you can uh take us out of the practice session and Dr Mory just one moment and then we can begin Dr Mor we ready to begin when you are all right good evening everyone this meeting of the MAA board of education is open to members of the public to be phys 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 the webinar ID for this meeting is 897 2277 5387 and the required password is 823 662 right I call this meeting to order roll call please Mr bler Mr D Silva here Mr Denise here Mr Galla here Mr Hughes here Mr karski here M Jansen Mr coplin here miss davano here and Dr Mor here and we do not have the student represent evening okay uh adequate notice of agenda of this meeting has been provided to the Ridgewood news and the record specifying that the MAA Board of Education will meet on February 15 2024 in the administrative office of 60 Ridge Road MAA New Jersey a copy was filed with the Township Clerk uh our salute to the flag Miss davan would you leave us please flag un States of America and to theic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with and all all right uh this evening we do require an executive session in the beginning so I need a motion to recess uh Mr bisari second by Mr Denise do we have an approximate time Mr five minutes okay just about five 5 to 10 minutes all right we'll be back thank you start [Music] they just me they're me it's going to be part of my update a I'll I'll do a little teaser and then you can bring it home or trist maybe your report just got shorter I'm there I'm a full okay I wasn't going to all right um thank you for waiting all right let's uh we need a motion to reconvene to public Action meeting Mr Hughes second by Mr J Silva all right agenda questions please limit your questions at this time resolutions under new business in this agenda 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 are here representing a group please identify yourself the group and the position in the group if you're here as an individual please give us 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 I need a motion to open the meeting to the public Mr Dallas second my Mr cin okay we are officially open to the public all right seeing no one coming forward at this time motion to close the meeting to the public Mr kmari second by Mr Hughes all right I don't think we have a MAA student representative this evening so let us move on to superintendent report Dr dor thank you very much there are a couple things that I wanted to Spotlight before our presentations we have two um I want to start off by thanking buildings and grounds for the snow cleanup I know there was a lot that was dumped on us last uh on Monday night and Tuesday it was nice that we were able to get a nice snow day for students staff and our families um so we have a couple left hopefully we can be very strategic in embeding them into the school year um something I wanted to share with the board and the community we have this poster for our upcoming performance of lay Miz for our high school um that is coming up in March um I tickets are on sale now um if you guys are interested so we have a number of present uh performances starting with our senior citizen performance that'll be posted in the schools as well as in central office um update on our Sports programs uh I just want to say congratulations to our middle School sports teams they had great Seasons unfortunately we lost in the second round of playoffs both boys and girls but I'm really proud of our athletes and our coaches thank you for everyone coming out and supporting our teams on a positive note our high school girls basketball team last week won the league title for basketball is a first time since 2016 and both the boys and girls basketball teams are starting the State Playoff run so good luck to both of those teams we've been talking a lot about communication uh we've been talking about it through our strategic plan we talked about it through our Equity audit and most recently we talked about it through our district goals we met with our community relations committee so thank you so much for the committee members and their feedback we are starting a new Roundtable series it's called t- bird talks I don't want to step on uh Miss avo's toes I know she's going to talk about it during her report but just a brief summary of this this is going to be an opportunity for both Dr and far Dr far and I to go to different parts of our district open it up to our community invite them in we get a chance to talk about the things that are happening within our district and most importantly hear from our our community to see how the school year is going some points of praise and some things that we need to focus on so we're looking forward to that series starting everyone I believe at your table should have a flyer at your table if not this is going to be emailed out tomorrow to our Comm Community introducing the round table event that's going to start on March the 12th it's going to be an RSVP just so we can make sure that we have enough seating for everyone and the very first one will take place at rampo Ridge Middle School library media center so we're excited about that for sure um our first of two presentations this one is brief the other one will be a little bit more comprehensive this is just for everyone who is new on the de um this we are obligated by the state to report out to our board and our community specific to our student saf data system do you have um as you can see there are very specific incidences that we have to report out this is not inclusive of the day-to-day conflicts that we might work through with students but these are the more significant incidences that we might have throughout the year we're obligated to do this twice a year so this is our first reporting Cy cycle on the first first slide you'll see the number of incidences that we have I'll give you a minute to take a look and in my opinion um the most important piece is the next slide that talks about trainings and programs it's really important that as a school we talk about this often um that it's not just about teaching reading and writing it's about teaching the students the importance of safety the importance of respect the importance of being kind and being an all around well uh well-rounded human being so within our school we run a number of different trainings and programs that are specific to character development and respect as you can see on this slide it breaks out by school all the different programs and trainings that we have in place some questions that you might have is well what are those specific programs and trainings there's a laundry list of different programs and trainings but let me start with the trainings um for training uh this is more staff specific and there's some students involved as well we talked to them about our school safety teams we talked to them about school threat assessment um and those different protocols we have a climate and culture team meetings as well um and then we also have school safety drills that we take place along the lines of our trainings our programs that we have embedded into our schools K through 12 range from week of respect we have uh the responsive clashing curriculum that we just spoke about at the last meeting um we have spirit days we have team building days we have character education lessons that we do throughout the year we have student of the month celebrations that Spotlight students that exemplify what we're looking for in sound character um and there are a number of other programs embedded within those as well but I wanted to report this out to you as our board and share with you not only the incidences but more of the proactive measures that we have in place specific to building our students into well-rounded uh young adults this next presentation I I I thoroughly enjoy doing this both mid year and end of the year because it's an opportunity for us to showcase the work that's taking place in our district um for all of those who are new to this let me just give you a brief background of our strategic plan I've done this on a number of occasions but it's worth repeating um a number of years back back in 20 19 while we were building it we felt it was important as a collective group to bring together our community members our students our teachers um our administrative team to talk about what are the state of the district what are we doing well more importantly what are things that we need to do collectively to grow our district to take it to another level during that time we were able to identify specific themes which we're going to be talking about during this presentation and create goals that allow the entire District uh to work collectively ly towards those goals prior to this our schools were working extremely hard and had they had their individual goals but often times they would Splinter along the lines of where their work was focused we felt like to maximize growth and really build our students K through 12 we felt like the Strategic plan will allow us to do that um along the line we started on back in 2020 and this is going to be completed in 2025 so next year we're going to be um repeating that building process and we'll talk about that at another time but we've also been we've been tracking what we've done over time so the first couple slides we're going to talk about the progress 2020 to 2023 and then we're going to transition into what we're currently doing this year specific to achieving our strategic plan our strategic plan goals going into our work from 2020 to 2023 I think it's important and I'm not going to go chapter and verse read every single thing that's up there because we've talked about it but I think some things that are important to highlight and I'll start with curriculum and Dr far will take Community connections it's been um an ongoing Focus we are very proud of MAA high school and the different resources that they've had also the different um programs that they had in place but we felt it was really important to communicate those offerings to our district so over the past couple years not only have we been building course offerings we've also looked to embed different opportunities like our internship and externship opportunities we've been fully committed to connecting with different colleges around our community to build our dual enrollment offerings and and just to remind you those are opportunities for our students to take courses but also get college credit um and also we we feel it's extremely important that students who are not College Bound what are we doing to support them so building our relationships with trade schools and giving offerings for for those students as well um along the lines of of our work year to date um and I know we'll talk about this during our curriculum slide it's it's worth repeating qac was a massive lift now we did it this year along the lines of the audit but the preparation for qac started last year along the lines of gathering all of those artifacts looking at the curricula and doing all the things that are needed to present our district in the light that we wanted to be presented um something that's worth noting is the number of awards that we've gotten over the past three years we've talked time and time again that we're extremely proud of what Mawa has to offer but we also said the disconnect was how are we sharing our story how are we getting that work out to those that can appreciate even more so I'm really happy that we were able to Anchor into three different Awards over the past three years to identify what our school really does and what it offers and celebrate that last but certainly uh last but certainly not least I want to jump over PD because we talked about it at the last meeting the ntss work that we will talk about in the future slides did not start just this year that that initiative started two years back and we really anchored into it last year along the lines of understanding the value of knowing who our students are as Learners and individualizing our instruction for them to maximize their their growth as a learner so that work and creating that consistency K through 12 which is a huge lift to understand what what are our common practices K through 12 is extremely important and that work was done in the um in previous years and last but not least is our inrs manual um and our processes that's something that for all those who don't know if you have struggles whether it's academically or socially there are supports that we can put in place and this is not our students with IEPs these is our general ed students that they need some supports along the way to make sure that they can be successful we are standardizing that K through2 along the lines of what that meeting look looks like sounds like and feels like but also those supports that we can put in place K and over the course of the last three and a half years there's been as you can see a lot of overlap between curriculum and our community connections we've spoken a lot about our Thunderbird partnership program which we're really proud of um we've been a lot more thoughtful and intentional about our Partnerships as well as our parenty that we've been able to offer to our community uh We've increased our branding efforts across the district and Beyond uh our student Partnerships and our intentional transition experiences for our students and families has been um really key over the course of the last three years and we' had been more involved in our Communications with our ml families who have been moving into MAA uh through the uh talking points Communications tool the third frame connected to social emotional learning uh thank you to our Board of Education who have been gracious enough in supporting our addition of instructional coaches as well um as our coaches and our school counselors at the elementary level um we have Middle School sports now uh again and K5 Club offerings we've created and shared our parental brochure and we have our school-based thread assessment teams and students support down to teams as well and last but certainly not least Is our commitment to making sure that our facilities are top-notch across the K12 um schools something that's been driving this is our district audit that took place a number of years ago that was done by land land associates they were able to give us a comprehensive breakdown of all the different facilities that we have and create a priority list of things that needed to be um fixed updated replaced or enhanced um from that list uh the finance and Facilities team as well as the administrative team more collectively to start to create these different forecasts along the lines of how we can accomplish improving our district facilities without impacting the the the community specific to a tax impact we were able to accomplish all the things that you have on on this slide with without raising our taxes to do it we did it all within our operating budget so when you're looking at it and you see just some of the projects whether it's our roofs our Windows our HVAC um our grand stand our track all these things are massive projects that I'm really proud that we were able to accomplish over the past couple years because of the planning and the support from the board and our administrative team um so we'll get more into the granular piece of the facilities of what the work is this year but I wanted to Spotlight a lot of the the really the The Pride points that we have have specific to facilities and making sure that we have something that the kids and our community can be proud of so what we will now do is we will now present our update for the 2425 school year in terms of what our progress has been so Dr Rino our obviously our director of curriculum and instruction we we'll leave that piece uh good evening everybody so up on the board what you see is something that you have seen over over and over again these are our goal statements and I know it's really hard to read the fine print but I'm going to kind of summarize for you so that first bullet really has to do with just keeping our curriculum updated so it means keeping us aligned with standards and making sure that we're constantly looking at curriculum usually a curriculum cycle is about five years so we always want to be looking at curriculum to update and renew every five years so that's what that one is about that second bullet really talks about um having our kids be able to think globally and really a stretch Beyond just the classroom the third bullet really has to do with professional development and making sure that our teachers have all what they need to be successful the fourth bullet has to do with authentic learning and problem solving and having our students really think critically about what they're learning and how it applies to U the real world around them and then the last one has to do with uh postsecondary opportunities and Expos exposure through organiz ation um community community project so that really is really our um our our Parent Academy and then our th partnership program thank you so the next slide we talked a little bit about this last board meeting and then obviously Dr Doro just talked about it again qac all of our curriculum was updated renewed and you approved it last board meeting so that is a highlight for all of us but there are a couple pieces in there there's three of them that I really want to point out so International is something we talked about about bringing all of our community together and we were able to expand that this year we usually do 9 through 12 for our International night this year we did 6 through 12 and anybody that went it was just it was an amazing night um I said to Dr morphe that I had a Bindy on my head I had hen on my hands I was eating all kinds of different cultural food um and really just enjoying the night so if you didn't get to go to it this year we are looking to even expand it next year so that our elementary schools might have a chance to join um we're not sure but we really want to do that so we want to make sure that we have the space in order to hold everybody because this year we were really packed into the High School auditorium at or the cafetorium so that was a really great night another piece that we talked about last year was our Chinese our Mandarin course at the middle school that was new we created a seventh grade course this year obviously our seventh graders need to go somewhere so we have to create an eighth grade course we already have enrollment for that eighth grade course and seventh grade course um with enough kids we have about 18 seventh graders for next year that want to take um Chinese Mandarin and we have 27 for eighth grade and then the last uh Bullet at the bottom is also a really nice um moment to celebrate we talk a lot about um professional development and how to learn from outside presenters but we also can learn from inside and we see that with our January 29th day this is another way to do that vertical articulation in education means we literally learn from Talking up the scale and talking talking down the scale meaning our fifth grade teachers and fourth grade teachers talk to our sixth seventh and eighth grade teachers that's that vertically align that's the vertical articulation that we want and we've started doing that this year with our science our social studies and our Ela staff and they've been really really successful in looking at our programs the sequence of our programs and then aligning what resources we're using so we're not overusing the same resource but then we're also layering in um resources on top of each other that makes sense and ntss so New Jersey tier system of support we've been talking about this for two years um some of the bullets up here are just reminders we have data teams that run four times a year we just had them this week actually we are doing a really nice job at looking at tiered intervention in terms of what does everybody need what do some children need and what does one child need and that's that tiered pyramid that we're talking about we also have continued our training so just because we introduced it last year to our staff does not mean our training stops we actually had training this week on how to look at growth data so looking at a baseline data from September and looking at data in January February is really really important to say where have our students grown where do we all need to grow even more and where do some students need to be pushed just to make sure that we're supporting them in where they need and then the last bullet um this was something we did this year we're really proud of at Ropo Ridge Middle School we actually started to restructure our math lab and our lit Labs these are supports that are in place and we had a curriculum that went along with our math courses and our language courses this year we looked at um utilizing small groups in this specific course based off of the students I already scored and the deficit areas and strength areas that we saw within those reports and our teachers are utilizing those reports in this course which was a revamp for them so we're really proud of the work they're doing there this is the fun part you get to see our kiddos so on the left hand side this was a really fun event I got to go to we were making um wons in our seventh grade Chinese course so that was really fun we had a lot of parents that actually came in to volunteer and on the right side side there let me just I don't want to say the wrong the wrong group so this was on January 29th our PD day this was all of our staff and those are three children from our community problem solvers class and um with Mrs kena's help they actually taught our teachers a course on how to differentiate for ML Learners so that was a really really that was a pride for us we're really happy to present that and then these are our little guys at an elementary school on the left hand side all the big smiles they're learning how to code through Lego robotics and on the right hand side those children are learning how to write over pages and that is a big deal for our little guys in in elementary school and that means we get to expand our ideas from just a simple seed idea we call it meaning maybe you went on a roller coaster that was your little moment to explaining how you felt what um what what did you smell around you who was with you and you get to write over pages and they get to present it thank you Mr is going to share some information about where we are with social emotional learning so on the screen that you see before you are obviously our goal statements reg relative to social emotional learning and without going over them piece by piece I think we can say that our community in developing these goals was committed to ensuring that students had a sense of belonging and a place here in MAA Township Public Schools but on top of that that they also had um the emotional Readiness to encounter their academics with a wholehearted effort and we also found a way to include our faculty in that philosophy as well that we know that adults need to also be able to face the challenges of their day and feel emotionally supported throughout their work day so some highlights for the 2324 school year is um first and foremost our seal coaches we can't underscore or overscore enough the reality that we have individuals within each school who work together with their administrators in order to provide moments and opportunities that support their colleagues or are designed in order to to specifically support students so our seal coaches this year obviously are planning and supporting schoolwide activities um and through that we also developed at the end of last school year and I believe initiated this school year a job description specific to theal coaches bear in mind again that these are individuals who are actively either teaching or intervening throughout the school day in a range of capacities we have regular teachers we have speech therapists we have all types of individuals general education special education teachers who are serving as seal coaches in their buildings they also created a parent brochure which was mentioned earlier we also are in the process of creating a teacher handbook with resources for applications ofal activities within the classrooms and we are looking to and continue to create a 2-year cohort series for new staff interested in the training um long supported by the board was an intervention through an outside consultant and supporting expert to train our staff and this is really the time where we're looking to our secl coaches to say you know what you're doing now begin the process of training perhaps novice individuals as well who haven't really partake in this experience before again through the generosity of the board we were able to hire two um school counselors and we have effectively integrated them not only in providing interventions as needed but in whole class and building wide experiences um with theal coaches as well we are using student support data teams in which we're looking at the Learners in addition to their academic needs what are their social emotional needs and in that also we are studying our student attendance and chronic absentee interventions if you had the opportunity to listen to the governor speak recently um chronic absenteeism is a national issue and it is a state um motivating issue and it is something that we are certainly looking at students who for whatever reason are missing greater than 18 school days in a school year um we're convening actually a meeting I think it's next week in which we're beginning the process to really analyze what are the issues and how can we intervene we have of course engaged in the Mandate and then Mawa turned it into a Mawa specialty our school-based threat assessment team meetings I have to say that um Dr deturo is working diligently with the staff that he's assigned to this team to be sure that we're perfecting this method so that we're intervening early we're intervening soon on students that may pose a threat obviously to themselves or to the um learning environment itself our schools and intervening appropriately on that and we are dedicated to um running that system with the same rigor that we do in all other type of meetings meaning our Hib meetings and our behavior intervention team meetings which are mentioned there as well so in each school we have individuals who have been identified as behavior intervention team members we call them bip team members and this was actually birthed out of what we recognized uh the federal government was saying to us in July with um they write to us letters called dear colleague letters which say basically dear colleague you better pay attention and one of them was around Behavior interventions because as a result of covid um and certainly not in our district but still worth paying attention to far too many young children kindergarteners first graders were in need of suspensions for whatever reason or dramatic interventions and the notion of the bip team was developed here in Mawa so that we could proactively address Behavior particularly of our younger students before it got to the Dilemma of and therefore you should not be in school one day so we're really trying to stay on top of that obviously International night was uh spoken about about and yes we are eager to have conversations about that prek through 12 experience uh we refer to it as Harmony day sometimes and international night obviously and we are brainstorming could it happen on the soccer field adjacent to central office um all of that type of good stuff going on we continue to offer Elementary School morning meetings schoolwide and classroom based again supported by oural coaches and our counselors and obviously our administ trors we are planning many experiences during mindful March be on the lookout for all of that information and lastly in many if not all of our K3 classrooms we created calming Corners where students um perhaps maybe an adult every once in a while can go to just take a calming break and uh reenter themselves to face the challenge of yet another day and here you can certainly enjoy some of the images relative to all of our social emotional learning um and if you happen to see an emoji over someone that's because we don't have consent to share the image of that student thank you Dr Fair thank you for that clarification yes sir our community connections frame uh focuses on providing students with real world experiences um such as internships externships and mentorships which we've been talking a lot about over the course of the last three and a half years um more intentionally supporting and guiding new families in our district engaging local experts to support our curricular programs and exploring how we can continue to assist our school's diverse Learners so uh 2324 uh thus far has been uh a really successful year for us our district team uh was able to present at school boards related to our Thunderbird partnership program uh we've been able to publish an article in a national magazine um related to the same topic and we've also submitted um a distinction application related to uh this program that is growing and uh we're really really proud about um our career Pathways continue to grow um and our uh 63f program has been branding them uh very successfully we've also updated our district website to be not only ADA Compliant but to more accurately reflect our program successes as we saw in December our staff highlights have been reinstated um so we're really excited about that we've presented regarding our inclusivity audit providing information on what our next steps will be in the district uh as per those recommendations uh we have students connecting across the district and we've been more intentional about what those connect ing experiences look like we will be initiating as droro announced our tber talk series which will be Roundtable discussions that announcement uh will be sent out tomorrow morning uh and there will be an RSVP attached to that flyer uh and in process of engaging a potential communications consultant uh to ever improve our Outreach efforts across the community just a few highlights that uh some of you may have seen on Twitter we've recently celebrated our mentors and internship externship participants where students also were able to Showcase their culminating Capstone projects on the left and uh we continue with our spelling be uh tradition over at JK and lastly uh our Habitat for Humanity snow angels continue to assist our senior citizens uh with our most recent uh storms maa's International night showcased our community's cultures and the hearts for Marcus campaign provide 127 Mawa high school students with preventative cardiac screenings and Mr bleer will uh present on our facilities uh as of the 2324 school year uh good evening everyone and thank you um our facilities goal statement as we have shared in the past is to there's a them all these to make sure that the or to uh reinforce the decisions that we're making when it comes to our facilities deciding where to utilize taxpayer dollars and how to they are um informed they are supported by uh evidence such as the land facility order they're supported by needs such as um things that we engage um obtain in doing surveys and speaking with the principles uh we and also with communication with the Board of Education the finance facilities committee as well um we're regularly evaluating our learning spaces and make sure they reflect the needs of curriculum not only now but in the future as well some of the things that we've been doing is having our ongoing discussions with the ministry of teams this is building off the land audit making sure that we're not only using that from several years ago when we first developed it but we're also updating it we're having regular meetings with the administrators to see items that we have been address that we can cross off the list and the work by Mr Romero and his team but also making sure that we're also updating it to include items that we may not have been aware of and thought of or taking into consideration previously uh want to make sure they're being added to our um uh forecast of projects for the future contining our work with the township this we did last year as well and we're doing it again this year uh specifically with work with them with our Paving every year we do uh some Paving throughout the district District last year we um decided to take a different approach work with the township who also does a large pavement project over the summer on their streets and the roads throughout the township seeing if we can add some of our Paving projects to that process and that bid um it worked really well last year we definitely feel like we saw some efficiencies not only in cost but in um um having it done timely and in coordination with our summer programs that we have uh we're looking to do that again this year as well working with the transportation ad hoc committee so this is something that started about two years ago really taking a look that as enrollment has uh changed throughout the district but much of our transportation has stayed uh for the most part the same take a look to see if there were any opportunities where we can find some efficiencies that didn't exist previously new ones that might exist now as um routes of changed as enrollment have changed and also as um parent and family um uh practice itic have changed with Transportation uh previously families may have had um busing was a a primary source of G students tun from school now with after school activities and things of that nature there might be more benefits to picking them up from school and transportation may not be needed seeing there's opportunities there so we've been Gathering bus ridership data we presented on that last year we're continuing to gather that data um ensuring that our routes are the most efficient that we can be we were able to eliminate a couple routes at the beginning of this year to um um they still maintain a timely arrival and dismal for our students and also Tak a look at the different um specificities of MAA uh yes there are regulations and laws that we get from the state of New Jersey that we need to comply and meet but there's also specifics to MAA to our Township to the way our geography is here that might dictate what we uh what we can and can't do uh for transportation and lastly working with the um lastly on this slide working with the Board of Education uh facility committee to review our capital reserve total so we've been looking at this very closely over the last several years our capital reserve definitely has fluctuated um we um tapped into it several years ago very significantly when we uh did the renovation and addition to Mawa High School building the steam Edition uh We've also been able to build that back up a little bit and then we also um tapped into it recently doing the HBC project George Washington School the ma Grand stand and other replacement projects as well so still maintaining it at uh what we feel as a comfortable and healthy level to maintain some of our big projects going forward without having to um add to our our taxpayer dollars but make sure that they're being done informed and um um looking at it uh uh forward uh last thing here to mention is during last year there was a new opportunity that came up from the state uh this comes up every couple of years they uh have funding available was referred to as R grants so these are grants from the school Development Authority for regular operating districts uh we appli for uh several projects throughout the district and um very fortunate to be awarded um grants for these uh we're going to be taking a close look at these with the finance facilities Comm committee to see when is most appropriate to uh engage in any of these projects uh it includes a partial roof replacement at George Wasington Elementary School and M High School rooftop units at several schools Ridge High School and JK and then uh HBC replacement at Betsy Ross so this will be a complement to the hbac replacement that we're currently doing at George Washington School uh that we did last summer and is continuing uh the second phase of it this summer and just a few pictures to show here so on the left hand side those are when we uh refer to Rooftop units that's what they look like uh so these are often units that are supplying some of our larger spaces so the bottom left uh that's a rooftop unit at Joyce Kilmer school that one if not mistake and services the cafeteria uh area so that's larger spaces are usually served by rooftop unit um above that are different condensing units so those are the condensing units that are on top of um Joyce Kilmer school uh or I apologize gey Washington school so that helps to um will help to support the air condition functioning of the new hvbc system that we put in place there and then also on the right uh inside the building when we do some of these hbaa um systems and Renovations we do look for other opportunities one opportunity we saw when doing the George Washington uh hbac renovation was we took out on either side of the hbac unit uh we took out some of the storage and the shelving were there replac it with new storage and new shelving um to accommodate more of the uh classroom materials all this work as well as the previous work um our goal is to make sure that we were able to communicate all this to our community so we do have on our website the Strategic plan tab that you're able to see all of this work as it goes uh year over year um so please I ask everyone to visit that to see all of this information in one place um this is something that as I started the presentation I think it's worth repeating this is really a point of Pride for me because it it shows the collective effort of everyone here the teachers um the the administrative team the commitment from the board um to work together to U make sure that the additions the enhancements the adjustments of our current practice Alliance to what our ultimate goal is is to provide a great education to our students all of this while we're simultaneously teaching them on a day-to-day basis which is a a huge lift um but while we're doing all this it it it's my hope that you see that our district is moving in a great Direction um and it's something that we all can be proud of um there was a lot of work that we to share in this presentation uh there's still work to be done but this allows us to uh to stay true to the course so that is our midyear presentation thank any questions you want to talk a little bit about the next strategic plan a little just a little teaser for of those who were not involved in the first one let me kind of start from from the beginning I'll keep it brief um it's really important that the Strategic Bland showcases the values of all um and what I mean by that is it's an opportunity for everyone to come together and talk about these are the things that make us proud proud for being in MAA that's one because it's important to celebrate but it's also important to identify here are some things that need continued attention or growth so we come together as as a community a number of times and we share that information from that information We Gather it we start to identify themes that are present over the course of a number of different people sharing it it's not something I want to make sure that people are clear just because it is spoken about during those meetings doesn't mean that action is going to happen we really try to identify overall themes that allow us to move in the right direction once we identify those themes we start to look at what are logical goals that we can span over the next 5 years and do they align with our district Vision too um those goals are then created and then what happens after that is our administrative team takes a look and says how is this applicable to my school my students you know my clientele and we start to build out not only our district goals or our board goals aligned to our strategic plan it also allows us with the granular focus of within each school what does it look like sound like and feel like for them to move in that direction as well but what's most important which hopefully it's you able to see our commitment is to make sure that this is at the Forefront of our decision-making so anytime that decisions are made we take a look is this aligned to what our Collective commitments are um and then also we want to make sure that this doesn't get stale that we start it in year one and we don't talk about it until year five we want to make sure that each and every year there are checking points we have embedded now mid year and end of the year to say this is where our district is tracking thank you m no problem all right well uh thank you very much for that compreh ensive presentation from our administrative team um and uh dror your report I didn't might have had other things it's okay I mean um I I think for those of us who participated um in the strategic planning process from the beginning to see where it's come to the areas of growth um I I don't think honestly probably those who participated at that time recognized how much and how quickly uh you've moved forward in each area in really um you know identifying needs addressing needs and putting plans into place so I I mean I think it's it's wonderful to see it this way because it's also gives us a a very uh and I say comprehensive idea of what's happening and how quickly things are happening uh in this District so again Kudos uh to the entire team because there's a lot of uh effort that goes into this and keeping you know uh the goals in mind uh and moving Ma you know ahead uh and this District ahead it's it's really phenomenal so I think I can say on behalf of the board thank you uh for all your efforts and uh you know continuing to push forward we really do appreciate it uh any other questions comments on our strategic plan okay uh let's move on Dr um fa uh no sorry Mr bler do you have a report for us this evening okay yeah thank you lot a lot of reporting going on so but please um first thing I just want to uh Echo what Dr Doro said earlier regarding the um work of our builds of grounds andal team with most recent snowstorm uh the timing of this one uh definitely was a little bit better than some of the other ones we had plenty of time to to um prepare uh know the storm was coming and the timing of when it ended gave us plenty of time in the afternoon to make sure that our uh buildings and grounds were in good shape to open up again for school the following day so um thanks very much to uh them the custodians and also to the DPW uh whenever we have storm we're also communicating with them as well just to get updates on the road conditions how they are for um safe travel to and from our schools uh for both our parents and for our buses and our staff uh next thing I just want to mention is is the budget so this is a budget for the 24 25 school year uh at our next Board of Education meeting the March 6 meeting um we do intend to have our preliminary budget introduced at that time uh for those that uh may not recall the budget is done there's really two uh presentations or resolutions that the board takes to um uh one to introduce and second to adopt the budgets for the following year so this first one in March 6th is going to be just an introduction of the preliminary budget this allows us to send to the county office uh they will conduct their review as well also gives us time to review it amongst ourselves present the information to members of the public uh in advance of our final adoption so our final adoption of the budget right now based on our board meeting scheduled is scheduled for May 1st so May 1st will be the final adoption of the 2425 budget um once again and I say this every year uh what we introduced on um March 6 could always be adjusted if we need to uh between March 6th and May 1st so we are expecting that for the um for the next board meeting uh in between now and then one of the um drivers on the revenue side of the budget which is our state aid we do expect that to be released uh that should come out in the next week or two um from the state it was released to all um districts within the state at the same time and the last item to for me to share is the uh on tonight's agenda there is one um project listed that's to replace some gas piping at Ma High School it does uh require an adjustment to our long range facility plan because currently that project is not on there whenever we do a larger scale Capital project we do it to make sure it lines and is included on the long range facilities plan so both which resolutions are on tonight's agenda that's my report I thank you Mr Blaker uh Dr far do you have a report for us this evening yes I do um the first is uh another alumni highlight I wanted to share with everyone this was just recently uh posted on Twitter from uh one of our kindergarten teachers at George Washington School so Rachel Gilbert is a recent graduate of Mawa high school she has just published her first children's book last in the Box a crayons Journey published by luminer press uh Rachel is currently an education major at the University of Delaware the book's premise revolves around every crayon and every child having value and purpose in fact this book was inspired by High School assignment for her education as a career class to which Rachel thanks her MAA teachers and this course for being the impetus to this project being published just want to just read you a sentence um she says this book was inspired by a high school assignment for her education as a career class and in the front she thanks her family and the wonderful staff of the MAA School District so we've ordered a copy of Rachel's children's book for each of our elementary schools and we'll have a copy for each of our board members in our meeting in March so that's that's really cool congratulations Rachel uh the second piece uh we uh kindergarten registration is now open uh I know that we have sent out an email communication to our community um currently as of this morning we have 85 kindergarteners registered for the fall uh please spread the word so that we have as accurate account as soon as possible uh at your places um you'll see a flyer at our last board meeting droro announced our continued efforts in collaborating with rampo college right here in Mawa um on that flyer is the college's Thomas Edison Film Festival a special animation selection a curated program of amazing animations from around the world the young New Jersey animation showcase and finally the student anifest where area high schools and colleges share animation and celebration of local talent all are welcome to the event and lastly but certainly not least we have two retirements uh the first retirement is um listed under agenda item 18c uh coach Remo from Mawa High School um a physical education teacher and a Coach Jeff has dedicated his professional life to the students and athletes at Ma High School this 1978 graduate returned to Mawa as a physical education teacher and Coach the capacity he has carried out for the past 34 years coaching with 31 years of those being a physical education teacher at the high school Jeff has coached multiple Sports including softball football and baseball as the head coach Jeff is the only athletic coach in the history of the school to have earned a 100 career victories as the head coach of three different sports the programs that Jeff has led have seen great success in 19 1997 Jeff took over the football program where he would go on to guide the program to multiple League titles and two state championships at MetLife Stadium in 2015 and 2016 I think we all remember um that experience right it was cool in 2008 coach Remo took over the baseball program and immediately worked to capture a most unlikely State sectional championship and an appearance in the over state championship game as Mawa settled into its place as a consistent force in North Jersey baseball the Thunderbirds would capture numerous League titles as well as four state sectional championships three overall state finals and overall State Championship in 2012 through all wins and losses Mr Remo's Legacy will be in the relationship he has forged with the young men and women he has coached and the effect he has had on their lives after leaving MAA high school we wish Jeff nothing but great things in his retirement and lastly uh we have Miss Laura Bey who is a school psychologist at Mawa High School listed and announced under agenda item 18b Mrs Dei has been a school psychologist on our Mawa High School child study team for the past 26 years not only has Laura always been a Conant professional but her Focus has always been to assist her students those on her case load and Beyond her strong work ethic and solutions driven approach has been integral and assisting as a foundation of our high school child study team if anyone needs anything Laura will be the first to drop what she's doing to assist as a transition specialist Laura has provided valuable supports and assisting our district in finding various postsecondary options for our students that allow for all types of Learners to see their purpose Beyond ma High School whether that is through 2year college four-year College trade school or the workplace in fact Laura has been key in developing our high school self-contained craft store that has allowed for us students to use life skills in the school setting and Beyond also just as as an aside um when we started talking about connecting students with trade school responsibility uh opportunities after MAA High School I remember Laura being at the table in the meeting and getting teary eyy because this was a dream of hers uh to provide that opportunity to our kids so we will miss all that Laura has brought to this District she's been a champion for students and that will remain her Legacy as she continues into the next phase of her professional life when to ask Laura what she was planning on doing um she isn't quite sure but she knows that she's going to continue being an advocate for kids that's my report this evening thank you thank you thank you very much Dr far and that uh the book is seems very interesting so congratulations to student I look forward to uh seeing it um all right uh let's go oh thank you let there be light um all right so my report this evening uh first um hope everyone enjoyed their snow day and and and wonderful that we give an actual snow day so heard people baked right had hot chocolate cookies and all and played out in the snow um and also uh it was the beginning of Lunar New Year on the 10th of February so this is the year of the wood dragon and symbolizes a period of power wealth and transformation so you have some new entrepreneurial things maybe this is the year year of the wood Dragon um all right few things from I'm going to tell you the Twitter feed now I mean you can't keep up honestly it's on fire from the last meeting I like scrolled back to now there's just there's almost too much going on and wonderful wonderful stuff Kudos Kudos that's it's wonderful it's all good stuff Sports various activities so it's it's really good to see very heartwarming to see um I wanted to highlight a few things this is not all because it can't cover it all uh top staring Thunderbird I think they talked about that uh the student representative talked about that for January the student and I hope I'm going to pronounce this right do you know how to pronounce this young gentleman's last name yary look at that dror just Conor yary you just came out with that quickly K oh all right there you go 10th grader he was the student and the top scoring Thunderbird teacher for January was Heather Torino uh who's one of our business teachers so that's exciting um few things I wanted to highlight the girls bowling team you know we don't talk about some sports we don't always talk about it let's talk about the bowling team fifth place at the bcwca tournament uh among some of the best in Burton County um our student one of our uh students was student of the week uh this week uh Julia Gro am I saying that correctly a senior um and recognize this is in North jersey.com she's senior class president she's part of the National Honor Society uh three Sports uh soccer base basketball and Lacrosse teams uh and she's on the biom medicine uh research and Health Sciences pathway or biomed I should say uh so again congratulations to Julia um we had some um participants is this indoor tracking field the okay so we had several again several I mean so Sienna canberg a senior uh third straight 400 sectional Championship um she captured and also Michael singoli replacing in the varsity pole VA um and that qualified him for uh state championship which is I think coming up so and there's several other students who placed in shotput and different events so again check out our Twitter feed um our Academic Decathlon team took third place in the super quiz Team Trivia event at a regional competition and then they won 17 individual awards at the regional awards ceremony and they're going to the state finals in March um excellent um the mock trial team keeps winning I mean it's just we've got winners here in Mawa um just exciting so anyway that's what I had I mean just wonderful stuff so uh anyway I hope everyone had a very Happy Valentine's Day that's where our meeting is we mve to a Thursday for for a change so anyway hope everyone enjoyed uh and happy birthday and we're interfering with the birthday celebration of Mr D Silva tonight but thank you what dedication Mr jva thank you very much for being here let the record show exactly place I'd rather be oh my God I'm sure your family is excited to hear that thrilled thrilled yeah I was going to say your scoring big points aren't you uh all right let's move on to board committee reports M your the buttons a little hard hi friends you guys all thought I was so smart um super quick I just want to touch on what Dro and Dr Fair both spoke about with the tber talk series um so from a community relations committee standpoint we're very very excited um this is going to be a several part series so the first one that we're kicking off with will be March 12th at 6:30 it'll be at R Ridge um Dr T kind of spoke through this well it'll be in different places each time that we've hold the meeting because it just invites the community in um especially when you get down to the elementary level when not your parents may not be in bety Ross who may not be in GW so I think it's a good way to really bring the community together see all of the different schools um the spaces that we have just kind of Forge that connection um the first meeting doesn't have necessarily a theme we've been kind of picking around the thought of having themes for these T talks in the future like if you're going to come like this is kind of what we're going to specifically be talking about it was really important to all of us for this first one to just be an open Forum invite the community in it's not as formal I think as a board meeting feels um you can kind of sit you can talk you can come and really talk about anything uh the RSVP is not mandatory but it's good for us to have a head count of people who are going to come so that we make sure that we have space and seating but mandator mandator um however there is a piece in the RSV that you will fill out that's optional and it says is there something in specific that you would like to speak about I think it's nice that if there's something that you really want to have a conversation about if there's information that you're looking for kind of throw that in there just as a prep piece um so if you feel really strongly about something we not we I'll not be having the conversation um we want to have an open honest conversation with everybody want to be able to answer questions as best as we can so just you know a little bit of a heads up so that um there's preparation beforehand but pleas please join us um this is something that's good we've talked about for a while and it's nice that we've been able to come up with a system that makes sense and works for everyone um so yeah first one March 12th RP goes out tomorrow I'm excited for you guys just to see the logo like I've never been so impressed as when we saw this T bir talk series logos birds talk little like talk I like it and also be able to appreciate that it's our first you bird talk will take flight on Wednesday like that I like that um so that's it for me today I'm just really excited to take this stop and I'm hoping to see all of you in attendance um to do this with us thank you TR thank you very much I guess we have to determine if there's more than five of us present so M daver we will we will be there fully to support you as many as we can anything uh Mr coplin got two quick reports uh transportation we met on the 29th reviewed uh where we are um also wanted to give you some stats uh so far this school year excuse me uh 37% um ridership in the morning and 40% in the afternoon so that's our capacity capacity for the buses correct also um important email went out to about 330 students and their families today uh these were the families that on the first survey said that they are eligible for busing but do not use the bus so we're giving those families the option to waiver basically opt out of using our busing system uh that email went out today it's a PDF document that needs to be filled out signed and sent back to miss Spindler um it will be sent out to the entire community after this group of 330 receives it can digest it a little bit set it back in um just to highlight it's for next school year and uh if you want to wait opt out you have to do it every year so it's not something you're going to do now and it's going to follow your child through the whole District you'll have to do it every year uh and again these are for the families that are eligible for busing but opt not to use it for whatever reason they will have the opportunity to opt back in if s a c irance changes and they they do need busing uh that could happen at any time during the school year uh and Miss spner will work with the family to determine the best time frame bus stop all that stuff so um I think this is a great option I'm excited to see how many families do it I think I was the first one to send in my two waivers for my two kids because we don't use the busing but um so I'm excited to see what kind of response we get back and how more importantly how it will impact our transportation program we have no idea because we have no idea where the students live and how that's going to impact routes but as soon as we start getting some data back uh Miss spinler and Mr bleer will be able to review the routes and see how it'll directly impact it so it should be a good thing and I'm excited to see that see what happens uh the second report uh Janine asked me just to give a quick thing on the msf um there there stumpies fundraiser in February they had about 58 people it sounded like a great event uh they have an upcoming ladies night out on March 14th um and I think more information is either out or it's coming out I'm not sure it's out and the grant cycle is open until Friday so if you are a teacher or staff member in the building haven't sent them your Grant application please do so um and then just a gentle reminder that they're always looking for volunteers um the msf if you're not familiar with them supports all of our schools unlike the hsos which are specific to the individual school that they're in um so please reach out to anyone on the msf if you're interested in getting involved that's all I got thank you Mr cin should we just move around the the table Mr Gallow I have two uh reports one for negotiations and one for financi facilities um I'll start with negotiations we have started negotiating with our uh Association that represents our school supervisors and the association that represents our school administrators um we had a very productive conversation and we look forward to having further Dialogue on the 27th with both groups I'm very optimistic um that we will come to a fruitful conclusion quickly um on financial facilities Kyle set up an agenda that was enough for like six meetings but I will try to condense a little bit there are two items for action on um our tonight's uh agenda 18q and 18p 18q is related to uh 450 Chromebooks that will be leased for JK um uh this is um we've changed technology platforms and as a result there's also some savings involved in doing that switch over and at 18p we have a design award to land Associates to repipe the gas uh lines for the science rooms up at the high school that are currently copper line copper um pipes that are really no longer um allowed to be used um um doesn't present any immediate danger but we want to be in Code Compliance um couple of initiatives uh I guess I'll let me just talk briefly about the budget process Kyle wrote it up but there will be um a presentation on March 6th March 27th April 17th and apply one for the adoption so it's not just as though we go from the plary budget to the the goal line without further discussion review and presentation of all the elements of the budget which um Kyle will um present during those meetings um the so the budget process is well underway the initiatives that one of the initiatives that we've been particularly interested in the finan facilities committee is the ability for the district to utilize its cash resources to increase its interest earnings and in that regard we've been enormously successful and we're in good we have generated um a good amount of Interest well ahead of budget so that's a good wind for us um and uh then just reviewing some of our facility projects we continue to be stumped by our our ever helpful electric utility at GW we've been hearing for some some time now that our power will be upgraded at the facility so that we can turn on the air conditioning component of the hvc project there so we unfortunately bad news for the uh GW Community the air conditioning systems that they've been using for years will continue to get us through to the summer but we hope that the power upgrade will come in play and in September we can use our new hbac say are the air conditioning component of our HVAC system the the sort of a bad news project was we were wanted to do hbac at GW this year but and then follow it with a br uh project over at Betsy Ross but unfortunately the inflation we've seen in the cost of these projects has we laid our plans to do the Betsy r project this year even though we have some Rod grant money the district has to front the money as and Kyle said um we're very carefully monitoring our capital reserve resources and that project would have put us in a tilt position and we've deferred that uh for now but it it sort of illustrates uh a challenge that the district has um over the last number of years especially through the pandemic capital projects are getting increasingly more expensive our ability to refresh replenish the capital Reser account I've talked about this before is also somewhat diminished because of fixed cost challenges General inflation and despite all of the good work that our our team in the business office and the superintendent does to be mindful of our resources um sometimes we just can't get ahead um the overall picture of the district is we're very in a very good financial position um and as evidenced by the fact that we have a superintendent and a district team who's continuously putting the gas pedal down on continually improving the district without having to do crazy things on the finance side so that has been very stable and very promising and and effective for our students and for our taxpayers um but we are running into inflationary headwinds now our capital resources that um may require um further study of alternative funding sources so I just wanted to um highlight those things we had a very jam-packed meeting the reports two pages long and very small print please pay attention if you have any questions please reat so those are my two thank you very much um any other committee reports this evening Mr Hughes yes so on February 6th the Bergen County School boards Association they hosted their virtual meeting and the topic of discussion was how to build relationships and hostile environments so the special guest speaker was Vincent Delia couple things about Vincent so he has over 40 years of experience in education he was one of the first of 79 teachers to hold a national board certification he also served as mayor of South Brunswick and he is the SBA director of training professional development so a couple of the main talking points that Vincent was saying is whenever there's an issue or maybe a big project that is causing maybe some controversy or disagreements uh it's always good to just come together and have a little plan to make sure that everyone's voice is being heard and that the district is is creating a a bond a trust with the community so he said you know there's always multiple ways of achieving a goal everyone has different opinions that they can bring to the table different beliefs and it's very important that all these beliefs and opinions should be heard when discussing an issue or a project whatever it may be uh he also said that it's important to invite people from all sides so maybe if you have a town hall meeting maybe you just want to bring in different people from around the community to discuss what's going on to build some trust that's always a good thing yeah engage with everyone have consistent District updates on what's Happening maybe new social media posts and always come from a a non-judgment side you know never judge because everyone does have different opinions and it's always good just to come in with a clear mind and try to understand everyone's feelings on an issue uh he also mentioned to include discussions with outliers you know sometimes just loud voices on one side or another and is important when we are creating trust within the district to even speak with the outliers and like I said all the reasons for his talking points is just to create trust it's just to create a strong bond with the district to make sure that everyone's vo are being within a district and we can always have successful planning or successful uh projects in the district thank you thank you very much thank you for attending on our behalf um all right uh Mr James okay um so let me give you a quick update on instruction curriculum and special ed um this is from our January meeting um the uh we had some updates uh first uh Courtney carala did speak to us about International night so I'm very glad to see that it went off so well and it was a huge success um we also had U Mr Gada and Mr Pascal from the high school come and provide some guidance uh Department updates to us uh one of them being that um the guidance department is uh going to transition um from navian uh which we've been using for many years I know my two children used navian um to uh another uh similar program but better called score um and it seems that with Naviance they had some issues with kind of tech support uh the platform not being updated um and several Burton County Schools similar to ourselves have switched over um and Mr Gata indicated that the feedback uh is good so Rising seniors would remain on the current platform of Navi but uh they'll start transitioning 9th 10th and 11th graders uh to score one of the things that he highlighted with score is it has an app very interestingly and and positively for students to use um so that wasn't there with n and now they have an app on their phone uh parents and students can use this app to see for example when a school received transcripts for example um and so it's just just a bit more user friendly in the environment of cell phones and and everyone being more on their cell phone uh and having an app to look at these things uh the other big thing Navan costs us about $110,000 per year score costs us $2,700 per year so not only uh do we you know have uh a program that seems more user friendly and better it's less expensive for the district so a win-win as they say um the other thing that they spoke about uh was the robotics challenge for this year the 2024 challenge it's called Crescendo uh our team of students have until March 1st to build the robot um Mr Pascal kind tried to explain to us I'm not sure I quite got it I'm not a robotics I I think it's so interesting but it's based on musical notes this year and the robot has to be programmed so it can go into autonomous mode and operate independently and operate the notes um competitions are in beginning and end of March in Mount Olive and uh I think you can follow the competitions online um so support the robotics team um they also mentioned that 75 of our students went to the DECA competition uh which is the uh business uh related competition with Miss Torino uh and most of these kids were in the business administration pathway uh and there was a district competition at Rambo Ridge and I understand that one of our fellow board members Mr Copan uh was one of the judges at the competition do you have anything to share about shared at the last meeting now I all right was also Rambo College oh Rambo College oh I'm sorry I'm at Rambo College thank you um thank you for uh being one of the judges Mr C uh the other thing that we learned some about in the Strategic plan um presentation that came up at our meeting as well was this whole um ver vertical articulation uh that's happening between social studies uh at Ela and social studies at um rampa Ridge and JK um and so it was very interesting the process that they went through um there were there was meet and greets between the buildings between the teachers so they could kind of know what they were doing there were visits from JK teachers to Ram Ando Ridge Ram Ando Ridge to JK um and you know in the end they were looking at areas of the curriculum where they can have integration between Ela and social studies um they also were looking at adding additional resources um one of the things is adding graphic novels to the reading list even at Fourth and fifth grades again to capture the attention um of students um and articles magazines and and common literature and history so a lot of interesting things and I think the thing that came out of it and that was um um ofir Kars and Nikki vaness came and presented to us um and the the most interesting thing I think was about how excited teachers were between the two schools to see what was happening and not happening and to did feel like they were really working together so that that was a really great thing to hear um the we also understood about PD day in January which I'm sure was very successful um and some of the offerings uh were in technology seal data and differentiation and academics so um again all good stuff um all right any board member remarks at this time okay uh let's take old business 17 um the minutes and this is from the January correct okay the re very good Mr Blaker all right roll call oh I need a motion I'm there I'm there a motion for old business a 17A Mr Hughes second by [Music] mrar thank you uh Mr D Silva yes Mr Denise yes Mr G yes as soon as I find the Mr Hughes yes Mr kiz marari yes Mr coplin yes Mr Evano yes and Dr morthy yes thank you you change things up you technology Mr G all right let's take down new business a through T have a motion on the floor for new business a through T Mr karki second by Mr just so uh yes a couple things I want to um just point out real quick uh Jay field trips I want to thank Mr Cory Miss whing for finding a appropriate field trip for grade seven uh for those that didn't know grade seven was the only grade in out of k through eight that did not have a field trip and uh this has been requested for many years so I want to thank them for U finding your appropriate field trip and also do you want age appropriate field Tri age appropriate yes for this that's why appropriate was there um also L we're approving the 2425 school calendar um want to thank the administration for all their hard work on that and for uh and all the feedback I want to point out as well Dali is a is a day off next school year which is huge it's a reflects our community so thank you for finding that and I believe Dr T Eve Eve will be when it's not on a weekend right we had to file in the 25 26 school year yes doing the ma um and then just a couple questions on Q regarding the Chromebooks for JK I think this is a great initiative that we're rolling out for our fourth and fifth graders the one question I had on this is that in 6 through 12 we're using uh windows-based laptops uh is there a reason why we're doing Chromebooks and not windows-based laptops that are consistent with what we have 6 through 12 yeah I I I I apologize I stepped out during your meeting so I don't want to step on whatever you said but let me kind of just talk you through the process of of of the laptops turns on right away um so we when we started this initiative of doing the one toone initiative 6 through 12 what we were really focused on is there were a number of programs computer-based programs that we were cognizant of of making sure that the computer could run as well as making sure that supports the program now that we've lived with these computers for I forget how many years we've been within this lease structure we started to realize and start and a lot of the programs became webbased programs so the cost of the programs that we have at the 612 level is and I walked in on that you started talking about they're a lot higher than the Chromebooks so we side by side both the Chromebooks and the HPS we wanted to make sure that all the things that we needed to do at the K K5 level could run with and and be uninterrupted while they're using it the Chromebook is is able to to support everything we need K through 5 now that's because our lease is up right now Once the lease is up 6 through 12 we'll do the same process along the lines of making sure programmatically curricular wise whatever we choose to run that computer is going to support it now just off the top of my head a program that was a talking point when we first onboarded this was our um Industrial Arts has a program through Cad and things like that please don't I think that's the program um that has to run through our PC and needs more more horsepower is the best word for it why we just say horsepower um so they weren't able to go through Chromebooks that program since we started this is now moving towards a web-based program so when we do go through the 612 analysis we'll make sure we take take all that no account but what I can tell you is K through 12 a large majority of all of our programs are web- based or are through Google The Google platform that can run through any of these computers specifically Chrome and through our commitment to the taxpayers and making sure that we're being um fiscally responsible there was a significant Savings in the Chromebook with not a drop in production so that's why we were going through this specific program for I'm sorry Mr blinker 18 okay uh Mr D Silva yes Mr Denise yes Mr Gallo yes Mr Hughes yes Mr kisari yes Mr copin yes Mr aano yes Dr morthy yes I Iain oh check number you have one job it say 17 complaint bring up three right here check number 14467 14527 and 4692 do that again with your mic on thank thank you Mr Gall make adjust thank you um and now that it's been voted on I actually do just want to take a moment to also um highlight and and talk about the uh District calendar um I just want to say that addition of the school holidays um this is something um being somebody who's been in this District who whose children went through this District um and I can tell you my children I'm were practicing Hindus and my children would not take the day off because they said mom we can't miss school so I'm grateful to see something like this happened in our district um and recognizing um other religious holidays I think it's um tremendous and it is also something I think that was a recommendation that came out of our Equity audit as well and so it's it's really um great to see that in place it gives me really great pride uh in our district and um and also again recognizing appreciating the diversity in our school community so thank you again Dr Doro um and to the administrative team for continuing to take bold steps as we move our district forward so thank you very much um all right now new business uh let's take new business Personnel should we I wanted to do B I like to do BNC separate so should we take those first uh 19 B and C um the retirements um Miss be and Mr and uh motion yep Mr Mery and second by Mr Gallow uh and my son was actually on both of those Championship winning teams with Mr Remo uh so uh you know what what a what a great addition uh and some two people that we will miss a lot in this dist for all they've contributed um Mr Mr Silva just me quick congratulations to um to both and Coach Remo has 57 years of experience and you know retiring here it doesn't seem like all that long ago coaches beating the crap out of us field definitely uh definitely big shoes that in both instances and I wish them both long happy healthy productive retirements yes Mr Denise yes Mr Galla yes and I I Echo Rick's comments on happy and healthy retirements for both um pillars of our community here and choose to F yes thank you Mr Hughes yes and just to Echo what everyone else has been saying about Coach Remo he's an absolute Legend we're all going to miss him so we wish him a very happy and healthy retirement Mr Kari um I will also Echo those sentiments and for both of them but especially for coach um he started coming back to uh for the class of 93 that's when he originally started coming back as an assistant coach um and we had a lot of good times and a great guy and a great coach for this District um and you know my so Fox on Sports he he is he is like the epitome of what we need at all times for coaches the involvement the love of the kids the love of winning championships um and my son also was on the uh 2016 team home approv congratulations now yes thank you Mr cofin yes M davero yes and Dr morthy yes um all right now let's take um 19 can we to a n D2 dou e we do it that way Mr okay so a and D2 e e pleas we need a uh motion Mr D Silva second by Mr Denise thank you all right Mr Mr D Silva yes Mr Denise yes Mr Galla yes and also thanks to Dennis and his team to make sure all these jobs get filled thank you Mr Hughes yes Mr karski yes Mr copin yes Mr Aero yes and Dr morthy yes all right public questions or comment public participation in board meetings is in accordance with bylaw 0167 at this time members of the public may ask questions or make a comment on educational issues or School matters of community interest it's 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 are here as an individual please give us your name and address all right motion to open to the public Mr copin second by Mr Gallow okay we are officially open to the public all right seeing no one coming forward at this time motion to close the meeting to the public Mr copin and second by Mr Hughes all right I don't think we require another executive session we completed that in beginning so motion to adjourn Mr Denise and second by Mr Hugh thank you everyone have a good evening guys just so you know this