionist the teacher leader um this roow will assume a leadership role and works with colleagues to help them use data to inform and guide instructional decisions and development uh conduct a job embedded professional development and support professional learning communities we currently um have a a teacher who is doing an excellent job in teaching um reading and writing and she also does training for all special ad teachers and she also provides training in research Reading Writing and intervention for special ed students um Miss Dado has already drafted the drop posting and the the board um approved um this change um the second agenda item was Mr Darren lean the supervisor of social studies and wellness and Miss Kati came um hope well Valley Municipal Alliance reviewed um the drug and alcohol used in the curriculum and the purpose is really to see if there is any gaps in the curriculum and identify Solutions um they work very closely with counseling department and Student Assistance counselors they provided overview of the programs implemented at VAR great levels um for example what are the topics covered at um at the high school level and also um for example if students were um taught um how impaired driving was like a simulation was done on the campus property and uh Miss K also discussed the preventative programs for example Posta prom programs not even once working with police juvenile detective to share powerful stories engaging um community members families and also leverage research based high quality programs um the third agenda item was provided by um uh Mr Darren again um it's about the Civics in our district the Civics education we all know this is a very important topic um there are three items he shared the first one is to really look at what uh New Jersey requires he referenced the 3C framework um college career and Civic life and also looking at what we're doing in our district and trying to identify um gaps or anything we could do more for example right now in history economics and geography we have this teaching what about um making that um adding um elements social studies um he also talked about the uh model Congress and model un and high school which uh Miss true was just referencing too um in her update um and then he also mentioned a number of other National programs that we could leverage for example with the people is a Project based education um in making add another required course in social studies on Civics the the board um the board's um reaction was we are less sure we don't want to add any another required course despite the importance of this if there is a way to highlight the importance of the civic education without adding another requ definely that um I wonder other cols have any add yeah on that last point it's it's it's stronger than just as a way to add things I think most of us felt that the right way to approach Civics is to make prop address part of a number of forces that are already being Tau across having a he going to do Civics for six months or a year and foret about um and so that kind of works in both ways it's a it's seem a better way of addressing it and it also spares us from trying to get another requirement with the curriculum that doesn't have all that much I would also just like to add that a major part of our discussion on the education committee was talking about the necessity to add um there add more awareness curriculum regarding drug use specifically marijuana use as we move towards as policy committee moves towards abolishing Rand of drug testing in the coming months um it's important not to just make a pretty substantive policy change and not also addressing the curricular components of that um and so I I just you know I shared student perspectives um and I would say perspec from a younger generation um about the concerns and in particular gaps when it comes to destigmatizing drug use and also um you know enforcing and I would say adding on uh curriculum to to bridge some of those gaps we we do a phenomenal job so well of alcohol awareness and protecting students that are graduating and going through post hbsd life when it comes to B drinking um and other risks that come with alcohol um but we don't do a great job about informing students about healthy and responsible um you know ways of of coping with drug use as well so I think that's an important C Gap that part of our discussion in wonderful any questions okay um I just um so I think I mean the question is really linked to both the efforts that you spoke about the the drug and substance use curriculum and then one is related to Civics education so just what are the next steps there so in regard to the Civics education um we talked about as um Mr or Dr resin was mentioning like infusing it in various uh curriculums so we were talking about a lot about civil discourse and how us so we Mr Luen is going to make that part of his departmental goals about ways to include civil discourse in the social studies classroom so rather than what kind of like it naturally Inus it rather than having it as a separate um and then in terms of uh what Mr capadia said in uh with the marijuana after that meeting um Miss Kami had reached out to us to give us some resources that Daren um be in touch with about um utilizing those resources and bringing in speakers or looking at revamping the curriculum thank you for the updates around edcom I'm moving on to personnel and we do have some roll call votes so I'm afraid to touch this okay uh so the Personnel committee met uh prior to this meeting like we typically do uh rather light agenda uh obviously we already heard we're going to have some roll call on some appointments uh two of which we had a considerable amount of interview that came in which we're excited about both of those supervisor roles we got to see group uh and hopefully we definitely pick the best um regarding the uh retirements that we just saw always great to be able to celebrate that especially with 450 some OD years combined service that's fantastic uh as usual we also want to just mention that's on the agenda one who started as a bus driver 2012 was also part of that list so congratulations to her as well um and then last we we talked about the employee assistant program contract renewal that continues to be something that I know Administration and being and the board are really proud of uh being utilized a lot by um the employees of the district and we're going to continue to do that as a service that we bring to uh the staff so um anything else I I just wanted to share that our two new supervisors are present this evening so I did want to take a moment just to recognize them we have Miss Stephanie Reed for our [Applause] Ela and we have Miss uh Corey rut she will be our new counselor supervisor congratulations thank you and welcome okay um with that we need a first and a second to move all the um recommendations on the Personnel first second Ty all right roll call Mr karia y Dr Liston yeah Dr Lou Mr Peter yes Dr Resnik yes Mr slotman Dr Wilson Dr genov yes Miss Williams gallano yes okay moving on to community relations I'd like maybe that's the static they are being they are being looked a new system is being looked into by our folks next door these are 20 years old so okay I'm surprised well um I feel more important uh okay well community we had essentially two two elements two two themes to our conversation one one was of course the the referendum um uh we we're talking about voters about the dis we talked to voters about the disrepair of schools and need for improvements it doesn't seem to be enough to sell the ref referendum sometimes uh we were talking about home values we then added to the notion that maybe we should talk about the home values being good for for students protecting the the health of students and improving students learning and the the ability of students to serve Helo Valley to uh uh on a wide range of student needs that would be more sale salable that would be a better sale sales pitch to our our um our our public we also noticed that um the senior C citizens seem to have problems with taxes basically because they they're on fixed incomes most of them and uh we talked a little bit about tax relief there's some tax Le programs that they can that are available to them um on the second theme um empowering students um we talked about cell phones um and how they are negatively affecting um our students but as well as the students across the nation I mean research is pretty clear that uh that cell phones aren't aren't a great um uh benefit to students in the classroom student height um uh and one thing we would uh Dr tce looked at told us about a um a program that they were doing using at Ellington middle school in Connecticut and actually the next next night I saw the on NPR that they have little bags with with locks on them and and kids get to put their cell phones in the bag lock it up and and keep it on their person in other words they're not they're not parted from their cell phone they just can't use it the whole day um the I it sounded like a good idea when the conversation on NPR was was or on public television was pretty good they they were pretty positive about it um our our problem is that going to cost a little bit of money so we have to have to wait for a bit um how I now we need to get to get cell phones under control but that's not the whole solution and it sort of connects with the talk the conversation we had we have had here here with um with the c curriculum and I mean students need to learn selfcontrol they need to understand why cell phones are impacting them NE negatively and we need to give them those skills and I I'm glad to hear you're talking about it um in curriculum because that this is something that not only that we have to do here in the in the the schools with the curriculum we need to also do it in connection with the community because essentially those skills have to leave from the school into the community and um so we we need to start thinking about how we don't just can't just put things in the bag and and figure they're they're finished we have to talk about what kinds of self-control mechanisms can we give kids to to to understand that the importance of of school learning but also the the negative impact socially and and politically and economically that they are going to encounter if they can't have some degree of control with their with these kinds of media yeah yeah way way better than leaning over the mic right well that was a great segue to move over tol before we before we move so oh I a uh there's going to be a little counter climac or or anticlimactic to what Mike said but a small additional update from me so we talked previously with community relations about trying to get a kind of a meet your board member uh conversations going or at least let the board members reach out to community organizations we receive guidance from Paul who our attorney and what we are and are not allowed to say right so this is not about the referendum uh but once I had the guidance I took the initiative I reached out to togate PTO I had a quick meeting with the togate g board asking them well explaining them what this is about asking them if they're interested in organizing this um they did feel that the calendar for the rest of this school year was a little bit too packed but we did agree that in early September they were going to organize something for the whole togate T community and extended togate community and and so just letting all of you know and we'll see how that goes um I just had a a quick question Mike Dr Wilson and maybe this is actually for Dr trece I'm not sure so I think you mentioned that the uh School climate survey starts in uh in that committee right in the community Relations Committee yes and so where is that in terms of its progress of making its way through the committees or the review process so we we basically have been doing the same we looked at the survey last year we didn't make changes to it at all really um I would suggest that we do it at the next meeting do it right away so that we can send it out sooner than later that's what I would like so if you have any comments about I'll you know what I I should just share it with the whole board and then if you all have some comments and things like that before we go into our committee meeting then we can just tweak it and then send it out as possible because I would like to do it sooner than we yeah that's really helpful because I was thinking you know as you all give your updates and different committees are working on different priorities we ought to be thinking about how do we leverage that survey to get information from the community on some of these issues we care about you brought up two of them right now right so um so I think the sooner we can get that moving the better so that we can make sure that we really utilize it to its full potential thank you you awesome um so seal also um had its meeting and discussed some of the similar sort of topics um we actually had a joyful um slide deck of the seal day um no truly it was watching our children during these seal days and being able to see them um in each of the different schools activities um that some of them were tied to the character strong curriculum to our goals they were Outdoors doing activities um they were doing mindfulness they were doing yoga um they were doing outdoor hikes um you know working in the school Gardens there were so many activities that they were doing um and it it really just was a joy to go through the slide deck of all the different activities at the different schools um so um I want to uh thank the many parents and community members that come out onal day because it takes a lot to put those days together um so thank you very much for that um the other uh agenda items that we talked about in the meeting away uh was we are also exploring um we had several parents come to us um wanting to explore Outdoor Learning on and uh particularly on a farm which uh ties into mental health and well-being so we are exploring that with one of our parents and community members um we're also exploring um some professional development for staff on meditation tapping and Trauma informed awareness um that will be facilitated uh by a professional doctor I'm going to mess up the name probably Andrew Faris um and then we met our new supervisor of counseling um at our meeting you were doing your final interviews so we're happy to see that higher go through um and we're looking forward to a presentation onl coming in the uh coming months my committee did I miss anything important there okay thank you um and now we are moving on to uh policy and Dr Wilson okay so the policy committee met on Monday May 13th um we had some special guests join us um Heidi K and sus Pinsky from The District's digal Wellness committee um so they shared a really nice presentation on self use among adolescence of common themes here um and in particular what we're learning from the science about the addictive nature of cell phones and its impact on our students um so they also shared what we're learning from schools that have implemented full cell phone fans I think you mentioned uh one of them Dr Wilson um but they shared that these schools have really reported positive impacts on their students including more socializing PE uh less stress and decreases in hips harassment intimidation and buling instense um so we thank them for the very informative presentation and look forward to continuing the discussion um so now moving on to the policies on your agenda if you want to pull them up and follow them along we have four sets of policies and regulations up for first reading uh one policy up for first reading abolishment and five policies up for second reading so can I please have a motion in a second to move policy 1523 comprehensive equity plan policy and regulation 5111 eligibility of Resident non-resident students policy and regulation 5166 uh 5116 education of homel homeless children and youths and policy 55 disaffected students for first excuse me policy and regulation disaffected students second okay great all right so the first policy that you see here is3 which is the comprehensive Equity plan policy uh this is a mandatory policy that requires the district to develop a comprehensive Equity plan we also call it our CP that ensures Equitable access to educational opportunities for students and staff um we're required to develop a CP plan every three years and our next required report out to the state is this June 20 24 uh so this policy was last revised by the Board of Education in February 2017 so as you go through the revisions that you see to the policy add additional requirements to the c um that are outlined in the state C requirements so for example you can see in bold the policy states that we need to conduct a needs assessment to identify potential discriminatory practices or other barriers to achieving equity in educational activities and programs and then it also outlines key areas that our plan needs to address so these include professional development equity in classroom practices and measurable goals and objectives there's also some additional small edits that align the language in the policy with the relevant State Administrative Code any of my policy colleagues have anything to add question Dr Wilson for e how how no I think that's a good point and you know one of the things that um we asked Dr tce about during the meeting and and she helpfully explained to us was what do these need needs assessments look like in our district and I think my understanding is that the needs assessment is being done in lots of different places and we're sort of bringing that information together to tell a cohesive story about what's happening in the school and what are our barriers when it comes to when it comes to equity and so that's so yeah so I'm thinking based on what she shared there may be a place out of the ones that you had shared with us where we are looking at some of those factors all of those things sorry um all of those things are part of um of the assessment right now the state is in the process of changing how we report this out and we still don't have access to what the rubric is what the metrics will be and it's du in June so I I pred predict that they're going to move the the due date to July but this often to happen and then we'll see what the expectations are because it's kind of hard for me to to do uh to too too much in defining it here when we don't know what the expectation going to be but we certainly can add language here here to cover that to start thinking about how do we include the intrinsic value of of what students bring and all the other cultural pieces they might bring we I think I know we can put the language in here we just have to think about what that sounds like that sounds great thank you thank you great comment anybody else had any comments or questions okay um so moving on we have two sets of policies and regulations regarding admission of students into district schools so the first one is policy and regulation 5111 eligibility of Resident and nonresident students um so this policy and regulation lays out the eligibility requirements for enrollment of students in our district uh this policy was last revised in October 2021 and the regulation in January 2011 so the background here is that a new state law was signed in 2023 that revised the previous law governing School admission for non-resident students and what it did was it permitted a board of education to approve admission of students into the school district who do not reside in the school district with payment of tuition as prescribed by the board um It also says that the Board needs to establish a uniform T tuition amount excuse me for any non-resident students admitted to the schools in the district um so what you see here is that the policy and regulation have been revised to reflect the revisions to the state laws I described um you can also see that it's been shortened quite a bit by referencing back to the relevant State Statute and AD Administrative Code sections and to the regulation guide 5111 um so last I do want to call your attention to a choice that we have so if you move to page five of policy 5111 and then you see sort of the same language on page 10 of the regulation the board has given the option here as to whether we want to allow F1 and J1 Visa students to attend school in our district um for those who aren't familiar these are special visas for foreign students who are enrolled in full-time academic programs in the US um so we're given two options which is essentially no or that we are allowed to um and the policy committee is recommending option two under both which would allow us but does not require us to admit these students with payment of tuition and a host family that re resides in our district um and we had a good discussion around this and I think the committee's thought was that allowing admission of foreign exchange students when appropriate really does enrich both their educational experience and that of the students in our district who can learn from them any comments questions or anything I missed from my policy committee colleagues I have a couple of questions y um so on the tuition Matter Where Do We establish what do you just said up up to it it I think the language used the board the language was the for getet with it yes I was actually surprised to hear that because I don't remember as ever adopting a tuition do it every June we do every June oh well I'm going to wake up in the June so that's not part of the policy that's a separate line item that the the policy says that we set but it's not in the policy regulation itself okay um my second question is on the Alle legibility um did did the talk at all about adding a periodic recheck of Eligibility I know we don't do it we recently had an incident where somebody who did not live in District was Contin says wondering committee discussing that we do track residency of students and we find out when they're they're not living here so but we don't require a regular periodic we we I don't know how to answer that really well um yes is it a policy do we do we have like we're going to check everybody and make sure they still live here and they all have to bring in their proof of living here no we don't do that blanketly across the district okay but we have been able to identify students that don't live here um okay there's there's a mechanism that happens where people let us know and and things come back or we can't get in touch with folks um the registar and we work with the um uh one of our csos who actually track and figure out if they're living here or not and then they get a letter from me saying we've determined that you don't live here um either withdraw your child in a couple weeks or here's the tuition rank for the remainder of the year um and then at that that point they don't um withdraw their child then the board can decide to withdraw the child at the end of the shouldn't that letter say something like we have reason to believe you no longer live that yes it say and one of the options should be provide proof of that's how it's written provide proof you have a couple weeks otherwise you go this tuition okay yeah um and then my last question is the Jesus is is that exclusively primarily for forign exchange students so the language in here yeah the J1 and F1 I believe are they're they're student visas right there student visas student visas kids come to college visas here would be a little bit Weir High no that we're we're AG okay so yeah just another question I know uh I'm surprised that this is such a binary choice either we're saying we're not going to admit them or we may do we have any examples of a district who has made the decision to say they're not going to admit F1 or J1 I would have to research that I don't have any top I would be interested in knowing again I'm just I'm surprised this policy is is this way knowing I guess Tren in where we live that that would be a that binary choice so I guess I would ask if if there is a district that did make a decision to go about not saying thatone welcome why that to me seems like a very hard choice to make and I may not be following if I'm understanding the context to your question it's it makes no sense that there is a yes or no yes that's that yes yes the answer to your question is yes yes well it is an additional liability and it is additional Workforce school district orband and exchange students you have to be very careful the companies that you're using the host family if they're they're not um treating the student well or there's a problem there then we would have to intervene with a student that's out of country um there there are reasons why I can see a school district not wanting to to to be bothered with it we've we've had some challenges in the past with some organizations ourselves um so it is work for a district to do this I think the um the value that comes out of it way out well outweighs to work and then the incidents that you have that are that are bad and they there are some that happen um hopefully are far enough and fi between that I would not recommend that we so follow up on that Mark gave me time to think through my original question was what if and and you may not know an answer to this right but what if you have a graduate student say on a student Vis with a they live in the district and they have a elementary school child assuming that child here also I guess same kind of Visa are we how are we treating that right so the parent is here on a student visa they live in the district I'm assuming we're going to admit the child into the district but to me the policy seems to be kind of unclear it's not even clear to me what the Visa status of that child is for these visas are issued what we're talking about are students that are coming here on Exchange like high school student the middle school student usually it doesn't happen with younger than Middle School it's rare that it's it's Middle School um it's usually High School these are students that are coming over for a short period of time to get the experience of being an American school we have students that used to go to France on Exchange um we haven't had any go on exchange since Co um but it's just basically for them to get experience of living in another country um so it wouldn't be we're not talking about adults or somebody who had would have children so so what about a child of somebody who's here on the visa on the more perent they would they would if they lived here they were living here legally yeah yes they could place their kid in District here okay and we have folks that that are in that data yeah absolutely sorry just another F joh no I I is this this thing on I think it is I don't want to blab the point but I'll just say speaking on a very personal level and I mentioned this during the policy committee I wasn't exchange student in high school and we had exchange students to my high school and the sort of cultural exchange and just the knowledge exchange and everything else was just I mean I very clear you know and strong memories on both sides and my dad wasn't exchanged student in Argentina so like I I strongly believe that this is you know the the right policy and and you know what we're recommending is the right thing to do because I just you know I think it's an important thing and it's an important opportunity for a lot of people go in both directions which is probably not what uh hopefully I gave Mark enough time get clarity on my statement yeah to uh to uh to figure out what he was gonna say oh yeah so I think I think what I'm hoping to get and Dr was helpful for we respond to that now I have a follow-up question so and we can take this to I I do follow up off out of public needed for a followup discussion but when if we have a Visa student is there a process by now that Administration makes the decision to admit or not okay so that already exists okay Lois B one who's in charge of our roal language program because usually they're coming through you know uh her her she's the one that's in charge of that she um works with the company to bring in students or not bring in students and she's had to deal with some of the problems we've had in the past um so she has a history of who you know we kind of don't work with anymore um quite frankly we haven't had any um students with us since Co so we're working back towards that um but again right before that we had some bad experiences so we really that's why it says may we may take them but it's not always going to be the case and it's and the The Taking of there's no board decision on The Taking of a student that's complet Administration and really we just want the child to be safe when we've had bad experiences because the child was not in a situation that was uh uh good for that and then you have to go about trying to make sure that child is is taking care of or gets back home or whatever needs to happen that yeah I I I will add that I know person of we had that and my question was actually not about that the whole Visa discussion drew me and I was concerned about that there was an option to not accept a child that in the district no this is non-resident student so this is somebody that's just coming in for a brief amount of time and this policy and uh regulation also speaks to there are folks that buy houses here and they and they're not ready to move in yet um the house maybe they're getting something built or it's being renovated or the agreement is are moving in on a certain date that's after when the child needs to start school so in those cases um the the parents cut us a check for tuition and they have so many days that that they can be here for sort of grace period while they're moving in and they have to have records and proof that they are moving in and then they have to move in by that date or then we start charging um and usually and we' have this happen multiple times and no one has has uh had to have their check cash so everybody you know follows the rules um but we go through a rigorous process to make sure they really are moving in great comments anything else okay all right so the next policy that we have up also um is around admission of students to our schools and so this is policy and regulation 5116 which is Ed education of homeless children and youth um so this pertains to the enrollment of homeless children or unhoused children in the district schools and it provides the definition of a homeless child or Youth and guidance for how to determine which school district the child should be enrolled in if the district that they currently reside in is different from the school district in which the parent or primary caregiver of the homeless child or youth resided in prior to them becoming homeless so they call that the school district of residents which is a little confusing so I wanted to point that out um so the policy and regulation also identify our director of pupil Services Miss dinardo is our school district liaison who's in charge of facilitating communication and cooperation between these two school districts should that case arise um this policy was last revised by the board in October 2021 and the regulation in June 2017 so I think the the most substantive revision here is on pages two and three of the policy so the updated language in bold here addresses the specific circumstance in which a child becomes homeless due to terrorism or a natural disaster um and they indicate per the state law that if a child becomes homeless and needs to move out of their school district for these reasons um they can still enroll in the school district where they last resided for up to two school years TR tuition free you also see some other small changes to both the policy and regulation which include mostly the revision of the term homeless child to homeless child and you so I'll stop there and see if there's any questions about that or comments okay so moving on to our last policy and regulation here 5550 disaffected students so the board of educations required to review this for the statement of assurances in the state's comprehensive Equity plan or C um so This concerns disaffected students which is a term meant to describe students whose instructional needs are not being met by the regular program and who are performing well below their social or their academic capacity um so the policy and regulation here provide guidance for identifying and supporting these students um for example through instructional Alternatives referrals to the guidance counselor or to the child study team and both of these were last revised in April 20 2009 um so we just have a couple minor revisions that you'll see here so we updated the policy to include more gender neutral language and then we edited the regulation to cover uh prek to high school students as opposed to just kindergarten through high school does anybody have any comments questions I we have to yes yes we have to review it as part of our statement of assurances that we certify as part of our c yeah yeah you're going to at I do I'm confused this is when right because these kids I I and I've never this is the first time I've seen this this term the language so so disaffected basically means that that I don't have a learning disability or anything that's that's a barrier to my learning physically right it's just that I just have decided I'm not going to do it for whatever reason I've just kind of given up this is that student that kind but don't we include kids with emotional and behavioral issues they may not have an emotional behavioral issue it might just be I'm just not doing anything kind of that's you know just kind of has given up can you yes you want to add something Paul so this this typically starts with our general education population so we may have a student that's fine you know is a general education student and let's say in fourth grade staff begin to notice a change a shift um in either of them not showing up to school on time or School avoidance may may seem down like there's some finds that there's something that's altering how they performed previous and then if you look at if you look at this you'll see that one of the the guidelines is to a referral to child study team so it so then it's our our due diligence is to to see what's going on to see what kind of interventions need to happen on the general IDE level but then if it's something else then we need to look at it from that special education lens okay but it might not come out being that they need an IEP because if you they have to have something that you could diagnose or identify as being the root besides you know maybe I just so I'm not crazy think that there yes I'm just checked out from there and it's not okay but one of the steps is it could be possibly the child sty good question um okay so that's the last um those are the last policies up for first read there's one up for first read abolishment should I include that now first read as part of this okay um and so scanning down in your agenda just a little bit um we're also proposing to abolish uh at the next meeting but this is for first read abolishment now policy 5755 equity and educational programs and services um really here the provisions in this policy are just covered by other policies making it redundant so as as Dr Wilson said a lot of these policies kind of look similar um and so that's the reason for for getting rid of this policy so is it all in favor say I all right all in favor say I I any opposed or abstaining seeing none see none okay um so for second read I'm not going to go through these in detail we did that at the last meeting but we have five policies up for second reading so these include 5752 marital status and pregnancy um 560 student discipline code of conduct uh policy 2411 guidance counseling 2416 programs for pregnant pupils and policy 5842 equal access of student organizations so can I have a motion in a second to move these policies to Second read second okay um so we didn't receive any additional comments or edits on these policies during or after the last P board meeting um but you've had a few weeks to mold them over so are there any comments questions from the board okay this is the roll call vote right Dr Lou Mr Peters yes Dr Resnik yep Mr slotman Dr Wilson Dr genovas yes Mr capaia yes Dr Liston yes Miss Williams gallano yes motion car thank you all right back back okay um so we're going to I need a first and second to approve the May and June calendar I mean adopt the May and June Calenders on on the schedule right now we have seal on June 13th is that still good June 13th at 10:00 a.m. s no so I could we could do it at 11 we could do it at 8 we do it at 7:30 we could do it later in the day I just can't do it between nine and 11 does um does 11 o' sound okay okay okay Personnel obviously have set for 5:45 on the 17th June 17 okay Finance facilities I was going to do the 10th at 5 June 10th 5 o'clock yeah but certainly not least policy are Fridays okay for you all I think we decided those were pretty clear for people yeah okay this Friday June 14th for it's remember it's right before the meeting oh the Friday right probably looking at the 7th you want maybe we should do the seventh then just in case there's some legal questions oh you can't do it okay we could do it and come up okay okay uh does 10 10:30 work for people 10:30 work for folks all right so June 14th at 10 you got it okay okay so in favor I I any opposed or abstaining calendars are approved um with that so um annually at the May meeting we'll also re enforce it at the June meeting but um this is a call all call for school board candidates for the uh November 5th 2024 for election there are four seats that will be open for the board one threee term in Pennington burrow one two-year term in hopo Township and two three-year terms in Hobo Township I'll say it again one three-year term in Pennington bur one two-year term in Hobo Township and two full three-year terms in hopo Township um there's attached to the agenda is a candidate kit that links to the New Jersey school boards Association for anybody who wants more information about becoming a school board member um candidate packets can be picked up either at the Mercer County Office of the clerk or in my office upon request however petitions may only be returned to the Mercer County Clerk's Office in Trenton U they must be received by July 29th 2024 at 4M okay um again so take a look at that uh we do need candidates to run for Schoolboard for the next term okay yeah so uh we're going to move on to our second public comment and as the first members of the public are invited to address the board on any matter for a maximum of 3 minutes during this portion of the meeting that said the same uh time procedure will apply um public comments are now open good evening Kate ham I had heard some comments earlier and I was just looking for some more clarification in answering questions about the referendum there was a comment about um either videos or tours being posted of all the buildings and I know some of the discussion that's out in the public is community members wanting to visually see for themselves and not actually videos or pictures videos and pictures are wonderful and social media and Instagram and all those things are great for those who utilize it but there is a population of the community that doesn't utilize that and is concerned about where their tax dollars are going and wants to see for themselves the condition of the building so I didn't know if there was any thought or opportunity to open the buildings for you know a two or three hour block monitored by either a building administrator CS something along those lines and allow community members to come in and view the six schools and two buildings if there's any work happening here and at the transportation building to physically see you know a lot of times we buy things online and don't really know what it feels like or looks like until we get it and it's completely not what we expected to be so I didn't know if there was any thought about allowing the public to come into on a designated day and time obviously when there aren't students in so maybe sometime over the summer um to be able to physically see and view what it is that the uh referendum presentation references that's it any other comments okay seeing none oh oh I'm so sorry um we H we Julie and I had thought reintroduce yourself oh sorry Kristen bradrick um student at I have a student at hopea Elementary uh the strategic planning outcomes uh I I'm thought was on the agenda for today okay that's it anybody else okay seeing none so I'll ask um thank thank you Miss ham for suggestion the tours were actually something we're exploring and try to figure out how to to do um we do need to do it with um without students in the building and we can't get on the roof I don't think but we definitely can we we're thinking that that needs to be part of the process is allowing folks to see some of the things that we're talking about um in the meantime we have put a lot of videos online um but it is nice if you can actually get in the building and and see so thank you for that that um that advice and Miss brck we were supposed to do that tonight but the um mayor an who is facilitating this for us needed a little extra time to get the reports together so she's actually making hard copy reports for everyone here um so she will be presenting in June she asked for a little bit more time I should have started with that so thank you for reminding me but unfortunately as Miss ham said I mean a drone image of a roof that's failing is you're not going to see much the the failure is inside and underneath yeah but you don't want people on a lot of the the the unfortunate thing is a lot of the projects we're seeing than doing are you know hbac repairs that it's the internal guts that that need to be replaced they're not necessarily failing but we're trying to upgrade them um and you're not going to see that that's that's true but you can also understand the expans of group that is required and you know sometimes the image on the map is that we put up is not always clear you know when you think of the expans of the high school and you know 75% of it needs to be redone so anyway great great point and in the case of hbac project there was at least one mik oh oh it's on there was at least one instance I believe more than one when there is water condensate from HBC dripping on exposed Electrical uh or semi-exposed electrical things so um and I don't know if it's in an areas where it's safe to take people because some of it isn't B right but I think there are some of the stuff is in a condition where yes it hasn't failed yet but we need to replace it sure we're not just upgrading it for good point all right where we can be live no no no rooftops and no pipes all right um thank you all for uh being with us this evening we are going to um I'm going to request from my peers a first and the second for U moving into executive session at this time and I will say that we will be um discussing hibs and two Personnel matters um action may be taken at this time um and so with that first second all in favor I any opposed or abstaining okay we are now cleared for executive session thank you all again for being with us this evening no