one good evening everyone adequate notice of this meeting was provided by sending such noes to the Asbury press midd patch and the midd Township Public School District website and the posting of such notice that the Fus T minor administrative offices in each elementary middle and secondary school in District Mrs C here Mrs far here Mr here Mr peerman here Mrs Mr Mrs Right toac Here Mr motion for ex session for of presidency upate o ssds and person matters all favor oppos good evening everyone please standed United States Amica stand indivisible to start with our High School North students teacher good evening even our head of the pride our student and staff member of the month recognition program celebrates Excellence it serves as a school communi Foundation winers M include Brown H for N grade for 10 Miranda laor Ser our 11th graders kman s Hannah rer our last our 12th graders aren and M CIO again sorry I miss the our staff member is this Faz It's a Wonderful Life the live radio play called play was a Monumental success the performance was amazing and the story line kicked off the holiday season across our campus in North Pole traditional holiday event in our media center was held on Saturday December 16th it featured pictures with Santa seasonal crafts and refreshment the children of our community a representative of the M County vocational School District presented information about the available shared time programs to sophomores during an assembly this morning our choir visited Thorne and beor today performing allay songs spreading cheer and pring the program the winter B and choir concert which was performed on Tuesday December 12th was well attended the even decorations were amazing and performance was B members of our student government organized the alha for Li Club program Miss preschool classroom and costumes Distributing candate special guest following successful fall season several of our outstanding athletes are in prestigious accolades these include Lana Woods Gabriel welon Alexander and Ely s for our field hockey all Division and our football all division Stars include Luke shean Luke also earned offensive player of the year Morgan billan gra Andrew K Thomas Randolph just SoDo n Morgan AER Ro Tucker Brian Joe grao Michael DWI k Young Brian o Donal lastly our allore boy soccer includes theide Stephanie firstam ran firstam lell at second Alivia and Sophia anal won best concept award Haley Ryan and Brooklyn strep won best horror short award at the Northeast hor festival for their original projects in 2023 2024 teacher of the year is Mr Brett wz 2023 to 2024 educational service provider of the year and nurse gr Taylor we are grateful for the positive influence of any measurable contributions throughout the school Community thank you good night thank you okay I'm going to turn to high scho South Miss Sophia Pasco good evening I'm Sophia hasone and I'm speaking tonight on behalf of Jason bowy who cannot be here today first of all we would like to congratulate coach Bill Clon for being named The Cross Country Coach of the Year secondly Middletown High School South sophomore travel to the Trent and Barracks to learn more about the American Revolution students watched musket demonstrations were given information about small pox in ulations and had the full battle of T explain to them Middletown High School South debate team had four teams traveled to biotech High School to compete against 30 other teams the top placing team finished ninth and has been invited back for playoffs this Friday and most importantly finished ahead of Middletown High School La Captain's Lily oldershaw Chief Andre calilla and Ryan mler LED their teams and freshman Patrick De Demitri had a standout performance Mrs Niki the peer leaders adviser and Mrs pekara the student assistant coordinator collaborated to train peer leaders and deliver an important message about the risks of Aging to the Freshman advisory classes on Friday December 15 2023 the Outreach also included healthy alternatives and available resources to students 39 South students have recently been accepted to South chapter of the science National owner Society these students have met the following criteria for membership completed and currently enrolled in honors AP level science courses maintained at least a 3.5 GPA in their honor AP level science courses and a 3.0 cumul GPA lastly the winter sports season is underway with over 350 students competing in basketball wrestling ice hockey bowling swimming indoor track and competition cheerleading the hockey team defeated cross town rival Middletown North 4 to2 in front of a capacity crowd to open their season on December 7th Junior bowler Caitlyn milarski recorded a perfect game of 300 in the girls bowling team win over Mammoth Regional earlier this month the boys and girls basketball teams will both be competing in the wobm Christmas classic in Tom's Rim River over winter break the ice hockey team team will travel to the ice ball classic in Wayne for three games over the break while the wrestling team will attend the Sam c classic at verly Dickinson University on December 27th and host the Walter Woods Invitational at South on December 30th thank you thank you sop I'm now going to hand it over to Amy for the presentation of Award of gratitude to outgoing board member Harmony Mr Harmony Heen so tonight Tonight is the last meeting that we will have Mr Heering on our board uh for now as the board secretary on behalf of the board and the administration we just want to thank you for all of your efforts and service it's been a challenging time to be a board member you came on during the pandemic and we got through that and moving forward now to new challenges and you were there through it all and we all appreciate your service we do have have a plaque for you [Music] going thank you very much thank you it's been [Applause] pleasure okay uh we now have a presentation of the June 30th 2023 annual comprehensive financial report Mr Brian Wen from hinging and thank you very much I appreciate it uh again my name is Brian Waldren uh home friendy Allison partner with the firm I've been working on the account for many years now feels just like a few months ago that I was here giving a report on the 63022 audit because of how delay we were with some information uh from the state not from the school district uh but I'm happy to report that we are here for the first time before the end of the actual calendar year probably 2016 so uh the state is slowly improving on some of the information that we're getting so we're happy to be here before the holidays I'm just going to give a very high level overview of the financial statements uh Amy and her team have done a very thorough Deep dive into the financials I'm sorry I'm sounding very loud here I apologize and so I'm just going to go over a few of our opinions that we offer uh the most important that we have is our independent Auditors report uh that opinion is stating that all the financial statements are materially stated in accordance with generally accepted accounting principle government auditing standards and any requirements by the Department of Education that's an unmodified opinion it's a fancy word for a cleaned opinion it's the best opinion that we can render to the school district uh and there are no findings or recommendations uh in the audit so a very clean audit so again congrats to Amy to her team and to the board as well for that our second of two opinions is our report on internal control and compliance outside of all information that we have to do uh from the state of New Jersey we do a lot of internal control and compliance testing as well and we have no issues of non-compliance to report on that so no findings recommendations there as well and the third important uh opinion that we give to the school district is our internal control report on state and federal programs because the district receives significant amount of money from the federal and state governments with triggers what we call a single audit uh so additional testing has to be done on those programs as well outside of the regular testing from the doe uh this year we have tested the idea cluster and also the ARP Esser monies which are slowly running out and know I'm sure Amy will be happy when those finally get out I think that 2024 is the last year that those funds will start to run out so your next fiscal year uh but a significant amount of testing goes into that as well uh compliance requirements and no formal Finance recommendations on those as well so again clean uh no uh comments or recommendations as far as that um on a high level for your general main operating fund the district saw roughly about 2 and a half% increase in their revenues this year um the local uh tax levy was the basic 2% increase as has been there was significant amount of money increase from the previous year on federal sources uh related to correct me if I'm wrong maybe one of the storms that we had uh feema reimbursements from previous years uh that finally came in during the year I forget which storm that happened to be but actually a lot of that was even from the co [Music] okay uh so you'll see a significant amount of money if you were to compare previous year to this year uh from federal sources there again roughly a 2% uh 2 and a half% increase on the revenue uh in a very challenging time we only have so about a 2 and a qu% increase on expenditures uh which is very difficult to do as well uh so congrats to to Amy and our team for staying within the budget and really trying to maintain uh budget as best we can in challenging times um we had a decrease to [Music] sorry back a decrease to our overall fund balances this year uh roughly $ 1.2 million bringing us to a total of roughly $16.5 million which is made up of various reserves um capital reserve maintenance Reserve we have uh other employ unemployment reserves as well and then we have our unassigned um which is basically the the chunk of the remaining balances um it is a very U healthy fund balance for roughly 11 to 12% of our operating budget we like to say between a 10 and 20% anything less than that would be seen too lean anything above that might be seen as too much so uh we're maintaining that and and is doing a great job of maintaining the budget you know with those parameters that she has the only other thing that just draw attention to if you were to compare uh which I think am will be able to provide financial statements so over a holiday break if you're looking for things to do and go through about 200 Pages feel free to to dive into it and I'm sure that uh there's information that you might like to see uh but we had a significant decrease in the uh service revenues from the federal and state governments on the cafeteria side as many of you may have seen or known the previous two years during our Co years there was a lot of we'll call it free um lunch that was given to all students outside of the free and reduced parameters that were in past so if you were to compare revenues to for prior year even in a prior two years you'll see a significant decrease on the federal reimbursement and the state reimbursements and you'll see your reimbursable sales for students purchasing lunch and going back to the regular uh I'll say way of life um so just a swing and some of that there so if you see comparisons don't be too concerned as far as where that money was coming from that's Statewide that's not just your District um so roughly about $2 million in our overall F service fund which will be continued to use in those um capacities for future purchases of equipment upgrades to facilities things of that nature but again a very strong and healthy fund balance in our cafeteria fund as well um I can set up here and go through a lot more stuff I I just want to say a special thank to Amy to our team Dan we've been a great addition uh Moren and the rest of the staff of putting up with us for a few months to get through all the information that we have and there's a lot of information that goes into doing this audit so uh personally like to thank them on behalf of my firm uh I wish everyone a happy holidays and if there's anything any questions I'd be happy to go through [Music] anything to you and your you've been great to work with and um I will attest to the fact that auditing firms across the state have been really pressure because the state has um changed the timelines and and information hasn't been com coming out time so they've had a lot of things going through was fun so yes thank you very much you okay moving on to our committee reports install curriculum instruction Mrs Farley yes we did meet last week but I think that most of the highlights in the meeting actually Mrs alone is going to be covering her superintendence report so to not be repetitive I will pass it along got student services Mr dou thank you I'll be brief we met as well um the special services committee as well on last week a couple highlights first um a reminder and I believe mone's various updates in the coming tonight and in the coming weeks we'll share this with the schools communities but the special at parent forum is going to be next month that's an opportunity for families to um meet and Converse with the superintendent about all all sorts of issues that affect that Community there'll be two sessions one for elementary families on January 24th at 6:30 at The District's office and for the secondary schools middle of high school on January 25th at 6:30 at central office um so keep an eye out for those reminders uh when we get back to school after the Break um and then also I'll just update um we reported at the last meeting that the uh committee and Middletown friends of diverse Learners and the administration had talked about you know diving in and doing some work to expand social um and extracurricular opportunities for special ed students um Administration has been great and receptive to that they've already started meeting with all the members of the special services department cheer rating lists of clubs and activities um and things that are available and accessible to uh students in that community and where we can um you know capitalize on that and improve on that um and they're starting to work on uh improving the communication channels and you know the ease with which those students uh can access those those activities and know know what's out there for them so uh a lot of good stuff going in that on that road and and the for to a lot more of that next year as well thank you thank you Mr Question sure yeah um is there any possibility or there discussion about having the meeting with the special parents during the day while the kids are in school or because I think one of the complain I've always heard is it's hard to get out at night to come to the board meeting maybe we could see what it looks like at night and then H the second one potentially during the day because I I know there's also the reverse of that too right people that are working will be able to come to the night so okay anything to Mrs Dy finance and Facilities so our committee met um last week December 14th I went over a variety of topics we did have representatives from Brown and BR in our health insurance broker uh to review our health insurance program our self-insured platform and the trends and performance of the uh of that fund so far and looking trying to get some idea of how it will shape up for next year's budget we we're going to get a little more information on this year's Trends before we get an estimate from them but we did also attach the presentation dep for the rest of the board to see if you're interested in looking at that uh we had a few agenda items that are on the agenda this evening uh one is the acceptance of school security Grant funds we completed the project that we were awarded through the MJ doe for um cameras and window glazing and so forth we are set to get reimbursement we have to approve the acceptance of the funds uh we have the Morris count the Educational Services Commission approval for participation for a transportation route for a student we are financially responsible for who's attending and out of District placement uh we have a adjustment of Tyle Juan salaries due to the promotion of a staff member from teacher to administrator so we have to reallocate that uh we also it's actually under the superintendence report but we did cover it under Finance uh we have some really nice holiday news uh we have the be family who has run the Richard Beth scholarship fund on their own for uh a number of years uh they are going to be transfering the administration of that scholarship to the district so in order to do that they did give us a initial contribution to the scholarship fund of $27,000 uh and that we will continue to administer that scholarship for them and uh we just have to approve the establishment of that Fund in addition they also are donating 558 to be used for projects at the high school North baseball field in conjunction with the Diamond Club so that will be uh dispersed according to the instructions that they've given but it will be there for projects for the uh baseball field at high school nor so very generous of them and we do appreciate that uh we just went over the uh annual comprehensive financial report and that is something that a board has to vote to accept so that's on the agenda as far as facility these goes we talked about doing a presentation we have that slated in hopefully for February for the board and for the community about the current Master facilities assessment and planning work that's taking place right now with our architect that's in progress um so they'll give a progress up update and we'll start talking about some NE next steps of that process um hopefully in February uh we also looked at some enrollment analysis information looking at some historic enrollment data over the last 10 years or so and then also looking back to 86 87 and looking at Trends there uh we talked about uh the district had an energy audit performed by TRC Energy Services through the local government energy audit program so that was funded by the state so we establishing baselines with that and then we are able to use that audit to make adjustments to our operations to improve our energy e efficiency and uh hopefully you know save money on gas and electric and so we'll continue to work on that uh with facilities uh we also talked about the High School North track and turf project we are just waiting for some proposals back on the drainage and site work from a few of the cooperatives that we're looking at and our Target is to be in a positional wor contracts at the next meeting uh we also have a couple of other agenda items on for facilities we have truck purchase for two trucks that were in the budget uh we we need to refresh our vehicle Fleet and Facilities each year little by little so with equipment and all in the cost that is $151,000 which is on the agenda for this evening and we are also approving a contract for the purchase of two rooftop units over at Ocean Avenue and we've been looking at doing this for a while we actually tried another funding source to get some assistance with that that did not U pan out but we were able to get the project approved through jcpnl direct install program which is really nice for the district because the total cost of the installed units is $223,000 but after the incentive from jcpnl of 178,000 our net cost is only going to be$ 44,6 52 and this has been something that's been needed for a while so U very I have to credit Adam for Adam Nassar facilities director for pursuing that and getting that put in place so uh that's good news as well so that's it thank you m d on to curricular Miss C did you meet this yes we met on December 7th we met and the co-curriculum Happ form back we have unified unified uh chair right now one team we have a team both schools we our cheerleading we're hoping to have more teams in the future we like to see that this they're going to be cheering at some of the select basketball games within the district uh we also have Esports all the Esports are playing at the same level right now so that's the three middle schools and the two high schools everything is operating the way it's supposed to be on eorts see High School South we will inform that High School South is forming a ski club and the senior campus as far as the Senior Open campus program will be starting on January 8th does everybody remember what that's about I'm G talk about it okay uh the other thing is that which I think is a great thing and I'm hoping that the rest of the board does too they're changing the academy the Arts Academy from Arts Academy to a pathway it's going to open up more doors for our students that they could go into the pathway instead of having to be just in the Arts Academy and just one way that's it that's all they could do with the pathway they have more choices they can diversive supp body go in and out of different programs so that's what we discussed at C thank you Miss you're [Music] welcome we're not open the microphone up for public comment on agenda items only if you have a public comment please step forward state your name the record address see no stepping forward I would wish to end the public comment and move [Music] forward all right I just want to say to the entire District actually Merry Christmas Happy New Year's and have a Wonder holiday season and to my board my colleagues up here on the board to the administration ending off this year I want to say thank you very much for your passion and dedication for always doing what we feel is the best for our students in this district and staff members and families in Middletown so thank you all very much and now we're going to move on to Mrs Alon superintendent report great thank you um so I am going to talk about a couple of the items that um were brought up tonight um we have some exciting restructures happening next year at the high school and this came from direct feedback from our student population um through my superintendent forums as well as from our teaching staff members so the first big change for next year will be the movement of the Arts Academy back to a pathway structure and as Mrs cetti had said a little bit um this will afford our students the opportunity in both high schools to be um specified within the Arts but also have the the ability to diversify and move not only with within different areas of the Arts but also into other areas because students who have um a passion or an interest in the Arts May certainly have passions and interests in other areas as well um this will not prevent our current Arts Academy students from completing their Arts Academy track as those courses will still be offered we are now opening them up to other students as well and dissolving the audition process um at the end of the day whether students are in a pathway or an academy they do both still get some kind of endorsement on their transcripts so um it's really a Nuance in not only the naming of of what we're calling it internally but also um what we find to be a bigger benefit is the flexibility for students to have more opportunity within the Arts and also outside of the Arts that's the first big change the second big change that um we're also equally as excited about is the establishment of um an experience for our ninth graders as they come into high school for the first time um one of the biggest pieces of feedback that I took away from Mostly our current ninth graders and some of our 12th graders who are leaving us is that 12th graders wish they had known more early on in their High School career in order to really structure their coursework or if they were going to go into a shared time vocation program um if they had intention of not going into postsecondary education but instead going into some type of vocation or or um Workforce um right out of high school and our ninth graders expressed that when they came in now they're a couple months into their experience um they were really clueless for lack of a better word and you know I own a clueless ninth grader myself so I see it at home um and I think it's important for for our ninth grade students to get their feet under them in some type of controlled situation where we really frontload them with a lot of information that will be helpful for them in their 10th 11th and 12th grade years currently we do allow students the opportunity to jump right into a pathway as a ninth grader and we continuously get feedback that you know our eighth graders coming into 9th don't seem to grasp on to enough information to make an informed choice and what we've come to conclude is that they're just not ready they have no reference to what high school is until they get here so what we want to do is shift our pathway start time to the sophomore year nth graders will not be able to select participation in a pathway they will take a structured Foundation of courses that meet requirements they will also have a ful year course which will combined a couple of our current ninth grade requirements but the most important piece of that it will include a component that has counselor involvement to plan forward for the next 3 years and there will also be a series of ninth grade assemblies that will really focus on educating them from things like what is a transcript I had that conversation with my son a couple weeks ago like what is a transcript what does waiting on a grade mean things that we take forant gred that we assume that they're going to know um I think this will set them up for success and give them um a really solid foundation to make an informed Choice moving forward for the remaining three years of their High School career um we will be rolling this information obviously out to parents it really just applies to our incoming ninth graders kids that are already here will continue on their way in their pathway our Arts Academy students will be able to finish their coursework moving forward those courses will still be offered the one thing is any South student who is going to North for the Arts Academy will be offered the opportunity to travel back to South if they wish to or stay at North so really it will be up to them and we'll meet with those students individually to determine you know what that looks like for them um the other thing that I wanted to touch upon in regards to course work is we are also at the same time re-evaluating our Middle School courses not our core courses they're require requirements but our elective Cycles if you recall we amended the middle school schedule probably about 7 years ago at this point and at that time we rewrote new Middle School electives and the time has come for us to re-evaluate those things because the standards have changed um our focuses have changed and so we are going to be working with our Middle School principles have and have already started that process on reframing some of those middle scho School elective and activity Arts courses the structure of the schedule will not change but how those courses are structured and what is included within will differ and we'll roll that out as we get closer um to scheduling for Middle School later on in the winter early into the spring um as Mrs cin also mentioned we have been discussing this Senior Open campus initiative and it's really um again a product of those four fors we held with our students um I held forums with high schoolers back in the fall and from both high schools they talked about this idea of seniors being able to leave campus during blocks three and four um for a lot of reasons you know Independence structuring time um a lot of them have fulfilled many of their graduation requirements so you know we started to have discussions administratively with both buildings principles with our Board of UC education members um and we've also discussed this with our Middletown Police Department and the chief of police and really have come up with a plan where we believe we're going to be able to provide our seniors this privilege um to be able to leave campus during blocks three and four um we are planning on starting this um on January 8th if everything goes well our two administrators will be having meetings with the senior classes to lay out the process and also the expectation because we are going to really be emphasizing the fact that this is a privilege and you know with a privilege comes great responsibility that also can be removed if needed you know for a lot of reasons but we are excited um I think it's really important that things come out of these student forums um and kids see that their voice matters um so when we can do things that um we feel will enhance their experience um certainly we dedicated to doing this and you know two of the things I discussed already have been direct results of feedback from from our student population so we're really excited to be able to do that um the last thing that I want to mention is that in January the second meeting not the reorganization meeting but the later meeting in the month we will be giving um an update on our 5year strategic plan we are currently um in year four of that and we'll need to start start the replanning process for a new strategic plan come 2025 but we will be updating the school Community um at the end of next month on you know what has been accomplished through that strategic plan over the course of the last four years finally um I just want to take a moment as Mr Capone had mentioned to wish the school Community uh just a wonderful and restful holiday season um you know often the end of the year everybody's talking about new year new start new beginning and that's great well and good I think it's important but I also don't want to minimize the importance of the look back and the reflection my community update is scheduled to come out on Friday I will be sending something um to the school community and it does just that it it's a compilation of all the amazing things that have happened in this District since January of last year and I I think it's a great time for us all to pause and reflect and while you know there's always challenges and struggles there are so many wonderful and things that we should all be proud of that happen here every single day in the school community so again I just want to express my gratitude it is really an honor and a privilege to um serve the community and to be be witness to all of the things that our students and our families contribute to not only the school but the community at large so thank you and happy holidays thank you Miss out okay now moving to approval of meeting minutes I need a motion to approve exec session minutes November 20th and workshop regular voting meetings November 20th 9 A and B second discussion all in favor I oppose extensions need a motion to approve 10A policy um it's a second reading of policy 5230 late arrival and early dismiss discussion all in favor I oppose exensions motion to approve business office consent agenda 11 a through J second discussion all in favor I oppose extensions you have motion to approve recommendation of superintendent of schools consent agenda 12 a through n second discussion favor all favor I oppose extensions I'm voting on um 12a fing I'm voting yes for all of those that were unfounded and no for all of those that were founded any got that exensions I'm voting um to on M Personnel I that was and now moving to Old business anyone have old business to discuss this old business things um I just want to say that um I attended the north Christmas concert it was exceptional I hope that next year we can work on getting the dates for um High School Sou sent to us because I didn't have those dates so by the time I found out about them the concerts were over so I would have really have like to gone I love going to those things um the kids at the concerts that I did go to were um exceptional I also um attended the hockey game in memory of Mark Rosenblum the north south game um it was real memorable for me because I was not on the board at the time hockey in middl toown started but I was an audience member and I remember the pleas of all those gentlemen and dads that put this together and they kept every single promise that they made they funded that program until it was fully established and the board was able to take it over they followed through on their contract and it was one of the best things that I've seen I've watched it grow since year one and it was really nice to see all the people come back that helped make that happen but I also think it was a great tribute to Mark Rosen Blum who was the original starter of that group and I'm glad that they did that and I know it's going to be an every year Memorial and I think that um all the students realize the benefits of you know all the work that those parents put in to make a hockey club it's also a testimony to the town working as a town as one on Town it wasn't North and it wasn't South it was hockey it was just hockey and it was a beautiful beautiful thing for old business that's for anyone else old business new business oh yes okay okay first what I would like to say um as as a senior board member here I was on the special education committee for like 15 16 years and it was always our goal to create create things for our students and it was great to hear co-curricular we're finally getting around to where we can find more clubs to include our students and that's a great thing but even more so we have a transition program in our district that we send our kids out to do internships on and it's kind of it's great that they get that experience but sometimes at the end of it there's no jobs for them you know they put all this work in and there's nothing for them at the end so when we decided that we were going to do this transition program and hire our own students that are capable and willing to do the job that was exciting and I probably should apologize because I was a pain in the neck about it too but with other board members but um this is the second person we've hired from within our our TR um our transition program our students are so capable of holding these jobs they just need to be given the opportunity to show us and I think our district is in a lead by doing this and I hope other school districts take this lead and they start these programs in their schools and they start hiring their students because we are leading by example with this program and I'm sure there's going to be many more opportunities for students in this transition program because I know we're working with our food service Service Company um of course everybody has to be trained you just don't get that job because you're in there you have to be trained and you have to show that you can do that job and our students are doing exactly that I couldn't be more proud of our committee and administration for putting this through so um deep down thank you so much for that everybody deserves the opportunity to show what they can do and plus the fact so many jobs are opening people are applying for them and our kids want them so they're going to work even harder to show us what they can do and I I think it's just a perfect example so that's that's the um first thing I just have a few other um housekeeping things Thorn's gift auction is coming up on April 15th they are looking for sponsors and they are looking for donations so it's Christmas time people you know if there are extra things around after Christmas and we need to donate for gift baskets we can contact Thorn Middleschool gmail.com the um gift auction is $95 a person it includes dinner and tickets it's a really nice event so um I hope we get more people to go and this gives you plenty of time to sign up it's not like a two- we leadway we have till April following that North is also having one in February um I'll follow the information once they send it to me I believe it's like the 23rd somewhere around 23rd or 24th of February so once that um information comes out I will send it it's get to support our local schools and if there are any other schools that are having events my emails on the website just keep sending it to me and I'll keep announcing it for you and then I would also like to um like Frank and Miss alone wish everyone a happy holidays and especially my fellow board members because it's always a pleasure Barry I would like to thank you for for your service it's been a pleasure working with you um I hope everybody has a great New Year and takes the time to spend with your kids do some fun things relax talk to them hang with them and enjoy it and I hope we all have a happy and healthy New Year thank you thank you joh happy Holidays happy holidays okay we're now going to open the microphone up for public comment anyone Miss wishes to make a comment please get your name the record [Music] twoos mtown um thank you Jon for announcing Thor I just want to um correct the dates so that no one's mistaken it's April 25th oh I have April 15th on my email do you yeah it's April 25th so tax day tax day so wanted to correct that very looking forward to that so it's April 25th the rest of the information is is correct but just want to make sure that everybody had the date so thank you very much I hope that's not the same night as nor it's not we we checked okay good everything close together yeah no oh no yours is April we checked we checked all the schools to make sure hi you're Middle Town um just a few comments ninth grade restructuring I think that's a great idea um I would just if there was some way to include parents in workshops or something we've um I know at South we've requested to change some of the meetings like you know college information for juniors we're too late you know so um it's amazing how much there is out there and and parents aren't aware at all so if you can include with parents and that I think that'd be helpful ship sail for me already um on um clubs I just wanted to um seeing as how my daughter just found out she missed two club meetings today um when I'm not sure who where clubs fall under but for somebody that has struggled really really struggled to find something for their child um it would be useful if there were standards so that people that ran clubs um they all use Google Classroom maybe they all announc meetings at least two days in advance I'm sure there are standards that could be had out there um because some of our kids can't adapt and other than me enrolling in high school which nobody wants that um it's very hard for me um to help her manage that situation um so whoever is working on the club scenario also on the Senior Open campus it sounds wonderful but again maybe because it's fresh with me knowing that um my daughter missed an opportunity to participate in something today um but when you do this think about the kids that are going to be left behind this would be mine who won't be driving um and so you have the Habs with the cars and licenses that can head off what happens to the rest that are left behind um because that is going to be another challenge and again um I'm I'm having enough challenges right now so picturing her senior year as everybody streams out and she's left behind is not something I would look forward to whatsoever on the transition program and I've had an email teed up to um um of examples of things that are happening in other towns um I've had an email that I've been needing to send to Mayor Perry but I I think as it relates to the transition program and and given that our mayor is so active in the community I just wonder if it would be useful given that our our our classification rates exceed 20% um that somebody like the mayor or the township committee could actually help in finding opport OPP unities um out there for our kids as it relates to work um jobs or internship opportunities um because we do have a lot of kids that are aging out um through our system and um you know in this town so I don't know if there was something that um you know the town and the district could look at together just to clarify and again this you might not even need this but we have been working with town and there has been opportunities um through different township um sites for for kids to work at and oh great yeah and then we're continuing you know we got conversations chair services to continue to expand those programs and um there'll also be meetings with um the county after the new year for County Parks and stuff like that they want to a meeting to by getting our kids involved and stuff so we are continuing to keep going Y and I agree I mean we have a lot of kids that have worked within our district or intern on our district so seeing them hire is a beautiful thing thank you anyone else wish to make a public comment just your name and address for the record markazi very um first off I want to congratulate you guys on the election andasi um I come here tonight because I still do care about the community quite a bit and you guys brought up about the Arts um program for the high school and how you're revamping the Middle School collectives um I would hope that in the next few months you could look at the elementary schools and their Arts programs because they're severely lacking um less than eight hours of instruction for art for music and it's kind of embarrassing when the teacher doesn't even know the children's names and it's not their fault it's because if there's a program to be cut for the day they say well we'll cut art or we'll cut music today but yet they have gym three times a week so if you could just take some time this over the next few months to look into it um because Arts are very important for the kids not everybody um not everybody learns the same way and arts also provides empathy and it provides a uh nurturing environment for the kids that may otherwise have struggles with General academics um and there's some some ways you could potentially do it if you hire full-time music and art teachers at the schools that also have special ed certification so that when they're not teaching music and art they're also being utilized they're getting they're getting more value for the dollar under the teacher um and it would be important for for the school's communities because like n for example where my children go they don't have a a Christmas show they have a band concert that the instrumental does but there's something about a single at a holiday time that's memorable for at least when I was in school and I talk to other parents and you know getting the community together for something like that is important and now that CO's over and we're getting back to normal it would be nice if you guys could look into that and I wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year and I just want to mention that we have already started that AUD because we do recognize the fact that our Arts offerings at the elementary are minimal um and we're going to work hard to increase that um and that was the first step is auditing what currently exists and how we work within our current footprint to to get to maximize the time um and opportunity that our elementary children get as well thank you thank you for comment would anyone else wish to make public comment see no one else coming to the microphone we should close the public comment and adjourn the meeting motion to approve second discussion call favor oppose extensions merry Christmas happy holiday and a Happy New Year to everyone Merry everybody