on it and it's like ACC welcome to a meeting of the Board of Education of hills please be advised that this and all meetings of the board are open to the public and media consistent with the open public meetings act and that advanced notice required therein has been provided this is a meeting of the Board of Education of Somerset Hills at which formal action may be taken the public will have an opportunity to be heard as shown on the agenda roll call please Mr Baker here miss balard here miss Cooper here Mrs D gray here here miss gills Mr Joyce Miss Nathans here Mrs Soro here Mrs Ry here and Mrs friend here thank you executive session the open public meetings act authorizes a public body to exclude the public from that portion of a meeting at which specified topics are to be discussed under circumstances where the public consideration of such topics will clearly endanger the public or where the personal privacy or guaranteed rights of individuals whose activities or affairs matter are to be discussed would be clearly in danger of unwarranted invasions and the matters about to be presented for discussion clearly meet the circumstances test of such act the Board of Education of Somerset Hills now adjourns its public session to reconvene an executive session for the purpose of discussing the following Personnel student matters contracts negotiations and litigation can I have a motion to go into executive please M Ryan second Mr gr thank you [Music] okay good evening everybody we have just returned from executive session if I can ask you to rise and join us in the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the repu for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all and as Dr brochel makes his way back over he is going to kick us off with the report of the superintendent we good evening and uh welcome everybody uh to our June regular public meeting tonight as is our uh practice we do have a host of folks to say thank you and congratulations to uh our first group of um one educator who couldn't be here tonight Mr King and uh some folks from our Middle School um our middle school students who were participating um in an earth science competition in New Jersey uh we have some recognitions for them and um Mr King Mr Brian King was a teacher and he couldn't be here but we do have a host of Middle School folks who could be here which is great um we also have uh for a few a few hours uh the current assistant principal from the middle school is here and uh Mrs Garo uh is here as well uh so we have a host of students and I'm going to give them a resolution um and we have uh Gemma um who everybody in the district uh seems to hold and know and it's so great uh so I'm going to read a resolution that the students are going to receive uh a resolution honoring a particular student for their contribution to the extraordinary team accomplishment of placing third overall in earth science during the 2024 New Jersey science League whereas the Somerset Hills Board of Education gives special honor and Commendation to dedicated students who perer form and compete at the highest academic level with effort responsibility and a positive attitude whereas our students participated during Bernardsville Middle School earth science team meetings and state competitions from November 2023 through April of 2024 and displayed passion grit and determination when applying scientific principles and investigative procedures during problem solving whereas our students are part of the Burnsville Middle School and they serve as an inspiration to their peers and to staff members alike now therefore be it resolved by the Somerset Hills Board of Education that members of the board hereby commend these students for their extraordinary accomplishments along with their teammates and placing third overall in earth science during the 2024 New Jersey science League when the Somerset Hills Board of Education adjourns on this day it does so in honor of the achievements earned by these students the board of education secretary is directed to have this resolution reflected in the permanent minutes of the Somerset Hills Board of Education on this 26th day of June 2024 and I think it should go um mentioned that the middle school kids who plays third overall uh were the only Middle School in the competition so let that sink in for a little bit awesome so Mr Brian King is uh the teacher uh he couldn't be here tonight he does send his best to the board and uh I am going to call up uh the students um for their recognition uh the first is Alexis black and Elizabeth black Penny Christie [Applause] Nyla failey Shimona fararo David huner see sah Canal Noah puler Isabella [Applause] shance I can tell you just graduated the shake and take right shake and take this is friend of gu got used to that last week Ellis scow could not be with us tonight Nicholas safani C strubel Elizabeth Sugarman GI wanu Liam [Applause] watt Avery Welsh another round of applause for our science [Applause] experts one of the nice things about just being an educator is being able to see awesome stuff in plain English being able to watch kids apply uh their own learning to and and to really um not only meet the expectations that a teacher and a group of teachers in a school has for them but to far exceed it and um we have a group here tonight of passionate uh parents um and staff members uh who really just completely knocked it out of the Park um to borrow baseball analogy um through a just a terrific um uh Museum of Natural History exhibit at Bedwell and um there's a fella here in the back uh and I approached him and I said you know Allan what you're doing is amazing I I I'd love to bring you in and he said I'm not coming unless you bring all my friends with me and um I said no problem bring them all in and some of them are here some of them couldn't make it but there's a long list of folks who really did a beautiful job uh engaging around a project um and um in the education world there's there's a high level of value around uh what we call Project based learning and uh kids are able to um plan uh they're able to execute they're able to analyze are able to do all of the great things in one project that um that we Endeavor and I saw kids uh so passionate around what they were doing um you know in my world like a loud classroom is a happy classroom and and an active classroom is a happy one and um I don't know how he does it so calmly uh but Mr thorlo uh put the kids from Bedwell not just in the position to be successful but in the position to Excel and it was through that that you certainly I was uh just thrilled to see it but as time went on this was several months at least I think right as time went on I would you know pop in the classroom walk by the classroom you can just kind of feel that energy and that buzz and that passion around education you feel it and um it was something that I'll never forget um so it was a just a just a real treat to be able to um bring Mr thorow in and um we're going to recognize not only Mr thorow U but all the folks that are in this room tonight for the the great work uh that you all did for this project uh whether you were on the construction side or on the lighting side and the demonstration side for the actual Museum itself it was just um spectacular and um I can't wait to see what future years uh hold I did have a brief chat with Mr thurlo and I know he's got some ideas and I don't want to ruin the surprise but uh brace yourselves so so here's what the resolution reads uh for Mr thurow and for his entire group of supporters uh some of whom are here and some of whom could not be here uh resolution honoring these folks for inspiring exploration and creativity and exceptional leadership during the creation of the Bedwell Museum of Natural History whereas the Somerset Hills Board of Education gives special honor and Commendation to Educators who exemplify excellence and support in teaching and Foster student passion and academic success at the highest level uh whereas these folks have displayed Innovative teaching practices and unwavering commitment to enriching the educational experiences of students beyond the classroom now therefore be it resolved by the Somerset Hills Board of Education that the members of the board hereby commend these folks for their efforts that have not only benefited the students academically but have also strengthened the bonds between the schools and the families it serves fostering a supportive and inclusive educational environment when the board adjourns on this day it does so in their honor and the board secretary is directed to have this resolution reflect Ed in the permanent minutes of the board on this day the 26th of June 2024 so I am going to call up some some folks and I am going to start off uh with Mr thurow come on Melissa Leonard could not be with us tonight Mark Nunan Darcy [Applause] brutin Steven mirando could not be with us tonight uh Amy pno could not be With Us Jeremy paary could also not be with us Michelle dly she here okay Mary CLA windich could not be here Renee wisor [Applause] Alisa Donahue [Applause] cat Martin Mike [Applause] Donahue Aaron Duff [Applause] Allison laera Kelly [Applause] Hunt Terin vollo Amy shaver could not be with us tonight Katie [Applause] Ryan and John Wells is the father of Katie [Applause] Ryan Michelle Jones could not be with us tonight Kathy fuia could not be with us and somebody's got to watch the kids so Mrs thorlo could not be with us so um for the the viewing public and for the board we do have um a bit of a presentation from Mr thorlo for those that were unable to um to be there so I'm going to I think Ricky there's been some uh coordination nice [Music] this a out there [Music] BL GL is a f place to live people [Music] to the gravity stronger P keeps us all grounded all together and Sh your [Music] sh exposed in the light sh [Music] was a bu little bu hardly there how he felt what he dreamed who would [Music] care without any evidence his he was full of confidence people didn't have much Common Sense over he just knew that he come through with [Music] [Music] [Music] the day we arrive on the planet and thinking step into the sun there's more to see than can ever be seen more to do can ever be done [Music] yo VIP let's kick it [Music] baby Ice Ice Baby all right stop collaborate and listen ice is back with my BR new inven something grab are hold of me tightly flow like a daily and nightly [Music] okay [Music] I'd like to be under the sea in an Octopus's Garden in the shade he let us in knows where we've been in his OCT P's Garden in the shade i' ask my [Music] to I like to be under the sea in an octopus's God in the sh we would be warm below the stor in our little Hideway beneath the waves resting our head so we're going to need to uh work through so you get a great idea uh regarding the great work [Applause] thank you Ricky and congratulations to the honores tonight to Mr thorlo the whole gang and what a terrific terrific [Applause] project and what we'll do in our next communication out we'll send this link if you could get it to Mia that'd be great thank you [Music] okay all good sir so we have uh some updates for the board um to consider for tonight uh first um wanted to point out that on the agenda um is a motion to approve uh Keith koffer as acting principal at uh Bedwell Elementary School um you'll you'll notice that Keith is the current Middle School assistant principal uh and um formerly is a school psychologist for over 10 years and um certainly he's per he's performed beautifully for us at the middle school and I'm pleased um that um that I've recommended him to be the acting principal over at uh [Applause] Bedwell we also have an administrative appointment tonight for Bedwell uh for our assistant principal position there that was vacated by uh Mr kery who we're going to miss very much um her name is Jasmine akola um she is a um has a long history in education over 20 years uh she's taught prek she's taught third grade uh she's taught fifth grade bilingual uh and she's taught K to2 ESL uh she's currently a supervisor of World Language angues uh English as a second language and bilingual education for ra raway Public Schools uh she has a master's degree from uh the College of New Jersey specializing in teaching ESL uh and an undergrad degree from ruter and administrative certificates from the New Jersey Excel program run by the Department of Education and I'm pleased to be able to um recommend Jasmine to the board for appointment [Applause] so we have uh some news taking place in the district uh we just uh recognized Mr thorlo's group uh for their work with the Bedwell Museum and um that has been published and uh certainly recognized by the board and and uh the unexpected great video so um that's been great work uh the middle school team um earth science they were here tonight they're recognized as well and that's been uh terrific outcome um our custodial team gathered for an annual dinner hosted by a joint um home and school associations throughout the district so Middle School Elementary and high school all have hsas and they all got together and they had a great meal and boy were they happy they were wellfed uh and they really um were deeply appreciative of the hsas uh so these are just a few photos of not only the food but a lot of smiles and uh they still talk about it and uh so we have a great crew here you guys know how I feel about them and um they're in the process of taking all of the buildings apart and putting them all back together prior to uh Labor day pretty much and uh they do great work yep uh these are the days of Bedwell we had a busy spring the International Food Festival we had field day and we had a few uh young leaders that got to be principal and assistant principal for the day and uh so get ready for that uh yeah yeah um so that was good fun uh the high school Green Team uh does some great work through Mr Young uh they set a goal of recycling 1,000 lbs of plastics as part of their recycling challenge they will be collecting through Halloween uh so they've already collected 300 lb um as of the writing of this press release and so if those of you at home want to uh bring some uh Plastics off to us uh we will certainly take them so we can uh hopefully exceed what our goal is at the middle school um uh Miss chaffy is collecting a districtwide collection for solar eclipse glasses uh she has set up collection boxes throughout the district and she's donating glasses or sending them down to the children in South America uh so they can safely view the eclipse in October um in South America that that was a really cool project and you can't really tell from the photo but those sunglasses on the wall are threedimensional and you can just drop your glasses in there so very cool um High School won a safe sports award from the national athletic trainers uh Association for his Athletic program and that was great to see and our um middle school students uh earned some awards at the New Jersey Association of student councils um they had a rough day down in Jackson at Six Flags yeah it was a tough day for them down there um but uh I I think GF you brought them down and you suffered as well down there yeah tough day at the office yep so student council collected $1,754 for the hugs for Brady foundation and they were um recognized for their support in uh finding a cure for Pediatric cancer and our everyday hero um is Wilmer from the high school uh that's our everyday hero for June and he's uh just a terrific kid and we had a press release out uh celebrating RoR the middle school held a research composium um and um that is in Miss McGovern and Miss tian's uh classes and um that's another great uh example of students applying their learning um and so that was a great day uh over at the Middle School uh the high school welcomes the incoming freshman class on Jun 3rd and that event was hosted uh and led by our peer leaders and it was a productive day certainly in order to prepare kids um to assume their studies at the high school to understand the lay of the land get a sense of um you know what uh what a day at the high school entails what a week entails what a month entails what a school year entails so I know we have some Rising nth graders here and uh won't be long until we see you in these hallways we had a successful spring Sports season whether it was on our tennis courts lacrosse Fields baseball softball track uh had a lot of success uh in our spring Sports and uh you know that's always fun to see kids uh meeting and exceeding their goals uh this year our Pathways to success newsletters were able to produce over 80 pages of District highlights and content and uh we have those issues uh on our website so so uh feel free to peruse and uh it's great fun and I think that um uh me and my assistant who is taking on uh an enhanced role that includes Communications has done some beautiful work here and started to kind of chart um our future mission in the area of communication so feel free to check that out um next item that I'd like to update the board on is uh a stadium lighting focus group update uh the board has a goal for us to investigate the feasibility of upgrading the lighting on OT field and I'd like to share uh kind of where we are with that um I am in the process of having a final report edited um for um distribution to the board for their for their uh consideration and review uh I would expect that in the next week or so um so we are working on that we've reached the end of the road uh for the focus group work and um you know I'll kind of share uh share out um what we talked about in our last community meeting uh Etc uh so we did Issue a community survey we did have that survey live for about 30 or 35 days uh it was accessible on the district website uh through a splash screen on our homepage uh we also partnered uh with the municipality of Bernardsville to share that out um in some other channels that they have as well uh the intent of the survey uh was to uh gather information on um thoughts perceptions feelings regarding the installation of LED lights uh the intent of the survey Not only was to survey folks that live um in and around the OT region but also those folks that have School Aids children in our schools uh and also those folks that don't have school AIDS children in our scho schools but live in the region um and in addition we also um the survey was opened up to students and to staff members uh so 742 uh participants overall you can see the breakdown there um there a there is a uh just a point out for the board uh for your info and just to reinforce uh the the survey participation itself um far uh favored um from a participation standpoint uh people that don't live in the OT region uh so the results that I'm going to report out need to be understood under that context it's not like a majority wins type of scenario just because uh it wasn't a balanced um participation across uh the different sectors so I I want the board to understand that and to reinforce that it's absolutely not a like a majority wins scenario but we wanted to be able to at least um a collect some information and B um convey that there was some imbalance on the survey participants themselves um so the overall results reflect a high number of community members that have school age children um High number of survey respondents were District students and District staff um again the participation results favor the non OT region and that must be given strong consideration when uh thinking about these uh some of these results um tonight I will give you some broad Strokes on what the results reported out uh the final report will have a deeper dive into uh what the results were um and and broken down by um by participant um by participant group um the results were predi were predictable uh given their stakeholder status and there were no Bots or ballot stuffing you were limited on um how you could how you could participate in this um in this process so when we looked at the results regarding all respondents um meaning every single person involved in the survey uh there were uh there was agreement amongst all that part participated and there were seven areas of agreement um that um ended up with a score between 4.6 and 4.0 so the first area of agreement was that installing um permanent poles and upgraded LED lights will provide a safely lit playing surface there was agreement amongst all respondents there uh that that illumination will be more precise there was agreement there um there was also agreement that it will um enhance a student experience at the high school um and it will there's also agreement and the Board needs to understand this that the lights will result according to the survey participants in more evening field usage right so that's should not be assumed that that is going to be a correct or a true statement but that is what the people are perceiving the installation of Lights to increasing um field usage whether you are a resident of ulot or not whether you are pro lights or not the folks are taking that as more lights means more um access means more um playing time means more later nights so just understand that regardless of participant group that's the connection people are making so that is something that I need to reinforce vigorously with the board as an outcome um there's agreement that investigating um lights has focused on balancing opportunities for students while being respectful of folks that live in the OT Avenue region um there's agreement that the installation are worth of these lights are worth the cost um and will result in more weekend field usage so you're starting to see some trends that lights equals increased usage so um that's an important uh area for uh the board to consider that people are making that connection in their survey results so community members in general um there's agreement of safely lit planing surfaces precise lighting um enhancing the student experience at the high school um there's agreement on the investigation uh on and how it's balanced opportunities for folks that live in the area uh there's also um agreement that again the lights will result in more evening field usage and uh that the lights are worth the cost when looking at the ulot region there's less agreement um so you you start to kind of see um how people are feeling in in that uh particular region um their highest level of agreement was that the lights will result in more evening field usage uh the the lights will result in more weekend field usage okay so these are real feelings real thoughts that the public is communicating weekends nights um and you know arguably a change in living uh conditions for that neighborhood okay important for the board to understand that that's what is being uh reported back um there is agreement that the lights will provide a safe lit playing surface and that they will provide more precise illumination students and staff uh agree that there is um more precise illumination safely lit surface um that it will enhance a student experience uh there's also agreement with those uh with those survey respondents that it will result in more weekend field usage there's agreement that it's worth the cost um there's agreement that it's more weekend field usage so you're seeing every subgroup as we're breaking it down is connecting the installation of Lights to the to higher frequency usage again important information for the board to to really kind of absorb um and the balancing of opportunities for kids uh there are some commonalities amongst all the stakeholder groups uh the commonalities are that the lights will provide better illumination and more safely lit playing surface that that comprises a greater part of the field um and also there's agreement amongst all of the groups that they will result in more evening and weekend field usage okay so again the connection um all stakeholder groups except the OT region residents uh have three major agreements uh first and the highest is the enhancement of the student experience at the high school um second is the balance that we've tried to strike um between being respectful of those folks that live in the OT region and the students and the third is um that it's a worthwhile expenditure um and folks not living um this is all stakeholder groups except community members not living in Ott is that there's going to be more weekend field usage uh key takeaways from our stakeholders is that there's Precision in lighting and enhanced lighting quality uh that's not being debated amongst any of the stakeholder groups um they're all in agreement agement that the quality is enhanced um second key excuse me takeaway is that facility usage needs to be codified in policy if the board elects to move forward with respect to evening usage weekend usage and outside groups uh that was a consistent area of um information sharing amongst the folks so it's important that we take that away uh there's not full agreement with any one stakeholder group regarding the installation of lights and there's not full opposition with any one stakeholder group um regarding the lights as an example uh there are folks that live in the okot region that's that reported being in support of the lights there are folks that don't live in the ulot region that reported not being in favor of the lights so it's you know it it's not Universal um and uh last takeaway are is um neighborhood Aesthetics in my final report um I do have recommendations to the board uh in summary uh there's no achievable consensus regarding the feasibility of installing lights on OT field none um there is a public appetite for the installation of permanent lights however understand that that appetite the scales are tipped because of the way that the survey was responded to um it was just impossible to have an even spread across um all sectors um so my recommendation is that the board authorizes its committees to examine these matters deeper uh with the superintendent with the business administrator and any applicable Professional Services okay so those would be your engineers uh those would be your um legal um as an example uh second recommendation take measures to ensure that all Field Sports have equal access to Ott field to pursue extracurricular activities third recommendation is to articulate direction to the administration as soon as feasible so we can adequately prepare uh for the uh fiscal year 26 so you prepare for a fall of 25 you know is uh is what we're asking that you make a decision as soon as feasible so um we're able to craft a budget that reflects the direction that you want to go regarding your property and fourth recommendation is solicit the advice um of the your Professional Services regarding construction legal analyses and any Municipal processes that uh you would have to um engage in so um I do have uh again as a summary a final report that we will make public uh to you and to the public itself um it'll be on our website there is an OT Field section of our website under the superintendent tab where all of our meeting slide deck are and where the final report will be um so as I said we're in the editing stage for that process okay um next on our presentation believe it or not is the New Jersey graduation proficiency assessment it's called NJ GPA we had an administration of that test in the spring uh although we just uh graduated a week ago or so uh we present out we're required by the New Jersey Department of Education to have uh an August um early August uh presentation to the public uh we're going to do ours now given uh what our Board calendar looks like um and um I'm going to call up Dr ederton um to [Applause] present good even I'm [Laughter] back this was our NJ GPA test Administration that took place in March and we just got the results a few days ago and um because of the narrow window we will be presenting results today um the assessment was administered to all our 11 graders students uh plus maybe a couple of 12 graders who missed it last year it designs to measure the extent to which student are graduation ready in the state of New Jersey it's New Jersey requirement gradation Readiness is reported separately for each component Ela and Mathematics and Ela is based on grade 10 Ela standards and Mathematics is based on Algebra 1 and geometry last May New Jersey State Board of Education adopted proficiency cut score with the whole range of possible scores from 650 to 850 the cut score was um decided to be 725 as well as a menu of alternative assessments and their cut scores the alternative assessments are available to students who took ngpa however did not pass it um and students have the following um opportunity they can retake Ela and math either in the following in fall or in the next spring the Elsa can meet designated cut score uh taking act PSAT SATs and Elsa acup Placer and in fact many students who actually did not um uh make a proficiency this this March already met their proficiency through alternative assessment and if that doesn't work complete a portfolio appeal process that usually runs from January to May 2025 that will will be next year and here's our overview of the results um we have two components Ela and Mathematics and we look at two different numbers one is a passing rate and the other one is average scale score and we'll compare this with the state so as opposed to ngj SL results when you have students earning level one two 3 four and five in this particular assessment we just have two levels either students are graduation ready or not yet so former levels 3 4 and five Jem together into graduation ready and levels one and two are not yet so in our case um for ELA 82 and a half 82.5% of our student uh passed this test and de graduation ready as opposed to state was 81. 6% and in mathematics it's 76% of our students passed this test and for the state it was 54.7 another important number that I would like you to see a average scale score because this is also very very Talent you can see that um our average scale score in ela is 779 which is quite higher than 767 for the state if um if gradient was a little bit different and you would have uh scores 1 2 3 4 5 assigned to students that would mean that we would have a higher proportion of students scoring high four and five than the state however because of the way it's done um you cannot really see distinguish this in in the particular assessment and in mathematics we have 735 for the state cuts uh for the State score and our score is 758 again which is quite high so now we can look back one year we only can look back one year because two years ago this test was already Al although ran it did have quite different structure and different results so we only can compare more or less last two years please keep in mind that this is totally different cohort of students so they're not the same students we're not talking about improving or having worse performance it's it's a different 200 students who took this test is maybe their own weaknesses and their own strength again you can see that our state average I'm sorry average scale score is 779 which is quite high again for this cohort last year it was 772 and in mathematics it was 758 which is three points increase from the last year again different cohort and as for percent perent AG um it's it went down by a percent to two but it's pretty much the same it's 82% for uh for ELA and 76% for mathematics we have about 200 students in this cohort so each percent it's two students so just to keep it in perspective now if we're looking at the subgroups which is also very um very informative we cannot compare with the date from this year it hasn't been released yet however we have a data from last year it's very similar so it's it's a reasonable comparison for the district you can see it's 82 and 80% correspondingly for ELA now our ethnicity we only can report on two groups because all the other groups are less fewer than 10 students for Hispanic and Latina group we have about 47.2% rate and for white students it's 89.0% the other groups did pretty well to but we cannot we cannot report on this now all the other subgroups students with disabilities economical disadvantage and English language Learners so those subgroups are not um are overlapping partially we cannot really say right now how many students belong to one or two subgroups or all three subgroups so this reporting is again those are overlapping subgroups students with disabilities we have about 43% passing rate economically disadvantage about 33% and you can see that this is probably the biggest area of concern if we're going to look at something this is the um area to concentrate and English language Learners it's pretty close to the state it's about 177% considering we have different different type of English language learners then um this is not bad to be similar to a state at this point so in mathematics we have 76% total total passing score total passing percentage and 55 for the state for Hispanic and Latinos it's 47% it's actually a little bit higher than the state at 36 and for the white students it's 81.5% as opposed to 68 for the state students with disability close to 30% economically disadvantaged at 38.1 and English language Learners at 25% again compared to the state from the last year we cannot report to any other subgroups as again we had fewer than 10 students in those and this is all number wise we have very very limited information what we have we will get some reports that will let us distinguish um in different domains what was going on however from the surface look as I did so far there's no particular domain that that's very different from another so we will be doing this work um with teachers in department meetings so this is for next year so next next level of work we'll identify potential Focus area in preparation for spring Administration we will continue our sheltered instruction protocol we will continue existing and look for develop an additional support for identified students and group of students and I should go back and say individual students we will be looking at every single student who did not pass and what can we do and what results um uh what can we say looking at the results um we'll look at um school-based instructional leadership Pro protols and we will look um how we can inform our practices based on this data again there's two fold to this work one is students who were in this cohort and did not pass so it's it's it's one um um it's one group of students we'll look at them how they can pass um State assessment different state assessment to show proficiency and U be able to graduate on time and like I said majority of students already showed their uh proficiency through different tests those who did not yet they will be um in academic support SE classes and they will get all resources they needed to pass so we actually have much fewer kids that you see um on the screen who still didn't pass this and then the different story is a new cohort that will be taking this exam next year so this is whole different preparation we will be looking at different patterns and see where we can do way we can do better and additionally just general information um the letters we received we received the information for parents the letters are ready to go they will be mailed on Monday parents also will be able to access online online information through this New Jersey assessment Resource Center and see their student progression through the year and all the other graduation assessment requirements are listed on New Jersey Department education site and all the questions can be directed to us if you have additional questions and for parents of students with iip they can talk to their counselors as well in September okay okay um how many what um 200 people par toest and you said that some seniors from last year took it did you say may maybe couple what percentage of the junior class took it how many people are missing um I believe all of them maybe except of a couple of students who were out this particular days or on home instruction so we did not leave any students who were in school and didn't T so it's yes it's it's over 95% for sure it's vast majority yes it's probably 7 to 98% yeah okay um and what I noticed that thees the rates of passing were much higher for um or the differential between our aage our percentage and state is much higher for math than fora what why do you think I because the ceiling was higher it's it's really a function mathematically speaking it's function of How High how far the cut off point let me go back to the slide um over here the cut off point from the average scale score the cut off point in both tests is 725 so if you notice in mathematics the state average is 735 so their cut off score is close to the high of this bell curve so half B bell curve is is on one side half on the other so our majority of students in this bigger area of a bell curve that's what creates a larger differential so the closest 735 to cut off score the bigger differential we'll get and um if you look at Ela the differential is small because we're so far from the cut off score so if you think about two bell curves one is shifted in comparison with another one because the cut off is so small so smaller than our average the only the only 20% that we have are on one side from the from the cutof score so there's really just this stale of distribution and this 20% is kind of very stable for different for different um for different districts because those this 20% could be our Ela students who quite far uh students who quite far from passing there could be some special education who are far from passing we're not talking about students on the CP we talking like this um 20% who probably struggle the most so that's why so it's it's it's really not um that the LA did worse it's just the way it works mathematically yeah and and just out of for a sense of comparison what would what acceptable act and SAT scores I would not remember off the top of my head at all but um our guidance has all the cut scores most of our students do get um passing through acts and acup place some through PSATs we administer P PSAT is here we also administer acup place are here Jamie Walker made um our high school a site for plac so they doing it every every couple of months as needed so that so we could just go on by that mhm yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah another thing that that I'm excited about is um as you know poverty can definitely have an effect on um standardized test scores and when students are taking a a test as important as these tests when they're hungry they often times don't do that well so next year we will be having breakfast for all students so I'm really encouraged that that will have effect as we can see the economical disadvantage probably one of the bigger area discrepan thank you thank you so much thank [Applause] you thank you Dr ederson um brief update I owe you a junee update for our strategic plan we're moving into last year the Strategic plan which means that we'll engage um a group to um dive into this work which is something that I've shared with the board um you know in the past um so we did a check-in a year ago with Dr frari in December and now um in June uh much of our facility work um has been completed uh track has been started um at this point they have um milled the subsurface they've removed the the the red track itself um and uh we we begin um in advance of uh the full season so unfortunately for the public the track is obviously shut down for the summer um but uh we'll be back better than ever and softer than ever from what I understand so um on the agenda tonight is a um motion for approval for uh an architecture an architect of record um we will be working with Solutions architecture and we will uh be with them tomorrow um regarding the examination of our school Tech spaces and um I spoke at Great length prior regarding um the status of examining U the lights at OT uh from a social emotional learning uh perspective it falls under our health Wellness andal goal uh we're we're in the process of kind of defining our K to2 Vision there uh we've done if you recall two nights ago some great work together in the development of board goals uh excuse me District goals that I believe speak to uh the ability to um do some um in-depth surveying um to to really get a sense of the student experience the staff experience uh from a wellness perspective um so a lot of different uh lot of different needs there uh certainly your support from a goal setting perspective which you know really is uh an important role of the board uh was an important piece there uh so that's been uh that's been great um we're beginning our what will eventually be districtwide work with catching kids Arts we're implementing that at the middle school in September and um we're looking forward um to that as well we're um endeavoring to do uh deeper work at leveraging our co-curricular as a way to support student wellness uh so this year we brought on um new clubs that the uh that the board has negotiated with um the Education Association which has been great uh we funded them they're up and running um we also are um working into um functional groups functional oversight groups uh particularly in the in the wellness of um particularly in the area of student wellness um so that is something that we're continuing to move forward um and we try to come up with um some some cross um some cross group opportunities uh in the spring if you recall we had a few opportunities with our student clubs from the high school where they were able to work predominantly with our Bedwell students uh particularly in the area of uh our environmental groups with our Green Team and and our Garden Club um so that's been great uh we brought on a Unified sports program and certainly we'd like to expand that um out more uh so um certainly more work to come there um there is some work to be done regarding mental health spaces at each School uh that will be a point of um discussion with our Architects regarding um the ability to um engage in our in our student and staff needs uh to that end uh we did have uh walkthroughs and a facility tour with our then architect in November and started to kind of vet out you know what they may look like and costing and things like that it's a bit early but um we are um on the way um particularly in the area of facilities we'd like to expand our career exploration um Career and Technical education that does require um some different spaces and we'd also like to identify um some dual enrollment opportunities and possibilities uh right now we do have opportunities through Kane University Ryon Valley Community College um I do have a meeting set up in the summer uh with um some highlevel um reps from middlex County College that have Partnerships with a host of four-year colleges as well uh so hopefully uh you know we'll start to kind of move the needle there um and we'd like to engage the students a little deeper regarding you know what courses they would uh they would kind of what opportunities they would like to have access to uh as we develop kind of a long range facility plan and as we develop um some planning on the fiscal side uh as well and um regarding diverse Pathways for Student Success developing summer programming for Advanced Credit and for credit recovery uh looking at uh sustaining in after school and summer um academic support programs as well over the long term which again will be a point of discussion during budget season and um we've seen some enhancements in the area of um our intervention and referral services and multi-tiered systems of supports uh through um predominantly down at Bedwell and we're continuing to um make some internal adjustments regarding that process uh which will now be overseen through the um director of student services uh so there's a concentrated um leadership pipeline there um we're implementing a bilingual Spanish program for eligible kindergarten students at Bedwell which is um you know great area of a great source of Pride here um moving forward to September uh we are focused on developing um enhanced Community engagement whether it's through um enhancing a school to work um opportunity pipelines for our high school kids um or dual enrollment um capitalizing on our external Partnerships um is is a particular area where we've started to make some inroads um not only in the Bernville Community but out you know outward um so we can have students uh particularly at the high school level that have those opportunities to um to work in the event that they have um time in the afternoons and and the ability to modify their uh their schedules um Community engagement and Partnerships uh we are in the process of refining our community service program uh it's been some time since it's been implemented and we're reviewing that at the high school level as well and um we are um developing a Communications plan uh we're right on the doorstep there we have um ret titled uh my executive assistant to include the coordinator of communications to her role uh in addition uh we have the appointment of a Web Master uh which um those are two key people um at the final stage to to finalize the development of a Communications plan and at which point I'll speak to you all about it in August um again more focus on um co-curriculars um we have engaged with a host of folks uh around the community uh they've worked closely with Mr koffer and Dr Nigel and that work will continue as well uh moving forward a few days ago we had a goal setting Retreat a goal setting Workshop to develop District goals uh the board developed uh a host of draft goals for the full board to consider I'd like to thank the board for their work on Monday night I found it very worthwhile extremely productive uh and um you know again you know thank you so academic goals show progress in decreasing achievement gaps by advancing academic performance through increased support in areas of instruction for academic subgroups uh that will be evaluated um annually uh by using all available assessment data right so that's uh internal data and external data um identifying staff to to leverage their existing education by assessing interest and obtaining further certifications to expand opportunities for uh dual enrollment and CTE student course offerings in area facilities uh to prioritize planning for stem Robotics and CTE curriculum develop a prioritized longrange facility plan and cost estimates by this coming November in the area of community integration uh goal that the board drafted was to support the belief that every Community member as a stakeholder developed two to three Avenues to expand Community connectivity and engage with all community members to communicate District outcomes and opportunities for further engagement with those residents with and without school age children by June of 25 and we have a culture and climate and social emotional learning goal um to identify and Implement tools and mechanisms to establish a Baseline understanding of the student and staff experience uh at in our school district to develop a future strategic plan to enh and to enhance uh workplace and school culture climate and social emotional learning uh We've also have proposed uh Board of Education goals those are separate from the district goals so like those are your goals uh as a as an entity um first is to examine a long range facility plan and determine by November if the the district will be best served to a public question to increase taxes through cap to fund capital projects uh second goal is to develop collaborative practices and Norms with the Somerset Hills Education Association and the administrators Association to inform productive relationships and successful collectively bargain contracts by June 30 of 25 that honor and support the staff members who work with the district's children uh and um the fourth is to attend increased training to become a master Board of Education through the New Jersey school boards Association by next June so uh those are the draft District goals and the proposed board goals that that you all can consider and certainly will continue to work through them uh through the summer um at this point I have um I'll call Miss frienda um and I will vacate the Podium and uh miss ferano and miss Hall so looking at that last one of those last goals that was just up on the screen the middle goal was about working with Shay and with sha and we couldn't be more excited to have a joint statement here tonight for you so Mrs frienda and I stand before you today with the work of Mr Joyce Mrs Santoro and Miss Hall um with a sense of optimism and purpose our journey together has been marked by trials and tribulations but we have persevered we have weathered storms of conflict but through it all we've remained committed to a common goal the betterment of our school and the welfare of our students and staff today we wish not to speak of the challenges we faced but the successes that await us when we choose to work collaboratively through initial dialogue with one another we came to realize we had a common ground to grow from in the belief that there has to be a better way of conducting business together over the past nine months the five that I had just mentioned the five of us um from the board of Ved and from sheay have started working together in a joint effort with Rucker University labor Management's relations department through this work we met met Dr Saul Rubenstein who's an expert in this field we learned from the Del Ran and matachin school districts as well as numerous administrators Union Executives government leaders including the South African education Labor Relations Council all of which have been Exemplar members in this collaborative model we look forward to continued education around this topic and look forward to creating a foundation to build sustainable long long-term success together we possess a wealth of knowledge expertise and passion that when combined can Propel us towards setting a foundation for Success we recognize that nothing but possibility lay in front of us and we're excited to forge a partnership based on trust respect and mutual understanding we both realize that we don't want to work from a place of struggling for power or winning or losing but rather creating empowerment thank you m ferano collaboration is not merely a lofty ideal it is a practical necessity if we are to overcome the complex challenges that lie ahead by working together we can harness the collective wisdom of the the diverse perspectives of all of our stakeholders and charge charge a course toward innovative solutions with student achievement in mind we look forward to working together to imple to implement new educational initiatives fostering a culture of inclusivity and Equity analyzing student data curriculum development and implementing best practices for empowering our empowering our staff to have a voice we know our combined efforts will pave the way for Meaningful change and we look forward to leveraging the strengths we already have in our amazing shsd Community but collaboration is more than just a means to an end it is a testament to our shared commitment to the greater good of our schools when we come together as partners we send a powerful message to our community we are united in our dedication to providing the best possible education for our students it is through our Collective action that we can truly make a difference in the lives of those we serve the collaboration will allow us will allow all voices to be heard especially those who reside closest to the challenges faced we are embracing this opportunity with Open Hearts and open minds we are setting aside our differences and embracing the power of collaboration and Ed shine's notion of humble inquiry where we allow ourselves to be vulnerable build trust listen attentively respectfully ask what we do not know and build an environment of psychological safety together we can achieve greatness not just for ourselves but for the future of the somerset Hill School District thank you we appreciate you this has been a Wonder [Applause] okay thank you now we are going to move on to public comments for actionable agenda items we very much welcome input from the Public Public comments are welcome at this time on any actionable agenda item towards the end of the meeting there is a second public forum on any topic please state your name and address comments are limited to 3 minutes at 3 minutes you will be interrupted and asked to pause to allow any other members of the public who would like to speak an opportunity to do so an individual May return to the podium to complete their statement after everyone else has had an opportunity to speak for a total of two times at the podium please understand that our public forums are not structured as question and answer sessions but are offered as opportunities to share your thoughts with the board in instances where the board feels there's a misunderstanding or inaccuracy the board president or superintendent May address the comment in accordance with New Jersey statute the board will not discuss matter matters regarding specific Personnel public comments will be limited to 30 minutes a reminder for all parties and attendance to remain respectful and that there should be no interaction between the speaker and the audience no members of the audience should interfere with or interrupt with speaker's comments we thank you in advance for your input and direct you to Mrs DeMarco's timer so that um during the course of your comment you will be aware of the remaining time you have left is there anyone who would like to make a public comment an actionable agenda item Mr thur please um I wanted to talk earlier but uh the storm distract me and everything but uh it's a good wanted to say thank you and I have more time to write finish writing my speech too just want I'm going to go over three minutes I'm just going to tell you I just wanted to pass along a huge thank you to everyone for their help with the bedwell's Natural History Museum I hope it will go down in history as one of bedwell's greatest events and Dr B we wanted to we wanted to invite all the kids with it's past bedtime we probably couldn't fit in here um thank you to Dr B and the Board of Education I appreciate all the kind words earlier and for recognizing everyone who contributed to the project um Dr B thanks for all the yogurt containers um when I needed anything uh that was amazing you showed up with 50 yogurt containers to store all the paint that we needed in um thank you to Dr Erton Mr Cary Mrs Allen for supporting this steam project I really appreciate all the help we received along the way from so many parents and teachers all the donations seemed to come at the right time when we were down to our last roll of tape or bolts someone would show up at the door and save the day I appreciated the time the parents spent to come in to assist the classroom because it couldn't have been done without your help if you came in to volunteer to build or paint you got to hear all the kids say my name Mr T Mr T A lot it was a fun messy process and if you got to see where it began and how it ended you saw why I love doing these projects with the kids all the students experienced the design process and it resulted in a final product they were really proud of on the day of the museum they were tour guides beaming with pride using public speaking skills confidently sharing facts about and information about their animal dinosaur gem or planet to museum visitors I'd like to thank all the parent directors and assistants uh for bringing this idea to life from the onset you believed in the idea uh the support from the HSA in terms of organizing my my thoughts my ideas and helping um provide organization and communication among the parents was tremendous cat Allison and Kelly had Splendid ideas and helped behind the scenes to help lift off this idea there were so many people to thank who helped and I apologize if I leave anybody out but I'll just give a shout out to the parents who were the main coordinators of each scene cat Martin Kelly Hunt Allison laera Mike Donahue Aaron Duff ktie Ryan Tern Bola Amy shaver and Michelle thurlo that's my wife Renee wior you sprinkled in all the your ideas and creativity with the lighting whenever you were subing the building you'd pop in and see how it was going I really appreciated that in addition all the beautiful murals they showed up I didn't know how big they were um Mrs Martin Mrs wble Mrs shaver Bryce himself actually painted a lot of it as well Julia bins and Mrs wnsh and all the kids that helped out with those murals were beautiful um whether it was a balloon-shaped coral a background of Northern Lights built uh a mountain built um mag giant magnifying glass a glow-in-the-dark paint every Group found a way to make this scene special great teamwork by everybody um another big thanks to Aaron Duff who successfully built the geodesic dome um using his power of yet to put that together for an amazing safe structure for the kids to learn about nebulas to as much as it pains made you have to interrupt you it is the three minute Mark is there anyone else that would like to make us oh he can finish if there's no one he'll be able to finish as long as there's no one else that wants to make a public comment okay I keep going okay sorry I should have said this earlier um where was I um so I would like to also thank especially thank Mike Don who who helped with every section of the museum not just one he this included helping hang the shark safely the Dolphins building ballbearing supports for a giraffe um building giant megalodon teeth setting up the space room with the black fabric so much more my really believed in the whole concept and used his creativity and design engineering skills to help me see it through from start to finish I appreciate all the extra effort the parents put into making your scene come to life you saw my vision for the project and upped it to another level I'm extremely thankful uh the fourth grade team also I their students came in a lot of extra time and and working on the projects I really appreciate them and all their hard work and the teachers on the related arts team were really remarkable helping out our team always helps each other out for the benefit of the students and this project really became an interdisciplinary experience for Bedwell and was because of everybody's hard work on the related arts team this included Mrs Leonard with her power of yet and her building assistance and Engineering throughout the project Miss brutin with her research and helping the students brain uh helping the students make their slides and also brainstorming the museum with me Mr Nan with his lighting music and stage design skills his Ingenuity Mark made the gym magical every time I turned around he was building like a support for a canvas draping an ocean Wall playing music that fit with each scene and calming me down he's just a wizard with that uh understanding my vision and just bringing it to life um just a very creative person I love working with Mrs donu she jumped right into the project making her beautiful signs assisting with a painting I'm not I don't like painting I'm not a good painter but she helped with all the little details um working with the kids extra time Mr Miranda with this he put it together Spanish uh translated slides about their projects Mr palmary and Mrs P perno for Lending uh lending their space and helping set the museum up and um thank you to everyone you saw the video and if you didn't get to experience it in person um I hope you uh enjoyed that and next year we're looking not to do something that wild but we're going to yeah Jasmine and and Keith um we're looking to do I'll say a Bedwell Jersey boardwalk games so that's the theme next year so I'm excited to get that going but thank you okay seeing there are no other public comments at this time can I get a motion to close public comments Miss Nathan and a second uh Mr gr pre thank you so much okay so they're moving on to the approval of minutes I would like to request a motion to approve the the meeting minutes for our executive meeting on May 14th um special meeting for May 20th and um June 12th can I get a motion Miss Santoro in a second M Cooper okay and is there any discussion about the minutes no okay V call please Mr Baker uh yes on May 14th abstain May 20 Miss Bor yes you said yes to May 14 and June 12 I didn't see that I'm sorry okay are you voting yes on June 12 yes obain yes okay yes yes got it uh Miss Cooper yes m Miss D Grand Pre yes Miss skills and abstain on the ones that you didn't okay I believe that was May 20th Yep to us M Mr Joyce yes Miss Nathan on the 14th and yes on the other two Mrs Santoro yes Mrs Ry yes yes on June 12th the most recent one and Mrs friend yes way too complicated okay motion carries okay thank you and moving on to the report of the finance committee Mr B okay um the finance committee met on June the 12th for about 45 minutes we talked about two topics we talked about Personnel matters which I'm not going to discuss because they're confidential and we talked about lunch prices uh the committee was concerned or not concerned wanted to know about how our food prices are compared to other school districts around us so Mrs DeMarco did some research and found out that um for the elementary school prices around us run from 295 to $4 at the middle schools usually from 310 to 425 and at high schools 350 to 450 so with our we voted last um May um in May to raise prices 25 cents so we'll be at 425 435 and 450 so we're at the high end of the schools around us um the committee felt that was okay since you know we're trying you know masio says that if we don't raise prices it's going to be tough to to break even or have a slight loss so so the committee still feels that we're in in a good spot but we will re-evaluate we're somewhat curious about what the breakfast will bring we're we're going to um started serving breakfast in the fall and we' never done that before so we priced at what masio thinks is appropriate and we will uh go in to review those prices if things look like we're having uh like a shortfall in other words kids are buying more food than we expected or they're not able to get things at the right price and and things like that so um so the committee will continue to evaluate that um and that's the end of my report so I'll turn it back to M Mrs frienda okay thank you so much um Mr Marco I believe there's something that needs to be added um yes I'm going to add resolution uh item number 38 approve 2023 24 budget transfers resolved that the Somerset Hills Board of Education approve the lists of budget transfers for April 2024 and may 2024 and the reports were given to the board in their packet so it'll be one 3 okay thank you very much then at this time I would like to request a motion to approve action items number 1 through 38 on the agenda I'll make a motion and a second Miss R and discussion Mr Baker is there any correlation I mean we're a smaller District per is there any correlation between our prices and the fact that there's less of a population or does that not have anything to do with the other distri um that'd be hard to say because I don't know what the food menus are at each school they can vary it's it's by the culture of the school and and what what what students want um I haven't been in a lot of other schools recently I as Dr brocher anybody else who wants to chime in on that well I I think the question was would does school size and is there a correlation between school size and lunch prices and I don't believe that that data was presented to the committee thank you but I do think presented data on a range of schools some of which were small um one of the reasons why our lunch uh prices were increased was because we have an extra line in the high school in the upper gym which uh some schools that do block lunch only serve at the cafeteria but we're adding another line another employee and so that kind of drove up the price um so we'll look at that and see how much that line is being used so we have a full year data so in the fall I'll report back to the committee so we had that extra one this year we've always had it yeah yeah putting some context there when the high school endeavored to implement a new schedule um they did so by spreading the kids out um in multiple spaces through the building um as point of contacts and Point of Sales so um when you do that it does come with an acade or I'm sorry an economic um impact so that's kind of what's reflected think that was an important part of our discussion looking at that yes to be sorry just to be clear the second line is an operational convenience um so there's you know there's a balance there get I'm sorry Mr Jo sorry I was curious I knowre inms what compar district is we basically looked at local schools and uh believe it or not it was very difficult to find what their um prices were some post them on the web some don't and some high schools that do block lunch they actually don't participate in the National free and reduced program it's just alicart so that was really not a good comparison for us um and the comparison prices we got were current years so I don't know if any of them will will be raising their prices next year or not so um after we spoke to the committee I was going to do a little bit more of a deep dive in the fall to get more data of our operations plus you know try to get mashio to help help out with some of the other districts that they're doing and get their actual prices so I'm sure they have your that's interesting y so remember it was interesting to learn when we were talking about free breakfast that some of the surrounding districts didn't have any of the right and just so we're offering breakfast but um but for the right so students that are not fre ruse eligible can still just purchase breakfast right but except that the um the breakfast for those uh students that are eligible we get reimbursed by the government state for those in terms of pre interview and that was the interesting I remember learning was that some of the surrounding districts had zero right and we because of our percentage at the elementary school we were mandated to offer that this year but we decided to do the entire District wide as a whole so Mr Santo sure thank or if it can be answered here um looking through our checks that we're supposed to approve and I'm just curious as to why the total for um legal fees for looks like just the month of May was nearly $36,000 what do you for all of legal fees or a particular we I don't know that's I want to know like how do I that's a bush Law Group um so yeah I can give you the bills the details of the bills but they do slew of um legal work for us and that if you remember our last board meeting was um beginning of May so that probably Encompass more than one month okay so I could give you the breakdown yep uh yeah but we can always adjust that uh y yep okay thank you that it sorry Mr I don't know that you is there anybody else for discussion okay then roll call please miss Balor yes Miss Cooper yes Mrs D gray yes Miss gills yes Mr Joyce yes Miss Nathans yes Mrs Santoro yes Mrs Ry yes Mr Baker yes Mrs Brenda yes motion carries okay thank you Mrs Santoro facilities and operations so uh faor met on June 12 at 33 and all members of the committee were in attend as well as and Dr um predominantly we spent our time uh reviewing two architecture firms as Dr brochel mentioned in uh his presentation this evening we are going to be approving solution architect so um Administration went through the process and we had 11 firms submit they did walkthroughs and then the administration narrowed down their recommendation to two firms um who presented to the committee um on the 12 so both were excellent firms and um you know we thought they did a great job and had a lot of um wonderful experience but the committe in that we the solution Architects they have 15 years of experience um the educational Arena comprises 90% of their business um the two Representatives that we met with the founder and the managing architect convey their commitment to their individual clients and their pride and their long-term relationships with the districts that they work in and may mentioned many that no project is too small they dive in and are committed to whatever the district needs um we felt that this firm excels in the design process and the effective use of technology to deliver state of the art results um and they had recent and extremely significant experience with referenda and we felt that as we embark on the evaluation of whether this board wants to move forward with a referendum that would lend um a lot of benefit to the district they offer a full complement of services should we decide to use it in that capacity um so we're you know very pleased to recommend that we are wasting no time as Dr brel mentioned they will be meeting tomorrow and getting started on several of the projects that we have so um we just briefly touched on the lower fields and you know we remain committed as a committee to that work but we are still process of understanding what the scope of that work is and until that point we really can't move forward um you as soon as we get the detailed information of what needs to be done then we'll be looking from recommendations for the administration um we also touched on the security systems um as you enter the building and we are going to make a change um with that system it we were renewal and um there is uh a system called tath that we're going to be transitioning to that provides us with more functionality and better support so um the administration is going to be moving forward with that process and that was it for facilities this month okay thank you so much um so then with that I would like to ask for a motion to approve action items number one and two on the agenda Miss Ryan in a second again Mr Grand Pre and is there any discussion I have something um at the graduation two students were talking to me not knowing who I was not that I'm anybody but um they were complaining about bathroom music in the high school which has been issue from last year um I was kind of dropping and I asked them when he mean they it takes the femal that it takes 15 minutes to get to the bathroom use the bathroom get back to the classroom and then sometimes she gets reprimanded and the boy said the same thing but just not as long um so again I don't know why there's a bathroom issue in the high school where kids are taking or losing constructional time trying to find an open bathroom I can discuss that with Dr Nigo and report back okay thank you do you want to put that on agenda okay is there anything else no then roll call please miss Cooper yes Mrs D Grande yes Miss gills yes Mr Joyce yes Miss Nathans yes Mrs Santoro yes Mrs Ry yes Mr Baker yes Miss ballor yes and Mrs Renda yes motion carries thank you um and now we'll move on to the report of the curriculum committee Miss Cooper curriculum committee met Thursday June 13th for two hours all committee members attended and we were joined by Dr boel Dr Butler and Mr Kelli Mr Kelli attended to review the status of the district's bilingual waiver application and the proposed language instruction educational plan as well as an update on the bilingual I said the Bedwell bilingual program and how our multilanguage Learners are M mLs are doing throughout the district first uh the bilingual program at B District held a parents night on the on the program in April when families voted to name the program explor explor which means let's explore we've also hired a highly experienced bilingual kindergarten teacher to lead the program materials for the program have arrived and will be ready for use in the fall next Mr Kelli presented data on MLL student achievement derived from the district's 2023 New Jersey school performance report according to this report in 2023 20% of our ml students have exceeded the ELA achievement goal and the goal is 28% and 10% of our ml students have have met or exceeded the math achievement goal and the goal is 30% however State goals are based on achievement in ml populations other in other New Jersey districts generally these populations are more fluent and have more received more education in their dominant language consequently a better assessment of our ml ml achievement may be assessment of our students growth rather than their absolute Proficiency in 2023 our students median ml growth percentile was 46% and the goal here is 40% to 59% and the median math ml student growth percentile was 45% with a goal of 40 to 59% the percentage of ml students meeting the target student growth indicator was 30% with the goal being uh 27% both data points indicate that our students are demonstrating significant ress and commendable growth still additional analyses can provide greater Insight on how we can improve our ml students proficiencies Mr Catelli identified three areas to Target the percentage of ml students who graduate on time which is currently 49.6% the percentage of ml students who are chronically absent which is 24% and the percentage of teachers who are trained in sheltered instruction which is currently 38% and just a reminder shelter instruction training provides teaches with strategies to help make grade level cont accessible for MLS the committee strongly supported providing additional opportunities for sheltered instruction training particularly at the high school we also explored supported exploring strategies for improving rates of timely graduation and reducing rates of chronic absence defined as rates of absence greater than 10% rates of chronic absence among MLS at Bedwell have already dramatically increased next we discuss the bilingual waiver and our current and Future Three threeyear language instructional education plan as a reminder the Jersey Department of Education requires that districts with ML populations of 20 or more students in any single language group provide full-time bilingual programs from mls in that language group districts can request a waiver for a specific grade level to provide or grade levels to provide alternative programming if it is Impractical to offer a full bilingual program our previous three-year goal was to redesign the Bedwell ml program the Bedwell ml program for kindergar will will begin in September next steps include ating the program and speaking with stakeholders later in the fall creating an implementation chart detailing additional options for the district in Winter 2025 and proposing and selecting the most appropriate pathway for additional grades moving forward Mr Catelli emphasized the need to explore different ml Pathways at BMS and the high school but emphasized that the administrative team was not convinced that a bilingual program at the high school would represent the best path moving forward given the educational background of our ml newcomers at School Mr Kelli indicated that they may benefit more from other types of MLL programming given the limiting limited time between their arrival in the district and when they age out of and graduate from high school because these students are often not fluent in either their dominant language or English they may struggle to keep up with the content delivered if it's delivered in both languages which can hinder their overall academic progress the learning curve for acquiring academic language skills and both languages can be particularly steep in older children making it more them to achieve proficiency the committee then discussed the potential concern that applying for additional waivers for grades other than a kindergarten first grade may be viewed as a less than perfect option however Mr Catelli and other board members emphasized that other options such as sheltered instru shelter construction bilingual tutoring and high-intensity elll can be effective and may be May more efficiently meet the specific needs of our population moreover Mr Catelli indicated that moving to a full bilingual model throughout the district would requ at least 12 additional teachers plus additional counselors and special education staff which would be challenging from a staffing and a budgetary perspective however he emphasize that if the administration ultimately decides that strict wide bilingual program would be in the best interest of the students they will recommend it um following these discussions the committee supported the administration's recommendation to move forward with a waiver for grades 1 through 12 we are voting on The Language instructional educational program tonight we then uh approved trips and professional development and school business requests um then Dr Butler also provided a few updates during the meeting unfortunately at the time of our meeting the district had not received notification related to title funds um but she did share the agenda for the PD Day on June 19th and courses uh offered included Genesis training bystandard training and a CPR refresher summer curriculum writing was also discussed during the PD PD day and just thanks to all the teachers who are working on those um curricular Updates this summer um we really appreciate all uh their efforts to ensure that our curriculum reflects the updated standards and develop content for our new classes uh finally the committee briefly discussed District policies related to Ai and recent uh recent concerns related to I AI generated images according to Dr Butler Strauss Esme is currently developing broad AI policies and they will be announced shortly and that concludes my report thank you m then at this time I would like to ask for a motion um to approve action items number one through four on the agenda thank you and a second Miss thank you and discussion yes the same um just a question do we have any kind ofar figure on how many children are in the ml for grades one to 12 like how many were asking for the laer I have no idea what how many I don't have that number off the top my head probably dig through here and get it to by just I will get back to you I don't want to I don't want to quote you an incorrect number I appreciate that okay there um for number four it says suers Hills Board of Ed approves the instruments for Teacher eval and administrator eval my only question is um about the teachers they eval it's it's not connected to students results is it it is and that's that's pursuant to achieve NJ which is a state statute that uh was brought on around 2011 uh so at the Governor Christie at the time had set forth an executive order to connect um a metric of student achievement results into a teachers and an Educator's Summit of evaluation so the entirety of their evaluation is not connected to student achievement results but some are so that's not a district decision uh the district implements the the statute but it's still um connected to student achievement does the statute um give you a percentage of how yes so the statute began at 50% that was the executive order and that's what um at the time the task force at the time recommended um it has since uh decreased to about 10% um so there's been significant um decrease there uh the it seems like legislatively there's a lot of movement to reexamine achieve NJ and I would just say stay tuned on that um it seems like it is a legislative priority um for those that are um seem to be in power at in the Senate education committee and the assembly education committee so uh stay tuned I wouldn't expect anything during the next school year but perhaps by fall of 25 you may see something different I just think it's a bit unfair because sometimes kids don't have support at home and then it's all on the teacher and teacher can do so much there will be a public comment uh section for this um legislatively so I can keep you a breast of that and um you know certainly I can support you in that you know any testimony that you may want to give thank you yep and correct me if I'm wrong is that still only math and ELA teachers correct it's it's it's the it's connected to the math achievement on njsla and language arts achievement on njsla thank you was there anyone else who wanted to I I would just I have a comment yeah but um just I want to the the work that Mr Catelli and Dr Butler has done on our bilingual program is commendable and I'm looking forward to seeing how it's rolled out and will benefit our ml students so I just wanted to note that absolutely yeah actually I should that's a huge thing Mr Kelli's presentation was astounding very informative and I'm happy we'll have a bilingual kindergarten class and hopefully one first grade class following second okay anybody else okay then roll call Mrs de pre yes Miss gills yes Mr Joyce yes Miss Nathans yes Mrs Santoro yes Mrs Ry yes Mr Baker yes Miss Ballard yes Miss Cooper yes and Mrs Brenda yes motion carries okay thank you and moving on to Personnel Mr ground the policy and Personnel committee met on June 11 with everyone in attendance for just about 2 hours um in regards to Personnel we started off our meeting with a discussion surrounding two wonderful candidates that are on the agenda for approval tonight um which is very exciting I do have to say though on a side note this is probably the agenda item that I got the most feedback from students on so Mr Co Hopper you're GNA be missed and you better go and visit um I was asked specifically to make sure that that was said tonight so that's commendable you guys have great energy and we can't see wait to see going to do at Bedwell um we also talked a bit about some job descriptions which are also on the agenda for tonight the director of enrichment and academic support and multilingual learning programs and the Web Master job description as well as the changes with the assistant superintendent coordinator for communications um we also discussed some title changes in regards to the transportation and the IT department um which is really just um to codify what they are doing um and then we reviewed the agenda for the seat okay yes in section 12 um motion 10 C the candidate withdrew his uh candidacy so that'll be struck from the agenda thank you Dr brel um then at this time I would like to make ask for a motion to approve action items number one through 45 on the agenda removing item 10 C I'll make a motion okay thank you and a second Mr and Mr Joy second and is there any discussion say congratulations to Will congratulations yes Mr joce I was going to reiterate the same thing no please I think it's deserving of our of our new candidate do we go into to vote so I think yeah let's vote [Laughter] first okay how about Mrs Santoro yes Mrs Ry yes Mr Baker yes Miss Ballard yes Miss Cooper yes Mrs D gr pre yes Miss gills yes Mr Joyce yes Miss Nathans yes and Mrs frienda yes abstaining from item 27 okay motion carries okay thank you now we can say yes thank you both for being here this evening and now we can move on to policy Mr Grand Pre so the policy portion of the meeting um we started off with um reviewing and amending policy 5111 which is resident and nonr students um this policy was changed last year and at that time we believe that all District employees with eligible children um involved in this policy had completed their time in the district um we might have done this a bit hastily so we are going back to revise the policy um in first reading back to where it was previously um to allow those District employees and their eligible children um to attend the district um we then went on to discuss the substance abuse regulation policy which has been reviewed for a number of years now at this point um and we revised it for a few grammar changes and adjustments to language um and look for clarification on consistency throughout the policy and urine testing when it's required um and we wanted to just state that we appreciate the committee's overall time as well as the administration's time that has gone into this in the last few years it's come before the larger board a number of times as well for discussion um and we are finally ready to put it into first reading um this evening we discussed the conduct of a board meeting by laws um which we have been revising and reviewing again we did reiterate during our meeting that there is clarification again about when War MERS board members can speak and how new issues can be raised and clarification regarding limitations of speech and timing of speech in board meetings um and that also is in um revised policy for first reading this evening after discussion at multiple public sessions as well as in ongoing committee meetings um that those changes did also affect our board committee bylaws so we reviewed that um and revised that to include policy and Personnel together in one committee rather than being separated as this is how we are currently practicing as well as the addition of the student services committee the student service Services committee um was approved to be put into this Poli and the committee did reiterate that we would like to see this begin as soon as we can and I know there's already action underway to start to get that process moving um we did have a request to look into artificial intelligence as some of you may or may not know it has been in the news recently in a number of New Jersey school districts um with deep fakes being involved um created by Ai and the overall introduction of AI into education we were advised that stra asme which helps to advise advise us in our guidelines and policy is working on a skeleton of guidelines um for all districts across the state um and we will be working on adding our own twist to this and looking at creating a policy surrounding this in the near future um and we also talked a bit about the upcoming updates which is rather significant that we'll be reviewing at our next meetings most likely which is alert 223 from Strauss Esme which looks at a lot of things surrounding Financial accountability Food Services and Title 9 with changes that are coming out through state state regulations so that'll be our summer homework to work on that um with that we reviewed the rest of the agenda items that were in draft form at that point I think that is it okay thank you very much so then at this time I would like to ask for a motion to approve action items number one and two on the agenda Mr granday in a second Miss Nathans and discussion on policy I have some questions um I'm not just to clarify the question is on board Norms is that is on board norms okay yes number two how do we make noten again somebody is just shut down immediately because value Alles so I I'll respond to that this was coming out of our May 20th meeting that we all had where we set these as and um everyone in attendance was there was the value of speaking or not speaking was we all need to understand as board members either why we're choosing to speak and making sure what we're speaking about is adding to the agenda or if we're being quiet why are we being quiet why are our voices not being heard so that's the why or why not for speaking and the valuing all voices and ensuring everyone has the chance to respond while being respectful that is a norm we wanted to put into place to ensure that everybody was treating each other with respect and moving forward with that new set Norm together so this these are our goals for how we would like meetings to go before during and after from here on out and we're asking all board members to commit to these goals and to hold each other responsible for them um no I'm sorry no surprises to the board or admin like what well that that's generally accepted practice in that we get when we get our um board packets and we have time to review everything and we get all of that information that it's in order for administration and um chair people to be able to respond appropriately that in the review of those um materials that you reach out in accordance with um Bo chain of command and administration to ask the questions in advance to ensure that um that proper they can be properly addressed and um that's what no surprises means it just means you know due diligence that's why we get our packets in advance is to review all of the information and to be able to follow up with the appropriate individuals to receive the information you know that we're that we're inquiring about that in no way precludes you from you know making that public and asking the question publicly but just so that you're getting the best value out of um the process and the best information for board members and for public okay that's a bit confusing because you're saying to email but you can bring it up at a meeting because then I have answer well it's many times you have discussed for the sake of transparency and if you have that question perhaps other people have that question so it's not to preclude anyone from asking a question but rather to have the information give the parties involved the opportunity to be able to effectively answer the question and be able to share that information with the public okay that's it thank you so much um are we still having supplemental today or is that going to be eliminated no that's still on the agenda okay great thank I elaborate on the first question which I think how to prevent in February yes and it's probably good it's one of the reasons why actually behind this what happened in February offl matter that can't happen under this right now right but we were still in the meeting true there were just no more agenda items to be had so this would actually protect you in that sense like you can bring it up and then put it on the next agenda simar happen tonight right and then wouldn't be able to cut you off well I I don't need to happen in February so I I don't have much faith that it wouldn't happen again so that's that's my tri addiction with accepting this change well Sam I'm sorry goad that was kind of the point of having Bo Norms is to try and set it set it up so this is how we're going to behave moving forward you can't change the past you can try and change things moving forward that's the whole point in trying to set it up um however I do think that if there's someone still can if there's not an actual agenda item on on on the table I don't think that's the the intent and I think the whole point is that're with the change in policy we can't adjourn a meeting at this point with any until we're done with public comment so all of our all of our open spots our board's announcements everything like that comes before public comment so there is no way the public will essentially be adjourning our meetings from here on out I don't know if that makes you that does I just want to make a point of clarification regarding and not ajour is that you can adjourn the meeting during the action B but it can't be while someone speaking so during the actional part of the agenda you would have to wait until the person is done speaking and at that point make a motion to adjourn and then if um everyone agreed to adj to that motion then at the following meeting you would have to pick up your agenda at that point in a meeting so this is just a fun this is just a function of clarifying um how that and you couldn't adjourn a meeting if there's a motion on the table right there's a right there's an open motion to that's the discussion has to exactly so yes that's the protocol and that was kind of the discussion it's actionable agenda items open Agenda versus not but the whole point of the Norms of the policy is so that we are all working from the same understanding being extraordinarily clear about how each um SE of the agenda works when to engage in what discussions and what question um you know and what question asking is to be done and to make sure that um board members have ample opportunity to address concerns during the actionable part of the agenda so since I've been on this board we didn't have board not in not in quite the structured sense no because I know we mov last year to a separate to a different part of the meeting that was just that was a um experiment it was a suspension of a policy that had nothing to do with Bo with policy and board nor those are two separate things we're creating board Norms what we did was suspend a particular policy there're two separate things the suspension of that policy was yes to see to to do trial based on feedback from board members we have given ample time to that and it is I certainly will see upon vote this evening but it appears to be the opinion of the majority of this board to um realign the policy for for meeting conduct and to all move forward with a shared understanding and to have created Norms that were done collaboratively so that we all understand um best practice for um conduct before during and after meeting okay so what other districts do this because nors or what we're going to now call board announcements where it's only happy news and um if any one of us comes up with a a thought that it's now too late to bring up because we're no longer in the agenda portion of the meeting what other districts because we're comparing ourselves to other districts in regard to substan views uh consequences so what what board what other board do this where a board member is limited in what they can say during board announcements so Madam president if I could inter okay um just in in my own experience working with multiple boards um I just my reflection in watching the committee the policy committee work through this and the full board and then the policy committee again and we we're sort of weaving in and out of the board bylaw and the board Norms a little bit but the bylaw that is up for first reading tonight for the board and it takes two readings to make it official but the bylaw that's up for first reading I think from My Lens does speak to the various needs that I feel like board members articulated um as a body regarding um the flow of the meeting um and the way that we have essentially inside of every voting section in the agenda there's a new business section there um I feel like it does speak to what I consider to be the needs of the board as board members articulated them um with that said I don't know any other board that does it um so I can't say like you know there's like 50 boards that I know of um but but what I like about it is that I feel like it speaks to needs that this board identified over over a collection of months and for that reason I like it because I feel like it speaks to what you guys shared that you need um so in that sense I think it's a good thing um I'll reinforce we're probably the only board that I'm aware of that does it like that uh but again I think it speaks to what our needs are um I feel like it provides better flow I felt like um historically at the end of the meetings there were a lot of items that were ended up in supplemental matters that could have been and were appropriate for finance or facilities or curriculum you know you name it um and and I think that was the intent of I not speaking for the board I feel like that's the intent of 0164 the way the meeting flows is to not topress not elate but to reallocate where things are arising so with that said I do feel good that the board has worked through uh matters I wouldn't say you're all in alignment or agreement um but I feel like you've done a nice job articulating what your desires are out of the flow of an agenda so with that said I feel like there's a space for for everybody um and uh you recall I kind of equated it to when I assist my kids in cleaning up their land right I I I say to my little guy all right here's like seven minutes we're going to put your crayons here we're going to put your all your sports stuff here we're going to put your clothes here and you know at the end of it everything kind of has a nice flown and it makes sense and I felt like in some senses when when there was a stacked um scenario in like supplemental matters you know there were some things that were coming up that could have been raised in a particular section of the agenda and I feel like having new business in every section does like create that vehicle for for an individual board member um so I don't know if that um if I'm capturing it but I I feel like's better FL but I think supplemental could also be a safety net maybe something that wasn't addressed and I wanted to bring that up and I remember last year bringing up the um thething issues and on and that was brought uping supplemental so I think it's almost a safety net too and it also gives us an opportunity to um voice opinion that may not be popular with the majority of theard I feel like this is because of what I brought up in January and in February because before that it wasn't it wasn't spoken of hey let's go back to supplemental being the um public speaks or it wasn't brought up let's eliminate it completely I mean I just don't understand how people don't well at least people on this board don't see that like you're not going to use supplemental anymore the way you want to and you know how we're going to make sure we're going to get rid of it and we're going to make it board announcements and it was said board announcements happy news only and sometime yes it was but can I just to read not always Happ like I was criticized because you start off the meeting it's always good news but that doesn't mean the rest of the meeting not going to deal with difficult issues you can't always have this is not the board of Utopia things are going to come up and sometimes they're difficult and they need to be addressed and they're awkwarded and they're uncomfortable so just because a meeting starts off and we always appreciate how you started off doesn't mean the rest of meaning is going to flow so nicely and happily have issues and we won't always agree on that and there will be issues that come up that will still confuse me as to where do I put that and quite honestly I don't trust anybody to email I've been burned through emails I've been disregarded dismissed emails not read so I I that's that's not a way for me to communicate any any longer with four members here I would rather just ask here publicly so everybody hears and rather than put it in an email and then maybe I'm scared to bring it up because I don't know if our emails might be seen as confidential I know they have to be over it so they may be seen as confidential and now I'm in an Ethics violation and I I don't like it plain and simple simple I get what you're saying everything a bu but sometimes we miss that opportunity and then we have to wait a month or if I had missed something in May I would have waited six weeks rather than a month and I mean come on we all know why it's done we all know why it's being done it's not for the flow because you can keep the flow and still say old and new business which is what I've seen with other districts and you don't say it at this point you're done you can email or you can wait till next month and this started the month after I was shut up in supplemental the next month so if you don't see that connection then you don't want to see that connection I sit on the bed Mr Board of Education we don't have supplements matters we've never had supplemental matters I haveed while Jamie was the president but I didn't understand what it was so I didn't make a big deal about it because it seemed to fit at that time so that's where I disagree with you it has come up before I have brought it up because um it seemed kind of unnecessary to me in all Hest additionally I sit on at work on a lot of other nonprofit boards and educated boards new business there's a way to bring up your your information um and board norms at in them at the YMCA back in the 90s I participated them at um the American Association of theine practitioners we did it two years ago because the board was having difficulty in getting through their business and their work so when that happens it is a process it is something it is normal so it's not just within Boards of educations and then Gwen if you're looking for how many do that I would ask Gwen she's the one who has would have so maybe it's not counted doesn't mean it doesn't happen but for me my personal experience on work of educations and in other nonprofit boards we're going to a very normal thing it happens to help you function better storming norming forming whole thing that's how you move forward on we trying to start raising our hands that we get called on so we everyone has a chance to speak um that was one of the things I think that we're trying to to work on so that we're being respectful no one gets cut off there's all those things which is something that think we have struggled with here before so it's understood I'm not against before you continue I just want to make sure miss world have been looking to get into the conversation and I just put okay so I just wanted to reiterate because I was going to say the same thing as Sarah this has been brought up for years and as a board we've always struggled with it it's been utilized not utilized talked about so so this has been an ongoing thing um number two I look at this as an opportunity that every board board member has more opportunity to input something within each committee now so instead of at the end as a catchall every committee has an opportunity so you can say I you know I need to understand more about the bathroom this is Santoro can you put that on the agenda right like and that happens in every commit that will assuming passes that will happen in every committee now so there's no matter what we have at the end of the meeting you may think of something along the way and I think establishing the Norms is what we're trying to do to build trust amongst each other so that hopefully in three months from now and I don't know if you will feel this way you'll say I'm going to email you because I want this on an agenda for a committee and that is how we operate so I understand you have an individual challenge with not wanting to email committee chairs but that's the role of the committee chair I emailed um Kristen and said I would like to put this on your committee discussion at your earliest convenience so I mean everybody can do that so I think you know it's I think there's more opportunity to speak and we're establishing these Norms so that hopefully we can move together in a trustful way okay to be clear I'm not against because now that seems to be the story not against board Norms I'm against removing a portion that affords us the opportunity to speak on matters that may not have fallen into one of the committees or maybe confused as to what committee that fall under and if this were such an ongoing issue why then in 2023 when we moved supplemental why wasn't it addressed then why was it not oh we should get rid of supplemental confuses us let's do board announcements why then over a year ago if it has been such a concern for so many years why wasn't it dealt with then why was it just simply moved and the name was was kept the same I mean I can from the policy perspective the committee at that point thaty deci that was what at that time decided as we said we established Norms because were all having discuss over we wereing we went through the to discuss how truly as Dr said everything does have a space if it deals with business it has a space within one of our to and if it doesn't it may be related to personel which we can't discuss in public but it still would have a place for it to be so there should be nothing that's not in a committee structure it's something and beyond that there are ways to contacting us if you're not comfortable with email there are phone calls there's texting we all have each other inform there's other ways to reach out to board members if something comes up between meetings or if you forget something I've added to's agenda in the lasts meting said agend I getemail community that the way we have to function um to ensure that things continue to move forward in a fashion that is productive for the it's not stopping anybody from talking it's not stopping anybody any topic that we want to bring up it's literally bucketing it into the places where it's appropriate to I don't I don't agree I don't believe that's the reason why it was such an issue it would have been dealt with in 2023 not when I got on the board and brought up uncomfortable topics I would just like to say there is no exclusion of uncomfortable topics with this policy we often have uncomfortable conversations in the course of committee discussions there is nothing related to actionable items on the agenda uh committee readouts information discussed that month there is nothing that is off the table to discuss whether it's Raa or whether it's extraordinarily difficult um there there that's just not that's just not the way iter is you know over near 5 years there have been a number of extraordinarily uncomfortable committee discussions um so that that is just not the case um but additionally I think it's also really important as a board and you are perfectly entitled to your opinion and your thoughts and your perspective on things but I also think it's really important as a board and doing our our due diligence is to be reflective and to constantly be reevaluating to admit when we're wrong to about the way we handle or pivot whether policy or other things and to reevaluate to move forward um but beyond that is if nothing else with these two three things do to the norms and this policy is outline collectively our understanding and regardless of what has happened in the past it is to be able to make sure our future doesn't exactly exactly to make sure that I don't talk no because this is not the Mrs syv Gill's policy this is the the Sumer C's Board of Education policy and we are all either restrained or free in the same capacity all 10 of us must abide by the out by by this policy if it is approved so it the the notion of restraint for one board member or constriction for one board member we are all held to the same standard and we are all held to the same policy so this is for a shared this is for a shared understanding this is for shared operation it's for best practice for this particular gr of education and you perly perspective in your opinioned yes and it will be and again just one last time we compare other districts Why Can't We compare ourselves to other districts and what they do in their board can I I mean Sylvia we can and that's a matter of you as an individual to watch other board meetings I've watched other board meetings if you it has been a while now I can tell you the ones I saw I saw did not have a supplementary matters at the end of it they might have had future business yeah you know so I just think it's it's um something different for every board but there's nothing from precluding any one of us from going to watch other board meetings or just going through their agendas to see what they you know what the different sections of their agenda are I don't think that data is housed anywhere collectively um to yeah you just but anybody could do that so um and I think I think someone touched maybe it was me touched on that in another month that there's nothing stopping any one of us from saying I really like how um mendum runs their board meetings here's what they have I would like to suggest that Poli consider that we have an agenda that looks like that I know in the past we've discussed different ways to um to write our written agendas should we put it disc like there's nothing to preclude any of these conversations they just have to go into to use the word everybody is using the right bucket right so if you went and watched a meeting and you really like the way they structured their meetings you would refer that to chis I I just think it's a little bit odd that we compare ourselves to districts when it's convenient and then when it's not we don't because I know I have brought up in the past what do other districts do and I have been told I don't care about other districts I'm a member of this board um I have been told well the demographics are different so we can't compare ourselves to neighboring districts yet for the for the uh drug offense con consequences Rumson was on that list I I don't even understand how Rumson got on that list and yet when we're about to change the way the board meetings are held we don't look at other districts that just seems a little bit odd and convenient for those who want to change the way the board meeting is run more I too but Simon Sy talks about intern game versus fin game and of I feel like in this sense of applies that I don't that's why I think it's just a matter of really truly understanding that know some of the topics you brought up of where they brought up I I I understand what you all are saying I get it all but you not you like everyone here doesn't think the timing is a bit suspect one thing I was say I understand why and even more so now saying that hearing that this has been an issue for years and oh let's deal with it now suspect to me yes I'm I'm just an author my perspective as someone who to the board so I can't speak to the history but I reference our last meeting where one of our uh one of our the members of the public a parent came up and basically asked us to stop the chaos in in our meetings and as a member of the board I would say that my first two meetings were very chaotic and for me it was upsetting because knowing the inner workings of the board and all the hard work that people put in our outward presentation to our community does not reflect that and I think that this might be a way to make that happen while also saying to you syia and to everyone else on the board that I want to hear everything you have to say because that makes me a better board member and I think all the people who voted for us want to hear all of our voices just my thoughts no and I agree with you I mean some people have said uh we haven't done our we put business aside because of what happened in November December January our we never put business aside we still got our business done it was never interrupted or put aside um I mean it's rather insulting to the whole board for anyone to suggest that we were so distracted we couldn't do anything um and the only chaos that was brought forth was because of someone else's actions just because I brought it forth doesn't mean I brought chaos the chaos had started back in November just to clarify so I'm not saying you brought chaos but I can say meetings have been chaotic and I think our outward presentation may not reflect the good work that we're doing because they don't like the news that I delivered that was all it is and that's why it's labeled chaos even though we're getting our jobs done as board members and somehow the chaos falls on my head and not the individual that began it just because I brought it forth doesn't make me the bad guy doesn't make me the person who brings chaos and I mean you're all going to vote for it that's fine but we all know why it has changed Mrs Ry yes Mr Baker yes Miss Balor yes Miss Cooper yes Miss D gr pre yes Miss gills no no on both number one and two let me just make sure yes no I don't want no no long Mr Joyce yes Miss Nathans yes Mrs Santoro yes and Mrs frienda yes motion carries thank you moving on toone speak foral please understand that our public fors are not structured as and answer sessions but are offered as opportunities to share your thoughts the in inst audience members of the audience should interfere with or interrupt speaker comments thank you will set timer pleas you at ref to that timer to see much time you havee uh Bob W um sorry about that I've been sitting there for a while um far Farm College Road Gladstone New Jersey uh three things Museum night was phenomenal as having to give up my whole garage and have one of those murals painted it came out really well I didn't expect the whole gym to be lined up that way so Mr thorlo did do a great great job and all the tents helped out with that so hopefully you continue that and looking forward to next year even though my son's up in middle school now the second thing um Dr brochel back in like I think it was like September October 2023 I think you talked about bringing some engineers and maybe have them go around look at all the schools and stuff like that I think that was a good idea because I think I don't think we have like a c capital reserve report which most you know either you know big buildings you know whether they're a commercial building ours we've got five buildings with the admin and three different schools uh and it helps us develop a a capital reserve so every year we know okay this component might be going like the track it's an example next year might be the air condition at the high school just just as a hypothetical and I don't know do we have one that's been developed in the past and we're still abiding by that if not can we get that yeah we have uh what's called it's similar to what you're referring to I think as a long range facility okay um so like in in my world and the board's world that's kind of what we work off of that actually goes through the Department of Education um for approval uh and it helps guide how we will be able to allocate capital reserve funding okay so anything that's in the plan and approved by the department is eligible for capital reserve okay I I thought I might be just calling it something different from a commercial real estate stand we're saying the same thing okay yeah I just want to make sure and the last thing is um the supplemental thing I never I thought was always weird anyway so I don't know that's necessary but I did send out to the board like maybe I I know now here that we're going to have new agenda it AMS at each at the end of each um uh report by the Committees which is fine but maybe the old maybe having an old agenda item I don't know if that anything will fall in there because I know the example that you brought up when explain why we're doing this um was that there was a lot of other items that were brought of a lot of them were old agenda items so I just hope we're not missing that but I mean as far as a supplemental agenda it seemed kind of weird to me anyway Thank you so if I'm understanding things just so I want the board to be able to um engage the community what your uh volunteering to the board is not only to have new business in each one of those sections but also an old business either there or at the very end wherever you think it's appropriate to capture that so okay yeah so this this reading that was approved tonight was the first reading level committee will go back and and review and review it and certainly that suggestion will be memorialized with them y some of this will be repetitive so sorry about it but it's how I feel and I want it made known before this is taken away I have my known toist and the committee's ill advis initiative to dramatically revise the board's agenda by eliminating the supplemental section many of the arguments and questions I have put forth emanate from concern and Confused constituents much has been reported on my objections indeed these articles repeatedly warranted front page news in one local Penny St I'm sorry periodical but most of the reporting is concerningly incorrect so let me make my objections clear the proposal is untested a group of District families took time to challenge the committee's claim that proposed change represents common practice within New Jersey school district these families reported to me they have yet to find a New Jersey district that has adopted this type of plan not surprisingly when question directly our representative similarly could not identify a district that has adopted this plan meaning we are the Statewide beta test for this two what does the change mean policy committee meetings and other discussions have dealt into the merits and drawbacks of this proposal yet failed to yield a comprehensive argument for abandoning the wellestablished supplemental in favor of the conent board announcements senior board member acknowled supplemental as an integral part of our meeting throughout the 17e tenure highlighting its importance of reports operational function what are the practical differences between board announcements and supplemental which have served the district well for decades what topics are excluded from one and permitted by the other and vice versa if we cannot articulate even that how are we expected to properly evaluate the proposal The Proposal compon identify the differences between board announcements and supplemental more than a rebranding and reshuffling of the agenda so why the change thece for this contentious proposal was pled in January 2023 maybe February shortly after Miss fenza assumed the presidency for her first term she proposed repositioning the supplemental segment to follow public comments framing it as an experiment to give board members the last word at meting not me not is any way negatively toward missena or the board it was just a trial test this trial intended to span only a year now concludes with a proposition to Scrat supplemental entirely in favor of board announcements they concept that is both nebulous and untested how did we get here I was curious to reading the latest issue of one of the periodical that served our area that this entire was per embarrassing meetings which is exactly what I have been alleging my surprise comes from the fact that I have few admirers at this one publication that has served our community for decades but under different ownership as I say this Perle has put me on the front page every month this year and I was the subject of es skating misogynistic editorial too the record it's not okay to that 2020 for to call women hysterical quote unquote but back to the article this publication notes that in its reporting and based on extensive interviews with board members I have been abusing supplemental to air the district's Dirty Laundry to the public specifically allegations of racially intimidating messages during the last campaign and the use of social media again during the last Campaign which is ethically in truth I was frustrated in my attempts to address these ethical shortcomings first I was directed to address the board with ethics charges only through public comments that was wrong then when I tried to repeat those comments at the next meeting and improper motions to Jour was permitted by a conflicted president who conceded she is was is completely unfamiliar with the very rules that districts bylaws dictate we use to manage our meetings this publication I reference is controlled by something called The Corporation for New Jersey local media a not for profit or charity their Board of Governors and Advisory Board is chalk full of an impressive roster of former important luminaries from the state's Democrat Party establishments if you are so politically inin their website has a box where you can send donations now this periodical is not objective journalism were it I would have been asked for a comment before they went to of halfz Arles and one editorial so far this year in each article where I am the focus comments from the board member from other board members are manifest of course a partisan political publication can censor or slant its coverage as it sees fit to satisfy its readers and in this case it's donor based diversity of is not a requisite at such an organization as a public body we cannot simly operate we must tackle in public embarrassing and challenging issues we weren't sent here to act as cheerleaders or apologists for the district and relay only good news this publication and the proposals proponents either do not see our obligations to take on in public all issues we can or they don't to hear all voices heard and that might well be the Crux of the problem you see we say we support minorities and we claim to believe that after decades in the shadows the time has finally come to be heard but only when those minority voices are in line with our political partisan views well I'm sorry if I don't tellw that line my family didn't survive political persecution in order to do so or to be shut down I must generate a lot of donation dollars among the donor base proposing changes of such magnitude necessitates precise definitions and justifications especially in a public body study without them we being asked to vote on The Proposal without knowing where and to what effect it has been implemented elsewhere why the changes needed here and what the change means practically proposing changes of such magnitude necessitates precise definitions and justifications especially in a public body stud that policy Committee in my opinion has failed to provide such critical detail as we we if we as a public body cannot do so collectively and clearly articulate the basis and implications of this change it would be premature for to suggest for serious or consideration and public scru now too late thank you I actually do in a different thing um as I was watching um Dr br's U superintendence report um and being reflecting on our year I was really moved by the uh lunch the breakfast or lunch in the event that they H for the custodians and that the three hsas came together to provide this and I just wanted to take a moment to thank all the parents on the HS day that really make magic in our community and they work TIR and we're really grateful to them and also to the folks that came out to all these meetings throughout the because they can be long they can be bu but we really value their input so thank [Applause] you also of individuals who participate inary multidisiplinary project is it's extraordinary and have seen my kids go through so many different iterations walk through the hall top of head and mr's room and see him in his apron with this absolutely controlled and fabulous chaos going on with Paris paint over here cardboard over here and this magic coming together in the end and see a variety of different Generations um but this last one was certainly very special and I think again it seems to specifically is about I have one more thing um Dr roel thank you for recognizing the custodial staff everyone you have recognized people who are sometimes not seen but their work so thank you for that I was just going to touch real quickly on the policy conversation um I'm excited to see come out with some AI guidelines policies time we're actually going to go back into executive section so and we get a motion to go into executive SE oh two for the for the superintendent evaluation discussion yes yes so I use [Music]