what's Shane's Shane Shane we on good okay we're going to open this evening's meeting meeting announcements 20 notice meeting notice the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the sparta board of education has caused notice of the time and place of this meeting to be published in the New Jersey Herald The Star Ledger tap into spa.net and the notice of the meeting has been posted on the sparta Township School District website thank you roll call Joan Miss Kier Miss gagnan present miss lonsky here M MCM here Mr pesi miss seander here Dr Serrano here Mr wood here Mr Morris here we all rise for pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all we are now going to conven to close session for legal student matters negotiations among other things okay a motion to go into Clos session motion thank you second second all in favor I okay we back by s see you then all right call back into session roll call Joan Miss Carly here here miss gagman here miss lonsky here miss McMichael here here Mr pesi here miss cander Dr Serrano here Mr wood here Mr Morris here okay we're going to start tonight with District recognition with the district's uh finest teachers of the Year I'll turn over to Dr Beck yeah this is always one of the uh one of my favorite board meetings of the year uh a couple months ago I announced at board meeting who the educators of the year were and tonight we're going to officially recognize them so with that I'll invite up the uh the principles and the recipients over to the podium and and we'll go [Applause] through you have it we're good good evening everyone my name is uh Mr Miller I'm the principal of Alpine Elementary School don't forget I got to pay you later uh we have two recipients this year uh very proud of both of them the first one is our instructional a our Educational Services professional of the Year Mr Callum mcau Callum and for my two my two recipients this year Callum is a Sparta graduate so he went through our school system so we're very proud of him after graduating he went out to Sussex County Community College for Child Development and he graduated with honors we've had the benefit of uh working with Callum for the last two years he started out as a instructional aid for our esy summer program then he was a cafeteria recess Aid and he always wanted to do something more he had something in his head that he wanted to contribute more now he wanted to be an instructional Aid in our classrooms and I Cal why do you want to be an aid but the reasons why and this is what got to me he wants to work with children who have autism or learning difficulties he wants to return the favor that his teachers did for him he wants to make his teachers proud of the person he has become and to be a positive role model for his current students he wants to make a difference in the students lives by providing compassion and understanding he wants to be a positive role model for the people in the aut who have autism who are on the autism spectrum to show them that they can overcome the impossible because of his experience in his life with having a disability so they don't have to feel alone so when I read those I'm like that's why we wanted Callum to be part of our school um every day he comes with a smile he has a poll going through the school if we're going to have a delayed opening no school the next day he's always asking everyone and he's really is an inspiration last year um Callum was in a newsp newspaper article because he does a lot with autism awareness and if you see some of our teachers in our school we have sweatshirts and t-shirts he designed the sparred ahead under the autism um puzzle so we really wanted to really recognize him for doing that and then he also wanted to kind of recognize some of his teachers that he had who came through the sparta system uh Mrs Patricia bra pren Pam Conlin ketta uh mangina gulai Mafia Jenny C Mrs cre who is here this evening Jane Hines Mary Picola and Janet Ferraro those are people that he wanted to make proud and Callum I can say you are doing that the domination quotes that people said about him he's always giving 110% of himself he's openly shared his life story with the school community and is an advocate for the Autism Awareness he's always eager and willing to learn and grow within his job assignment what I admire most about him is he makes it as his mission to be better and do better in absolutely everything he does whether it's helping a student navigate a challenging social situation or even just assisting a teacher with copies in the short time that Callum has been with us he is a huge part of what makes Alpine such a special place so we really want to thank him and we love having him part of our school and I must say that Alpine is very fortunate to have him as part of our staff so thank you very much Callum did very well cuz he's a crier so usually he cries so he didn't we did that my next person that is our governor teacher of the year Mrs Kimberly Benson Kimberly's family is here tonight her son Julian her daughter Amina and her husband Mr Benson they are also in the audience so thank you another Sparta graduate um that comes through our system and is making a difference she got her bachelor's degree at Montclair State and uh family and childhood studies early and Middle School uh middle uh School childhood this is her third year in Sparta but she's an experienced teacher she's been teaching for more than 15 years she's passionate educator about providing a quality inclusive education to all Learners the nomination quotes because we got a couple nominations from Mrs Benson it's because of her efforts and her genuine enthusiasm for Education that comes through on a daily basis her enthusiasm creativity openness and efficiency she has instilled and reinforced the sometimes forgotten power of just simply being kind Mrs Benson is seen as her students uh at her students Sports practices games dance recital and cheering all of her kindergarteners on the inspiration and devotion she instills in our children will not only serve the better them better as individuals but elevates the generation to come for the sparta Community she is an asset to Sparta in Alpine and we are lucky to have her she makes the students feel safe to be themselves she radiates positivity I must say every single day she always has a smile on her face she brings her two kids to the school carrying them in from the car and all her bags but she always has a smile and a kind word and it's like what do you need what do you want her words her students are like my family and she loves spending her days with them that's the people that we want working with our students on a daily basis especially our youngest ones we feel this is a very well-deserved honor for Mrs Benson she's an asset to alpar and our students and she's a strong advocate for children we are thrilled to call her our colleague and we look forward to the many years of continued teaching of our children in [Applause] Sparta good evening I'm James hinig I'm the inter principal here at Mohawk Avenue School I've been here for just a few weeks actually and I'll be interim principal here for about 20 more hours so I do bring a very limited perspective to the table here however the uh the Educators that we're going to be honoring tonight have deeply impressed me even in the short time that I've been here and I know that the honor that they're getting is very well deserved even from my my brief experience here um Dr castorina is going to help me with the the first uh honoring which is of Mrs lordis franker for Education Services professional she's the school social worker despite the fact that I have had you know very few interactions with lordis it became just abundantly evident just after a few minutes of conversation what a caring intelligent professional she is she's just dedicated to the uh social emotional well-being of our students and we're just very fortunate to have her counseling uh the students that she works with but also having a deeper influence on upon the entire Mohawk Avenue School community so um Dr Cina is going to add a little bit more detail to that but I just wanted to give my two cents hi I'm Adrien castorina and I'm the director of the Special Services Department in the district it's a true honor to speak about Mrs Frank Ander this evening on behalf of our department as a school social worker on the child study team at the elementary level Mrs Frank Ander is often found working with parents who are finding out information about their child's disability for the first time this information can be both shocking and overwhelming Mrs Frank andery works with our parents in both a non non-judgmental and compassionate manner she helps calm parents fears about their child riding a bus for the first time walking into an unfamiliar building or meeting new classmates at the age of three years old this can be very frightening both for this student and for their parents some may associate Mrs Frank andary with alpine Elementary School however she spends significant time at Mohawk Avenue as well here she serves as a child study team member a mentor and a consultant to her colleagues she is called upon in all buildings when needed to assist uh whether it be for a risk assessment or a threat assessment or to help cover a colleague who is out on leave she never says no at times she is called upon simply for her input with a challenging situation I can say from my own lens that Mrs Frank andary puts students first always I hear uh parents asking for her to join a meeting uh for a student who has been off her case load for years just um her presence seems to help make a situation just a bit easier lastly who can forget her therapy dog Rosie together they have brought smiles to our students faces across the district Lord as we are so lucky to have you with us in Sparta congratulations on this special recognition thank you Dr castrina and congratulations again Lis our Governor's teacher of the year for Mohawk Avenue School is Mr Kyle Markovich who teaches health and physical education so Kyle also teaches uh at Helen Morgan and he has a very difficult time leaving the building every day because as he walks through the Halls the kids are clamoring to talk to him to connect with him one more time so I commend him for just arriving on time at Helen Morgan every day but I'll give you just a glimpse of uh one of those experiences when I happened to be in the hall as he was making his way um out the door so he happened to cross paths with a student a young man who happened to have been in my office a few times for some disciplinary issues and they they high-fived and um Kyle complimented him on the excellent work he had done that morning in Jim class and it was a great reminder to me of the vital importance of what Kyle does and what all of our colleagues with health and fed do um as much as I know that that interaction those interactions that I had with that student in my office were necessary I know also Alo that the kinds of experiences that that child and other children have with Mr marovich are the kind of really meaningful and enduring learning experiences about fairness about respect and about teaching about teamwork that will really stay with them so we uh kudos to Kyle for that influence he has not only on their physical well-being but on their social and emotional well-being as well so so [Applause] congratulations we thank you my name is Doug Layman I'm the principal at Helen Morgan School uh over the past year and a half our staff at Helen Morgan school has engaged in many conversations um and examine staff and student data that focus on school culture and climate as we reflected as a staff on our strengths we identifi two major themes um in establishing and maintaining a positive School culture um and they are as appical applicable to schools as they are in any field that requires people to work together these themes are relationships and expectations we need to build positive relationships with our students and between staff members we need to have high expectations of ourselves and our students and provide the necessary supports and motivation to reach those high expectations I believe that our nominees this year Nicole petro and Sonia Benson truly exemplify these guiding values in their different roles they each have had have made significant and Lasting contributions to our positive School culture first Nicole Nicole has served in several capacities over the last five years and for the past two years she's been an instructional Aid and Works Tire lessly always with a smile in the classroom helping students succeed and become more confident Learners as a resident of Sparta mother of of three and wife of a coach Nicole frequently volunteers at many community and school events and for many of our sports teams including football wrestling and softball for which he serves on the board Nicole may claim to be the best Baker at HMS but I assure you that had nothing to do with her being named this year's recipient of the educ educational services provider of the Year award Nicole thank you to your for your service to our students and your contributions to our school culture thank you if there is a teacher at HMS that most represents the best of who we are it would be impossible not to consider Sonia Benson also a Sparta graduate I think I speak for our entire staff when I say that Sonia's dedication to her work compassion for all her students and effervescent personality has set a standard that all her colleagues seek to attain and we are a better school for it to quote a colleague Sonia is an inspiration she teaches from a place of love and focuses on building strong relationships with her students colleagues and Community she has an innate ability to create a learning environment that is fun safe and rewarding with the goal of ensuring that each child will find success and Thrive beyond their own expectations you can't help but smile when you hear Sonia's contagious laugh in the hallways and you will know when you hear it that today will be another good day congratulations thank you to Sonia Benson this year's recipient of the governor of [Applause] Education well good evening everyone uh my name is Frank chabor I'm the building principal at Sparta Middle School and it is my sincere pleasure to introduce to you tonight the governor educator of the Year award and Educational Service Services professional of the Year award award from Sparta Middle School I'll begin with the SMS educator of the Year Mrs Katherine Jennings Mrs Jennings currently teaches Mrs Jennings currently teaches social studies uh to sixth grade students on the Amber team at Sparta Middle School last year Mrs Jennings joined the SMS teaching staff after teaching in the district for a number of years at the elementary level immediately upon joining our team Mrs Jennings became very comfortable with the Middle School level and embraced the new assignment Mrs Jennings consistently demonstrates an except an exceptional understanding of great appropriate learning employing a diverse range of teaching strategies that cater to the unique needs of each student with this recent assignment change Mrs Jennings has shown versatility and dedication to a profession that has gone unmatched Mrs Jennings has brought a unique Touch of an Ela teacher's background to the social studies classroom and has been successful in supporting her students on a multi-level platform that encourages cross-curricular a a cross-curricular experience it is clear that Mrs Jennings has dedicated herself to the Middle School her new subject and to her students just the other day I pulled a few students aside in the hallway and asked them why do you think Mrs Jennings deserved the governor educator of the Year award and the response was she's cool common collected and never gets distracted so I looked a little puzzled and mentioned to the student that nobody's ever described a teacher in that manner and the teacher and the student responded well it's true she always keeps us on task oh and she makes social studies fun I mean really fun so um just to show how she does impact and has been able to go from that Elementary level to the high school or to the Middle School level and really still connect with the students and to her colleagues the quote was that Katherine is an exceptional educator whose adaptability to to New Challenges expertise in teaching reading dedication to professional development and strong connections with students and parents makes her truly deserving of this award at this time I would like to introduce to you the Sparta Middle School Governor educator of the war of the year to Mrs Katherine Jennings next I would like to introduce to you the Sparta Middle School educ Services professional of the Year Mrs Alexa Griffin Mrs Griffin has been the school nurse at Sparta Middle School for the past two years and a nurse in our district for several years prior to that during her time at the middle school nurse Griffin demonstrated a special kindness and compassion towards our students and staff and has created meaningful relationships with students parents and families nurse Griffin always makes the medical mental social and emotional well-being of our students the number one priority and has become one of the students greatest Advocates nurse Griffin has shown her leadership qualities by spearheading the project Adam initiative making Sparta Township Public Schools the first certified heartsafe School District in the state of New Jersey and has been asked to sit on the project Adam New York advisory committee to assist other schools and communities with becoming heart safe nurse Griffin's dedication and commitment to our community goes well beyond the sparta Public Schools as she is also an active volunteer member of the sparta EMT and Board of Trustees in addition she leads training C classes for our District staff in CPR first aid first aid and safety and other various courses Sparta Middle School and the sparta School District are honored to have a medical professional such as nurse Griffin on our team we are excited to recognize her as this year's Sparta Middle School Educational Services professional of the Year nurse Alexa [Applause] Griffin good evening my name is Ed lazara I'm principal at the high school let me start by congratulating all of our recipients here tonight uh and and it's very encouraging to see how many are from Sparta High School or from the sparta School District unfortunately our recipients from the high school are not from spto high school um one's actually from Vernon but we're not going to hold it against her all right up first is our Educational Services professional of the year it's heli Anderson as you can tell hay told me to hurry up she's she's actually going on maternity to leave tomorrow she's our athletic trainer um she works tirelessly to ensure the health and safety of our student population her attention to detail and care for students is exceptional she works collaboratively with coaches and staff providing insight and support that is essential to the success of our student athletes she commun communicates well with parents students and staff to ensure and optimize safety precautions her expertise and knowledge is vital for the health and safety of our athletes at our high school you will usually see haly smiling and creating a positive atmosphere around school and out at the fields of play however do not mistake her cheerful personality as some sort of weakness she's all business when it comes to student safety and she will go toe-to-toe with our toughest coaches to ensure the health of her players I've WI witnessed her Sprint across the field to tend to an injured player even if that injured player is not wearing coloman blue and is not a smarter athlete I've also witnessed her confiscated players equipment so they cannot return to the field to play in other words don't cross her about student safety it is first and foremost in her mind at all times she is knowledgeable and trusted by the student athletes and by the coaches and we're lucky to have her as part of high school congratulations all right next up is our educational professional of the Year Sierra Mitchell I'm going to share what some of her colleagues had to say uh about her Sierra is very well respected in the world language department and the school Community she is very down to earth and extremely positive she's always thinking of others first whether is the new student in the school who came from a different country or a student or colleague who might have had a rough day Sarah will spread positivity and is always willing to help out she is a true leader in our high school Sarah is extremely knowledgeable on both second language acquisition strategies and has served as a leader amongst her peers providing guidance in our department determinate and developing sgos pdps and use of the American Council of teaching foreign language the acfl based rubrics for determining benchmarks and providing department members with leadership and assessing the implementation of Technology towards data driven student growth outside of the classroom Sierra takes an active part in student life serving as our uh CrossCountry coach at the high school she's always in a good mood her colleagues and students love being around her she can also be seen handing out homemade cookies to the staff around the holiday time and we are truly lucky to have her at spa high school as well [Applause] congratulations we can just get one more round of applause for all the Educators here I just want to make a motion we're going to take a quick five minute break for everyone to regroup and whatever pictures you need to take with your family outside before quick five minutes 5 minutes is 5 minutes isn't it 4 minutes and 59 seconds look at be second in a long three so I'm skipping this let him talk why they got to go Parker Miss Kier here miss gagnan here miss lonsky here miss McMichael here Mr mors here Mr pesi here miss cander here Dr Serrano here Mr wood here okay moving forward we're just going to skip presentations at this time we're going go to the student representative report uh they have to step out Parker so first and foremost I I'd like to start by saying if we get a little congratulations to Sarah on passing her EMT test and becoming EMT certified all right so now down to the business first things first we unfortunately had to cancel our student council fashion show but we are working on Al Alternatives coming up with new ideas such as a talent show and kind of and other fundraisers secondly we are in the works of creating a field day for our seniors at the end of the year kind of bringing back a little childhood for us bringing back something that we all enjoy doing as a kid next I would also like to talk about some school events that are happening first things first the DEA Club is having an annual volleyball night where friends will come together make teams compete against each other for prizes and most importantly for bragging rights and lastly the plays coming up next weekend March 1st 2nd and 3rd dates and times can be looked at on the shs musical Instagram you can also buy tickets off the link that is in the bio of the Instagram tickets can be bought tickets can also be bought in person the times for the 1 and the second are going to be at 7:00 p.m. and for the for the third is going to be on 2 p.m. on the Sunday and then all the schools in the district will also be collecting food for the sparta Community Food Pantry starting this Monday through March 8th uh bins will be placed at the front offices of each school and a flyer will be going out about that soon thank you all right if you have just you want to leave now or yeah all right going back to presentations uh Mrs Rossy will be introducing the St Elizabeth presentation and there are two Representatives here this evening make it quick all right we're on so I just want to um thank are St Elizabeth Representatives who we're going to introduce themselves in a minute and just share a little bit about where we are in our three-year partnership in an effort to ensure that all aspects of our school system our academics our social emotional supports and our school culture and climate are um areas of focus and Improvement for us and so they'll tell us a little bit about um our current process and and again where we are in that and where we're headed so thank you so much if you than Sarah yeah thank you for being here great well thank thank you very much hello everyone and and what a great Board of Ed meeting to attend I mean that's one way to spend a Thursday evening and congratulations to all those teachers and wonderful principles and students so yeah we feel very grateful to be here tonight so um yes we are going to talk to you probably take about 10 minutes 10 15 minutes um and then please you know questions we' welcome questions as well um we have been we've met some of you before we were here um I think about 18 months ago possibly two years as we were starting our formal partnership um so some of this you you might be a little familiar others it will be new so we're going to try to just provide an overview so first of all who we are um I'm Elizabeth Hansen Warner Liz um I'm co-founder and co-director with Trish of the school culture and climate initiative we're based as you've heard at the center for human and Social Development at St Elizabeth University um we've been doing this together for about 13 14 years supporting schools through the center Trish as you can see wears a lot lot of different hats um in addition to being a professor of psychology she's dean of the College of professional studies and in addition we also wear a number of other um hats which is I'm president of4 NJ and Trish is also um involved very closely with that organization and is also the co-director of an online Academy for Social emotionally social emotional learning in schools that she co-directs with Dr Maurice Elias from ruers so Trish is a busy person so um we have been working in the district we're going to be learning a bit about how we have been working in the district but we have Consultants real life humans that are matched with each one of the schools in the district and they are having the most marvelous time um and these are their names and in fact tomorrow morning I believe we're going to be right here in the same building with all of our Consultants with all the principles and the key people from each of the schools having a district meeting so we're really looking forward to that um so that's kind of who the people are who are working with the teams in the schools and this is kind of some of the things we do sometimes that helps to know a little bit of context about us as mentioned we've been supporting schools for about 13 years in addition to this threeyear intentional School climate improvement process we also offer um professional development and seal coaching we do a lot of professional learning communities to connect Educators and also um we have a lab which you May well have heard about a climate survey that the schools have taken so that's um where that is handled out of so um yeah so also just so you know we have been recognized nationally locally nationally regionally we've been doing this for quite a while um we feel you know really blessed to have been recognized for the work and I think we have to give a shout out to Dr Maurice Elias he's at ruter he's one of the great leaders in social emotional learning and school climate he was one of the founders of the collaborative for academic and social emotional learning castle and so we're very fortunate that he's right here in New Jersey and we're very fortunate that he's an incredibly close colleague friend and Mentor so um I think we we all have benefited enormously from his work in New Jersey so today in just a couple of minutes we're going to just share with you kind of why this work is important just a few quick bullet points as to why a focus on social emotional learning in school climate's important and just listen listening to the principal's talk about their work you know they are walking the talk you can tell but we just thought we'd give a quick overview as well as talking about what's actually going on in the schools and then talking about what's coming next which there are some kind of exciting next steps so we always think it's important to step back and take a look at the big picture and overall you know what are we trying to do you know as Educators as parents as responsible members of a community we want to create environments where our kids can Thrive and and what does that feel like what does that look like that's kind of like like where we come in is to help make that happen and we just love this quote from Frederick Douglas which something very odd happened to it hieroglyphics it's a hieroglyphics it it's actually the loveliest quo is that like it's much better to raise to raise strong children than to repair broken adults and he wrote that in 1865 and that is just so true and so much of this work that we're talking about now is tier one prevention it it's kind of the the vaccine the you know it's what prot protects and provides that strong foundation so it's just as Frederick Douglas was talking about that is really weird um so another thing that is just fundamental that we just have to keep in mind is in order to learn students have to feel emotionally and physically safe and I think as adults we've all been in those moments where things are really stressed and and you just can't remember anything right it's a the same for kids so overall how do we create that environment it it's really just just that simple um and again a focus on climate you know wow you know we we all have gone through a global pandemic on top of that there's always been we live in a complicated world it's not gotten less complicated so this is a wonderful opportunity now to refocus regroup and have a structured way of engaging student and staff voice and that's a lot of what this process does it's not a program it's a process process and also understanding what makes the schools and Sparta so strong what are those strengths and what makes those strength strengths um as well as what are the opportunities to be even better we are all continuous Improvement models and so that's kind of what this is all about as well um and we always mention this um because you know there's a whole lot of focus on social emotional skills um there's a whole lot of focus especially New Jersey on school climate because it's mandated that that schools assess and address their school climate as part of the anti-bullying legislation so how do these things interact it's the social emotional skills of those humans in a school community that create the positive climate where teaching and learning can really Thrive and happen and what's you know we talk about climate it's how a place feels you walk in you know wow this room felt great you know walking and seeing you know wonderful teachers and their families and you know and climate can change very quickly culture is kind of like who you are and what are your traditions and what's important to the school so um that's kind of this the the interaction between school climate and social emotional skills they're absolutely interrelated and of course trauma informed practices it's always good to take a trauma-formed approach to everything um it just is and diversity Equity inclusion the whole idea is to you know that that's a huge topic that there's a whole lot of layers to but at the end of the day the one of the real goals is that everyone within a school Community feels safe and respected and has a feeling of friendship belonging and connection so all of this is really all wrapped up into the same thing and Trish gonna turn it over to Trish quickly for this bit thanks Liz so um again congratulations to all the teachers and staff who were recognized um it was just such a pleasure to be sitting here witnessing that and we really do feel blessed to have shared that experience with the community um so we just wanted to um anchor what we're talking about when we're talking about social emotional well-being um with the skills that represent really preparing kids for a life of success um preparing students for um careers uh preparing students for careers that don't even exist now so this is a model of how um many people are thinking about what these skills are there's lots of different words out there that people use to talk about these life skills or soft skills but this is the model that um we do use and you see when you look at those boxes that each of these main core skills are broken out into subskills and I think if you look at them it's would hard to be it would be hard to imagine that we wouldn't want our children to develop those skills so what we're doing with working with the district is supporting the work that's happening all already in infusing a focus on helping students and staff um to to develop and to use these strong um these strong skills and as Liz said the interrelationship of climate with helping to um helping students to develop these skills is is undeniable so it's wonderful to come into the district to see what the district is doing with regard to infusing social emotional learning and to help provide a climate that supports that as well so these this is the collection of the reasons why right this is our why that we think about every day there's Decades of Decades of research showing that if you do what we just talked about these are the kinds of impacts that you get um and in particular I just want to call out academic achievement because it's also been said and found that there really isn't any other single variable that works like intentionally incorporating social emotional skills as outcomes in learning um thatal does in terms of impact on academic achievement so it really is the place that success um rests on so it's not just students um teachers it turns out and and there's been some challenges with regard to teacher retention certainly since the pandemic and after the pandemic um it it does turn out from research looking at um teachers that the more the teachers have these kinds of social emotional skills the more likely it is that they'll stay in the classroom and the more likely they are to be successful in the classroom for all of these reasons that make sense because as we know learning requires relationships right and one of the principles talked about relationships and expectations um so teachers who have these really strong skills um tend to be able to deal with the the the stress of being a teacher um and being an educator uh today um and we get the benefit of these of teachers staying in the classroom longer so I'm going to turn it back to Liz yeah and we are going to um continue to move probably a little bit more quickly um because we don't want to be here to keep you here all night um but the uh this is a model that we use and again this is just showing that that this is not a siloed approach to supporting schools we know all of these components play a role um and that having a datadriven approach is incredibly important to have professional learning communities to continue to learn and I think you'll see in the next slide um we've talked about social emotional skills positive School culture and climate and student and staff Health um the organized and un jumbled Schoolhouse is um oh I don't know what it's next oh there it's it's you can come back to that later I can come back to it later but any case we have a we have a um we have a diagram that really shows the importance of having an UND doubled Schoolhouse but here in Spa we're taking a school le districtwide approach for these reasons and those people um that you saw who are working with the schools they're helping the schools do these things to have ownership of the process to move the work forward within the schools Trish and I have been working at the district level kind of supporting the district to make sure that you know there's communication that's is happening that we're all on the same page that the work is moving forward so it's really important that you know the magic happens at the school level but wow is you know especially inpired it because the kids move so quickly and through schools there really needs to be coordination and Alignment so it's very much a school-led district-wide approach um and so what are the big goals of this it's it's we're we're we're not the people with the the answers we're the people with the questions that help the schools build capacity within their school to continually have an intentional focus on improving School climate so so that's that's what we do and then there's these really important School climate indicators at the bottom of this screen it's hard to see but we have some examples things like for staff staff morale professional interaction discipline effective discipline for students really important things like student connectedness student voice respect um respect Frenchman belonging utility of learning all sorts of other things research shows these are directly linked to achievement academic achievement and emotional well-being really important so we are very data driven after three years we hope to see these um you know kind of bump up and also as mentioned before engaged structured constructive student and staff voice um also um again you know the Big Ideas is we want a place where everyone feels valued and respected um and then consistent messaging and alignment we talked about oh there's the slide um right you can see the the the top slide is kind of a jumbled up Schoolhouse I mean in short it's sort of you know like in schools like every school I has this tendency that great stuff goes into the school over many years with great intention whether they're programs or curriculums or whatever um but hardly anything ever comes out um and so it's really important that whatever is in the school is really organized that it's meeting the needs of the school today not five years ago or you know 10 years ago but today so part of this process helps schools unjumble their Schoolhouse so that um there's a really good infrastructure to make sure that all of the wonderful evidence-based programs that might be being delivered in the school have the greatest efficacy because implementation science is really important to get those promised evidence-based outcomes you have to implement whatever you're implementing with 95% Fidelity and that's hard to do in a jumbled schoolhouse so again we're we're kind of the process to help schools do that and then this is just another visual as to what we've been doing with the schools in Sparta we've been it's just been a joy to work with the schools and we hear from our team all the time with what's going on but first to kind of understand what kind of school do you want to be what's your vision what are your values what's important to that school community and and you know there's intrinsic there's extrinsic the things you say but the things that you feel is helping schools work through that collect data figure out well what do you need compare it to what do you have um and then to ensure sustainability so and this work has been doing going really nicely in all of the schools and I think it's what's really important to to note is that it's not a race and every single school is going to be working at a different timetable and we be focusing on different things and that's how it should be and some of the things at first glance might seem quite small they're they're not um small things are important things other schools might be working on something that that seems at first class to be bigger and that's fine but it's really important to respect the the the timetable of each school what the school is focusing on because there's been lots of discussion amongst that school team as to what they're focusing and why they're doing it um so we're really excited about this meeting tomorrow where the schools will be sharing that so do you want to talk about the data review so um that's there's a lot of words on there um that people can read it's a lot of information about the climate survey that we use um and we have um administered the survey throughout all the schools we have staff responses we have student responses and we are um also here to give you a um heads up that we will also be encouraging parent voice so there will be a parent climate survey coming your way and we would really love parents to to complete the survey each survey for each building that you have children in and the data that we've been getting back from the the schools um have been called into strengths and opportunities and the teams that we'll talk about in a second have been working toward um action plans to figure out why strengths are the strengths and figure out um how to improve those that are that are bubbling up as opportunities for improvement so for example I'll just give you a couple because we really want parent voice here too so we want you to have sort of a pure mind when you're looking at those surveys but there's been um a lot of positives coming from the students across the buildings um for example the students um feel a very strong sense of friendship and belonging that actually even gets stronger from middle school to the high school level which is really great the students are reporting that they feel supported by staff which is really good um but there's also indicators that students are looking for greater voice um to be able to help shape their school and their environment um so we're going to really want you to S of spread the word parents who are in the the audience here or who are listening um it's really critically important to us to have all key stakeholder um voices and that certainly includes um you all so I guess oh there we go so got it thanks so um this is really quickly um kind of an overview of a year one focus in the schools the year two focus in the schools in year three I'm not going to read through these but this gives you a sense of what's been um accomplished to date or is ongoing to date um and perhaps if you if you'd like we can give you some examples of um the steps are being taken in some of the of the schools um year two U generally there's a identification of a really big overarching project that can be handled by the infrastructure that we've created which is a staff climate team that's that's required by the state but that's also enhanced and enlarged in all of the buildings as well as a student climate team um and the student climate teams are doing fabulous work and then in year three um we do come back and do a follow-up data collection and we provide an analysis of Baseline post for all the data that we've collected so that we can look at with the teams what has been accomplished in terms of impact but we also want to set the schools up for moving forward as we leave um and we're also available to schools to continue to support them in ways that um that we need but these are some of the really critical things that we want to make sure in place when we come to the end of that three-year um process so to date here are some things about what schools have been uh have been doing as Liz mentioned we're having this great meeting tomorrow where we're going to have the teams in each School share with one another we really are very uh focused on coordination and also sharing across the the buildings and we are seeing some similarities in the responses that we're getting from the staff and the students and this is an opportunity for the staff teams and the and the leaders to to hear um to hear those and to help and share um ideas so uh next steps tomorrow we talked about but the administration of the parent climate survey so again um please please please if you receive a message from the school with a link to the survey the survey is completely Anonymous and we ask that one person one parent rep uh answer the survey for each building that your school uh that your child is in and um it's no worries if if two people feel the need to it's not about that it's really about getting as much voice um as possible um so we are not you know strict harsh people but we really do want engagement um and then we are also engaging with the uh culture and climate um Team or committee that was formed a while ago Liz and I actually worked with the C3 team a couple of years ago um and U helping to engage people who are interested in participating in C3 in the next steps uh with regard to what we get back from the parents and how to um how to think about and how to use um strategically the information that we're we're getting from that the parent surveys um so this these are the next steps again and um I think we'll leave it with this slide about just some ideas of what we've found from our experience which are some important things that set up a school or a district to succeed so we can talk a lot and and we do love this visual is that you can see the the person at the bottom with where the rung is so high and you know there's small steps we start small intentionally and we want whatever the schools do to be achievable and it builds to something bigger so so the that that latter image is um is quite important to kind of internalize so any questions questions yes um I a former or I should say still current member of C3 so I'm curious that yeah the data um I know that we're obviously going to wait until we have the parent results is that something that you will be sharing with the public or um at least the Board of Education oh yes both so um we um we provide a overview of all of the data once we have it together certainly here back at the board um but we are also engaging with um an interested group from C3 to help us brainstorm about those next steps for how to engage how to share with the the parent uh community and really very importantly having a structure in place so that we can actually use the data with the help of this group from C3 so thank you and thank you so much for being interested and being on C3 I I have a question I have a couple questions um thank you so much for coming and doing this very in-depth um presentation but so this is year three of the program right this is year two year two okay so the first the beginning phase has been collecting a lot of data correct right and I guess I just wondered you have teams at each school and and if you can just share a little bit about what that behind the scenes looks like like what do you do you meet do you have calls do you have so um it's it's it's bottom up and top down um which is how we work with schools in a district-wide approach so um Liz and I meet every about every other week um with Tara um to give her updates about what's happening inside the schools and also hear from her um and then inside each School building there's a staff climate team they generally meet monthly and our consultant is there for each of those meetings to facil help facilitate those those meetings um there's a an onboarding process for those teams that our Consultants engage with then when it's you know that the fundamental sort of first steps of forming the team and um meeting the consultant and doing some of those those earlier exercises we come in after doing the survey and share the data an in-depth two-hour data review and conversation with each staff climate team about their school okay um and then um from there we have we've brought um some data to to Tara and as we said tomorrow we're going to be sharing having people share some highlights from what they have found I'm not sure if that answers your question or if you're asking something more spe yeah I'll just add after the data review that Trish leads and we're there um the team and and during this two-hour process kind of extracts um strengths and opportunities like a handful of each that kind of pop up and usually it's those strengths and opportunities that form the kind of the Nexus of the um School Improvement action plans okay and so sometimes they're very small like usually the very first action is how are we going to share this with the rest of the staff and get some feedback or if there's something that came out of the data that everyone's like scratching their heads with like hm maybe we need to find out more about this the next St maybe well let's go talk to the AIDS and find out what they think or something like that and then the work kind of continues on these sort of you know six eight weekish like to-do lists um that are meant to be achievable that move the work forward based on what the data says okay and then I just wondered if you've done this work in other schools districts before obviously you have a lot of experience so will all of this data collection and review and work that's done team schoolto School result in I I wondered if you could share some examples of like what actual actions come out of it like oh we decided that this is a big problem how we're going to address it in this way like with assemblies or events or activities like what are the actual sure like things they what do they look like kind of yeah well for instance um schools will focus on something that um is bubbling up for them so sometimes it's discipline policy an effective discipline so the team might spend some time talking about that you know sort of like what kind do we all agree on the discipline policy maybe we need to understand it more is it really in line with our core values um is it being implemented um you know sort of you know regularly and consistently so that might you know that kind of focus might eventually turn into some professional development for staff around discipline possibly a new discipline approach um you know the process will take it other places other things we've seen is sometimes staff morale is an issue and so um some schools have just started there's one school you worked with they started this newsletter where everyone contributed to it and actually the team who who did it thought oh nobody is going to have time to contribute to this newsletter well they did and it's they they have jokes they have polls they have games they have someone's writing poetry and everyone just loves it so it could be something something as you know quite serious as a discipline policy something like that for the staff and the kids come up with wonderful ideas of impacting their school more positively I know we're we're thrilled you you may have um just seen a mention of something called International seal day well the school the kids from Sparta Middle School are being um interviewed for a workshop that we're doing foral day which is March March 8th and talking about the work they're doing in terms of engaging other kids around the work of increas you know kind of addressing the positive School climate that was another uh question the last question was uh if um I know that there's a parent survey there's the staff survey there's um and and maybe there's maybe you mentioned a student survey I know there's obviously we've preschool to high schoolers but where are there opportunities for students to weep in their experiences directly to the team absolutely absolutely so um one of the first steps with the the student climate team is for the consultant and whoever is going to be sort of the adviser of that team sharing highlights of the students responses so there's a student climate team also and a and a staff climate Team all done the they've all done the survey including even we have a little one for K even thumbs up th downb yeah it's very it's very cute um but um I think I just lost my train thought oh the students so the students get a high um very high level summary of what the students said about the climate of the school and that's that is also a long conversation where then students are asked why do you think that students in um you know these these grades feel like there's um there's more staff support than these grades or uh why do you think students says there's there's students who said that um student respect could be better what's happening and they share they have very little filter and well they have in an opportunity in as phase three rolls out to inform some of those actionable things they do their own they do their own plan okay that's great they do their own thank you I'm sorry I I'm mean very help the student team is incredibly important because one of the real drivers um for a positive School climate is student voice student engagement right and so getting those students involved and then you know if you have greater student engagement you feel more pride in your school you you do better you feel more connected all disruptive behavior goes down and those student teams You Know It's Tricky putting together the team but we all know that there's lots of kids that you know just raise their hand and are joiners which is wonderful but there's a lot of kids sometimes who aren't and so this climate team is intended to have space for everyone very intentionally um because some of those kids that are quieter who might not be the first ones to join everything have so much to offer and they also represent their friends and all sorts of other people and so it's um we're very intentional in terms of making sure that this team is really well represented of the school and the kids just do the coolest stuff they they really do thank you very much anybody else we love talking about this stuff if you haven't noticed one more question you mentioned I love the idea of the student engagement and the idea of a building based approach with the five schools we have but something that comes to mind as we're approaching a referendum and we're really trying to focus on what is what is the sparta brand like what who are we as a culture of schools and and why you know why now showing our community the value we have in our education all of our strengths I mean we really we have to go big or go home we have one chance to get it right right to get um to make it work for our students and and staff you know with the with the different building space and so I'd love to hear about how do we bring how do we bring it together to make sure it's all fitting also within our core values like that we're not becoming five desperate system that's exactly yes that's a great question and that is actually one of the goals of and one of the reasons for working districtwide um in order to help align um the the core values in in the school with the core values of the district to align the core values with the policies and how the policies are implemented inside the school buildings and throughout the district and each of these teams has done some work on core values um and the middle school team I think no be another District um the the students also have contributed to adding different or more core values to the core values of the the school so it's really been a way of um sort of resuscitating and bringing to life again or renewal of the core values so it will be really something for us to kind of keep top of Mind especially tomorrow when we start uh bringing all the teams together together but that has been our lens particularly with our every other uh week meeting and our our um from time to time meeting with the school leadership uh Team um to to bring to your table what's what we're seeing across the district and where there's sort of misalignment um an interesting thing in exercise to do is to look at all of the places where there are Behavior guidelines or behavior expectations for students there's a lot of them you know on a field at a meeting in the classroom in the hallway from one school to the next school um so those are the kinds of efficiencies we try to help um with the district so it's wonderful timing and you know we can talk a lot uh more through our meetings with Tara about um you know bringing these two things together what that referend referendum requires and what we're doing inside the schools but that's really the purpose and in Sparta I mean kids are moving all the time right so um you know we've been in in uh districts before where in one building kids get um rewarded with gum for getting good grades on an exam and the next building they're not allowed to chew gum so I mean that's a silly example but that really is throwing the kids off right there's it would be better for there to be a cultural consistency and culture is driven by core values yeah it's um it's interesting one of our Consultants who's working with a school here in Sparta she she gave a presentation to our school support network um last week there were about 100 people on and she talked about as Trish mentioned behavioral expectations and and kind of sparing it out is that she ended up with about 80 words um that were all lovely kind respectful you know went on and on and on and yet there was just so many whether it was from the district level the school level let just said the sports field is that they kind of got lost in the sauce and so you know if if a school SL District could extract like three or four of those that really meant something and if those were like very clearly shared as to how these are are enacted and brought to life in meetings in the hallways on the bus in interactions with parents with everything then those would probably have greater impact and so that's you know a really good example of kind of some of this that will happen also we work with districts I'll get phone calls um from districts who are working about to undertake like a profile of a graduate project and they'll say well we can't really do this without talking about our core values and we can't do this in isolation to the social emotional learning work the climate work the other work that's going on so because we're not a program we're really provide a process to bring this all together and it is fluid too so um sometimes our our answers are kind of like and a little bit of this and a little bit of that because we're really driven by every unique school and District thank you anyone else okay thank you okay thank you thank wonderful thank you yes we're going to move on with our last presentation it's the yearly ethics presentation by Mr ziner just take one of those yeah it's for you okay cool good evening everybody members of the board members of the community members of the administration I'm going to talk this evening about the New Jersey school ethics act uh the ethics Act is a law in the state of New Jersey that governs I'll say the ethical dos and don'ts for Board of Education members school officials and I'll talk in a second about how the school ethics act defines school officials so I always think that the preamble to the school ethics Act is a really good place to start and what our legislature has said is that in our representative form of government it's essential that members of local Boards of education and local administrators hold the respect and the confidence of the people uh the officials must avoid conduct which is in violation of the public trust or which creates some justifiable impression among the public that such trust is being violated what does that mean you obviously have to avoid conflicts of interest and we'll talk about that in a second and you also have to avoid uh what I like to refer to as the appear of impropriety and I always advise board members that you should always erir on the side of caution if somebody's going to reasonably question whether you're acting in a matter for your own personal interest or your own family members interests uh or a business that you're associated with rather than the interest of the school district you need to step back you need to recuse yourself you shouldn't vote on those matters because the public needs to have confidence that you're acting uh for the community at large and for the kids so who does the ACT apply to the act of course applies to Board of Education members it also uh applies to officials from the New Jersey school boards Association as well as school administrators the code of ethics within the Act only applies to the Board of Education members so you've got section one that I've handed it out to everybody this evening you've got the prohibited acts those deals with the conflicts of interest things like board members shouldn't act in a manner where they have a direct or indirect personal or financial involvement that may be seen to compromise their objectivity and then section two is the code of ethics and let's walk through the code of ethics Provisions briefly so section A says you're supposed to uphold and enforce all laws rules regulations of the State Board of Education as well as any court orders pertaining to the schools essentially means you have to follow the law uh section B you make educational decisions in terms of all of the children you're here for everybody not just one particular group of students regardless of race re uh Creed uh color sex social understanding Etc uh section c this really defines what a board of education members role is you are a policymaking body so setting policy planning for the future of the district and Appraisal taking a step back and saying how are we doing we set goals for the board we set goals for the district that's all part of the board's policymaking function and then it talks about doing those things after the board has consulted with them so as you know with our policies they always require two readings which means that the public always has a right to weigh in and give their input on the various policies that we're proposing so that's how the board consults with those who are affected by them and also you have the ability to consult with those who are affected by them through the work on your various committees uh section D is an area sometimes where board members get themselves in trouble finding where their Lane is and where the lane of the administration is board members are not administrators uh you hired uh an excellent administrative team here in Sparta they are the folks responsible for the day-to-day operations of the School District's board members don't run the district they make sure that the district is well-run you have to recognize your Authority rests with the board and not make personal promises or take private action that could compromise the board you have the authority to act when you're sitting at the deis uh through your work on the various committees but once you leave this room you certainly don't have the ability to bind the board you shouldn't be doing your own investigations and issues and we'll talk about how to handle complaints in a second so section F says you're supposed to refuse to surrender your independent judgment to special interests or partisan political groups or use the schools for personal gain or for the gain of friends does that mean you can't Advocate on behalf of a particular group no that's not what that means at all the key words in that sentence are refusing to surrender your independent judgment so you need to be fair you need to be uh deliberative in your issues and and in the matters that you deal with regarding the Board of Education uh section g is an area that I preach quite a bit as you know and that's the issue of confidentiality uh board members come across a lot of confidential information in their capacity as board members were allowed by law to go into executive session discuss uh matters of uh Personnel student matters attorney client privilege litigation and so forth board members have to hold those matters confidential otherwise it completely undermines the board's ability to be effective and I always remind board members that your friends are not subject to the code of ethics and your family members aren't subject to the code of ethic so by telling one person and telling them not to tell anybody that is a serious breach because if it gets out and the reason for it getting out is you that would clearly be a violation of this code provision and then the rest of section g requires you to provide accurate information and we're going to talk about the Free Speech rights of board members and you have a right to talk about board issues in the community at large but it's important that you provide accurate information so you can't for instance say I'm voting no to the budget this year because spart is adding five new administrative positions if in fact the board is adding only three administrative positions so it's important that you speak accurately when you speak about board issues next section H you will vote to appoint the best qualified Personnel after Consulting the recommendation of the chief School administrator um by law only the superintendent can recommend uh staff for appointment to the school district community so a board of education couldn't make a motion to appoint somebody to transfer somebody to terminate somebody without Dr Beck's recommendation that is New Jersey Law um does that mean the board has to be a rubber stamp no you have a right to ask good questions you have a right to uh see the resumés of the candidates who applied but there's another section of New Jersey law that says you should not withhold your approval of the superintendent's recommendations for arbitrary and capricious reasons so in other words you should generally support the superintendent's recommendation and withold that approval only if you have a really good tangible reason for not uh supporting that recommendation um section I supporting and protecting School Personnel in the proper performance of their duties this means we shouldn't publicly evaluate our staff uh the code goes on to talk about what would somebody have to show if they were going to show there was a violation of this provision they'd have to show that a board member undermined opposed compromised or somehow harmed School Personnel in the proper performance of their duties section j i I happen to like this provision a lot um this says that if a board member is on is in receipt of a complaint whatever it is about the school district um sorry I skipped ahead there I don't know what happened and now I can't go back um now I'm frozen altogether um what it says is if a board member is in receipt of a complaint they have to refer that complaint to the chief School administrator and they should only act on that complaint after the failure of an administrative it's not moving yeah only after the failure of an administrative solution so this is the section that where you're at the local shop right and a parent comes up to you and complains that their child's teacher is giving too much homework and they know that you're a member of the Board of Education and they want you to solve the problem the correct response is I'm going to refer that to Dr Beck and there's nothing wrong by the way with saying to a parent for instance have you followed the chain of command did you speak to your child's teacher did you go to the principal and and so on and so forth it really is not up to the Board of Education member to uh deal with that complaint on his or her own thank you um so who can file a complaint anybody can file a complaint if somebody believes that the code of ethics or the prohibited act section has been violated is there a statute of limitations by which you have to file this complaint does anybody know is there a time period by which you have to file it what do you think six months you have a six-month statute limitations after six months the time has lapsed um the school ethics commission part of the Department of Ed is the only entity that can determine whether somebody's conduct viol the code of ethics or the code uh or the um the ethics act itself um I've read most of the decisions from the school ethics commission and you can certainly ask me my opinion I can weigh in but at the end of the day the school ethics commission is really the one that's going to be responsible for adjudicating those issues and making a decision something's going on here with this keyboard um you can request an advisory opinion from the school ethics commission so if there's ever a question about whether a proposed course of conduct is proper not not looking backwards but looking forward you can write to the school ethics commission and ask their opinion they will give you a written letter telling you you can do it or you can't do it you can actually even request an advisory opinion about the conduct of somebody else the only caveat is that you have to copy that other person so that they can be given an opportunity to respond um I've had to go to the school ethics commission a few times before um one just quick story that stands out I represent a school district where a high school senior got on the board of education they were elected to the board their senior year and the board turned to me and said Mark can this person vote on their teachers can they vote on their fellow students and I scratched my head and I said this is a really good opportunity to write to the school ethics commission and get them to weigh in because it was a complicated issue and they wrote us a very nice opinion kind of telling us all of the DU and don'ts so we can do that if we need to what are the sanctions for violating the ACT uh at the lightest end of the spectrum is a reprimand it's a letter from the school ethics commission saying that shame on you you violated the code or the ethics act you need to be more care care ful next time next up on the scale is a centure that's a resolution a detailed resolution that's read publicly at a meeting admonishing the board member it's obviously very embarrassing we have to post the centure resolution in the place where we normally post notices and so forth um suspension from the board pretty obvious as to what that is and then lastly in the most extreme cases removal um can you file an Ethics complaint against somebody if they're no longer on the board of education what do you think what do you think yes Le nodding yes and the answer is yes the only caveat is it's got to be within that six Monon limitation period and of course suspension or removal are not going to be an option in that particular case um I often get this question I I like to post on social media as a board member I like to go on X and write letters to newspapers and all these things uh do I lose my first amendment rights by virtue of being a board of education member and the answer is of course not you don't but there are certain limitations right we talked about having to provide accurate information we talked about not under in Personnel um we have a policy and and not publicly criticizing staff uh we have a policy and I'm not going to read the whole thing but it's important that you know that if you do like to post about issues pertaining to the school district for instance where your affiliation with the board is going to be recognized you have to make it very clear that you're speaking as an individual and that you're not speaking on behalf of the board and the school ethics commission has this model disclaimer language and I'm happy to email it to anybody that they like you to have in your post and it says that the following statements made by me are made in my capacity as a private citizen and not in my capacity as a board member these statements are also not representative of the board or its individual members and solely represent my personal opinions just so that it's clear to the community that you're speaking as a citizen and that you're not speaking for the Board of Education okay moving on so every year you know I like to kind of take the latest and greatest uh from the school ethics commission cases that have come out this past year and kind of get I'm not going to calling anybody so you can just yell out your answer if you'd like about whether you think these are true or falses so uh in this particular case a board member was a member of Unico I'm not sure if you're familiar with Unico it's the Italian-American organization in town uh and this board member was rather upset because the school choir had come to the Unico Columbus Day event every year and she finds out this year the um chorus is or choir is not coming to the Unico Italian-American Columbus Day event uh and so the board member then proceeds to text text an email the teacher the chorus teacher kind of interrogating her as to why they weren't coming the teacher responds while the principal made a decision this year that we weren't going to participate and the board member proceeds to then kind of interrogate and chastise the teacher about the principal's directive so you all have a copy of the the code of ethics in front of you do you believe this violated section D not administering the schools and section e recognizing your Authority rest with the board and not taking private action that could compromise the board do you think this was a true or a false what do you think true so I hear some trues I hear some falses it was a true it was true it was a violation and so what the school ethics commission said was that if the respondent was onhappy with the principal's decision that the band inquir were unavailable to participate in the event she should have addressed her concerns with the superintendent rather than questioning a teacher about the principal's reasoning for the decision she put the teacher in a very unten able position how about this one a board member violated section B and C of the ethics act so this is the conflict section where it says you shouldn't participate in a man where you have a a privilege or Advantage so here there's a um a vacancy on the board of education the board member's spouse applied for the vacant seat and the board member decided to sit in on the deliberations and the interview of her own uh husband which took place in Clos session does anybody think that that was a violation sure or false true does anybody think it was a false is it the vote that she can't sit in like is she allowed to sit on the discussion but not partake in the vote so she did both she did both and so I'll ask you that question what do you think so should she have maybe not participated in the discussion but could have participated in the vote yeah so what the school ethics commission said was that she should not have um sat in on the discussion nor should she have um participated in the vote on her husband she could have voted for another candidate for instance she wasn't precluded entirely from the process but she certainly couldn't vote for her husband and what the ethics commission said I'll just read you a quick quote is that um by attending the executive session while the board discussed her husband's potential appointment to the board the respondent used her official position as a board member to secure the unwarranted advantage of hearing the board's private deliberations regarding her family member during the executive session the spouse of the other immediate family members of the other candidates for the board were not permitted to attend the executive session and hear the prate discussions so respondent was only present due to her board member status additionally respondent's mere presence in the exec session may have resulted in a chilling effect on the discussion and the selection process that ensued by the other non-conflicted members so basically what they're saying is she should have stepped out and recused herself entirely um from the at least the discussion involving her husband how about this one um a superintendant emails the entire board very excited to tell the board that the NFL was going to possibly be using their Stadium a board member then takes that email and forwards it to the Town Council and the mayor uh what do you think is that a violation of confidentiality what do you think no I hear some Tru I hear some falses the answer is true it was a violation and the keyboard once again does not want to cooperate with me the answer is true and they said that look this was still in the deliberative phases it was not it was not public information at that point in time and therefore the board member had no business forwarding an email from the superintendent to uh the community and so what I would say is if you ever get an email from Dr Beck or Miss Rossy or or Miss black or anybody for that matter uh to the board and there's ever a question about whether it's confidential don't just flip it to the mayor and the council or anybody else for that matter better off asking the question how about this one this was an advisory opinion request we get a lot of these issues about board members who are also o teachers in other school districts so if a board member is a teacher in another school district can they participate in negotiations with the teachers in the board members own District uh once there's a memorandum of agreement which pretty much solidifies what the terms of the agreement are going to be as well as the guides which pretty much say where everybody's going to be placed what do you think can a board member participate if they're a teacher in another District in the teacher negotiations in Sparta for instance once there's an Mo MOA with the salary guides what do you think true or false true true it was a true and that's what the school ethics commission has said once we're on like the one yard line basically the the contract's been pretty much solidified at that point time the board member who's a teacher in the other District can fully participate and vote on the final contract um a couple more a board member violated sections c and e of the ethics act when she emailed vendors falsely claiming she was reaching out on behalf of the board and then requested price quotes for Chromebook devices so in this case the board's thinking about uh getting Chromebooks they have some discussions at their finance committee meeting and this board member then decides to start emailing all kinds of vendors she contacts business administrators from neighboring districts asking about their experiences with Chromebooks and so forth do you think that that board member um violated anything by doing that yes true what do you think true absolutely there was a true on that one and what the ethics commission said was that the respondent did not have board approval to take such actions moreover her action far exceeded preliminary internet searches or research she conducted a detailed inquiry in which she contacted vendors and gave the impression that she was doing so on behalf of the board which she did not have the authority to do as such the commission agrees that she violated uh section c and that should be the code of ethics not the prohibited acts we need some new batteries here or something thank you um how about this one this was interesting a board member whose spouse is a member of the burrow Council would they violate section c of the ethics act which says board members shouldn't act in a manner where they have a direct or indirect personal or financial involvement so do you think a board member would violate section c of the ACT if she were to vote on a shared services agreement between the board and the township for a school resource officer so the town and the board were thinking about Contracting for an SRO the question was the board member's spouse was a council person should the board member have uh abstained on the SRO agreement what do you think yes true it was absolutely something that they should have abstained on and I've been asked well you know there's no financial gain for the board member what's the personal gain it's really an SRO agreement and what the ethics commission said was that it would undermine the public trust essentially the public would be wondering is the board member really voting because they want this SRO agreement are they doing it to kind of make their husband look good for instance and what they said is regardless of whether the board member Andor his spouse may have an actual or only a perceived personal or Financial involvement in such matters the board member's involvement could violate the Public's confidence best that the board member abstain um how about this one a board member SE violated sections a and a and F of the code a says you have to uphold all laws and rules um section uh D is not administering the schools and section f is um refusing to surrender your independent judgment special interests or partisan political group so did a board member violate this when three other board members as well voted no on a motion to approve the health and PE curriculum resulting in a TI vote and so when there's a TI vote it doesn't carry as you know uh thereby the motion approving the curriculum failed leaving the district out of compliance with the student learning standards do you think that that was a violation voting no on the curriculum what do you think I thought this was an interesting one true false what do you think false I hear a false and you are correct our student representative good job it was a false and um what the ethics commission said was look voting on a motion is part and parcel of a board member's duties and responsibilities it's not an activity or function that's borne by anyone other the other than the board and its individual members and to show there's a violation of law you actually have to prove that there was some court order in place which there wasn't so um again if you think about voting no on something being an Ethics violation there'd be a lot of board members around the state who vote no on lots of different things who would be found to be in violation of the ACT which is obviously not the the purpose the problem here was they left the district out of compliance now with the curriculum needs so they had to go back and rectify the situation and so forth but at the end of the day it wasn't a violation so final question I'm going to turn to Dr Beck on this one I'm going to call you out on this one okay true or false Dr Beck a board member violated the code of ethics when he commented on his Facebook page now if we could do do something about the local terrorist that destroys dreams and burns Futures and then when you clicked on it there was a link to the superintendent's picture what do you think is that a problem Dr Beck what do you think I would think that would be frowned upon yes yes that would be highly frowned upon that is the antithesis of supporting and protecting School Personnel yes you can't make this stuff up right good job everybody does anybody have any questions no I think we're good thank you all right thank [Applause] you okay moving on appro uh motion approve the minutes motion you second second all in favor I I all right thank you um in Sparta High School's first year competing in the Health occupation students of America which is also known as HOSA Northern Regional Conference in January our first year Club competed against nearly a thousand students from across the state the following students qualified for the state level conference for HOSA Adrien applebomb in Dental science sailor saxen in nursing assistant Alyssa way wght in sports medicine Chris Munoz and Haley Ericson in CPR and first aid and gri naraja first place in extemporaneous writing and health policy congratulations to them on this evening's agenda you see many noteworthy longstanding staff members who have submitted their retirements I would like to draw attention to these retirees this evening they are Katherine cayen who was an Ela teacher at Sparta Middle School and has served our district for 25 years Patricia Curtis band teacher at Helen Morgan school has served our district for 37 years Lillian frell school nurse at Helen Morgan served our district for 25 years Victoria ladu is a secretary at Sparta Middle School has served our district for 27 years and Teresa McMahon fifth grade teacher at Helen Morgan who has served our district for 25 years congratulations and thank you to those Sparta Middle School's robotics team 153d took the Long Hill tournament with a first place win guaranteeing their place at the VEX IQ state championships on Sunday March 10th at NJIT and while we honored our governor educators of the Year this evening we have another educator of the Year actually still in the still present in the crowd a few weeks ago we received official notification that Eric Hood won the American Council of teachers of Russian award for teaching excellence in Russian at the 9 to 12 level for 2023 the American Council of teachers of Russian is the national level Organization for all teachers of Russian in the United States and this is the most prestigious award and honor that 92 Russian language teachers can earn congratulations and lastly Parker kind of stole some my thunder about the musical but I'll plug it again to can't plug it too much right Angela um I would like to promote this year's Sparta High School Musical which will be The Wizard of Oz Show times are again March 1st and 2nd at 700 pm. and March 3rd at 2 p.m. ticket information can be found on the Sparta High School webpage under news and announcements our Sparta theater program always puts on a great production and this year I'm sure will be no different and uh off the toar okay just two quick reminders um in an effort to continue to um promote and value our Community Partnerships and the relationships that we share with our Sparta families um the culture and climate team that just presented did talk about the family survey that will be released on Monday through email um this is our second year of the partnership and this is the second round of data collection that complements the internal data that was gathered from staff and student surveys in alignment with our district policy last year um instructions and additional information along with a link will be provided uh again that that will go home on Monday the 26th and it's open for 10 days so your your feedback matters greatly to us um it's really important for us to know what's working well so we can preserve those things and of course areas and opportunities for improvement because that is ultimately what we're striving to achieve um in order for this data to be meaningful reflective and reliable we do need about onethird of our family participation so it's important we're going to continue to promote it but we do really feel that that feedback is valuable and we want to make sure that it's also reliable um separate from that we are you see on the agenda tonight we did um receive the high impact tutoring Grant it was a competitive Grant and we already started um working with students who qualify for intervention services in math for grades three through five they've been invited to attend Mathnasium um in the sparta community so that's also another great partnership with our local Community Partners and and businesses um on March 1st we are going to roll out something called pair deck tutor and that is for students in grades 6 through 12 they'll have access to that platform um from March 1st I don't know why I keep stumbling on that March 1st of this year until um the end of next year so all our secondary students um will have access to that platform they'll be shown how to use that platform in math class um it's really intuitive and userfriendly and there'll be more information sent home to families while the purpose was to help with math math support um you can use it for any level of support support and for any content area so it's versatile it's easy to use and uh we're excited to see how our students navigate that so I just wanted to make you aware of some of those things and to look out for upcoming information on both thank you thank you ter okay moving on can I get a motion to approve the Hib report motion thank you second Joan Miss Kier yes Miss gagnan yes Miss lonsky yes Miss McMichael no Mr this is different be clear this is not the same matter this is just the monthly report then I'm a yes thank you Mr pesi yes Miss cander yes Dr Serrano yes Mr wood yes Mr moris yes want to mention I'm going do the other resolution no you have any Communications no no NE okay delegate liaison reports so I just have one quick thing um I don't have anything for curriculum because Tara pretty much reported out a lot of our discussion items but for the sparta Education Foundation there are still some tickets left for the food and wine pairing which is on March 9th at the barn at Hillside Park so there are a couple tickets left I think it was under 20 last time I saw so if you want to attend that event get your ticket now they are also looking for volunteers if you want to help in that capacity you can help as a volunteer and um tonight we are actually approving a grant on the agenda so you actually get to see their hard work and action if you take a look at the agenda so that's all that I have thank you anybody else uh for Town Council Kurt Dr Beck Joan and I met twice with our Town Council delegates a few weeks back uh we're very excited to be partnering with the township to explore feasible solutions to some of our district District's most pressing areas um especially with a referendum on the horizon we look forward to continued collaboration with the Town Council and we will keep the community informed with updates throughout thank you anyone else just to add a little bit to what Tara was saying although she covered it I think the work that's going on with the culture and climate committee and with the three-year plan that we're in process it's very very exciting work so even if you don't fully understand what it might lead to I think it's extremely valuable and I'm really excited to see what work we can Implement in the school to help uh bolster our climate and you know Foster good things in Sparta not that we don't already do that but we could all use some improvement the next Garden State Coalition of schools meeting is actually in person on March 20th at 9:00 a.m. um they just had a really good meeting really uh just having a round table of superintendents from around the state speaking to new assembly Ed committee members about some of the trying pieces of legislation their impact right now um the feedback was very helpful I'm happy to forward that on to the administration um but everything from trying to eliminate uh teacher residency requirements to uh looking at qac I mean they nothing was held back and I think it was a really it was helpful and one good takeaway that I did see was on uh I believe that the Garden State Coalition will be part of the advisory feedback group for the um sorry let me go down here regarding the science of literacy see that package of bills um so Betsy Ginsburg um really Tara I wanted to invite you to give feedback she is looking for districts uh feedback on how to make the bills better un less honorous onus I'm not using right word tonight to districts um as they look at a balanced literacy versus these new requirements so would love to include your your feedback there thank you thank you Lauren anyone else okay moving on the public public comment number one public comments are invited in all matters pertaining only to action items at this time please State the action item number as well as your name municipality and group affiliation if appropriate for the record each participant will receive 3 minutes to speak once you've had your alloted 3 minutes to speak you'll be not permitted to speak again till public comment number two all statements should be direct to me as presiding officer the board Administration May or not respond to any questions or comments after the conclusion of Public's participation tap into Sparta um I just had a quick couple quick questions 1531 policy 9191 referring to booster clubs um it took a long time to get PTO to be included in that I don't see language in the I know it says not limited to but would you consider adding PTO into the language of the of the um policy just to make it clear so that future PTO understand that they can take advantage of some of the benefits of that um policy um 17.7 oh no I'm sorry 17.6 SDA NJ doe funding do we know what that's for can you tell us what projects will be funded by that um 17.9 the wre Grant do have anything to do it's a DCA Grant does that have anything to do with Jake's law type of um playgrounds is this a Green Acres type of a thing is it I I thought you were nodding okay um and then the 17.1 the demographic study at the planning board last night I mentioned that the district is about to undertake a demographic study at the planning board at the township level we're doing a master plan review I say we because I've been fortunate to be at it to the committee um where the demographic information would be quite helpful and so I suggested and you may have somebody reach out to you from the township to see if there's any way to just make sure that anything you get might be helpful that you that it could be collaborative to see what data points you're collecting and maybe if there's additional funding needed um that could be something shared thank you thank you oh sorry thank you for reminding anybody else motion to close motion you all in favor second I'll respond to the uh to the first one uh Jenny um yeah absolutely we can look at adding the PTO in there um they're um a nonpr nonprofit entity so I'll just discuss that with the committee and then I'll jump to the last one because I think the other two could be uh done by Miss black but um the demographic study yeah if we're going through it anyway and there's any way that we can help the town and collaborate with the town on the demographic study if there's information that they can use uh absolutely yeah as long as somebody reaches out we can work through it together so this the SDA funding grant that is um for Capital and emergent needs and we are still reviewing uh where we do want to spend the funding we do have uh some ideas in mind but a final determination is not been made yet um and then the rec Grant this is through the DCA and it's funding that is a ailable um and you know as far as it's Improvement for playgrounds that's what we are really um looking for to see if we can do some improvements at Helen Morgan school okay moving on to item 15 personnel and policy can I get a motion to move 151 to 15. 36 motion thank you second thank you discussion Joanne Miss Kier yes Miss gagman yes Miss lonsky yes Miss McMichael yes Mr pesi yes Miss cander yes Dr Serrano yes Mr wood yes Mr Morris yes okay on the curriculum motion for 161 to 16.13 motion thanks Wendy second second thank you discussion Joanne Miss Kier yes Miss gagan yes Mr lonsky yes Miss Miss lonsky Sorry Miss McMichael that's a first yes Mr P Mr pesi uh yes to everything except for 16.9 which I abstain just CU my wife on SCF board Miss cander yes Dr Serrano yes Mr wood yes Mr moris yes motion for finance 17.1 to 17.11 motion thank you second second thank you discussion Joanne Miss Kier yes Miss gagnan yes Miss lonsky yes Miss McMichael yes Mr pesi yes Miss cander yes Dr Serrano yes Mr wood yes Mr Morris yes motion for item 18 operations motion thank you second second thank you discussion Joanne Miss Kier yes Miss gagnan yes Miss lonsky yes Miss mcel yes Mr pesi yes Miss cander yes Dr Serrano yes yes Mr wood yes Mr Morris yes okay item 19 old business does anyone on the board have any old business I do um I'd like to make a motion to reinstate the original transgender policy with discussion please okay go ahead need we need a second second sorry second thank you Jen have prepared if you don't mind um I'll be fast just to catch the public up to speed conveyed that to my fellow board members my intentions to bring forth this motion this evening this is not a surprise this was discussed in both policy and finance committee meetings and I'd like to share some background Chad and I had the pleasure of attending our governance one training back in January we met with countless High Reps from the njsba and had the opportunity to personally discuss with them a number of issues facing our district and many others the recommendations from the njba when it comes to the transgender policy are abundantly and consistently clear quote you're either actively avoiding litigation with the attorney general with this policy or you're unnecessarily inviting it this is what one of the three in-house attorneys I spoke with advised she went on to say it sounds like Sparta has not only invited the attention of the Attorney General he should be knocking on your door any day now leave the original policy alone until it's all over I could not agree with her more similarly attorney David rubben who represents many districts across the state put out a press release on behalf of the njsba entitled leg speaking transgender students and parental notification what path forward which I do encourage everyone to read option number two is entitled revise your policy to provide greater parental notification and discusses the several risks associated with changing the policy first the chance that some transgender students may suffer excuse me will suffer psychological harm or worse and second the chance that the Attorney General will bring legal action against your district with all expense and inconvenience that would entail you should first consult with legal counsel to satisfy yourself there is a plausible legal argument standing a chance of prevailing in court end quote Mark did advise in our policy committing committee me meeting he is confident our revised policy could withstand a legal challenge in court but it's Mr rubin's next line that is more concerning for me you should then commit the financial resources necessary to withstand litig the litigation that may ensue even if it requires multiple levels of appeals and be transparent with your community about where you stand and why end quote this line haunts me because we have not designated any funds for this and with barely $500,000 in our maintenance reserves I'm not sure why we would even want to um I would like to emphasize some of Mark's important points that may not have been reflected in the finance meeting minutes especially first the notion that our district District's insurance would simply foot the bill for all litigation costs is misinformed Mark confirmed that in the very least between our d deductible and additional legal expenses that would not be covered a legal challenge as a result of this policy revision would not be at zero cost to our district Mark advised the current policy might not be challenged by the Attorney General especially given how quickly the three other districts were sued for revising theirs but we should remember we did not simply revise our policy the way that the other three districts did we abolished and then re excuse me then revised then adopted a revised version of another District's policy and catching that might take some time however Mark did confirm that under our current policy the department absolutely may still Sue our district I also presented data that showed our district is now within the highest percentile range of comparable districts in the state when it comes to our legal spending I'll provide that resource at for the good of the order and while there are many factors that do contribute to that according to Mark the policy revisions over the past year by this board including this policy have contributed to our inflating legal costs if the current policy increases our chances of being sued by the Attorney General we can't obviously equate how much um we can't quantify that percentage but by any percent we can't afford it and frankly Sparta taxpayers do not want to foot the bill for this let's take our newly revised policy for the sake of the collaboration that was met put it to the side and wait however long for the case law to trickle down that might take months or years and we can revisit that discussion then knowing um again that it might take several months or years but until then let's remove Sparta from this contentious equation let's remove any emotional or political ties to this discussion and focus solely on the liability for our district we should be laser focused on the issues legitimately affecting Sparta students and Sparta schools and make sure all of our resources are allocate excuse me allocated to those instead thank you thank you Caitlyn um I'll just comment on that as well um okay uh it's my opinion you know being what we did um if anyone were to knock on our door someone would have knocked months ago um it's not like it's uh we're a hidden little town we're all over social media everyone knows what we're doing when we're doing it um with legal expenses in reference to policies and are high cost for legal with reference to policies um the policies are being changed updated regularly it's not just us it's the state and and he he does review them it does cost things to review the policies um I feel confident if anything were to happen um we'd win in court I don't think we'll ever be in court but to have a slush fun of money set away just to be sued it's not necessary I mean you know if that's the case let's have one for me sitting here because I'm sued regularly so with that I'm I'm very confident with the policy we created as a team and work together and even though I'm against having the policy all together everyone who worked on it worked tirelessly and I think it's good and sound yeah I just wanted to comment on a few points as well um I do firmly believe just so there's no ambiguity about what I said I do firmly believe that our policy would with understand any legal challenge that were brought against us um our policy is different than some of the other policies that are currently being litigated right now we don't need to go into all the differences but I do believe um our policy would withstand legal scrutiny that's number one I absolutely agree with Mr moris I think if the Attorney General's office was going to bring a legal action um they would have done it uh the way that typically happens is through an emergent relief procedure um proceeding I should say and the other districts that were sued it was literally days after they adopted their policies on second reading that that we received um legal challenge to those so that was the second point and then the third point is this motion tonight would require two readings to abolish a policy as you all know so I just wanted to remind everybody if we do adopt it is going to have to come back for another reading any other discussion I wanted to just say that um I feel like given the really really great insightful questions so far that have been asked about financial our financial situation in all of the committee meetings I've attended which is two um and even just having had them at the table about the school and about like anything that pertains we talk a lot about waiting on state funding comes up a lot like we don't have those numbers yet and we are always waiting on numbers because we don't have a lot to work with and we have a lot to support and to me I guess I just feel like and I had expressed this previously before being on the board but there there was nothing really truly um int uh there was nothing risky about the original policy to begin with and there was never any issue brought about by anybody in the community there was never any risk of litigation with the original policy um and never any even discussion about it being an issue in any way shape or form so um just the idea that there's a risk makes no sense to me as anybody that's trying to better the financial situation of Sparta I don't I just um that's the way I'm looking at it just trick strictly by the numbers so I feel like this Vote or whatever were this discussion I would love to hear other board members how they feel about whether or not I feel like the responsible thing to do is to either go back or to either create a giant slush fund if you want to use that term of money to protect us from that and right now it just doesn't seem like we can do that so I'd be curious what to hear what other board members how they feel about which way to go because that seems like the two options to be the safest that we can yeah I I think there you know a lot of you know kind of echoing what Kurt says that said you know there was a lot of work and a lot of thought that that went into this policy and I think if if we feel that there are holes in this policy then that's we should look at the the current policy and and and and work on that and you know work to update the policy if if if we do feel there are holes I think in general the risk of of a lawsuit I think that could be said for any of our policies I think there are a lot of policies that are out of date right and we've talked a few times in the past year about a total policy review because there a lot of our policies are out of date and and and could leave us for you know open to um a lot of risks but you know at least my opinion is you know let's if we do feel like there are holes let's let's look at the policy the updated policy and let's let's work let's work off of off of that um so to that point I I for the sake of time didn't want to go into the minua that came up during the policy meeting but there were specific lines that did um arguably contradict some of the uh requirements as set forth in NJ lad um one of them for example was the requirement that uh the counselor balances the uh rights of the student I'm sorry I'm paraphrasing because I don't have it in front of me um and the uh obligation or responsibility to notify the parent or the parent right to know um and unfortunately that's not what the law says so while I understand Mark's point and this is what we very I have to say candidly and kindly discussed and I appreciate that um I think the question is not whether or not it would withstand in court which I'm sure you would feel confident in arguing that it would um it's why we're in the courtroom and I think that's the question that I don't have an answer to yet and I'm trying to understand why that is we know this is a contentious topic I understand your point there are many policies that need to be revised there's no doubt about that um I don't understand why we picked this one and unfortunately in the climate we're in right now where this is an ongoing super contentious policy across the state I just think it serves us financially to remove ourselves from that equation and revisit it when there's actual case law to tell us yes this policy is perfectly sound and there we go we reinstated then um I just like I said I would appreciate some I don't know a specific reason or you know again I even said this in policy what prompted the change you know were there incidents were there reports were there issues with parents coming out you know by the Dozen saying this is a huge issue in our district and we need to update this policy I don't believe that data is there um and I know that the argument came up of well a parent can sue us and it's like that's true and and there is you know one parent suing many many people involving a similar issue but that can happen with any policy at any time um so I just look at it like the onus is more on us not to prevent or predict parental lawsuits but to make sure that we're in compliance and we're not welcoming the unwarranted attention of the Attorney General and especially um when the njsba recommendations are consistent and clear and the recommendation is just leave it just wait I don't understand why legally and financially we're willing to put ourselves in that risk even if it's 5% why and that's my question so I appreciate it so thank you more so I just wanted to share something that I I shared with um the members of the board here is um and I thank you Kaitlin for bringing to our attention that you know we we do strive to have no surprise at the table so thank you so much for that Advance um on this and so in advance of that I also just it prompted me to think you know we you mentioned in committee about um the audit report and looking at where the money is going and as we saw those large categories the majority of our money is being spent as it should be right on student instruction on special ed instruction on making sure we're we're paying our staff accordingly and um competitively and then also looking at General Administration as that is that fifth category um that's where Legal Services Falls right so of a $81 million budget in our audit um we were looking at like a $5.1 million piece of the pie a smaller vast smaller uh than the rest of it now if you look at an entire budget and you look at what I had the auditor pull was let's compare legal services from 2018 through 2023 similar to kind of what you were comparing against legal expenses right so I wanted to see what's the comparison really for our district um because there's a lot of factors at play when we look at legal right we're looking at um it's not just looking at policy review it's there's a number of things um right where uh as I reflected in the minutes it can be anything from you know uh Oprah requests and special education personal labor issues um so when we're looking at the data over those years uh you'll notice that in 2022 the legal expenses represented 4% of our total budget for that year um in 2023 that was down to 0.25% so we're talking about a quarter of 1% of our total budget is what we're spending on legal expenses and that's even including you know understandably that even when it there may have been transfers to increase that budget line we're also talking about that's including uh as noted on here that there was there was a judgment against the district that was paid out so we do budget a certain amount there is budget within legal we do take our Council very seriously I mean I mean I I appreciate that you took advantage of all the opportunities njsba at their training I guess I'm just surprised at in a gov one training that that's how the time would be utilized personally because there's so much information to take in as a first year board member of all the things I I guess I'm a little shocked that that's just being transparent with you that that's how the time was being spent because those attorneys if that is how they were advising I would argue that that's not staying in their Lane because we have a board attorney who knows our district and we are a policymaking body I would you know I respectfully do disagree with you Jen that I think it did it did put us at risk because this was boards across the state passed this policy with very good intentions with stra Esme marking it as mandatory and it wasn't mandatory there were people at the time that thought well gee what does it mean to have no the school is under no obligation to notify parents what does that mean does that mean we never notify does that mean we keep a separate document like what does that mean I mean you wanted to go into some specific so I am sharing that so at the end of the day what was what we worked to achieve collaboratively as this board was balancing those needs um within the policy and I think we did do that well not that we can't ever go back to it but I think it is balanced it's balancing the needs of our staff uh and students and parents because parents cannot be left out of the equation we we're bringing a survey with climate and culture they are part of the equation and this policy is not cast from state law and it explicitly leaves them out and you and I might have very different opinions on that but the but at the end of the day the far majority of best support is coming from home like that's what supports students we hug them around with all the great supports of our amazing staff our amazing clinicians and it's nothing against any of the supports we're giving in school but simply to say that there's a lot at play Within that policy and we really tried to be very nuanced with with it and understanding the population and understanding very very some really difficult needs but also not leaving parents out not keeping secrets when we can help to um when we can help to bridge a family back together that needs to support to support their student and and sometimes that's not possible and that's also reflected in the policy sometimes that's not possible so it's not it automatically tell that's not what it is so I'm I'm over speaking but I just wanted to bring the point that when we're looking at budget our district is not hammering from legal fees that's we're talking about a quarter of a percent we're talking about a quarter of 1% of a total budget um I just want to make sure that we're very clear on a few things and I'm going to give everyone else a time and I'll make sure I stop here um so it's important to note that when something like 75 to 80% of our budget is wrapped up in salaries and going to the local the appropriate locations that makes the 25% that much more important because that's what we actually do have the jurisdiction over so when you say half of 1% that's actually sizable and ironically what you just handed out kind of contradicts what you're saying at least from the 2022 20 23 perspective where when we see salaries for 269,000 at 33% Legal Services are at 222,000 at 25% this is just within the general I'm sorry to interrupt that's just within the general Administration there's a whole different the point is Right legal services are broken down and that's not even including judgments against the school district for 11% um and this also shows consistently that the bars are going up in terms of what we are expending in terms of Legal Services I think this is a discussion more for finance where it was um the point I was Raising that was specific to the transgender policy was the point that Mark confirmed in finance when I asked explicitly outside of District um lawsuits litigation your average run-of-the-mill issues oah results outside of that would you say in the last year that the incessant policy changes have resulted in the increase in our legal fees and his answer was yes so that's something that we can't deny or um you know try to hide I think it's important that if we are going just like the njsba repap ruin said if you're going to do it that's fine but be transparent with the community that this is why you're willing to die on that hill and I feel like right now um and I will be very blunt with you as well um I felt the same way about the book policy I'm not bringing that up tonight because we're not in the in Jeopardy of litigation over the book policy as much as I don't think anything warranted that um I'm talking about what's going to get us potentially sued and I'm trying to protect our assets as limited as they are um and just one last thing just to clear your mind there were open tables uh for different reps I also spoke with the business administrator who pointed me to the resource that told me why we're what is it 68 out of 6 74 districts 68th highest in our 8A Legal Services only expenditures compared to only comparable districts of our size and of our status so again you know the notion that we're just asking ex exclusively about the transgender policy there were people who spent their lunch asking about can I post this on social media can I still be part of this political group they had every right to do that that was the whole point of the training um but any notion that that was what was we Chad and I utilized every opportunity available to us lunch breakfast and dinner to talk to everyone we possibly could about a wide range of issues um and not just issues positivity too um so I would just really encourage um yeah any notion of that is is um kind of insulting but it's okay I I I know you didn't necessarily mean it that way but um I don't think they were outside of their bounds I think they were advising everyone based on what trending in our state and unfortunately this is a policy that's trending in our state and I still have yet to hear why we're willing to go to bat for it legally so anyone else have any comments yeah I just wanted to say that um two things I also appreciate the work that goes into rebuilding a policy the way that the board at the time wanted it to look like that I nobody's disrespecting any work that's done behind the scenes board members work on stuff all the time you have a lot of you worked through two three years of a budget behind the scenes that people don't even see how many hours you work on that budget and they still don't really see the work that you've done right nobody's discounting any of the work that's been done literally the idea of the motion I think is to put that work aside until it's a better time to introduce that work and it feels like it's safer here's the bottom line before we do vote if we're voting on a motion there was one version of the policy that never had a chance of getting a suit and never put us at any Financial Risk and there's one that does that's it we are in a situation where we are going into budget months where we have to be careful that's that's it that aside from whatever we're looking at if we're looking at what is best financially for Sparta it just seems like the safest bet that's all anybody else okay there's a motion on the floor to reinstate the old 5756 abolish the current and the abolished current Joanne could I get a roll call please miss Kier no Miss gagnan yes Miss lonsky yes Miss McMichael no Mr pesi no Miss cander no Dr Serrano no Mr wood yes Mr Morris no okay the motion does not pass that was old business right yeah all right new business I you have something for no no okay you want to yes we have a resolution for the board's consideration uh resolved that the board affirms the Hib specialist decision in case number hms1 12231 heard during this evening's executive session and be it further resolved that the parents shall be provided with a written decision along with information on the right of appeal to the commissioner of Education have a mo I have a motion to affirm the decision motion thanks correct second second discussion Joan Miss K here abstain Miss gagnan yes Miss lonsky yes Miss McMichael no Mr pesi yes Miss cander yes yes Dr Sano yes Mr wood yes Mr Morris yes okay anybody else have anything for new business okay moving on to Second public comment children sorry sorry for Interruption the board uses a second public comment period to invite comments on all matters pertaining to the school district please state your name municipality and group affiliation if appropriate for the record each participant will receive 3 minutes to speak once you have had your allotted 3 minutes to speak you will not be permitted to speak again all statements should be directed to me as presiding officer the board and administration may or may not respond to any questions or comments after the inclusion of public participation sir Dr Joshua Torres Sparta and I'm here on myself thank you um it's specific to uh something actually said today about what your policy is um I actually followed your policy on who to report to and I went to the chief administrator I called wished to speak with him and he refused to schedule a meeting with me called several times left several messages it left opportunities here's my calendar here's all the time that I have available you can call me at any of those moments did he call true or false no he called times that were outside of the window that was given what am I talking about in October of 202 3 I called specifically about changing a bus route I was told I how to do it in writing so I obliged I did it in writing sent it to the transportation person a week later the transportation person sent me an email which was just a standard reply our policy is to point whatever it is however what was not taken under consideration is that they made two bus stops out of one location instead of consolidating where there was 10 children who live in that area who will use use all of these buses all five buses come to that one spot and instead they separated them in sending two to one and then the other three stayed in one area and so I I sent the email I replied they said no we've considered that you has to be um a commuter stop and I said it is a commuter stop and they go well this is really our policy 2.5 whatever it may be and then I said well when would be the next time for consideration no reply to that email I let it go then two weeks later the bus didn't show up I called and I said hey the bus isn't here or I sent an email bus didn't come this morning will it come later on they replied the bus did come and the bus will be there problem was the bus didn't come and so I had to send the video from my ring camera and ask for the GPS information proving that the bus came did the bus come true or false it did not come and so they then had had to report back going oh the bus driver apologized the bus people apologize but did your supervisor apologize no when the original one came out saying I don't know what the hell you're talking about basically the bus came when it didn't second time when I've asked someone to think about something and they chose not to do it and so then I reported to Dr Beck's office and the secretary doesn't schedule his appointments he only schedules his appointments and so did he call back yes during the times that I gave him no when I asked specifically can we why can't we schedule a time it's best for you to send it via email so I sent him the list all of the threads and did he reply back to all of the threads four months later no that's thank you yeah thank you still no answer doesn't move okay Autumn Court Sparta resident I am here to talk about Thomas Murray and as some of you know Thomas Murray holds his chess club in our Sparta schools he has his chess club in the mornings and in the afternoons at every single one of our Sparta schools well this year my six-year-old son who's in first grade was very excited to do chess club and he started doing it and then on the on January 31st he came home from school and as soon as he got off the bus he jumped into my husband's arms balling here that morning at chess club at Alpine the chess coach Mr Murray called him a jerk and made a comment about kicking him out of chess club I of course called the principal who told me that he had no control over him cuz he was a volunteer and that conversation went on for a while in which he you know agreed that something should be done then I called another parent I knew to verify what my son had said and she talked to her daughter who attends chess club and she said yes he he called him a jerk her daughter said he called him a jerk and that my son was doing nothing wrong and other people have verified that he was doing nothing wrong but then she also told me that several weeks before her daughter came home upset about chess club and when she asked her why she said oh because the Mr Murray made a comment about it's raining stupid in here today so I talked to my son about this comment and I said what happened and he said well you know somebody was trying to figure out their move you know another six-year-old was trying to figure out their move and Mr Murray's comment was wow it's really raining stupid in here today and I said well how did that make you feel and he said terrible so I contacted a bunch of people as you all know I contacted all of you and Mr Beck and you know I got the same thing you know he's a volunteer there's nothing we can do um in fact you know Mr Beck said Mr Murray was made aware of his complaint this complaint and if these complaints were to be true and were to continue he will no longer be allowed to use the district's facilities for his Club when I responded that they are true he admitted to me that he said this to my son as a matter of fact he called me he was Unapologetic blamed my son and we all know of today I know there's a video and my son was not misbehaving um and then when I asked him about the comment about it's raining stupid he said so what's your point and I said well my point is you shouldn't talk to six-year-olds like that it's incredibly damaging and if that's how you're going to talk to Children you shouldn't be in charge of any children and then to that Mr Morris's response to my email was like I already stated this is not a board matter and will not be addressed by the board he continued at this time I respectfully asked that you stop emailing the Board of Education and let us handle matters that are actually board and District related well I think that this is an issue that the board and every one of us should be concerned about and after being told several times I was the only one complaining I thought this is not possible so I went on Facebook and I asked people hey have you had any issues with this guy and I got a lot of responses from people time thank you which I'll share with you next time is there anybody else okay my are we ready go ahead okay okay good evening my name my name is Angela Delia and I am the very proud president of the sparta Education Association as I've shared with you in the last few months our everyday work and our Afterschool Sports and activities are a great source of Pride for every single one of our members with our Educators and Paras working directly with students and the support of our secretaries it and security guards the success of our students is always our priority at Alpine we have two author visits scheduled in the library in this coming month one with a local author to celebrate dental hygiene month make sure you floss um for first grade and the other is a grand celebration for the love of reading week in the first week of March where many of you sitting at this table and other literacy loving faculty members like myself will serve as a guest reader for grades p through two our elementary Educators just participated in a wildly successful Harlem wizard Wizards basketball event that brought hundreds of spect ators to raise money for our schools Mohawk Avenue School is partnering with Oscar and incorporating animal rescue lessons to um into their culture and climate work Helen Morgan school is getting ready for their annual spaghetti dinner on March 13th always a very fun and well attended event also with the addition of the prek class at Helen Morgan our fifth grade classes have really stepped up as student leaders and with the guidance of their amazing teachers are now serving as one-o-one mentors for pre- students at SMS the basketball teams are advancing to Championship rounds and archery is off to an amazing start in competition at the high school as Dr Beck mentioned Eric Hood has been named the American Council of teachers of Russian teacher of the year this is the second year in a row that a Sparta Russian educator has won this award and also as a personal plug we hope that you will follow us down on uh down the yellow brick road next week when the curtain opens on March 1st for The Wizard of Oz finally it's an honor to represent such a strong dedicated and invested group of Educators and support professionals but tonight is always extra special as the governor's educators of the year are recognized from each of our five buildings I am sure we are all in agreement that we are very much looking forward to Spring which will bring us many more academic achievements activities and Athletics to highlight thank you thank you Jenny derk's 27 Mount Pleasant Road I'm speaking as a resident and a former board member I've come to understand that it's possible that sometimes committee meetings even though it's not an emergency committee meetings are still being held via Zoom or possibly held being via zoom and I would just suggest that you reconsider that it may be more convenient but you're opening yourself up for some un possibly unintended consequences including possible opma violations of having a quorum there might be someone off camera we all know that will be revealed at some point somebody's going to rat you out and then the other um unintended consequences for years people off and on have asked to have access to committee meetings and the comment from the board rightfully so has been committee meetings are qu are closed to the public intentionally so board members feel free to speak their mind to be able to collaborate and also talk freely and if you are on Zoom the rest of the people on the other side of the zoom don't know who's out of camera range so that then negates any time that somebody comes to the microphone and says I want to go to a committee meeting you've kind of lost that uh ability to say our meetings are closed when they're on zoom and you don't know who's in the room just something to consider thank anybody else from the the public motion to close public comment motion all in favor I um I will comment to Jenny um yes we do have our meetings via Zoom from time to time we do have it in uh in person from time to time as well all depends on the month um I do have faith in my entire board that they will not violate any o uh violations um if they do obviously there's consequences so I do have faith in the board that if we do in at that time have zoom meetings I'm not worried about anyone you know special guests what have you but I do understand what you're saying um to the chess club once again I'll reiterate this has nothing to do with the district Mr Murray is not a uh staff member um he's a strictly a volunteer that uses space within our school um just like many other organizations uh you say there's multiple complaints we don't feel complaints over social media you can give us hundreds and hundreds of pages from social media they mean nothing to us so until some other people send emails and complain which we have not received any um I don't know what to tell you this has nothing to do with us I'm sorry we can't help you if you don't like them you can pull your kid from the chess club that's all I can tell you um moving on go to the order I actually have two things um firstly uh just to to comment on your point a little bit but um no we actually compared to some other board members I would say that Caitlyn Jen and I actually got super great training before we attended the training session so when we were sitting in some of our conferences there were definitely some instances where I'm sitting through things and I'm thinking okay I definitely already got this from people that trained me and also Joanne did a great job um so just to let everyone know sport is a really good job with our board members which is nice to hear um but but I also wanted to follow up on some communication I had with Dr Beck following my January board meeting uh training weekend uh and some things that I picked up upon were how districts are supposed to have things like commission statement a vision statement specific district superintendent and board uh goals and for a strategic plan to be followed we do have a mission statement that predates Dr Beck and we do not have vision statement uh we do have a recent strategic plan from the 2021 2020 School 2022 school year um it has been created an aligned district and superintendent goals we can see that even today with our culture and climate moving forward with this is our second year um but our board hasn't set official goals since the arrival of Dr Beck and I think it would be a smart step to move quickly in establishing some goals for ourselves especially from the view of a Community member having established transparent goals for ourselves is important I sent Dr Beck um and Mr Morris an email and Mr Morris gave me the info that we have a strategic planning ad hoc committee that could help us achieve these goals so I'm excited for Mr Morris to help us make that happen I just wanted to let you all know any um I have a few things um Chad I look forward to working on that with you and the rest of the board I think it's really important that we set measurable goals for ourselves uh to hold ourselves accountable and also to make sure we're communicating to the public so the public knows uh what our goals are and what our intentions are in our roles um I'd also like to recognize Black History Month it's been really nice seeing some of the projects coming home uh especially homework for my boys just to Circle back to the legal spending discussion uh just to share the resource that uh with interested constituents that was provided to me from the NJ SBA uh in-house business administrator if you visit the doe website you go to the a toz tab you go to finance you can go to the taxpayers guide to education spending and when you visit indicator 8A which is legal services um this is where I collected the data that I presented during finance and policy meetings um and it was very interesting in and enlightening to see where we're at in terms of what we uh project for budgets and what our actual spending is in those areas especially compared to districts our size um I'd like to acknowledge the five donors on tonight's agenda particularly Thor labs for contributing to our Middle School robotics club and the United Methodist Church for tackling eligible student lunch balances um I just think those are some really incredible gestures and while I'm very sad to see a few of the names uh all of the names but especially a few personal ones on the resignation and retirement list of course we all wish our teachers and staff the very best in their retirement and thank them for their unparalleled dedication to our district thank you anybody else no motion to adjourn motion thanks Craig second all in favor