good evening everyone we're going to start our meeting okay welcome to a meeting of the 107 Central Regional High School Board of Education please be advised that this and all meetings of the board are open to the public and media consistent with the open public meetings act and that advanced notice required therein has been provided meeting notice was also posted in the boardroom of the upper school campus sent to The Courier News Star Ledger Express Times And The Hunton County Democrat and sent to the clerks of Delaware Township East UL Township Flemington burrow ritton Township and Readington Township the public will have an opportunity to be heard as shown shown on the agenda Spitzer if I can have a call please Mrs blood Fields here Mrs dougen here Mr Fowler here miss gong here Mrs Kellogg here Mrs odonnell here Mrs Peterson here Mr Rymer here and Mrs santangelo here thank you we could all stand for a flag to the salute salute to flag of the United States America and to the for it stands one nation God indivisible withy and justice for allor thank you um I didn't get somebody ready M dougen could I put you on the spot real quick and ask you to read the district mission statement hun Central is an Innovative educational Community dedicated to the intellectual social and emotional safety and growth of all students while fostering curiosity and promoting Wellness we aspire to create powerful learning experiences establish strong Partnerships and serve as contributing members of society thank you next I'd like to make a motion for approval of the minutes from the January 22nd 2024 meeting so moved second is there any changes discussion no not hearing any can I have a roll call vote please Mrs Peterson yes Mrs Kellogg yes Mrs dougen yes Mrs beld yes Mrs odonnell abstain Mr Rymer yes Miss gong yes Mrs santangelo yes and Mr Fowler yes all yes motion carries thank you next we will have a motion for approval of minutes from our February 10th 2024 meeting thank you a second second any discussion changes hearing none Mrs Spitzer can I have a roll call Mrs Peterson yes Mrs Kellogg yes Mrs Dugen yes Mrs blood Fields yes Mrs odonnell abstain Mr Rymer yes Mrs gong yes Mrs santangelo yes and Mr Fowler yes all yes motion carries thank you next I'll uh acknowledge the The Correspondents that were sent to the board over the past month for the agenda and then I will hand it over to you Dr Moore for your superintendent report thank you Mr fer uh and thank you for the mission statement tonight um we uh uh the note I wanted to share is um one about um well an answering requests for engagement and I just wanted to highlight the work that's being done with with Mr Spencer in Mr Brand's office uh recently njsia made available a pilot for girls flag football which is a fantastic opportunity for our students but we weren't sure quite how many were going to come out for it and he had close to 70 at the interest meeting uh it was fantastic and so not only is the njsiaa involved in supporting this but the NFL as well um so we're really pleased to be able to think about offering that kind of opportunity as we continue to grow our opportunities so that uh all students you know can find a place to be engaged here outside of just I shouldn't say outside of just their classrooms but in addition to what goes on in their classrooms there's a lot more that happens here to make a home of this place for all of our students um now uh we have a few things on the agenda for me to discuss tonight very quickly and also a presentation from our um counseling services department but I see a bunch of guests in uniform tonight and some of you look familiar are you all graduates of 100 in central that's amazing wow [Applause] um they want to speak for anything you mind if I do that do do you have is there something you want to share tonight or are you just so because we can give you some time right now if you'd like very good okay thank you thank you all right well welcome welcome um we uh have a few things on the agenda tonight that I'll go over very quickly as organizational items uh in the order of some things tonight because we have a closed session near the end after which we need to come out and take some action um so I'll go through a couple of items there and talk to you about uh what that'll look like and then I'll turn it over to Dr Zar Wiki where is she there she is okay um so we have a couple of things in the organizational items tonight one is a calendar revision this is a calendar revision for our students and this is based on our uh decision to take our March 15th professional development day which was a a day off for students for lack of a better word um and turn that into two early dismissals so that we could continue to maintain some con continuity of instructional time and we wouldn't have to uh we wouldn't have had to dip into then the President's Day holiday with very little notice based on the the weather that we had um before that holiday so with your approval tonight we'll make that calendar change and we'll communicate that tomorrow um I think we have a couple of different thoughts Mr brentt's got a a message going out tomorrow we'll put it in there and we'll also put it up on our website um we have a Hib report here so there are two hibs that require your vote tonight after presentation last month but I'm going to ask you to postpone that motion until after closed session we're going to be having some conversation in closed session that's relevant to that vote uh so please postpone the Hib motion until after closed session and then uh after Clos session two there may be some action that I know that that will not just on the hibs but some action that you may be taking on a couple other things and there might be some board calendar action that we need some some action on as well uh so that's sort of the layout tonight everything else is is fairly cut and dried um and not much else in organizational items for us tonight in fact nothing else so at this point I do want to turn it over to Dr web who is going to introduce Dr Zori Dr Webb is our director of special student services one of those things and she uh overseas helps us all with the counseling department so she's going to introduce our counseling supervisor Dr zuro wikii Who is going to then move on to introduce some staff and students who are working in our counseling programs so okay welcome Board of Education members as well as the the public um tonight I'm pleased to introduce to you Dr Danielle Zer Wiki who is our supervisor counseling she will um talk to you about some of the good work that's going on and then you're going to hear from a couple of Staff members um Carrie Kelly who oversees the Red Devil ambassadors as well as two of our sacks that are doing um exceptional recovery work with our students over the summer so without further Ado Dr Daniels zwiki hi thank thank you so much for having me um so tonight as Dr Webb said um we're going to Showcase some of the things that counseling services does and whenever I can I kind of try to take an opportunity to remind everyone um about the shift that's kind of happened within counseling right it's gone from that guidance um the guidance counselor to a school counselor and I do that on purpose um and that's because of the focus um the range of activities and services that our counselors provide to students so they focus on academics College and Career and social emotional all of that every day of the school year and so we don't often get an opportunity to really share the work that they do because so much of it is really behind the scenes and confidential um and so tonight you know we have um some students and some counselors who are going to share everything that they do so just to kind of start I wanted to remind everyone that a few years ago we revised the counseling services policy and we focused on relationships personalization through opportunities and resources and empowering each student and I wanted to kind of show how that aligns with the district goals that are in um that are in for right now the 2023 2024 school year um which talks about Wellness right powerful learning through personalization which I don't think we always think happens also outside of the classroom but so much learning happens in the everyday world um equity and inclusion our work to kind of involve every student no matter where they are and who they are as well as service with our within our community and that's helping students engage with outside Services as well so to start um I like to kind of show some quotes to kind of um relay the message of everything that we're doing and this one is from Helen Keller and it says alone we can do little together we can do so much and so that is my introduction to the Red Devil in bors who some of you might know some of you don't know um so I'm going to introduce um Miss Carrie Kelly she is currently the class of 20207 um grade level counselor thank you and here's one of my 223s yeah um it was wonderful to hear you open with the mission statement of the board we have a mission statement as Red Devil ambassadors it keeps our focus it keeps us we we revise it every year we take a look at it and how it's working and if we need to update anything so this is ours it says a lot within three sentences I think but um we read it at um couple times a year to remind ourselves and you all of what it is that we do so I would love to introduce I brought two seniors with me Alyssa Hicks and Daniel Schneider and one Junior Aram filipek they're going so I'm going to be going over our first bullet point tonight so what we do as rdas you probably see us often especially if we have a new student or so especially in the hallways and we work with the staff we work with the counselors especially the dras when we're running late to class or my house secretary Miss Cruz sees me often if I'm late to class with a new student so main point I do is I work with the counseling service department but we interact with all faculty staff and students so in the morning when we get a new student we typically work with them it depends sometimes it's a week it might be a little bit longer depending on the students's Comfort needs or so and we help them first get their Chromebook or out over in the hub over here and then we also take them in the 910 building to get their ID so they can check into every building and then we also assist them if they have like Tech issues we have to like bring them back and forth so we really do a lot that first week to help them get them Incorporated here and keep them comfortable with a good transition essential because after all being a new student can be very R especially coming to a school with over 3,000 kids here so we play a pretty big job here um so my name is Aaron flic I'm a junior at Hunter Central I'm an RDA so being the first friendly face to a new student is incredibly important to us being Red Devil ambassadors students coming from other states other schools and even out of country at times coming to a school this big with so many students is like incredibly overwhelming to them so by us being the first person and the first person they meet and of friend of theirs then that's really big for them just to get more acclimated into this new environment my name is dy Schneider I'm a senior here at Central and uh aside from just helping out new students here at Central we do stuff outside of that that is equally as important and some of those things are helping some of the current freshmen uh and that includes over the summer at uh orientation where they get their ID photos they get used to the school uh and their freshman Tech tools classes which is a class where they learn how to manage their time uh you know stay good with their mental health and all that um and then another thing we do is we help out with the administration um every so often uh this year what we did was we helped with tours during some kind of event I forget what but you know we helped and uh another big one uh one of my personal favorites is we help with the food pantry across from Walmart uh we get a budget and we donate a lot there and uh it's a really great thing [Applause] so I just wanted to add kind of the frequency I don't know if everyone knows with which new students come to our school um so counseling um is where all new students will come um and we're kind of their first point of contact UM and we still have new students about one or two a week um and so we keep them very busy um and some of the things that you know I want to kind of highlight as well is that they there's um a long process to becoming an RDA right they have a lot of responsibility like they said they're the first face that we want students to see when they come and start a new school um and so I thank them um and Miss Kelly she spends a lot of time uh working through that program and it's a year-long it's a year-long event right it's not just something that happens at freshman orientation they'll go all year and they'll actually go to the middle school soon to introduce themselves so the rising um ninth graders so that they also know some friendly faces that they're going to see around campus okay so thank you okay so my next quote is and no one has to understand that braveness is not the absence of fear but rather this strength to keep on going forward despite the fear and I say that because our Sachs our Student Assistance counselors they do a lot of work with students on having to push some of those boundaries some of those person things that they might be experiencing whether it's inside the classroom or outside of the classroom and so their work um with some of our vice principles they put together a whole brand new program um and so last summer was our second year of that program and it was really designed to help build skills for students who were struggling to come to school on a regular basis um and so for students who might have numerically passed a class but who lost credit because of attendance because as you know you need those two two things to earn credit um and so they work together and so today we have Ali Buckaloo and Stacy heler along with a student to talk about their summer programming that they put [Applause] together okay so um basically the impetus behind I just told Miss Buckaloo I I have a big mouth I probably don't need this mic but I saw you go so um the people at home need you to they need me to have the mic so um the impetus behind this was really I liked that um Dr Zer Wiki's quote about a braveness and it it is to kind of have the kids be brave when they're in a hole when they're stuck in negative habit Loops which we've all been stuck in in our lives where we're going on a path and we crash and we get on the path and we crash again and that's the attendance that and having attendance challenges can really um sometimes move you to dropping out of school and we wanted it to be where it could move them to be re-engaged um you know with what we called nourishing networks and with um staff members and interestingly enough um we didn't have to teach curriculum because they already passed the class but we wanted skills so that they didn't fall in that hole again and they didn't have attendance issues moving forward um we have um Jose here he's one of our um shining stars but he is not the only one there this was successful for a lot of kids and and um yeah okay um it was successful for for for a lot of kids and this says something because these are kids that had attendance issues to begin with that's why they were in the program but they came consistently in the summer because they were engaged because it was something that they recognized was going to give them skills in their life that when they failed they could be brave they could get back up and they could keep trying they could identify the challenges and they could really lean on other people to help them so I want to turn it over to Jose so he can share his experience hello everyone my name is Jose dogado and I'm really proud to talk to you today about my experience in the summer credit recovery program back in 2022 I also got to help out with the Freshman transition program which was awesome during the program I learned a lot about handling stress building good habits and setting achieve achievable goals these skills have helped me stay positive be productive and make progress in my personal and school life I also learn about the importance of having supportive people around me and seeing the challenges as opportunities to learn and grow these lessons have stuck with me and continue to guide me as I work towards my goals and thanks to miss heler miss bucko Miss Edgar these has made a big impact on me and I'm really grateful for everything I've learned and as I noted in my hope work book failure is not the opposite of success it's the path to success thank you for taking the time to listen to me thank you so much I just want to say How brave right The Bravery kind of takes for students to come up here and talk um I think you know especially for those of us who have struggled right that's very hard to share and so thank you um and I just thought I'd highlight um some of the work that happened especially this past summer um we invited 21 students um 16 of them were able to successfully complete the program and earn up to 10 credits back um and so that's a 76.2% um and part of it is that they also um there's a linkage to working with outside um communities we we're trying to help students equate what we do here in school with their future and their goals right because um that's such a big part of it and that doesn't come as intuitively to all of us as it does right so um that's why I just wanted to kind of highlight that and that is that concludes our presentation um and I wanted to see if anyone had any questions uh yes I do have a couple of questions how many rdas do you have Miss Kelly I'm going to turn it over to the experts and while you're there I'm sorry sa sa stands for oh those are sacks that's the Student Assistance counselors so we have one per grade level um so each grade level um has three grade level counselors and a Student Assistance counselor and they focus on um anything kind of related to mental health struggles substance use you can see also skill building just kind of the huge range of things and Miss Kelly will answer your RDA question great thank you so the RDA program is small um I am lucky enough to have seven seniors eight Juniors and we are currently training eight eight sophomores and what will happen is the seniors have and juniors pair up so that each new kid kind of gets two rdas um but that helps them with balancing all of their responsibilities with missing class and then the seniors train the sophomores and then once they're trained at the end of March the seniors semi retire and then the Juniors become bigs so arum get ready you're getting a you're getting sophomore and they take over the new kids while the seniors plan our spring activities great thank you and do they is it a competitive process to become an adviser an advisor no oh to become a red devil Ambassador um they're shaking their heads yes uh we get nominations of spectacular sophomores from the house Office Team and that includes the counseling staff the vice principal the nurse um the secretary because she knows everybody and we get nominations and every nominee is invited to a meeting where they present about the jobs and what it entails and then they have to H find uh sign a permission slip for them to be called to interviews and it's a group interview process and then they hash it out on how they want to pick the Next Generation yeah you're welcome thank you and students are invited to self-nominate as well so we get yeah um so we um we open it up to kind of anyone within the sophomore sophomore year so yes I I just wanted to thank you so much I I'm familiar with um Miss Buckaloo work which is amazing so thank you um the counseling department is Stellar here um can't say enough good things about you guys and when I first joined the board I remember being concerned about Red Devil ambassadors because I'm not here I'm not in the school and so from my perspective I was wondering if there were differently abled ambassadors multilingual Learners project trust um all all of that and and seeing this presentation tonight I I can see how amazing the work that you're doing is and how much you're representing and to the student that spoke amazing because fail is Success it is because I will tell you my freshman year in high school I failed algebra by 05 I took it in summer school and I aced it and I love math so everybody just needs an opportunity so thank you for giving the kids that well thank you for having us yeah thank you thank you good all right well thank you all uh and I hope you're enjoying our presentations from our departments taking that different kind of tack this year focusing in on some of the work that's relevant to the board and the school's goals and also giving the students and staff a voice to share a little bit about what that work looks like um and it's just uh uh wonderful stirring stuff so I appreciate appreciate all of you uh and that Mr fer is all I've got for you tonight with just the reminder that we have to postpone that Hib item until after close session so I'll turn it over to you all right thank you Dr Moore I believe that gets us to our residence our first residence Forum so at this time we will I'm sorry no he's yeah we'll do it we'll do it right after the right after we're good um so we will open up for any um public comment for items on the agenda uh comments for items on the agenda only please feel free to come up to the to the podium and there will be another section at the end of course for the public to speak okay okay seeing none the much anticipated motion for calendar revision um can I have a a motion to move the approval of the revisions as Dr Moore outlined for the 2023 24 calendar so moved second there's a motion in a second that's fine any uh conversation or commentary all right Mrs Spitzer have a roll call Miss gong yes Mr Rymer yes Mrs odonnell yes Mrs dougen yes Mrs Peterson yes Mrs blutfield yes Mrs santangelo yes Mrs cogg yes and Mr Fowler yes all yes motion carries thank you so much and then our hi motion we will table until after our executive session with that we move into student life and program committee Mr ryr good evening everybody uh we only have two action items uh items to move tonight the first is under tuition and transportation and we are going to try to move to approve tuition related expense uh Transportation contracts for the following special education students for the 2023 24 school years and related Services as required in their individual education PL plans the cost of this will be 49,5 6984 the second is an overnight field trip for the marching excuse me uh Red Devil indoor color guard and that would is going to take place down in Wildwood New Jersey uh we'd like to uh move to approve uh for the Red Devils indoor Color Guard to take an overnight field trip to compete in the Wildwood New Jersey uh in Wildwood New Jersey from May 3rd to May 5th and approximate cost approximately 21 students eight chaperon and the trips will cost uh $250 per student paid by fundraising and uh the students families so I would like to move to approve those two items thank you Mr rmer motion second second any conversation hearing none Mrs Spitzer Mr Rymer yes Mrs Peterson yes Mrs Kellogg yes Miss gong yes Mrs odonnell yes Mrs blutfield yes Mrs santangelo yes Mrs dougen yes and Mr Fowler yes all yes motion carries thank you operations and transportation committee Mr dougen okay thank you um so tonight we have 16 items to move the first one is the the financial reports for December the second is the January invoices we all got copies of that we also have the transfers as the third item the fourth is the revised budget calendar and really you can you can see the calendar there in front of you but the big date would be at the next board meeting we'll be um looking to approve the tenative budget so that's a big one coming up number five is the board budget objectives so these are focused on education um and fin uh fiscal responsibility so you guys can take a look at that number six through nine all have to do with the rod grants and I just wanted to just take a second to explain Rod Grant so Rod Grant is a regular operating District Grant and Mrs Spitzer has um taking advantage of a great opportunity that the state uh opened up this year it's been over 10 years the last time the state offered this to us um she applied for different types of Grants to the state for roofing and HVAC work that has to get um covered on the building grounds and um if approved the state would cover 40% of the expenses so she put in quite a few I think maybe more than 12 is that right app for they applied for 19 the state approved 12 of them and you can see them listed here here it's really a bunch of different type roof Replacements um HVAC Replacements and the state is saying that they're going to help fund 40% of these expenses for us so this really saves a lot um from our budget so number six would be to accept the state share of the finance uh final eligible costs for these Rod grants number seven is the execution and delivery so we're moving to approve authorizing the execution and delivery of the r um of the grant agreement section 15 in the amounts indicated below number eight is the delegation of authority so um to approve the delegation of authority to the school business administrator for supervision of the school facilities projects listed below and then number nine is to use the capital funds for local share Rod grants and this is um moved to designate from capital reserve funds in the amount indicated below for the local share of the following school facilities projects and there's that list again below number 10 we have a jointure with North hunon Regional High School to transport a student 11 um you'll see three projects here where we want to move the um to refund Capital Reserves these projects have been completed they were summer projects that we were doing IMC parking lot and the bridg Loop Road those projects are done and there's money that's going back to Capital reserves for that and also the 910 storage building which has been a longstanding project that's finally completed I think Mrs Spitzer is super happy about that too all that money will be going back to Capital reserves number 12 we have uh move to approve project Adventure as a proprietary service vendor for challenge course repairs these are the um if you guys noticed we have some different type of climbing facilities on the side of the building where um you can do an elective and and take a another type of gym elective to climb up and swing off the ropes and things like that and um we do need to do some repairs to that so that's number let's see 12 and then 13 we need to withdraw the maintenance reserves for the high elements course in climbing tree repair I don't want to take too much time but I do want to say that this is an awesome opportunity for the students because it's open to any student that wants to participate um all different students are brought together and they all have to help each other and they have to learn how to trust each other and communicate with one another and I just think it's absolutely a fantastic opportunity number 14 we have an RFP for a food service management company so move to author or uh the business administrator to use competitive Contracting process for the procurement of food service management company 15 is an RFP for school photographer so we'd like to just move forward with that and then 16 would be to resend a professional service provider that we voted on last month um we just kind of need to reverse and kind of do that over again so so um with that I'd like to move items 1 through 16 thank you miss duck second second thank you Miss gong any conversations questions um I I just have a question about number 12 is that the ropes course yes okay that's the one that when I first joined the board I would get lovely and thankfully invitations to but I didn't attend has any board member done the ropes course I actually took it my senior year here my yes and it was one of my favorite coures being a rock climber at the time all right I'm impressed so I can attest to its engaging I respectfully declined I was going to say maybe we should do some sort of retreat board retreat we can do some ropes climbing can you check insurance first yeah sign W you do have to sign we do have to sign waivers okay yeah was there another I I um I was just gonna ask do the do our does our portion of the rod grants impact any other projects we were intending to do um any this summer or this year no these are for the next summer the summer of 2025 thank you so the only thing I'd like to add is the Food Service um RFP is not because of Any dissatisfaction or any concerns about our food service company we're required to do that periodically every four four years um so we're coming up on that on that calendar Point uh so um just wanted to make that clear that we weren't looking specifically go in a different direction thank you for that all right any other questions comment if not can we have a roll call please miss gong yes Mr Rymer yes Mrs Peterson yes extics abstain on number two Mrs Mrs odonnell yes and Mr Fowler yes all yes motion carries thank you Mrs butfield Personnel committee yes personnel has 23 action items tonight so another Hefty agenda uh we'll start out with the first one we have two retirements of uh longtime employees we have Michelle burnhard special ed teacher with 23 years of service and she is a past hcea president I had the privilege of working with her on some hcea negotiations so we'll miss her and Nancy Middleton who's been a secretary with 18 years of service so like to wish them both well in retirement we also have in number two two resignations we have one termination in number four to revive job descriptions the payroll and benefits specialist and manager of transportation we have um a couple of contractual salary appointments the manager of Transportation a supervisor to replace Jane arm Molino and then Elizabeth Riley we are moving from HR specialist to Personnel secretary in number six we have contractual hourly appointments for two bus drivers we have some hourly hctv student technicians were appointing in eight we have a new substitute rate for sub a substitute athletic trainer and that rate is 1. 12283 of the teacher rate we are appointing substitutes in number nine and that includes a long-term sub for a Spanish teacher who's out on leave and that's actually um someone who used to be a teacher here Mr Baka so it's always nice to have our um retired teachers come back and be Subs then we have appointments of chaperon appointment of a staff member for PM supervision number 12 we have new staff induction buddy stiens and that's funded with title 2A grant money we have six block stiens that will cover some of the holes in our world language and social studies departments that's number 13 14 some professional development 15 we are approving two internships and counseling then we have our unpaid co-curricular community volunteers Schedule C unpaid advisors and number 18 we have our Schedule D coaches um you'll notice there and you'll also see in 20 and 23 we have some assistant softball coaches and what we're doing there we actually had four assistant coaches three of them were part-time and we're now moving to three full-time positions and you'll see in the where we're resending the positions that was actually by choice so um but that's you'll you'll see this in three different places so the appointments are in number 18 19 we have salary guide advancements and that's we we do that a couple times a year that's based on course completion for the fall and then number 20 here's where you'll see that we're resending the the two assistant softball coaches 21 we are resending The Substitute caller stien and that has to do with Mo moving Elizabeth Riley to a new position now from HR specialist to that Personnel secretary we have approval of some leaves of absences in 22 and that includes a sabatical that's approved under the hcaa contract and then finally in 23 you'll see amendments and that's where you'll see again that we're changing part two of the part-time assistant softball coaches to full-time with that I will move Personnel items one through 23 thank you second second okay any questions or conversations just a couple of quick thoughts to share on the retirements um I'll Echo the thought uh Miss Bernard's uh uh served as Association president through covid um and and so we're always proud of successful negotiations and and you know I'm proud of successful negotiations here with our teachers unit uh you know board members are as well because there was a time when those weren't successful right uh but um also proud of the partnership that we managed to maintain and still to this day with the association under President Matt smoker um maintained partnership for our students through some really tough times and so I really appreciate all that she's done here and a lot the perspectives that she's brought to the table um Nancy Middleton as well Nancy is our media center clerk she actually spends most of her day at the circulation desk over there uh and she served us well for 18 years but I can share also she served me particularly well by helping me um as my oldest son went off to college she helped me really a lot with that everything from what to buy for him to just how to deal with the fact that he wasn't in the house anymore so I appreciate all that she's done as well so uh two folks who will miss um I do also want to share that you know with your approval tonight we'll be welcoming um a couple of folks uh Mr Hagar for the manager of Transportation um that's the position that uh reports to the director of Transportation so sue G's prior position um Dr Hastings is here tonight actually where are you Dr Hastings he's recommended tonight to be one of our uh curriculum instruction Department supervisors um doing a lot of projects uh everything from um teacher capacity building to uh uh efficiency in technology projects to um a good oldfashioned departmental uh supervision as well so we're looking forward to bringing him um well not on board he's been teaching with us for a couple years and bringing him into the supervisory ranks and then uh Liz Riley uh Works across the hall from me um welcoming her to a better opportunity a bigger opportunity and a new position there as well so um lots of uh good folks having done or continuing to do good stuff for us here at Central thank you Dr Moore any other comments questions seeing none M Spitzer roll call please sure Mrs blutfield yes Mrs odonnell yes Mrs Kellogg yes Mrs dougen yes Miss gong yes Mrs S Angelo yes Mr Rymer yes Mrs Peterson yes and Mr Fowler yes oh yes motion carries thank you okay other committee reports sure thank you Miss Keller um so we did have a reorganization meeting for the communications committee this month um primarily we talked about what the priorities were going to be for the new Communications officer we discussed um a lot of opportunities that we saw coming out of the new policy 9100 as well as um some ideas for ways that the communications officer could to provide more information to the board um I did want to make sure that everyone um especially the new board members had seen the presentation that was put together by Mrs Tucker um she did a really good job of quantifying how people interact with our Communications tools so that link is in the um uh committee minutes as well thank you any other committee reports um we just had our first policy um committee meeting and we really just talked about kind of the the some of the needs in the scope of the committee you know particularly one of the things that was brought up was ensuring that there's an a sufficient amount of definitions that the the definitions are kind of uniform in certain areas across the manual to avoid you know confusion and misunderstanding um and we really put an emphasis on Gathering input from other board members and committees and the administrative team about what they would um see as areas that could use a a peak uh in our policy manual and uh we did discuss the schedule of review um we are not going with the ambitious uh get it all done uh this year we are going to actually um look at what people bring to the policy committee as kind of a uh what they feel is the most you know most necessary to take a look at and go from there so I think that's really um effective and hopefully at the next meeting we'll get to take a look at last year's audit of the policy manual and and and go from there okay thank you Miss Peterson anything else as far as committee leas reports yes the the equity committee did meet today um I would say nothing you know reportable so to speak but I think a really good conversation um about where we want to go um about the equity audit we need to talk more about that and um about more safe spaces for students to access uh facilities and um maybe some collaboration with the communications committee because there was a little bit of talk about maybe the board having a way to communicate um I don't know more effectively or more clearly with um with staff and administration and employees so maybe um maybe a project in the future for us d That's all sounds good thank you yes I I'll give a quick update on the superintendent search committee um we had a special meeting executive session we did interviews on the 10th and we did select an interim superintendent the contract is awaiting approval with a county superintendent and um as soon as that is approved we will get word out to everyone uh we'll make an announcement and um hopefully everyone will have a chance to to meet the new interim superintendent um as far as this search for a permanent superintendent we have reviewed the rfps for a search consultant that we will be hiring um we'll probably discuss that a little more in executive session and we hope to have any presentations done at the March meeting so we can get that process rolling as well thank you it's been a busy month president F yes may I add something to the policy Committee of course don't worry um I want to take a a make a few comments about the newly formed policy committee um and and one thing that you should know about board members you never surprise your other board members in your comments so no worries here um and it's mostly for the benefit of the community for the folks who come out here because many times you just see us vote on something so what you don't see is the work that this committee does during the month the email emails the the things that go back and forth so there is a lot of work that goes into uh each committee before we actually take a vote uh I attended a uh New Jersey Schoolboard Association training session this weekend so the these are all these thoughts in my head and Mrs santangelo you might hear some familiar things because she attended in uh in January so um relative to um the policy committee um as uh Mrs Peterson said we are not going to review all the policies in the next 12 months um she is enthusiastic about the policies but we have hundreds of policies if you've ever looked you know the last time I counted there are 350 450 policies um policy bylaws regulations um I want to thank president fer for attending the policy committee because um Dr Moore could not attend um so thank you for doing that also um this committee has to figure out how to operate with the standing committees uh the SLP committee has just thrown over the transom two policies for this newly created policy committee to take a look at one of the questions that I have is which committee really has the final say so we're you know going to look at their their policy but their the subject matter experts in my mind so again we still have lots to hash out for the new policy committee um and since uh again it's really my comments are really for the community the folks that come out here because you don't get to see some of the things that are you know really running through our our mind in terms of policies and procedures for ourselves so thank you for that thank you Miss gong all right pivoting over to additional board business anybody have anything else to add or opine on seeing and hearing none we will open for our second public comment session um again I would ask that we hold all comments uh show of hands how many people intend to speak real quickly okay not so many so we'll do five minutes per person um Dr Moore will do a timer of four minutes I'll do a minute after that um if you could please come to the podium share your name contact information announce where you're from and then and uh feel free to make your comments if you do have any comments about uh the board or the staff I would just ask that you direct them at me please good evening all Jay Hoff lemington burrow um I would just like you to consider this as a part two of my statement from last month I would like to speak again about kindness kindness asks that we approach every situation with empathy a willingness to listen and a humility in knowing that we are capable of both great harm and great good kindness also demands accountability for a lack of kindness kindness cannot tolerate bigotry or discrimination because to leave harm on address allows it to continue to be kind we must address harm we must call it out and name it so that we can work to solve it this week news broke of a teen in Oklahoma who was beaten by three older students in a school bathroom and who later died by their injuries their name was next Benedict and they were only 16 they deserved a long life they deserved to grow up and they will not get that chance quite frankly I am sick and tired of talking about dead children all I can ask is how did we get here how did we become the nation where career and trans students are not making the news because of their accomplishments but because their dignity humanity and lives have been stolen from them we may not be in Oklahoma but in order to prevent a similar tragedy here in our community we must recognize where it hits home the State Board of Education of Oklahoma has been under Fire since the appointment of chichic also known as Libs of Tik Tok on Twitter Miss reich's background is in real estate and posting inflammatory content online just a few moment months ago reichek featured also a school district where next Benedict attended now a child is dead Hunan Central is unfortunately not a stranger to miss reichek in December 2022 she featured the district's pulse club for their drag show teachers and administration here then received death threats and the Little Theater was packed with people people from afar who attempted to harass and intimidate our community and our kids a self-identified white supremacist from Tennessee even came to our meeting filmed it and then posted a podcast about it another member of the crowd openly wore a shirt that declared them as a proud boy another Neo-Nazi group so when members of our community invite this kind of behavior what does that say about us this certainly does not speak of kindness or care for any of the students here it only serves to make our youth more afraid we cannot sing kumaya with those who actively wish for and even encourage harm against any other group while there are far more things that we can disagree about we cannot simply agree to disagree about the humanity of our fellow human beings we talk about different groups of people in ways that dehumanize them and incite violence against them we cannot be surprised when the worst happens Mr Fowler I appreciate that you were willing to directly answer the public last month however I disagree on the characterization of certain actions as simply mistakes mistakes happen and we must recognize that but intentional actions are not mistakes Miss St Angelo's case one does not mistakenly attend Board of Ed meetings at Readington to spread falsehoods about gender confirming surgery in Miss Peterson's case we can put aside the allegations about the Twitter account and look at one simple fact Miss Peterson is employed by noan brudy the law office that is suing this district and Delaware Valley High School as well I believe it would be very difficult to mistakenly be employed by a law office and regardless it is a m massive ethics violation you want to represent our community all of you then show us what our community represents how do we treat each each other how do we learn from each other no matter who we are and where we're from what dreams and hopes do we have for the future generation and how are we going to work towards accomplishing them the least we can do is Do no harm and the best we can do is work to reduce harm and we are asking you to do your best I would like to take the rest of my time here for whatever remains to take a moment of silence for next Benedict and of the other quer and trans youth whose lives have been taken far too soon thank you thank you whomever would like to go next say something all right told you last month you're stuck with me for a while so you know my name is John McKay 122 Featherbed Lane Flemington New Jersey I understand what they're talking about with the allegations and I understand Miss Peterson's point that they are allegations and I heard Mr Rashad's letter the problem I have is the fact that I'm I I worked at a trade for a long time and about halfway through that time a lot of minorities and women started getting into the trades and you know there were a lot of violations not necessarily ethics but racist and sexist and things like that and we took steps to take care of it the thing is we never rewarded the person that made the allegations that was uh I'm say accused of the allegations until it was all settled and Mr Fowler I think you rewarded Peterson by making her chairman of that committee you have two other people here that were brand new and they would be neutral in this situation and I think one of those two should have been the chairman thank you thank you good evening thank you for the time my name is Jim Vargas longtime resident of Flemington or actually riton now living in Mammoth Beach last during the week I testified uh in front of the New Jersey State Health Human Services and Senior CZ committee the issue was there were two bills on on their agenda that wanted to drive they have to deal with uh students who would be able to reach out for Health Services outside the school and they wanted to drop the name age from uh 16 to 14 one of the things that happened when you walked into this thing is they as we walked in they merged the bills one was actually 113 one was 14 and said they're going to be 14 we had no idea what the bills were when we talked about it uh they challenged our thought and they passed the bills anyway and one of the things when we pushed on them they said was you know we're get interfering with parents they said all doing is changing the names and what they did was changing that names from from 14 from 16 to 14 affected 200,000 students so 200,000 students changed from needing their parents uh consent or advisory to attend mental health to not being able to need it that is not insignificant and when they beat us up about it I pushed back and they said we never wanted to eliminate parent involvement I said well what about what you went into with the U with the pronouns where you said they had to be used but there the parents need not know on and on these guys got into parental rights and really got interfered with it I think you here have a great challenge but also a great opportunity and you have to tackle the things as they come the things that the state has moved from moving in there was a time when it was the Board of Ed and it was other things the outside managed by the family managed by the IND individual the state has gotten totally into the school system first in diversity uh equity and inclusion by forcing things coming in 16 116,000 teachers get to put that in every class when they took it and they said it had to be in every class in math and history and that type of thing they integrated those two and they took people's freedom away so you have to go in and dealing with diversity and inclusion and Equity as a board you have to make it fair and open maybe open to the public so people know what is being taught to our children right as far as inclusion it it's really hard in diversity and stuff when I listened to a young woman talk that said people believe differently but they work for a firm a law firm they're against them that's not diversity inclusion as diversity you have to allow different opinions and you have to respect them I point out I know that I hate hate crimes whether it was people beating up women who wanted be when I was younger who wanted to be like men's jobs or people happen to be gay or what happens today in the society it's wrong right but I point out that the only person that was physical attack on this campus was the person that supported pro-choice so work with diversity and equity and make it happen as far as Equity have debates on Equity versus equality equality is equal access Equity is equal outcomes well who manages who decides on the outcomes Joe Biden Murphy the superintendent of the school have those debates in front of the students when it comes down to the uh pronoun issues where you don't have to know notify a parent you made a statement here that you would always notify a parent from policy standpoint make that full because the same the same government that passed the laws that said about um the pronoun laws said people didn't need to know include the parents and and the AG is suing certain boards for just doing that saying they're going to include the parents there's another issue that's a hard one to address because as you face up with the government driving for us is really pushing one more minute here majority of people want to uh be notified here in in we challenge one things about teachers right here is the thing that says 2070 teachers were were convicted of of SE un sexual issues around students this post says 25 people happen one week this report says says fed's asking for stop for for letting this go and and not paying more attention to it this report says that 11.7% of the student our students report when they're in college that they were sexually addressed or sexually misconduct in in in a high school to put that in perspective uh I did a study on I know it than long on 2020 on a Catholic Church that's what I I do there were 47 4,712 accusations of sexual misconduct there were 100,000 students that graduated that year if this 11.7% is true that means there are 11,000 so uh sexual misconducts on children just in New Jersey you really need to have policies that guide what sh what what teachers can do what they're allowed to be involved in and really protect our children thank you for your time thank you next Benedict next Benedict I'm sorry your name and where you're from please Janet quadon Flemington thank you a key part of our job as human beings is educating nurturing and keeping safe all the young people in our community Comm it's easier said than done a key part of your job as Board of Education members is supporting the education nurturing and keeping safe of all the young people in the school that you're sworn to represent I understand it's easier said than done it takes work I speak not not only for myself as a community member but for my friends other community members many parents of schoolage children when I say that we want to see that the new board is up to the work required in speaking about a policy committee and I thank board member gong for trying to clarify a little bit what go goes on before and during policy committee conversations but in working on a policy committee we might reasonably assume that a primary objective would be to seek to clearly understand to educate yourselves as well about what any policies under discussion actually mean as opposed to what some people may want you to believe that they mean we Challenge and hope that you all together will actually do the work learn about context learn about the educational bills that included said policies no policy is telling Educators to lie to parents no policy is going to permit Educators to lie to parents many of us appreciate very much Dr Moore's explanation last year about how certain policies are dealt with here at hun and Central it's our understanding that Educators want to collaborate with parents if they're open to it in the nurturing acknowledgement respect and protection of all students and in speaking again about policies these policies are meant to protect and by such stated policies that protect they also acknowledge affirm and wipe away an Antiquated stigma of otherness because views about otherness breed suspicion they breed division they breed violence next Benedict thank you thank you Suzanne bage uh Baron Township excuse me I think that's good um I would just like to add something to the tragedy that happened to next Benedict um a terrible terrible situation um but we don't know yet all the details the investigation is ongoing so I just want to point that out that um often times we don't want to just because a person might be non-binary we can't make an assumption that that's why this whole situation happened um so I just want to point that out a similar situation happened many years ago in Orlando Florida where there was a horrible attack where 50 people were killed at the Pulse Nightclub 49 people approximately I believe were injured and because this was a lgbtq club people right away assumed that this attacker was against the lgbtq community right away and many people still hold that this was determined to be a hate crime but it wasn't if you follow which often times we don't follow through we don't see what happens next whatever hits the news right away we all get very upset and it is very upsetting but I just want to let you know that we need to just wait for an investigation and not jump to a conclusion because the FBI after a thorough investigation found that the pulse Club tragedy was not a hate crime every child is precious no matter who they are what they believe every life is a beautiful thing and I know that we all agree on that so that's all I have to say also I wanted to add that um with there was a comment about um lies being said about um transgender surgeries again there are many opinions out there about transgender surgeries many there's many doctors who comment on what these drugs do to students or children the effects on their bones the effects on their hearts and and not the obvious things the effects on other body parts so just because we might not like to believe something that is presented I think we need to be very careful about calling it a falsehood thank you thank you for thanks for the time uh I'm Rosalie eam from Flemington burrow um this isn't exactly about next Benedict it's more about the kids who killed next Benedict As Leaders I want you to think seriously maybe more seriously than you have about what you say around young people you may never know that an impressionable person including a young impressionable person may hear you misgender a person refer to that person in a dismissing dehumanizing way not just trans kids that may make a kid say that that person needs to be wiped out taught a lesson you never know when you might be that reason that one thing that one last thing that somebody feels emboldened to wipe out a kid's life in a school bathroom because my church says because my parents make fun of kids they think are too different so that's what I think or when our school board doesn't see all the kids as the young Miracles they're each trying so hard to become in this school one thing that puts a kid or three kids over the line to do the very worst thing that they will ever do in their lives because what happened in Oklahoma didn't just end next Benedict's life it also ruined the kids lives who did that to next Benedict you don't know and I address this specifically to the school board that you may have already said or done that one thing thank you anyone else is there anybody else who would like to speak I consider myself a guest here I want to yes sir yeah that's that's fine I'm not wearing camos so you can see me what's up thank you got a look pretty all right so my name is Sergeant Ryan Vance uh I am the New Jersey Army National Guard recruiter that covers hunon County and the schools therein so that includes North hunon Vorhees Central Del Val and South hunon if my name sounds familiar my mother Pamela Vance taught here for the better part of two decades she taught ESL um she was teacher of the year in I think 2018 so that was a lot of fun I got to come here and and see her be presented with that award uh the reason I'm here tonight and you guys already got the jump on me when you recognized a lot of your former students here um I want to talk a little bit about the National Guard so we have a soldier here with us tonight graduated high school not all that long ago and they didn't know about the National Guard they didn't know that we can wave your tuition to any state school in New Jersey for any degree program they didn't know about the job training or benefits we could offer so they did what a lot of kids do they got to Ruckers they got themselves $100,000 in debt and then they realize the civilian job market is not all it's cracked up to be and sometimes even with your bachelors's in criminal justice you end up selling phones at the Verizon over by Chili's I am that Soldier and I am here today to ask that the board and hopefully the administration would consider uh granting all military recruiters additional time and access to the student body and the campus so that I might try to help aund Central student uh from being where I am which is 32 years old still paying off my bachelor's there were options that I was never made aware of I had never spoken to a guard recruiter and I come here to the board of education to address the board and also some of the parents here because I understand there's always a bit of hesitancy about military recruiters uh coming out and talking to your children I fought with my own mother about joining and I was 28 so it's it's always a little bit scary nobody wants to see their baby go to the military it's intimidating um what I would say to that is the Army and the National Guard have changed a great deal from what many of us knew as our fathers or our grandfather's military I am an infantryman so for those of you who don't know that's a Frontline Soldier I volunteered for that job I chose that job because I wanted to do what my grandfather did and what his father did before him uh my father would have gone but he was not able for medical reasons for every one of me there are seven non-combat court jobs as I stand here with you tonight I have a fire control system specialist a military police officer two Transportation specialist an aircraft structural repairer and another infantryman like myself so my point in this is saying there are a lot of opportunities in the National Guard that don't revolve around what I do which is combat I need a lot of people with a diverse and Broad skill set to put me where I need to be to do my my part of the job and I just want to make that opportunity available to as many students as possible thank you so much for your time thank you we will certainly take your requests under consideration to discuss it thank sir thank you any other comment hearing none we will close public comment and open for board comments anyone yes I I misspoke before um you know the equity committee met and you know when I'm sitting amongst committees that have 23 and and God knows how many things to vote on and I said our committee had nothing reportable I mostly meant we we didn't have any board business of that nature um but but we discussed the tragedy in Oklahoma we discussed safe spaces in the school and we discussed how much needs to be done and how we figure out how to get that work done so I I just wanted to correct myself I got a little lost in the moment and um I I'd like to believe that we we will be doing good work for students and staff that need it um I probably have more to say and probably shouldn't so that's it thank you seeing nothing else I guess I'll close I'd like to just um you know thank thank you for your comments and um I you know I think that's that's great if we can invite you to come in and let the students know what their opportunities are if that's something that you know they don't know um I I think that would be a great opportunity so thank you right I'd like to take a couple minutes to Echo with with what Miss blutfield said thank you very much for your service thank you for our freedoms thank you for defending our country and our constitution in alignment with that con Constitution I want to thank all that spoke at that Podium tonight um I welcome you all I welcome all of your perspectives and all of your commentary um regardless of what position and even if it's criticizing me it is welcome and and uh I ask for you to continue to come back and continue to share as your heart asks you to hearing nothing else uh we will close we will convene into executive session uh we will be coming back most likely with action if I can have a motion to convene second second all in favor I any opposition in the any exstension all right thank you all have a good evening e e e e e e e e okay like to open up for a motion to reconvene into public session so moved second all in favor I any abstentions any Nays okay like to what are we doing here we so move move them as they are move them as they are them yeah move them as they are all right so i' I'd like to make a motion to move to approve the Hib as is written put it on theable yes F2 move F2 yeah move it second discussion amend so Hib report item number two I think it's schar okay under organizational items item number two Hib report ending in 008 I'd like to move that yes move the whole motion move the whole motion number two oh my gosh so so moved okay second second okay now we need to open it for discussion I would like to uh move that we amend uh one of them this is it 10 thank you to reject the recommendation please do that would be very helpful so the revised motion would read move to affirm the Hun Central Regional High School disposition of hip case HC c232 4-8 and to reject HC 2324 d010 reviewed by the Board of Education in closed session on January 22nd 2024 as revised thank you it's as revised because we already seconded it I'm so roll call vote please and I'm going to roll call it as revised we we discussed it originally January 22nd which is when it was presented originally Mrs gong yes Mr Rhymer yes Mrs odonnell yes on 10 abstain on eight Mrs Peterson yes Mrs blutfield yes Mrs santangelo yes Mrs Kellogg yes and Mr Fowler yes all motion carries you didn't call me I say yes did I say Mrs you said yes you got it Mrs dogen yes all right next I'd like to move organizational item number one calendar revision so moved second second all right open for discussion I'd like to move that we adjust that time to six o'clock for the meeting on March 19th 18 18 thank you see so did I grab the wrong one it's actually after exact I actually had moved it to where I knew we would be dealing with it so you so striking the motion can we can we have a new motion for executive session number three revised board meeting dates for the 2023 2024 school year so moveed second second all right can I make a motion please to change the time of the March 18th meeting to 6 o' all right any other comment conversation around that hearing none roll call vote please G yes Mr Rymer yes Mrs odonnell yes Mrs dou yes Mrs Peters yes mrsi Mrs S Angelo yes Mrs yes and Mr F yes yes motion carries finally can I make a motion to convene the meeting is there a second second any discussion hearing none all in favor I any Nays any extensions thank you all have a good night