##VIDEO ID:yCKj0QU2lk4## welcome to a meeting of the Board of Education of Somerset 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 out and that advanced notice required here 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 quot call please Mr Baker M Balor here M Cooper Mrs dgr PR Miss gills Mr Joy Miss Nathan Mrs Santoro Mrs Ry here and Mrs friend here thank you hey the open public meetings act authorizes a public body to exclude the public from that portion of the meeting at which specified topics are to be discussed under the circumstances where the public consideration of such topics will curely endanger the public or where the personal privacy or guaranteed rights of individuals whose activities or Affairs are to be discussed would be clearly in danger of UN evion 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 adjourned at public session to reconvene an executive session for the purpose of discussing the following Personnel student matters contracts negotiations and ration and I have a motion everybody to please rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands Nation God indivisible withy and justice for all thank you and I now going to hand it over to Dr brel for the report of the superintendent thank you Mrs frienda um I'm going to seed the beginning of the superintendent report to Claire Taylor Claire is a rising senior at Bernard's high school and she's here to update the board uh regarding some activities uh around the Green Team and Claire has a sincere interest in the environment and she seeks to continue her education uh in college after her senior year here um studying something uh in the environmental Sciences so um Claire come on up welcome [Applause] good evening everyone my name is Claire Taylor and I a rising senior and president of the green team at DHS I'm also the student liaison for berners B's environmental commission and green team over the last year I worked with faculty and students to revive the GRE team here we launched the save energy BHS initiative which is when we posted physical reminders near Every Light Panel in every room at BHS as a reminder for teachers and students to turn off the lights we also revived the rain Garden located in the annex Courtyard through donations from the community and work from students we around that time we had a week- long cleanup for the glass hallway Garden which all students were invited to help beautify and revive the gance last May about 20 of students took a trip to the autobond located on Hard Scrabble Road to weed invasive plants and plant many native plants in their Garden the afternoon of service gave students a new opportunity New Perspective to look at how they can help the local environment but today I'm here to share with you our biggest effort to dat so back in November We join next t a nationwide plastic film recycling challenge started by TX Corporation an eco-friendly decking company the nextrex program challenges any school in the nation to recycle plastic film such as Ziploc bags produce bags newspaper bags stuff like that but the challenge is to collect and recycle at least 1,000 lbs of plastic but in turn the school if they win receives funds for more environmental projects and a beautiful bench for the school grounds made entirely out of recycled plastic a,b sounds like a lot and it is a lot but we have engaged with five local businesses such as Starbucks Bookworm and B Boutique to help us with this challenge we also established three drop off hubs in the town of Burnville near the Burnsville Library police station and community in crisis for residents to drop off plastic so far we have collected about over 400 lb of plastic but now with the summer we've collected way more we have to meet this schoal by October 31st and we would like to get the whole town and District involved one easy idea would be to add notifications to shsd website and Friday folders about info of how residents students staff can recycle and how where they can collect and put this plastic for us and BMS is also planning on joining this challenge in November this challenge in the recycling programs is Nationwide if we reach this goal it would be put for our school and it just helps recycle and leave PL leave plastic out of landfills and we're not just doing recycling efforts this year we're kind of Shifting away from that in this school year we are looking to become have BHS become River friendly certified through rited Headwaters and bronze certified through Sustainable New Jersey we're also working to plant more native Gardens on campus and take more environmental field trips that is all I have for you now but thank you for this time listening to me and I can't wait wait to work with you to make VHS more sustainable [Applause] Claire I'd like to thank you for uh your thoughts tonight and sharing that information and Mrs DeMarco um I think we have a group to engage with here because I'm really even unbeknownst to um our facilities and operations committee uh this is some info that we're going to bring to them in September we've been working with um a third party to examine all of our utility bills um in order to assess um how eco-friendly each of the four schools are and how eco-friendly the Board of Education offices are and the long and short of it is um we're not as eco-friendly as we need to be and we have uh my estimation a long way to go uh but we are going to recommend in the near future to have um a third party come in and uh do some further analysis on some things that they may recommend uh that will work in concert with some of the initiatives that you're already talking about uh so this is a great opportunity uh for us at the at the board of education level to partner uh with you Clair and with the green team here at the high school uh so um now that I know that this is your passion you're in trouble because we're going to try to solicit you and the Green Team um and maybe even partner uh with our third party once we get to that point uh to learn a little more about what they do on their end and uh trust me that there are a host of career opportunities for you in this space and uh we're going to be able to connect you to that so thanks so much thank you you're [Applause] welcome it's always great to hear from our students we have had uh a bus bus summer here and I'm going to start off with uh some of our summer snapshots uh we have had a great time here this summer uh getting ready for uh the school year uh we have our uh new Web Master Connor who's on the slide here and and some of our um Team from our business office uh who have recently joined us and some of our long-standing employees that that are busy all summer long uh We've also been hosting uh professional development Institute courses throughout the school year as well and so uh things have been moving and things are uh really uh you know we're prepared uh for early September we have a photo up here of uh revived cheerleading squad cheerleading team which has uh started their preseason work today we have our teachers that are already either teaching uh professional development courses or teaching in our extended school year program or just getting a class Tom's ready and um you know we are uh busy and active um Athletics is now open this week uh we have our good friend Ricky uh and Chris Griffith who uh in a lighter moment are uh you know have uh Kermit the Frog and I believe that is um rap tatouille um so Chris Griffith is uh yeah Chris Griffith is uh The Man Behind the genis transition uh so he has been uh very very busy this summer um and continues to be busy as we roll uh that transition forward our student services has been um has been busy as well our bottom right here on that slide is Pari our new registar and um she has acclimated uh quite nicely uh to the school district as well so some fun fun activities just kind of me was having fun going around just take some taking some candy photos uh Keith poffer uh it's old news but uh was recently in the Press he was appointed um at our last board meeting uh to serve at uh Bedwell as the acting principal and jazma akola is his assistant and she started uh yesterday and so they are actively working together as they have been uh for most of the summer uh on tonight tonight agenda is the appointment of Mr Michael RoR uh to serve as an interim assistant principal at the Middle School uh he comes to us from the Clifton Public School District he was there since 2012 uh he taught at the middle school level um and was an administrative intern there he was a language arts teacher and um did Foster um some great connections to kids and some great connections to uh the families there as well um so he has been with us since August 1st um some news from a recent graduate from burner's high school fin spary uh was named to the United Soccer High School uh scholar All America team uh he was the only soccer player and the only athlete in the history of burnard's high school to be named to that um and that's a it's a really big deal um he played on our soccer team he also played on our our ice hockey team he also played on our tennis team and our golf team um he is majoring in economics at D University and uh knowing knowing Finn um as briefly as I have is he's very humble and very hard worker and one of his favorite quotes is that hard work beats Talent when talent doesn't work hard and I credits his family for the success that he's earned so it's great to see uh Finn receive that honor and it's great to hear uh about what he wants to do in the future congratulations Finn uh this week uh today and yesterday we held an administrative Retreat two days uh we uh brought in a a company called capturing kids heart hearts and they conducted what's called a leadership blueprint training uh so what we ended up uh what we ended up doing was each of the uh each member of our leader ship team uh which comprises school-based uh administrators and also District level administrators and even folks uh from our from our operations team we all asked uh between five and seven people for some feedback on uh a variety of uh leadership practices so uh folks were asked to uh choose words that describe Us in in about 13 different areas and um we ended up uh receiving um some some feedback from people whom we report to from people whom we work with and from people whom we supervise uh and they analyze our leadership practices in urgency and intensity the need to nurture criticality energy and expressiveness self-confidence being self-critical the need for encouragement dominance deference self-control aggressiveness the need for order and the need for Change and the uh feedback um sessions over the past two days were very productive where um every leader in the district was able to gain a better understanding of their own leadership and how their own behaviors impact not only their leadership but the outcomes of their departments or their schools or the areas that they oversee uh it was very impactful work uh it was very productive work and uh it was great to be able to kind of Hit the pause button um from a leadership perspective and just um focus you know on ourselves and on our on our work on behalf of uh the students and the board and parents and teachers here and staff members uh in this District uh so it was very impactful uh I myself have gone through this as well and uh as I've shared with you prior it's um certainly um a good opportunity for anybody to be able to do at least once in their career to get to get feedback like that to be able to understand uh what your what Your areas of strength are and to also understand you know what what areas that you could you know make some small changes to um in in hopes of having um some significant uh gains on the back end so uh it was a great retrieve very refreshing and um certainly Something That We're um taking further steps on um so that's important we have a group photo here uh lots of fun hot off the griddle we are moving forward with our free our our breakfast program School breakfast option for um all the students in the district and uh we will have a daily grab and go breakfast um in in all of our three schools we partner um very closely with mashos which is our food Services vendor and uh we're looking forward to offering this um for the coming school year um to the students uh in our charge we're back on the road we have um 26 Transportation routes we've increased our hazardous routes this year um inside of this budget which was uh one of my uh underlying goals uh 21 buses 17 drivers five bus AIDS three schools and we have one one primary goal every single day and that's the safe arrival of our students at school and the safe arrival for them at home from a facilities update you may have noticed that uh the track is nearing completion uh we ended up um Milling uh removing the old rubber track we then milled the surface all the way down conducted some site work um prior to repaving the original track surface um that has to sit uh for about 30 days so that track surface can cure so the oil can come out of it um in order to apply the rubber surface in the not too distant future um the rubber surface then cures for about a week or so and then we're able to stripe it uh with the appropriate lines and then move forward uh so we are we've hit a bit of a a hiccup a minor one uh we're just kind of waiting inine uh for the company that that goes around and applies a rubber surface uh they are expecting to apply the week of September 2nd um whereupon you know it'll cure and then line Etc so um right now we're about a week or two behind schedule where we anticipated to be but uh some weather delays from last week um kind of stopped the flow work uh when it comes to applying that rber surface but uh we're getting very close our maintenance team our custodial team have been busy uh cleaning classrooms uh maintaining our rback systems and and doing a host of other preventative work on our heating and cooling systems uh we've had fire department checks and and fire alarm checks and um we're focused on updating all the technology around uh those systems uh as well uh also in the area of facilities the lower fields at Turners High School which uh hosts softball team Field Hockey baseball uh we have been in the process of conducting um some work through our Engineers uh we appointed tnm in the spring uh they conducted some soil testing uh just so there's a deep and Broad understanding of what is under the grass uh which then informs like what our next level of work is uh there and in short there are a VAR iety of existing soils uh underneath the grass and there is Clay within the first 6 ft of of the grass which is impeding drainage in a significant way uh so we do have some remediation plans that we've presented to the facilities and operations committee uh we are close to uh the point where we can make a recommendation to the board regarding exactly how we're going to go out to bid and how we're going to remediate the work uh remediate those fields uh in short um and I know that U Miss Santoro will update you in her report uh we are looking to um dig trenches from uh across the length of the field so if you can imagine from like the third base line from the baseball field all the way to the building every 10 ft uh we will then uh in all likelihood recommend the installation of an under ground drainage system that will funnel the water almost in a French drain uh type of scenario funnel the water to um a catch Basin and then get moved into uh into a local screen uh the one lingering question we have is how wide The Trenches are going to be dug uh we have a traditional recommendation and we also have a recommendation that's called a slit uh cut trench which is a much more narrow trench uh where it does the same amount of of work but just you're moving less Earth and you're creating less mess and you are ultimately uh doing the work quicker uh so we're just waiting on a final proposal regarding uh the slit trenching uh prior to making a recommendation to the facilities and operations committee we do meet on September 11th uh and uh we do have um some cautious optim optimism that this work can be put out to bid after we meet with the committee and uh be conducted uh in advance of the spring season so um some of the desires that we have a is to install an undergr drainage system and B is to replace the pre-existing uh grass with uh saw in order to do that uh we need to conduct that work prior to the ground freezing uh which uh typically is somewhere in mid Jan January to mid-February um you know let's hope that we don't have a cold winner hope isn't a strategy but um you know that's uh that's kind of that's late plans and um you know I feel like everything that I've been apprised of from our Engineers that we can uh meet that in advance of of the spring season so uh more to come you know on that specific item um and um you know we do expect um some more information on U on our next committee meeting which is right around the corner so I'm happy about that we proposed a um goal setting workshop for the board in late June and we did uh have some goals that the board uh reviewed that night and reviewed um in the uh in in the days following that meeting and we have an academic uh two academic goals to show progress in decreasing achievement gaps by advancing academic performance through increased supportting areas of instruction for academic subgroups uh we will evaluate progress annually using all available assessment data and secondary goal to identify staff to leverage existing education by assessing interest and obtaining further CS to to expand our available dual enrollment and Career and Technical education course offering so um that's a goal on the academic side uh in the area of facilities uh we look to prioritize planning for stem Robotics and our CTE curriculum and to develop a prioritized long range facility plan and cost estimates by November in the area of communicate Community integration uh we look to support the belief that every Community member is a stakeholder and develop two to three Avenues to expand Community connectivity and engaged with all community members to communicate District outcomes and opportunities for further engagement with those residents with and without school age children by next June and in the area of culture and climate and social emotional learning identify and Implement tools and mechanisms to establish a baseline understanding of the student and staff experience in our school district to develop a future strategic plan to enhance workplace in school culture climate and social emotional nor so those are the four goals that we arrived at at our workshop and as I share they will be on the agenda tonight for approval every 3 years school districts um go through an evaluation process in the New Jersey Department of Education it's called quality single accountability Continuum it's in statute and we call it Q for short uh so we will be developing a qack team in September uh by the October meeting we will be approving our district performance review um and then we will be hosting the New Jersey Department of Education for site visits and a final determination in the early winter of 2025 uh we do need a u Board of Education representative on our qac team and I'll speak with uh the board about that in the near future artificial intelligence committee we are constructing a committee um that will uh include um some staff members from Bedminster as well uh we will be meeting in the fall uh and developing some policy recommendations for the policy in Personnel committee for their consideration and for their review uh as well we have received kind of a skeleton framework from our policy group and um you know we're going to begin our work in Earnest once uh the staff and just as a recap from the last board meeting we do have a final report for the OT um field lights focus group uh it's on the district website and uh you can go to the district tab uh and then hit superintendent and then OT field is uh the final report is in a document uh depository there and it's the 71824 report uh the board will be meeting in committees uh regarding um any land use matters um you know through their through their Council regarding any potential development on the property and lastly we are transitioning from Power School to Genesis if you're a parent in the district you received um some information from us regarding um transitioning to the district uh transitioning to gen getting a log on um and getting acclimated with the parent portal uh and also beginning the process of acknowledging and reading and and receiving um particular parent forms um in advance of the school year uh the students will be receiving uh similar process through uh their student email accounts tomorrow uh there's a student portal uh that they will be able to access uh their own information on as well their grades Etc uh similar to what the parents see not quite as in depth but that we overse um progress as well uh say they they will have that information emailed to them tomorrow with instructions on how to uh gain access to the portal through their District credentials we will be hosting a parent training for any of those parents that need it uh next Tuesday night here at the media center at 6 p.m. uh and student schedules will be available for those students students whose parents have completed all of the required recognitions and sign offs in advance um those schedules will be available on and after August 28th uh we do have a dedicated support line at um Genesis support at shsd.org um so if there's any any lingering questions parents can always um get some information there and from what I understand that have been uh communicating with that email address as recently as an hour ago um and also as recently as an hour ago we have several hundred parents that have already completely signed off on all the forums and they're ready to go so that's encouraging 24 hours into this process of 48 hours in so um so that is my report thank you Dr brel and Mr Grand would you like to recognize and retire like what okay whereas Douglas L Douglas Lucas has been employed from August 1996 through August 2024 as a facilities director and whereas he exemplifies expertise commitment and professionalism to his duties and now therefore Beth resolved that the somerset Hill School District and Board of Education recognized Douglas Lucas's retirement effec of September 1st 2024 and extend to him congratulations and best wishes for a happy healthy and enjoyable retirement [Applause] congratulations and good luck to Mr lus um and thank you Mr gramr um we are going to move into public comments for actionable agenda items uh 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 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 is a misunderstanding or inaccuracy the board president or superintendent May address the comment in accordance with New Jersey statute the board will not discuss 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 the speaker's comments thank you in advance for your input and Mr Marco do you have your timer okay so Mr Marco will have her timer set for three minutes and we um encourage speakers to um use that for reference to see how much time you have remaining is there anyone who would like to make a public comment on an actionable agenda item no okay so then can I get a motion to close public comments Mr Joyce and Miss Soro thank you very much next I would like to move into the approval of the minutes so I'm going to need an motion to approve the P the public input and action and executive meeting minutes for the June 26th meeting and the special meeting minutes for the June 24th and July 22nd meeting can I get a motion um Miss Cooper in a second Miss Nathans and are there any discussions regarding the minutes no okay en roll call Mr Mar Please Mr Baker yes Miss Balor yes Miss Cooper yes Mrs yes but of staing from the 24th and the 27th June 24th and July 22nd yes Miss gills yes yes Mr Joyce yes Miss Nathan yes to June 26th and obst standing for the other two weeks so you're voted yes just for June 26th correct okay Mrs Santoro yes Mrs Ry don't hate me I know I missed one but I can't I think it was the 24th so Iain on um I don't recall right now but do you want yeah I can do you want me to check say yes if you weren't in attendance yes so sorry you can votee yes even you were not in attend then fine good yes and Mrs friendman yes motion carries okay thank you so much and Mr Baker we'll move on to the finance committee report please um thank you the the finance committee met um last Wednesday for about an hour uh everybody was in attendance um and Mrs Santoro substituted for Mrs Nath along with Dr BR and Mrs DeMarco we talk about eight separate items um so first item we talked about is a Personnel item and I'll leave that we talked about um the retirement of Mr M Mr Lucas and the change in title for the new job so I'll leave that to the Personnel committee to talk about that that's personnel number four we talked about the trage system that Dr brel just outlined um I'm going to talk about the finances I'll leave the engineering to Mrs Soro with some help if she needs it um the main impact is we budgeted money for the Improvement so looks like the improvement from what I've read could be between 300,000 to a half a million and what Dr goel uh mentioned in in his report it's important that we get this approved by the Fall if we're going if we're going to do it so we can get it done by January um and from everything I've read it seems to be a very workable project and I certainly agree with the um with the approach so we'll have more on that and we'll have more next month too after we get some more feedback on this the smaller drainage next item we talked about was the audit which is going to start next month on on the 16th uh so Mrs DeMarco's office will be heavily involved in our audit this is the financial audit of the school year that just closed uh and then we'll get a we'll get a very thick booklet and they will come and give us a quick overview probably using December or January so we'll get that also we talked about the change orders for the track um that's item number 28 on the finance it is a fi you we're going to um spend an extra $10,000 to uh resurface the long jump and the triple jump tracks which were um not done with what we've done so far so that's $10,000 um that not is critical to get done on time but I'm sure it's going to be done at the same time as a new as a new rubber service we're also going to put you ever been on the track and and walking on the track around the back of the track toward the fence there's there's um it's not grass it's wood and debris and tree Li it's a mess so so athletes and Spectators can walk around the track in all directions so we're going to clean that up and pave it to be a sidewalk just like the rest of the track so that's going to cost another $26,000 um in the change order now we had $50,000 in as a contingency so we've still got $133,000 left so it's not costing the board any more money the next next item is and it's on the agenda items 25 26 and 27 we've developed a sidebar agreement the for three new sens for coaches one is the assistant a second assistant volleyball coach at the high school the next one is a head coach at the Middle School uh for for wrestling and an assistant coach for wrestling at the m school so that's on the agenda those and it's in three items so we'll be voting on that we also voting on number 21 which is a print management system it's not the copiers these are the printers that are scattered around the district and we um Mrs demarcco said we're spending between 25 and $3,000 on the toner and the cost to change all this and so the company that are director technology found can do this for $110,000 a year so that seems like a no-brainer so we're going to prove that tonight and agenda item 24 is approval of a donation of $4,000 from the Mountaineer booster club for a new wrestling match Matt for the middle school it's a slightly used mat and this is a great price and will help our wrestling program so we really appreciate that and the last side talked about was transportation and Dr BR already mentioned that and Mr santor is going to talk a little more about that so I will close my report with that mad chairman okay great thank you so much Mr Baker I'm going to ask for a motion to approve action items number 1 through 32 on the agenda Miss Nathans and Mr and a second for Mr Baker um and discussion on any of the items in finance I have a quick question I'm sorry Mr Baker you mentioned um the director of Technology found a cheaper way to manage the toner needs we have been spending 25 to 30,000 on toner for the past few years so we were paying 25 to 30,000 a year or is that an accumulative amount over like two three years one year okay thank you is there anybody else no okay the roll call please miss miss Bor yes Miss Cooper yes Mrs g Grand Pre yes Miss gills yes Mr Joyce yes Miss Nathans yes Mrs Santoro yes Mrs Ry yes Mr Baker yes and Mrs frienda yes motion carries okay thank you um Mrs Santoro facili in operation all right so um the committee met on August 14th everybody was in attendance and a lot of what we discussed has already been covered so I will go through it um and just touch on some of it at a high level it's already been talked about but I will start with the BHS lower fields and we'll we'll talk about that for a moment um Dr brochel and Mr Baker have um given you some information on on that but our engineering firm spent a lot of time out there to understand what is going on with the water retention and um they um in order to determine the permeability of the soils underlying the site they performed four percolation tests and um based on these tests it was determined that there is this twoot level of clay that starts approximately 4 feet below the ground and then a sand layer underneath the clay which makes drainage very difficult and slow which is why we've been having the issues out there so um they came up with five different options and I will just read through those so that everybody knows what the choices were um but you've heard what the recommendation was so they talked about Iration uh top soil soil replacement which would have been like the top 12 in um deep soil areation underground the underground drain system the underground storage system and then Earth Works which would have been 8 ft of soil replacement so very significant so um based on the um review of administration and the recommendations um from the engineering firm we are recommending further consideration of number four the underground drain system and um this system is going to allow for the collection of the storm water and um it'll allow the flooded areas to uh infiltrate the trench at the edge of the field and then the water would be moved into the river correct creek creek so and in order to install the system we're going to do um there were the two options there were the wider trenches and the smaller um slip option which is what the engineering firm is recommending and what administration is recommending so um they will and as Dr brosel said every 10 ft install a slit that will allow this drainage system to be installed and the water will be moved off the field so the committee is awaiting the final uh proposal for that as Dr brel said it's forthcoming soon hopefully by September um we did let the engineer know that we're hoping we can get that so we can get the project moving if all goes well as you've already heard the board the committee supports moving this project forward at the end of this calendar year getting it done you know moving it into January a little bit as needed to do the sing and hopefully having everything ready by the spring if because of timeline that doesn't work out we will do it as early as possible in the spring or Dr brochel will find an appropriate time to do it based on usage of the field um so that is that topic that was um the bulk of our meeting we did talk about our district engineers and administration is recommending that we appoint tnm as our engineering firm of record so that is on um actually we just did that didn't we we just did that y um they did an excellent job on the lower field project and the administration would definitely use them again for any projects that we needed engineering assessment or recommendations and the committee fully supported that um we've touched on the turf lights uh a little bit Dr brochel has gone through the process that we used the committee will FNL will be meeting with our land attorneys tomorrow just to go through any um final questions we have with regards to the project and um I believe finance will be meeting with them as well and then after we have had the opportunity as committees to meet with the attorneys we are recommending a special meeting to be held in September at which point the board would vote whether we would approve the administration to initiating the process of procuring and installing the turf lights okay we we got the BHS track update so I would just say you know we're we're very pleased with that project and uh looking forward to seeing our lovely new track um um we talked about transportation in the superintendent report um Mrs degr is going to touch on the director of operations breakfast is ready to go so we're pleased to hear that and happy that all kids will have the opportunity to have a full stomach before the start of day and uh we did briefly touch on the use of allot third FL with some new employees joining us on the administrative side we have had some of our administrative team move up to the third floor of allot and um you know we will talk about expanding that use over time it is a beautiful building overall and the third floor is definitely unique um and we did talk about the BHS bathrooms as they've been brought up over um previous meetings the bathrooms in the a300 b200 cafeteria um gender neutral by the andex and nurses areas are all open every day all day outside of those areas bathrooms are available when we have the faculty coverage to monitor um so this you know we need to work on making sure that we are reducing vandalism and vaping in the bathroom so Dr brochel and Dr Nigel are coming up with ways to work with the student body on those challenges and also finding additional coverage and um they are committed to doing that and and working through this Challenge and will'll give us an update as aoam okay done yeah okay thank you so much um Mr Marco I believe you have a um resolution to read in great so for fno number five we you will add approve International exchange student resolve that the sumerset Hills Board of Education upon the recommendation of the superintendent approve the forign an exchange student from Spain to attend attend Bernard's High School for the dates to be determined by the superintendent for the 2425 school year okay thank you so much so then at this time I would like to ask if I can get a motion to approve action items number one through five on the agenda Mr Soro and a second Miss R and is there any discussion regarding FF I have a question that's not directly related to those items that kind of directly a couple weeks ago a couple months ago we talked I don't know remember what committee oh thank you um we talked about Sanitary products in the in the in the middle school and high school bathrooms are they in there now or do they I have not checked but they should be in for the store Year all right just wanted to confirm that thank you okay just I just want to say thank you for looking into the bathrooms and following up on that because it has been ongo and Sy had brought it up and I know it had been a concern of mine as well so thank you okay thank you is there anybody else okay then can we have roll call please miss Cooper yes Mrs D yes Miss gills yes Mr Joyce yes Miss Nathans yes Mrs Soro yes Mrs Ry yes but it's stain on number five Mr Baker uh yes St member five M Bor yes and Mrs friend yes motion car okay and just as now that we have approved those items um we did just approve the 2024 2025 District goals um so those will replace the 23 24 District goals that are currently printed on our agenda and those will appear monthly so um thank you everybody for working on that um and now I'm going to open the public hearing for the nurses Services plan um and if there is any or discussion related to that plan we can have that now no okay are there any public comments on the nursing plan you okay then I would like to ask for a motion to close the public hearing and adopt the 2024 um District Services nursing I get a motion Miss Nathan's and a second okay great thank you so much a second [Laughter] I'm sorry um yes okay so then we need roll call for the do I need another motion or okay so then I need a motion to approve the somerset Hill School District nursing Services plan for 2425 Miss Right Miss e thank you and I need discussion I need further discussion okay this de pray yeah M gills yes Mr Joyce yes Miss Nathans yes Mrs Santoro yes Mrs Ry yes Mr Baker yes Miss Balor yes Miss Cooper yes and Mrs Renda yes motion carries okay thank you so much um Miss Cooper curriculum please curriculum committee met Wednesday August 14th for about an hour and 15 minutes all committee members attended and we were joined by Dr brel and Dr Butler Dr Butler began the meeting by Pres presting a series of options for the board to consider regarding summer programming in 2025 historically we've run programs for our multilanguage Learners or MLS anecdotal data suggests that these programs have enabled some struggling kindergarteners considered for retention to successfully advance to first grade in recent years Esser funds have enabled us to provide additional programming for non-ml students since Esser funding is expiring we need to rethink our plan for summer programming in 2025 and Beyond to this end Dr Butler presented several options for summer programming at each school we have run some of these options in previous years others she proposed to address the unmet needs of our current students at Bedwell she proposed a six-week program on liter literacy skills for Title One students a six-week program for Rising ml kindergarteners a 4-we program providing individualized content-based support in math for first through fourth graders and a sixe program on literacy skills for ML students not eligible for title funding at BMS Dr Butler proposed a math lab and a lab in English and language arts as well as a six we program for ML students that will include two weeks of math instruction two weeks of science instruction and two weeks of History instruction at the high school Dr Butler proposed a program for newcomer ml students that will include two weeks of programming in world history algebra and geometry a program um supporting Credit Recovery in ela and math a program supporting literacy for MLS who are not newcomers a program for sip students to prepare them for their future classes a summer course on Geometry for math advancement for qualified 8th through 11th graders and a one-week college application boot camp for Rising seniors the committee strongly supported continuing the programs with records of success and exploring funding for these the proposed new programs the committee agreed that the focus should be on programming for struggling students but were particularly excited by the college application boot camp for Rising seniors and the summer geometry class historically some students have paid to take a summer geometry course out of District to advance in math and creating an IND District geometry course would make the the ability to advance in math far more Equitable for interested eth to 11th graders um we also discussed the need for prompt and early notification of parents um of of the par the the families of students um identified for these programs you know it's can could be some sometimes I think this year it's been a little was a little late we want to make sure that they're they're notified a little earlier so that they can plan accordingly um next we discussed updates to our curriculum which we'll be voting on tonight in in item uh number six our teachers and supervisors have been busy writing multiple curricular updates in ela math and other content areas all summer because some teachers were unable to complete their curricular writing assignments in the future we may need to consider strategies for facilitating completion of this work the next items on theenda agenda were uh field trips and professional development and school business requests no concerns were raised by the committee regarding any of these requests uh Dr Butler briefly reviewed a document on the 2024 to 2025 Essa Esa Grant funds the district was awarded um that explains how the district is using these funds we just approved these funds which are listed under number 16 in the finance section of the agenda briefly we're using Title One funds to support a bilingual teacher at Bedwell title two funds for professional development and literacy title three funds to support the elevation platform and sheltered instruction training title four F funds for summer programming for our newcomer MLS and Title Five funds to support a bilingual consultant Bedwell um next she mentioned that we'll be voting on the professional development and mentoring plans as item seven on our agenda today these documents um which she shared prior to our committee meeting detail the district's process for conducting professional development and facilitating staff mentoring she then gave us an update on the status of State guidance on comprehensive Equity plans because the New Jersey Department of Education has yet to provide guidance on how to update or create new comprehensive Equity plans it's giving districts the option to extend the implementation of their previous plan by providing a statement of assurance that the current plan will continue to be implemented this statement is on the agenda in item 15 for approval tonight finally Dr Butler informed the committee of a new graduation requirement for students in the class of 2025 the state has recently passed a law mandating that students and their families submit a free application for federal student aid or FAFSA form as a graduation requirement families who do not wish to submit a FAFSA form can also wave this requirement by signing a waver and that concludes my report okay thank you so much Miss Cooper um at this time I'd like to ask for a motion to approve action items number one through 15 on the agenda Mr B A and Miss Cooper a second is there any discussion regarding the curriculum I have a question yes M item number 15 what is this um sorry comprehensive Equity plan I know we're carrying it over from last year but I I can't tell you what it is I could speak to that um the comprehensive Equity plan is something that every District it's it's a compliance piece that we have to say that we are following all of the um policies that the state puts forth with regard to um any kind of equity um there's an entire list of them that we are up to date in all our policies so we are fine that what way the last time we did a new comprehensive Equity plan we looked at a lot of different things we've resolved all of those issues we have no ongoing issues one of the biggest ones that we had several years ago when we instituted a plan was we didn't have um rooms in the buildings for um lactating um parents who are either students or teachers so we've addressed that so that we make sure that we have spot for um anyone who needs to use those facilities that was one of our major things in our um last plan so until the state comes out with a new um template format we're just kind of it's kind of status quo for now okay thank you thank you is there anybody else this um on the on the fast um how did we do with regard with how many percent actually you we waved it for last year we didn't have to do it last year so it's for this coming year so nobody did right okay because I read a lot of Articles quoting that under schools excuse me did you know only half of the kids did it you know and we always encourage our students to to fill out the FSA form um you know it's a benefit to them and to their families um but this does give us the option that the families can wave that if they don't want to fill out the so when will they be when will they be notified and when when will they start filling it out um the faps of forms have been a little bit delayed they were delayed last year they're being delayed again this year so um we will have someone who will come in and and speak to our students and amilies we do that every year um we've Al also done it um in previous years in Spanish as well um and we have people there who can help them fill out the forms but um this it is being delayed again this year okay hopefully next year though get everything it's a hard it's a hard form to fill out I don't need to tell everybody here but you also most important thing is don't forget your PIN number if you have multiple children most important thing is your parents have to have to have their income tax yes because um as a volunteer I help a lot of lower income people and the reason they're doing a taxes because they forgot to do it and they're stuck in this FAS hole so so hopefully the parents will understand that it it's a two-step process one of the things that's important to remember too about the FAFSA is that um if your child is um eligible for some kind of academic um award or Grant um often times the school will will require you to fill out the F of um forms so I'm wondering if the low numbers last year related to the struggles of class and process last last year um the low the low percentage completion I mean it was such a struggle a it a struggle plus it wasn't it wasn't mandatory you know I don't think people knew from when I read the articles they knew they they could we out so you know because there's a lot of people who don't who don't need it people who who are not coming to college so the groups of people so you know it's it's a tough law for the state to mandate you know graduation on it you know it's going to it's very difficult for us to H hit 100% it's possible but you know we're we're going to have to start now a student can also wait themselves if they're 18 and um if if for some reason um we can't contact a parent to fill it out a counselor in conjunction with the student can fill it out that's great so there's a few different kind of uh fail saes process there maybe I'm not sure what it is exactly Miss did you have yeah I have a question for Miss Cooper so for the summer course on Geometry um can we coordinate that with for the kids that are yes we we're doing that we're in close contact with them if we go through with this thank you and all of those are kind of still up in the air well yeah I I definitely understand this it's the wish list of what we would like to have happen which would be wonderful sound wonderful y than thank thank you is there anybody else that has anything okay roll call please Mrs Santoro yes Mrs Ry yes Mr Baker yes M Balor yes Miss Cooper yes Mrs stevee yes M gills yes Mr Joyce yes Miss Nathan yes and Mrs Rena yes motion cares okay thanks so much and personel Mr G um personnel and policy committee met on the 13th for about an hour and 15 minutes in person and all members were in attendance we are voting on a number of personnel items on the agenda this evening one of them being um the new assistant uh principle that started at BMS um seems to be going very well so far from what we're hearing and we welcome him to the district um we did also talk about a change that is there for the director of enrichment academic support and multilingual learner programs it's um there for approval this evening but the position will continue to have oversight as well over social studies and World languages at this time um we also talked as people have alluded to about um some changes that are on the agenda after the retirement of Mr Lucas um so what we have chosen to recommend is the removal of the director of facilities and the coordinator of Transportation position and combining those position responsibilities into a new director of operations position um which would merge our transportation and our facility departments together um and despite searching internally and externally we do thankfully have a internal candidate to recommend on the agenda this evening for that position um which is great and we also talked to the committee about continuing to um Mentor um for all positions for the future to ensure that we have consistency and um chances for our team to continue to develop um with that we also talk about the addition of a secretary um for operations as being a new position that would also be on the agenda with a job description for approval um to help to support the director of operations um we're hopeful that that may also be able to happen as a bus up and other pieces and things like that um but that is there as well there is also a director of technology which is being retitled from a manager that has no Financial impacts but it is aligning with industry standards um in terms of personnel um I believe that is it okay thank you so much Mr Grand and now I would just like to have a motion to approve action items number 1 through 22 on the agenda I'll make Mr Grande and second Miss R and any discussion roll call please oh no sorry Mrs R yes Mr Baker yes M Bor yes Miss Cooper yes Mrs D Ro yes Miss gills yes number six C abstain Mr Joyce yes Miss Nathans yes Mrs Santoro yes and Mrs Renda yes motion carries okay thank you and right back to you instr I for policy okay so in terms of policy we talked about a number of um discussion points and second reading um and plans for the future um so we started with a discussion surrounding the facility use policy um we wanted to take a look at it and take an initial review of IT considering that the light study has been completed um and look at if there was any beginnings of language that we wanted to try and enhance um with our current overall use of facilities not just with respect to any potential for future lights um there were many recommendations that were made with ongoing discussion um with potential um discussions in the future of should there be caps should there be rental um caps um in terms of our facilities should there be hours for consideration who should we allow to use our facilities um and what sorts of um things could we do to enhance any future policies in regards to how much work has gone into our initial light study um if we choose to go forward with lights at any point um so there is still a significant amount of work to be done done with that policy but an initial draft was reviewed by the committee and we will continue to review it um and make considerations in the future meetings um we also put into second reading um the resident and non-resident student policy the substance abuse regulation the conduct of a board meeting um and they were all moved forward there was discussion around board norms and the conduct of a board meeting um by law and where certain topics would be best addressed in upcoming meetings and that was clarified amongst the committee there was discussion as Dr brel alluded to to artificial intelligence and the committee being developed for this fall and we received an initial skeleton that will be worked on for future meetings and future policy development and then we also received a nice packet to read which is alert 223 um which goes over stra Esme alerts for discussion in September and looking at um future policy changes related to that alert we also had a discussion related to drone use there was a request for by an organization to film parts of graduation um in using a drone and we did not have a policy to speak to drone use on campus so the committee is recommending that we review um other District's policies on drone use and consider putting into place a drone use policy for Somerset Hills in the future um and we've then reviewed um our current ending agenda items so that was it okay thank you so much um so then at this time I would like to ask for a motion to approve action item number one on the agenda Mr Grand and a second Miss Nathans and discussion regarding policy I have a question regarding the AI um so stu asme um did the skeletal policy I guess so is that was that their intent to have the each district come up with their own so they're not they're not going to elaborate further on therea so you'll get more Intel once um once the committee is prepared uh they did a lot of work on it but they also recognized that each diff each district is likely in a different space um in a host of different areas so they want the districts to customize it to their liking so um so they did do some significant work I would say but they did you do all did was that is that available to the is I have was that part of the package it wasn't uh I I shared it with the policy Committee just to kind of let them know like what we're going to start working on I can certainly share it with the full board um no issues there okay yeah okay great I'll put in the back thanks okay yes Mr Paper um on the thr Dr did the person last year I can't remember were they going to it for their personal use or were they going to sell sell they weren't going to sell it it was going to be used um in order to support an initiative of a local Foundation um that would that raises money to give back to the school district uh so they they wanted the just the footage of the graduates as part of you the pitch so I guess one of the things that drone whatever we come up with would be you know are they use it for personal use nonprofit or profit something that I would want to know as a certainly yeah the proposed policy I think is more is heavy on insurance and and coverage and liability Etc uh but we can certainly examine that and off the top of my head I can't recall if that's in there or not but we can certainly uh put that uh provide that feedback to the committee thank you is there any I want to um just commend the committee for the Intensive work that they put into um looking at the substance abuse policy and updating it to reflect I mean not only things going on in our district but also looking at what other schools in the area are doing in terms of our policies and and really always sort of looking toward less punitive and more you know instructional I that's not the best way to say it but you know that just punishing a child is probably not the best thing to do and that you know we certainly don't want to disrupt children's um education or want to disrupt it as little as possible when it comes to a substance abuse issue so you know thank you to the entire committee for all the work and I know and also um um the high school administration in particular has been very involved in this to that end Miss right the the instructional piece the the councelling and the support and that has that our district has built in kind of ancillary to the policy um but that will be a Hallmark of the policy public yeah okay is there anybody else discuss okay um didn't we always have a counseling component for the substance abuse consequences yes and I said that was a Hallmark that's what I thought okay um now Dr brel what's the rationale for lowering the consequences when we have vaping issues in the high school if we have those issues why are we lowering the consequences I think that the consequences in the current policy as it's con um do get to the point where they're very very excessive and in the opinion of the administration and I believe uh the majority of the committee it is counterintuitive when kind of examining student achievement and student connectivity um so we wanted to have a policy that was reflective of um expectations and consequences but not extending students out of school for such significant periods of time as the current policiy is okay is there anybody else for policy yeah Mr yeah I want to commend the committee and administration on really interjecting um the facilities usage when it comes to the lights into the policy discussions I think overall the facilities uh conversations are positive and it just shows the amount of work that you're doing with the community and listening and how you we collectively uh really want to inject that into the policy uh for the comfort of everybody so I think that's an important piece thank you very much is there anybody else for policy no okay then roll call please yes Mr Baker yes Miss Balor yes Miss Cooper yes Mrs D yes Miss gills no Mr Joyce yes Miss Nathans yes Mrs Sor yes and Mrs Bron yes K okay thank you so much we will now move into our second public comments period for the evening H comments are welcome at this time on any topic please state your name and address comments are limited to 3 minutes at 3 minutes you'll 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 deals there is a misunderstanding or inaccuracy the board president or superintendent May address the comment in accordance with New Jersey statute the board will not discuss matters regarding specific Personnel a reminder for all parties in 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 the speaker's comments thank you in advance for your input and again I will just direct anybody that will be speaking to Mr maros timer and to please reference that over the course of your comments so that you know how much time you have remaining is there anybody who would like to make a public comment please uh Greg to Grand price 7 FL laot Court in burnard hille I just want to say thank you um for the emphasis and the uh time and consideration being given to facility improvements right now it certainly I think is appreciated by um those of us who' have seen fields and Facilities kind of go uh you know less cared for over the last however many years um I do want to also say that it's my understanding that the school has a lease on the tennis courts uh and they're in pretty shape too and I I don't think we're at the end of it yet I hope those kids get a chance to play on something that's a little more representative of what uh we're trying to do for other facilities improvements so thank you thank you very much for your comment is there anybody else that would like to make a public comment at this time oh okay well then can I get a motion to close public comments Please Mr granday and a second Miss Ry thank you okay we will move into supplementary matters the views and Ops that are may be expressed by individual members of the Somerset Hills Board of Education during supplementary matters or solely those of the individual board members and do not reflect the views opinions policies regulations and or positions of the Somerset Hills Board of Education and or any other individual members of the board is there anybody that has anything for supplementary matters okay well I will just say that I view this meeting as a kickoff to a new school year and I am very excited to to see what that brings for us um and with that I will need a motion toour make a motion to Mr Baker and a second Miss Soro and then all in favor okay thank you everyone have a great evening [Music]