welcome to the Tuesday February 27th 2024 Montgomery Township Board of Education meeting thank you all for coming out on this rainy but warm evening Mr Trent roll call please yes Mr Carlson here miss ton here miss vac here miss Franco Herman president Miss Harris Dr Spence Wallace pres Miss W Gan here Miss Spina Mr Todd pres thank you we have time is 709 we now reconvene an open session everyone rise for the salute of the flag flag United States all right we're going started with our ntsd student representative report M thank you good evening Board of Education andom our community February has been a fantastic month for the students of H filled with meaningful events and celebrations this February marks Black History Month an important month of recognition and celebration of black American culture students have been recognizing this month all many events Ved by black student union and confusion this month MHS also recognized the Liv year while Dragon this past month the peer 2 leadership program helped out with care day in which peer leaders from MHS travel to Middle School to teach students about the power of resilience they discussed famous individual struggles like Mala yubai Hamilton and engaged in meaningful conversations with students this week bar we Spirit Week of inclusion at NHS in collaboration with the m program students and staff have been showing off of Spirit by participating all week Monday was neon day to represent the bright future we have with inclusion tie dye day this Tuesday to represent how we include everyone to get a beautiful picture comfy day on Wednesday because our school is a more comfortable place for us all when everyone is included Monte color day on Thursday because when everyone is included we're all the same team and finally Friday is inclusion day inviting everyone to wear morgage the boys swim team gave it their all sensal finals this past month and with the boys and girls swim team and swim season ending sorry swim season ending we congratulate all of our watch te Junior Jax o has advanced the state tournament for boys wrestling we congratulate all of our wrestling team members on the season earlier this month the National Honor Society held an induction ceremony congratulations to all of the new members for this great achievement the Montgomery boys basketball team made history advancing to County finals and this Monday at the sectional quarterfinals the team faced off against East Brunswick taking home the win and advancing to the SE to the sectional semifinals the game is this Wednesday at 6 pm. against Malboro High School in the MHS gym congratulations to all of our student athletes on the respective seasons and games once again showing off momy's talented student population the black student union hosted a very successful Family Soul Food and movie Community event highight iers inclusion that surrounds our community the event featured lots of good food and a showing of the movie Spider-Man across the spider this movie Chronicles the story of Miles Morales and a Latino team faces what it means to be a hero promoting empathy compassion and resilience along the way the jump store organization and Club boosted a successful dance Expo or mon to help raise funds and scholarships for loal students the interact Club is hosting their piest senior event an event where seniors volunteer to be Pie and students pay to pie their peers with the winning senior aka the one against p poost with the reward of choosing the charity the money is still needed to students and staff are getting excited for the upcoming senior trip to Disney this trip is said to be one of the largest groups mon has ever taken into history and coming up next month in March on 19 the Red Cross Club is hosting their annual flood dve on the 22nd and 23rd members of the community invited to attend and M production of the Adam family and throughout the month there is more to come for our school thank you thank you m Rob we now move to superintendent reports SL presentations superintendent good evening everyone tonight we have a celebration we're going to start both presentations are going to be presented by our building principles but we're going to start with our governor teachers of the year so each year we have a this is the first time we've been doing it in a while Teacher of the Year from each school so the principes will be here to talk about their teacher of the year and we are going to present them with their certificate from the Board of Education and then in May there is a lunch a breakfast a brunch for the teacher of the year held by the Somerset County for all the Somerset County teachers of the year so I will start with Mr Dan Van Heist from Orchard Hill who will come and speak about his teacher the year then at the end of everyone speaking about each of their teachers we're going to break for a few minutes because we have some light Refreshments here to celebrate them thank you superintendent glin I am honored to be here to honor honored to be here to honor our recipient Mrs Monica CL uh as Monica P has taught in the district since 2003 in both General and special education settings most recently Mrs cool has found a home and teaching our kindergarten students here at Orchard and has served an important role in helping to launch our full day program this year her nominations speak of her Excellence as an educator her leadership and most of all her overwhelming commitment to student growth Mrs cool is skilled providing opportunities to support student learning through multiple strategies that promote engagement and interaction among our students she is definitely seen as a leader by her peers and has made numerous contributions to curriculum and programming over her 20 plus years in the montgom Township School District if you're going to teach prek or k as Mrs Co has done both organization better be a strength of yours Mrs Co is not only known for Innovative and original Google slide presentations that keep learning fun for her students but she can also make a mean spreadsheet as well something she has assisted me with a time or two in the summer Mrs Cool Runs our districtwide sore program offering enrichment opportunities for students continued academic and interest based development in addition to families registering for these opportunities Mrs Cole has been an advocate to provide scholarship for families making this program accessible for all students I took the opportunity today to ask some of her kindergarten students about what words they would use to describe Miss C because anytime you can ask kindergarteners to describe anything it is enjoyable so here are some of their choices thoughtful great kind best teacher I ever saw helpful beautiful and I love her makeup it's with great enthusiasm that Orchard Hill names the hardworking passionate and dedicated Mrs Cole as our Governor's educator of the Year congratulations stand get a picture we don't want that thank you good look at you can look at Jim no we great thank you all right thank you thank you thank you thank you next we have principal Susan L from Village Elementary School good evening everyone I am proud to recognize and congratulate is Lori Wier as Bill of Elementary School te Miss L has had a stellar career in the Montgomery Township School District since she began her career in 1997 I should really say that her career started when she was a student here she is a lifelong resident who has deep and personal connections to this District not only has she gained tremendously from being a member of our community but she has given tremend she has given even more back to us she truly loves Montgomery and every single child and family who enters her classroom and she will tell you she loves teaching her students are her number one priority Miss Winer is a fine and deduc educ dedicated fourth grade teacher who performs her instructional skills and responsibilities with energy and enthusiasm goals and activities for her lessons always convey high expectations for student learning she works in partnership with her colleagues professional learning communities curriculum supervisors and administrators to share ideas and to ensure that standards and learning expectations are thoughtfully and creatively met Miss Wier consistently builds her repertoire of teaching and learning strategies and achieves tremendous success using assessment principles to plan and facilitate high quality quality learning that meets the needs of all Learners Miss wier's classroom is a place where students Thrive and develop a true love for learning through the use of community building and creative organizational strategies she has created a positive upbeat and student centered classroom environment her gift for connecting with and building a growth mindset in all of her students so they become confident and successful in all they do is impressive Miss Winer is known for motivating inspiring and having an everlasting impact on the Young Learners in their care it is not uncommon for students and families to share heartfelt experience they've had with Miss Wyer during previous school years or during interactions with her within the community Miss Winer is also proven a leader beyond the classroom she serves as the building vice president for the Mont Army Township Education Association and is a member of the district and school leadership teams in these roles she works with school administrators and staff to create and maintain a trusting work environment sharing decision making and problem solving and Advance Equitable teaching and learning practices in addition she naturally serves as a thoughtful and reliable resource for colleagues within and across buildings Miss Wier is an exceptional teacher she cares deeply about her students her fellow Educators and the teaching profession as a whole her leadership out of the box thinking and expertise have positively impacted everyone who knows her every child in her care and the entire Village School Community Village School would not be what it is without Miss Wier she truly exemplifies the very best what teachers give to and develop in their students and on behalf of the bees family I'm excited to congratulate her on this honor it's all for real love you Lori congratulations congrats congrats together that's right be proud L Mrs L thank you tonight in celebrating Cathy Gonzales and in talking about students over and over again we will be mentioning the importance of relationships and we'll even touch upon the subject of Angels in Montgomery we greatly value relationships because we know that in the absence of relationships and a sense of belonging learning doesn't occur so this is why when teach teachers show up to work with students colleagues and families positivity matters trust and belief in the capacity of others matters and every single day Kathy Gonzalez shows up to work with a smile on her face and love and compassion in her heart positivity exudes from Kathy's presence Kathy believes in every one of her students and as a result all of her students do more all of her students reach higher Heights having served under her tutelage when asked to share just a little of her Story Kathy will tell you that she was born and raised right next to her in Princeton New Jersey Kathy will let you know that growing up for quite sometimes she was the antithesis of a hardworking student in fact Kathy will tell you that sometimes you can even see herself graduating from princeon high school and here is where the Angels come in in an interview with Alma colleagues and administration Kathy shared how angels in the form of some very special teachers some kindhearted Community counselors and some obser and caring workers at the Princeton Public Library turned her life around these angels as Kathy referred to them spotted potential and goodness and talent in her that she had not yet embraced thanks to support from these people in her community and her loving family Kathy not only graduated high school she went on to become the first in her immediate family to graduate with a degree in education and she soon found herself right back inside those hallowed Halls of learning to this very day Kathy continues to immers herself in learning to ensure she remains at The Cutting Edge Kathy shares that her PO personal understanding of the power of relationships and still the Deep sense of gratitude within her being that she credits to her superpower which is the ability to see the potential to spot greatness in others and it's because of her gift of gratitude that Kathy uses her Talent as a multil linguist to connect with people throughout our Learning Community who otherwise would find it difficult to use their voice to support their children in school Kathy works tirelessly to connect with families in our community Kathy has built trusting relationships with families by meeting and working with them in evenings on weekends and throughout the summer Kathy students describe her as a caring teacher they say she's the kind of teacher you never forget because she takes the time to really get to know us as people and we always want to go to her class because we know she cares about us we have fun together and we can see with our own that each of us has given our own individualized work that Miss Gonzalez herself created to ensure we understand and feel good about learning when Kathy's current and former students and families inform me that they'd like to connect with Kathy I'm wise enough not to say oh I've got you now but rather I say I'll I get you and together we'll get Cathy and when I turn to C without hesitation her first response is what do I need to do and so Cathy this is just a sliver of the reason why the learning community of LMS students and families LMS staff and the outstanding LMS family of teachers all of whom share the belief that relationships matter that relationships come first in learning this is why we proudly embrace you as our 2023 24 teacher of the year you are an angel Among Us and at LMS we are a better team because of you okay thanks thank principal M good evening everyone I stand before you proud to bestow this tremendous honor of Governor educator of the Year forgy upper Middle School to miss Stephanie laau in a words she is synergy to ums she serves as an invaluable asset to our educational institution embodying qualities that extend far beyond the traditional scope of teaching she has been a Trail Blazer in the areas of trauma informed practices resilience and overall wellbeing significantly contributing to the growth and development of our school district our community both at home and abroad she's an extraordinary educator whose unwavering commitment to the well-being and development of both students and staff sets her apart as a true Beacon of inspiration her tireless efforts within the district and the Montgomery Township community have fostered a supportive and inclusive learning environment her dedication to trauma informed training and mindfulness practices has empowered our students and staff alike creating a space where everyone feels valued and understood Beyond her role in the classroom she has gone above and beyond by championing extracurricular travel opportunities and brought in the horizons of those under her guidance her Visionary leadership has enriched the educational experience and has left an inevitable mark on the entire School Community she is more than an exceptional teacher she is a transformative Force shaping the future by instilling a passion for Learning and empathy in all those fortunate enough to be in her care she is an Innovative Forward Thinking educator who created the global leadership course to support students in learning about what it means to be a global Citizen and how to think globally and act locally her course connects to a variety of local community efforts and supports students in creating change right here in Mony she has single-handedly crafted a change in curriculum through several Avenues during her tenure noticing a significant change in stress amongst our youth Stephanie took it upon herself to become a certified yoga and mindfulness instructor in doing so she integrated her knowledge into courses creating a full mindfulness curriculum that all students take during their time here at Upper Middle School additionally she became a reflection club which teaches and practices stress relief strategies in which hundreds of students have participated in and I'll be honest staff have joined as well she's also co-chair of our um a member excuse me of the municipal Alliance committee she helps plan activity calendars and awareness months for our community and has recorded mindfulness videos to share with others for mental health awareness month um throughout the month of May she has helped put positive message signs at the high school and middle school that don't give up signs encourage students in adults to stay strong in difficult times and offer affirming messages in conclusion Stephanie lenher has not only excelled as an educator but has also transformed our school Community into a nurturing and supporting environment she is truly deserving of this honor and of this award and we are so much better because you're amongst us thank you for that Synergy that you bring with you every single day that calmness that Stills even the most treacherous of days for both staff students and families it is with great honor that I share this award with everyone present this evening and with Upper Middle School Stephanie L government educ High School principal good evening everyone uh um my teacher of the year isn't here tonight but we are going to still honor him and he's very sad that he had to visit so just one complaint you moveed the podium on it don't enjoy so it's with great pleasure and pride that I'm here tonight to share with you Montgomery High School's Governor educator of the Year Mr Zoran millich I've known Mr millich in many capacities and always found him to be extremely talented and informed and an educational professional who's demonstrated exceptional achievement in every capacity in which he served he's a creative resilient energetic and fair instructional leader within the classroom and also extracurricularly on the football field he's also Dem trap as well his values excellence and strives succeed in all undertakings he's a strategic risk taker and attempts to make things happen by assisting and strengthening the knowledge base of all the educational stakeholders within his reach as as a member of the social studies Department Mr millich teaches Crime and Punishment Introduction to Sociology and elements of human behavior he's also the head coach of Montgomery High School's football team he's truly an exceptional educator who has positive and life-changing impacts on his students he's dedicated his life to Bringing out the best in everyone who's around him but most importantly our children he's a stellar role model and students look up to him I did not ask them for any words uh we don't ask high school students for words um and he always goes the extra mile with his efforts to achieve better results in the classroom and improve their behavioral choices in every Arena each year we witness coach millage teaching students what the true sense of a team is both in his class women on the field he has a full commitment to success for each of his students and it's clearly noticeable in every interaction and the strong bond and camaraderie formed within every class and team that he is a part of he teaches students the import hard work discipline and personal accountability he knows some students will push boundaries Or Break The Rules however he never gives up on any student when he finds a young person who's lost their way he creates opportunities in a path towards Redemption personal growth and trust it's these lessons of postp personal growth that are transformal transformational for many students and it's clear that it's a moment of Pride for Coach millage to see his students become the best versions of themselves it's obvious that Mr Mill students and peers respect him respect one another and feel supported when they're within his reach I want to tell you one story about Mr Village from the last year that really highlights the true essence of who he is and why he's such a big presence both physically and theoretically within our school Community we had a student that came to us last year um the student came to us from another school district and when we reached out to that school district find out information about the student it was a student and his brother the school told us to put all of our efforts into the one student the brother and not waste our time on this other student that he was a behavioral concern he wasn't going to amount to much his grades weren't going to pan out Mr millich took that kid that lost cause as he was labeled by his previous school on as a personal project and really all of the Educators at Montgomery high school did but Mr M found an extra layer of importance there that student when he came to us did struggle at first he struggled academically he struggled behaviorally and he struggled to find his way to fit in but Mr millich never gave up on him and he brought him into the wait room kind of forced him to play a sport um sat with him and offered to help him find his way academically and make connections with him within the student body so that way he too could find his personal group at Montgomery High School at Montgomery High School we believe every student can succeed even the ones that someone else might Lael lost and that's at the very essence of who his millage is slowly what Mr Mill did was change the path for this student and this student could have any name or face because it's been so many students before this student as well about halfway through last year this student completely changed his trajectory he went from someone that was struggling academically and behaviorally giving up on school talking about dropping out to someone who was then succeeding in the classroom making all the right behavioral choices and would walk up to you in the hallway and shake your hand because that's what coach millage taught him to do both on the field and in the classroom academic success still doesn't come easy for that student but now he knows that he has a future hard work is never easy and that is something that Mr millich has instilled in all of us he works with this student to this day as to many other professionals at Montgomery High School to continue to create a path of opportunity within the classroom and as part of our larger Community Mr millich is Relentless in fostering the understanding that student athletes and I will emphasize the student first and also students in the classroom I lost my thought a little this is why read from new paper but he's essential in fostering the understanding that it is students first he understands the importance of academic standards and the role that we all play in supporting our students so they can achieve in out of the classroom and later in life he understands the power of creating meaningful pro-social interaction and how critical these how critical these relationships are and the power that they have to strengthen a student sense of belonging and desire to see succeed within the classroom but also once they leave us in our greater world Mr Milich embodies the idea that it only takes one adult to make the difference in the life of a child and many times Mr millich is that one adult obviously I cannot say enough positive things about him and I have said these things to him as well and I will make him sit down and watch the video with me so he has to listen to that in the presence of me he's charismatic he's got an amazing personality and if your children have not had him yet I hope they do thank you I accepting Le don't take my picture this is why we started with congratulations to all of our governor educators of the year at this time I want to take a short break we have some refreshments and some water over um on the table over there um I want everyone to have the ability to say hi and congratulate our governor teacher educators of the year and enjoy for a couple of mon thank you just real quick at this moment we will take intermission but I would do have to put a tool to all those in favor stay die at this time I'll entertain a motion to reopen the public meeting so second oh those paper motion carries the second part of the superintendent report I'm going to ask the five building principals back up to the podium they are going to do a presentation called HIV education across the schools so I'm going to start us off I'm just going to provide a little framework about harassment intimidation and bullying him teaching kids how to make good choices it's complex work at first glance one might think that teaching kids about H is just an act of using words which is using words to harm is simply teaching kids what not to say a studying word choice but teaching about Hib is so much more to us than just a lesson and word choice teaching to prevent kid as well as teaching kids the importance of relationships and teaching kids how to build relationships with everyone in their learning communities so that every single person feels a sense of belonging feels welcomed and feels respected at the same time instructing to prevent him is about teaching kids how to self-regulate in the face of really big emotions we teach our students how to make themselves self-aware of their feelings of discomfort their feelings of frustration and their feelings of anger and hurt hurt and then we have to teach our students how to navigate these feelings how to name them and how to seek support to negotiate them rather than choosing what comes so naturally to so many of us in these uncomfortable times which is choosing her for words to mask feelings of hurt or inadequacy so this work is no small feat and here in Montgomery Township School District from the moment you enter whether it be in kindergarten or in your senior year or anytime in between at every school throughout the district we are committed to teaching our students lifelong human lessons of self-awareness and self-regulation and tonight we're going to just show you a glimpse of that big work that we're committed to so oh we have this clicker don't we all right look at that okay so all five of us could um stand up here here and and speak to our schools specifically and what takes place at each school but we really try to give a unified approach to this presentation and um we thought that since we really all value and believe the same things and try to achieve the same things at our schools we try to provide a more um unifiing comprehensive thing so when we talk about prevention across Montgomery Township Schools in terms of HIV we start with what we value and what we kind of bring back to a baseline so it's what do we value at each school what do we value across the district what is the language that we will use day in and day out that Mak students believe they are part of a special community and when you step outside that community and make a bad choice in terms of something you say or do we want to make sure that we address that so it starts with shared values consistent language um that is something that runs deep throughout all of our schools I'll probably do that after having speaked a little bit more I don't know why they exam that just makes me look bad again um so a lot of that when I think about prevention the best thing that we can do is foster a sense of belonging for all of our kids so when I think about fostering a sense of belonging it really hinges on creating opportunities to build pro-social relationships and pro-social interactions so when I think about that it's all the other stuff you know what happens in the classroom is intensely important on so many levels but it's also what happens outside of our clom so when we're looking at prevention and we'll see you know I have a hard time distinguishing between prevention and education because those things really do go hand in hand it's what's happening in our hallways you know how are we greeting our students as they walk into the door what are we offering in terms of clubs activities extracurriculars where students have that opportunity to interact on more than just a curricular level so you know we can spout off all the different statistics with it I can tell you that we've got 63 different clubs and you know 33 different Varsity Sports and that's great but it's still doesn't encapsulate what happens within that so we just spoke about teachers of the year and what you heard about was everything in addition to what in addition to what they do curricularly so it's all those opportunities for relationships that are at that Foundation for prevention and for that Foundation of belonging and really understanding who each of us is when it comes to our core values there are no two of us that are alike and it's only when we recognize that we all bring something to the table that we really can access the foundation of prevention Dan wants to come back I see it Happ um I'm just thinking about sorry just thinking a little more about what's up there that's concrete that can give a good kind of view as to our dayto day or what stands out um that bullet that says consistent review of of behavior discipline trends at all buildings our schools have school climate and safety teams where HIV data is reviewed as part of that team um it's something that we do utilize in terms of prevention to see what kinds of Trends there are tied to those those HIV investigations and reports so that is a a concrete um in the moment example of how we're examining Trends every so often to try to prevent um HIV so just a a concrete example there anything else for prevention Heather I feel like you're challenging me I'm not I'm not all right let's moving on you want to ask a question just say something follow thank you so much thank you for noticing thank you thank you so Rael and I are going to continue with education across the schools um and education across our schools look very similar we place a strong emphasis on relationship building the development of strong respectful and welcom communities that every student can contribute to and be proud of so these ideal were communicated at the very begin beginning of the year where we're talking about expectations for ourselves rules in our schools how we want to interact and engage with one another and then these conversations continue through counselors getting into the classrooms and talking about the safe ideals and practices Tri go down to our teachers who bring this up every day um our students um following expectations in the classroom in the school and outside of the school um we also have our Dei committees that this work our de committees um come up with projects and activities that are Lucent for every child they provide resources for staff and students to use to encourage positivity um inclusion diversity and sense of belonging and when you look at some of the pictures that we had we see there's so many group activities there's so many things that kids can be a part of in our schools um where they feel proud and where they learn about other students and how to interact with them so in addition to um the message that Miss Lacy has shared one of the things that is Paramount for us in the district is the fact that our students before learning can take place they need to be seen they need to be seen by way of who welcomes them in the building what they see as they're navigating the Halls whether it's in structure structured setting in the classroom um on the sports field and of core curricular um following their passion if it's just wanting to have a conversation about something that they're passionate about that they don't see in their building that they want to be a part of it is what is at the heart and at the foundation of Education um the importance of being seen is also Al allowing students to feel that they have a voice and that their voice is important um and that what they value matters one of the things that I wanted to add with the prevention is that every building has a threat assessment team and one of our things that we pride ourselves is being responsive not reactive and in order to be responsive we need to be ahead of the curve we need to recognize that in unstructured learning environments students will explore boundaries and we need to be there to make sure that the education is consistent that it is supportive that it is restorative um that it is holding students accountable but also providing them the opportunity and the space in order for their concerns to be heard and to be understood so that they can help restore not only themselves um the harm that may have caused the impact of their words or their actions and recognize that it's an opportunity for continued growth and development and most importantly that there is someone individuals in our buildings that they can rely on as a resource and as a support not only for our students but also for our families we also have a responsibility to understand that kids have within their reach something that is very fleeting which is social media and digital access um they are especially in you know 5 through 8 in the high school we have their own devices and there is a lot of instruction and education that is imparted about that digital print um and that something that is so fleeting is never fully gone and how we want to see ourselves in the interactions and the mediums that we engage in is also equally important as it is a part of their lived experiences so this education is something that we are navigating every single day and I would add that it is an education that is the responsibility of everyone every single day that comes in contact with all our students that begins with the stop the bus stop the parents would drop their children off or the guardian the custodial staff the cafeteria Personnel our secretaries counselors case managers paraprofessionals um school psychologist everyone in our buildings our supervisors um obviously our teachers our administrators our support groups um our communities are all integral players in the education this is not something that we are charged with on our own and we recognize the magnitude and we also are here to the commitment of its importance instruction so leis and I are going to talk a little bit about instruction and how it's embedded throughout our classrooms and throughout our buildings um so Rael talked a little bit about restorative practices and how that helps students um respond to situations that they might find themselves in a precursor to that is responsive classroom and morning meeting so at the k6 level responsive classroom is a philosophy that we use within our classrooms it's primarily to build a connection between academic learning and social emotional learning and one of the most important parts of it is the morning meeting um there are also other activities that are built in throughout the day but the primary goal is to build a community to build a sense of belonging to make sure that every child every day has someone who acknowledges them makes a connection with them talks to them and understands who they are so during the morning and you'll see a little picture there they start each day with the greeting that's one component and then there might be an opportunity where they share something they'll do an activity together that creates team building and a classroom uh connection and then the teachers will talk about what's going on for the day so the students go in knowing exactly where they stand they're connected with their peers and the goal is to minimize and prevent bullying because when you have a strong connection with others around you you're less likely to bully them or cause them harm you create a family create a sense of community within the classroom we also find during these conversations that students were able to share unique perspectives and ideas about themselves or something special or unique that they did with their families and their personal lives and then teachers encourage students to have conversations and connect with each other throughout the day so those conversations can continue a morning meeting also allows teachers to follow up on things that we may talk about in the morning or things that come up in the school day or issues that the school might be addressing whether it's bathroom Behavior what have you teachers can reinforce those conversations with the kids and then the kids actually have opportunities to share out other things about themselves or to um be a leader or run an activity take a leadership role and they can do activities that are also fun such as games um and other activities um the use of the inclusive curriculum is something that is embedded throughout our schools it supports the New Jersey inclusive legislation so we can make sure that every people group is seen heard valued and connected we use our texts and monthly celebrations to emphasize these celebrations we have kids who present and talk about them we have kids who run activities whether they're on our morning news at Village or as you heard earlier from our student representative um activities at the high school but every building has an opportunity for inclusive um instruction and curriculum we use text as a springboard for this books are always a great way to help students see themselves so we see books as mirrors windows or sliding glass doors so books are mirrors because students can see themselves we want to ensure that we have books that are by diverse authors um with diverse characters and perspectives and experiences that's one way for students to learn about each other learn about challenges and how to resolve them and it also helps with problem solving so if we do encounter um an incident in school a book is a great way to problem solve and help children learn through those experiences um books are are windows where students look out and see people who are different than them books are sliding glass doors where they can actually step into an experience and have empathy for someone else or sort of put themselves in someone else's shoes Okay peer leader Outreach mental health or social emotional learning um I think one word that encapsulates encapsulates that is connectivity so take a look at that good looking bunch up in the right hand corner those students going down into the um lower grades are like rock stars yeah and they are thought and and they create a safe space for our students across the grades to say you know what I know what you're going through been there done that um let's talk about that because these are the students who are now gaining the most control over those feelings and emotions and they're giving tips and tricks to our younger kids and the kids just so uhing I think that's where the current events and kids talking about their opinions and all and all of us are kids have a lot of opinions um so you know what goes on in our greater World whether it be in our immediate Community or you know as we move outward is something that our students care deeply about and I've got to be honest with you education has changed a lot since most of us were in school I cannot remember being as in tune with current events you know social media has done many good things it's also done many negative things for our kids once upon a time I only grew up a couple of towns over I didn't know what happened in the school next to me I didn't know what happened in the town next to me I didn't know what happened a couple of states away our kids know and they're keenly in tune to what goes on and they're keenly in tune to the the uh the tone in which things are put out there and a lot of times what's really difficult is you know when you look at adolesence and you look at it through the lens of what is developmentally appropriate for a kid they should be trying on all kinds of different personalities language opinions and things like that and that's really what we encourage the difficult thing is we have to encourage them to do it in a way that isn't demeaning or offensive to the people people sitting next to them we can all share different opinions but we have to do it in a way that is safe for everybody involved so we spend a lot of time with that um it also calls for a focus you know we cannot ignore that there is a mental health crisis going on around the world um it's a very difficult thing so you have these we have our students our young people that you know are developing they're developing thoughts feelings emotions there's you know they're maturing slowly there's hormones there's there's a lot in play and they've got to kind of balance and see where they fit in and understand that greater world and how that impacts them as well there's a lot that our kids are dealing with so we do make sure that when we're you know education and instruction is embedded through everything but so is mental health so it can't just be a pit stop anymore when I grew up we had um a lot of different messages about self-esteem and there were posters on the walls everywhere self-esteem do you have it um it's a little more than self esteem now you know our kids understand their own mental health and their own emotional needs more than most of us do and they're able to articulate it they're able to advocate for it but not everybody is we have our Cougar care days at the younger levels where they take a pit stop and look at mental health much more than a pit stop it is a communal pause to recognizing the importance of self-reflection learning strategy to help navigate the nuances that is to be a student in every one of our buildings and it also allows students to recognize that it is okay to take a pause to just come up for air stop what you're doing as a community and engage in activities that are not just academic that we are much more than the academics that we are much more than the rigor and the the the Stellar School District that we are because of the performances we are also at a Humane level navigating many nuances and many changes and our Cougar care days at you is something that I'm incredibly proud of um because it is something that we do as a community it's not staff it's staff and students it's everyone in the community so that's something that's really important and it's something that it's infused throughout our district I will take communal pauses in my day um and I apologize it is more than a pit stop um and it does look different at every level and I'll explain in a minute why mental health is so important when it comes to HIV so at the high school every Department looks at mental health and looks at it through a different lens whether it be looking at um different concepts around test Stress and Anxiety that might happen in the math department to um different methods of expression that might happen in English language arts it's something that's constant so and also we have our counselors and all the other wonderful professionals that work with our students what we know is and what the data points at is when kids don't feel good about themselves they are not nice to others and HIV is more than just not being nice um but that's really at the cruxs of it so if you don't feel good you're not going to treat anybody else in that regard as well so responding to HIV this is something that we get a lot of questions about and this is what I need to prad this with I have never met met a young person that doesn't make a bad choice at some point I've never met a human being that doesn't make a bad choice even after being a young person at some point it's not the choices we make but rather what we do after that moment that really defines what our character is and who we are and that is what we try to instill with our young people the the law the legislative body that surrounds um HIV harassment intimidation and bullying doesn't do a good job of flushing that out in a manner that parents and students can see it without us being explicit about it in the moment so when I think about it like that every time we have a student that reports something that they believe to be harassment intimidation or bulling it gives us an opportunity to talk to educate and to work with our students and our so that way they can see something from a different perspective yes I understand it is invas it does not feel good to go through it as the offender it does not feel good to go through it as the victim it doesn't feel good to go through it as the principal leader you know nobody wants to see any of this happen but really it gives us that critical pause where we can educate and shift the direction for the bigger problem is when kids don't report these incidents to us and they go unchecked and we don't have that opportunity to have those critical conversations at all the levels because the repercussions are small when you're within the confines of a school district they feel harsh especially to a kid that maybe has never had an interaction before or any disciplinary consequence but it's when you're in the greater world that we're looking at things like people getting charged with hate crimes and things like that that we need to make sure we have that opportunity to share that perspective so what does it look like when we respond we're one of the districts and I'm very glad that we have it that does not have principles pression so that means that when somebody reports something to us and they believe it might be an act of grasping and intimidation and bullying we are automatically investigating that means I don't get to pause and have an opinion about I don't want to have an opinion about it because I don't know what I'm going to uncover as I go through that and it's all about the tactfulness with which we approach an investigation that back now there'll be times that we have more hivs and quite frankly the fact that we have more is because we are educating our kids we are doing the job at the prevention end we are doing our job at the inclusive making sure we're including it curricularly where kids know to say something now so years ago when we had people coming out and saying yeah that happens all the time but nobody's going to do anything that's a deep-seated belief that kids have that came from you know maybe one person having a bad experience or maybe somebody never just reporting it because they believe nobody would do something and that just Foster an infestor to the point where unacceptable Behavior has just become allowable we can't allow it anymore so we have all acts that are reported verbally to the school principal principal then the principal or design so it's usually a principal or vice principal that then informs the parents and guardians of all the students of the alleged incident so that means on both the victim end and the offender end with one within one day we initiate an investigation and this is touchy because sometimes people get really upset so people will come to was and say I just wanted you to know I don't want you to investigate or I changed my mind please don't or why did you initiate an investigation that's not what I wanted this to be we do not legally have a choice anything that comes to us we must investigate um people will say all the time to me I'm afraid of retaliation I promise we are really good at what we do retaliation isn't a thing and if somebody would dare to retaliate that's a different level of conduct and discipline so throughout the investigation which the timeliness of this it's the our anti- Boling Specialists which go through an extensive training and we have more than one that each building is charged with you know investigating um the alleged defense for both the alleged vim and offender um and during that course of Investigation there are two things that are happening simultaneously there's an investigation and then there is the code of conduct and as the principal Vice principles we have to adhere to that code of conduct and determine whether or not there was a there is a discipline that is imparted as a result of that separate from the investigation and part of that is what we discussed about education and explaining the why everyone needs to understand the why why is there an investigation why is there a code of conduct why is it that this is going to be recorded in Genesis as you know part of the process of Investigation all of those are valid questions and I think part of the frustration that Heather voice is that we are not at Liberty to disclose information as it's happening as it's being investigated because we need to protect all parties involved um once the investigation is completed um there is direct contact with all involved and also there's follow-up correspondence um with a letter that is sent home with the initial and then with the findings um and one of the things that we stress is that there's an alleged investigation there's no Assumption of guilt and that the process while it's timely you know it's it's done very quickly the investigation or within 10 days the turnaround time of when the final decision is made is longer and that creates a level of uncertainty and maybe concerns with those who are involved um that is unfortunately part of the reality of this process um n less important um to the process so one of the things that we want to clarify too is that building principles and administration are not a part of the investigation that is done by the abss the anti- building Specialists I had another thought and it quickly escaped that is it's been very long day um we do then give the super endent a report within two days of completion of our investigation superintendent then reviews it and it gets moved on to the board level there's a lot of you know this looks very technical this this this this what you're missing here is all the touch points with students meaningful conversations counseling that happens and I'll be very honest with you some of the most wonderful students that I know I've sat with at some point over an hi on the the victim end and the offender end so I just need to go back to that that concept it's not what kids do wrong you know HIV it's it feels very heavy when it's happening there's a very in-depth investigation you got a very legal letter in the end that tells you which way it went but these are still children whether they're here from prek to senior year I know that some of my kids look older than some of us do uh but they're still children and we very much so treat them like that we want them to learn we want them to grow we want to have opportunities to do things with them that we can create those opportunities and at the end of the day it's not what happened it's everything else that is most important so it's all those decisions that come after that it's our ability to intera with students and create opportunities for them to learn and grow and become the best versions of themselves that they want to be one more right we close with the friend so we just wanted to bring to the board's attention one last um educational opportunity I guess so Mr Palumbo if you would would you click on that finger fingerprint icon there and then along the left hand side you'll see that there is a tab or a link for HIV 101 appar addition presentation um let's just say by chance there's still questions after all of that um we have created and Dr Young who is our District's anti-bullying coordinator um she has created a oneon-one version um that is very accessible and easy to understand for parents so um you're looking at the principal that gets to try to explain explain this to parents of six and seven year olds which carries its own different kind of weight and a lot of times there is that disbelief and just like amazement that this could take place this investigative process could take place for students of such an age but you know as Heather shared it that's not at our discretion um regardless the 101 presentation is there now for parents to view and Dr Young um answers everything she can from a parents perspective about the process so that is up there it's posted and Dr Young will be here next month I believe to do more HIV review and I'm just going to acknowledge this on the other end of the spectrum because Dan and I do Polar Opposites you know he has the parents and the students that come in and say I can't believe that this is happening and you know I have kindergartener so I too understand that and then I have the other end of the spectrum where people are so afraid about what this could mean for their future and does this keep my child from whatever the postsecondary opportunity is and the answer is that we will always always make the best opportunity for kids no it doesn't kids are kids so I heard something and I shared it at my back to school night this year and it was important for me to hear as a parent especially of I have a six-year-old now and an 11 almost 11y old um and my son's middle school principal got up and said I hope that you don't all suffer from nmk syndrome and here's me I'm like I might have it what is it um and it's not my kid you know we all want to believe that it would not be my kid I want to believe that it would not be my kids it's going to be my kid Someday my kid is going to say something or do something and he's going to accidentally cross a line and I know and I hope that he has educational professionals like we have here that are going to be there to help in that moment to help me continue to teach him right from wrong because really when you think about it you know as parents we're with our kids for a good portion of the day and then the educators are with our parents for another significant portion of the day so when we're all working together to make sure that our kids are the best that they can be that's when we really succeed so hopefully I don't suffer from m okay latk go go I think that's the presentation see that board president Todd has a question and superintendent blin is thinking to herself never will I put five of them up there together again any questions yeah I have a question uh one of the things that somebody said was uh that you you watch all the inputs that the kids have and it makes sense and um somebody brought this up to me in the last week is that phones are sort of ever present and there there's no pause from them so so how do we how do we handle those things I think that you've really so the question is about phones and what do we do with that and it's really a 360d so you know there's a lot of Education that has to happen within the school buildings but there's also a lot of Education that has to happen at home in what responsible use is and what it looks like and understanding the social media imprint and I'll be honest with you you know I come from a time where I remember somebody saying hey do you have texting in your plan I've got the one with 100 texts and now our kids are coming to school with unlimited data plans and you know nothing on their phones that really stops them from exploring the internet and the harsh reality is and it's going to be hard for everybody to hear it's still hard for me to hear the minute you put a cell phone a smartphone in your kids hand you are giving them access to everything that has to come with some education kids are curious it's part of where they are developmentally so they're going to go out there and look they're going to go out there and look to understand and they're going to mimic what they see so a lot of it is and I find myself now starting to have to do that intentionally myself with you know Middle School in in my district starts in fifth grade as well as our lower Middle School you know my kid has a lot of questions and I can either seize the opportunity to have the difficult conversations if we've had to have a couple or I missed the opportunity to direct him and help him to understand and I really think that that's for all of us so whether it's in the classroom with a misstep or you know it might be something as simple as language that comes up in a curricular piece or you know for me a current event that's happening in the world we have to give students our children the safe opportunity to share and explore ask questions and US provide them with feedback um it's hard because we're nobody is with a kid 100% of the time but I will tell you that I am a big proponent of checking your child's phone you know look at their browser history there are different tools that parents can use out there I've got you know my kids don't have phones yet they have an iPad and I have software on there so I can see exactly what they're doing and saying and it's not to come at them from a point of you know I think about maybe how my parents would have dealt with it and it maybe would have been very loud um in my house it's really from a point of you know I'm curious about why you chose that word you know I'm curious about why you maybe interacted like that can you help me understand when you heard that and having that conversation and keeping that door open so that way they're willing to interact um but kids will you know human beings inherently keep secrets so making sure that door is open so we can have that conversation so at the middle school um you know it's off and Away um and you know we stress the importance of disconnecting to reconnect disconnecting so that there is a limited distraction um to being active participants in the learning um and I think that students are really um challenged with their devices not being a part of them every minute of the day um and don't get me wrong there's an important piece to this right they're they're very busy they want to know what's happening next um what their schedule has changed if they want to deviate from a schedule so part of it is is in explaining the why it's so important to be fully present in the learning environment and and being active participant in that learning um and also the responsibility that comes with what is actually so pressing um because if it is an emergency or there's a shift in your schedule then that's why we have amazing secretarial staff that's why we have responsiveness for early pickup or notes anything that you know if a student needs to be contacted or brought down we have the ability to be very responsive in that regard um you know the last thing we want is for students to you have their devices on hand to kind of meet in the bathroom and have a power um when they should be in class and arrive on time that's just an example so it's disconnect to reconnect um and that's why we we find that having that policy is really important and we're also finding that you know families and are you know are very responsive to this and and have an understanding of why is so important any other questions for the group yeah so um I know in my case I didn't I didn't want to get bones my kids and they got to I think it must have been about they're they're in college now so they're not going to see this um but they were they were told that they needed to have phones is that would say that I have probably the most phone heavy building nobody needs to have a phone it is a convenience factor that I think kids and parents enjoy um but whether or not you need to have a pro is a personal decision was they said that there were some classes where they didn't have enough Chromebooks and so they we are a at the might I'm not going to say they were lying but I think that device is a broadly used term so the school is a bod school so bring your own device school so we do expect that our students come with a device now we definitely have students that don't have phones they bring a Chromebook to school um we do not I never have provided Chromebooks for everyone I can tell you that our staff overwhelmingly prefers that their device is not a phone and rather a Chromebook or a computer because it is very different I'm picturing typing out papers on phones and that doesn't really work out well there are things that they can do with phones so participate in a cot or something like that but is definitely not a must have or need so they were right on the device they needed a device so just quickly I apologize and I thank you for the amount of work that you put into this because it's an exuberant amount of work and I um thank you for your thoroughness um just as a clarification you had alluded to the idea of um watching for Trends and patterns uh in terms of your cultures and your schools I'm wondering if you specifically use uh former hivs to really look at patterns of behaviors of words being used so that's a data point for all of you we do all that and I'll give you an example standing here at the podium on the wrong side of the room um so at the high school we actually have week weekly meetings where we look at all of our data Trends specifically with anything that's HIV related some weeks we've got nothing to talk about in that Arena and we talk about the rest of our discipline Trends because we really do want to see where things are shifting and I'll give you an example we um with our current freshman class we saw some specific trends that we thought to ourselves we can do better um we need to get in front of these kids and make sure that we have an opportunity to write this because when you see a trend happening in a negative Direction you choice you can either interrupt the trend or you can keep dealing with the outcome of the trend so what we chose to do is interrupt the trend and we took all of our fresher during their uh health and fette blw and as an administrative team got in front of them with also some of our counselors and our abss and said we need to explain to you some of the the data that we see coming in and where you play a role in this and we need to help you to not go in this direction so we we're we're very candid with our students um I will tell you that we spend a lot of time talking with kids not just once they've made the mistake but before it as well so whether it's sitting down in a lunchroom I know they really love it when I sit down at a lunch table and say hey guys what's up can we talk um or you know at any of our events those pro-social interactions aren't just limited to our kids so you know people joke around we see you at so many things I go to so many things because that's how I keep the student body moving in a positive direction so if we don't know what's going on with our kids The Good The Bad all the stuff that comes in the middle we're really just going to be in a constant triage that you're participating in and that's not a best practice thanks and then just please let us know we certainly don't have to answer now but if there's a way that the board can be supportive of this work um you know just please reach out to us thanks I just have a follow up related to Michelle's question for the other um administrators do you also use your data that you see and how do you use that the way that Heather does um yes we do use data we have safety and climate teams in each of our buildings where their sole purpose is to look at data to look at Trends um we have a parent that sits on that committee as well and then we use that to build our programs for have our teachers um communicate to their students about things that we're learning use our morning news as an opportunity we use an assembly as an opportunity to make changes um just to talk a little about the phone the elementary school is not immune to students coming in with phones but we expect the phones to be secured away during class time but we also have students use their watches sometimes and we have had experiences where students May um use their phones or a device to do something that's inappropriate and then we have to reteach things that we proactively do which is a digital citizenship so that is part of our technology class where students learn about digital citizenship from our technology teachers um how to safely use a device how to be aware if you're chatting in in uh during a game which sometimes does happen at home and then sometimes those activities trickle in so when it comes to parent involvement and support from the community is we need parents to consider parental controls consider the age of the child whether they're mature enough to have a device um that they use on their own then having a time where those devices go away as a family have family time where all the devices go away they're locked up they're secure and just keeping an eye on what your children are doing because sometimes like I said that does triple into the building and it could turn into an HIV situation and then we're sort of you know triaging trying to to um educate them about those situations so the data that you get that drives your programming could perceivably change year to year depending on the trends that you see it could and sometimes the trends like the elementary level when students are using language that's inappropriate or offensive to someone else there's a mix of students who know who learn from their families what kind of words and language is inappropriate but then there are students who may just be mimicking someone else whether it's a teenager or someone they encountered or someone um on the bus and then we have to it might be a long line of investigating to find out the source of that information so a lot of Education that's why we're trying to be as proactive as we can and then we can always say to kids let's let reflect back to this lesson or let's reflect back on this assembly or this guest speaker or this book that we read and then we sort of circle back to all those learning opportunities and all those resources that we use to then re-educate and give rid your students thank you I just want to um so I forgot something I remembered before when I said I had a thought and it walked away well it came back and it's really in relation to the questions over here as well as yours and what Susan was saying there's a there's an extra piece that I need people to know and we spend a lot of time at the high school educating our students about this and it's very specific to social media and electronic communication so there's an interesting piece of case law that emerged in New Jersey um a couple of years back I think it's either two or three years back now so when it comes to code of conduct you cannot discipline a student for something that they've done off of school grounds except when it comes to HIV so the case law that came out years ago I'm not going to bore you and go through the case but basically what happened is an act of or several acts of harassment intimidation and bullying happened outside of school so offg grounds I believe it was at aaha that electronic communication then impacted the student school day so the courts ruled that the electronic communication while still outside of the school day school grounds and school hours still could be ruled as HIV and that's an important piece of information that especially some of our older kids and our families need to understand and that goes back to that digital footprint where you know we think that we can put things out there and just delete them nothing is ever deleted and kids think we're kidding when we say that and then every once in a while we bring in local law enforcement so that way they can share about how easy it is to get that information even if you go into your deleted because the kids are like well I even went into my deleted and deleted it um which is a thing so if you want to know that go into your deleted delet it um it's still there so your digital footprint never leaves and that you know is a hard learning point for our kids because I sometimes refer to them as Paper Tigers so everybody gets very tough when it's just something that they're putting out there on paper whether it's an email or some type of Social Media communication it's not who they are they would never say that to somebody's face and they tried it on and what they assumed was a safe man and it comes back and that's the thing that's hard to understand and that case law really was pivotal in how HIV is handled and that's another thing that's difficult with the law you know things are constantly evolving so why is everybody so scared of HIV because it's continuously made scary we try to make it something that's not and it really is we're talking about kids making bad choices and that is that simple um but it's all the rhetoric around it in the media and you know some of the harsh language that comes at you legally that makes it very very difficult for people to navigate BR just have um so part of this the responsibility is not something that one person exclusively is charged with one of the things that is really um important to knowe is that in every respective school we have teams and we have student voices we have our Compassionate Care team our trauma inform team our threat assessment team um and we're not there just to we're there to respond to to Trends to the data we're also there to listen um we have students in our principal advisory teams they have a really good handle on how they see themselves what they want to see differently in their building where we can improve where we have to hold each other accountable for things that are happening whether it be you know unkind um interactions bus behavior um vandalism how it impacts our school day so this is a chart that is is Unified in its effort to really be um open and transparent about the progress that we continuously need to make um and the education how it needs to be um responsive and very much a reflection of the realities of our students and what they're navigating every day um and I will add in my first year as an administrator and proud principal of Montgomery Upper Middle School school I can tell you implicitly that the support is not only there for our students and our families but it's also there for our staff and it's also there for our administrative team the process by which we delivered our message to you today was a team effort it was a unified effort it was a message of consistency of importance of responsibility of our commitment and also our message that this is not something that we can navigate alone that we need all of you that we need the family and you know support we need Community involvement um we need to kind of hone in on what we can bring into our buildings to elevate the awareness um and to send messages of resiliency and empathy and inclusion um Susan Lacy said it beautifully with Windows mirrors and sliding doors um we're not magicians um but it is Montgomery is a magical place that we will be even so thank you for your time other questions from board members presid thank you so much appreciate anything else that concludes the presentation I just want to personally thank all of the community members who joined us in our three strategic planning meetings they are completed at this time we are awaiting the New Jersey school board's um affiliate ref Thorton to sent us information from last week's strategic planning meeting and then the administration in the district and I will sit down and come up with the goals and objectives for the goals that will be implemented starting next school year with timelines attached to them thank you thank you superintendent blin we now move to committee representative reports we'll start out with MTA report Mr do good evening board members to R new members administrators colleagues um thanks again for your time just want to share a couple things I think it's amazing uh our our Governor's Teacher of the Year Award winners uh they are literally Stars among stars and I've worked with them being in Montgomery for 23 years um I'm feeling a little old nostalgic because uh we have a new staff Academy every uh year and I was one of the staff members chosen to share whatever knowledge I had that time with staff members and I do remember Monica Monica clu at first day 22 years old coming to that new staff Academy and here I was sharing what I knew with her and now she's up here on the stage receiving that teacher of the year award so um you know amongst our other stars that we've had uh tonight as well so it's really nice to see people recognize and literally it's one of the hardest ches that people could make when you're trying to pick from you know the teachers that we have here in my myself um it's nice to see that that happen um couple things going around in with the MTA we do have our virtual roud series um there's an event coming up tomorrow at 700 p.m. for Orchard and Village families the title lyla's lunchbox it's a great informative story about Ramadan and fting uh March is right around the corner February is coming to an end believe it or not and that means re Across America is coming um to celebrate the joy of reading we have 54 classrooms that have requested guest readers and I know invitation has gone out to all kind of legislators community members um teachers and also board members I know some of you have signed up already so thank you very much for filling up some of the spot uh we appreciate that and the kids especially our elementary schools love just seeing new faces come in you know they get tired of our faces all the time so they want to see new faces come in so thank you for signing up and if you haven't yet there's still still time and still slots available um in in addition to the guest readers we also have all kinds of fun activities planned uh teachers doing individually in classroom we have school events we have spirit days so it's usually a week of fun um in the elementary schools and really doing Grace uh will the MTA also will be providing a book to the um classrooms that are participating with the guest readers for reading Across America as well to add to their Library uh to celebr green Across America we also have another guest author read aloud coming up it'll be virtual on 3:7 and that'll be at 7:00 p.m information's posted on social media and also through our um PTA is kind enough to share that out as well it's a teenage author suu pakuma uh so it's nice to have someone that the kids can relate to by having a teenage author who has two books that are published and uh she'll be reading to the kids during a Virtual Lab I know it's a little bit early but please save dat May 15th is going to be our annual music from the heart um celebration where we'll be presenting or staff will be presenting Mary Poppins so this is going on this music from the heart has been an engagement for over 20 years and allowed us to raise thousands of dollars um each year um to give scholarships to graduating seniors so you know Mark that date we hope to have a wonderful turnout this one day I hope that uh a year that we get some rain because that cancels all the sports and everyone comes to the show instead so let's hope for poor weather on that day but we'd love to have you rain or shine um and that's my MTA report for tonight thank you all thank you Mr do do we have any board member delegate representative reports uh yes we do Joanna and I attended the February 7th uh Somerset County Education Service Commission uh meeting we were very uh warmly welcomed and uh participated in their board meeting where um there was a overview of the financials and the budget as well as the results of the audit and how that's being handled uh they've made some uh changes that uh is are significantly increasing their budget for next year um and they've actually did some assessments around the cost of buses which they are now selling uh to other school districts um as they uh are going to be utilizing some private ways to transport um the kids so it was very interesting uh I think we appreciated their Insight they're also in the midst of negotiations so they had a discussion in regards to um to that and we had some some audience in in presence as well so um that's abouted Joanna is the alternate she joined me so I don't know if you have anything else that I miss all right there you go thank you thank you uh anything else so good evening to everyone on Wednesday February 21st 2024 all Somerset County Board of Education members received an email from the Somerset County school board's president araman sing the email explained at the Somerset County School Board Association scsba sponsors the unsung hero program for one 12th grade student from each of the Somerset County public high schools the unsung hero program recognizes students who make outstanding contributions to their school and Community but are often overlooked by other traditional student recognition programs Miss sing asked all Somerset County Board of Education members to donate $5 to $10 per member all monies collected will be divided among the students in the form of a gift card for each now several students have been honored in the past and they've achieved outstanding academic success despite disabilities or language barriers or other significant personal challenges SCBA honors students who make our school district better place and Inspire others in our local and school Community SCBA will be honoring 14 students on Monday March 18th 2024 at the Somerset County vocational and Technical High School in Bridgewater I believe starting at 6:00 p.m. as I need to submit the monies by March 5th I request each board bed member to kindly advise me immediately um upon adjournment of this meeting if you'll donate and if you will how much this concludes my SBA report report are there any questions AR n any other reports yeah um I am going to share the um from the meeting of the municipal Alliance and youth Service Commission actually several of the com uh points that were made by the administrators were touched on by the group um in our meeting uh a couple weeks ago um I also want to acknowledge that uh Miss linau was also um uh honored at the Montgomery Township um council meeting on the last February 15 with a resolution for the work that she's been doing in partnership with the municipal Alliance um one of the things that we discussed that is very relevant is the municipal Alliance is thinking of bringing a screening of a documentary called like and like is a a documentary that explores the impact of social media on our lives and the effects of Technology on plade so right now this documentary is U going to be shown in Somerville but we were talking about having it shown here in Mony so at least it's closer to other school districts like Hillsboro who well who might be interested in you know participating viewing this documentary the other thing too which is also um relevant uh the global day of unplugging is actually on March 1st and the municipal Alliance is uh encouraging families and communities to disconnect from the online World on that day for an hour a whole day couple of hours and just you know um just enjoy each other's company at home with your with your uh kids your parents your you know friends and be off social media I think that would be a great mental health break day and the last thing is I also went to the Montgomery Township council meeting and I thought it was interesting because they had shared their plans for an all-inclusive all access playground this is still in the works and it's going to be I believe it's 11,000 square ft is the um design and it's going to be in the municipal building one of the empty blots there and our M stepped up parents were part of the conversations with the recreation committee on what does an all-inclusive all access playground look like so I'm very excited at you know the prospect of having this playground that would accommodate all our kids and be safe while they're enjoying day out with their families than you any other representative reports hearing none we'll move into board committee reports first up assessment curriculum and instruction committee board member down thank you um sorry I'm up to um okay we met as a committee on February 16th in uh a hybrid fashion and first up was uh Miss Borland who brought up three recommendations for uh High School textbooks uh for the 11th grade honors English class uh those three books include where the craw dad sing uh Kiara and the Son and the nickel boys so that those three books are up for uh approval this evening by the board Miss Borland also gave us update on the hit Grant uh as of the time of meeting we uh were 70% staffed uh in terms of what we need from Kelly Services Kelly Services hiring um has been excellent so far um the feedback has been very very good the tutors are diverse and age gender and race um all of the teachers have been um incredibly positive about this initiative uh we are waiting for two more math tutors to be hired and waiting for two Ela tutors to get through the background check process um the math tutors were trained uh and Sorry by our K4 math supervisor and our 58 math supervisor for the reading training we hired American reading company another update will be given in six to seven weeks in terms of how the uh progress of the program is going uh we also had an update from Jeff Brooks uh on staff cyber security and fishing campaign uh the state hasn't come out with the Cyber excuse me cyber security regulation yet however best practices are available um and we have compliance as a district with our insurance brokers to carry a minimal pre a minimal premium that allows for cyber security and fishing campaigns for training for employees um we are currently under contract with a company that manages fishing campaigns for us and provides training videos of cyber best practices uh Jeff Brooks the director of Technology will be going to each faculty meeting to train his staff in March and in March and April there will be two weeklong campaigns where we send each staff member three fishing attempts to see if the staff fights next year the training for staff will be offered similar to gcn and the outcome will be reported to Jeff we will also do quarterly fishing campaigns uh lastly uh do Dr Young spoke about hi an HIV presentation from parents for the district website to um parallel to our presentation this evening the HIV presentation for parents will be discussed uh in some capacity later this month Dr Young the director of uh Equity data and accountability will be reporting this presentation with our communication specialist who's also going to build a page on our website for HIV information she will record responses to very specific um frequently asked questions any questions I have a question so those books that we are adding to um to our curriculum and we are signing those books to for our students to read uh in 11th grade and English H classes right English honor classes yes what was the criteria for those books uh selection because as a watching the books that we are um adding to our list it seems like those books continue to keep the same type of U subject so there is sexual abuse there is um some type of um violence um then there one one of the books that we are add is about law which kind of would give you hope that this is you know like a inspirational book to to kind of help kids toce paity and night but when I read the description of that book is about really a lonely person that we kind of paren by that person that a to be a friend which is kind of s uh and it doesn't really Sol the the loneliness of of the children so if we are aspired to promote mental health um social well-being of students how are we selecting folks that have such a traumatic you know really message for for the kids is that aligned with what you're trying to do so it is aligned in terms of the standards of what we are required um to teach in our curriculum but I do know that there's an extensive um evaluation process um just for timing purposes um I'm trying to figure out how I can relay this um there's an evaluation form that the that the district goes to In terms of going you know um understanding every lit literacy text and what they're trying to achieve um which I can share with the I suppose um so a few of the questions that we um asked during the during the ACI um where the cad sing is the book that has the inuendo of sexual right uh and it is not anything that's explicit in the actual text it's yes but it's truthful um you know it's something that actually does happen in in life and I personally always uh advocate for our students to experience things like that in attacks but not necessarily in real life with you the other two books like this I I agree with you but we already had a number of books that this was also not going to be moving any other text it was only going to be an addition it's not a requirement it's up to the teachers who teach the grade 11 honors classes as to whether or not they would be using this text to accompany a a specific theme where this fits in we all we also had a big discussion about um the complexity you know when you get to 11th grade honors English um you know the texts that are in print um are complex you know they have very deep um difficult subject matter and we had a big discussion about um you know having those conversations in the context and in the safety of a classroom setting um and the importance of teachers being prepared to be able to do that but um I think it is you know if you really look at the challenge of an 11th grade um honors English course um you know it's difficult to find a book that doesn't have these themes um within it context but again it's all in how you deliver it and how you um teach it in the in a safe environment yeah but I can share this evaluation form with you she did send us the evaluation forms for uh all three of the books um did she send it to the whole committee or did she send it okay I'll get that to you thank you of course but yeah the the other two books though you know one is um a little bit more about a dystopian um setting and Ai and U things that are really I think are important to be incorporated in and the other is a historical look of uh Civil Rights era um issues with u African-Americans so that would be the ne thank you any other questions thank you board member D moving on to operations facilities and finance the operations financing facilities committee met on Friday february3 we welcome representatives from the cigent and Historical Society to discuss the maintenance matters related to the school house building next to the ultra Hill School Society is energized to reopen the schoolhouse to the public and offer various educational programs to the students we discussed the maintenance needs of the school house we also discussed the value of obtaining the survey of the schoolhouse property and marking the boundaries to prevent unintentional of approaching into the schoolhouse property the Historical Society aged to share the plans for educational programs they intend to offer to our students and anticipate a time and frequency of these programs I look forward to further discussions with theer historical society to fully align on the next steps next we had a visit from the auditor U from Su cloy and Company to discuss a financial audit report they recently prepared for the mtom school district for the period ending Jun 30 2023 the auditor explained to the committee their testing scope and the areas of purose he stressed that day audit was not an operational audit but a statutory Financial AIT that provides assurance that the amounts reported in the financial statements are C of material misstatements and report is prepared with in accordance with EIC principles generally accepted in the USA the audit confirmed that the district operated within approved budget limits we discussed the material amounts in the report by pension liability obligations um this amount is allocated by the state to each district and it was done in accordance with gby 67 and 68 um the audit report includes a schedule of the insurance coverage in place in the district and the aors noted in the report that adequacy of insurance coverage is the responsibility of the board of education so I'm hoping at the next uh off meeting maybe we can review the existing existing coverage to ensure that as we move towards the next AIT we are ready and we have proper coverage in place the auditor made one recommendation and he will communicate this recommendation to the board in person next month at the board meeting questions thank you board member Fel moving on policy and Communications committee co-chairs Lea Jernigan and spits Poli uh thank you on the policy we met on February 8th um we've had some discussions in regards to uh uh Strauss Esme and njsba as services offered to uh Board of Education I think uh last month you remember we heard from njsba representative and uh they shared with us pretty extensive way of doing what they call the wellness check on the policies uh we're in the midst of having a conversation with uh Strauss Esme um I'm having a hard time communicating my my uh requirement as um I think shra smme is looking to audit our policies as a standalone organization I would like for it to be a more of a collaborative effort with some of the board members so Mary and I are going to work on that together with shra Esme and also we've discussed that there's a potential for us to continue uh policy writing with Strauss SME and perhaps utilize njsba to just their wellness check um and part of the reason for that is I've sent to all of you the certificate for the Board of Education There's an opportunity for us as a team to complete a New Jersey State Board of Education certificate that will allow us to be recognized as one of the boards that completes it so I hope to have further discussion with all of you um on that as well couple policy the policy that we actually reviewed was 5116 which is education of homeless children and youth it's actually a law which is part of the reason we've had a pretty extensive discussion during the meeting in regards to the policies reflected in our manual should really reflect the policies associated with our school district versus the broad law law will be there uh so that's why I'm I'm stressing so much that we do the wellness check and we really clean up some of the um uh policies that we have that are already covered elsewhere so that's uh the only policy that we've had um reviewed in addition to that and then um the other part of our discussion was in regards to communication and cooking Christina we there uh and we've had some uh thoughts there so I'm going to hand it over to cookie to cover so when we met was right before the Strategic um planning meeting the last month so I have a question primarily for Mary I heard you say that NJ you're waiting for the njsba to submit to the district or the collated um materials from the three strategic planning UNS do you have a timeline at least of what what what is it going to look like after you receive from njsba materials you you sit down with your staff at what point does the Boe if at all do we come in to look at all these information that has been gathered and what what are the next steps that you foresee that we see um the staff come up with the objectives for the goals and the timelines for the objectives they will be presented to the board and would that happened at least before the end of the school year like what did did Gwen say anything about when to expect njsp I need to talk to okay right um and the other thing that we wanted to bring up is uh the retreat I think it's usually we have our retreat in the spring so um I wanted bring it up so that we can all kind of look at time frame when do we expect to do a retreat and um maybe agenda also for that you will have a look at some dates um get those on calendar and then we'll um send out something to the board to figure out what our topic is going to be this for this year okay yeah there there was one more request Michelle and I had a little sidebar and we send a note to uh Glen Mary I think what would be great for us as we review the Strategic plan and the feedback from the community as we are a board of um um committees thank you as where the board of committees that we look at some of the issues that the community has brought in or would like us to look at and we really specifically focus on each committee having responsibility for certain portions of the Strategic plan so I I did send that note to uh Gwen Melle and I have this sitebar so hopefully we can connect that together she did commit that she was going to think through it um at that level as well so I just wanted to read thank you can I ask clarifying question on that because I just want to make sure I understand this right the Strategic plan goals are the goals for the district faculty and staff to implement for student achievement and then we as a board have separate goals don't we also cor okay and so then when do we have to just this I think that's question about the ret should be aligned with right so I guess that a retreat would be depended on when we get the information from njsba because how if we don't know what's on there say they should lost and I ask one more question and this was about um the njsba certifications did you find out any of the answers about if we can use those previous Retreats and all that or got going forward yes and I will be sending it out to all of you so you have some insight there was uh there was actually a um a board that has completed that uh and if you and Patrick joined the njsba session the Somerset County one uh at we did that virtually but I think next one you know we can actually talk live to the individuals that went through it so we can all can get some more insight you have d and just a question about reviewing the policies how how does how does that work exactly do you do that in the policy committee like you you literally go through every policy or is that something that you do sort of in addition to our committee meetings i i i Envision it to to do it in addition which is why I mentioned last time that if anybody would like to volunteer in additional time that would be great because yeah it's it's it's sub committee but but sub commmittee of the policy it would have to be in an addition to just once a month right otherwise we'll be at it for 3 years and we don't have that kind of time so I think yes there will be additional commitment after what that as long as it's after work hour can I we have the ngba njsba people come in uh about their policy of application so that's that's completely off the table now we're going to stick with timate for the next year I I think this is something that we all need to discuss broadly right as a board right we can we can take a vote eventually and figure it out but I would like to send you guys some additional insight and post Mary and I having a conversation with stra SME I think it's fair for us to really understand what their audit Means versus the wellness check we learned about last month so we'll be getting back to you all and then hopefully we'll have an opportunity to vote and see which way we want to go I we talked about this at the meeting too um my hesitation njsba their director is new she's only been a year she admitted that they're behind so this is a conversation we can revisit in another maybe another year when she's gotten a full staff and they've had a little bit more um grasp about the work that they're doing because I I don't want us to move to a a different group and we are one of the early adopters and then we're having more problems than we already have I mean we don't really have big problems right now but if we're early adopter us and they're behind that could be disastrous for us Ser I think that's why um what we were trying to to do to maybe propos is to to have this wellness check which does not commit us to switch from one vender to another but then during that wellness check we can identify whether or not our policies are redundant maybe we can basically just lower the number of policies because then it will be easier to maintain and then at that point we can make a decision whether now the step is needed to change vendor so we can keep you know the vendor that we have but now we have a better understanding of what's that's a good plan yeah ngba would help us find this with a big benefit I'm kind of surprised to hear you say that they're not ready because they came in they gave that big presentation and they're a much bigger organization so I'm most surprised that I understand that she she herself admitted that she's new and she doesn't have staff she just started building a staff so I don't want us to like join in right without knowing what their capabilities are once they're full maybe once they're full stop fly stop there'll be more robust reviews and there they could be better but we can't make that decision right nowe she the was you're saying you don't want to do this till next year right I do not understand what you're saying what I don't understand I think he's asking did she say that a year out from now would be appropriate to engage with it no I she didn't say that I'm saying like I would re reevaluate whether or not we could look at them and maybe use them but right now I don't think it's a good idea for us to switch what I'm saying could we reevaluated sooner I think let's do what Ana's plan is first which is to use the wellness check and have their conversations just as me and then we'll see like I will date the lead from ANA based on her conversations that she's having now right that was excited I think you know whenever we get close to a vote if we could that sort of a side by side comparison you know of the two I think to to really be able to understand the strengths and the challenges of each I think that would give us an informed way of of voting I I don't want to vote on something unless we know you know exactly what Melle also um some sort of you know pitfalls to avoid and really great Affiliates from a district that did go through the whole process would be yeah and uh interestingly enough uh because we um are very familiar with some of the school districts around us uh there have been few school districts that switched due to this extensive wellness check process right so that's kind of what I'm feeding off of to be honest with you right hearing uh their experience so I'll get you guys a little bit more insight on it as well any other questions comments thank you moving on human resources committee HRC met on February 12th uh we talked about the two positions first one being the director of special services um we have about 15 applicants and currently reviewing the applications and hoping to have some candidates Chosen and interviewed in the next couple of weeks also talked about the supervisor of special education phys the committee is in the process of doing interviews for those uh principal Pino batty joined us um informed us that the star program um will be expanded into other schools uh the ESS was initially a program that we started with and it provided Advanced mental health to our students while keeping them in Montgomery we are looking to get more information um about that expansion expansion program very soon um also on the Personnel agenda we believe that we're going to be going to U be proposing um positions at o es V lmss and the high school um we talked about uh Transportation the RN position currently using a service to provide RN on bus and they're right now they're very unreliable currently there's one student that needs a service transport specialist U stien physici who will train all Transportation employees District wide we're looking at bring in two Safety and Security coordinators one for LMS and one for B that is it any questions comments if we were new to the star program where could we find sort of information just to educate ourselves more on the program I will put her on the spot since she is still here sorry Miss P um so if you go on to the high school website under departments there's a link for Star depart and there's a pretty good amount of information and if anyone needed anything else I would be the person in contact thank you thank you pres all right moving on now have approval of the minutes for the October 30th 20 23 business meeting which have been revised January 23rd 2024 executive session meeting and January 23rd 24 business meeting I CH a motion to move second it's been properly moved and second to accept these me to accept these minutes all those in favor stay I all those oppos same right questions motion carries the board acknowledges the correspondence list to the board next up agenda items public comments the Board of Education welcomes and encourages input from the public members of the public are allowed at one opportunity to address the board regarding action agenda items only for up to a maximum of three minutes per speaker all comments must be directed to the board before you make your comment please State your full name and address and enter both on the Chromebook provided being mindful of privacy rights regarding students board employees and board members and to avoid any liability on the part of speaker the board discourages defamatory and discourteous remarks the public comment portions of the meia are not structured as question and answer sessions but rather are offered as opportunities for the public to share their thoughts with the board the board May refer may need to refer an issue to the superintendent if the issue has not been handled through the appropriate chain of command usually starting at the school level responses may be provided at the end of this session so now members of the Community Action items only any public comments and we start making your comments please list the action item number so we have another com after it later second call for public comments on action items third call for public comments on action items public comments on action items closed I will now entertain a motion to adopt action items 1.1 through 4.4 plus the following resolution be resolved that the Board of Education denies the appeal in HIV number 27554 ds-01 03204 24 Mr Trent is there a motion second it's been properly moved and second to adopt action items 1.1 through 4.1 plus the the resolution I read any questions call to us no question any questions ready for the vote Mr Trump Mr Carlson resolution no anything else yes res Miss D yes Miss beac yes Miss Franco Harman yes ension on 13 previously discuss Dr Spence walls yes abens on the det Chine items understood Miss W Jour yes Miss finina yes Mr Todd yes thank you all motions thank you we now move to new business from the public the Board of Education welcomes and encourages input from the public members of the public are allowed at one opportunity to bring any new business to the board for up to a maximum of three minutes per speaker all comments must be directed to the board before you make your comment please State your full name and address and enter both on the Chromebook provider being mindful of privacy rights regarding students board employees and board members to avoid any potential liability on the part of the speaker the board discourages defamatory and discour remarks the public comment portions of the meeting are not structured as question and answer session the board may need to refer an issue to the superintendent if the issue has not been handled through the appropriate chain of command usually started at the school level responses may be provided at the end of this session and and as usual we ask if you plan on make public comments please line up than okay well this is very um technologically intense U my name is Candy Willis I'm nicka Drive Bel New Jersey and I'm here representing the van har Historical Society we had a meeting a few of us with the off committee and um I thought I would just come and talk to you a little bit about um the school that was not represented by the five principles who showed up there's one more school building by property um and it's known as the Beamsville Schoolhouse it was built in 1853 but moved to the property in 1976 as part of the bicentennial um program for the T so the the bicentennial program was the township the van Harlington Historical Society took over the responsibility for maintenance of it um it's a small one room Schoolhouse there were about 12 one room School houses in town so now you only have five um but much bigger um so I wasn't going to go into a lot of detail today except that I made a hand out for you and I'm from back I put them around your um uh desks and I'm going to go from back to front so the in the back is the van Harlingen historical society's um newsletter that just came out it's called the van Harin historian so I thought you might like a copy of it then there's a Shameless advertisement for program on March 21st called remembering the ladies from Patriots and pentetic coats to presidential candidates that'll be at the Montgomery Library on March 21st um then I get each of you except for Joanna and Marty a copy of this um little booklet that came out in 1976 so it's almost 50 years old and they're all a pretty good Shang St so um then um second from the front is an article that I wrote strangely enough in 2008 that said bensville Schoolhouse and danger on two fronts and it had to do with Paving a parking lot um they wanted to the school board wanted to put up a in 2008 wanted to put up this gigantic parking lot in the back in this grassy field um and it's thanking that they reconsidered when the Historical Society the PTA and a whole bunch of different people objected to it um the problem is that the schoolhouse is being forgotten so in 2011 the township engineer didn't know that the schoolhouse was there and arrang arranged for a pipeline to be run right in back of it it was run we put up a clap so on the front page I showed you two pictures of the schoolhouse what it looks like before the paving and the plaque that's that has our web address on it so that we were trying to tell you we're right here please let us know if you're going to do anything so um I'm going to come back next month thank you very much good even Rich spec 187 North Street L me um I've got a bunch of things so I'll just try and run through them quickly um looking at the time so first of all congratulations again on the strategic planning meetings um you know I think that it's excellent that you're doing that I think that it's important to remember that these are long-term strategic goals they're not like the annual District goals um I want to also express my appreciation for the um preparation and the participation of the District administration and staff large number of Staff members te which I thought was useful um one of the comments just reacting to that I heard at the table was uh I think the board should be involved during the process I what I hope doesn't happen is that it it's primarily the administration to come up with some of these things but these are long-term goals that the board representing the community is responsible for and so I would hope that it's a very collaborative process going forward it isn't just we're throwing something across the table and it's coming back type of thing uh speaking of District goals on the agenda uh the district goals are listed uh these are the ones that were established last September three of the four goals actually were from prior years um I don't remember any status presentations at board meetings um and so I have some questions that I've over look things please let me know uh after this uh but what action plans were created for those goals uh how will you know of the goal is being met or not or at the conclusion was it met and what progress has been made so far um I also wanted to observe since communication is something near and dear to my heart and also came up a number of times in the strategic planning meetings um I want to commend the district for being active now and having a district presence on social media um both uh Facebook and Instagram the thing that disappointed me or that I wanted to react to was so far since last August there are total on Facebook there are total of 70 followers where the township has over 3,000 um and so my question is how many people actually know that there is a district Facebook page uh and maybe Facebook isn't being used by the community but that's the kind of the question um has the um has the district published on other Facebook pages that this thing existed has the district had the township include that in their newsletter for example okay um and um you know I just think that like in social media there was no mention of the strategic planning process in the front of it and the only mention on it was hey this is you know here's a picture thanks for being there there was no here's the next meeting if you want to be a part of it do it the community I don't think really knew that this process was going on and finally the consultant recommendation that we had with consultant weired for communications umk yep wanted to have a strategic plan so I would ask where that strategic plan is is it in preparation when will it be done and thank good evening can you hear that um in the spirit of transparency could the board please explain to the community how the school ethics commission decisions mentioned by board member Cena at the January 5th board meeting affects the board members and their roles in serving on the board um I think the community deserves to know um also we hear a lot about safe spaces in our schools and I've been attending these board meetings for about 2 years in person now and I've observed some very poor Behavior by some residents and I understand this board can only do so much about that but I would like to address two specific areas where I think you can have an effect first I was harassed publicly by a school district employee who must Happ SE a teacher and Union officer at the October 2023 board meeting community members seated by me were so stunned at what they witnessed that they asked me if I just been threatened I VI supported this behavior and submitted a video clip of the event taken by a concerned resident I have not been notified of any reprisals for the employee and I can't fathom that if parent complaints about a teacher's Behavior the incident would not be followed up on with the parent is student please advise here and now with the followup wasse or at the very least please advise what your process is for following up on those instances generally it is not acceptable for this District to ignore this type of behavior by a district employee especially in a public board ofed meeting in a public school second I believe that any media present at this meeting should be just observing and Reporting not harassing or interfering with the proceedings or participation in the meetings please speak to the Montgomery news editor and publisher that if she cannot compose herself in a professional manner at these meetings to send another reporter who can't the local newspaper editor has flashed her camera in people's faces once after a Community member asked her not to take her photo with her student relative I have access to a video of a second instance when she flashed her camera in the face of a board member's husband when she didn't like his response to something he saw on his phone my family member was a witness to this incident I have other incidents I can report on but I don't have the time here to mention I would also ask the newly organized board for a couple of things that might help promote Community communication and transparency pleas respond to public questions and comments getting no comment or response having to send followup emails doing an Oprah just adds more work to the board and most of all all Mr Trent it also frustrates the public requesting the responses please have the board meeting minutes specifically reflect any board responses to the public during meetings just as they capture the original comments and questions and I also just really want to quickly thank you for starting the board meetings now at 7 o' that helps a lot I think that helps all of us thank you hey everybody Jeff Grant Jeff Grant EX and drive uh first of all I want to uh you know compliment the board and so Mr Todd the Committees are popping and hopping and things are happening so it looks like we're off a good start um the first comment is about the snacks the melon was delicious the strawberries recycl it it's fabulous I've don't got it but I like the know you got it it's actually great um so more on a more serious note uh my comment or my question last time about um around this time last year Bo was planning a trip to South Africa to visit collaborate with the South African Democratic teachers union and since then uh there's a lot of discussion about South Africa uh what they are what they are not uh it's not good and uh and of course the way we found out about it was just having to find a budget item and question didn't on now it was the town was financing uh part the expenses of the trip to South Africa six day or 7 joint to South Africa so um very very simply in spite of the best efforts in Nelson Mandel South Africa is a reverse White racism country more recently they have required that if you're a farmer and you're going to be selling to this European union or UK 51% of your farm has to be owned by a black Citizen so the black politicians are sitting making money there because Farmers have Beed over 51% of their Farm are sitting making money the white farmers to work and producing the goods and selling it to the European Union and England so that's that's the form of slaver if you think about it so it's reverse slavery reverse way of racism so uh you know I caution you about ever going back to South Africa or ever having a relationship with the South African Democratic teachers union so I ask you one more time please define any relationship you have with the South African Democratic teachers union and Define any any plans to go back to South Africa or any similar juning you want to know where you're going if leaving our community of course we prefer you to stay here and focus on business here so please answer that question and and the second issue is uh I happen to hear some comments about uh you know ramadan's coming up and there's some events plan in March uh we're going to talk about what's going to be happening in May extending the time scale out to talk about May and what was missing is any discussion about Easter I know Barbara's here was here I don't want to hear any accusations about Jeff cran the call A 30 seconds however the Muslim population in New Jersey is about 3 and half% Christian population is much larger so my second question is are we going to be doing anything in the monom Township School District to acknowledge um Easter Christian Christianity of Easter so with that close my remarks thank you very much we have a public comments second call public comments third call public comments public comments closed superintendent BL any it you wish to address at the current moments well the easiest one is the food is from shop right the mon shop right that's where the food is from toight um rich I have all of your questions and I will follow up with them thank you for for writing the M down because that would have been difficult to try to capture thank you Candy for coming and sharing the information and thank you for coming to our off meeting on Friday and Mr Grant we do not have any affiliation with the South African teachers Democratic Union however no relationship and Janet we did receive your emails regarding the staff member and like all complaints against staff members there's internal investigation and due to confidentiality we never share out even um with parents when it involves their students but this was even different because it was at a public meeting so I cannot share any of that information yes you can look into it thank you for sending the video miss church you asked a question with me um at the January January meeting I had asked a question of the attorney as to whether or not we needed a majority vote in order to put an inquiry forth to the SEC and his answer at that time was that any board member can do so as an individual that was what I asked that night and he clarified that I can't speak to that I can only tell you what I said or asked that night I just wanted to know from him if I need to any questions any other questions comments discussion any other board matters board we like to discuss in public here we none are train a motion for adjournment prop move a second all those favor say I thank you all have a good evening