good evening everyone and welcome to the Tuesday March 19th 2024 Board of Education meeting at this time I'll entertain a motion to reopen the meeting so move second we properly move in second to reconvene all those in favor say I I I those opposed same right motion Carri Mr Trent roll call please yes Mr Carlson here miss all here miss Fel here miss frankco Herman pres Miss Harris here Dr Spence walls Dr pres missa Jour again here miss Mina present Mr Todd here thank you n members present have a call please rise as we salute the flag flag United States America thank you we'll now have our MTSD student report M Rob good evening Board of Education in montgomer community this March has been a pleasant month for the students of montgom high school school this month marks women's History Month an important month of recognition of the contributions women have made to history and the importance of their equal role in our society students have been recognizing this all throughout the month this month also recognizes Many religious holidays and holy Seasons like Ramadan lent and Easter the students of Montgomery are wishing a peaceful and reflective season for all who participate or celebrate this month in honor of world Down syndrome day on March 21st students and staff at MHS will be participating in rock your socks day on this day students and staff are encouraged to wear crazier fun socks to represent to represent the celebration of all our unique differences our senior class trip to Disney earlier this month was a stunning success and on the note of su success the MHS Red Cross Club hosted another very successful annual blood drive today the blood drive was hosted hosted and organized by students in the club and facilitated by some amazing experts from the Red Cross at the start of this month the Montgomery boys basketball team took home the Central Jersey G4 Championship marking coach Chris Grundy's 300th career win recently MHS had the honor hosting the first Mid-Atlantic Montgomery District robotics competition mhs's robotics team 1403 took home the championship and as the spring athletic season begins we are wishing all of our student athletes the best of luck with their upcoming Seasons the the Montgomery Community is invited to attend the MHS drama departments or edition of The Adams Family shows are in the Montgomery Performing Arts Center on Friday March 22nd at 7 p.m Saturday March 23rd at 2 pm and 7 p.m. with a special in school preview assembly for students this event is said to be a Gastly and exciting one for all earlier this month Juniors had the wonderful opportunity to take the NJ GPA providing students in other grades with two special testing scheduled days on the 11th and the 12th students are looking forward to the upcoming homework Free Break on March 29th through April the 3D thank you all right thank you Mr Rob we'll now have the superintendent report and [Applause] presentations good evening every good evening everyone thank you for all coming out there are six presentations tonight so we're going to get started our first presentation I'm going to ask Mr Corey Delgado to come up and he is going to present to us our National Merit scholar finalist Mr Del okay good evening everyone hello hello hello uh what a nice honor it is for me to get up here tonight and recognize and introduce you to the the 10 Montgomery High School seniors who have earned this very prestigious recognition of being National Merit Scholars um I'm going to tell you a little bit about the award then I'll bring them up and maybe we'll we'll get some some photos so the National Merit Scholarship program is an annual academic competition among high school students across the nation and this um recognition um for National um scholarships has been going on since 1955 before I bring the kids up I and to truly appreciate this accomplishment let me share with you a little bit about their journey to get to where they are tonight they each started as one of 1.3 million High School senior candidates from over 22,000 high schools across the country who entered the program they successfully met the scoring criteria on the PSAT and the nmsqt tests as Juniors and that was just their initial screening they continued to meet the high standards of the academic performance criteria through their Junior and senior years they completed an extensive nms application they then met the prerequisite scores on the SAT or act only to still be asked to provide additional documentation including a submission of a personal essay does that all sound familiar yeah it doesn't that's why they look a little tired today um after all that they made it to the top 1% of that 1.3 million the top 1% so um just phenomenal something we should all be regard uh as I I use the word Prestige I I think that means more than the money but they are eligible for some significant scholarships as well so I'm going to bring them up I think maybe Miss mclaughin I Mr Todd you want to join us um and we'll take a picture so as I call each student up maybe just we'll line up over here does that sound good okay excellent okay I think all 10 are here tonight which is amazing they also have wonderful attendance although that's not a requirement for National Merit Scholars so we'll hold our Applause to the end carthic Gora bauni Sarah bringer Penny louu isan mikar Reena sha arjin Sharma saric talar Elliot tanalski Eric zing and Andrea Zang those are your 2024 parents if you want to come up and and and get a photo please do I know I think Miss Preston was here to receive their certificates yes so we already gave them their certificates about a month ago when we received them so just pretend they have a really nice shiny certificate in there I think we have to get okay everyone look down at Miss Preston that's M new a lot that's great thank you smile keep your eyes open thank you congratulations congratulations we understand it's a school night if you would like to all leave right now thank you all for coming out ch thank you everyone our next presentation is from our auditing firm simply including Mr Eric Zimmerman welcome Eric thank you for coming out thanks for having just when I thought everyone was here see me my presentation uh yeah so thanks for the introduction again I'm uh I'm Eric zurin from the aut firm suppl cling company and we were responsible for the fiscal year 2023 annual audit um our job is to issue an opinion on your financial statements okay so whether they're free from Material M statement and in conformance with the rules and regul ulations of the state of New Jersey uh I'm pleased to to announce that we've issued an unmodified opinion so that's the clean opinion it's the best opinion that you can get uh basically what that means is that your financial statements can be relied upon by the various users that would need that the as part of our audit package you should have received two reports okay so one is the bigger report of the two that's the the act for the annual comprehensive financial report and what comprises this report is basically all the financial statements those opinions that I just spoke of and the various um uh the various notes that require no disclosures that are required to be put into the report I like to you know let let the board know that within that act for report probably the most significant schedule that you can look at at is the exhibit C1 and you know just just as your reference it starts on page 86 and this is the budgetary analysis from the year of the district so it goes through the revenues your budget Appropriations and then the Surplus at the end of the year and the various components that make up that total Surplus so this would be your your capital reserve maintenance Reserve excess Surplus that's forced to be put into the budget and your undesignated fund Ms uh while I'm on the topic you know I'd like to say that the the district is in good Financial Health uh health and kind of to Define that a little further what we like to see is that you're regenerating more back in than what's being utilized to balance your budget each year if this wasn't the case you know you'd be on a downward Trend and then you'd be having much harder budget conversations for future budgets all right so you're you're things are looking up again as you're regenerating more than what's being used so that covers the opinions and the financial statements the the last thing that I want to talk about is the other report of the two it's a smaller one this is the AMR report the auditor management report and what this is the state of New Jersey at the Department of Education requires us as auditors to look at uh various departments and components of the district so this would be things like the treasures reports and Assa payroll uh School the Food Service account and they guide our audit in compliance and internal control things that we're that we have to look at and if we find issues with those items we're required to put recommendations into your report which leads me to the recommendation that is in the report that's required to be read aloud tonight and that report uh that recommendation is 20231 that appropriate action be taken to ensure that net cash resources of the Food Service account do not exceed 3 months average expenditures so that's a lot to take in so what does that basically mean this is specific to the Food Service account and there's a distinct calculation that takes place basically it takes your your net cash resources at the end of the year and it Compares them to 3 months average operating expenditures of the Food Service account if your net cash resources exceeds the operating expenditures of 3 months at an average you have a recommendation in the report so as our Auto firm you know we have about 50 districts that we do in the state of New Jersey this is not a problem just for Montgomery this is a big problem across the state of New Jersey um what has happened is from the a lot of like the co going back I know everyone was tired of hearing about it uh since then a lot of funds have been dumped onto our districts into the Food Service account they have to stay there they have to be used for food service related activities and it's it's easier said than done um so we you know kind of think it's unfair but overall if you have to have a recommendation in your report this is the one to have there's there's way worse problems that you could have uh that would be you know require more things to look at um so this this does require a corrected action plan like I said and you know the one thing that you want to consider when you're thinking about the corrective action plan is that uh the the monies that came in this kind of onetime revenues that were coming in from the state and federal government it it is it's just that it's one time or two times not to say I'm not the one to say that it's not going to continue for year after year but it doesn't look like that's the case so you don't want to go ahead and spend it on salaries right because those are operating recurring costs uh once this problem is corrected you may not have the the regular recurring Revenue stream to cover these expenditures year after year so just consider that that uh we're kind of advising our clients to look at Capital needs in the food service area and address those needs with this excess funds that the state is saying that you have um but that's that's the recommendation so with that you know that that concludes what I have for the audit uh I will take you know any questions anyone may have on the the audit the financial statements or the the recommendation that's in the report thank you uh any questions from board members necessarily for for you it may be for for Mr um do we have any ideas for how to utilize those we do we have that we've been doing some upgrades using it for repairs on equipment on equipment y in the different kitchen so across all the schools across all the schools that haveed yes some are better shaped than others no so there is a plan already we haven't working through it I have one question sure so I would like you to maybe um educate the board about the the larger balance of the liability um that's being allocated To Us by the state so so just so they know what the number represents I know it's a new um accounting standard but then when you look at the um the balance sheet it kind of distorts the the downcome it almost looks like a uh cash flow is not sufficient to cover the viability so maybe you can give us some backgound what it represents um and just to just to clarify are you talking about the the gby 68 yes yeah so again this has kind of caused the delay in our audit process for the last five six years now and it's kind of gotten a little worse and worse um we've been waiting from the state to to release these numbers for gby 68 which is your your pension liability and gby 75 which is your opad liability that's other post-employment benefits so retiree health benefits basically in not um these numbers are released from the state and then they get audited by right now they're being audited by KPMG and we have to get updated numbers each year to put into the order report uh kind of going back a little bit as to how why I guided you to that exhibit C1 schedule that's a budgetary schedule so these liabilities for for these two guys and pronouncements are not reflected in there all right this this is a liability that we had to pick up on a gap basis so they're on your a schedules at the front of the uh at the front of the financial statements uh a lot of our districts with with the liability put in they're showing deficit fund balances um and to your point this number that we're getting is is having significant swings year to year after year where one year there will be a huge benefit which is a plus to Surplus and then the next year the liability increases by a huge amount and then driving that Surplus back down uh we don't like to put too much attention onto that because again it's it's on the Gap basis and really for for the decision- making that the board has to make as far as next year's budget fiscal year 25's budget this is unrelated to it okay it's it's a formality uh we have to adhere to the standard and we wait for those numbers to come out and we do we we apply limited procedures for them but again they're they're audited by another independent audit firm and then we we insert those numbers into your report any other questions from board members hearing none thank you very much sir thanks for your time apprciate thank you ER as part of the New Jersey Department of education requirements to submit the student safety data system report information tonight I will be reporting out on report period 1 for the 23 24 school year at Montgomery High School there were 25 total incidents reported with the majority reported under the category of HIV alleged other incidents included fighting and substances at upper middle school there were 23 total incidents reported with most incidents falling under the category of both HIV alleged and fighting at lower middle school there were 31 total in incidents reported with the majority reported under the category of HIV alleged at Village element school there were six total incidents reported all reported under the category of HIV alleged at Orchard Hill Elementary School there was one incident reported which was reported under the category of HIV alleged so that is the report for our first half of the year period one for the ssds now I would like to call up Miss Stacy young to do our harassment intimidation and buing investigations trainings and programs presentation hi everyone good evening Stacy joh director of equity data and accountability in addition to the district anti-bullying coordinator and tonight I'm here to share out on our period one HIV invest investigations trainings and programs period one being September to December 2023 in this presentation I'll be giving a brief overview of the definition of HIV we'll look at some data with our investigations trainings and programs I'll talk about how to report and where to get additional information so beginning first with the definition of HIV according to the state of New Jersey it can be a gesture it can be a written verbal or physical act or an electronic communication it can be a single incident it can be a series of instance as long as it is reasonably perceived as being motivated by an actual or perceived characteristic and you can see a list of characteristics there such as race color religion ancestry Etc in addition to that it needs to take place either on school property at a school sponsored function on a school bus or off of school grounds it needs to substantially disrupt or interfere with the orderly operations of the school or the rights of other students and in addition to that a reasonable person should know under the circumstances that the ACT will have one of the following effects at least one that it will physically or emotionally harm a student or damage the student's property that it will place a student in reasonable fear of the physical or emotional harm that it has effective insulting or demeaning any student or group of students or that it creates a hostile educational environment for the student all of our schools are equipped with anti-folate Specialists who are school counselors you can see a list of them on the right hand side our abss are the ones who conduct the investigations there are also um the chairs of our school safety and climate teams and they do get trained at least twice annually taking a look then at our period one investigations again this is the first half of the school year you can see our schools on the left hand side in the center there are the number of alleged or reported incidents of harassment intimidation and bullying and to the right are the ones that were actually founded or affirmed as incidents of him so you can see there that out of the 47 investigations that we held in in that 4mth period 12 were to begin our period one trainings trainings uh is Staff basing works you can see here on again the left all of our buildings to the right the number of trainings that we're offered to staff and that might be the entire staff that might be a subset of Staff like the counselors or CST for example and here just um a few of the different trainings I do want to highlight that our administrative team um is trained by the board attorney annually in addition to attending the Somerset County um superintendent association annual law training in the summer as well programs is student facing work again our schools on the left and to the right you can see the number of programs that were offered to our students in each building that might be a whole school assembly that might be our counselors pushing into classrooms and doing lessons that can look a variety of different ways which is why you see a a series of different numbers for each building here are just a few examples um knowing that our principles were here just last month sharing um all of the amazing work that's happening in our school so you can just just take a look here at some of the um examples that I wanted to highlight in terms of who can report really anybody can report any student parent staff member or commun Community member can report an allegation of hi students parents and community members get the choice to report anonymously should they want to staff members as mandated reporters um do not have that choice they cannot report anonymously the report can be verbal you can just share it with um any staff member or it can be written um in an email for example to any staff member or you can use our reporting platform which is right on the district website if you go to the hit page um you'll see a tab that says how to report that will take you to our reporting platform hipster and finally if you're looking for a additional information I encourage you to visit the hip tab on our um District website there are a couple of new resources that I wanted to highlight the first of which is a video presentation it is less than 10 minutes um that it's basically H 101 you don't want to watch the presentation and listen to my voice I encourage you not to um you can just download the PDF and read it there's also a new FAQ page frequently ask questions and we're adding to that all the time as we get them and then the NJ dooe resource um hi parent guidelines is also available on our website that's it for me I'm happy to take any questions from the board thank you m I actually have two quick questions Qui um for period one do you see any Trends either good or bad in HIV uh events yeah I mean you know our schools are are like microcosms of society so we often see whatever's happening in the world around us sometimes gets reflected in our schools um in Period one the the protected categories that we saw most often were race and gender identity and expression and now second question is there any I guess Rel lack of better terms statute of limitations for reporting HIV incident I'm looking at the attorney there's no statute of limitations on when you can you can report it however I would say that if it's been a significant period of time from when happened it likely is going to impact not only the ability to complete the investigation but if it took that long to report it what was the impact if it only came up like so much later any other questions from board members thank you Dr for your report I look forward to every year can you please talk to the board and the persons in the audience a little bit about the type of um suppored or restorative supports that are in place for both alleged offenders and victims um um that are involved with hi cases whether found it or not sure certainly our counselors are are um biggest resource in our schools it works out well that they're anti- bullying Specialists they may not may not feel that way but it works out well that they're anti- builing Specialists because they are our Champions um for the students and they're able to offer that one-on-one um counseling and support is often as a student needs it so that's definitely um one of our primary resources for supporting our students thank you and I know I've um asked this question three previous times but I ask it again I know um when my children attended the schools here I found the parent um Workshop around head and his processes and ten um extremely helpful so um is your department um coordinating with the schools at all the superintendent of director counseling and wellness or any entity within the school district on um reactivating those workshops even if it's facilitated uh virtually that's a great question my understanding uh based on historical knowledge is that when we previously held those sessions they have been um not well attended so our our strategy was to create a video that parents could visit at any point on the website and so um you know what we have is our our our principles and our ABS sharing out that video as a resource for parents if they need additional information that would be great thank you sure I look forward to seeing that it's not that's not up yet right oh it's up it's up there was is there a way I just did it like a month or two ago okay that's very recent is there a way that you can track have you been able to see how many times it's been view that's a great question I can ask Tech about that yeah also one more question um that's fantastic thank you that the video is out has there been any awareness um shared that it's up there or would that be I don't know an idea that we can send out an email to famili you know just reminding them that it's up and to take a look we can absolutely figure out a way to do that great thank you any other question board members thank you Miss thank you once again I'd like to bring up Mr Cory delato Professor for our a portrait of a graduate presentation so um I watched the video it's really good and I think just if and this is not trying to be funny but as a principal you often having back in my principal days you're often having trying to have conversations to clarify the legislation as as it relates to what might be considered typical adolescent behavior and that could be a tough conversation so that's a great resource for principles to reference for parents to go and watch maybe before during or after a hip investigation so I thought Stacy did a great job putting that together was super concise and clear um but that's not what I'm here to talk about I just want to mention so I'm here to talk about portrait of a Montgomery high school graduate and really just focus on the the academic performance and the postsecondary trends for the class of 2023 in my new role this has been my favorite project so far this has been just fascinating following um the trends digging into the data I have a wonderful support team in the counseling office that I I want to recognize here just in case they watch this on video because they really helped me put together a lot of these uh slides and that's Miss Diane taller Miss Alison melhorn and Miss Sarah they're fantastic and together we sit and we just go down these rabbit holes and let and just try to find more and keep digging and digging and digging so here's here's um some information and more to come so this is a slide that was created in the last strategic planning process I just wanted to put it up there because I I thought it was a great brand that we were using during that last strategic planning process and the portrait of a graduate MTO has stuck with us so as we go into our next uh strategic planning phase just something to think about when it comes to branding here's a quick snapshot of our class of 2023 you can see we had 409 graduates of the 409 graduates 96% went on to continue their education After High School 88% of the 96% went on to fouryear colleges uh and then we had many going on to 2year and school as well so while our students are with us they are assembling some essential academic criteria they accumulate this for their academic portfolio it includes transcripts and test scores and many of our students choose to challenge themselves in the world of AP courses AP courses here's a look at our 21 AP courses that we offer it's a nice array of opportunities for our students just going to let that sit there for a moment many of our students who are enrolled in the AP courses choose to take the complimentary standardized test in the spring that goes with the course and here's a look at how they did the most uh widely administered test that we ad that we give is biology followed by microeconomics macroeconomics and calculus and if you look here at the slide the green lines represent Montgomery High School yellow New Jersey and blue the rest of the world and you can see those green lines Standing Tall a lot to be proud of there once again those green lines are Standing Tall representing how well the Montgomery High School students are doing just to give you an idea we administered 1,463 AP test last year I'm going to say that again 409 graduates now we know junor will also be taking these exams but 409 graduates 1,463 AP tests administered next year last year okay moving on to um what is I would say the more popular of the college readiness assessments that most of our students choose to take the SAT um not just more popular for our students but around the country especially on the coast although SAT and ACT are still both widely accepted by most colleges here's how our students did again this is the class of 2023 you can see the green lines once again represent Mony High School yellow bars are New Jersey and the blue is everyone else so if you look at this from a composite standpoint Montgomery High School student is doing better than 200 almost 250 points better than the rest of the state and the country again something to be very proud of here's a look at uh a 5year look so you can see Montgomery High School making gradual improvements I'm going to try not to talk about the pandemic a lot tonight it's hard to do that I know but you do remember back in 2021 when students couldn't sit for the test that physically couldn't sit for the test we still found a way to get it in um and you'll see unfortunately in in the blue line the rest of the country is experiencing a slight dip just to give you an idea last year we had 350 students take the SAT Act is um again another college readiness test not as popular with the Montgomery High School students only 60 students took the act out of the class of 2023 here's how they did and the ACT is out of 36 points you can see again the green bars representing montg high school students the gold bars New Jersey and blue National we love seeing those green bars Stand Tall here's another table view again we went back 5 years to take a look you'll see us staying pretty consistent we talked a little bit earlier about the national M Scholars this in the class of 2023 we have 14 finalists fantastic again lot to be proud of here and uh you know a lot of our students are accumulating the these achievements these comp is this data for their student profile as they get ready as you saw 96% of our students get ready to apply to colleges this has been fascinating to watch and study so the trends um that we are seeing across the country when it comes to the admissions game and I'm using the term game literally it really has become a bit of a game that is incredibly unpredictable right now uh as to um the college acceptance and application review process I'm going to start at the bottom there the co effect does it continues on and that is what leads to the the unpredictability that we are experiencing right now um demonstrated interest is something that we are seeing colleges look favorably upon especially as they have moved into test optional they're looking some supplemental um data points some of those things might be how many clicks you've had on their website how many times You' visited their campus how early you decided to apply to their school we're seeing an increase in international uh applicants an increase in deferrals and weight lists that's because of the increase in application so if you move your way up to the Common App and test optional phenomenon that we are experiencing that has probably been the biggest um reason that we are seeing changes in the acceptance rates so all schools went test optional in 2021 when kids could not physically sit for the test and most have remained test optional they've been collecting about 3 years worth of data that they will use we expect this spring to make decisions for next fall whether or not they are going to go back to test mandatory we are anticipating most of them or many of them will they don't necessarily want to but they will we've had 80 colleges come and visit Montgomery High School and we chat up all of these admissions officers as they visit our school and visit our kids and we're constantly asking them questions about what they're looking for in the review process what they see coming ahead when it comes to test optional and again most of them would like to stay test optional but we are starting to see more and more of them come out now saying that they will uh go back to test required and then you know the common application has made it very easy for students to apply to multiple schools the cumulative effect of test optional and Common App means these admissions offices are seeing a lot more applications here's are I went back five years so you can take a look at the class profiles some of the information I had in separate slides some new information is here I'm going to let that sit for a minute and see if anything jumps out at you you make your way down the chart you'll see there's a lot of consistency on the top half starting with this class size 5 years ago we graduated 409 students and last year we graduated 409 students their GPA PSAT sat ACT scores were pretty consistent then you get down to the number of college applications submitted and you see over a 40% increase so 409 students submitt 3100 applications in 2019 409 students submitted 5,233 applications in 2023 that has a negative inverse effect when you look at our acceptance rate right so more applicants lesser accepted so our application our percentage accepted if you see a decrease there it's just that the average uh number of applications per student you see here while we recommend 10 as a sweet spot um you'll see most of our students are going well beyond and that can be attributed to the unpredictable results that we're seeing at we spring over the last two years so you'll see 40% of our students submit more than 16 applications it's a lot they're busy that again has a negative impact on our acceptance rate on the left you'll see those three bars that is taking a look at at how we did from an acceptance standpoint on the top 10 colleges we appli to and on the right the top 20 colleges we appli to and again you'll see a drop there merely because of the increased number of applications this was fun to figure out so the class of 2023 the top 20 schools we applied to I mean like I said this is awesome we just spent hours like digging and asking questions we been finding out this data really comes to us from Naviance we we feel it's really reliable data because before the kids leave us in the spring we really have them update their Naviance profiles for us to let us know not just where you applied where you got accepted but also where you involved so we at Montgomery High School we we care a lot about that First Column so we sorted this by where we are most frequently applying to the next column you can see is the total number of accepted that is that that's important for us we we care about our percentage rate we also care about where the kids go the colleges care about the column all the way to the right the yield that's how they ensure Financial stability and Prestige they care about you if they if they send out a th000 acceptances they want to see a th000 involes come from then I broke it down to show um just sorted a different way and let's look at where we are so that previous slide was sorted primarily by it had all the information but um we we ranked it by where we were apping to most this is where we are attending most so a couple different schools pop up when we do this list number three on the list R Valley I think that's pretty awesome we have 37 kids at Ry Valley right now we're seeing that 2-year option more popular um we think it has to do with budgetary reasons we think it has to do with um students thinking a Gap near is wise we think geography has something to do with it and also while the college landscape has is is settling down people are seeing rbcc is a viable option also cooking University of Pittsburgh climbing the charts like really trending for the Montgomery High School kid I point out Miss Herman because she sends money to the University of Pittsburgh um so ween uh schools like uh pit Indiana you'll see up there Purdue those are schools that tend to have really strong Business Schools engineering programs and uh they do offer some significant financial packages for out State students I thought it'd be interesting to take a look at our home state and just see the impact of the college app and test optional on Ruckers so Ruckers is our home away from home for the Montgomery student 68,000 applications last year that's a 60% increase in with 60% [Music] increase so we we are unfortunately seeing some of our students who would traditionally been slam dunks at Ruckers being weight listed and deferred and you know just has to do with the Shar number of applicants um I'm going to end with this some new things for Montgomery High School so next year we will be launching our concurrent enrollment program we have partnered with the seat and Hall project acceleration so we will be running six courses next year at Mont Army High School where students can choose to take it for concurrent enrollment they can earn college credit from SE Hall um by sitting in their Montgomery High School class so we're excited about that launch next year we have a new school counseling website in the vein of better communication we've Consolidated information organized information added information so we hope that that is become a more useful userfriendly resource for our students and our families we've just taken on um parchment is a platform that we use in conjunction with navian it's a much easier way for students to receive uh credentials transcripts diomas next year I'm really proud to say will be the first year that all Juniors will be expected to take the PSAT and Montgomery is going to be funding that so in previous years it has been a Saturday option for juniors to come and attend and and take the PSAT last year we um did do it in school we saw an increased number of test takers and again that was on their own dime next year we will be paying for all Juniors to take the PSAT and New Jersey has blessed us with another graduation requirement which is the F so the FAA will be a graduation requirement whether or not you intend on um uh College as a postsecondary option you will be required to complete the f as part of the graduation requirements so that's going to be interesting to see how that plays um on our counseling department as we try to make sure that we hold the hands of everyone that we need to to make sure they complete that document and that's where we are so thank you for your attention suppose we'll open it up to some questions y Cory thank you very much for that presentation um can you tell the board and the community what you're hearing from admissions counselors in regards to um Montgomery students yeah well I'm glad you asked that so first and foremost they love the Montgomery High School student so they are very familiar with the Montgomery High School profile that's something that's on our website you know a lot of the information you saw here tonight is on the high school profile and that's how they that's how they handle apples and oranges so they know a GPA at Montgomery High School is different than a GPA at a neighboring High School um because of the high school profile so they really look at that profile they know that we have a strong academic program and strong students they like the Montgomery High School students because the Montgomery High School students stick and finish so this is anecdotal they're not sharing data with me but this is things that they're telling us um and they contribute to campus so those are three big reasons that they love the Montgomery High School student I can tell you my last Loop through the guidance office back in 2010 when I was a vice principal at Montgomery High School supervisor in the guidance Department we had 15 to 20 colleges come to visit Montgomery High School and I had to call them our Superintendent at the time was Earl Kim and he said your job is to put Montgomery on the map make sure they know who we are we were just that school between Princeton and South P um and in the last 10 years things have changed so we didn't call a single School 880 of them descended upon us and so that that says a lot that's a real tribute to to our students and our families in this community that's Bo members any other questions yeah is this thing on yeah okay yeah I I think we uh we take a victory lab uh fairly Mon and and we are a very good school we have a really good academics but I'd also like to congratulate the parents here who sure really dve their kids who I think they have elect to do with this Absol we're just their partner I have few questions Corey one is um you mentioned that there's a significant percentage of our students going to college do we know 88% I think you mentioned to a four-year institution do we track because you even mentioned when Patrick asked about um how many colleges are interested in us wouldn't it be would be great if we could track how many of them complete their fouryear degrees it would be fantastic yeah we were having this conversation I would love to dig into that a little bit more I don't have that inform but I think that's the real tell of success it's one thing to get in it's another thing to finish exactly and then the second question on the AP test we have a lot of AP uh tests being taken do we know the percentage of actually getting the passing score on the AP tests for our school we do we do that's on our high school profile I actually have some hard copies I can get you so colleges are looking for are fives and fours but more and more are accepting threes five being the highest um the fours and fives are usually automatic awarded college credit but more and more looking at threes as an acceptable number yeah if you could share that though sure helpful thank you cor Could you actually just share with the board and the public a little bit about um some of the new initiatives with Stan Hall I know it wasn't necessarily um in here but I think that that also speaks to you know the the caliber of student and faculty and and what um we're able to do with our College Bound seniors yeah yeah it was just a mention in here but there was a whole lot of information in here so um I will say that uh Heather Pino and the high school team and Cory Gaylord and my predecessor started the journey last year researching how uh what schools would make sense for us to partner with for concurrent enrollment concurrent enrollment is an awesome Advantage for our students right financially they can have have um more than a semester's worth of courses paid for at half the price it also looks really good on on a transcript in a resident so our students could be submitting their Montgomery High School transcript and a seat and Hall transcript wherever they're applying to so there's benefits there um it's a pretty arduous process to get approval so you have to number one get your course curriculum approved and the instructor has to be improved by the University so we thought World Language was a good place to start as a lot of our students would like to take care of that world language requirement before going to college and um we have an English course um we have honors level English courses we made a choice not to start with our AP courses because students can already earn credit by taking the AP test so we wanted kids who weren't in the AP track to have an opportunity and then we'll look to grow you know we do hope to grow but we wanted a good entry point so it was several months of submitting documents submitting um credentials for instructors before we finally received approval and seat in the hall we thought was where we wanted to be their credit seem to be more widely accepted by colleges around the country than some of the other schools we were looking at so that that's why we land him would SE home congratulations to the yeah thank you are you pling on adding other universities in that type of program where we partner with them for credits if there an advantage so the advantage might be SE and Hall might not recognize a course that we submit for concurrent enrollment credit or dual enrollment credit but R and Valley might or St John's might or BYU might so that would be for that reason we would definitely entertain partnering with some other schools I would recommend bared Valley because my son uh decided to take some summer courses and University of Pittsburgh takes you know credits span Valley courses so I wish that he did that instead of going straight to Pittsburgh because of the cost but that's a good partnership as well yep so we've already I just met them recently Cory I just met with them recently and I was going to link the you and I up with them so um the history with SE Hall it was the day before we closed the world for Co Cory Gaylord and I met with uh the lady from SE Hall and I remember it was like we were so going oh we're going to do all this and then the next day switch everything to back shut off so I'm so glad that we were able to get it going and flying out it is it is and you know Mary your daughter has benefited from a program like this so it's it's w you know many high schools do partner with schools um there's two different terms used dual enrollment or concurrent enrollment often they're used interchangeably but those who choose to delineate a diff or create a difference dual enrollment often refers to this High School SCH student sitting in the college classroom so the high school student going to raran Valley to take the course that is dual enrollment concurrent enrollment usually refers to the high school classroom being the Learning Center and the college accepting the high school course sometimes you have to tweak your curriculum and things like that to to make it all match up um seat and Hall seem to be like I said it was a good fit for us this year any other questions from board members yeah thank you for your presentation Mr delado um on the earlier slides where you show at least on the standardized test performance of the students in their comparison to the state and that's all the public school district students but consolidation right of their average on the standardized test um what about I know um community members have attended town halls and previous meetings inquiring about showing those comparisons with like districts to Montgomery and like inserting that um feature um on that slide what are your thoughts on that well the numbers in there include that that is not um that's just how our students do against other students not our district against other districts so that is what if you went to the hunt School your SAT scores would be mixed in in that blue column and that gold column so but that be interesting to see how we do um compared to other districts like districts you know kind of narrow the a little bit um I think we could feel pretty good about if we just looked at the state comparison and then really when you're talking about sat and college board you're talking Global comparisons yeah thank you yeah any other questions board members all right okay thank you very much that because of damn you know and Tony Dorset University of pron produced those two amazing men the last presentation for this evening Trent our business administrator will present on the 24 25 proposed budget all right I'm going to stay in my seat since I already have a microphone and I control the computer so first off I want to say thank you to the board members I got to meet one very helpful for me uh there was you know good feedback which is reflected in the budget so that was that was very beneficial um I'll start with the process that goes on to make the budget which if you don't remember you were given a budget calendar like I don't even know now five or 6 months ago it's an ongoing process even after the budget is finally we go through the year in April which is probably going to be starting back again in May and April as we start the or May and June as we start the uh the orders for the next year so in October uh Administration gave the budget managers I think of different departments think of different principles uh of the budget development process December we took all the requests in we met with everybody oneon-one uh it was a good time to be able to hear everybody's feedback their goals what they wanted what they were willing to take away have open conversations we took those open conversations and went into January and February and developed the budget um as an administrative team February 29th we received our state aid numbers which is key in formulating the budget because even though you think at this point we would all know it's still sometimes a mystery if we're going to lose money but luckily we gain $685,000 which is very beneficial to us um March 1st met with the off meeting just about the budget had a good conversations there and then March 19th which is the current dat we are talking right now about the tenative budget all right just remember it's the tenative we still have some time to go until April when we have the public hearing everything and the hope is and we have to so we'll be here if we don't we have to adopt the tenative budget tonight because it has to be submitted to the executive County Superintendent tomorrow for approval um and then in April our board meeting then April 30th they give us a date range that's why the meeting is later in April it's not April 23rd we couldn't do it on that date we can um adopt the final budget and and start moving forward into the next next budget so that's the explanation so we'll get into some of the numbers so starting point for the tax levy uh was [Music] $87,200 would be an extra 1.69 million we were also offered if we wanted to by the state um an increase for the healthcare costs which would be an extra $624,000 that's when you have extraordinary increases in your benefits uh this year our benefits increased in cost by about 1.4 million we are given a Max tax levy but after discussions with the board um and what we're hoping to approve tonight is staying within 2% raise so not doing the 6 24,000 keeping it at the 89,000 or 89 million sorry $ 42,1 15 so does anybody have any questions about that specific slide so what we're going forward with is the 2% raise okay just want to think um report uh I just want to thank the the business administrator and superintendent for the very hard because I know how difficult the budget was so I really appreciate that we were able to keep the increase of 2% really really appreciate it of course and it sets us up in the future to be able to look at other raises as well than we not constantly yes um so you be not taking any of the healthare adjustment correct um what's the reason why well that would add to the tax levy and the feedback I received by enough of the board just from my Oneal conversations indicated that if we raised the tax levy to the max it could be as 2.7% that this budget would not be voted on proper so is um so in lie of that adjustment what is going to need to be adjusted somewhere else sure so we made the decision um it's the board members remember I have it think later on but we can talk about it now last year there's something called the budgeted fund balance um the budgeted fund balance that was used last year was 5.4 million we had come up with a goal as a district to get down to 3.8 million um that's what we initially trying to cut to by not raising the taxes we were cutting down to 4.2 so we still achieved the goal of cutting the fund balance by 1.2 million which sets us up to you know have more savings and more Surplus going forward it just was not the 3.8 that we originally talked about and that was you know with the auditor we had discussions and everything however in order to the decision was made in order to main maintain programs maintain Staffing that became more important to us than cutting that just to get down to the 3.8 so and we did a good job I think as a district of getting down the 1. 2 million so you're going to watch every other District look at their user friendly budget they're probably going to go up on their fund balance and we were able to get it you know cut so and then year over year we'll be able to continue to decrease that until we get yes that and as the auditor mentioned we you know we do budget in a way and we do spend you know um conservatively that we do end up with more money every year than what we spend that's always the goal so that can help build with we have a healthy cap Reserve right now our main Reserve is about 3 million we can have a Max 5.4 based on our district eval our evaluation so we're healthy with where we're at with that so that was that was the decision that was made and that's what we're proposing to go with all right so on the agenda tonight I'm going to break this down a few different ways um this is how it's broken down on the agenda of how we approve the funds so first is the general fund that has the tax levy that has St date in it that has lots of other different little things down to we have sold scrap metal and made money off of that but but that's not a lot but we have preschool tuition uh we get funds from eates I don't know if you know what e rate is but all those little numbers on the bottom of your cell phone bills and everything we get that back and count that as Revenue um we get solar rebates so that all goes into the general fund uh the special Revenue fund would be what we look at with with grants and that decreased significantly for a very good reason and that's that the Esser grants are now going so we could not count last year there was 1.8 million counted with Esser um when we don't have it that's okay I mean we it was allocated for you know oneoff purchases we didn't put it into recurring staff so that actually not hurt us it just makes the budget look shorter than it was in The Debt Service fund uh the district I think has five or sorry four bonds and one other debt um some will be falling off in a bit know once from 2007 2010 those are Prem merger debts we have some after that uh but the total debt service we need this year is 7,4 24,000 which goes into the tax levy I'll rephrase that just a bit most of it goes into the taxes we do get some aid from the state for that which is seem right here um so the local taxes as we talked about are going to go out 2% uh also in those taxes it is Debt Service which it makes sense for paying debt down it is reduced this year um state8 uh went up 685,000 um I don't know I had the plus or minus that's the same number that's obviously wrong but it did go up 685,000 The Debt Service uh we are receiving from the state is $597,000 there's a formula in the state we don't have any thing to do with that at all we just log into something it's called the date uh Debt Service dat collection website and we can see what our what we're getting from the state um in the reserves as I said we're using the 4.2 fund balance that's what that number was that we had talked about 3.8 that last year was 5.4 so this year is it's 4.2 we're moving 74,000 from Capital into projects for the district um because again as the auditor is speaking about we do have the ability to do that because we are luckily returning more money than what we're putting out and then maintenance as well you can move from the maintenance Reserve um one of the reasons you move from the maintenance Reserve is on like cap Reserve there's a 4% of your total District valuation that you can have in meance reserve and we have been saving diligently as a district the same so now we have to make sure we do move it into the general um fund and that's just a pretty chart to see how everything's spent most of the funds are local taxes um you can see the reserves that we are we have and the state aid but again most money and any school district is going to come from local taxes all right so the next um you can take a time you can scroll you can look down and see if you look at everything I mean obviously there's going to be fluctuations here and there the one is that the you know the minus 70% in the in the grants which is expected because of the eser funds so even though that number looks scary it's not as was expected um the big let's see you can see we kept and we we did it I think it was a good job by the district to keep um most things pretty even you know I mean you can see regular instruction went up 3% special ed go down 3% um operation me at the plant goes up 2% Transportation goes down so we really worked through and as I spoke with the board members who I met with um you know we had four years of data that we looked at understanding that one of those years was recovery from Co basically too but we looked at four years of data what was spent we talk to everybody saw what they needed and we really put together um a budget that reflects what is needed by the district are there any questions with this page I know there's another yes sorry can I just ask what's the difference between regular instruction and tuition tuition is what we pay for students to attend schools outside of our school got it thank you yep okay and then there's a pretty chart to look at again but the main thing to take away um you can see the employee benefits down there at the bottom 20% of our budget goes to employee benefits um everything else is kind of what you would expect to see on this chart that the regular instruction is the most special ed comes after that you know we're operating the buildings um we have the support services but whatever I can go back to this but it really comes down to is that our our expenses are driven mainly by people uh 61.5% this year go to salaries 21.3% go to benefits so 82.8% total of our budget is people um so that's a the biggest biggest thing we're in and that's the toughest part when it comes down to if you need to make decisions people make up the most so that's what you always want to try to to save as a district but those are the biggest drivers that we have um um that formatting is off I went from PowerPoint to slides and apparently doesn't go well so um we were able to add some new positions um there's pair of professionals being added there's a transportation nurse which we had to add if we didn't add that we'd be paying for a service out and it was it was cheaper for the district to to have that person inhouse rather than pay for the service out adding another computer tech obviously technolog is the The Way of the World now so it's always going to be be like that you're going to keep keep adding the technicians um the star program two uh psychologists are being added into that program um the ESS program do do not exist anymore it it rolled into this program so it's actually a savings for the district to do this even though it looks like we're adding the Personnel we have a savings um and you can see there rest the bcba teacher autism teacher and then two new Safety and Security coordinators because again the way the world is right now it's important to have as much uh support when it comes to security as it can um wow really did not do well okay so I talked about the projects um we've budgeted and it's kind of we've spoken with the principles but just money for security improvements that's kind of TBD but we're always looking to ensure the schools are as secure as possible uh looking at Play ground equipment upgrades looking at an updated sign in front of uh the high school um we have started talking about it's either new or upgraded facility and transportation facilities we started those conversations and the big thing that has to be remembered when we talk about projects we still have the rod grants so the rod grants exist they're approved um we're in talks with the the architect right now he's starting the design process for us we have the upper middle school there's a chiller replacement um the dou Middle School there's also a roof replacement lower middle schools an hbac unit and then high schools an RCU replacement rooftop unit replacement so we have those four different projects so I mean we can't we we can Mo things and say we're going to spend we have $8 million in cap Reserve we're but it's all kind of designated right now so you have to remember that when we're looking at the budget the rod grants are going to really Drive what we're doing in the next couple years to get those those projects done also you have to remember that the state is paying know for a good percentage of those and that's why we you have to use those it's it's you know you'd be you'd be crazy not to use the rock BRS so um does anybody have any questions I have one question um those R Brands can you explain one more time like how they operate because it seems like we do have to have certain amount in our bud in our reserves and then once we take the project certain portion we have to fund ourselves and then the state helps us to find to Def fund the remaining what's the percentage that we would need to have uh so we're responsible for 60% stay will do 40% yeah they they there was different the minimum would have been 40 we got the 40 other districts may have got more but yeah so we have the opportunity to get the the these you know necessities of the plant facility for you know 60% of the the price but that's how it works um and then there's different phases so the state will pay for part of the design phase so even if we do the design phase and we choose not to go forward which we're not going to do the state would still pay us for that part so they give us there's Milestones along the way that they reimburse us so so adding to the capital reserve possible with Smart M the these projects are necessary projects so a question board members thank you Mr TR I just want to reiterate that um the importance and the appre that Mr Trent offered to meet with every single board member individually for us to make sure that we understood the the budget so I really want to thank Mr Trent in public again um because I think that's a obviously a huge part of our responsibility so thank you for taking the time to meet with us individually any have a question thank you Mr Trent um at this time I'll entertain a motion to reconvene an executive session second they properly moved in second all those in favor State I I it's members of the public we expect to be in there no longer than 30 to 45 minutes it is now 9:25 we will reconvene entertain a motion to reconvene Open Session move second second second prop move in second all those in favor State i i i committee representative reports mtea thank you for your patience yes good evening my name is Dr Adam Hackle I am a music teacher here at Orchard Hill I also teach at Village the Upper Middle School um and have uh assisted in the marching band for many years uh this evening I am representing Jim Dolan as the uh representative for the MTA good evening members of the board community members District administration and MTA colleagues we had a very successful read Across America week with almost 60 guest readers across Village Elementary School and Orchard Hill they included administrators from our district office staff community members from montgomer mtea leadership local politicians and our very own board of education members thank you all for coming out thank you for making re Across America a wonderful success and the students truly love to have stars come and read to them and that's really what you are when you come out there they will talk about you for days our read Across America virtual read aloud with teenage author sansu lukuma was well attended the village Elementary and orchard Elementary Schools attendees enjoyed the story and had great questions for the author about the illustrations how she got started writing and the inspiration she took to create her Works once the books come in each attendee will receive a copy also in honor of women's History Month our Equity committee started a collection to support the organization I support the girls it is a nonprofit that collects and distributes essential items to support women and shimi and the drive will run until the end of March thank you very much thank you thank you are there any board member delegate representative reports yes board members WS yes um so thank you board chair so last evening March 18th 2024 Patrick Todd Joanna Fela I'ma Jernigan and I attended the Somerset County School boards association annual unsung heroes award ceremony at the Somerset County Vocational Technical High School in Bridgewater New Jersey um the ceremony began at 6:30 p.m. all Somerset County Boards of education members superintendents business administrators principes and District staff were invited to attend all public school districts in Somerset County um were invited several months ago to collaborate with internal teams and submit the name of one high school senior to be recognized the concept around unsung is to honor those students who are often overlooked under more traditional award guidelines the selection criteria in include students who've overcome difficult academic or personal challenges model good citizenship or exhibit a spirit and quiet strength that inspires others it was so enjoyable to watch each student honoring on the stage last night all the talented students last night represented achieving academic success despite disabilities or language barriers family health issues one prioritizes social activism and theater another expressed biomed and Engineering interest and all were intelligent compassionate people who will make a positive impact in this world I had the pleasure to meet two District superintendents that were present and several Board of Education members as well with one superintendent stating it's nice to show up with the good stuff like this please join me in congratulating our own Montgomery High School senior Cameron Bennett on being our District's amazing unsung hero thank you so principal Peno Bey did an excellent job orb rating just how amazing thoughtful smart and impressive Cameron is after speaking with Cameron and her parents last night she is an outstanding mentor and role model for her siblings and high school peers she is looking forward to attending an Institute the technology in the fall like her parents I'd also like to thank all Montgomery Township Board of Education members for donating money so that each unsung hero was gifted with her certificate and gift card last night this concludes my ssba report do board members have any questions or comments at this time on thank you and then finally I'll just wrap up really quickly and thank m Stacy Anderson and the Mt EA for organizing the read Across America event had the pleasure of reading um a book to uh a first grade um class um at orer Hill the book was Stacy's remarkable um books and the students were um highly first grad were highly engaged they asked amazing amazing you know thought-provoking questions you know they certainly know how to um you know code decode comprehend um I was just thoroughly thoroughly um impressed so Mrs Ker's excuse me Mrs Ker's class and that that book um is a part of her Library so shout out to miss ker and her amazing class of students thank you any other board member delegate representative reports tonight I have a quick question I attended the municipal Alliance and youth Service Commission meeting and on May 2nd will be the annual mental health matters um event that is in partnership with the school district and it's going to be held at the ums uh May 2nd ums and the topic for this year is the effects of social media and cell phones on Mental Health thank any other reports all right here none move to board committee reports first up assessment curriculum and instruction committee board member D that was the first one sorry uh okay I'll keep it very brief um the majority of our meeting which was held on uh March sorry I don't have the date here in M Middle March I'll find the date for you in a second um the majority of March 19th the majority of the meeting uh was uh revolving around the portrait of a graduate presentation which Mr Delgato did a wonderful job on this evening um the committee provided uh some feedback for him and he did he made a couple of tweaks but for the most part um we were just um entertaining his wonderful presentation and uh getting ready for that uh upcoming test taking uh dates were reviewed by Dr Young um for the njj GPA uh they'll take place in March uh March 11th for ELA and March 12th for the mathematics and the makeup dates are set for Thursday March 14th and Friday March 15th beyond the school day update was also given by Dr Young um we offer an additional targeted support in ela and in math after school for students in grades 5 through eight um who demonstrate a specific need uh 250 students plus uh are invited to particip and approximately 75 students actually accepted the um accepted to participate the program starts the week of March 11th and runs through May 3rd and finally we were given a followup by Jeff Brooks uh on staff cyber security uh Mr Brooks visited LMS VES and and MHS faculty meetings on Monday March 4th to review training videos and introduce upcoming fishing campaigns he will visit o and Ms on Monday March 18th any questions or comments thank you thank you board member D up next operations facilities and finance committee board member felak so the operations finance and Facilities committee metant on Friday March 15th the focus of the off committee this month was the budget review the business administrator and the superintendent had been more very hard to evaluate needs of our district and allocate the funds available to provide the quality education to our students and to ensure our District offers quality work environment we reviewed several versions of the budget proposal and discussed in great detail the needs of each School in our district we focus on the quality of the programs we offer maintenance needs of our facilities employment conditions and fiscal responsibility we have to the taxpayers with the raising prices and payroll costs it's unrealistic to avoid 2% statutory tax increase however we work very hard to cap the increase at 2% because we understood the higher tax increases imposed in the past 2 years created a big tax burden on ourant in participation in anticipation of the cost in an anticipation of the cost uh to increase we have discussed ideas for new sources of funding to plan for the future years and establish a healthy balance between the tax levy Grants State Aid and other sources of funding the committee also discussed the plans for future for for plan discuss the plans for Capital Improvements and maintenance of the school GRS and Facilities we talked about the challenges the administration faces to address a roof leakage at high school in order to proper repair the roof um we have to take the Sol panels of the roof unfortunately the district cannot remove the panels uh for another year and a half so the administration is working on temporary solution to address the the the leaks to prevent our facilities from permanent damage the administration also took action to evaluate the needs of facilities used by the grounds maintenance and the transportation employees our district takes pride in creating a quality work environment to all employees I I appreciate hearing about the plans considered by the business administrator and the superintendent to bring the teams together in the facilities where they could have their department meeting trainings and breakr that's all any questions board members there none moving on to policy and Communications committee board members Roa Jernigan and Spence Wallace Miss W would you like go first okay um from the policy perspective there's a couple of items that um hopefully will get through uh tonight so over the last few months we've all discussed the potential of us uh doing a policy review one of the things that I've shared with the board last month was a board certificate uh certification recognition of a full board commitment to effective governance and continuous Improvement through training and some of those areas include ethics goal setting board roles and responsibilities and areas of policy development and I think one of the items that is on the list of those uh certification of the recognition of the certification is the wellness check of our policies so over the last month Mary has been kind enough of communicating with Strauss Esme uh for a potential review of policies and I had a pleasure of working with uh the presenter from last month from njsba and the good news for the initial review actually specified language that reference wrong time frames uh and was contradictory to the state law and that was actually highlighted later on as I was having um discussion with other board members throughout the school districts around this particular policy so I will be bringing this up again uh during our next uh policy meeting there's a way for us as board members to uh make changes to the policy to reflect accuracy but this stresses really um what we've all been talking about in regards to having a good understanding of um our policies within the school district making sure that all of them are well reflected based on the the laws that we have today in um in New Jersey so with that said I would like to I if this is appropriate time Patrick to make a motion to vote on the wellness check because I would like to get us on um on the list of all of those school districts to make sure that we are uh you know not wasting any more time in regards to njp providing that service to us can I ask a [Music] question at at the closing at theend yeah can I ask a question so if you're on the list you know how backlog they are like I think yeah I think that that what I've heard from other school district it's about two months before they get to us right so at least you know if we keep waiting month after month right we're going to be 3 months and four months and I can tell you that based on some of the discussions I'm having is that a lot of school dists are going through it and I think this particular policy I just mentioned is driving a lot of that behavior because there are some uh issues potentially potential issues we don't accurately so we'll do that at the end great thank you so much I'm sorry just to clarify we can just do the wellness check right cost got it it's already part of our njsp membership no additional cost to the district um could you could you um elaborate on what it is that you're seeing as a or hearing as a concern in the bilingual policy in you know as ition of what's already here that should be modified um yes I'm happy to do that I actually have it um written directly I'm happy to text it to I mean it's uh it's in reflection to the language that is being reflected in the policy today States a policy from 1974 which talks about uh 3 to four year I think timeline for ESL student to get fully integrated into the system where today's uh um policy is uh or today's I don't know if state law statute yeah the statute talks about potentially four five years so it actually directly contradicts itself so we can fix it right so at our next meeting because I have this information will adjust it in our policy to reflect it accurately and remove the old stat all all all uh legal uh language that talks about something that occurred way back so just to be I just want to make sure that as as far as um uh English language Learners or MLS um they have to take access testing every year and get leveled usually 1 through five and yes if beyond that then you would be graduated out right um you could not necessarily need all 5 years so that I'm I'm curious as to how the language is is yeah yeah I mean what's to say that if a child is receiving ESL services for 2 to 3 years and then they take their access test and are are doing just fine but they wouldn't be required to have those Services yeah and I'll actually send you a direct letter from another attorney to stra smma to ask them for um you know clarification and Mary yeah I'll send it to you and I think Mary and I are going to have the same discussion with stra SME in regards to wellness check right so when I talk about wellness check right we should think both of them we should see both sides of the story right so I think it would be feasible for us to see strauss's estimates part of and I send you guys the the comparison um between the two as far as cost but it is part of our contract that we've received from Mary so so we're already paying for the service that they hav't done to us well they call it something different than than wellness check right so it's an audit right so but I think we should do both I mean we have access to it why not sounds good thank you yeah so thank you board member will like board shair so as the co-chair of PCC the communications part um superintendent Mary mlin um is our district um co-pilot in that effort so as a followup um to community members public comment at last month's meeting all three strategic planning meetings have taken place the information for all the meetings is posted on the district website um the strategic planning committee has met to set the goals for the district as stated by our superintendent next the administrators um and staff are meeting is that correct Mar um to develop objectives um and Mary will work would necessary continue to work uh with the New Jersey school board's facilitator um Glen Thon to determine um further steps so after the Strategic plant outcomes are categorized and finalized a survey will be created to be sent out to the community our communication specialist Ryan is researching different types of surveys to determine the one that will collect the best results for the district and some areas of interest for the survey are determining the best mode of communication for parents whether it's social media website emails from the principles Etc and transparency so at this month's uh PCC meeting which was held on March SE Thursday March 7th Mary did present several companies that had expertise in writing the questions that elicit the more targeted responses to the questions and we are looking for high rates of reliability whether the results can be reproduced under the same conditions as well as validity whether the results represent what they are supposed to measure all the companies provide the service we're looking for including Distributing the survey and calculating the results the companies that share the most interest among committee members was the national school Public Relation Association and scope with the former enveloping a K2 a K12 Insight various pricing among the company is involved and exact pricing is yet to be determined and again Mary and Ryan will follow up they are following up actually and they'll present um their findings at the April um PCC meeting um conversely and um the district has an annual subscription to Survey Monkey which is a service that can help us create a survey through AI we would then send out the survey and monitor the results the committee members requested that Mary work with Ryan to obtain further information on these key and related items so the best choice is likely achieve and as communication is a key area of importance having further open communication between the community and the district is vital it was mentioned that different districts use a tool called let's talk which is a platform where two-way communication takes place let's talk I'm told revolutionizes communication between the district and the community by making it easier for parents students and staff to connect and share feedback it Fosters active engagement and empowers us with valuable insights derived from the data analytics and it opens dialogue and active listening the Board of Education and the district are excited to explore how we enhance our Communications processes moving forward this concludes my PCC Communications part report do board members have any questions or comments at this time I do have a question I not for m m has Gwen gotten back to you with um the co data the Strategic B no um she was away at a workshop and then I was away at a two-day workshop so we haven't connected any other questions here none moving on to just yeah I understand but I'm just like anxious about going head with our next steps and so I know that you're waiting for when to come back to no I already have a plan tomorrow afternoon I have a meeting with thank you moving on to Human Resources committee and I'll keep this short uh Human Resources committee met on March 12th uh Tom Wayne director of Safety and Security gave updates on his hiring um new this year we have the safety coordinated positions in the building um Tom has received positive feedback from staff administrators and students uh we still have a current posting for safety monitor position in the high school um that position uh posting is just closed and we have current currently have 15 applicants for the position and interviews will be starting this week all the staff of the high school now have their IDs that double um as their access Keys entire staff will have their IDs within the next week or so uh we we also talked about uh director of special services update and the super supervisor of special education update still in the process of review and applications for the director of special services position uh once those applicants are selected um they will be we will be holding interviews uh supervisor special education is going to be paid through erer funds uh no one applied at this time so we extended the deadline uh we had two viable candidates but neither were determined strong enough for the position and we most likely will be looking at someone internally uh assistant superintendent Manis gave us a brief overview of the workers compensation process and that is it anything else I actually have update yes correct so on March 7th our district held the job fair at or Elementary School I attended the job fair to observe how the job fairs are conducted in our district um and I walked into the room uh where potential candidates were very warmly greeted by our HR team they were offered information about the hiring process and directed to the relevant stations to meet our staff the HR team did a great job setting up the stations to enable privacy and comfort the candidates spent spent adequate time with the interviewers and they seemed to have their questions answered to their satisfaction when what I noticed was that as the candidates were leaving they walked away smiling and feeling empowered by the potential of the new opportunities this is a great testimony of how well this job for was organized and the great impression our was staff made on the candidates this job fair would not be possible if it wasn't for the professionalism and Forward Thinking of Kelly Mattis our HR director and her team Sharon Martin and Stacy O'Neal our HR team takes proactive actions and promotes our district by participating in various job fairs they dedicate their time to establishing connections with the potential future candidates to bring the best talent to our district and also to mitigate staff shortage issues the results of Kelly's leadership and forward-looking actions are visible and appreciated when the Personal Agenda is presented each month at the board meetings and the board learns about the vacancies and how quickly those vacancies are built I look forward to attending other job fairs to learn about how our HR team promotes our district at external job fairs speaking of the next job fair fair is this uh CJ Cal Jersey Pride job fair on March 21st which will be held virtually um you see the website for additional information real quick um may I say something about the HRC notes so the supervisor uh in special education position we yes we did we were not successful in finding a candidate so we're going to use the um Grant funds to do consultative M PD for our staff thank you superintendent at this time I'll entertain a motion for the approval of the February 2024 executive session meeting minutes and the 20 February 27th 2024 business meeting minutes seconds been properly move in second any questions on the motion Mr Trent roll call please yes Mr Carlson yes Miss D yes Miss GAC yes Miss Franco Herman yes Miss Harris yes Dr Spence Wallace yes missa Juran yes Miss minina yes Mr to yes thank you motion CH thank you board acknowledges all correspondents to the board next up the agenda items public comment 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 the action agenda items only up for a maximum of 3 minutes per speaker all comments must be directed to the board before you make your comment please State your 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 the speaker the board discourages def defamatory and discourteous remarks the public comment portions of the meeting are not structured as qu question and answer sessions but rather are offered as opportunities for the public to share their thoughts with the board the board may need to refer an issue to the superintendent if the issue has not been handled through the appropriate chain of command us starting at the school level responses may be provided at the end of this session do we have any public comment for the action agenda and before making your comments make sure you uh let us know the action agenda item number if there any other comments uh please line up now thank you I don't know what action agenda item yeah it is but you guys were talking about um the facilities buildings uh transportation in general was that not on there I don't you guys were talking about I don't believe that's an action agend item yeah oh then I don't have nothing to say cuz I thought that other stuff was my mistake say it in in the uh the yeah that's F yeah thank you any other comments for action genda items going once going twice public comments are closed for Action agenda item at this time I will entertain a motion to accept action agenda items 1.1 through 4.4 I will read 4.3 and 4.4 4.3 says be a resolve that the Board of Education denies the appeal in HIV 25807 ds-01 22024 and 4.4 reads be it resolved that the Board of Education approves the appeal in HIV 259 425- um- 0222 024 Mr Trent roll call please I'm sorry is there a second on the mo I I just want to clarify yes would you mind stating the one that uh the appeal that we approved please being resolve if the Board of Education approves the appeal in Hib 29425 ds-20 22024 okay thank you which action items are those 4.3 is the denial 4.4 is the approval is there a motion second it's been properly moved and second it to move to uh accept items 1.1 through 4.4 are there any questions on the motion roll call please Mr Trent yes Mr Carlon no on 4.3 yes on anything else I'm sorry no on 4.3 thank you m Allen yes Miss vac so on item 1.1 C uh for me the no would be uh case numberers 26359 um 2601 117 25 8864 and the case number 25870 which I believe is the item 4.3 I apologize could you repeat yourself yes I can so the first case number would be 26 0359 okay second one is 26 0117 25 8864 and then the p258 70 which I believe is item 4.3 and with me now and what was your action on those no no okay thank you and yes for everything else everything else thank you very much uh Miss Franco Herman yes to everything else uh abstain 1.2 all right Miss Harris yes everything obain 1.2 Dr spenc walls yes have stain for 1.2 and 4.4 um Miss W again um yes but I do have a question in regards to 1.2 as we discussed in the policy update I would like to uh re-evaluate policy 2423 in our next session so I just want to refund that as it is right now it's not acceptable in my opinion well it's at first reading okay so this is not be there first I will collect that any minutes or 23 okay Miss Vina yes and Mr C yes thank you motions carried thank you Mr Trent 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 3 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 in mindful privacy rights regarding students board employees and board members and to avoid any potential liability on the part of the speaker the board discourages defamatory and discourteous remarks the public comment portions of the meeting are not structured as question and answer sessions 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 starting at the school level responses may be provided at the end of this session now you're good thank you if there's anyone else that wishes to make public comments please um start entering your name so we can do this swiftly John John mner 694 milstone River Road um the only comment I have really to make is you were talking about uh possibly doing something eliminating the trailer and putting something up for buildings and grounds and transportation I think that's a great idea um one thing I'd look um since that will bring actual Capital trailers around here the building the ECC building is four trailers put together it's not a solid building that's something that you may want to look into in the future actually bringing real capital and putting it a real building up uh the other thing you spoke about the roof leaking over at the high school and having solar panels on the roof um I think that's something the administration and School Board should consider is when those uh solar panels come down is not to put them back up because if you have to take them down for any other reason you're going to pay to take them down then you got to put them back up that cost for what I mean if if the solar panels are saving the district and they're doing great things put them out in the parking lot like you have in the past I think the roof is a bad idea that's all I have to say have a great day any other comments from the public any other comments from the public any other comments from the Public Public comments are closed closing discussion issues concerns from the board I just want to remind us to uh T conversation on a retreat dates because it's already the end of March and also the uh evaluation for superintendent there spring time we usually do it yeah it has an open the superintendent so yeah we are on that thank you so much and I would like to make a motion please State your motion clearly to vote on the wellness check with njsba so the motion would be to you have to make a full complete motion I would like to make a motion for the board to vote to accept our ability to have a wellness check completed with New Jersey State Board of Education please second it's been proper to move and seconded that the board um allow the New Jersey State School Board Association to complete a wellness check from Montgomery Township School Board District Poli policies is that correct thank you um so prop move and seconded any questions on the motion I do have one question um So currently we are under contract with scra's estimate correct correct and you know when how long is that contract still bot I think I saw 2025 I believe on the contract if I recall correctly thank you we're already in for their service so if we can have vot do why why not they both Mr Trent roll call please Mr Carlson yes Miss ding yes Miss F yes Miss Franco Herman yes Miss Harris yes Dr Spence Wallace yes miss Lea Jan yes Miss Spina yes Mr Todd yes thank you motion carries thank you Mr Trent thank you at this time I will entertain a motion to adjourn the move second the properly move properly move and seconded to adjourn this meeting at 10:07 p.m. thank you all for your attendance I appreciate it thank you