get started momentarily Mr B you can take us out of the practice session on Zoom um just remind all the board members microphones uh that we have are on mute uh press them once that will take them off mute and then you can speak um please put them back on mute afterwards just give us one moment Dr morthy for us to get the live stream up and ready Dr to begin with your thank you very much this meeting of the ma board of education is open to members of the public to be physically present members of the public that attend will be asked to follow the same procedures as all other visitors to our schools those procedures can be found on the agenda page of our website Additionally the board meeting will be live streamed for viewing purposes only anyone wishing to view the meeting May do so via Zoom webinar ID for this meeting is 869 23489 01 and the required password is 914 236 call this meeting to order roll call please Mr Mr Galla here Mr Hughes here Mr karski here M Jansen here Mr coplin here M davano here Mr dilva here Mr Denise Dr morthy here and student representative Gabby Mor here adequate notice of agenda of this meeting has been provided to the Ridgewood news in the record specifying that the ma Board of Education will meet on March 27th 2024 in the administrative offices 60 Ridge Road MAA New Jersey copy was filed with the Township Clerk salute to the flag Miss Jansen will you lead us in the salute to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God invisible with liberty and justice for all okay uh we do need an executive session in the beginning of our meeting this evening so I need a motion to recess to Executive U Mr kisari second by Mr Hughes should be back in about 15 minutes thank you okay e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e kind of really Happ all right uh all right I need a motion to reconvene to public Action meeting Mr kisari second by Mr Hughes all right um um agenda questions please limit your questions at this time to resolutions under new business on this agenda as a matter of fairness you are asked to limit your questions to no more than one and your remarks to no longer than three minutes if you are here representing a group please identify yourself the group and your position in the group if you're here as an individual please provide your name and address this section of public participation will be limited to 15 minutes please specify the resolution you are referring to in your question all right motion to open the meeting to the public Mr D Silva second by Mr Gallow we are officially open to the public okay seeing no one coming forward at this time motion to close the meeting oh I'm sorry I didn't know it was in the beginning if it's related TOA item on the agenda okay um motion to close the meeting to the public um Mr Copan and second by Mr Gallow um and before our Mawa student representative report if you don't mind um I just thought we would uh take a moment uh have a moment of silence for um an alumnus who we lost um uh Ava rasm um and she was part of the class of 2023 um and she um had a long battle with cancer and uh unfortunately um she passed away on um the uh yeah about a week ago or so anyway so I thought let's just take a moment all right thank you very much our student representative is we can't hear you to all just maybe come closer yeah there okay so our model un Club participated in a conference at St Peters University recently and then our action through Athletics and FCA clubs collaborated on a 3b3 basketball tournament where there were 22 teams and they were able to raise $270 for the Marcus scholarship and then our gyms Club hosted a districtwide steam night for sixth seventh and eighth graders which went well and then we have our spirit week this week to promote the different sccl competencies so students dressed in different attire to represent each part which was social awareness self-management responsible decision making relationship skills and self- awareness and then our interact Club collected 60 prom formal dresses that will be donated to those in need at Patterson high school and Grace's Closet in Rutherford um our Winter Guard competed at Monro Township High School and earned a score of 84.4 which was 13 points up from their last show then our robotics team competed at Warren Hills Regional High School last weekend and they had five wins and three losses so they're making good progress in their competitions and then our symphonic band earned a gold rating which is bias at North Jersey region one band festival and earned best percussion and then Junior Luke fero also earned best soloist on euphonia and the band was also one of the top four region one bands out of 40 so we've been invited to perform in the state Gala concert on April 28th at TCNJ and going to the state G concert is the highest honor a concert group can receive in the state of New Jersey so that's very exciting and then Mr peler was selected to be the athletic director sectional award recipient for North one and he got his award two weeks ago from the director of Athletics Association of New Jersey and Atlantic City and then we had our Junior formal last week which was very successful so we want to thank our class advisers for that um we had special education students participate in the Dare To Dream leadership contest at Roo College last week where they presented projects on stress management techniques and brain boosting activities to other students and then 39 students competed at the New Jersey future problem solving and Community problem solving staple where they won a variety of Award of awards and they're invited to the Future problem solving International Conference at the University of Indiana and then the thunderboard choir under the direction of Miss mwe participated in the second annual Crescent lighting for Ramadan at the Township municipal center and our spring Sports also started recently so they're going [Laughter] well thank you very much comprehensive report evening all right Dr Doro did she just cut she just cut down your report of it yeah I went from 10 to about two so but the two are good um this is from Joyce Kilmer um M Sha um she sent us an email which I was really excited to share with the board it says good morning the students enjoyed the perennial math ma perennial math contest yesterday particularly the fourth graders who would cheer together for their team between the questions there were 23 fifth grade teams competing and our JK teams placed second fourth and fifth out of the 23 teams in grade four there were 32 teams competing and our teams placed second and sixth Beyond just just the math practice I think the students learned a lot about functioning as a team and group consensus the second place teams will both be invited to the national championships on May 16th and 17th so congratulations to Joyce Kilmer and thank you Miss shaffner for continuing to do great things with their kids over there that's one this is more of like a 1B um it was it was talked about along lines of the gems the gems night which we were able to attend it was absolutely fantastic um Miss Lo and her students in the gems uh Club did a great job of welcoming our rampo Ridge students to take part in a number of different activities um I'm happy to report at your tables you'll see there's a press release that's going to be sent out about that along the lines of what the gems Club is all about um and also the experience that took place um at the T3 building so we're really excited about getting that information out to our community and last but not least I know I said two it's more of a two 2.5 um I just wanted to thank all those community members who came out to our first t-berd talk um Ste I'm sorry if I'm taking your thunder here I'll just be very brief um it was great Dr fair and I um as well as the community relations committee were able to speak to the community about various things that are happening things that they feel are going well in the school district but also things that we need to take a look at and refine moving forward um we have one member here I'm not going to call her out um who was at that night and we greatly appreciated everything that was shared we're going to take that information in we're going to take a look at what we're doing and try to adjust and and refine and I'm happy to report prior to the end of this year we wanted to get one more in so Tuesday May 28th at 6: PM we're going to have our second t- bird talk at Ma High School uh the the Thunderbird thing tank so everyone please mark your calendars we'll make sure that we send out reminders as well it's open to all not just our our families of the students in our community but also community members um across Mal so just wanted to share that that's all I have great thank you dror um Mr Blaker you have a presentation for us this evening yes just give me one moment to get it here okay there we go uh thank you very much for your patience while I was getting set up um tonight is going to be the second presentation for the the 2425 school year budget there will this is the first uh the second excuse me of four presentations we did one at our last meeting on March 6th where we uh introduced the preliminary budget that was sent down to the county office they have that now they're conducting their review of it at that meeting we spoke about some of the revenue sources and the ultimate tax impact that the prary budget has um on the township we'll spoke briefly about Debt Service and special revenue for tonight we're going to be discussing special education section of the budget as well as tuition benefit and operations and then we have uh agendas for the next two meetings as well April 17th we'll highlight a few other areas and then May 1st will be a summary of all the areas that we spoke about and on May 1st we'll also have the adoption of the final budget for the 2425 school year uh the first section for tonight that we're going to highlight and discuss is special education uh when we discuss special education it's a very broad area we're speaking about any out of District students who um attend either a private school for the disabled or another public school that has a um special ed program that we send to we're also discussing any relat exur services for both those that might be applicable for students outside of the district or inside of the district who are eligible for them uh special education we also cover the um the CST office as well as all case managers who manage the cases throughout the district we have our halfday preschool program at Len Meadows uh Elementary School self-contained classes prek through 12 um for the self-contained population and this includes the preschool um disabled program as well we have 59 students currently enrolled and in total the items that I discussed above represents about 19% of the entire proposed budget for next year the 24 25 school year in comparison to the overall operating budget uh digging a little bit deeper into the added District cost for added District tuition uh we currently we have 109 students who attend a tuition based School outside of Mawa of those 109 70 of them are special education students whose placements determined by uh IEP meetings with the case manager and the student and student's parents uh those placements can either be at a private school for the disabled uh could be at buron County Special Services one of their programs that they have throughout the county or could be as I mentioned before at another Public School uh here in the state that might have a program that is applicable to that student's needs we also in the total of 109 we have 39 regular education students so these are all high school age students who are attending either burn County Technical and vocational schools or the bur County acm's program uh within the 39 you are shared time with M so they're spending half the time at one of those schools and then they're uh being busted back to Mawa for the rest of the day and we also have two students the first time we've had this uh in some years we have two resident students who are attending a charter school um that is also uh uh part of the out addition costs for these tuition costs and I I want to point out this is for the tuition only this does not take into account any transportation uh we'll be speaking about Transportation costs at our next meeting on April 17th for the 2425 school year uh the budget for tuition is 6,296 922 uh moving along to the next section for this evening is employee benefits When M employee benefits again this could be a broad range of areas um speaks to any benefits that employee has contractually uh also Health prescription Dental any medical benefits that employees are um eligible for uh workman's compensation dues that we owe for workman's compensation uh fund Social Security pensions that the district is responsible for any pension payments that we make on behalf of our members this is for our pers members those who are non-certificated uh tuition reimbursement that is ELD for and then also payment for any accumulate sick time is all within the broad category of benefits uh for the 2425 budget the employee benefits section represents about 14.3% of the total operating budget or just under $ 11.5 million of that $1.5 million the largest uh piece of that are the medical benefits that our staff has uh health benefits for staff are provided through the state of New Jersey through the uh School employees health benefits plan the scbp within that plan uh eligible employees have four different um plans they can choose from it's either New Jersey direct 10 New Jersey direct 15 New Jersey education plan and the Garden State Plan uh from between the calendar year this um plan uh these medical benefits from the state they are on a calendar year so any premium increases we would see effect of January 1st when the calendar year rolls over so going from the calendar year 23 to Count calendar year 24 um each one of those plans did have a increase in premiums for this year New Jersey direct 1015 had a 99.3% increase Educators had a 1.3% increase and gate had 11.3 uh one one thing to point out here this is the first time in um several years that there has been a differentiation between what the percentage increase have been for each of the plans typically uh or previously I should say they would just pick one percentage they apply L to all plans this is the first year the state did something a little bit different where they um changed the what the percentage increased based on what the plan was and for these plans employees do make contributions to them as well this isn't fully funded by the district uh there is a contribution structure that employees make is based on a formula that comes from the state um and there's also some modification in Collective barians for some of the um contributions as well uh in addition to the health benefits that we just spoke about there's also prescription benefits for districts in Mawa they are offered a private prescription benefit plan through Ben card uh this not not through the state like health benefits uh and employees do contribute for the prescription benefits as well it's the same formula the same structure uh as they use for the health benefits and then Delta excuse me dental benefits is also a private plan done through Delta Dental uh there is no contribution by staff for dental benefits here in MA as I said that 11.5 million um number that I spoke earlier for all benefits in the district for the Nal c benefits only it's a little bit over $9 million or 11.4% of the total operating budget some of the other areas within the budget and um how they uh compare to the budget overall we have uh these refer to these are operation areas so we have instructional support curriculum guidance multimedia services and professional development um those combined represent about $4.5 million a little bit over just under 4.6 or 5.8% of budget uh School operations so this is each School their main offices um to operate each school is 2.7 million uh District Operations and Technology 3.2 million or 4.1% our maintenance custodial grounds and security areas that's a little bit over 7.2 million or 9.1% and then we have extracurricular and Athletics 1.75 million or 2.2% of the overall budget so those are the areas that uh I wanted to highlight for this evening's presentation again as I said we're going to have one more presentation where I'm in introducing some new areas of the budget on April 17th um I'm going to highlight enrollment in the district and how that has um changed over the years we're going to discuss Personnel capital outlay and transportation areas of the budget as well as some proposed summer projects that we have planned for the summer of 2024 and then once again as I said at the May first meeting that's where we will be having the final adoption of the budget for the 2425 school year any questions from the board Mr C um when it comes to healthcare benefits sorry uh when it comes to healthcare benefits you listed three or four different plans that our staff could uh choose from is there one plan that's more popular than another plan um the plans have been around for the longest which were the direct 10 and direct 15 I probably say that has the most enroll Le um I don't know if I'd say that it's more popular but it definitely has the most probably has been around the longest the other two PL the other two plans the uh New Jersey Educators plan and the g sa plan are both relatively new [Music] athletic director sectional award recipient for North one from the directors of Athletics Association of New Jersey and he was honored um last week in Atlantic City at their 63rd annual Awards dinner program so congratulations to Roger for that honor uh the second piece you'll notice um and as I announced at our last board meeting we are in the midst of hiring season so we are very excited that we have uh three new hires already on this evening's board agenda for uh recommendation for appointment at Ma High School Grand po Ridge and George Washington School for next school year so we're really excited uh we're really lucky to have them and then we also have three retirements so agenda items 19a 19B and 19 C uh we have uh three veterans that will be missed so the first is Miss Debbie Ben venudo she served as a teacher in malwa for over two decades in Betsy Ross School Len Meadow School and most recently George Washington Debbie is passionate about special education and using her creativity to plan Hands-On multisensory lessons uh has always been her specialty being a team player Debbie will stop at nothing to get the job done whether engineering a solution and building it herself or simply dancing to get her students to smile and feel welcomed in retirement Debbie looks forward to spending more time with her sons Anthony and Dennis uh she looks forward to doing more gardening and she will continue to follow her passion of teaching in other unique ways long after Mawa so we wish Debbie all of the best um every year we have a retire celebration uh we plan to uh keep that Legacy alive in uh our board meeting in June our next retiree to announce is Miss Megan Monahan she's been an educator for 31 years 28 of those teaching years have been in MAA um Meg has started out at rampo Ridge Middle School in 1996 before moving to MAA High School to take over our self-contained program since then Meg has spent the majority of her career as an English language arts special education teacher at the high school in addition to teaching Meg served as softball and cheer coach as well as transition coordinator for structured learning experiences at the high school in Miss Monahan's retirement she's looking forward to spending time with her family specifically uh Meg loves watching her nieces and nephews play La Cross uh and she uh looks forward to visiting the Outer Banks more than she already does uh she also looks to work with uh preservice teachers in her retirement as well and last but certainly not least uh JK uh shared that they were humbled in assisting me write this goodbye message to Miss Carol Murphy who is the school social worker um in our district for over 25 years of her career uh in that time Mrs Murphy was has brought energy and advoc ay to our child study team with an innate ability to step in and support in whatever way needed her P passion for connecting with families and the report she has with students is evidence of one of her greatest gifts her heart her office is known as a safe haven for both students and staff Carol has shown an unwavering dedication in her role as a social worker for Mawa Township Public Schools we're going to miss her presence and the wisdom she has shared to positively influence the lives of her students families and colleagues we want to congratulate Miss Murphy though on her retirement and wish her well as she moves on to spend more quality time with her family and grandchildren in the years to come so uh we wish Carol Meg and Debbie all the best thank you very much thank you um I have a brief report this evening um Mr Pascal uh was proud to announce that a member of the class of 2024 has been designated a national merit scholarship finalist merik T sharp is a recipient of this honor Merrick has been named as a member of the top 16,000 students from the original pool of 1.5 million Juniors who took the PSAT in 2022 the National Merit Scholarship program has now determined that 16,000 semi-finalists uh have met all requirements to advance to finalist standing in the competition congratulations to mer on the this wonderful achievement uh and happy Easter to all and uh enjoy spring break and the extra snow day that will be voted on this evening um and that's my report um do we have a committee reports this evening Mr coflin sorry uh Transportation committee met uh I guess it was last week and just two highlights from the meeting um the waiver process is underway uh we've received a good handful of waivers and basically what a waiver is for those that don't know is you're waving uh busing for your for your child uh because you don't need you're eligible for it but you're telling the district that hey my child will never use the bus or doesn't need the bus at this time uh take them off the list um we don't need it right now now you do have the option of saying hey we need it and you can come back into the program at a later date but right now you're saying hey we don't need it so miss spin has been receiving waivers uh the waivers posted on the website principes will be sending it out as well it's part of the kindergarten Pro uh packet so we are we're trying really hard to get it out there so the public understands what it is and that it is an option because at the end of the day it will help our bus routes to uh better service to students that are using the buses um lastly sorry just my notes um a couple years ago the district started sending out courtesy letters to Fifth and eighth grade families uh for those families that will be not eligible for busing once they move up to sixth and nth grades um in the past that wasn't done and there was some confusion when uh the teacher assignments in August were sent out and uh parents had to log in the real time and we're surprised that they didn't get busing so uh courtesy letters will be going out I think May or June um to those families who will not be eligible uh in the next school year for those buses for the bus rout so for those families keep an eye out um and that's all I have foration thank you Mr do have other committee reports M daver just wanted to like fill everybody in on the first T talk that we had the round table um as Dr T mentioned we had it about two weeks ago there was probably like 20 25 people who came in attendance and I think personally it was wildly successful um there's something to be said about being in a very informal setting um it's just a conversation and and you know as much as we love um when people come out to board meetings and we want you to continue coming to board meetings they're very informational it could be intimidating um I think to stand up at the mic and talk and all 12 of us are just kind of like staring at you um so there's something really nice about coming to a round table you're in a big open room and you can really talk about anything um I appreciate how Dr Doro Dr per kicked it off we talked a little bit about what we're working on talk a little about strategic planning so we're going to go into the next cycle um the next cycle that next year and then just kind of open the floor to like what are your thoughts um it was really nice to see a very good mix of schools there um so they had children in all of the schools we had people who attended who don't have kids in the district yet um there was a gentleman there who spoke a lot you know my daughter's really young she'll be in the district in a couple years but I really wanted to come and see what this was all about um and that's really important also like making sure that we're putting the word out there that it's really open to the entire Community doesn't matter you have students um we just want the entire Community to be able to come out um I think there was a lot of really good positive feedback uh we talked a lot about a lot of great things that we're doing and we talked a lot about things that we can definitely work on we talk about it all the time like we're doing great things and there's always room for improvement so that feedback I think is really helpful it was just really good spirited dialogue you know we talked about everything from school rankings to transportation to extracurriculars um we're there for a little over 2 hours I think which I think is a decent amount of time and I'm really looking forward to the second one I also just like a big shout out to the entire administrative team um everyone was there so Mr Baker and Dr bino and Miss Rizo like everyone came out to really be receptive to what was being said so I really appreciate the time um because it was definitely a late night for all of us and as Dr tro said the RSVPs are open for the next one I'm really excited about it um I'm hoping that we'll have even more people come out to talk to us and to hang out and it'll be kind of wrapping up the school year so it's a really good opportunity to come and just kind of voice have your voice heard um so again I really appreciate you guys putting the work in to make sure that this event can happen and I'm I'm looking forward to more in the future thank you very much and I'm glad it was a great success um Mr gall sorry I have uh two brief reports um first from finance and Facilities um we received further uh word that the hbac project that we've undertaken at GW will be further delayed so our expectation was that we were able wouldn't be able to use the new air conditioning system in the fall that is unlikely to happen unless there's some miracle with both equipment and cooperation our utility um on a more positive note we are continuing the the tradition of shared services with our Township on a Paving project and I believe that bid is opening next week sometime on the second down yeah so it's coming up and we'll hopefully have again a productive partnership before we go in next I want to clarify that we will have air conditioning oh we will have air conditioning it's just a new it's just a new air conditioning system so the old air conditioning system will do a perfectly fine job but we've spent a small fortune on air conditioning that because of supply chain issues and I can't say many positive things about our utility but um uh has prevented us from using the new system there will be our thank um there are four items on the agenda tonight that are related to facilities uh 18cc which is for wireless uh lighting control system at the the stadium at the high school School a renewal uh 18z for pomptonian uh Food Services for an annual renewal um 18t of a big shout out to msf for raising money for Grants the uh the msf grants are an 18t and 18u is a renewal of our realtime uh information system which we use for uh many many functions in the district um quick uh report on negotiations um we continue to have dialogue with all our groups uh we anticipate that there will be two items on an April Agenda One related to uh let's call it old business with our agreement with the mea uh and then another agreement hopefully in place um by April 17th and that leav one have tangling a little bit but that's my report thank you very much Mr Gallow do we have any other reports this evening okay um quickly from instruction and curriculum and special education um um we met our March uh meeting early March um one of the things that um we discussed um Lisa Rizzo came and spoke to us about the New Jersey Department of Education um monitoring uh that they will be doing of our child study team uh now IEPs which stands for individualized Education plans will be monitored uh on the state level every six years and uh we will be up for that monitoring soon areas that they look at and review are least restrictive environment IEP components IEP implementation evaluation process age 16 transition discipline restraint and seclusion uh there's a tier one uh desk monitoring um and that's evaluation of specific cases and hopefully we don't get to a tier two which is some on-site monitoring so hopefully we get through tier one with flying colors uh and don't get to adhere to but that's something uh that we need to know is happening uh the other um um information that was shared um was regarding our learning management system called aludo um Mr cman am I saying pronouncing it properly um came to share with us that this is basically a platform um to meet State mandated training requirements and it provides a personalized um p professional development for teachers and offers comprehensive like data analytics so it's it's really a a platform where we can store all the professional development um and it can also we can upload the MAA generated videos that teachers do supervisors do um and it will be used for you know multiple purposes new teacher orientation um State mandated trainings coaching uh generate uh professional development days District policies scop training Etc um and it will be rolled out with the state mandated trainings um so there is a cost to that in the first year um of about 25,000 approximately and then subsequent years it's about 13 to 15,000 for this uh platform but it will be very user friendly it will allow our teachers and supervisors um to go directly to one place um we've had multiple different systems but this is trying to streamline and be more efficient so uh that's all I have for my report uh do we have board member remarks um this evening Mr DVA just want to give a quick plug for the thunder bird partnership program I had I had last uh last Wednesday I got to visit Miss boger's AP ADV or AP government politics class and talk a little bit about um my experience with lobbying and advocacy in Washington and and in Trenton and you know the the it was I think it it's an interesting topic the kids had a lot of really great questions there were some great conversation um it was a really cool experience I know pretty much everybody on the board has has thrown your your hat in there as a as a a volunteer you know to into the into the pool there I would say to the public you know if this is open to everybody you know go up on on the website and and you can put your information in there and it goes into a pool kind of what your you know area of expertise might be and the teachers can go in and take a look and see you know if they have something coming up that um that they might be able to invite somebody into the class and it really kind of you know it goes you know from outside of just you know a conversation in the class when you have somebody come in and actually you know kind of brings that to life so it was it was a great opportunity um I'm glad that I did it I hope I W inv it back just awesome opportunity that's did you get your reviews Mr D no I Haven got the reviews I'm sure you did very well that's interesting and it's actually a different part of like what you do right I mean you have an entrepreneurial business but it's interesting that you were talking about government and policy and stuff that's it's well having a you know owning a a business lately you're you know constantly under attack it feels like and you know you have to take an an an active role in in you know defending what you built and and really you know a lot of what we talked about in class was education for the people who you know who who make the laws that that we have to abide by a lot of times they have no idea like what the actual practical application of this is going to be so a lot of you know advocacy is really education you know we see it all the time with stuff that comes down from Trenton we look at it we like what were they thinking they really you know think that what they put forth is really well thought out and and you know they don't have it's not possible to have every experience to know everything for all the things that you touch so that's you know that that was a lot of the the conversation we have thank you any other Mr pin just two really quick things uh first of all I want want to give a big shout out to the high school and ridge drama programs um lelay Miz and Beauty and the Beast JR were absolutely amazing uh congratulations to Mr Na and Miss Walter and all the staff that was involved uh they prepared the students uh very very well then when the students took the stage uh they absolutely killed it um I heard one night at the high school I think they broke attendance records uh for Miz um I don't think they sold out but they had a lot of people in every single performance I think I was there three or four of them um they were very very well attended and um not to you know doing anything to the class of 93 but I heard that this was the best musical ever produced in so sorry um just saying I think that's since they've been keeping records and they started after startor '94 you want to see a great eighth grade show just see r r Greece from 1988 Google it yeah it's actually on YouTube J pretty good it was very good uh also just want to personally give a big thank you to M FY and Mr Pascal for those that don't know the junior prom is last week it was originally scheduled to be held at L Lake Hilton and about a month and a half two months ago they shut their doors uh leaving our Juniors with no place to go and Miss F Mr Pascal I'm sure I'm missing other people so I apologize so everyone who was involved uh they jumped through hoops um and they found uh the crown PL in suffering to um to you know find alternative location and it turned out really really well kids had a great time uh so just a big thank you to them for all their extra effort and uh and work to make sure that was a very special night for the kids thank you Mr Copan any other board member remarks Mr Hughes so a couple weeks ago I met with Dr pavino and Nikki vanz to discuss the Civics curriculum that we provide here in the ma School District conversation as I mentioned in late January I believe that was the meeting uh so Governor Murphy he laid out a proposal in his State of the State address on January 9th to include 16-year-olds to be eligible to vote in local elections specifically for of vet elections and just like any other you know government rule it doesn't stay for one thing it obviously always evolves so I just wanted to make sure that MAA had a very uh a strong curriculum when it came to Civics education to make sure that Ma is going to have the most prepared kids if uh if this if 16-year-olds are able to to go to The Ballot Box at some point although I disagree with that uh I do think that we should be making sure that the MAA kids are as prepared as they should be or can be and informed as they can be uh should they be eligible to go to The Ballot Box so we discuss at every single level what the Civics curriculum looks like uh we also discuss ways to enhance it including for 16 17 18yar olds positions especially for 18-year-olds that they can actively run for right outside of uh high school or even when they're 18 years old to be a representative we also talked about another spot that we can enhance is more in instruction on your state and local government a lot of times especially for example County races a lot of times your county races are overlooked or many people just don't quite understand uh what those County positions do so we did have a conversation how we can enhance the curriculum for state and local government great thank Mr Chris we're going to see 16y old voting in 24 you know I don't know if we're going to see him vote in 24 I don't I haven't seen anything on the agenda in Trenton but I wouldn't be surprised you know very often there's always last minute bills that are submitted in Trenton committee so I'm always have my eyes out to see those last minute bills that are submitted but I haven't seen anything yet and you know to Rick's point about Trenton too you they may they may think that they have or they think they're doing the best they can for citizens but very often they make life a little bit more difficult or maybe are on the wrong track all right thank you very much let's go on to Old business uh our minutes from March 6 2024 made a motion Mr Gallow second by Miss Jansen Mr bleer okay thank you Mr Galla yes Mr Hughes yes Mr kzar yes M Jansen yes Mr copin yes M Deano yes Mr dilva ab and Dr morthy yes all right let's move on to new business uh and take a to CC any the motion uh Mr kmari second by Mr copin Mr Blaker Mr Galla yes Mr Hughes yes Mr korski yes M Jansen yes Mr copin yes and thank you to the msf for the grant money M davano yes Mr D Silva yes and Dr morthy yes um now let's take uh new business 19 a b and c we'll take those separately as our retirements I totaled up that's like a total of 79 years of um you know dedication uh to our district in in total that's pretty amazing so um we wish uh them all well and uh Happy retirement um I need a motion for Mr Gallow second by Mr Hughes uh so Mr Blaker 19 a b and c Mr Galla yes and congratulations on your retirements Mr Hughes yes Mr korski yes Miss Jensen yes Mr copin yes Mr Deo yes Mr D Silva yeah I'd like to you know wish those uh our three retirees on this agenda a long happy healthy retirement like uh Dr morthy said this is almost 80 years of experience that's uh that that were there're big shoes to fill and I I I missed the last meeting also want to throw you know Miss Walter in on that where we're running out of teachers Ben that were here when we were I noticed you know what that means yeah I'm getting old so congratulations um to those folks and uh wish you well thank you and uh lastly Dr Mory yes all right and then now we'll take 19 D to GG need a motion uh Mr Gallow second by Mr coplan uh Mr Mr Gallen yes and thank you Denis for keeping so busy Mr Hughes yes and big shout out to Brian Apollo for being out here for assistant boys lacrosse coach Mr kmari yes M Jansen yes Mr Copy yes M deero yes Mr dilva yes and Dr morthy yes all right let's move on to public questions and comment public participation at board meetings is in accordance with bylaw 016 7 at this time members of the public may ask questions or make a comment on educational issues or School matters of community interest as a matter of fairness you're asked to limit your questions to no more than one and your remarks to no longer than three minutes if you're are here representing a group please identify yourself the group and your position in the group if you're here as an individual please give us your name and address the section of public participation will be limited to 15 minutes um I need a motion to open the me meeting to the public Mr dilva second by Mr Hughes okay we are officially open to the public good evening my name is Danielle I've have written my can you guys hear me yeah um I've written my last name and street address on the form thank you I have two children that attended School in the nap JK and the Ridge and speaking tonight about a sensitive and personal topic this topic may be against the popular views of the general public does anybody know what the acronym OG o sorry o r o g d stands for Rapid onset gender dysphoria this term was coined by Dr Litman a physician scientist who studied at ymj in Mount s in 2018 she published her research on the topic which has been peer-reviewed in her research she discusses elements of peer contagion and cultural enthusiasm fads craze which have infiltrated pubescent children's lives through all types of social media she also discusses the impact Co had in this Arena I bring this up because this is a real phenomenon that can sometimes be connected with underlying mental health issues that that are affecting our children I am not prejudiced or have any ill will to any adult who live their lives as another gender I do however feel that we should not affirm any particular way of thinking within the school setting and leave these very personal decisions to the family unit instead of a policy of Secrets I encourage a policy of open communication with the parents students and school I had to sign parental notes to allow my child to watch a PG movie in a class or sign field trip forms to allow my child to attend an outside school event these signatures account for my notification and consent I was also notified that my child kept wearing a hat in the classroom and had received a few lunch detentions if we need to inform parents of these simple things why do we not have to inform them that their child may want to change their gender name pronouns or why do these policies get the determined to line and why are they inconsistent I would like to think I speak for the majority of parents that we want our children to be happy healthy and safe we try to do what's in their best interest but we trust our gut when we know that something is off if parents don't have the visibility to what's happening in the school where their kids spend 2, 1884 hours per year and where other adults are guiding them during this period of Time how can we make the best and most informed decisions for them I urge the board to revise 5756 gender identity and expression policy and work with parents to provide open communication about their children communication is imperative in resolving conflict this policy had Dental detrimental effects on my family it was gut-wrenching to see my child's struggle with the Fallout from school staff providing different guidance than our family many heartbreaking issues ensued it exacerbated underlying mental health issues and fed a delusion that was not real if I would have known when these adults in the school had started calling my child by a different gender name I would have had a better idea when certain issues arose my child is not transgender and has no previous history because of this I have chosen to remove my children from the model public school system as a single working mom I moved to this town because of the Great Schools now I travel many miles a day outside of town to ensure my children have an amazing private education and support system where the school administ is on the same page as the parents my kids are now thriving and healthy I'm thankful I can afford these luxuries where I know many others may not be able to again it is my opinion that parents should have the full choice to guide their children through erratic and emotional adolescent stages the way they see fit parents have the full history of their child's social emotional behavioral spiritual and physical health and know their child's best the more information we have the better thank [Applause] you thank thank you very much for your comment good evening can you hear me yes sorry mess all my name is Beth Manzel I'm on Walnut Street West I wrote it down here I come to you as a proud longtime MAA resident having grown up here I am also a teacher at pasak Hills High School for the past 19 years and most importantly a parent to two young children Giana and fourth grade at JK and Anthony in second grade at George Washington I stand before you tonight on behalf of many Mawa parents with a deep concern that affects the very Foundation of our educational system class size when this issue came to our attention this past fall it started with the possibility that our current second graders at GW would not be granted the third section of third grade like many other classes before them had our grade currently has the largest class size in the school with 23 General ed students and up to 26 with other students coming in and out throughout the day and week plus Paris that is a lot of people in one room in speaking with other parents across the district we have learned that GW is the only Elementary School with two sections of second grade and that our schools are very crowded as Educators administrators and parents it is our duty to ensure that every student receives the attention resources and support they need to thrive academically and personally yet the issue of large class sizes threatens to compromise the quality of Education our children are receiving as we have heard from administrators this is a numbers gain but our children are more than just a number filling a desk to max out the quota it's about what is best for the students and great as a whole the detrimental effects of large class sizes on student learning are well documented research consistently shows that smaller class sizes lead to better academic outcomes increase student engagement and improve behavior in the classroom when classes are overcrowded teachers struggle to meet the diverse needs of their students and individualized attention becomes a scarce commodity as a result some students inevitably fall through the cracks their potential cycled by an environment that simply cannot accommodate their unique learning Styles and needs having an appropriately sized class allows teachers to employ important teaching strategies that help our students learn smaller classes also let teachers work closely with the adults at home to improve School Community involvement strategies teacher morale therefore improves teachers in small classes can devote more time to individualized attention engage in more time on task instruction and identify precisely and early those student learning problems that can be remediated before a student falls too far behind across the district we have seen more and more students struggling with regulating emotions and other executive functioning skills small class sizes allow teachers to attend to the emotional needs of students in a safe environment while still attending to the academic needs of all students student behavior and achievement benefit from improved classroom environments as a teacher I can tell you that we already are stressed with meeting the ongoing demands of our educational system classes maxed out is only burning teachers out faster continuing down this path and you will see many talented teachers leave or retire earlier than in years past by taking proactive measures to reduce class sizes and enhance the quality of Education in our schools We Lay the foundation for a brighter future for generations to come thank you for your time and consideration thank [Applause] you thank you Miss V I think Dr Goro had a Miss man thank you so much for taking the time to to to write that let me just give you a little bit of context um I appreciate all of your points and you're absolutely correct um along the lines of the second grade uh class at GW um the issue that we had this year you're absolutely right it's a 23 right now um along the lines of the 26 that's uh due to we have students coming in for special classes art PE music and things like that you're right P do come with them uh the year during the year I'm sorry in the beginning of the year we started with 21 we had movein that then increased it to 23 to speak to the numbers game and I don't want it to be so impersonal the only piece that I can speak to with the numbers game and I I hate that term is being a part of Betsy Ross and GW it's a it's a it's a really nice small school field but with that sometimes comes a challenge of when we have movein unlike schools that have larger sections it does make a bigger impact on the class sizes as opposed to when you go to JK and you have a move in in fourth or fifth grade and you have nine or 10 sections you're able to distribute it across and that and the population doesn't increase as much what I can tell you uh when the number did hit 23 I believe in January um Miss Kachi is constantly advocating for your school and I greatly appreciate that she's always looking at what the class sizes are and what she can do differently understanding that it happened mid year um what she was able to do was bring in a par or two during coure time to bring down that student and teacher ratio now I'm not going to sit here and say that is the fix but I'm saying mid year we're going to do everything we can to address it to allow for the best instructional model possible along the lines of being a districtwide concern it is not um what I am happy to report is across the district every single year what we do is we look at um forecasting for next year what the current enrollment is how many sections there are that's what we're currently doing right now and we're identifying areas that could be at that higher level 23 24 and that's not what we want and I agree with you so at this time we're working collectively to make sure that we're addressing the situation I don't know who told you in February that we're not open to opening that se SE next year I'm sorry that you got that information that's not correct um we are absolutely open to it we're looking at all the different aspects of Staffing for next year I can't sit here and guarantee anything at this point because the budget has not been completely presented but I do want you to know it's absolutely at the Forefront of our Focus uh thank you very much yeah just a quick question on on the class as so do we have a situation with coming in or other professionals to come in to help with the class as well I'm just speaking from when I oh okay perfect because I just remember or professional okay seeing no one else coming forward at the moment uh I need a motion to um close the meeting to the public Mr copin and second by Mr Hughes all right we do now require another executive session so I need a motion to adjourn Mr dilva and second by Mr F Mar thank you everyone have a good night