thank you for your patience I can get a motion and a second to resume the public portion of the agenda all in favor he opposed thank you if we could please stand for the flag salute we uh at this time the meeting sorry okay presentation uh at this time I'm gonna turn the meeting over to Mr Weber for some presentations okay we are going to start with um I know we have a big crowd here for volleyball we're going to get them in just a second um you kids are patiently waiting over there you're doing a great job and I know Mr Carl is toping at the bit to talk to us um but we want to start off with recognizing two students um a while back a few weeks ago um atlan we partner great partnership with Atlanticare and they held a contest for our students to um draw posters right and it all had to do with uh basically mental Wellness wellness and and healthy living and um obviously I'm paraphrasing everything that they did but we had two students selected out of all the contestants um as winners for that contest so they received recognition from Atlanticare uh last week um and we'll put all his pictures and stuff in the newsletter coming out next week but we wanted to have those two students um come to the board meeting so we could recognize them here in public as well um so our first student is Isabelle Stewart is Isabelle here and I know you uh designed a wonderful poster right and I know I'm kind of putting you on the spot a little bit but is there anything you wanted to share about that [Music] poster all right you did a great job and um also we have uh Jada um bet Smith data here as well I don't if she was able to make it okay um but I do want to congratulate um Isabelle and I apologize I thought we had a certificate for you I don't um see that with me right now so I will get that to you tomorrow but I do want to thank you for your contributions and um I know it was excited I'm looking at the picture right now of you with the certificate and all the Atlantic Care thank you very much for participating and you did a great job um and being selected out of all those contestants that's wonderful accomplishment so congratulations yes y get a picture so you want to stand there with your mom yeah actually want take a picture that thank you so much feel great job thank you for coming our other uh presentation the next one for students is with Mr Mr curl and the volleyball team um I'm not going to steal his Thunder with all the accomplishments of the volleyball team um but um he's got a pretty good record going on so um we thank him for that I know he stepped up um last year with volleyball and get mlin out of there push along Mr mlin and Mr car said he'll do it as um he'll keep coaching as long as they keep winning he's still coaching uh and we'll see about next year right okay so Mr K why don't you um do your thing here with the team and then we'll uh we'll get some certificates out as well them up sure did you want to say anything about oh yeah no these guys are absolutely amazing you round undefeated had over 50 kids try out for volleyball so volleyball has become something the kids here love um I want to thank in public Mr NE Hall who stepped up last year and got us a grant that we won um Grant we have a volleyball court now on the back um I put lines around the whole thing got it all set up and the kids are using it all the time so I'm just excited viall has been a part of my life since I became an adult here in New Jersey when I moved here and these guys are just fantastic I love working with them and the one thing I love more than anything is that's a collectic group of kids right there and when they're on that courtt you would think they're all best friends they take care of each other they root for each other they're learning the skills that we teach every day in mikica and it just makes me proud to be a coach like I said I've coached the highest level I have three girls right now out in Myrtle Beach that are competing for national championships for Stockton and I am just as excited if not more excited to be here working with these guys so I've been at all levels and like I said it's just the the effort and energy they put in just makes me happy so one more round of applause for so many people how do you want do you want to call up or you call yeah there yep see you're calling up STI bartling Alexis buddy our Rudy Charles corter graduation [Music] horse is not with us tonight Emily Lord one of our managers the manager not able to make it tonight Julia Mars our third manager Aubrey roserio stz bottom missing one biggest guy come on we already did one picture [Music] very good girl awesome thank you thank you [Music] [Music] kids are ready to go so needs to go feel free to go thank you for coming out it's always great to see I'm gon [Music] all right um so our our final presentation this evening is um this is generalia is going to lead that presentation but it's um for the Arc of County but she's also going to talk about what they were doing um to give the presentation to to AR as far as the fundraising check um so J you want to take it away describing your efforts and I see you have some uh pictures for us as well which works very well so thank you for this evening so I can highlight and showcase all of the wonderful things our special education department has I've been doing over the last couple of months and I cannot I can say for certain none of these could be possible without the team of teachers and the staff that are working in this building both at the primary um and Middle School level so I thank you all celebrated World Down syndrome day we donated that money to the ark and we wanted to do that again and we also paired that with neurodiversity and autism awareness mod so to celebrate World Down syndrome day it's March 21st 2024 these are students in our kindergarten first and second grade self-contained classroom um working together they were in charge of cutting out the socks that were attached to lollipops that we sold and delivered to the classroom so that's some of the staff and some of the students working in the classroom to get that fundraiser event going so for World Down syndrome day we did a t-shirt sale um the staff were able to if they chose to buy a t-shirt um we also did Lollipop sale with the sock attached the sock was a message that the students wrote to other students in the building um indicating what makes them so special so we did that and then the students in um our middle school and our older primary self-contained class um baked cupcakes and sold them throughout the building so this is what the T-shirt looked like that we sold um these are some of our students in the middle school classroom um making the cupcakes putting the icing on it some of the staff they just it was they had a really good time so that was March and then in April we celebrated diversity and autism awareness so to kick off that month's celebration we did a taco chip cookie bake sale so the students in the primary school three four grade level classroom as well as the uh middle school special education classroom went to the life skill room and baked cookies we teamed up with um the Yale School also and they participated with us so the students went to the life skills room baked the cookies um packaged them um and decorated two carts One cart was for the primary school they delivered the cookies to the kids in each to each classroom and they also had a separate cart for the middle school so you can see in the top left picture even Mrs Hutton's preschool classmates joined us as well as the bottom right picture with the Yale students but my favorite picture is the one in the middle just because of the smiles that the students they had a really good time doing it so to celebrate neurod diversity and autism awareness we did another t-shirt sale um I have to say I think that t-shirt is like the best t-shirt it's the best design it looked really good A lot of the staff participated in bought the T-shirt um as a district all of the students in grades 3K through 8th grade along with teachers and staff and students and staff on the Yale School all made went out to the Back Field thank you to Mr curl for Designing it for us um and made a human celebrating autism awareness and after we joined all together outside we all blue bubbles uh for Autism Awareness also um on the right the picture on the right is a a lending library Autism Awareness lending lending library that was displayed in the Showcase right outside the middle school office it has a large amount of books in there that the teachers were able to take out borrow replace read to their class all of the books in the lending library showcase how students are different whether they have a disability whether they have um something different in their homes it was also an effort from Aces and student council they purchased additional books for us that will be on display next year also in April we took our first community- based instruction trip the students in grades three and four in Miss br's classroom um went to Hamington shop um a couple of of the classrooms at the primary level um Miss Hutton's class Miss sleek class and Miss Real's class participate with Miss Bel our spee and language pathologist in um life skills lessons and um she they created a shopping list of different items that they wanted to purchase we took them to shoppr right they found all of the items in the different aisles they each had their own list they put all the items in the cart we also showed them how to look at the prices of each um item that they were buying and which one would make more sense to to purchase the shoppr brand or the name brand which one was more expensive so a lot of different functional skills were involved in this trip um so they were making pizza in school so they went to the store to buy items for to make their own pizza so in celebration of that after we were finished at shop rate we walked the next door and we went to Brother's Pizza and we had we had pizza as a as a as a family it was a really nice experience so miss FR and Miss B as along with our Miss juel worked with the students on ordering off of a menu what H how do you order from a menu yourself without relying on your parents or another family member to do it for you what happens if you want something to drink that they don't have which actually happens with one of our students he wanted a lemonade they didn't have that so he had to you well you have a choice of apple juice or water which would you like so that was our first trip our second trip is scheduled for June 4th we're taking the students to um the donad family fund Center down the street the students are going to bowl um we're going to give them situations like what happens if you get shoes that don't fit how do you communicate my shoes don't fit or I need another pair of shoes and after we're finished bowling we're going to go into the uh the restaurant and have lunch together so with that being said I want to ask Miss Mary Moyer to come up she is um from the ark and I'd like to present her with a check for $850 that's how much to get a picture I'm getting old I'm a little slow all right here we go perfect thank you so much um the AR of Atlantic County supports people with intellectual and developmental disabilities we do that through uh services such as residential housing Recreation Family Support um we have a an adult DEH habilitation Center for adults and then we have a Saturday program for kids from Age 5 to 21 so um some of the things that we also do is we have we are at a chapter area eight chapter of the Special Olympics of New Jersey while we are not Special Olympics the ark uh uses the funds that we use uh that we receive for fundraising activities to provide coaching and competition training and uniforms and equipment and things like that so we're very gracious to all of you for for and especially the students and and the the facilitators who made this happen and um really taught you know some really great skills to kids that they can have for the rest of their lives and pass along to others so thank you very much for including me today thank you Janine and thank you again to staff and students as well for participating in that great summary of the year and everything that you've done so thank you you I just want to reiterate that was great so thank you um at this time the meeting will now be open to the public for comments uh if on agenda items only if your comments pertain to students Personnel litigation or negotiations we would ask that you see the superintendent after the meeting since the board does not generally discuss such items in we have anyone for comments okay uh old business yeah so I just I'm I usually keep the board training and boarding on there until work that complete so you know we'll uh just if you continue just continue to monitor your emails and the people that are affected by either upcoming board trainings uh those requirements or required to put in petitions or Board election which I believe are due July [Music] July 21 so just again just monitor [Music] your May 29 thank you uh new business yep so that's me as well new business this uh there is new legislation that was just uh passed by the assembly and the Senate uh regarding support for probably heard a lot of talk over the last number of years about state aid for schools being pulled back by the state called S2 and uh because that's hurt so many schools they decided to create a mechanism to potentially get some of that back and that would be given back by a tax levy increase the board is now just under advisement the decision would need to be made I believe it's July 4th so at our June meeting hear more about that but the board currently is just investigating whether we think that's a good path for us or not thank you uh committee reports curricul the policy right I forgot H finance and operation tuition rates uh for 2425 um the healthcare transition from medicar toal uh the use of Grants purchas and Chromebooks um extraordinary state aid or extraordinary state aid come to us uh we got a an update on the lunch balance and some of the the large numbers uh that we have in the lunch balance uh we received an update on the budget for the 25 26 uh rough projections discussed uh kindergarten AIDS in 2425 uh as well as some of the HVAC project we got an update on uh we discussed the possibility of sharing services with PT and the exploration more of the SRO agreement between M Township and the Boe and the rates going forward negotiation we reviewed the job description for the preschool instructional coach and we discussed Personnel issues and we are currently in negotiations with the mte thank you you're welcome any correspondence this correspondence update I'll go update update all right uh we received notice um earlier this week that we um once again um received um enough points the middle school did received enough points for the Atlantic cares turn your school Wellness into wealth program for this school year and uh based on that we will receive a cash um prize of $300 to be used for additional activities and initiatives to promote um Wellness in the school so um that's margarit Tomas has been our lead person on that so we we thank her for her efforts on that and we're excited to um see that $300 put back into those efforts so I just want to sh out that positive new thank her for that uh at this time I need a motion and a second to approve the appointments and approvals in item 6A for the 2024 2025 school year however just so everyone knows we are removing the Insight services for now and we're going to look into that more before thank any discussion can I get a roll Callo MS MR rer yes Mr stal Ste on 61 yes Miss Warner yes Mr winter Bob yes Miss wild yes BR yes at this time can I get a motion in a second the m counc board of education to approve the April 24th 2024 Board of Education regular meeting minutes and executive second any discussiones it say all in favor can we opposed stained uh item eight is just monthly reports for informational purposes we're on to section nine uh can I get a motion in a second for the M Township Board of Education on recommendation of the superintendent approve items 9B through 9q okay discussion uh [Music] no the job description is for the three School instructional coach that is the preschool Grant so yes looking to I see we have so that's um I know the grant coming do too is right so so that's not her stepping down that's the the grant coming to a conclusion and us not knowing if we were have the grant next year or not so uh we have to plan for that individual to be in a different position absent the Grant and they didn't release the grant correct the grant has not been released yet for us to even apply what's any idea been since February y any day now give you three days unforunately last year the application was du June 1st it wasn't released until mid May so thank you um yeah thank you for doing big shoes yes I to acknowledge the retirement of margarite Thomas ell 22 years of service she's been part of this District so we will miss her granted we got her till January but afterwards we will miss any other discussion Mr K yes M CTS yes Mr rer yes yes Miss Warner yes win bottom yes but obain from 9 was wild yeah grounded she's can I get a motion in a second for the M Town Board of Education upon recommendation of the superintendent approve items 10B through 10f motion any discussion I'm gonna say that the my daughter came home very happy today from the Hancock house historic site I learned all about things I knew nothing about three times it's good to hear thank you for that thank you m Mr C made a great jft it was a great trip yeah it wasun anything else can I get a roll call then yeah M CTS yes R yes yes Miss Warner yes winter bottom yes Miss wild yeah and Miss BR can I get a motion in a second from the m toship board of vation upon recommendation of the business administrator are on 11d through 11 I oh wait no okay it should be got it any discussion oh yes oh in contracts I'm sorry in contracts we are also removing the Insight contract for now to get some more information before we decide as long as that person second with thank you any discussion and can I get a roll call V yes Miss Curts yes yes yes but it same to um letter you yes wild yes at this time the meeting will now be open to the public comments if your comments pertain to students Personnel litigation or negotiations we would ask that you see the superintendent after the meeting since the board does not generally discuss such dat as in public anybody want to make a comments yes oh go you go first you're actually your name Nick yes you're up there first afterno or good evening I should say my name is Nick saon my wife and I have been m co residents since 2017 lifetime County residents um so happened I was on the school website saw an opening through potential board position and submitted my I guess my email to Mr Deana for consideration I fig you know what let me show here my face and express my level of interest in potentially fulfilling a role of such and uh there's any questions not sure what the next process is but again I just want to introduce myself that we see the name along with base just so you know once it closes we'll reach out to anyone who who put in an interest and then we'll invite you to a meeting for interview and make a decision thank you for being in your interest appreciate I got a sun enter in kindergarten and then threey old coming after that uman n um Good Luck so in the spirit of you know just celebrating people celebrating students celebrating special trips today all those good things um I just wanted to get up and um take a few moments to celebrate the MTA staff and share with the community some of the valuable and wonderful things we have done both philanthropically and voluntarily um first and foremost the MTA Awards um we award two scholarships each year one $1,000 SC scholarship for a graduating senior entering the field of education and won $500 scholarship for a graduating senior you're entering um the field of Public Service in addition uh at 8th grade we do uh total of 15 Awards um we award a gift card for an area of excellence in math algebra science social studies Reading Writing an overall top two pick out of the grade um like I you EPA overall um we have the mar and Porter character award we have the coral Achievement Award award the Betty Martin instrumental award the Susan web character Ed award um and we are adding the spirit of the coyote this year this is something new that we are putting in place um and for next year we Tred to do it this year we want to increase um those amounts next year the gift cards were already purchased this year so we couldn't increase this year but it is on our agenda to increase those amounts for next year I think five or 10 I can't remember what we voted on but um you know things are costing more so see the kids is erve a little bit more too um we sponsor the eighth grade graduation t-shirts um our philanthropic fund actually um rais a lot of money we've donated $250 each to um six Charities and these Charities include St Jude's uh Children's Hospital uh pancreatic cancer Action Network the Humane Society of Atlanta County the phony Farm Rescue the Harts and Harley the sustainable Mica school garden we love our time with Mr and Mrs pulk and the experiences that the students have with them um we do a lot of voluntary things as well each month one primary classroom and the grade level um they volunteer and perform a school schoolyard cleanup these cleanups help maintain the acua grant that helps fund our schoolyard Garden in conjunction with the aces um we've run the fairy tale uh literacy night we plan and coordinate the retire ironment dinner and um Mrs Brown you were there uh we assist with the teacher of the year nomination and the selection process uh we host the craft table at the PTA h m which is always a lot of fun our Thanksgiving baskets that go to the community um I know the a lot of the MCA staff uh I think Liz and um BR do a lot a lot of time with that the Veterans Day celebration breakfast um the teachers purchase gifts and donate I don't to help with the holiday giving tra um in fact there was about $500 in un that helped out with fil we're T Turkey Bowl participants and I believe we are still undefeated right yes so we're just taking suit from Mr curl and his undefeated team team undefeated as well one um we Volunteers in the field day dunk T I can't tell you how how thrilling it is to watch Randy just go down every time we've on a lot of committees as well get to um the school Improvement committee um skip committee uh the committee you know helping bridge the gap between the teachers and administration and going um issues the nurur heart dreams program the code of conduct committee and the social committee um we have volunteers for PBIS um they plan and execute these events and um they do and dedicate a lot of time to that as well um in conjunction with um Miss elini and the efforts that you're making to incorporate some life skills with the kids um our next MTA launch and I haven't really announced it to my staff yet but or our staff the mtea but um we wanted to have the students utilize a lighted room make some dessert s um you know and just be a part of the NPA Lon as well um we volunteered the PTA events um you know we' pay money to be a member we like that um we've volunteered for the coach bag Bingo we attend the meetings um and we've been to and volunteered at Municipal Alliance events on for treat need to get to some more um the teachers offering their time to Great essays for the National Junior Honor Society um we offer to stay late and help monitor students during talent show and or drama Cloud you can check out that parking lot 7:30 in the morning and 5:30 at night and you're going to see our cars as well we are flexible when P from our duties to cover classrooms and the softball games the Jiu-Jitsu tournaments the soccer games the student plays with our current end pass students we've attended them all I know me personally or a lot of those the Girl Scout cookies hair calendars and fund purchases the dance team purchases um basically what fundraisers we are at to contribute to the T-shirt sales for neurodiversity and for excuse me world world Down syndrome day we do it we do it with a smile it's all worth it um and this list doesn't include things that we um this list doesn't include things that in the past that we have done that Li pain battle I don't know if our hips can take it anymore color Dingle run sing along I just want to acknowledge that the MTA staff keeps the school up and running for our students from 7: a.m. in the morning go 5:30 p.m. at night 5 days a week and that doesn't include the immense efforts from our custodial sta you guys to again I just want to take a minute and thank the MTA for all their valuable time and dedication you are all amazing and with that being said while all this is happening we are still trying to recoup and recover from the loss SL exit from our from some of our seasoned teachers and staff members we will be experiencing that loss again there continues to be an unprecedented unprecedented High turnover rate in business the NCA is concerned about this occurrence and a few other issues the loss of the stem program on the Middle School side and the continued loss for the stem classes for the third and fourth grade General ed students that do not get to participate in the enrichment because they didn't meet the criteria um the district not replacing two of our Middle School teachers our special ed population is growing rapidly as is the numbers of students who require intervention remediation and additional support we are concerned about being able to purpose meet their just wanted you to hear thank you thank you thank you for sharing um to piggy back on oh did you want to make a comment I just wanted to share a comment for our teachers last night I had the pleasure of going to the Cedar Creek math Honor Society induction ceremony and um my son was being inducted as a junior so uh at the ceremony one of the things they said was that it is very unusual for juniors to get inducted into the math Honor Society because you have had to have had a high grade in honors pre calculus and be taking higher maths so very unusual it happened at the junior level they were inducting their largest class ever they said of Juniors and of the seven Juniors being inducted three of them were from Mulla so I just want to continue so you plant good seeds so thank you um any other yep because it wasn't passed so good evening Barbara Ro 6303 Eastwood Court in Galloway Township and I'm speaking as the president of the Atlanta County council of education associations in my role I represent over 6,100 Public School Employees in in Atlanta County including some of you on the board who are teachers or Educators in Atlanta County the governing body of the ACA is its representative council this council is comprised of the county officers and executive board as well as the president of each Local Union in Atlanta County each local um uh each local is also afforded at least one additional voting member more if they are a larger local twoyear years ago at the advisement of County leadership and the Acca executive board the rep Council voted to create a position for a full-time president of Acca as the elected president I was to be that full-time president the Acca rep Council anticipated that the mullika Township School District would Release Me From my responsibilities here at Mica so that I could fulfill my role as release president in Atlanta County in return the mica Township School District would be fully reimbursed the expense of my salary package and health benefits by the njaa and the Acca as my current salary is at the top of mica's guide it would be financially advantageous to the mullika Township School District to release me and presumably replace me with someone who is not at the top of the guide potentially saving the district up to $30,000 of salary without any consideration of any health benefit savings it should be noted that 11 counties in New Jersey three in South Jersey as well as 60 local associations in New Jersey have full-time release presidents these presidents have all negotiated their release with their school districts coming out of covid the Acca has substantially and intentionally increased and improved our efforts to support certificated staff educational support professionals and the students and communities that we work with and within the training professional development and netw networking opportunities that the Acca offers to our members are too numerous to list within my three minute time limit if I have that the opportunities we offer to support our students and our communities include but are not limited to our annual friends of Education Gala the Atlanta County pride in the park celebration that we co-sponsor with aqua support of and participation in the acua Earth Day festivities sponsoring and assisting with Chef Andre's food tour Chef Andre Murphy's food tour where free meals are provided to families without questions asked sponsoring and participating in the efforts of the hearts and Harley's organization to build a safe house for victims of domestic violence phone banking canvasing door knocking and Q&A sessions to identify and support political candidates who are allies of public education these are just a few examples of our efforts in the upcoming year Acca has even loftier goals to support all stakeholders in public education many of which require significant planning and organized e in addition to that the Acca maintains our own office building on Philadelphia Avenue in n haror city we offer meetings to space to support efforts across the county our County efforts as well as local unions we also maintain a commercial kitchen to assist with feeding the hungry our building was renovated 24 years ago and it needs significant upgrades and maintenance the anticipated cost of these upgrades and Renovations will be well into six figures these maintenance projects and the capital Improvement plan that have been adopted by the Acca will require the presence of an Acca officer during the day this oversight cannot be done after 3:45 we do not have contractors that are willing to work around a teacher's workday and you yourselves are undertaking a major project that requires a lot of significant planning and having oversight without interrupting your educational um uh your educational um duties and responsibilities to be frank next year's goals of the Acca will absolutely not be met without a full-time release president keeping in mind the 6,100 members that I represent and the 41,000 students who attend public schools in Atlanta County as well as the community members we support and to the financial uh advantage and potential savings to the mica Township School District I am respectfully requesting that this body grant me this release time so that I can fulfill my obligations to the Acca in the upcoming year as the unanimous vote of our rep Council intended being full-time released does not mean that I will forget my mikica roots rather it will allow me to Champion the best practices of our gem in the woods and amplifi the voices of all education staff and students here in the in the county I look forward to having conversation with his body the appropriate Committee in order to negotiate that release thank you any other comments yes I'd like to know if there's going to be a color run this year I will have to check into that would you like me to comment about we're doing it every other year now because of cost and also the mess um so we're doing it a different year we did a BMX um program this year with the money from the municipal Alliance so that was what we did this year for that and next year we'll bring back to colon again it also takes an immense amount of planning on the teachers there's four of us who in the past have planned the whole thing and classroom teachers who have planned the whole thing voluntarily yes that takes a lot of planning that takes a lot of ordering t-shirts it's it's a big big project that we we don't we're not allow of time there's not enough hours in the day I'm sorry thank you any other comments uh our next board meeting date is Tuesday June uh will be a special board meeting on Tuesday June 4th at 6:30 the next regular board meeting is scheduled for June 19th 2024 at 6:30 p.m. for executive and 700 p.m. for public SE um I do not have a PTI update at this time do you have an mtef update on the mtef will once again be awarding $6 $100 gift cards for graduating eth grade award three of the top academic achievements one is in honor of De St and then there's two musical we will be awarding one $4,000 scholarship to a graduate graduating mpan from c um and it'll be $1,000 annually over thank you for sharing uh at this time can I get a motion in a second to ad the meeting second all in favor oppos stain great night everyone