spe are you wearing the T-shirt e I can't stay here I don't know if you know but this is AR you do know they running behind a lot so it might be a while until yeah they pop their headset and they're like nobody's here like what is it called hierarchy have you tried it I tried it I got oh I know glor is her is like brutal I haven't even seen it but my sister told me yeah yeah that's a little for me you did you ever see Secret so secret is like probably the worst most toxic relationship I've ever seen but I could not stop watching it so it's about um this girl and her boyfriend and um they get into a car accident and they realize too late that he accidentally hits a girl going have this whole thing we're going to get married somay she like so don't want know take later e e ends up to be in jail for like Years you crazy like that and like and so like she ends up going to jail that was his girlfri and was having Nightmare and so then finally she gets out of jail he's still making her a nightmare her all this other stuff and like he's invting them and like all this other stuff like he's terrible terrible to her and he's so angry and Like You Know You're a murderer and all this other stuff and then the girl's in jail her boyfriend one who actually the lady like after she gets out of jail he's like I'm embarrassed of you he's like because everybody thinks you're a criminal he's like and he's like I feel he's like I don't want to be with you anymore he's like but I feel guilty leing you because you took this fall for me he's like I don't love you anymore yes the girl the amray so they team up to get revenge on him they of but I like this is horrible Tre watch you know at things I understand I'll what's up you coming closer love I know that's I remembered this I'm sooud of myself us my I can't good evening this is the muden Board of Education meeting for Tuesday June 25th 2024 would you all rise to the flag salute please conratulations to the flag the United States of America the stands one nation indivisible thank you notice of meeting please I hereby make the statement to indicate compliance with the open public meetings act known as chapter 231 of the public laws of New Jersey 1975 which became effective 90 days after enactment January 19th 1976 notice of this meeting was given by providing the location time and date of this meeting and posting of the same on the front door of the Board of Education offices by delivering copies of the burough Hall and the matachin public life Library The Star Ledger the home news and Tribune and by filing a copy with the burough clerk as prescribed by this law thank you um before we start the roll call um I can almost guarantee that Mr benderly will not be here this evening so oh my gosh oh my Heavens uh good the uh but ju you know Mr bot won't be here either so I guess it's all it all doesn't really matter all that much but you realize how many people like double checked this and I still have a mistake I'm so sorry so anyway uh when you call the rooll substitute Mr bot for Mr I'm so sorry okay Mr bot is Mr B has let me know he will not be here this all right thank you so much Miss Cook miss cook will not be here this year okay thank you very much Mr derflinger here thank you Miss demang here Mr glassberg here Dr Johnson Marcus here Miss Colleen Miss Colleen let me know she would not be here this evening I thank you Mr lifton here Dr spner here Mr sus here thank you um we have a few guests this evening we do we uh each um last meeting of the uh the the calendar the school calendar year we try to honor our valorian soran and and we're really proud of um of you the first and second students in our class High School class 20 2024 um it's a very talented class 2024 going to Great Schools have great Futures ahead of them and we're really proud to be able to honor in front of the board one more time uh Mas Lou and arjent Gupta now we've done this differently in the past uh Mr lifton I mean I can invite them to these it's not like a big crowd tonight I think maybe invite them to the podium pleas yeah so so we invite you guys to the podium and maybe just a a few words for the board yeah obious is an open meeting guys you can say whatever but at least you know just tell everyone who you are um maybe you know what you're most proud of in high school and what what next what what September brings for you as a start anything else that you'd like so I'm Mason Lou this September or this August I'll be going to the University of Pennsylvania for college um what I'm most proud of in high school uh I don't know there's a lot I don't know if I could pin it one moment but I guess I'm just overall proud of how my entire class just like kind of grew over the years and also how we like moved past Co and like kind of um yeah just like went through and and your words at um graduation both of you um on the field last Thursday were were excellent motivating uh really inspiring words from both you guys absolutely enjoy both of your speeches very very much so would you like to say something as well thank you uh for the kind words uh my name is Arjun Gupta um in September I'm going to be going to UCLA for molecular biology um in high school I'm proud of my academic achievements but also um the extracurricular activities as well especially joining the robotics team that was a big part of my high school experience and help help grow me not just in terms of like academics but also in terms of who I am as a person so thank so proud of you guys and before you leave I think we uh um Miss aliage uh delivered some flowers to you before the meeting so you know enjoy those uh as well and maybe the board had may have some questions or comments yeah I just want to congratulate both of you and your whole graduating class of course I was very proud to have a small part in your graduation ceremony the other the other evening very hot night but uh but it was sunny it didn't rain on us at least and uh your speech is were as Dr quo said very inspiring and very well thought out and uh we're very proud of you and we look forward to hearing about all the wonderful things you're going to do in the future as well as with all all your classmates as well uh thank you so much for coming tonight taking time out to let us honor you again and uh have a great summer does any of the any other the board members want to say all good thank you so much for taking con your time and and coming out [Music] [Applause] okay um next item the meeting is open to the public for any topic seeing none we'll close that section I'll move to presentations um Dr kuto you have a uh District goals final report I do we'll just m we'll let U Mr Ula get up to the um um computer and put that on I'll make my way to the podium sure please and I have a uh District goals final report for the board of the public tonight thank you very much for that for getting a set up we appreciate that all right so we have a final update as you know we design goals each spring and summer for the following school year um and then we give updates around Thanksgiving around spring break and we did those two this year like we always do and today's the final update for the 2023 2024 goals our motto all year long was amazing together I referenced it in my promotion speech and my high school graduation speech I really feel like it captured uh and captures still the spirit and the collabor option your togetherness of uh of our district and as we go through the the updates you you can see tonight is that we have some very um ambitious goals we had some very ambitious goals we always do um and I'm really proud of the first of all the efforts that we made to reach the goals and also really proud of the fairness and the hard graders that we are and I say it every year uh we really assess ourselves um critically um and I'll explain the scoring system once again to you and the public so this is the 2023 2024 amazing together uh goals update so we had six goals this year they're listed there I'll read them again later on but we always start with a an overview of the six goals um and these are those uh the overviews that we had this year we feel that we involved more stakeholders not only in the development of the goals last spring and last summer but more stakeholders parents teachers Club advisers coaches administrators in the carrying out the implementation of the goals and I I hope you you'll see that tonight as well here's how we assess ourselves every year um going from one to five where if we give ourselves a one in a certain uh uh category activity it means we didn't do it or there circumstances prevented us from doing it uh we didn't have a lot of ones sometimes we we we want up put a two that means some progress that means there was it was minimal or didn't reach the student level and our goals are designed to reach the students at their level and have an impact at the students we have a lot of Threes that means we made good progress but it either wasn't completed or there was limited evidence of student impact what we're shooting for is a four means we did it well and there's evidence of impact at the student level sometimes once in a while a handful of times we even hit a five which means in our self assessment we did it well and had significant evidence in this one year this 10-month period of significant evidence of impact at student level so goal one goal one is to establish and communicate norms for adult communication that reflect shared values and result in positive impact and outcomes for all stakeholders we decided last year that we needed to do things with adults administrators teachers Paras parents folks in the community to model and set the best example for our students this is aligned with uh the ASD whole child tenants and indicators healthy five safe seven and supported six and seven um and there were four actions for each of the four schools so overall there were 16 actions a b c and d across four schools so our actions um were to um encourage buildings to collaborate with stakeholders emphasizing Norms values and the house of effective communication the year before we developed a who the um the chain of command The Who adults should talk to to get certain answers now we want to develop the house letter action B was input and shared commitment from the various parent advisory groups and we have advisory groups from our special ed parent advisory group each school has a parent advisory group I have a superintending Advisory Group and we have parents that sit in our on our not Friday forums covering Hot Topics uh in education action C was update and share the chain of command and action D was create a permanent product connect to the chain of command kind of add the how to the who so of all of our goals our mean score across four schools for actions across the 16 categories was 4.13 we ranged from in those 16 scores from three to five and what I did for each of these I gave one piece of evidence that I thought was a like a four or five for each goal so at Moss we had assembly programs M science in the eyes of the wild parent volunteers offer mon monthly book book SW volunteers provided awesome kindergarten spring X activities and Class Dojo family connection is highly subscribed using as an effective communication tool at Campbell an example of the evidence towards goal one was the bimonthly survey it's currently available to staff community and students I think we did it five times during the year and those results and action steps are shared with those shared back with those groups um to really ensure that there's a continuity for from good suggestions to what could be implemented and then followup at Edgar the parent advise group has been really helpful in Miss Sao helping develop information to share with new parents including the rising fifth graders um her fifth grade parent orientation really changed it was informed by information from her parent advisor group and it was as well received as any fifth grade um uh orientation that we've had and at the high school administration representation for collaboration um with parent advisor groups including the parents the principal's parent advisory the MMO and the booster club goal two was to maximize instructional opportunities for differentiation small group instruction academic intervention and co- teing to increase academic outcomes this is aligned with supported one engage six and seven and challenge six we're looking to address the workshop model of instruction small group instruction our AP scores grade level test scores protecting instructional time scheduling efficiencies RTI and ESL and so we had six actions across the four schools a was PD on co- teing B was co- observation administrative Triads looking for certain uh look fors in in those observations action C was peer observations uh in to see co- teing settings I have some data for you later on uh action D was observations focused in workshop model co- teing small group instruction and differentiation action e was to operationalize the grows identified in those you remember those fall data presentations and letter F was to maximize instructional time with a focus on current and future scheduling efficiencies our mean score was 392 almost a four uh range was 3 to five at Moss we saw workshops including PD session on co- teing and co- teing workshops at Campbell impaled uh Implement departmentalized schedule at and using teach and student data to inform adjustments for next year's third grade departmentalized schedule Edgar teachers met with supervisors for data Dives and develop action plans to support growth and some data on this at the high school 115 observations were conducted and the workshop model seen in two-thirds of them co- teing was seen in 31 classes we have 31 co- teing classes during the course of the day SGI was seen in small group instruction that it is in 38% of the observations um and differentiation in 2/3 of the observations as well so some real good data quantitative data to go with our qualitative observations goal three was to develop student problem solving skills through active engagement and connection to others including problem-based learning Service Learning and internships plus leveraging the opportunities we have with construction project it's aligned with engaged one two three and six and challenge two and we're looking at problem based and Service Learning construction lessons Ai and stem six actions across four schools action a audit pilot and plan for internship opportunities at the high school and that includes independent study B Implement and Report out on the stem plan C establish AI committee which we did with an emphasis on instruction youth eth ethics benefits and cautions we feel we're kind of leading the or pushing the envelope across the state in AI for Education action D was pilot the use of AI in the classroom professional learning exploring tools instructing students in the use and we learned about a lot of AI tools this year um and had great um great tools that we share with our teachers action e was to incorporate the construction project content into classroom lessons uh and letter F was to encourage the use of Project based and Service Learning um with a focus on connectedness empathy compassion compassion projects and Civic engagement 3.67 is a good score it was the lowest of our six uh goals still a pretty good score though ranged one to five there were just some of the categories across the schools that we just didn't do or things prevented us from doing but some strong sample evidence at M the buildings Investigation Unit spring X and I shared a link so this will be on the website that you can you can view this link but it's the video that preschool students got as they were being prepared for the construction project and it's it's really cute um Campbell a principal's challenge incorporate the kindness Club over a th entries were received right along with this uh goal 3 Edgar shared the AI tools they used throughout the year a lot of work at Edgar and AI probably because one of the the um the the co-chairs of the AI committee was a was Caroline Ford and Edgar teacher um and the responses were shared with staff so staff could Implement those in their own classrooms and at the high school meeting a lot of the expectations uh through stem integration submission stem in our school problem-based learning the tree ambassadors program the environment Club initiatives the anti-idling project they award recipients in the climate change Challenge and the addition of the the really neat school garden food Tower um was a great example of problem based learning as well goal four was to enhance teer interventions through training and modeling strategies to address mental health and behavioral challenges closely aligned with healthy seven and safe 35 six and 10 looking at student behaviors mental health least restrictive environment for our students proactive strategies and responsive strategies four actions across the four schools so 16 categories uh a was to explore screening strategies and tools for wellness B was to offer PD and behavioral and mental health supports for parents and staff C was to establish the threat assessment teams providing training and Implement procedures and D was to utilize our fraud fors they turned into not fraud fors because just us utilizing other days during the week and other modes of feedback to identify and Implement Solutions which they hold their input on mental health behavioral challenges our mean score nearly a four 3.94 ranged in those 16 actions from 3 to 5 at Moss staff received inservice workshops in August and October regular articulation with the behaviorists and suicide awareness training in April for our for our staff and for parents they received workshops on suicide prevention coping strategies at Campbell challenging Behavior Forum that informed PD and morning meeting adjustments um as a way to share information at Edgar the suicide awareness presentation was completed during their faculty meeting and information about mental health was sent to parents via the Bulldog brief um as part of the mental health awareness month at the high school the Student Assistance Program had a very successful year with their lunch presentations regarding the ACT program so it's act to prevent suicide so we'll be hearing more about that over the next year um the lifelines program to be implemented during the 2425 year and I was based on work and res search done throughout this school year goal five is to mobilize students by leveraging Co and extracurricular experiences to build prosocial behaviors and to combat meanness and bullying our mean score was exactly a four it wasn't our highest but I'm maybe most proud of the work that was done in goal five this year it's aligned with uh the whole child tenants five a safe five supported 10 and challenge 7 really looking at kindness and student leadership three actions a was to encourage participants of clubs and teams to engage in purposeful activities to spread kindness and inclusion through the school Community uh Item B was to engage the school Community to partner with partner with those aforementioned clubs and teams to provide resources and content to activate student engagement and C was to audit best practices Implement new practices and celebrate the activities and successes of student teams and clubs it's the first time we leveraged our club advisers and our athletic team coaches um in our goals implementation process process and we we shared a Google dock out and just we knew there was work anecdotally and sometimes we'll see in social media and sometimes we'll celebrate it but just the plethora of the dozens and dozens of responses we got to that Google doc about the great work happening in teams and in clubs um and this is a very small example Campbell implemented the um the education next the women in education as a club plans on continuing that next year and as a daughter who's a rising college senior in engineering that makes me really happy Edgar uh Club advisers update a slideshow every month it's a new addition issue with information about their clubs announcements are made about club meetings and activities and sport teams and athletic athlet individual successes are included in the morning announcements at the high school the unified PE constructed a are constructing a Unity day coming up in October the GSA sponsored a full week of respect activities and collaboration with the downtown Alliance for Pride events student council collaborated with the downtown Alliance for pre-prom activity and we have presentation from Dr Adler and Dr schope both from ruter um on two really important um sessions that were attended by adults faculty and students alike so we appreciate them just leveraging the the expertise in our community and goal six was to utilize curriculum instructional strategies and practices to develop the social emotional awareness skills like emotional regulation coping skills with providing practice throughout the day aligned with healthy s and8 seven uh safe three six and seven supported three and engage nine um three actions across the four schools so 12 categories self assessment from an inventory of current best practices in other words to find out what individual classrooms were doing of what we know Works um action B was PD offered for staff in this area and action C was to share best practices and leverage existing structures like morning meeting when Wednesday do now zones of regulation in order to address social emotional learning competencies so our mean score was 375 but it's the area we saw the biggest gain since spring break so we're happy about that I mean the year's not over uh once we get the spring break there's still a lot of work to be done and we saw the biggest gain in this area which I was proud of range 3 to5 at Moss we saw through lesson plans and observation reports and morning meetings evidence that address the social emotional competencies in April U members of the Moss School staff present prevented presented structured self-questioning to the Ed public schools and five more School staff members published a book that's due to be released tomorrow the metog metacognitive preschooler and we had a little celebration to get a little sense of the work and the efforts the incredible work and efforts from the the our five staff that went into that book so look for that book on Amazon uh at Campbell morning meeting practices were shared among staff at Edgar do Nows were used for teachers to gauge student emotion before beginning their lessons sacrificing not really sacrificing sparing a few minutes of instructional time to really uh hone in on social emotional learning skills and students participate in activities that highlighted those competencies at the high school staff were asked to share what's worked in the classroom including Second Chance grading best ways to demonstrate that learning and marking period syllabi to encourage time management all along the goals of uh developing social emotional awareness uh for our students those are our those are our goals for 232 I'm happy to take any questions thank you Dr Caputo uh for your extremely detailed report and for the um extensive goals and the uh just the amount of information that was just imparted in this 15 minutes is uh overwhelming and and really indicates how much work goes in not just setting the goals but in driving them down through through the school system through the organization and being able to to um document progress and being a an honest grader not just giving yourself fives because we're the good guys you know we we have to we have to see results and you're providing the results so uh I truly truly appreciate it and uh since Dan benderly is no longer on the board although he he's missing tonight um I'll play him for tonight that that uh the way you use these goals I think is somewhat unique I had this uh conversation with Dr C at at a at a p at a PTC meeting where I was talking about the fact that we were coming to the end of the year and we'd be getting updates on goals and I I I mentioned my feeling I think it was shared by Dan and probably the rest of the board how you use goals to really Drive change and drive these um these types of initiatives through the district and I don't think I don't really know I haven't been involved in other districts but I was on the board before your your tenure briefly I'm not sure how common that is and Dr C really uh uh uh agreed with me that you know he has a lot of experience in in the education department in the state and how really unique and um and and Powerful the way you use goals is and are so uh I want to thank you and the whole Administration for all the work you've put into the goals this year and now we get to start it all up again it's we're still collecting feedback um we're we're kind of starting to shape what the goals will look like I'll give them the board updates during the summer but any other feedback that you have on what should be included next year maybe something that you want to see continue maybe it's something that we haven't talked about yet maybe it's something that's new that we don't have a handle on yet so please share those I appreciate the kind words thank you thank you Dr kuruk uh comments or questions from the board Dan must really not be here thank you thank you for your presentation Dr kaputo okay uh I'll wait for Dr P to get back to um to his position um I I have one item under the president's report this evening um do do you think I need to wait yes just so we can okay okay I have to wait a moment uh for the uh techical production yeah I feel inly yes I think it's okay we're back okay thank you um president's report this evening I only have one item but it's a certainly important one um this year we've been joined as um on the board by a student board member uh Miss demang who uh has really brought so much to the position it's only a couple of years old sold the position she's only the second student to occupy the position and uh she's really brought a tremendous amount a lot of information from from the school a wonderful attitude a a a bright smile um pretty much everything you could expect and hope for in a student um board member that we would have hoped we would have gotten when when the law was passed and we added the student board member to our our board uh we've gotten from Miss demang and um I just want to congratulate her we have a a gift for her uh in commemoration I didn't want to undo it because there's a lot of wrapping but it is an apple it's the Apple that we that we traditionally give to departing board members and uh you are one of us even though you're leaving the board now this is your last meeting so I'd like you to come up come up in front and I'd like to present this to you thank [Applause] you a picture wa hold on such pleasure to know you thank you for your cont great job we will miss you and your name may or may not be on the agenda in future future months so sorry too soon okay all right thank you so much um okay moving to the superintendence report nothing further congratulations Madison thank you um committee reports um have any committees met Mr derflinger curriculum we meet in July yes Mr yeah we didn't uh construction committee didn't meet but I do want to mention two things because one of them is in the summer so we do have a an August 12th open to the public uh committee meeting uh at 7:00 p.m. in the library matachin High School library and we're also the committee is also planning on being at the matachin Farmers Market on uh August 17th on a Saturday uh like we did pre- referendum uh just to be in another location to give the public a little bit of an update and the website was updated today with a two-e look ahead and also a whole lot of pictures were added so feel free to go to mouin schools.org click on the referendum updates and you'll be able to see all of that there thank you thank you Mr glb Miss Cook is not here to policy meet no I don't think so okay um Dr Johnson Marcus anything from um either leadership teams or from the burrow no just thanks to everyone take two uh from the human relations commission we just want to thank everyone who came out to the fabulous events that we hosted in partnership with the downtown Alliance for both pride and juneth they were well attended and everyone had a blast so thanks to everyone who came out and see yall next year yeah I have to say that um I was downtown both of those evenings and uh it really was just wonderful so well attended so uh the burrow was so alive such great energy um you know the plaza the Plaza's how old is the plaza now five six years since since Woodmont created the plaza and at first the event started a bit slowly but now they're they're really coming and and um it's just a very fun time to be a resident of matachin so absolutely and thank you for your contribution to that thank you uh Dr spner uh Equity M yeah no no meeting since the last uh report but I think our next schedule meeting would be on the 16th on July great wonderful um I know extracurricular did not meet Miss kilan isn't here this evening but I know it did not uh Finance Mr sus Finance actually did meet um so we met on the 17th fire Zoom we had a uh we met with a collaboration committee we met with the AI committee which um Dr Caputo mentioned in his goals and I know I gushed about it the last time I met with them I will gush about it again um I really he said it it was State leading I think the work they're doing is fantastic um the previous week I was actually in Silicon Valley at a conference uh where they were talking about data and Ai and there were a number of sessions talking about the things that they were talking about so it's great great work that uh that group was doing and we probably could have spent another hour talking with them um we talked about um uh some uh some cost from the construction in terms of drainage uh we talked about which will be on the agenda tonight with the transfer funds to the capital reserve um I think it was also explained in the um Friday packet no the number the you you'll see a number of 2.5 million but that's that as a Max number for those of you that are concerned um we talked also about uh Moss neighborhood construction issues uh we talked about uh and we also talked about bus drivers that's it thank you um miss demang your last uh report uh yeah my last report um I want to take the time to thank the board as I I am deeply thankful for the opportunity to serve as a high school repres resentative the experience has incredibly been insightful allowing me to understand the intricate workings of our school district of success and impactful journey in the coming year I am excited to see the continued progress and positive changes from your uh from your efforts thank you once again for this incredible opportunity I wish you all have the best for an amazing year ahead have an amazing summer thank you and you you also thank you any comments questions from the board on the committee reports seeing none we'll move on is there any old business from the board is there any new business from the board Mr sus um Yes actually a question just reacting to some conversations we've had with uh people in the neighborhood and some uh stuff on social media it was regarding um our policy for homework on religious holidays and I went and I checked our policy 2330 we actually don't say anything about homework on religious holidays although we uh have the document which I do think we distribute pretty widely from 2017 where we talk about item 14 homework extension should be provided to accommodate religious holidays whether or not school is in session so really two questions is one should we codify what we did in 2017 into policy as one and two is there a list of religious holidays that we don't take off like Eid Tali Lunar New Year um multiple nights of Passover Etc that all the teachers have just to make them aware of what's going on I'm not saying that like for every holiday shouldn't give homework but just you know when a a child asks for an extension they're just aware what's going on I know Dr Pudo probably wants to answer but I'll just jump in a little bit um I believe there are over 200 I believe is the number recognized holidays by the state of New Jersey where students can take the day off as an excused absence obviously we live in a very diverse State a very diverse country there are lots of different beliefs and um it would be very virtu impossible I think to have a policy to say that no homework can ever be assigned on a religious holiday since there's in essence some religious holiday is almost every day yeah that being said the I don't know what it is the U the guidelines guines hidew homework guidelines clearly I think state that students who have a uh a religious um commitment um are automatically granted extensions on whatever work is assigned um is that fair to say that yeah it is well I I read from the guidelines I'm just saying should we encode that the first question is should we put that into policy and I hear what you're saying about the second one just you know have that list just make teachers aware so when a a a student does go up to a teacher they they kind of know it's up to you I mean I don't I don't know if if policy is well look we can talk about it in policy committee you can refer it to uh to Miss Cook to to discuss it but um I'm not really sure what what the real differences between the homework guidelines that the administration would put out or a policy that we would put out that says the exactly the same thing I'm not I'm not sure what the efficacy of that would be I guess the guideline makes it a little bit more I mean sorry the policy makes it a little bit more official and I know that when some people were searching for it in policy they didn't find it and I'm like oh well it's here it was in a it's in a separate document you know if you search you go to the website you search for homework you'll find it but if you go to our policies you you won't find it do we have an actual homework policy I would think that that's ad administrative that's what Mr sus was reading from right the matachin public schools homework guidelines from June those are guidelines but you're saying perhaps we should have a policy is there in fact a policy which references homework in any capacity 2 330 and what is it what is the gist of that policy what is it basically if you look at the homework guidelines the first um I think eight or so um the first eight or so items in the guidelines are actually in the policy and in subsequent ones are not um pull I'm just pulling it out well I I don't I I don't know if Dr kuto maybe has an opinion on this I don't see a harm in having policy committee review any of our existing policies it's sort of their job um and let them uh it's the appropriate place I am I am very proud of the work from Mrs hen and Mrs carer and their committee collaborative committee back in 2017 they took three years to look at uh homework across the state homework in the district um and to work with parents and students and teachers to put together I think was a really fine homework guidelines and I think it served us well in the last seven years um there's a handful of times in seven years that a a complaint has gotten to me but every time that handful of complaints always been but my kid has been able to make up the work I just want to let you know and I said oh we're you know we're we're we're sorry for that but it's great that your son or daughter advocated and they should absolutely have the additional time I I think it's clear that um the intention of the homework guidelines is to be sensitive to every student and every family's religious uh commitments and convictions and if if that's not always communicated or or or a teacher or some some school school sit situation that somewhere isn't adhering to the guidelines clearly I I think the administration Dr Caputo down would want to hear about it and correct it um it's certainly I know my my impression of the guidelines and I'm from what droto I think we all think is is to that um we want to be very mindful of all students um and their um their their need to be given extra time when their when their family and person convictions warranted and uh I don't think there's any question about that and if at times were less than perfect in that area we should be working to be as perfect as we can be and if throwing it into policy committee would would help that I I don't have a problem with it so why don't we ask Michelle you know Miss Cook sorry I try to use last names whenever I can everyone's well it slips out Miss Cook's uh committee can take a look at it and see if if the committee would like to recommend to the board adding anything to that policy but certainly whether it's in policy or not it is in fact the the policy you know Little P the policy of of our district to to Grant all students with religious um commitments and conflicts all appropriate time to complete complete also talks about you know rep um recognizing family time on vacations and not assigning um days before days after immediately a family holiday it also talks about length of homework M um and what like appropriate amount of homework would be and we talk about that even up to like two weeks ago we were talking about a certain you know class or grade and how much homework what's appropriate what takes some students longer also talks about what the purpose of homework is and um what and the kind of feedback that students and parents should expect when homework assigned so yeah I think it's a pretty good dock and it's if it's a great time review with policy then sure we can we can look at those guidelines the um obviously policy is are public documents and can be searched are the GU is the homework guidelines posted um it's posted yeah but um perhaps you can just people looked at the policies and understood no I know listen people are not experts in the inner workings of of policy and guidelines nor should they be um and it's our job to have things accessible to people where they can find it and and and digest it so I can do two things I'll ask Miss alich tomorrow to refresh it up to the top of our front page so you can see it a little bit and I'll make sure I put the link in the um uh the board summary I do on Wednesday morning tomorrow morning okay great is that good Mr sus perfect okay thank you any other new business from the board seeing none I'd like to move the approval of the following minutes of the Board of Education June 11 2024 special business meeting 1 June 11 2024 special business meeting 2 June 11 2024 board meeting is there a second Mr derflinger are there any comments or Corrections on those minutes sign on W call please Mr Dinger yes Mr glasberg yes Dr Johnson Marcus yes Mr lifton yes Dr spner yes Mr sus abstain motion carries thank you the meeting is now open to the public for any topic seeing none I'll close that section move the recommendation of the superintendent of schools often times it may appear to members of our audience that the Board of Education takes action with very little very little comment and in many cases unanimous vote before matter is placed on the agenda at a public meeting the Administration has thoroughly reviewed the matter with the superintendent of schools if the superintendent is satisfied that the matter is ready to be presented to the Board of Education it is then referred to the appropriate board committee the members of the board committee work with the administration and the superintendent to assure that the members fully understand the matter when the committee is satisfied with the matter it is presented to the board of education for discussion before any final action is taken only then is it placed on the agenda for Action at a public meeting I'd like to move the Personnel items A1 through 49 yes that's right 49 it's a big section tonight um is there a second Dr Johnson Marcus are there any comments or questions on those items 49 of them seeing none wel call please Mr derflinger yes Mr glasberg yes Dr Johnson Marcus yes Mr lifton yes Dr spner yes Mr sus yes motion cares thank you Mr sus Finance I'd like to move Finance items B1 through b47 not as much as personnel as listed on the agenda two oh yeah yeah sorry I was momentarily sorry distracted um okay we you moved the 1 through 47 yes is there a second second Dr spner are there any comments or questions on those items seeing none wel call please Mr derflinger yes Mr glasberg yes Dr Johnson Marcus yes Mr lton yes Dr spner yes Mr sus yes motion carries thank you uh I'd like to move the the uh policy items C1 through nine is there a second Mr derflinger are there any comments or questions on those items seeing none wel call please Mr derflinger yes Mr glasberg yes Dr Johnson Marcus yes Mr lifton yes Dr spner yes Mr sus yes motion carries thank you uh curriculum Mr Jeff linger thank you I'd like to make a motion to move items D1 through 18 as listed on the agenda please thank you is there a second Dr Johnson Marcus are there any comments or questions on those items seeing n oh apologize Mr sus yes I have questions so uh two questions one in on item two um so we're getting rid of two um microscopes I know that for example when we get rid of electronic equipment Mr thuman does a great job um with that what are we going to do with those like do we offer them up to like preschools or things I'd be curious to know I'm not sure I can I can look into that before we get rid of them I don't know if they're working hopefully not if they're working huh you're F out the condition but you know it seems like something great you know it can donate to some some of the local schools or preschools or right so if anytime we discard something we need to get board approval but as a practice if we think it has any value we try to distribute it that way but normally the stuff doesn't have any value by the time we get rid of it so you think there's there all right I mean there yeah we'll double check okay thank you I'm sorry Mr der did you move um 1 through 17 or 1 through 18 18 okay I don't know why I 17 okay and I had a question on item four the the field trip so I know uh it was discussed a number of of so this was another field trip that also did uh not necessarily go through the normal process and they kind of went ahead with it before board approval question to Dr Caputo I know he's looking at something but I'm sorry Mr sus can you repeat the question I think Dr Caputo was the TR so the field trip so this was uh another trip that went through uh didn't necessarily go through the proper channels they they went through with it and then kind of coming to the pro of the board after the fact well 20 so you you get to a certain point and on you know tonight where we are is that we have an opportunity for our um our Orchestra group to attend a national festival in Atlanta and I've certainly talked about it and shared some information with all the board members um so again there's different roads some some are windy some are straight that you get here but I think we're at a point where I'm asking the board to consider this uh this opportunity and to um you know to approve it tonight understood I I think you know as we've talked about with some of the other trips um it is at least in my opinion and and talking to some of the people in the community the number of trips is getting out of control the pressure on the kids to go on the trips is intense the pressure on the kids that actually do well in school this trip in particular actually they do miss a couple days of school um unlike uh other trip that we discussed there's there is a very solid fundraising organization behind it there's also excellent uh correlation with you know curriculum but you know the question is you know where does it end you know the Jazz Band The and I I really think we need to put in place some kind of guidelines or at least some kind of holistic view for us and parents to see how much they're spending you know or how much they have to wear or how much school kids are missing you know I think each trip on its own well most trips each trip on its own has Merit but looking holistically um and you know looking at how much it's it's going to tax the parents um you know how many days of school kids are missing I think we really need to do something about this well I I hear you Eric and i' I've Mr sauce come on fair enough it's hard we we've all we all spend a lot of time together for those at home and uh and we are rightfully I think fond of each other all of us I would hope anyway I'll speak to myself I don't know if anybody's I don't know I don't know if I'm endearing anyone to me tonight but hey but uh you know it's hard to keep person names out of it uh when you work closely together Mr sus if I may be so bold um trips the number of trips the price of trips the burden potentially on parents to pay the the missing of school the the uh alignment with curriculum all these items have been discussed in curriculum I'm not currently on the curriculum committee but I was on on for many years when we discussed these trips um and there's competing thoughts and competing interests and competing Concepts one is obviously we don't we don't want children to miss school on the other hand these trips have value we don't want parents to be burdened with cost but if we don't have these trips and the kids lose the opportunities to go on them and some board members I think might might draw one conclusion and other board members don't the administration is trying to be responsive to both the school community and to the board difficult and uh you've you voiced your opinion I think tonight and at other times pretty clearly about you know your concern about the number of trips um at times I voiced similar concerns um other board members have have felt differently that um we should have more maximal approach to giving students opportunities to take these trips um it's a work in progress and I think it's discussed a lot in committees in our committees and and the administration spends a lot of time trying to walk the line trying to take direction from the board where they can trying to be responsive to the students and parents and and and staff it's a work in progress and we'll continue to discuss it and you've certainly stated your concerns quite clearly tonight and and other evenings so I know it's a work in progress but one way to kind of resolve it you you know so people don't think decisions are arbitrary or capricious is can we come up with a a template you know just kind of like what we did with the um remember ice hockey or maybe some people don't want to remember ice hockey but uh you know like this is the list of things like you know is it a recurring trip days of school um you know I I just I just think would helpful so we don't have to like you said we keep talking about like let's stop talking about it there's other things to talk about well if it was e you know my father used to say uh my father's still alive thank God he hasn't passed away but he used to say when he was involved in business with me that all the easy jobs are done already there's only hard jobs left if it was easy it would have been done already to say why don't we just get a rubric and that'll solve our problems if it was that easy we would have done it already it's there there's a lot that goes into every one of these decisions a lot of them have competing viewpoints of competing people and um that's why I say it's a work in progress it we we all want Clarity uh we all want a fine line and say this is yes this is no and these are the 12 reasons but not everything fits that way and um so and not every board member may feel that the line should be drawn where you feel it should be drawn or I feel it should be drawn so it it's very collaborative and and it's it's it's always a bit of a moving Target and I think that adds this sort of creates this sort of unease amongst you and perhaps other board members as well is why this one not that one um all I can say is I think we should keep working on it we will I know Dr Caputo has has every interest in trying to get clarity it'll make his job easier knowing what the board's guidelines actually are but maybe it's not as clear as as we'd like it to be or can be as clear as we'd like it to be Dr K Dr Herzog developed something earlier this spring where I think it's a great first step maybe it's the only step we need but it directs different trips depending on their characteristic overnight missing school during the summer during spring break to the proper committee for for discussion and I think we've only gotten a chance to put that into operation a couple times so I think we should at least run through the next year and allow that because that'll at least guide what groups of people will discuss it before it comes to the whole board um and whether it's an overnight trip whether there's a new cost structure to it then it'll go to finance if it impacts School Deb leg also goes to curriculum and I think that is a at least I would love to see us run through that for a year um at least get the right people talking about maybe it doesn't help our dis our decisionmaking process but it directs to the right people so I think the board can have confidence that a trip with certain characteristics went to the proper committee okay well certainly that's helpful I know we've had you know committee jurisdiction issues over the time also which committee is actually vetting the trip is it is it curriculum is it extracurricular uh is it Finance you know everyone has a that's the other reason why it see feels so sort of nonstable is because so many different committees have a legitimate view on on you know money's being spent so Finance you know has something to say extracurricular these quite often quite often these revolve around clubs and teams so they that committee has some type of jurisdiction curriculum clearly has it because we want these trips to have a curricular you know nature to them so there's lots of different Committees of the board that all feel that they they should have input on these trips and perhaps uh Dr herzog's you know rubric of just getting it in the right place might be will be helpful uh yes Dr spigo you want to say oh I was just wondering if those committees are administrative faculty or mix mix of mix of different um Dr speak into the microphone I can't can you rep sorry I was just wondering if those committees were mixed with Administration and faculty how were they identified so the Committees that review it are um well yeah they're the board committees but they goes first it has to be proposed by a teacher leader who's willing to coordinate the details of So within our committees I'm sorry right okay right but it does go through the internal chain of the Departments the school leaders um transportation the business office office myself for curriculum Dr Pudo for approval so it goes to the internal um chain first and then it gets routed to the appropriate committee if it's missing school curriculum reviews it if it's has a new Financial structure that isn't recurring the finance committee reviews it if it's um Sports and Athletics or co-curricular it goes to to that committee um sometimes multiple committees and then before it comes here for appr right and I think that's an important thing for what Mr sus was saying that you know if there are concerned parents in the you know for one event or the next to understand like for us to communicate to parents that this there is that kind of guideline or processes in place to review these things so that it's not made halfhazard and it's gone through right sort of the right processes and channels and before it's brought to the board so it makes people know a lot more about you know how these decisions are made made as well as um to know that it's not you know made without considerating considering all these different factors so maybe Mrs S was that is that something we can convey that more more effectively for the community I I think that's great I mean did this trip go through that process yeah okay yeah I I think um frankly the process gets complicated because we have to approve it the board makes the process complicated not the Administration don't forget every one of these trips is already when when it comes to us is already recommendation of the superintendent of schools meaning it's already gone through the district process so it's we are who make we who are making the process complicated the the vetting and the rubrics and the approvals have already been gotten by the time it comes to us so uh not to find fault with ourselves I mean we have a role here and that's why we have to approve it we have to approve spending the money we we we have the I don't think we as a board are are not fulfilling our role appropriately but I don't think it's really the administration that that's um I'd give you a three on a one to five scale than um in the end Dr Caputo is recommending these trips to us and we we have have to say yes or no and so knowing that it's gone through the appropriate District process it always has but the board has a role to play and it's it's not an insignificant role and and we have to do what we think is right as well so and yes it Bears repeating I think for the public that although the um the board member might not like the timing of of it necessarily it was discussed in the curriculum committee okay this is not something that just is appearing on on this agenda in case anybody um in case anybody is getting that impression at at home was discussed in committee and then it made it here although the timing of certain elements of it may not have been um something that a board member may have wanted it thank you for clarifying that I'll only point out that that boilerplate that I read at the very beginning uh with the recommendation superintendent of schools quite clearly lays out the process and Mr sus um may very well be right that that the timeline on this specific recommendation didn't have the stand stand time and and and but that does not mean that those steps weren't followed uh it it was vett you know reviewed by the administration it did then go to appropriate board committee it was then explained to the board committee the board committee you know made sure it understood the man you know all that boilerplate I read you know did in fact happen here and um while we'd like to see the process carried out based on are you know what we feel is the appropriate process and in this case perhaps it was rushed perhaps it wasn't the the the legal framework or the the the actual board policy framework has been uh has been met and has gone through committee um Mr derflinger did you have any comment about this this specific trip being discussed in curriculum was there the the overnight component is always a concern right because not only is there academic implications to that there's financial implications too you have to pay the staff to stay overnight that includes you know a stien for that and there's there's a lot of moving parts to trips and and I know Mr sus I I hear your point like when we talk about textbook selection we have a very specific rubric that we follow in selecting that it meets The District's expectations it's very clearly outlined what the committee who's reviewing these textbooks de to look out for in order to find best fits for the district I'm assuming Mr sus and you can correct me if I'm wrong that's what you're proposing for field trips a similar very well laid out it it clearly aligns with the district expectations for field trips and how those align to the curriculum um but the process I mean we we had the conversation in curricul and the process was you know we did go through the process and um those concerns were discussed in our committee as well however as a whole it wasn't so negatively impactful to to our decision- making to say hey we got to take this off the table so but I do hear your points Mr sus understood I I think also but part of also what I was saying is that I think each trip taken individually you know do you know the administration does a good job um looks good it's when you start take looking at the holistic View and that's that's one one of the things why I said if we could get a holistic you know again parents or students saving money or understanding you know how many days of school that that was also part of my uh concern but I think we beat this point to death well we beat it to death because it's obviously something that's been a concern from the board and and while maybe this trip may or may not be the appropriate moment to really drill into it quite so deeply um obviously it has a lot of concern on the board and it's obviously we've heard it from the community as well we've made certain decisions on certain trips that we've heard from the public some people understand it understood certain decisions other people were concerned about certain decisions I mean it's a it's an item of concern uh for the board and for the public and I don't think there's anything wrong with us having one of this type of discussion and obviously we're not going to solve this tonight but we'll continue going uh we we can um we're going to I think you know um Dr herzog's rubric getting into the right committee is obviously a starting point we we can't make good decisions if we don't have the the information in the right spot and uh we'll keep we'll keep working it we we'll keep working it I I have every faith that we'll get to to a spot where we're all comfortable or at least we pretend to be comfortable I just want to point out um for for The public's information when we talk about committees I'm not sure the public always knows or understands our committee process one thing we don't do in committee is vote the only people who can vote are the board members sitting at this at this meeting once we've read all the all the all the legalities and we've noticed it and there's a quorum and which would be a minimum of five board members that's the only time anybody votes on anything so when we talk about committees and I I talk to Mr derflinger about what curriculum committee thought or what was the sense or was their concern there was no vote taken um we vote tonight or at other you know duly seated board meetings on the recommendations of the superintendent of schools Dr Who's recommendations quite quite often maybe maybe um um influenced or he might take our the committee's feedback into account prior to presenting something to us at a board meeting but um committees nobody votes in committee it's it's really a fact-f finding exercise on the board as we say again in the Preamble I read it's really um so the board understands hands the matter has reviewed it with the with the administration and therefore can can vote on it appropriately at this meeting or or one of our other meetings so I think that's important for the public to understand that no business is conducted you know in in committee it's really just review of information so the board is properly informed and can in the end um collaborate with the with the administration and the end vote at a at a publicly noticed meeting okay where were we we we had a we we moved these items was there a second did we have a second we did Dr Johnson Markus second thank you roll call please sure thing Mr derflinger yes Mr glassberg uh yes including for the chamber orchestra to participate in the national competition that they applied for and were accepted to thank you Dr Johnson Marcus yes Mr lifton yes Dr spner yes and Mr sus yes on all except five no on five okay thank you no four sorry four four four thank you okay thank you motion carries thank you [Music] um we are at the end of our agenda we are okay meeting is now open to the public for any topic seeing none I will close that section um we'll move to announcements neither of our announcement people is here this evening are there any announcements um Mr bot sent me a couple of things but given the nature of the time of year there isn't much to share but I will advise folks if your child is entering a new school please check out the mouin schools.org to see the orientation presentations that have been given um Rising Fifth and nth graders will need to re-register information about that will come out on Monday July 1st um I believe registration is via gen for your appointments to re-register your child and a reminder that the first day of school will be Wednesday August 28th which is novel so please mark your calendars accordingly thank you very much at this point i' might like to make a motion to adjourn is there a second Dr Johnson Marcus all in favor thank you and good night