meeting of the retherford Board of Education order December 4th 2023 7:30 p.m. again I ask everyone who can to please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance the flag of the United States of America stand indivisible Justice for All ask Mr Kelly to please take role Mr B present Mrs Cole here Mr Cony Mr Healey here Mrs Jones present Mr mazone here Dr rine here Mr Sprayberry Dr a here you have a quarum the New Jersey open public meetings Act was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meeting of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the Rutherford board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place posted on the bulletin board outside the burough clerk's office mailed to the herald South bergenite and the Record newspapers and filed with the burough clerk hard copies of the agenda are available in the meeting room and the agenda is posted electronically on Friday before the meeting date on the district's website at www. Rutherford schools.org subsequent to the meeting a video of the meeting will be uploaded to the district's website www.ford.com in your packets were two sets of minutes to approve the regular meeting and executive session of November 133 2023 any questions or comments about those all right hearing none I'll ask Mr Kelly to please enter those and we'll turn it over to our student representative for her report you thank you good evening so this past month many extra curcular activities and accomplishments have been having have been happening for rhs students the battle of the Bulldogs volleyball tournament was a few weeks ago where students and teams of six or eight including a teacher competed against each other to raise money for the Special Olympics similarly all winter sports have begun their practices and preparing for the first games meets matches and the boys and girls basketball team had their scrimmage this week and then their games following um fall athletes could complete their season with the varsity dinner which was this past week they celebrated all their accomplishments with all League All County um and any other academic and student athlete accomplishment student athletes also get to kick off their winter season with a pep rally before holiday break this rally consists of games for students and to recognize the varsity teams in the fall season in the winter season for upper classman the holiday movie night is being held on December 11th with snacks and with snacks and drinks to celebrate the holiday season and connect these two grades and students the rhs choir students today performed at the Women's Club in the morning and many clubs are holding drives and opportunities for students to get back this holiday season interact Club is a notable club for students to volunteer with the rec department rord food pantry El Lodge and other local organizations to give back during this time one final shout out is to senior and TV production student Marina alas who was the New Jersey state winner for the Elks Association drug awareness program video contest the entire rhs Community is proud of her and her accomplishment and her representation of the school's video production department and its opportunities for us students I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season and I thank you for your time thank you Miss bimson uh M Jones and topic was recognized all her athletic achievements at the dinner yeah she got several of them yeah Play No but she's very good at all any questions or comments I I will say that the food pantry there's been a lot of activity not just in the high school in the other buildings as well um and um they commented to me in the pantry that they're getting a large amount of of donations from our students so congratulations to everybody the high school and the other buildings for uh doing their part what the movie for a movie night I'm not sure I think I don't know they' decided on it yet all right well keep us posted we'll be waiting any other questions or comments all right well miss bimson it's always a pleasure to hear from you and your reports and want to wish you happy holiday season as well um you're welcome to stay if you'd like or if you have other commitments we understand as well but thank you so much thank you have a Merry Christmas all right uh I will turn it over now to Mr Hurley for the report of the superintendent thank you uh a couple of things uh in the on the agenda I'll be talking about but I want to mention a few up front uh the board's going to be asked tonight to do a revision uh to this year's school calendar adding three one session days um and they would be February 26th which is a Monday and then March 20th and April 3rd which are Wednesdays and uh as we've spoken about uh at board meetings and committee meetings and um we have a lot of work going on with academic programs um lots of new stuff coming down some from the state level on uh new standards in language arts and math uh new math program that we're looking to bring in lots of work going on and we need the time to U allow our our various committees and faculty uh to work uh on these initiatives and new standards so by putting uh the approval tonight and um Mak it the first dat late February we can start as early as tomorrow to notify uh parents and faculty staff and community that the calendar has been changed and give people enough time to plan for that also on the agenda there's a lot of calendars tonight the approval of the 2425 calendar uh as always um that's reviewed by the administrators the supervisors uh the Raa uh takes a look at it as well to make sure everything is aligned contractually and uh the calendar more or less follows the calendar from the past the um the question was raised that curriculum instruction are one session days are going to be you know for PD is going to be an ongoing thing and the answer is no um you know if they're needed as we continue to go forward with the initiatives I would do what I did this year and come back to the board and say we need them um you know our main goal is to have the kids in school the full time and not to inconvenience anyone with child care and the like but uh should the situation arise we would would revisit it on a year-to-year basis um I also put into the packet the proposed Boe calendar for meetings next year that's actually approved formally at the reorg meeting but I do want to mention that uh a discussion with Dr alot and I think he had with all of you about starting the meetings at 7 pm as opposed to 7:30 p.m. which would allow maybe for um you know not as many super late nights and also more time for discussion and the like so um assuming that we're going to go forward with that that's again something that I would probably advertise as a tentative schedule ahead of the reor meting so that people um who might want to come to the meeting uh have ample notice to see that the change is going to be made okay so not to preempt uh the decision of the reorg meeting but just to make sure that since the reorg meeting is January 2nd uh by putting it out ahead of the holiday people will know the change okay um committees I know Dr Al may say something about this but um generally we usually U after the board uh uh gets reborn on January 2nd and I meet with uh the person who is selected or elected to be the board president uh we then quickly turn around uh any committee changes or committee appointments so generally speaking we don't have a committee meeting uh until the end of January or early February so that we have ample time to do that reorganization however uh finance committee will be meeting on January 8th Mr Kelly I don't know if there's anything you want to say about the calendar that was distributed or yeah if I may I included the budget calendar in your packets it's this one with the yellow lines across um it's really more detailed than you need but spells out you know what our deadlines are what our uh Milestones are but the three yellow lines are committee meetings we have the finance committee on January 8th finance and buildings and grounds on January 29th and uh Finance again on March 4th which should be after the uh state aid numbers are released so if you just keep an eye on that if you have any questions please let me know uh if there is only one buildings and grounds committee meeting here but if you another one we can certainly talk about that but we're in the process now of gathering information including on potential projects for next year um so uh I just don't think we're going to be ready for that conversation by the January 8th meeting but we'll right we'll keep you up to date and and building a grounds of one meeting in connection with Finance you know of what's going into the budget um if you know we'll we I I always send out dates to kind of Mark as potential committee meeting night so should there be a need let's say which I don't know if there will or not be for personnel uh in conjunction with something in the budget or things like that we would have a meeting maybe ahead of what we normally have a Personnel meeting um if you're on the finance committee now you want to pencil those dates in should there be any change in the committee uh we'll be sure to notify those committee members uh um ASAP so that that's the committee's in place for February uh January 8th okay um I also want to just mention a few things I think poppy may have mentioned one or two of these but um our the high school uh did win the uh Annual Spelling be with beckon which is the day before Thanksgiving and uh Kia perik was the overall winner of the spelling be um we also she mentioned U uh the Maria fatals winning the state Elks Association drug video and uh Elizabeth Dunlop okay and uh Daniel fensi were selected to uh the Bergen County band and uh so that's another great honor to them and also to our our music program um and she did mention if um uh the fall Awards dinner for the athletic program which U probably was as one of the more uh successful ones we had with teams and individuals too many to mention here but it was very successful evening so once again our students in the community service that she mentioned um you know and the play that was put on and uh um and you know I know a lot of attention gets paid uh on the high school level where um you know there there's more opportunity and there's and there's a little more notoriety but I'll tell you that you know the the program uh at the end of this month Pier Pon will be having their concerts um the the community service is being done the things of that nature on the lower grades but maybe don't get the headlines are equally uh impressive so uh We've we've had a very good of beginning of this school year at the end of this calendar year okay um a reminder I don't really need to remind everyone I guess with the holidays coming up December 22nd is a one session day and school will beopen on January 2nd uh during the holiday uh calendar uh more often than not in this year is one of those years the the whole district is closed so um you know administrators my office everybody's closed for that week so should there be a need to reach uh me um you know I'm always checking email I'm available but uh the district's closed for that week okay um and that's it I'll have a comment or two when we get to certain things in the agenda all right any questions for Mr earlyy I I just have to laugh because my as son was a backup for the spelling be and someone called out so he had to be back up and I told him kidding around if if you're called up just remember I after e except I before E except after C this is why he got it wrong in third grade and uh and he got called out in third grade because he got it wrong and he's like don't worry I'm not going to get called up and the next uh few days later he's like I got to say that rule and I'm like you called up and he's like yeah and then he told me they won and I'm like congratulations he's like yeah it really wasn't me it was it was everyone else on the team but uh he said everyone was really impressive yeah um so uh all right if there's no other comments we'll move on to the report of the president uh so as Mr Earley said after the January 2nd meeting um once uh there's uh the board president in place um we'll make sure that the board president gets the most current list of committees I think actually everyone has given their selections as far as I know I believe believe so uh I think I have everyone's I have Mr KY so um thank you for that and um as Mr Hurley said I think for now until the late January meeting everyone will just stay on the Committees they're on for any committee meetings that happen before the late January meeting um just a note uh of reminder for everyone to please complete theard self board self- evaluation we're two for nine right now I know we can we're going to get to nine out of nine uh so don't feel badly if you haven't done it yet you're in the majority um but that's okay because we're going to go over it at the later January meeting um so if everyone can try to have it um I mean I would say by the first week of January gives us plenty of time uh to be able to turn it around so uh just a reminder everyone and know be emailing you just to make sure everyone remembers to do that uh last comment I I wanted to um really commend Mr Hurley um on to him and his team for really deeply looking at the curriculum and instruction and the ways that um Mr Hurley said we had a curriculum instruction meeting and I know uh Miss Jones will will talk about it um but the teams of committee members are really looking deeply at curriculum in the various areas based on um you know obviously coming from test scores but just looking at curriculum and content and new standards coming out so um you could just tell that there's um a lot of effort uh really being put in looking at programs um and making some interesting uh decisions as we're looking forward so um just wanted to acknowledge all the hard work that's going on with the with the faculty and these different uh committees uh any questions or comments for me if I can make one comment on the um I I meant to say this but about the uh you mentioned the January reorg meeting I put this in the uh the communication I sent with the district being closed right we're going to send the board packet it'll be a small one for the reor meeting on the Thursday the 21st of December so um that's you know two weeks ahead of when the meeting but before we close down so the normal whether you get it electronically or whether you get a delivered to your house or both it'll be on December uh 21st okay consider a holiday Christmas present probably a good social media post to say our meeting's moving to 7 for January 2nd um yep all right uh if there is nothing else then at 7:47 PM we're going to open the meeting to the public for any items related to the agenda we have anything all right hearing none we'll close the meeting at 7:47 p.m. we're going to move on to new business business with action to be taken we are going to start with Personnel Mr K is not here so I'm going to ask Mrs Cole will you please run us through Personnel do I have to talk in a Chris KY voice yes go for it uh Personnel did not have a meeting since our last board meeting and we have 10 motions to put forward tonight uh number one is to accept the retirement of Margaret NY at the high school with regret effect of July 1st 2024 number two and three is the res resignation of two positions number four is to approve the termination due to a discontinuation of position number five to approve a coaching assignment for the volunteer assistant girls basketball coach number six is to approve the following substitute teachers effective December 5th 2023 as listed uh number seven is to approve the following substitute teacher assistance effective December 5th 2023 as listed number eight is to approve the following student teachers as listed at the high school I'm sorry at Rutherford Public School District and number nine is to approve the following travel reimbursements as listed and number 10 on the agendum is to approve the resignation of a teacher assistant for Lincoln School effective December 14th 2023 all right thank you Mrs Cole questions from board members all right hearing none Mrs C if I could make one comment about Mr Stacy um I believe Margaret's been in the district for 40 years um she um was a math teacher then became a computer instruction teachers all it's instructor teaches all the high level uh computer clost courses um AP course AP Java and the like um was a major uh back when I was principal uh we started an initiative to try to get more women involved and girls involved in stem and computers and um Margaret really took the lead on that and uh if you're a member of the RF you know that she's authored many grants uh about that initiative to help Mo that going uh a lifetime ago U Margaret was the assisted volleyball coach she was the my assistant coach at softball um so she's wor many many many hats and uh 40 years as I can attest to is a long time so um we more to say about all the retirees we're getting them quite a few them every month but I thought it was worthy to mention um someone who's been here you know in that lead to time have done so many different things uh and touch so many lives of the district thank you Mr Eary any last questions or comments I just like to say my children had Margaret and sty and so they thought very highly of her uh I it's wonderful that she had stayed with them all these years and contributed so much I wish her the best I had her as a teacher as well and I have to say she was one of my favorite High School teacher so I wish her met the best on her retirement she's a great teacher awesome anyone else have Miss nassy well I'm gonna say all right if if our audience uh you know you know she still has to work until June unless I give unless I tell her too much want too big of a head going on all right uh so M Cole do you want to move those yes I would like to move motions one through 10 all right we have a second Mr beian any last questions or comments hearing none Mr Kelly please take rooll Mr bagoan yes Mrs Cole yes Mr Healey yes Mrs Jones yes Mr mazone yes Dr wiin yes Mr Sprayberry yes Dr a yes motions carried all right thank you we're going to move on to curriculum and instruction M Jones thank you yes we did have a cni meeting on November 28th and in attendance was Dr alotti China Cole Dennis maone uh Brenda Fargo Jack Curley and Charles Ryan who was going to be taken over for Brenda Fargo came to the first meeting so we said goodbye to Brenda for me it was many years with Brenda um I I I've been on curriculum maybe since 2008 or n and she's always been the head there so um and she did a fine job I'm looking forward uh to seeing Mr Ryan and and I know he's excited about this and from what the district people have told me that he's been wanting this for some time so and this is right what he's so good at so I'm sure we'll do well um the some there's text look for approval but for me for what I got out of the meeting mostly was um how they wanted to reamp the math program I thought that was really important based on um information that they have had in test scor and so forth noticing that introduction to probabilities is testic that used to be a high school course and now they're going to do a a lower still is a high school course but yeah an introductory course and Y my could my coulds took Advance algebra and probability and STS as two electives from last year so well so looking forward to all the new um uh work that will be done on the curriculum and for the three uh dates that they need to work I I think will do very well thank you um the first resolution there's 15 tonight 16 now uh are is for the school calendar and uh the revised uh school calendar is also listed noting those February 26 uh Wednesday March 20th and Wednesday April 3rd for the days that will be a half session or one session day so that the the uh they can have a professional uh development uh Three is out of District placements four is field trips Nowa up to 71 five is the uh ARP s safe return plan resolutions 6 through 11 are harassment intimidation and bullying decisions 12 is service provider uh and 13 12 and 13 14 is the SS submission and 15 is home instruction for three students and Mr Kelly just handed me another one 16 is curriculum guides pardon me and text Qui approvals um listing several of them plan goo world languages supplementary Spanish 4 through6 that sounds interesting so lots of stuff going on there's more than we've done it in a while so the whole revamp as we have to do it thank all right thank you Mr Jens uh just a couple of really quick comments um on the calendar you'll notice after about 47 years the uh the calendar for next year has a slightly different format with lines and a grid uh because it only took us 47 years to figure you know we don't put a ruler across to see where the data lines now there's actually a line you could read it better so you know we might be moving quickly with some curriculum changes but we move very slowly on the format change of the calendar um I also want to uh as Dr alot mentioned and Mr Jones you mentioned uh we have a lot going on um a lot of of of curriculum subtle minor changes that don't need uh board approved because they're not curriculum changes are not textbook changes they just you know day-to-day operational changes uh a lot of deep Dives a lot of you know change is always difficult um and uh a lot of a lot of good discussions and committees have been at work now for well over a year and are going to continuing to work a lot of progress being made on the profile of The Graduate that we're working on so um yeah it's really I think has risen uh the level of of of discussion even among uh faculty and staff which that enough itself sometimes produces change without formalized change right because you have discussions you're thinking you're talking you're questioning uh certain things so it's really been a very good Pro uh process and I do I will be um meeting tomorrow no Wednesday with uh the chairs of the committee and one of the the topics on the on the uh agenda will be uh to get a date for an upcoming board meeting uh where you know it's good for them to come and do a a brief presentation um but a presentation because you know things Always Get Lost in Translation if I'm taking it I'm bringing it forward so let them come in and um you know give give a a five minute report from each committee so you get a sense of what's been going on and what's and what's going to be happening so that you know look for that sometime maybe the end of January or in February uh we'll work on that okay but as always I appreciate uh the comments and the support uh um even something as uh you know like change in the calendar is being done to further these initiatives so the support uh from the board and from the community is really always uh very helpful and appreciated yeah I'm sure the faculty appreciate the additional days yeah to be able to you know work on the uh these initiatives uh all right Mr Jones do you want to move these I move resolutions 1 through 16 under curriculum and instruction all righty uh do we have a second Mr haly uh any last questions or comments appr without my glasses I 16-2 with the book with the barbecue project and I was [Laughter] excited oh yeah it's a Dallas Barbecue PR project uh all right uh Mr Kelly uh please uh take roll Mr Bia yes Mrs Cole yes Mr Healey yes Mrs Jones yes Mr maone yes Dr rine yes Mr Sprayberry yes Dr aot yes motions carry thank you all right thank you we're going to move on now to finance Mr beian uh we did not have a finance committee meeting since our last full board meeting tonight on the agenda we have four items uh number one is the routine approval of bills number two is is the October treasurers report uh number three are budget line transfers and number four is to accept the donation of books for the pure Pont media center from deian Hess a Rutherford resident and a parent of a student all right thank you questions or comments hearing none Mr Kelly please take roll oh no I'm sorry Mr pan would you like to move those Finance wow I'm the parliamentarian I got to follow the rules man it's all good it's been a while since I made a mistake that's a good uh do we a second all right Mr Mone any last questions or comments Mr Kelly please take roll Mr ban yes Mrs Cole yes M Mr Healey yes Mrs Jones yes Mr maone yes Dr Rim yes Mr Sprayberry yes Dr aot yes motions carried thank you all right thank you uh we will move on now to policy Mr Healey yes we did not have a policy committee meeting since our last board meeting and there are resolutions for this evening all right thank you then we'll move on to buildings and grounds Mr Sprayberry not have grounds committee and you know put out a to the community to start another [Laughter] referendum million this year that good we have two motions uh High School renovation couple change ERS here so little more dirt and more but progress look amazing so I can't wait to see I would like to move to change orders one and two all right thank you questions or comments put a clean fill at the dirt right clean fil that right clean yes what it is stick something up and you have to go backi contamination whatever it is there's anything underneath the grounda you actually have a level of dirt it's like just raise Whitewood is a c crap wood a you got say a crap C is the best it's like clean finish like this different dirt that you're allow to actually put down into 90 deep over the whole field that makes sense got it and what what were the unfor circumstances we need dirt all right I just dirt got it remember the jar with the sand and The Rock and how you all put it together you remove it got it got it makes sense uh all right uh Mr Sprayberry do you want to move those I just all right we have a second uh Miss Cole any final questions or comments when is I have a question when's the date of completion now because I think originally it was supposed to be December 31st we have not heard anything contrary to that I mean when I'm looking out there I I don't know you know I don't know how quickly they'll finish it I I don't think it's going to be there there have been a couple of of things that probably slowed them down like having to get the extra dirt to come in uh the change orders on the fencing in a couple areas where we noticed that there wasn't going to be enough protection to you know windows in the building and things like that um but I think we're not going to be if the weather cooperates I don't think we'll be too much past that date but we haven't heard anything official yet they biggest I mean you see now they come Thanksgiving stuff walk by it and they had all the holes du all the trenches all the all the truck and everything else now they start to cover back up quick yeah the carpet I mean you know the grass the turf the carpet goes down very quickly um and and you know it looks like I mean again just by looking at it it looks like a lot of things look very level you know things look like we're getting near the end so I I think I don't think it's out of the question to be the December I don't think it'd be much later than that um I will say though U I never thought like just dirt that looks a little muddy right now with post without offence would be an improvement over what we had but uh it actually actually looks better like that so uh we're making some nice progress yeah we'll have to uh no it's us I I don't remember if that's in the project or yeah I don't know yeah I like that every year yeah hold your breath that's something uh no I think uh I I think it's in there to be to be painted yeah probably it probably is you mentioned to me a while ago that we weren't when I was asking are we going to paint the wall and no it will be done after yeah I think it's in there and obviously if it if I'm wrong and it's not we would have we would do we should do that community service community service it's actually not a bad idea some schools have like a rock that each class the graduating class paints so it's something that maybe they want to discuss in the future all right uh so it looks like we moved that and it was seconded so Mr Kelly please take rooll Mr ban yes Mrs Cole yes Mr Healey yes Mrs Jones yes Mr mazone drine yes Mr Mr Sprayberry yes Dr aadi yes motion's carried thank you all right thank you we're going to move on now to any old business is there any old business uh Mr hilly yes uh I attended the New Jersey School Board Association delegate assembly uh Saturday last Saturday December 2nd and U the president uh of the New Jersey Board Association spoke uh Dr quino uh to the Gathering and also uh the executive director of the New Jersey Board School Board Association uh Dr Perell and he highlighted a couple of things this my G it's not coming through it's not hello James M Mr B Goan thank you Mrs Jones can you hear me yes now I can before thank you sorry that's it all right um not uh so Dr Pernell highlighted uh a more than a few things but two of them I thought to mention uh one is there's now a connections one is one is now uh connections it's called and it's on the New Jersey School Board Association website and it allows uh uh District Board of to actually interact with other uh Board of EDS uh members across uh that website question answer type of things uh also there is I believe a board presidents is a uh way to communicate um he also highlighted the fact that the state of New Jersey which we knew is uh loosening teacher certification requirements and he talked about that somewhat um then there were five resolutions which I don't have all the detail yet usually this meeting is in November and um uh we usually have the detailed information by now but uh as soon as I get it and no doubt I'll give you uh everyone a briefing on those uh uh resolutions that were presented uh but two of them I thought were noteworthy to mention uh one was about um uh it was first called anti- book Banning and then it was changed uh um to selection of curricular and support material and uh the intent there is to change the new New Jersey Schoolboard Association Manual of position of policy and to expand it to uh be explicit about the rights of the district to um uh choose and evaluate its own materials and there'll be more about that uh in their notes that's what I mean about the language uh that they're going to put out I'll pass that on um there was another one about changing uh cohort uh uh calculations meaning students that can't be verified to be in the district um they're adding a category for that excluded from cohort so that was The Proposal in the past and that will begin the New Jersey standards measurements and resource for training New Jersey smart does that meaning is that meaningful to Mr Kelly tot okay it's all data for the state okay um and uh there was uh one other about uh supporting uh the state of New Jersey put out additional language regarding extensive background checks for employee uh and hiring practices and uh they want to put additional language into their position and policy manual for that and that was also uh that that also passed so those few of them uh as as more extensive uh detail and language comes out I'll uh pass it around to everyone get everyone a copy but that was it thank you thank you all right very informative thank you other old business all right uh then we will move on to legislative update Miss Jones um yes I have one assembly Bill 58 5785 introduced just last week on November 30th um refers to the assembly uh committees a republican Michelle M mosis would like to have permits a board of education to accept donations for the purpose of uh providing property tax relief I don't they only have one Republican on it now from what I've understood if they with a Democrat sent Senate you have or assembly you have to get Democrats to support this too before it goes forward um but that that that will be fun watching them that goes on great all right thank you questions or comments all right at 8:10 p.m. then we are going to open the meeting to the public for anything related or not related to the agenda looks like there are no comments so we're going to close the meeting at 8:10 p.m. uh we are going to require an executive session for one student matter should be out for most five minutes uh or less and no action to be taken we have a motion to move to Executive session all right James B seconded by James S uh we are in executive session