good evening we'll call to order the March 5th meeting of saor Board of Education please rise with pledge to the flag to the flag the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all okay this hill roll call please Mr Callahan here Mr Esposito here Mr Fernandez here Mrs napalitano here Mrs Pabon here miss pyck here Mr Smith here Mr Walsh here and Mrs Bloom here okay at this time Miss Hill will you summarize executive session please the board discuss Personnel including but not limited to agenda items a student matter and matters falling under attorney client privilege okay any correspondence of notes no okay I will now need a motion to approve the minutes from the last board meeting all moved second so Mr Callahan yes Mr Esposito yes Mr Fernandez yes Mrs napalitano yes Mrs pone yes Miss pyck yes Mr Smith yes Mr Walsh yes and Mrs Bloom yes okay and now to the best one of the best parts of our meeting our student representative Ashton you're all by yourself tonight so you go first good evening Board of Education members and administrators my name is Ashen pundle SMS student council Board of Education representative the student council soed carnations during lunch today to raise money for the NJ ASC charity hugs for Brady carnations were delivered on Valentine's Day thank you to all the support the student council will be hosting the anything goes assembly on March 22nd it will be Staff first student assembly Spirit Week will take place the week of March 18th during the week of kindness the community service Club colored coffee sleeves for bombers Beyond they also gave out Valentine's Day cards to Children's at St Jude's hospital they are currently piloting a send Den during eighth grade lunch for eighth graders to relax and regroup the spring food drive for March has started student council members will be around during Home Room the sville Stu schools district will be honored by Casa of middle sex County at an event toast 2024 on May 7th at chat Grande Castle is honoring the district for the Middle School's community service Club support and collection of their gift drive for foster children over a decade Daren cons Consul Mano community service adviser will be present to accept the award on behalf of the district community service Club continue to decorate coffee sleeves with positive and kind messages for bombers beyond for kindness month the class council is continuing continuing the positive impact bracelets together and choose kindness each week a student and teacher are recognized why they received the bracelet over the morning announcements the SMS class council is in the process of organizing an eighth grade trip they had great success in their double good popcorn fundraiser thank you to everyone for your support handbag uh bingo and tricky Cherry event is sold out thank you to all who purchased the ticket looking forward to an amazing evening Harlem Wizards game versus the Thunder Struck bomber teacher team it's Thursday April 4th at the high school gym 8ighth grade semi-formal dance is Friday May 10th ticket information will be sent out soon now on to the seral Middle School athletics the SMS blue team entered their season with a win 4936 in their home finale the boys finished their season with a record of 10 and two coach Donan is proud of their team and their consistent effort on the court and in the classroom great season bombers the cille Middle School girls basketball team recently finished up an incred incredible season The Blue Team finished with an 8 and4 record and came in second place in the white division this talented group of girls have shown tremendous improvement from last year and have worked extremely hard to get to this point they picked up wins against South planfield Thomas Jeff Jefferson Hubert hu Su and North Brunswick leading way leading the way for the bombers went to Natalia and Veronica glazowski as well as Lila Stevenson the great team finished their season with a record of five- six and showed tremendous progress throughout the year the B the bombers defeated Highland Park Timothy Christian New Brunswick and Jamesburg this season coach Vasquez and Coach facini are extreme extremely excited of the future for this program great job girls the cheerleading team competed at how cheer championships on Friday 17th both teams scored very well the all music competition took first place for the fifth time at njcdca state championships the game day competition team plays second on Sunday at njcdca state championships we are looking proud for our athletes game day will be performing at unified B basketball game next Thursday after school the coaches and athletes are looking forward to celebrating their success in April the Sera Middle School softball team will be hosting their triy outs this week starting tomorrow March 6th through Friday the 8th the coaching staff is very excited for their season underway and anticipate a successful competitive and fun season ahead spring tryouts are March 11th through 15th and SMS baseball trouts 8th grade March 5th and 6th and seventh grade seven and eight that's it thank you so much any questions for as you uh you went a BRAC yet uh no no huh listen you're the number one guy number one in the whole school you represent you got to win one none of my teachers even had a bracelet so that's none of my teachers had a bracelet so I can't even get it oh oh is that how it works yeah like your teacher has to get it and then they talk to you and then they give you the bracelet gotta okay good job we all had bracelets we' be giving you one right now great job as always buddy thank you and by the way the middle school cheer competition cheer team we have invited them to our March 19th meeting so that we can honor them because they were crowned the grand champions of that New Jersey Dance and Cheer Association Championship so we'll be honoring them excellent on the 19th EXC okay Al righty moving on to president comments well if you don't know this is read Across America week and this is one of the most fun times for me having been out of the classroom for years I go back and I read to the little ones uh Monday I was at arith and today I was at Cheesequake with our little preschools so adorable so I I wear my colored pencil shirt and I asked them if they can figure out what I taught when I taught and then I showed them my artist's palette earrings and they get it they're so cute they loved it so this is just such a pleasure and I'll be reading uh at a different school every morning for the rest of the week so I'm getting up early for the kids but uh it's it's a pleasure and I'm sure some of my colleagues are reading as well so uh we really enjoy it and we thank all of our teachers for inviting us and for making us feel welcome in schools and on behalf of our teachers and principls they thinkk thank you Board of Education members for taking the time to to read to the children if you haven't had a chance to do it I recommend that you do it at least once you leave there with such an incredible feeling because the kids are just enamored by you and the fact that you're coming to their classroom to read them I think we were in the same school did you go through a school today I I was at uh Truman arleth and sover we must have just missed oh eisar I went Truman today yeah there were a lot of people at truman today yeah are cute if I got a first grader last year two first graders and they like escort you right to the and they're so proud that they know this is this office you little tour guides they're good kids and when they announce you they you when they say this is a board of education member they go whoow happened today okay uh Miss vice president your uh highlights I don't have any no highlights no highlights excellent shorten to the point Dr lbby presentation thank you Mrs Bloom we are going to resume our presentations on the proposed 2024 2025 budget for the last time this evening with our last two presentations beginning with human resources and professional development and then ending with technology and believe it or not on March 19th We'll be asking you to approve the tentative 2024 2025 budget Board of Education members I'll have that information to you by Monday uh by my summary email on Sunday so you have plenty of time to review that however let's begin with Dr agues and Miss Bert for our human resources and professional development proposed 2024 2025 budget presentation thank you Dr lbby uh thank you board we're going to start with h Human Resources because uh Miss Bird's more interesting than I am uh Human Resources our goals for uh 23 24 uh if you notice they all say continue to meet that's because when we're dealing with uh human beings it's hard to quantify uh especially the type of goals that that we're setting out for but uh we are proud of what we're doing in uh the Human Resources office so our first goal for this year was uh to continue to work to become part of a collective group where we're promoting and retaining diverse Talent at uh every level across across the district uh now I have have to say that on our non-certificated staff uh we do a very good job uh and I I uh thank the directors for really uh continuing to promote diversity in all of their uh in all of their departments uh we have in our department uh for certificated staff we have made a a great leap I think um based on the numbers from 22 23 although we had a number of um diverse applicants and hires uh last year zero of them were were uh were di what we would consider diverse um this year 13 of our hires of our new hes were uh would fit into our diverse categories uh it's a small drop in the bucket which is why it's continue to meet but we're promoting that and as you'll see for our goals for next year uh it Contin uh to expand uh we're also working on and continue to work on eliminating implied or overt uh discrimination and bias to that end uh at the middle of this month uh March 19th and 20th I'll be presenting to our newer staff uh the uh a uh workshop on unconscious buers uh it's something that I've done in the past I Believe Miss Bloom has seen me do it once or twice uh because I know she always likes to see when I'm teaching um so uh Lucy if you're not doing anything on March 19th or 20th it'll be taking place in this room uh and we're excited about that not only because uh we're doing the presentation but the number of people who have signed up to to attend the presentation is uh it's a good number and it means we're moving in the right direction um recruiting and uh implementing uh Recruitment and ition practices uh again I can't quantify it at least not yet um but what I can tell you is as the board members you know that I send districtwide a an email stating that if uh folks are going to be leaving us for whatever reason whether it's uh medical and maternity leaves or retirements or or resignations to please let us know in February so we can plan accordingly uh and last year uh by comparison last year to this year we have gotten a trickle as opposed to what we got hit with last year um that's promising that means uh I I believe that means that we're uh headed in the right direction and that people are are staying longer with us uh because we we have a lot to offer and uh we continue to to make certain that we make that a priority uh for our goals for 2425 in order to continue that that uh diverse hiring practice uh we are developing a diverse Coalition of teachers uh to collaborate with us to develop an action plan that will increase diverse hiring what we're doing is good we're you know we're we're beating the bushes to to uh recruit uh and keep teachers on board but I think that our own diverse hires folks who have worked with us for a number of years will help um help us set set forth uh an even better uh goal for hiring for hiring on a diverse level uh and that's what we're looking to do we want our teachers to have a voice and I think that this will provide them with uh a good voice for for that type of hiring uh we're also uh working with our students last year uh we developed a high school student advisory and a middle school student Advisory Group uh which uh in August I presented the data to the administrators and in November I presented it to uh a large number of teachers basically we wanted to see what we're doing through our students eyes uh and it was good we've got The Good the Bad and the Ugly and I and I uh appreciated the honesty of once students knew they were safe to say whatever they wanted within reason um they were very honest and often times very complimentary most of more often than not but they did point out areas that either um we didn't know about or we knew about and we didn't know that they knew about uh and it's helped develop for each of those buildings it's helped develop an action plan on how to remediate some of those issues and obviously from uh our level and our office it helps us develop professional development uh to meet and address some of those issues with our students because we were so successful at the two bigger schools uh we promoted it this year working with Mr TOA and uh Stacy clog lanise uh and we have have a ues advisory uh Council uh which is eye openening for a number of reasons one uh they're not as forthcoming they still see you know even though uh the VP and the high school are both um I'm sorry the VP and the principal of the school are sitting in those meetings along with the teacher uh when I start talking they kind of look shy laugh giggle which is which is fun um but one of the most eye openening things with this group uh was them telling us what two years of of covid did to them and how it impacted their education and some of the things that we're overcoming so it was eye opening for us uh because for some of these students they were in first and second grade or Kinder in first um during that time and they had a lot of interesting things to to say again good bad and ugly um so we we are we're moving to continue to to utilize their information this year was a benchmark next year we'll be able to take what they what they provided us this year and make some changes at the U uh we're also looking to expand leadership capacity within the next five years uh this is something that Dr Labby and I discussed uh as much as I would love to stay here forever uh and some days it feels that way um September 9th 2024 will Mark the 20th anniversary of the opening of this building I was the first principal to to uh of this building to open that building and I can't believe 20 years have passed um we have uh it is important with all the gains that we have made over the last decade under Dr labby's leadership and under your leadership that that remains long after any of us are no longer here as uh some of you would see so one of the things that we're looking at is to promote uh our leadership to take on not only the roles they're on in now but also take on what roles would they like over the next five years what roles do they think they'd like to tackle over the next five years to do that um we have to set up first how many of those folks are looking to to make those changes and then work with them in a mentorship capacity to to make certain that we have a transition of leadership from those of us over the next five years who may uh decide to uh retire to the beach as you see on those pictures uh versus uh uh versus those who who are obviously going to hopefully choose to stay and continue to uh lead the district in the stewardship that that we've come accustomed to uh some of the highlights uh it's always on uh it's always on my a year-to-year the restructuring of the Human Resources office for efficiency uh and I will say that I believe that this year uh if I was going to mark it complete I would I think that we now have a human resources department that is truly a department that works unified in in our vision for making certain that we hire and retain the best uh but also we have uh dedicated people in the office right now so that it's not picking up who's coming in who needs something um two out of the three folks that work in that office office are sitting in the audience and I can tell you that most of the things that we get done and as quickly as we get them done uh wouldn't happen without their dedication their hard work their their willingness to stay uh late to meet somebody for an interview or to get paperwork in uh I'm not going to read off what each person does but you can see in the highlights that we have dedicated people now uh in a number of areas that has really uh sped up the process that we have in in our office uh minimizing mistakes or eliminating them completely hiring people at a much faster rate and retaining those hires at a much faster rate uh and I really can't thank uh Jillian Flanigan Karen Havens and Valerie Bender uh enough for their dedication to that office they do a phenomenal job and they should be uh recognized for it and I can't uh and uh and I'll though David Stoler to his Department I also have to thank uh rosin Gonzalez for the work she did in our office uh in the brief time that she was with us um couple of other highlights we partnered with Ed connective to provide teachers in District personalized coaching and mentoring uh for improvement uh to improve uh Improvement of best practices utilized in the classroom yes we have mentors and our first year mentors and I know Miss Bert's going to speak about it and our our first year Mentor our first year teachers are mentored very well uh especially in the the type of program that that's been developed and continues to to work but this was something we thought was extremely important these were uh handpicked folks about 40 teachers that uh we got outside mentors to work with uh the the this was quantifiable and the data that we got on on uh the amount of work that these 40 teachers put in what kind of changes have made uh has been uh really incredible some teachers who might have been struggling either because they started during covid or or they uh they just had one struggle or another uh really took this this one-on-one mentoring and coaching on a weekly basis and administrators uh can tell you that the difference it made it was literally night and day we'd like to continue with it but it definitely was one of the highlights this year of seeing uh the philosophy of making certain that teachers who are struggling don't struggle in silence and get some help uh to be successful and that and that's what we've seen um we've successfully run two Career Fairs one last May uh and one in January that uh we're really proud of we're so proud of of them and we think that they work so effectively that we're having one May 4th uh Saturday from 9 to 2 Shameless plug but definitely worthwhile we get some of uh you know especially in our non-certificated areas we get local folks who are coming out and working you know working in the district and we're getting uh a lot of uh like I said this school opened 20 years ago some of those people are coming back and saying you were my principal I'd like to work for you as a teacher um and that's great too what are they thinking uh they're thinking that this is the best place to work Miss Bloom and they have one of the best principles uh in their lives Shameless plug again Shameless plug no I I think again it ties into what we were talking about before I uh you know we have teachers who have become vice principal supervisors and principles and they're doing a phenomenal job and to see a next generation of kids who have come through our schools who now want to give back to the community uh and back to our students by becoming teachers and hopefully uh guidance counselors and psychologists and so forth uh I think it's important and I I I've always uh promoted homegrown teachers I always think that the best people for to continue uh the our schools and our community in the way we'd like is people who have gone through it once a bomber always a bomber I want them to live that I want them to breathe that and we have a bunch of teachers and a bunch of Administrators that do and and I'm proud of that and I think that it's something that we should we should continue to promote um staffing needs easy segue staffing needs currently because of that February uh email that that I sent out we have three positions that need to be filled at the high school in hard to fill areas uh we currently know about One retirement at an elementary school and we currently know of at least four leaves of absence throughout the the district for the 20 uh 2425 school year uh as far as new Staffing uh an increase in certificated staff uh there would be at least one social studies teacher a new financial literacy class and one uh fizzed teacher at the at the high school uh an increase in non-certificated staff we're still trying to fill those five bus drivers uh for our five new buses uh one bus Aid because our fleet has gotten so large one mechanic and uh finally One Transportation part-time secretary and that's my end of it and I will turn it over to miss Burt okay good evening Miss Bloom Board of Ed Dr Labby central Office Team and guests uh I'd like to start with the professional development goals for 23 24 uh since I've come into the district our vision has really been to provide uh meaningful customized professional development for all stakeholders within the district and I believe that in order to do so it's a very collaborative effort um amongst Administration teachers secretaries staff everyone in the district um really getting input from everyone is super valuable into creating meaningful professional development learning experiences also uh we've had the pleasure this year of uh really empowering our staff in the district as well as our Administration we had several staff and administration present at our staff development day on November 7th and it really um was a Innovative meaningful day uh that allowed us to customize a lot of different sessions uh due to needs and suggestions from our staff uh to collaborate with Administration District staff um external Consultants to offer these ongoing professional learning opportunities uh it's really important to me that it's not just you know a one- time deal and done uh that we continue to uh provide consistent professional development and support uh to our Administration to our staff so everyone can continue to grow and to encourage genuine reflection and feedback um from everyone in the district so we've done a lot of surveys um I've had a lot of great discussions with um you know I I try to talk to as many people as I can within the district uh just to really get feedback because I always believe no matter what you're doing you can always continue to do it better um you know the next time or the following time and while I do believe these goals were met um I think they're really important um to continue providing high quality um meaningful professional learning de um development sessions so while they were met I will continue to look to achieve them in uh future years uh now I'm going to talk about the professional development highlights um as you can see um Chris uh so it put a timeline together of all the professional development that has been offered from July um um to February and I'd like to start with our new staff orientation uh we've gotten a lot of positive feedback uh we did uh provide a survey to our staff after the new staff orientation I'm going to provide some of that uh feedback in future slides uh we also updated our 2324 District professional development plan that was submitted to the Department of Education um in accordance and in alignment with the new professional development standards um we have our Mentor induction coordinator support which I can't talk enough about there are the leaders in our buildings uh who are helping uh they're the ones with boots on the ground in our buildings uh really supporting our new teachers with any types of questions that they may have uh running meetings and uh you know answering their day-to-day uh to help them get acclimated to their buildings uh our district instructional coach Miss Rose Griggs has uh been amazing she she started in her position on July 1st but really um working to build relationships uh uh she has a a very large uh following at the middle school and she's really worked uh to get out to the schools and uh do different events at each school to build relationships with all of um the staff uh pre- 12 and also uh something when I came into the district um that I was passionate about was working to build a virtual professional learning library so I think we've built the beginning stages of that this year and we'll continue to do that uh moving forward but Chris if you don't mind clicking on the WL okay this is just one example so when you build a wakelet uh it has the options and columns to and we have it uh for sville University but it's uh has columns and information for all this uh staff development that we've done this year and and this one particular uh you know uh screen that Chris is showing right now is uh the new staff uh presentations that all of the presenters who presented for new staff orientation uh We've collected them we've put them in a library all in one place for everybody to um reference throughout the year and it's through sville University because uh I know that we've been working to build that up again after covid um so we thought this was a good way to do that uh so that is for everyone's reference uh and then you'll see as we move forward in the timeline uh we had our opening DS of school staff development under September and October and our keynote speaker Dr Michael Salvatore and we were able to start our new teacher workshops uh we've been offering several new teacher workshops this year on an abundance of different uh topics um from data to classroom management to culture and climate uh all topics we've T discussed uh you know with new teachers that they felt would be um helpful to them and then we uh started our plc's in October and we really started our work with our profession due to you know um all being fortunate in getting a lot of our our grant money um we were uh focusing on our professional learning Consultants so that's when we started really all the conversations about setting times and dates for all of the Consultants mentioned there Dr Kenneth Coons Dr Eric Milo um as Dr agues mentioned um at connective working with our um staff uh so that's when those relationships started and classroom visits uh started as well and then you'll see um under each month you will see District instructional coach Mentor induction coordinator and sville University because we've been working to build that since July uh in November and December uh we had our November SE uh 7 staff development day uh and we continued our plc's and new teacher work shops and then uh just to note for February we're we've been doing a lot of CPI training but we were able to do an additional CPI training uh this year on fe uh February 8th um in February okay moving on to the next um slide it's a slide on our staff development date for November 7th uh we were able to host a 110 inperson and or virtual professional learning sessions uh we had uh three sessions on that day for the staff to select three choices uh again we had our many of our administrators present uh many of our staff members present as well as our external Consultants uh presented on that debt uh some of the sessions just to point out we had right to know for our custodial staff we had our webinar for our national school lunch program for our food services uh we did a lot of Pilots uh with Oram with our special ed and our ESL uh Miss Eileen jco who's in the audience right now led effective School solutions for all our district secretaries uh we had Miss Bloom uh present on glass etching which was a very popular hit uh and of course our content areas um implementing Project Read with confidence uh math magic and takeaway activities so uh it was a very diverse uh set of offerings through the collaboration of everyone um in the district to put uh and make valuable experiences uh next slide is um under ESS uh effective School Solutions and pilot programs so this year we're able to offer uh two parent workshops and four new teacher workshops uh in Consulting um you know with uh effective School Solutions we're able to take our Prof professional development and um split them up between parents and new teachers uh so the topics are listed there and then uh under pilot programs and things that we started this year uh we've had Beluga uh which is a virtual uh streaming uh content and we've had three different pilot groups piloting that which uh we've talked about they've provided an extensive amount of professional development um free of charge at department meetings uh content area training and also administrator trainings and then also we've been piloting the Lincoln intervention manager uh and we've had five of our six professional development sessions so far uh and I'm in the process we piloted from January to June so it's been a great experience and we've been collecting feedback and we're and I've been going out to the schools to visit and do my best to support all of the schools as we move through the pilot and that's going very well okay we look to finish the year strong uh I included some of the feedback from our uh professional development sessions on staff development day new staff orientation and new teacher workshops uh we did provide surveys to the staff um for each of those uh so I just uh and in order to save time you know um I just I selected one or two um to share with you under our staff development day uh one of our responders said all of my sessions were very informative I've learned a lot and then I can bring into my classroom immediately thank you for a great day uh great opportunity to get the staff in one place to go over safety General requirements updates and Q&A and that was Mr Jeffrey sprog I think he's back there um he did a safety presentation for us and the classes I attended presented useful information and interesting aspects to bring into the class classroom my favorite was math magic I learned many useful Center ideas and so many different ways to innovate my math lessons I was able to take some of the techniques the very next day and it turned my lesson into more engaging ones thank you okay if we were to look at new staff orientation uh two of the comments were felt very inclusive and welcoming listening to new uh numerous staff speak about their experiences in the district uh was very extremely comforting and then um my favorite was the experience I had at new teacher orientation and the staff members that I met throughout the process confirmed that I made the best decision starting my teacher uh career at cille and then uh for new teacher workshops uh the pre presenter made this session very collaborative and engaging and informative I enjoyed it very much and I really enjoyed this work shop they did a great job showing us how to locate different types of data within linkit and gave great ideas for how to use that data to guide our instruction thank you so we'll continue to build off of that data and continue to collaborate um on our future professional development sessions and um moving ahead in the year uh we are currently planning for our June 4th staff development day and we are um beginning to plan a summer learning series uh so on June 4th we will have two professional development sessions and then we will have a PLC Showcase in the afternoon and then for the summer learning series uh the team is still working on um working with uh a lot of our Consultants that we currently work with uh that's why we listed two weeks there but um in the Consultants we're working with are you know talking to their teams to see if they're available on those dates uh so it is in the beginning stages um but those are the two weeks that we um have currently spoken about in our meetings and they will be 90minut sessions um and they will the staff would sign up via Google Forum but it is a very it's a voluntary experience um just extra support for anybody that would like to come and we were able to put set aside um some funding in our title 2 Grant to pay uh for some of the staff that will be able to come uh and then looking ahead for goals for 2425 I'm just really um you know it's really important to me to encourage staff to provide us feedback so we can continue to always do better um in surveys I've had a lot of great uh talks with our new teachers um after observing them about you know sessions that would really help them uh get acclimated to the district and moving ahead for them in year two um continue to focus on making it meaningful and Innovative um through our local and Grant funds uh as I mentioned earlier to continue to build build the virtual professional learning library and then um Dr ages and I um have uh worked we're going to be designing redesigning the PLC framework and uh we have set aside money in our title 2 Grant um to bring in District representatives to help us um in a collaborative format redesign our PLC framework and then in regards to the budget um for 23 to 24 to 2425 um nothing new has been added but that does include the cost of our added District presenters uh in District staff presenters um funding for staff for their registrations to go out of District to attend PD um reimbursements for staff travel um professional development supplies and reimbursement for uh professional do doer fees and that is a combination of our grant funds and our local funds and I just thank you for providing that so we can um um offer meaningful professional development to our staff thank you thank you so much any questions for either Dr aules or Miss B on the 19th 20th what time are you going to be here um the 19th is two sessions at 8:30 and 12 on the 20th it's uh 9:00 a.m. and 12 thank I would definitely like to think that as we're expanding all the professional development and the Fantastic things we're doing for staff that it's definitely reflective of what you said Dr AG about the less number of staff that have sent in notice to leave the district so far this year that we're making it worthwhile for our staff to stay in District yeah I I think part of it definitely was you know the co bubble and I think that that's burst and I'm grateful for that because it was a a tough number of years uh but yeah I I do believe also that we have uh we're a new you know new direct of the innovations that we're bringing forth uh and the amount of work we're doing with our staff uh continues to grow uh from year to year and again that comes from uh the leadership and it also comes from uh our ability to learn from students what they're looking for from their teachers and also what teachers are looking for from the district so I I think all these things blend together uh I've always been proud of being being a part of sville uh and I continue to to work toward that goal of making certain that we always have the best we always have the brightest we always have the strongest uh you know u schools so that uh our students continue to be as successful as they have been over the last at least under me over the last 22 years that's great I have a question um do we do any um like workplace engagement surveys like for example I know the one that we do at my um place of employment is the best places to work is there an educational like equivalent to that or like a survey where that measures um you know all the things that you guys are working very hard um to achieve that could then um be com compared to other you know school districts we've done culture and climate surveys not sure that the data that we collect can be used to compare with other school districts because there's not one universal culture and climate Serv survey that everyone uses we have used the New Jersey Department of Education surveys at times but it's hard for us to go ahead and compare that data to anyone else's data because we'd have to see other school districts if they actually done those surveys so there's not a Universal Survey that all school districts use to compare data with however the data from those culture and climate surveys is great for us to gauge where we are and where we need to go okay any other questions thank you thank you thank you so much all right so we're moving along to technology and security at this time I ask Mr Glock Malloy to begin his presentation evening everyone um before getting into the heart of our presentation tonight I'd be remiss if I didn't recognize those that are out here tonight um supporting the department um obviously as we do every board meeting we have our campus monitors under Mr sprag here this evening um as well as Miss Setta who is our office support for both security and Technology um joining us as well tonight from our technology department um Mr rice one of our Engineers who is always here um we have our director of technology and our supervisor of Technology Mike and Chris here today another one of our Engineers Matt and one of our information um specialist e Gano here tonight so we have quite a showing um as well as our other technicians engineers and campus monitors um who are on the Forefront of our technology and security operations day in and day out um with that taking a look at some of our achievements um for this year that are either achieved or in progress as we move through the year um as has been the case for the last number of years we've been able to maintain um both our device life cycle which includes both our frontend and backend Technologies as well as our onetoone devices for students and instructional staff um we've continued throughout the course of the year um as was one of our major goals um for the current budget cycle we're in to increase our physical network security not just the digital end but the physical front of that with our switches our access points and other key critical pieces of U network and infrastructure technology we have continued um to roll out our upgrade and replacement of our interactive boards uh again we've had interactive boards uh originally in the form of smartboards in our classrooms for many years um we've been moving over to those interactive flat panels um board members and audience we happen to have one in the back of the room that we use here for presentations if you U would like an example of what we've been deploying out in the classrooms um we are nearly finished with a full upgrade of our district netor work switching infrastructure all schools are currently complete the only school that is um pending completion at this point is the high school and we hope to have that completed within the next several weeks um we also were able to complete this year as part of our ongoing multi-year upgrades to our public address systems in our school The Truman school um is completed which leaves just the samsel school which um will be on next year's budgetary cycle and then all of our school buildings will have an updated public address system within them um and critical to our technology projects and goals um this kind of catchall at the bottom to maintain and update our district cyber security response plan inclusive of implementing additional cyber security systems procedures um while I don't want to get into specific details of our cyber security plan um we have done a lot to increase that front um both on the infrastructure side on the digital cyber security side as well as on the educational side um cyber security has become much more than just the technology department it has become a need um for responsibility and um work from our staff at all levels as well as our students um to that end two things that we are going to be launching imminently that I I do feel comfortable discussing um we will later this month be launching our Gog Guardian parent portal for our web filtering technology ology um that will give our parents that choose to opt into that program some insight into what their students are doing on District issued devices or distri issued accounts um both during the school day and after school this not only helps on the cyber security front it also helps on the academic front keeping our students on task and on target particularly during homework times it also helps on the uh mental health front when we have students that um search proect potentially um concerning content uh on the internet it will help involve the the parents in that that role as well as our existing staff that have been using this technology internally to address all of these items from our teachers to our administrators to our guidance counselors in addition to that we're going to be rolling out a new communication platform um we're going to be doing a soft roll out of parents Square um with our administrators and some other key staff over the next several weeks we'll be doing a full roll out for our parent community over the course of the summer um this will give our community as a whole a better methodology and a single platform for in for communicating back and forth between schools and the parent Community um and it'll allow our parents to filter that communication in a more effective manner communication obviously being a key part of both our technological security um as well as our physical security and our academic process overall taking a look on the security side of things um again there a lot of similarities here but we've been able to maintain our Access Control communication security infrastructure continuing to fund all of our licenses programs and systems within the district um we were able to achieve this year um full Staffing for all of our buildings with two shifts of Campus monitors um depending on our events um that has become increasing ly beneficial so that we can have campus monitors staffed at at evening events across the district where needed um we were able to complete our district technology Communications plan in partnership with the burough and with the police department um so that we have a unified Communications infrastructure the only school that we have not rolled out the radios to yet is Truman school they are still operating on their old you know functional radio system they are not without a radio system um we held off on upgrading them to the new radio system until we completed their public address system so they're imminently going to be rolled to our new radio system as well um we continue as always to drill and refine our reunification and Emergency Management plans uh our principles Mr sprag um and all of our staff truly um work on this through drills and procedures um throughout the course of the school year we did this year Implement fully um the required NJ doe threat assessment and management program and teams within each of our schools as well as one at the district level um we've begun to have meetings plans approaches um and utilize specific software to Aid with this process um so not only are we in compliance with the NJ dooe mandate but we've taken these teams and this management process um and we've really used it to enhance our our internal response protocol calls for any form of threats um that we perceive for the school district taking a look moving forward and core of our budget presentation this evening obviously some of our our key pieces um we would like to maintain our device life cycle and our onetoone instructional and staff and student devices that's critical to our educational process as well as our backend infrastructure cyber security does not stop it is an Ever Changing and evolving process so we will continue to evolve our response plan we will continue to roll out enhanced cyber security features and systems um as we are able to and as we deem necessary throughout the district and we'll also continue to roll out educational programs and trainings for our staff and students on best cyber security practices both for what they do here in the district as well as their own um personal lives as cyber security does not stop when you go home for the day um we are looking to continue our multi-year plan to increase physical network security again our switches and other backend infrastructure we are looking to continue rolling out our interactive boards either Replacements or upgrades throughout the district throughout our classrooms um as we did this year and as we are looking to continue to do in the future um fund our AR and VR program both at potentially the middle school as well as the high school and we're looking to secure funding for technology integration facilitator siphons in each schools um board members that have been with us for a few years you've seen A variation of this in Prior um presentations and strategic plan presentations um we had a technology integration teacher um who retired last year um and we've worked to to kind of repurpose that role um to more effective methodology for going forward in the future where instead of one um technology integration teacher that is responsible for the entire District we're looking to take our existing teachers not take them out of the classroom uh but allow our technology Specialists within each building who have knowledge of the programs and the procedures and the student environment as well as the teachers at each level to give um those specific teachers a stien to share those resources and more collaboratively with um the district professional development teams as well as the district technology department to really fully integrate technology in the best possible ways and to meet the needs at the age level and at the building level as opposed to just trying to do a a One-Stop solution for the entire District so this is a A variation on what you've seen in in Prior presentations looking at our security department um again some of the common goals that you see year to year maintain our Access Control communication security camera infrastructure it's critical to what we do here protecting our students and staff um each and every day um continue to our progress on our multi-year public address system against samsil being the last school in that process which we hope to do next year as always our drill and reunification plans um will continue to evolve much like our cyber security plans we look to maintain our camp Camp security monitor coverage in our two shift methodology we are looking to um again much like on our technology side Implement additional enhanced security procedures not specific items that I'm going to discuss during the presentation but as with cyber security our physical security in the district is ever evolving to to threats as they um move forward not only locally but State nationally internationally and we need to continue to advance our own security procedures to meet those goals um virtually every day uh increase our emergency response Readiness supplies at each School in the event that we ever do have an emergency situation in our school we want to make sure that we have the buildings and the classrooms appropriately staffed and stocked with all necessary supplies we are hoping to work um in coordination with the the burrow and the police department to bring an elementary school student resource officer into the district next year we do currently have our middle school and high school student resource officer and we do have our police officers in each and every building um throughout the course of the day but we are looking to bring in an additional SRO who will not be tagged to any one Elementary School um but will work between the district and the police department to U coordinate a rotation throughout the school district to provide that true community resource um connection with our Police Department our staff our administ ation our students at those Elementary levels and we are also as um as our transportation department presented in the last meeting um looking to implement some enhanced Transportation um systems as far as GPS connectivity management and accountability systems within our transportation infrastructure specifically our school buses so looking at those items um what we were able to fund in the initial round of U budget procedures and what we are asking the board to consider restoring um as we move through the budgetary process we are currently maintained in the budget continued support for our Hardware software licensing contracts lease agreements as well as our technology staff we are currently supporting the funding to maintain and enhance our cyber security plans procedures and programs as well as our physical network security um what we would ask the board to consider um restoring into the budgetary process we do not currently have funding in the budget for our onetoone devices um for staff or students into next year which has become critical to our educational process um we do not currently have funding in place for our interactive board Replacements um while we do have boards in every classroom um in the majority of our classrooms they do wear out and they become less functional year-over-year so it is critical that we keep moving and replacing those um as with any other device having a a structured life cycle for those interactive boards um there were several academic software programs um specific to the high school and middle school um that were cut from the budget in the initial process um we are not currently funding the arvr um programs for next year uh we would like to look to restore that specifically at the high school um we really would like to Target that Esports lab um if we have to to Target um specific areas of that virtual reality augmented reality program we think that's really the next wave of the the program for the district um there were some specific pieces of Technology maintenance equipment um they are currently processes that we're Outsourcing as far as destruction of certain material um some diagnostic material for our fiber optic networks uh we bring in outside the departments and agencies to do that um our our technology department had recommended that if we did one-time purchases for some of this equipment we could bring that inhouse and not um recognize a reoccurring cost year-over-year for certain destruction of hardware and certain diagnostic of our Network Technology and then as I spoke about a few minutes ago our technology uh facilitator siens it's not part of the technology budget that's part of Dr AG's budget as a human resource item um but we feel that that would be a a critical piece um to furthering not only the technology usage in our classrooms um but also aiding in the professional development department as they roll out new uh software procedures and programs throughout the district looking over on our security side um far less read on on this side um we are able to currently maintain in the budget our our support for our existing security Hardware uh software and Licensing infrastructures we do have the funding in place um pending budget approval for the public address system for samsel school all of our current reunification Emergency Management emergency response programs our campus monitors um several of those enhanced security procedures that we're looking to move forward as well as the elementary school SRO which is only partially our responsibility the buau would also have to um to move forward on that piece so we don't have full control over whether that moves forward um what we do not currently have funded on the security side is the enhanced transportation system and I I know that Patrick had gone through this in great detail during his budget but the board had had some questions over the specific dollar amounts of varying pieces so without rehashing what Patrick went through in his um presentation the final slide tonight with technology and security breaks down down some of those items that the transportation department um had focused on in their presentation specifically um the Sam sah Fleet Management the the cost there is both an increase as well as an adjustment because we do have specific programs that the transportation department noted um that are handling some of those Services uh but the transportation department felt that samsera is going to better meet the needs of our district um inclusive of being able to provide some cellular service to our buses which open up the door for those wayfinder tablets um that the transportation department put forward in their presentations those for for anyone that needs a refresher those would be the devices on each bus that would allow students to check on and off as they board and leave a bus so we really do have that real time information at the administrative level of not only where is the bus but where are the students students on those buses um originally we had looked in combination with transportation technology and security at at how we would provide communication to the buses to support those wayfinder programs so you can see at the bottom of that slide an alternative cellular option that concept required us buying the Hotspots for each bus as well as the data plan annually um what what Patrick was able to discover in his research was that um by adjusting the the plan for Sam sah they would be able to provide that cellular service to power the wayfinder tablets as well um so if we went with samera as a Fleet Management with cellier service that eliminates the need for us to invest in dedicated cellular routers uh and data plans for those buses one other item um that was a potential from transportation's um presentation which is not directly connected to either Sam sah or to the wayfinder tablets was the possibility of upgrading the video camera infrastructure on the buses um to provide um realtime feeds back to the transportation department while the buses are on the road and that is that angel tracks upgrade we do have a robust camera system on our buses right now and a robust communication system on our buses um that information is readily available to our transportation department this would just give them further Insight um into what's going on on the buses um and and I don't want to speak for the transportation department but speaking from the technology and the security side of things um anytime we have the ability to increase the efficiency of a software program and decrease the cost which Sam Sarah does compared to the the current technology um that we are using that's always a benefit from the technology side of things the wayfinder tablets um giving that insight into where our individual students are and making sure that the correct students are on the correct buses that's an invaluable piece um from security uh not only from Transportation but to know you know where those students are and be able to pull that information up immediately you know at the cck of a button instead of calling to a school calling to the transportation department getting on the radio with the bus driver you know Transportation does a fantastic job of managing where the buses are where the students are who on what route but having that Insight real time into you know who stepped on to each and every bus and when did they step off is invaluable from a security aspect so on that note I have a question absolutely if if you took just the Samar management portion and the way wayfinder tablets portion what's the annual cost Aaron I know you did that the other day um Mr espo if you give me two seconds I'll add that up real quickly or I'll just spot that we're looking at Round number 50 on the samsara side when we take out Zonar and then we're looking at thought we said about $150,000 yeah that was the startup for all of it so on the samera side you're looking at about 50,000 increase on the wayfinder tablets you're looking at 75 you're looking at about 100,000 in onetime cost a little over 100,000 in one time cost and then about 177,000 annual service 17,000 every year after correct so roughly total all in know right around that 150 Mark got rounding numbers not exact numbers I have a question absolutely is that going to be funded this year currently the transportation system is not funded in the budget that is one item that we are asking for restoration as we move through the budget budgetary process so if you're asking for a sneak preview of what we've added back into the budget is that what you're asking Mrs Bon uh yeah for specifically for this yes all right good because I was going to say after we go through all this getting all our buses owning them having the reason behind it being the safety of the children this just makes our case that we did the right thing we put our money where the mou is they upon the state aid figures that we got this is one of the items that we brought back all right good and specifically you know we're asking for restoration of the Fleet Management the cellular service the wayfinder tablets um you know not at this point the AI cameras is not at this point the live video feeds um but the wayfinder and the Fleet Management along with those cell we completely agree agree that it's invaluable I would say at least two dozen times a year we have a situation at the Middle School Upper Elementary School or the elementary school where a child is missing for a brief period of time and normally it's because a child decides to go home with his or her friends on another bus this is instantaneous will'll know exactly where that child is good other questions silly question not related to Transportation part of it what is the difference between a school resource officer and a police officer that we have in the elementary schools currently the big piece is training um school resource officers have specific training um it's not part of our training that's something that they do through the police police department and through the state um they are trained in um working with school communities working with students and parents specifically it's an above and beyond training beyond your your regular patrol officer um and it gives them you know that that additional uh piece within that law enforcement infrastructure to work within the school Community to to strengthen you know that that connection between what is going on in the school and what's going on in the town and having that information readily available so that we as school district and the security department here can interact best with them um for the Safety and Security of our students and the benefit of our community okay thanks any other questions I think this is the longest presentation you ever did I know yeah sorry I know I blame Transportation I had to add a slide just for them it it was good though cuz Pat didn't complain once no thank you very much Eric anybody else thank you no okay excellent all righty moving on to board discussion uh governance committee Mrs naan please okay during the meeting we reviewed revisions to the several Board of Education policies and regulations that we will ask you to approve for a first reading this this Tuesday and a second reading on March 19th we decided to table one of them and we will ask you to approve it for a first reading on March 19th and a second reading on April 2nd next we discussed the revisions to the 2324 School District calendar that would make April 22nd in early dismissal so the staff can participate in professional development after that Miss badami and Mr gusy discuss the implement the implementation of the athletic Hall of Fame and eventually a performing arts hall of fame at the high school okay thank you any questions or Miss all righty student achievement Mr Callahan are you ready last Tuesday afternoon the student achievement committee met during the meeting Mrs grman reviewed uh the new curriculum guides that we're going to on the agenda to be approved tonight that would include stained glass I know that's near and dear to somebody's heart on here uh world history uh college prep and pre-calculus she also gave us an update on the assessments all those good acronyms weda NJ GPA NJ SLA all those uh as well as the NJ doe seal of biliteracy and I believe we had 10 recipients for the class of 2024 which is the fourth highest amount since 2019 next we had Miss Burt provided us updates on professional development um all the current interventions Innovations and current and future grant opportunities including the left over funds that we're going to use for the NJ high impact tutoring grants to provide some extra tutoring for students at the schools and then also on tonight's uh agenda addendum there's uh we're SE they're seeking approval for the application for the new teacher climate and cultural Innovation Grant okay and then Mr naster informed the committee that they've selected the Sunday systems that is the new special ed alternative literacy development program that will be implemented next schol year next school year K through three or K through five and then Mr GLOCK GLOCK mooy uh was talking about what he talked about earlier the go parent portion of go Guardian as well as parent square and as Walter kronite said that's the way it is any questions for Mr Callahan great job Mr Callahan great job Chris thank you okay middle sex County Schoolboard Association update tomorrow night will be our virtual meeting so if you plan on attending you should have registered or you probably still can before tomorrow night I know you're all excited to do that and then in April on April 18th we will have the county middle the county of middlex unsung heroes banquet uh which will be held at Oldbridge high school as it was last year April 18th Thursday and two students have been selected okay one 11th grader and one 12th grader from our school and we have 30 some odd districts and I believe 20 something responded so we even with that we have districts that don't respond so but it's a great evening yeah it is it's a lovely evening okay that's it for me and then oh miss napalitano you again again yes Educational Services Commission so we discussed the 2425 budget the selection of two MC SBA and mcasa unsung heroes one of which is from sville and we went over the read Across America activities schedule for this week okay that's it all righty thank you any questions no all righty at this time we will open for public participation on agenda items only anybody from public seeing none we will close clst public and turn it over to Dr lby thank you Mrs Bloom so if I can bring your attention to page two finance and infrastructure number one we're asking you to accept a very generous donation of a portable sound system valued at nearly $6,000 from the samsel upper elementary school PTO to be used by the samel upper elementary school and just a quick note on that PTO they had a Tricky Tray last Friday that was magnificent if you've ever had the chance to go to their tricky trays they must have given away 300 gifts some of them valued as high as $1,000 or more it's quite remarkable and that's where they come up with some of the great fundraising that they do here for the students including this portable sound system which is just magnificent number four which you can also find in page two we're asking you to proove the sale of a National Seating and Mobility power wheelchair to the fburg school district in the amount of 3,000 46 and some change and this is a great act by Mr naster and Miss Hill to go ahead and get some money back for a piece of equipment that we bought in accordance with the child's IEP that we no longer need and now we get some return in that investment which I think is brilliant number six which you can find on page three we're asking to award the bid for the windows replacement at sville War Memorial High School the upper elementary school here the Truman Elementary School in the woodro Wilson Elementary School to APS Contracting they were the lowest bidder and those bids were opened on February 15th in the total amount of $ 5,336 th000 and of course that is being paid for through the referendum Believe It or Not folks we have just three more bids left with the referendum and we just received approval from the Department of Education for to release the bid for the high school which is by far going to be our biggest bid so we're moving along uh at at high speed here it's getting very exciting number 14 which you can find in the addendum Mr Callahan mentioned it earlier we're asking you to approve the submission of that teacher climate and culture Innovation Grant and as he said the key goals for the teacher climate and culture Innovation Grant include exploring Innovation improving teacher climate and culture and empowering outstanding Educators and we thank Miss Bert along with a number of other people including Dr AES that worked real hard to put that Grant together I believe that is our fourth non-entitlement grant that we've asked you to approve this year and hopefully that we get awarded to us any questions on anything else those items as well as anything else on finance and infrastructure one question has there been any discussion amongst ba superintendents about the lunacy of taking the lowest bid because you know it's somewhere in the middle is probably where it is should be right when you're a homeowner that's kind of what you do has there been any discussion on that well I don't know if there's discussion but we all hate it yeah um you can try to develop your rubric to assist you but it really goes to the lowest better I don't know if you want to add more to that yeah I mean anytime you're doing um something that's for you know some kind of goods or services like that you just have to go with the lowest bidder that we have competitive Contracting that's really for more Professional Services not for construction um I mean I've never heard anybody talking about it I can't imagine the state going back on it that's All State agencies have to do that it's tough though it's a struggle it's a struggle I'm sure yeah but isn't the key word lowest responsible bidder because you shared with me that if you have information that a bidder is low but he's not reliable then they can reject it so they do have that option that is correct um it's responsive and responsible so responsive means that they have to have all the paperwork within that bid so there have been times in the past where we've rejected bids because they weren't responsive there were bids in this one that we would have done that for but they weren't the lowest bidder so we don't have to do that um but when it comes to responsible there's a high burden of proof there so if we have a prior experience with that vendor then absolutely but if it's you know somebody else three years ago in another area that would be very difficult for us to prove especially if we have at one point or another pulled their performance bid Bond then definitely we can go ahead and reject it but again that threshold or burden yeah is quite high but correct me though if if one of the biders thinks it was this you know there's no way that contractor could have done that for X Y and Z he can ask fright for an open bid to see if is that big a difference do you mean to review the bids to review the bids oh they do and they do I mean they over request me almost every time they check other right absolutely we we stay after they some of them come up put through they check for signatures we've had in the past where before we even had a chance to review the package one of the contractors immediately sent us a letter saying they don't have X Y and Z and he was correct good questions anything else okay I'll turn your attention to student achievement beginning on page six number one we're asking you to approve the advanced placement boot camp Camp which if you don't already know is an enrichment program at the high school for students who will be taking AP courses for the next school year and the boot camp is going to take place from July 1st through August 8th and they're actually two or three hour sessions and this is funded by Federal grant money number two which you also can find on page six we're asking you approve another boot camp the New Jersey graduation performance assessment boot camp and that also will take place in the summer from July 8th through through July 18th at the high school students needing to participate in the summer administration of the New Jersey graduation performance assessment will be invited to participate in this particular program number three which you can also find in page six we're asking you to approve the new and revised curriculum guides that Mr Callahan referenced earlier that would be the grades 10 through 12 AP pre-calculus guide the grades 11 through 12 stained glass guide as well as the grade nine world history guide any questions on those items seeing none I'll move along to governance let's begin on page nine number two we're asking to approve a revision to the 2023 2024 School District calendar that Mrs napalitano mentioned earlier it would make April 22nd 2024 an early dismissal date for students so that our staff can participate in professional development number three which you can also find in page nine we're asking to abolish Board of Education policy policy 5755 equity and educational programs and services this is because we've gone ahead and given you another policy that will supersede that policy and speaking of that number four again this was referenced earlier by Mrs N palatano we're asking to approve the revisions to multiple Board of Education policies and regulations for first reading during this meeting and then we'll ask you to go ahead and approve them for a second reading and adoption on March 19th and and finally number five which you can find on page 10 we're asking you to approve the rezoning of the following buildings within the Winding Woods Apartments that's 18- 19 43- 48 61-69 and 129 through 131 to reduce class class sizes at the Truman school and of course to create Equitable class sizes across all grade levels in the elementary schools this will begin with kindergarten in the 2024 2025 school year kindergarten in first grade in the 2025 2026 year kindergarten through second grade in 2026 2027 school year and it will conclude with the kindergarten through third grade in 2027 2028 any questions on those items in governance yeah before before the decision was made to you know U what you do so what was the word you used reone reone thank you sorry were were parents consulted like is now your kids going to go here versus here they um no not yet because we're starting with new students we're starting with kindergarten students and we will be giving great consideration to those parents that already have another child in the Truman school so if your child's going to kindergarten in next year but they have a older you know child that's in the tuman school they'll be allowed to remain their child will be allowed to go to the tuman school we don't want to separate families nor do we want to take child children out of a school so that's why we built in this process of starting with just kindergarten this year then kindergarten first grade the next year kindergarten second grade so these are all new students to the to the school in total it will mean a difference of after that fouryear period 50 students so it's about five students a year that um will go to another Elementary School actually 10 a year five to one school five to the next and again this will help out the Truman school if you've been to the Truman school it was built as one of those open concept schools in the 1970s if you've been on the board of education long enough here you know that about six years ago we paid to make permanent partitions in the Truman School however when we did so those classrooms became smaller by square footage they're probably the smallest classrooms in the district yet class sizes are the high are the highest along with the Wilson school that's why we're very considerate about this when you're when you have for instance there's about 26 kids in a class in our first grade classrooms that's a lot of kids in that small space so that's why we're trying to divert just a small amount of students to the other elementary schools where there's a little bit more space I saw a mass migration no it's not a lot of kids it's just enough kids just enough kids to to to level off the class sizes that need to be done good questions all right anything else okay so let's go to Personnel Mr Walsh we do have one of those Bitter Sweet Moments we have two dear staff members that we have to say goodbye to um all right that would be Michael Kowski who is a custodian at the cover school as well as Joan Sylvester who is a District bus a Mike colosi started his career with the seille Board of Education in July of 2025 2005 during his time as a custodian at the high school middle school and the Slover School Mike has shown dedication to his work and kindness to those around him his reliability will certainly be missed by all who have had the pleasure pleasure of working with him we hope Mike's retirement is full of Happy Times relaxation and enjoying trips to Lancaster and Kate May with his wife congratulations Mike and thank you so much for the outstanding service to our district Joan Sylvester Joan Sylvester is a bus Aid and she started with the district in 2001 so she's been an incredible bus aid for our district for 23 years and I guess the best way I can describe Joan to you is she sent me her retirement letter and it was one sentence basically it said Dr Labby thank you for giving me the opportunity to work in the Saville public schools for the past 23 years I'm officially announcing my retirement and that's her Joan came to work every day very rarely would Joan ever call out for 23 years she dedicated herself to the students that she served so well and most of that time we're actually you know students students with disabilities who really needed her care and she provided her undivided attention to them and love during every trip to school and back home in fact if you spoke to parents they all thanked and appreciated her so much for everything that she did for their children the kids loved her and our staff admired her for her dedication and professionalism so she is someone that we too are going to dearly Miss but just like Mr Kowski we wish her the absolute best in her retirement and we thank her for her outstanding service to our school district y all right moving along numbers 10 11 as well as 27 you can find on page 13 the addendum we're asking to hire new certificated non certificated staff for this school year number 12 as you can find on page uh 14 we're asking you to approve the transfer of non-certificated staff for this school year number 18 which you can find on page 15 and 16 we're asking you to approve staff for working in the rising stars Academy on an as needed basis and that's our Academy and BR Grossman helped me out that all of our students that are being tested yes so it's the third graders that'll take the njsla thank you and the fourth fth number 20 we're asking you to approve staff for the adult English as a second language program which I love and that is a uh Federal grant funded program program if you don't know about it this is for any of our parents that speak English as a second language we have two incredible teachers that work with them to help them learn basic English so that they can communicate with their children at home and help them as best as they can with their homework and so forth it's something that we did with great success prior to the pandemic and now we're finally bringing it back when I would go to the high school and I would see the class I'd have to just just jump in the class and just be there It's a Wonderful class the parents love it I think our parents are so thrilled that it's back so uh again kudos to miss grman and everybody that was a part of bringing this very very valuable and great program back to us Numbers 22 and 23 which you can find on page 17 we're asking you to appoint that believe it or not for the summer to work in the camp Excel extended school year program and the learning acceleration at Camp Excel programs it's it's three months away way guys if you can believe it or not my goodness number 33 which you can find the agendum we're asking you to approve staff to work in the Preschool Academy this is a new program a pilot program that Miss Burns and Miss magistro went ahead and created it is a tutoring program for our preschoolers so we're we're really looking closely on how well this program goes and we're really excited about helping our students a little bit more uh during this incredible program so more to come I'll Pro provide you updates on how that goes and number 35 which you can find the addendum we're asking you to approve the New Jersey high impact Grant tutoring coordinators I think Mr Callahan spoke about this earlier with our grant funding we can go ahead and provide stiens to what we're going to call coordinators of the programs so that they can continue to facilitate more and more kids to take part in that tutoring especially that tutoring that's offered at the high school that 24 hours 7 days a week tutoring that every single student in grade 6 through 12 can partip ipate in and not nearly enough right now are taking advantage of it so we need those coordinators to get out there and promote it and get more and more of these kids to participate in it so we're excited about that as well that concludes my report Mrs Bloom so now are we covered for tutoring just about every grade level well we've always had tutoring for just for every grade level but for their high impact tutoring it's for grades 3 through five in mathematics for select students but in grade 6 through 12 every and any child can participate in that tutoring all they have to do is get their initial login and access but that at any time if they're struggling with any type of homework they can go online and get an actual tutor to help them within minutes at any time during the day yes okay so when I see the parents on Facebook asking for tutors I can say yes just ask your building principal we provide them absolutely and it's pretty soon if you want to can go ahead and give them the names of the coordinators that are on this agenda because those are the point those are the people that are going to be the point of contact to get those parents to get their kids into the tutoring program and by the way with the additional money that we receive from state aid we are looking to continue some of these great programs that are no longer to be Grant funded okay anything else so Dr Lobby quick question we had that fantastic discussion about establishing the Sports Hall of Fame in the high school does the board need to approve that before we can take applications for it or no okay that would be a high school program but we can talk about it a little bit more so just like many other school districts of New Jersey there is a separate Hall of Fame for athletic programs and Performing Arts programs and basically it's a way of celebrating the accomplishments of students while they're actually here with Us in school we feel that this is a great way to recognize some of those students as well as teams and coaches for the great work that they've done while they've been in our school district but also this helps our high school hall of fame go ahead and look for nominations to select for the high school hall of fame which predominantly selects P People based upon what they do after they leave the school district so we feel that not only will be will this be a great program to recognize the accomplishments of our students in athletics in the Performing Arts as well as the fing Visual Arts while they're in school but it also will assist our high school hall of fame too two questions I think we're going to run out of wall space I think I think it's fantastic two questions yes so is the regular Hall of Fame nomination are they merging with that no it's separate they'll have their own selection in fact we're going to start we're going to start this year with the selection and you're going to recognize like you said we're going to start doing the high school kids now so we're still going to recognize people from the the past and everything oh absolutely the the rule is you have to be out of the high school at least five years that's why for to be nominated but there can be and I'll I'll I I use the term Lucy and I I pardon me for using it there can be Legacy nominations meaning people that maybe played in the 1970s or performing art in the 1980s whatever the case that and that's one of the reasons why at least with the athletic Hall of Fame right now people that are on the committee there are current coaches as well as previous coaches that are now retired since they have better knowledge of those people that performed you know 30 40 years ago we also have statistics that we can go by and state championships and so forth but you really do need those people that were around then when someone played or someone coached or or when teams performed yes so at first my my first instinct was that this is going to get confused with or or you know take away from the regular hall of fame um but Dr Labby in His Infinite Wisdom said well you know if we get these people who were good athletes and then moving forward they accomplish other great things these can be potential people for the regular Hall of Fame so uh it all made sense um the fact that we're going to have coaches and you know I even said you know maybe you don't even need a nomination just go through your statistics and Year bye pick five you know five kids one team one coach like that but you know they had a whole set of bylaws uh it initially said 10 years out and I said you know like that that's kind of a long time to be out you know let's let's try and recognize them while they're still you know enjoying their win their titles so um Jen was really good about that she dropped it down but I have a question if it's for um artists and people who do uh you know singing the music right now it's just called sportsall right now it's just the Sports Hall of Fame there would be that's we're going to that I separate perform going at time Visual Arts so we already have a all no starting we're starting that one first they're starting that one and then we're going to mirror that we're going to mirror the combin it all we're going to mirror that process with performing our yeah that would be too much yeah when we do ours we initially um we that's not fair nominate half a dozen people each year and then we have a banquet but that's not fair the sports sports are already highlighted and the people who do performing arts and all that are not they just started getting B they let us two years ago at my suggestion this was really brought to us it was and if next year we the high school decides to do their Performing Arts Visual Arts uh Hall of Fame it's not going to nullify any of the achievements from the kids from 30 years ago in sville that had outstanding theatrical careers so we're going back 30 years we're going to go back as far as back as far as anys to go we're just starting with one first and that was the Athletics first because they're prepared but right now Mr Howard and Mr glasky are working on developing the performing arts hall of fame too the Visual and Performing Arts Hall of Fame so it's all coming don't worry we won't forget the a won't forget that's why like Lucy said we're going to run out of wall space because we got so many great kids we're we're in the process of redoing well if you going back 30 years yeah you're going to run STI with modern times feet and now I understand the difference well you know what we're probably going to have them throughout the whole school there'll be no place to hang anything else perfect well first we have to P so for the real but that's fun okay anything else okay I have one little item that I want to bring up I noticed that we are approving uh the eighth grade semiformal and I went last year and it was a wonderful event I just want to bring up two little things at the end they brought in this wonderful uh Transformer guy guy I mean he was he almost reached the ceiling and he performed and he interacted with the kids and he was fabulous except at the very end sparklers came out of his hands and he was standing by the sprinklers in the ceiling and I looked at glue and he looked at me and he said it's okay he's not that close to them so I was a little concerned about that uh because Zoe said they did want to maybe get him again for this year so I mean he can come in and do all his stuff but I'm I'm concerned about the sparklers coming out of his hands and then I'll speak with Mr nberg about that my other my other thing was um the DJ you know I love Jared he brought those noodles as much as they think they're eighth graders and they're all grown up as soon as we gave them those styrofoam noodles we spent the rest of the night trying to keep them from hitting each other with the noodles so maybe we could eliminate the noodles and the noodles are cool give them the little are they the light up noodles no no no that those are I'm talking about the big but yeah the girls didn't want the boys hitting them in their hair dos you know that kind of yeah but we shouldn't ruin their phone let them then you can come Sher okay I mean these are all things I can disc I'm not allowed to go to because my DA's going to be I think we're too picky okay no you think I'm too picky just say go ahead I'm fine with it okay that's it for me let them have fun yeah let them have fun anything else okay and that to the girls who didn't want to get hit in the head by the boys I think we need motions right we do okay where are we now a motion to need a motion to approve the superintendent report so mov second oh I heard callaham W and then was Mr Walsh who was two I think it I think it was Allison so it was okay told anything or Mr Callahan yes Mr Esposito yes Mr Fernandez yes Mrs napalitano yes Mrs Pavone um I'm going to abstain from page 14 on Personnel item 13 but all the rest yes okay Miss pylo yes Mr Smith why she yes Mr W yes and Mrs Bloom yes just the one name that's she I wondered if that was okay at this time we will open to public for uh any items at all anybody from public anything state your name first please miss I'm sorry I didn't hear your name okay thank youcy yeah we have it already Okay so your your particular question is what is is the status of it it's it's a board of education policy right it's active in sville it's not yes it's it's an active Board of Education policy are they going so there's not going to be any voting on it or anything like that it's it's been approved it's just been in for since 2021 or correct and how does that work as far asth November 16th yeah you can check some light on what the policy is what are we talking about this is the trans transend gender students okay it's actually required policy mandated by state law but I understand that Dr Lappy that a lot of districts in the area from what I understand they're resending that policy but seille is not looking to do that it's just in force and there's not going to be that's actually news to me someone that attends my monthly County Roundtable meetings with with my superintendent colleagues from middle sex County M that's not happening well even in Mammoth well there's only one school district in Mammoth and you're probably referring to the Middletown school district and they're actually being litigated right now against uh by the governor the governor is suing them so how does that work as far as Sports and the bathrooms in the school it's it's all outlined in the policy okay have you had any reason to complain about it like did anything happen no I was wondering about it what okay about it has how it works especially as far as the bathroom if you if you read the policy basically it gives students the ability to use a facility that um they identify with that they identify with okay and I have to say that we have not had a problem in SVO with it okay okay thank you you're very welcome anyone else from public no okay at this time we will close public and any comments uh or in from the board on um I don't know or who to say I know it you might think uh because my nephew but I know they streamed Connor Walsh's state champion uh State wrestling match and cafeteria in the cafeteria which I thought was awesome and I think the more things that we can do for our student athletes or anyone that is in a on the big stage if we can get that I think that was a tremendous idea well that's been a big push of Mr gusy since he became principal at the high school is to promote more school spirit and pride in the school and this is one of the ways the strategies that he's using to go ahead and do that Kudos Mr GL no along with that if you if you saw if you read Talk Soup which I know no one does I read it every the Harlem Wizards the Harlem Wizards who will be performing against the staff also came in during lunch periods to speak with our students and this is also another brilliant reason why he did this if you've been in our lunch periods they're 45 minutes and the first 20 to 25 minutes the kids are eating But after those that that 25 minutes there's a 20 minutes where it's you know it can get at times a little dicey um the kids you know they're done eating and there's not a lot for them to do so this is his way also of not only promoting school spirit and pride but F filling that void with entertaining things for the kids to be able to do so on both parts I think it was a great idea and I appreciate the fact that you're bringing that up and I know Connor did quite well in the tournament I believe he was 16 top 16 top 16th and that's quite the accomplishment think about that can I also just mention that's the best in the Walsh family uh he's the most G I don't I don't believe it's even close right he's the future Hall of Famer from the from their family there you go but when you think about the fact that there's probably about 400 high schools in New Jersey being in the top 16 out of 400 is quite the accomplishment so congratulations to Conor conratulations anybody else yeah I do have a comment um I would like the board whoever is on the committee that makes the calendar up okay please try to consider making juneth the real holiday because it is it is it does affect the parents if they're off of that holiday the kids are off on a different day and it's just a matter of respect to their uh Heritage that we recognize that day when it should be day and if you don't know what it means what it represents you might be more inclined to say yeah we should do that if you know what it means so if you don't read up on it learn more about it but the fact is is we do recognize all these other religious holidays um on the days that they're actually happening so we should do the same thing with Jun and I know you know this might be more direct towards the governor since that's right we do it on the third Friday just because the the state does not dictate all the other holidays so when Russia when all these holidays uh are happening on those dates we're recognizing without the governor telling us to do so so let's do the same thing for the African-American community and recognize the day when it should be recognized and those the the holidays that you just referenc is are religious holidays so he really can't do that but the purpose of him doing that is so that school districts will all be off at the same time that was his purpose in making it say that government agencies people who work and school districts could all be off at the same time it's it was to try to create uniformity unfortunately there are some school districts that don't do that we were ones that that did do that because we understood why he was asking us to do that so that our we wouldn't have staff members who you know weren't were were were not at work and their kids had to go to school or vice versa their kids were at home while they had to go to school that's the purpose why we went ahead and followed the state's lead in terms of celebrating it on that third Friday however um your message has been heard and we'll go ahead and and make considerations and that message I say on behalf of those that Community the African-American Community who really feel strongly about this and maybe none of them are on this board at this time but they do have kids in the school and they would just appreciate that consideration so thank you okay anything else for the good of the order no okay at this time I'll take a motion to adjourn okay second youon and Patrick We're