roll call please miss carbonel yes Mr Cohan yes Mrs K macki yes Mr McDowell yes Mrs Scott heeden yes Miss Santana yes thank you so much Miss capio next we have our Communications that are reflected on the personnel and operations agenda and now we will go into comments from the public on resolutions and all other matters yeah hold it you good okay you uh Jill Hall 9 Whitewood Road um I apologize last week at the work session it was really difficult there was a lag time and some uh disruption but I was trying to address um some concerns that I have about summer school uh I'm very happy to see it back on um the schedule for summer 2024 um but it is going to be limited because of budgetary constraints and I have some real concerns about what that's going to do with regard to Equitable access to summer school for all of our kids uh one section of some of the courses that will be offered is not going to be sufficient to provide for the students that are needing Credit Recovery um so had some suggestions um we've been giving summer school for free forever um did some research we're the only ones around that give it away for free other districts do charge their stud students to enroll in summer school students who need to take summer school and do not find it available at Union High School have to pay 300 to $350 per course on New Jersey virtual high school or to take it at one of the uh private schools my other concern is that families have no skin in the game when they don't have to pay and so what we find happening very frequently is that kids will sign up taking spots away from other students and then after three or four days they don't show up it is too late for the kids on the waiting list to come on because of seat time requirements um and we we are unfortunately not being able to provide the best services for our kids and so I'm really asking for us to take a deeper look at this um it was great if we could have offered it for free when we had the money to do so but we don't and I think there are some advantages even if it is somehow on a sliding fee scale or some type of a non-refundable registration deposit it because my real concern is kids that are not going to take summer school seriously are going to take spots away from kids who have worked really hard all year and just didn't make it at the end and they didn't know that they're failing for the year until after they failed that final exam and they're going to have spots taken from kids who knew third marking period that they weren't going to make it and signed up very quickly um I'd also like to put forward that we need to take a look at the attendance there I'd like to build in some extra opportunities for kids to build in seat time um last year we had kids that were exited from the program um that had satisfied all requirements but one in particular that comes to mind had two days of Court um and was out one day and was told well he shouldn't have been out that one day because then the court Fates wouldn't matter and he did not get his credits for geometry or English and he is not going to be able to graduate on time unless he takes two courses on his own that he has to pay the $300 for and there were some other kids as well so I would also propose adding two days on to the end so that we can help some of our kids because that's what we're about we're supposed to be providing services for them um that we could maybe um have the kids come in who might have been absent for whatever reason to make up their time as well so lots of things to think about I know that it's the clock is ticking and summer school is going to be here really soon and I don't know if it's too late in the game to do anything about it but I'm just asking for your consideration thank you thank you Melissa antolovich 6id Village in Flanders I'm the school librarian at Battle Hill previously I worked in both Battle Hill and Hannah Cobell you may or may not know but our school library funding was reduced to zero for this year fortunately we got grants to purchase some books unfortunately these grants did not cover the majority of our library needs grants are typically for a specific type of book so we were unable to purchase books to fulfill student requests to support changing curriculum to update non-fiction titles and to support individual school and collection needs additionally without a supplies budget some schools lacked even the basic materials to process these books these grants also did not cover subscription access to electronic resources that better prepare students to interact in a digital world and make them College and Career ready research shows that students read more understand more and are more likely to continue reading when they have the opportunity to choose what they read for many students are libraries at school are the only place that allow them to self- select books yet students often ask for books that are not available in our collections lack of up-to-date books is the fastest way to lessen the love for reading that our students develop in our school Liv libraries if you take a look at the chart under 2022 2023 school year budget you'll see Elementary library funding varied greatly from about $2 per student to about $10 per student middle school funding was about $9 to $11 per student and the high school only received about $5 per student almost all of these fall short of the national average which is about $11 per student in the K8 schools and about $15 per student in the high schools funding our school libr Li will help our students succeed now and in the future in a summary of school library impact studies over 20 studies found a positive association between increased Library budgets and student achievement one study shows that test scores increased by 5 to 12% in both reading and writing in schools that spent more on their libraries School libraries also support important social emotional skills such as empathy currently our library collections do not fully represent our student populations Studies have shown evidence that reading fiction increases empathy so we need books that represent our students and help our students to see diverse experiences and perspectives finally libraries are hubs for information literacy School libraries need the tools to teach our students how to get Knowledge from the flood of available information we're requesting per student funding for our school libraries based on the national average provided by the school library Journal we suggest rounding up to $1 per student in the K8 schools and about $15 per student at the high school on the back of the hand or the second page you'll can see a chart with a sample breakdown by school building thank you for your time and your dedication to our students thank you good evening and Margaret Shannon 2591 Spruce Street UTA president and I just want to thank the media specialist Librarians for standing up for the kids I hope that you guys are able to help them with that uh budget item um I did have one question I hope I know the answer the money that um goes through to the Patrick School is that something we get from the state though it's not really our budget right um right correct 12 a and 12b it's just money that funnels through yes thank you very much any other comments from the public this would great be a great moment for more comments from the public so while we're waiting um for the superintendent report to be up I would like to say hello to our Lea a from the uh Township committee Mr Bowser thank you so much for coming in today everybody in the audience say thank you to him also talk to him bite his ear off let him know everything that we need he might be able to help us thank you so much Mr Bower yes great yes tonight thank you we have some special guests um before I get into mine and then our one Lea on to share a little bit uh later tonight first up we're gonna hear um uh where are we um from our special ed a Gary molar come on up Gary uh I guess probably the middle of last year started an audit um over special services and he's come to just share uh some of the findings uh from when he spent a lot of time with us uh diving into special education so I'm gonna put your PowerPoint up okay great and then okay oh okay great thank you Dr brandquist uh Madam president members of the board thank you for having me here tonight I know I was U scheduled to come two different times in January and I appreciate your patience because I had conflicts with my schedule so thank you for taking uh your time tonight um I'm Gary mullinar I'm the assistant superintendent at the Ed Services Commission of New Jersey um we we are a public school district we're um we're a sister District to your Union County at services and Mars J your jointure commission um it will just that top one perfect um we're we we are a public school so we provide many services to area school districts uh one of those Services being uh special at Department review or audit if you will and that's what we did for Union uh Township Public Schools last uh starting last March I believe so we start well March April and here are various items that we looked at with uh Kim and her special education department team um record reviews placement data LR data uh special class programs we did some observations in your schools as well as uh interviews and parent surveys so let's get into some of the uh information so seven class programs we observed um seven special education class programs it was Jefferson Washington Livingston Hannah Caldwell uh Burnet Middle School and Union uh Union High School seven classes both self-contained pull out in-class resource and pullout resource classroom observations were followed by interviews of uh your teachers your special education faculty as well as your building administrators schools some of the things that we came away with um looking at your classes your teachers seemed very well prepared to provide instruction as per the students IEPs individualized instruction excellent use of instructional technology throughout these seven classes that we observed teachers um used best practices throughout so they were um they were helping students to generalize they were tapping into previous learned items and they were helping those students make connections also um your inclusion opportunities for your special education students was noted throughout your programs especially um a mention was made of the coffee shop at your middle school I was not invited to have a cup of coffee but uh maybe next time when I come back um other things um your unified clubs and Unified sports that's those are really great opportunities to include your students with disabilities that's uh that's a wonderful thing also your professional development and your multisensory reading programs Orton Gillingham especially is really picking up especi in in the uh lower grade levels and we're going to talk a little bit more about that uh with recommendations professional development opportunities are made available to your faculty and the Cent CL and culture was noted to be very positive especially for students with disabilities and being included in their school communities your building administrators spoke well to that as well some of the some of the other information we got through the interviews um again the need to continue to include your your special education students um there was some concern uh expressed about a reduction in the number of specialed uh supervisors that you had at The District in that IM imp on instructional delivery in your in your buildings in your schools um and inclusive education seems to be very Val valued and um and not just spoken to it it seems to be a feel and parents also indicated that they felt their children were being included some of your principles felt that due to lack of administrative support that they have a difficult time getting out to the classes I think as much as they would like to to assist especially general education students who are working with your classified students um Staffing concerns in general um this is not unlike anything we're hearing anywhere we go so Staffing uh RIT large was a concern um also you have one to maybe two behaviorists for the for the district um so there's a lag time for a behaviorist who goes in observes what's going on in the class has to go back write a behavior plan and then has to turn kids somehow back to the classroom teacher to say hey this is what you do by that that could be two three weeks down the road by that time that behavior may have escalated to a point where what they first saw will no longer address uh what was happening and this isn't just a special education thing this is a gened thing as well so uh behavior that lag time is is critical uh where it should should not be a lag time actually so and Jen had teachers um the feeling was they could use more assistance and how to accommodate and modify and differentiate their instruction for students trying to move quickly because I know you have a package in um a child study team so we we met with all of your child study team members we didn't do it individually we did it as groups if we did it individually we'd still be meeting um you have a lot of child study team and they had um really great constructive uh information for us so they they really feel that Union Township offers a vast and and wide majority or um Continuum of services and help students to do so in the least restrictive environment which is what we're called to do by code um transition planning they we're very um um very happy with and like to see that grow and continue especially for postsecondary opportunities for your students with disabilities um they did feel and and again this is most child study team uh members that we meet with throughout the state that the general professional development that is provided for the or from the district for them isn't really specific to them I know the department of special services seeks to provide that training um in their monthly meetings however the the vast majority of districtwide training isn't necessarily pertaining to a school psychologist or an ldtc um very concerned about mental health supports for students throughout the district and access to those mental health supports um and trying to bridge gaps that they do see between gened and special education programs um project UniFi was um was spoken to by many of the child study team members um they felt that they get complete support from their Department administrators as well as most building administrators which is good to hear because we don't typically hear that um child study team felt again professional development for gened teachers for modifications accommodations and behavior management strategies that is um that's a big one a child study can feels at counseling again needs to be more accessible um and should be consistent across the buildings and speaking to your special service administrators um just a a feeling that your faculty are implementing goals and objectives as written which which is what they're called to do um the CST again going above and beyond to help um most building most of the building administrators we didn't get into who uh felt that special education uh was accepted and was part of their school Community uh let's see again a Continuum of special class programs available throughout your District uh and when we get to some of the recommend a I know space becomes an issue however we'll talk to it a little bit more I realize inrs is not a special education uh program or function it's a gened function however if uh if um inrs and njss are not functioning it directly impacts special education and perhaps leads to a higher referral rate to special education so um so really need to I know it it's it's a long process to get everyone trained up and implementing inrs with Fidelity and to do so consistently uh gened teachers again would benefit for multisensory reading strategies not just the special education teachers and continue to build capacity of all faculty to serve our students and to do so again in L in a gened class rather than pull out programs here's just some other programs that your special ed administrators are already implementing through throughout the district um looking at postsecondary uh the uh the NJ tips program that's a travel training program out of ruers uh it's a really great program and it really benefits your students to be able to travel independently because that becomes critical if they're going to succeed in work uh postgraduation Dare To Dream is another part of that and then the making action plans is part of that person centered planning that is already in place just want to mention a procedures manual it sounds dull it sounds routine however that's really quite important for child study team especially if you have novice CST members and that is already underway here in Union record review this is not um heck I I do this part of it because that was my background as a child study team person I don't get to do the fun part of this which is classroom observations however we we did review 46 CST records here's a distribution by grade so we caught all of the grade bands um here's a distribution by meeting type so you'll notice annual review of course is the most because pretty much a reial turns into an annual review an amendment as a type of annual review and the initial also turns into an annual review so that was the distribution by meeting type and here's distribution by category so you will notice that sld specific learning disability other health and pair are the Li and share and that's typical of a distribution so we we think we um I wouldn't call it's not a complete random sampling of Records but maybe a stratified random sampling if you if you want to call it something like that but we do try to hit all areas just some things some accomodations for record review uh planning meeting were held within 20 days which is per code and that's very important annual reviews are completed CST completed thorough reports and evaluations LR statements tend to be were were very well written we don't always see that and they tend to be boiler plates that tells me that your team is individualizing what they're doing and how they're looking at each student 100% of the revals were completed within three years as per code and um all files had a signning sheet that seems simple but that's really quite important especially when confidentiality of Student Records is always to be considered uh compliance notes and and these are these are very minimum um so evaluation reports need to be mailed to a parent 10 days prior to the meeting we can only determine that in several of the cases so we usually determine that by we there's a letter with a date and says uh here's the meeting date and attach please find um so that's that's a quick clerical fix uh meeting signatures were not always consistent but I think that has to do also with the nature of our meetings now some are virtual some are hybrid some are in person so it's it's finding that way to always document that and always um annual reviews within one year so of the 37 that we saw uh we couldn't 37 were were within one year out of the 46 but again we this is a very small sample uh we only reviewed 46 records um but again usually there's an explanation as to why that happened um even if a parent delayed and canel the meeting that's still not reviewed within one year and that is it kind of kind of sort of doesn't count anyway plaf that's the present levels of academic achievement functional performance uh plaf statements uh should be databased I it shouldn't be hey Gary is a really nice person to have in class and we enjoy him and he has a great smile while that may be true it's it it should be objective data what what is the student strengths and where where do they need assistance um goals and objectives need to be that smart specific measurable attainable relevant and time bound and we were seeing that for the most part here are just some recommendations for professional development for CST members as to how to write a better IEP um to uh to speak to your board attorney a defensible IEP so in in defensible IEP is a good IEP it's a good program so um these are just some of the items that can be considered and I know Kim and her team have addressed many of these uh in the past and we'll need to do so over and over um special ed document review it's another function we pull your data off your uh school report card and the state performance report you're meeting your mentoring and targeted review items as per NJ dooe um you have a system in place currently your special ed department has a system in place to track um the implementation of placement of enrollments of workflow and to ensure that reports and the data is is completed in a timely manner that's not easily done especially coming out of the pandemic because again of the the way in which the meetings have been taking place over the last several years just some numbers right now you're running at 18 I think it was 18.08% uh classified the state rate is 7 1% so again you're kind you're kind of right in there um however there has been an increase over the past two years of the number of classified students but you've ALS SE also seen enrollment come up at about that maybe a little less um this was this was interesting that the CST have have seen increased referrals over the past three years so they've increased pretty significantly so again that that speaks to really doubling down on n jtss and irrs processes in your schools again to preclude uh students to getting to the referral phase to the child study team um again meeting LR requirements as uh mandated by the department of Ed so that's that's really good stuff um High parental referral rates so we saw a pretty significant I think last year was 50% of the referrals were from parents that's higher than typical and and again we don't know if this is coming out of pandemic if this was as a result of learning loss during pandemic or if it's really truly an underlying disability for for the students so that's something to really consider and to look at and and again we get back to implementing those uh New Jersey tiered system of the supports those tier two and tier three strategies as a way to address those issues and again to make sure we do do that with Fidelity to be able to determine if it's a student with disability or there's other factors at play parent survey all right so it was very low response rate and you can interpret that um I guess many different ways it most parents were satisfied and uh just really didn't have uh either the time or the interest to reply it was it was emailed out it was just a you know Google form pretty straightforward um just some things parents felt that their ideas and their input is considered uh parents have an understanding of their IEP uh they know procedural safeguards and parental rights and special ed that's important that your parents know that um parents also said they know who to reach out to should they have a question that's not always the case in in a district your size that's that's saying quite a bit uh special education students parent according to the parents feel that they're their their students are accepted in their School communities just some things to look at with the again I know it was a very low response rate uh the 24hour uh response rule following you know a parental inquiry we noticed that some parents felt that that was happening however in looking at the numbers too there were many parents who were neutral on this or said na so I don't know perhaps the question wasn't framed uh the correct way however uh the 24-hour rule is is always is is the Golden Rule as far as getting back to parents for really really anyone for that matter some ideas for uh ongoing training and workshops for parents I know you have a fairly robust cpad group that does uh present this type of information one other thing I would say though but our students who in school what five to six hours a day 180 days a year so the vast majority of the of the instruction if it's going to be generalized needs to take place at home and so how to implement those ABA programs those those instructional or behavioral programs we really need to provide our parents with supports on that uh sibling support too I think is is very important and it's never too early to talk about transition to post 21 options because that happens really really quickly um what what is Union doing well um you're doing a lot of things well um I think the UN unified clubs and sports are really really important it's a great way uh to involve your special education students uh you have a large Continuum of placement options throughout the district and again you have um a cpag that meets and is presented with information so that many districts struggle with the cpag piece that doesn't seem to be the case here um some recommendations um just different trainings that we have here um we saw evidence of student communication apps in uh I believe your autism program these are some quick apps that are are inexpensive and like Prolo quo Prolo quoto that is uh an app that's uh placed on the uh students iPad I think the app is about $200 and iPad is about $300 maybe 10 years ago instead of a $500 communication device it would have been a $5,000 communication device so these apps are really really important and help our students to access instruction um accommodation differentiation of best practices uh differentiation of instruction as a best practice for your gened and again continuing to look at multisensory reading programs your OG program that you're that you're implementing currently just I just want to skip down to gened professional development because that's where we want the instruction to be happening to the greatest extent possible in that gener en education classroom and so here are just some topics that can help our our gen general education teachers to best address the needs of your students with disabilities um just the basics of special ed in the process and the procedure I know it can be it can be dull um I happen to enjoy it but it can be dull especially for our Genet teachers but it gives them an idea of what it means when you refer a child to the child study team and and maybe answer the question what's so special about special EDS so um just some ideas on professional development retention Recruitment and Retention I it's tough It's it's really difficult right now uh ltc's and bcbas seem to be um well ltc's the state isn't making them anymore I don't know what's going to happen with that but bcbas are are very difficult to come by Andor hold on to um also maybe consider re um introducing the third supervisor for your special ed Department um continuing to grow your life skills program um and continuing to enhance your work-based learning and job related skills programs within that life skills program again the the behaviorists I can't stress enough I I'm struggling with that in my district so I feel a little hypocritical standing here saying you need to recruit and retain behaviorist and I'm having difficulty time doing that myself uh but but we know the importance of it let's see and now I'm reading a lot of things to you just again the New Jersey tier system of support and looking at tier two and tier three services and look to move always to move students to least restrictive environment and your team spoke about how they do that and we do that again by collecting data and that whole data piece becomes very important um just Staffing concerns I don't want to hit that again um you're painfully aware of it I'm sure uh principles they see the inrs process as a paper driven process there are different ways to digitize that process and to make that data uh more accessible and actionable um it any way to increase preschool inclusive opportunities it would be wonderful but again that comes down to space and staff and um this may be a way to look at some savings um and I know your business administrator and I have spoken about that um but looking at Power professionals and often times we power professionals are not the answer to the inclusion of students in genad settings and that that's not always the way and there could be ways to reduce um the number of power professionals again that has to do with data collection uh and how that student is functioning uh perhaps more independently just documentation Community Based instruction and last again tiered systems of support I really rush through that and I apologize but I'm here and I can take any Kim may have some uh some answers for you as well um I guess I had a question when I uh initially went through like the thicker version of this yes and I'm not sure if you're going to be able to um necessarily answer it now but um just uh kind of that seed that you can leave with Miss KY one of the things that I saw was just a dis from building to building what inrs looked like was very different from building to building how do you make it how do we start the process of making it consistent across the board of course what you want it is to always start at at the inrs process and and hopefully you know if everything goes well uh it stays there of course you have other you know where it has to go but I I think that one one of the things that I saw in this is that that just the big difference in inrs where it should start and then um who was the sample size for the 1145 parents I didn't get one I would think that I would be oh just randomly yeah yeah yeah yeah give that up to to parents of IEPs IEP babies got gotcha gotta so that's my thing how do we consistently make the INR process in every building within the district uh uh similar right the same is one thing but similar so that we can all have that all parents and children that have the need experience it alike it's it's a great deal of professional development and working together as an inrs team and of course what impacts that is turnover and building staff so because it is a team process however I think it starts with that building administrator and that or that administrative team within each school that they have to hold sacred that inrs time and that process needs to take place and it's not just a holding pen so if um it what impacts that too though is the ability of classroom faculty to leave the class to come to an irrs meeting if you don't have a substitute to put in that class it's it's it's a really tough problem but if if it's done right over time and it's not a quick fix but over time I think you'll see that it does make a big difference and it it does help those kids who just need a little extra support here in the Jed Ed side rather than going through a whole child study team evaluation and perhaps not to find that they're eligible for special ed and related services and now we're right back to the beginning so it's um it's a lengthy process I I know at a former District we trained the entire District over the summer we spent several days each iron RS team and um and it worked for a while then but it's it's always something that you have to come back to and hit every year based inters has to be EV researched inter function from to behavior all those pieces have to be there so that when the process the PD is rolled outs that take the information are all there and you have process you have the tools to provide the interventions that are res dat on and it's a great process because even when you get later on different specialed andu thank you so much Miss KY Miss KY how many students with IEPs do we have in the district don't me to an exact number the last I did check we were over have gone I'll get you an exact number no about I know when I first started so um Mr molena molar molar I apologize um you reviewed um 46 IPS is that a significant sample size to make these determin it's a very low sample size that's why you know when I say systemic or compliance I I don't know how systemic so this is these could almost be seen as generalizations to some extent to some extent yes sure um I have another question you also out of the service that you sent out 67 parents responded right out of those will you say that that's a healthy representation of the total parent population for the students with IPS no if it that was a 14% response rate no I would say you would look for a minimum of at least 30% but out of those 44% Express dissatisfaction with the level of communication and relationship with the district no it was was just um I forget the exact question but the question it's in the report I I don't have well I do have it but I'm not sure what page it's on it was do you find that the district special services Administration is responsive to you and 44% said 40 44% since ask do we have a a minute to flip to this yeah it says timely response from right where they didn't reach out right and on that and I I get that but but in here um and you referenced the 24-hour communication rule as a recommendation a recommendation and you do do cite that 44% of parents who feel like there's not that reciprocal communication or those lines of communications could be improved absolutely I think there's always always room to improveed communication especially with our parents I I apologize I have a couple of more questions sure um slide 19 it says evidence of evaluation reports being mailed to parents included in only two of the nine records correct but you reviewed 46 am I missing something well that's because not every uh file review had a record or a report that was mailed to parents so out of those 46 there were nine and out right so there were how many re aows we looked at 10 re aows and six initials so that's where we would have seen uh reports that would have been mailed to a parent got it and although not St um statistically significant in the second bullet there it says that it's Miss um out of those documents that you reviewed um seven out of the 46 were missing signatures that's approximately 15% a sign a signature page yes at the back at the back of the document so when I did the math on that that's about 15% um is are we going to review that 15% out of our 1,400 documents are not missing the signature page as part of our these recommendations um I I believe you already have in place where your District administrators review on a regular basis right also did aot of thank you you're um you might you might ask my question no ask your question I rather wait till the vote okay no so uh I'm gonna go with Miss Cony helped with this uh gave you information for this we you collaborated right I'm sorry did you collaborate for this collaborate like like work together like like get my question is I'm surprised I I I I wrote the report with my team yes and then I shared that report with uh your central office and with uh Miss kti and her Department okay so my when you talked about the schools that you included in this I was shocked not to hear Battle Hill we did not select the schools that's my question did not where did that come from was that a was that you was it a hat we we didn't select the schools nor the classes to be observed we who selected there were seven School uh classrooms to be observed right got I like I said I I can understand I'm I was just shocked that when the list of schools were said Battle Hill was not um somewhere in that mix but I I I defer to use this oh thank you um so first Mr MOA thank you for coming in um and compiling this dat of the report um I think it's definitely needed um to gain Clarity and understanding and insight to what works what doesn't work and where we can assist to make special ed much more stronger I can say that Nationwide there is a staffing issue in terms of special education teachers ldts csts behaviorist so some of the stuff that you put here um understandably will be here because of the Staffing constraints I just have a couple couple of questions um Madame President alluded to like my first one which was who determine the criteria of what schools that you would see so we know that you just come in and you review and our district says hey these are these classrooms Mrs Cony I know that you're gonna you say you know I need this place this place this place to give a generalized overview but what makes up the determination of what is seen and what is not seen and an interesting question is most of us consider Battle Hill the Baseline for our children with disabilities inclusive with General Ed population why wouldn't that be one of the schools that we visit because that's a higher vantage point of seeing what our special education process looks like number one what was the determination in the number of data and Sample data that was taken was that our district coming to you Mr Muller and saying here we have 47 referrals or packets or cases that we want you to go through to determine like what I'm missing is the determination of how we I understand the data right but if I look at the data it's a little skewed in my honest opinion okay but I need to understand we have such a large district and the goal of this is so that we know how to move forward with special education and conclusive of it so that's question one question two goes to General Ed the consistency that I see in this report is disconnect between general education and special education and one of the things I can tell you in my relationship with the district is that sometimes we're not all on the same page and what happens with us with kids with disabilities we're pulled in different directions so from this I see the disconnect with general education I see the disconnect with counsilman service and the disconnect with special services you bring up a good point in mental health that's our counseling diservice and these are conversations that we've had for years in terms of those two areas really do need to come because sometimes children are misdiagnosed etc etc or they overlap and then you throw in general education and now you have a parent and a child lost in the shuffle um what were some of your findings with that with the mental health component because you do indicate it here we did we had the social emotional learning we had the pandemic we're out of the pandemic and we're seeing the ramifications of what happened and then last you talk about St you're really counting on me to remember I am I know don't worry I'll help you um and then CPAC I want to say Kudos that you know I do feel that Union is that unique Village when it comes to special education um and so I really want to say kudos to all of our team members all of our staff um and looking at this report seeing the limits that we have and the increase of referrals and that nature it's EAS for us to all get caught up in that but not remember to give kudos to our staff who make it happen with the limited restraints constriction and especially with the Nationwide um shortage of Educators behaviorist so that leads me to and this is more like Dr bener and Mrs Cony where is our supervisor um to really work on that and so General Ed is one of the biggest areas because that's where the basis of our issues really do happen on that level now I'll help you remember all of those you know number one yes I worked with your former superintendent on the scope of the review okay and if we were going to review additional records that's additional time and additional cost okay so one of the entering arguments was given um the cost of such a review how to keep those costs down and that was with Dr Taylor that was with Dr Taylor yes and uh one of Bud was like I'm sorry that that so that Dr Taylor was the one you determin and I worked with I I submitted proposals to Dr Taylor and we had uh three or four different options all at different price points if you will got it um record reviews take a great deal of time absolutely and it's not just looking at one IEP it's looking at the entire student record and if it's a high school student and you may have seen the records can be this thick so going I have one okay well then you know exactly what I'm talking about so so record review is very time consuming also a classroom observation we allocate three hours for per classroom observation that's usually about 45 minutes for the observation another 30 to 40 minutes for the consultant to meet with the teacher and then time for that consultant to write that report got it so even at three hours per class that's we're still typically above that so in trying to keep costs down for this review and I forget what the exact number was for this review that's how we determined what we were going to look at got it as far as which records were picked um Miss kti and her Department sent to us um a list of students by number not by name but by also grade level and category and then we try to um sample okay so that to sure we got a nice distribution by grade by meeting type and by category got it so that's how we determined which 46 records we ended up reviewing about 50 because sometimes we just didn't get the information we needed so that's just so unclear 50 was the agreed amount no 46 46 was had I'm sure we had at least 50 pulled okay um as far as interviews we decided that we were only going to interview your special Ed teachers who we observed classes and those building administrators okay and we did though and I think it's very important to get to every CST member and we did and we also had speech therapists and occupational therapists involved with those interviews and they lasted for several days all at what Hamilton right is is the school okay so um that's how the interview piece went and as far as surveys um we just surveyed uh special ed parents and we didn't push that survey out because we don't have every parents email we created the survey and then gave it back to your District to send out to parents okay so that's number one I think number two was the access and or consistent access to mental health or was that three so the connection is often times we have accounts and services department and we have special education right and children get lost in between the two and there becomes the shuffle right because depending on the behavior it could be from a counseling perspective or it could be from a special education perspective yes and based on what I saw here that seems to still be one of the struggles we have as a district what was the feedback and findings that you had with that because you do mention that we do need to do better the feedback was mostly from your child study team okay about their feeling of that their students are still lacking access to uh consistent counseling maybe not as related service but counseling like on an as needed kind of basis now is that within a district or additional Counseling Service no here with within the district but also they're feeling that if there were adequate um access to counseling for Gen ed students that could perhaps address issues again either through inrs because they can look at Behavior not just instruction but how to look at that and to address those needs prior to it rising to the level of a CST referral okay so that's how your team was feeling also if we're one of the things and I know it's in the report but when you pull a child study team member a school psychologist or a school social worker to a crisis perhaps there's suicidal ideation or uh homicidal IDE what whatever the case may be they can get pulled for um half to the entire day trying to help uh determine the level of Crisis and should this student go out for additional services so that that was a concern too because when they get pulled now they're not holding their IEP meeting now they're not finishing uh the avow on time now they're not being able to get into classes and to help support teachers as well okay so that was I think kind of part and parsel the whole mental health definitely more conversation to continue with this um and then the last part was the General Ed component and the disconnect So based on the feedback you got that from pretty much every we got that from every was uh mostly your building administrators and again your CST okay because they're they're in the rooms they're in the schools and they they see and um this isn't a union thing I I think this is as you move up to middle school and high school ages many teachers are I teach down the middle and that's what I do um and that happens everywhere that's not just a Township of Union thing and in and that's hard to hear right as special Educators when we're trying to sure yeah that all students are being served in an equitable manner in that gened class where where we try to do yeah that instruction to the greatest extent possible okay I do wish that you would have had the opportunity to witness Battle Hill um you know to witness battle to to have survey to have the team really um experience Battle Hill because it is our our Hub I mean going back here that's not your decision to make but um you know thank you for this um I think I'm done did I get all of them you did all right it opens up some more questions but you definitely did so thank you you're welcome Madam president may I absolutely oh Kim wanted to go no no goad okay I'd have to I'd have to look at yeah I'd have to look at the data and get back to you on that I I don't know that I could say out of all of these referrals how many were then found eligible for special education related services and then how many were recommended for an out of District placement we we didn't get the feeling that adab district is is is such an issue here because you do have so many placement options within your District um but that's that would be an interesting one to continue to look at for your special ed Department you know to follow referrals from beginning to logical conclusion where where it ends yeah welcome but I'll I'll see if I can tease out the the parent data yes so following up with um Mr Williams question in regarding out of District placement that was one of my questions was how many students are we sending out the district I would like to know from Miss kti not tonight but um hopefully soon how many St we are pushing out of District or sending out of District or the parents are requesting out of District placement just because I know that is high the cost is extremely high and then I would also like to know how many prek through uh third grade students are we referring out of District um at this uh current time within the last school year also I heard um you speak to when you surveyed and went into the districts to do this particular audit um I was alarmed to hear that we didn't talk to our par professionals um the ones who are working in the classroom side by side with our instructors because a lot of the times um parents in the community can say that they par support the students right the students often have better relationships in time with the power because of the one-on-one interaction the teacher teaching right and the par over here trying to keep this child aligned and in in and you know to be able to teach the class right so the relationship really is more sometimes with the power I'm not saying that the teacher doesn't have it but the power so when you're doing these type of things why would you not talk to the little man on the ground who's in the churches that's really holding down that classroom I'm really concerned about that um in your report I'm also alarmed that we didn't discuss any monetary side or impacts to all of this that we provide for special education special education takes up a large percentage of our budget I think when we're talking about an audit you're bringing it to the board we're in budget season we are beholding to our constituents in the community so we asked a question that relates to monetary impact we should be able to verbally expressed this is where it is is this service here that's costing us $3 million so I'm alarmed at this report while it has a lot of data here I'm surprised it has no monetary attachment to it what it looks like for our district right and how we can Curel some of these expenses by either bringing Services back inh housee through some of this I mean we are currently working on it and then I had I was a little bit dismayed also to see that we talking about bringing in another supervisor I thought that I was like wait another supervisor I'm just saying that's a conversation for another time um I if I may just um this is a specialed department review a program review not a budget review so audit is perhaps programs equals money I I completely understand that but we we part of our review was not to look at so was it not you that I'm really questioning about what what you put in here is it really should have been question to the superintendent because when we asked for this we asked for that as well okay so what he gave you and what actually happened there two different things I'm just saying that it's a lot of data here it it would have been really nice to have the monetary side of what that really looks like and how impacts our district that's what I'm really saying sure and and as far as speaking to Paras um that's a good point and we we've really never done that before we've surveyed Paras in other school districts we've never interviewed Paras per se and again that becomes a time a Time issue but to your point I think a survey of poers would be would be important something to consider going forward I know that that would cost much more money in terms of the fee that you would charge the district but in this day and age the onetoone Paras the classroom Paras play one of the most critical roles in the social emotional and academic development of those children I hear you and they have better knowledge and with all due respect Miss KY than probably you because they are day in and day out with those children I would say that not speaking with them and getting their perspective miss a great part of what you are illustrating here I understand again it was not part of of this and once again our frustration is not with you please understand and I'd like to add Mr molder I'm not sure if you knew Miss Kim Scott Hayden is very humble she was parah of the year yeah ESP of the Year yes and I just might say that um might say I'm sorry the nation of the nation look at that thank you thank you and I I'm just that a lot of times when I've me I think everybody sitting here knows that I have an IEP baby and for many years have sat at tables with IEP and um the most important part to me anyway of my IEP team is my par and like I've told Miss Cony if my par is not there I'm not there and if I'm not there no one is there that's all I wanted to say and that was a great Point um Miss Kimberly Scott Hayden I just wanted to just clarify one thing just so we're all clear this was not this was established with the previous superintendent and the previous superintendent is the one who made the determination of how we would proceed with this report if it would contain Financial or monetary funds and this is just something that you're presenting now that he's no longer here because with all the question it's important that we're clear across the community that did this this didn't start with Dr benaquista this came from the era of Dr Taylor and subsequently now we received a report under you with a million questions because I do agree that there should have been a budgetary component to this report because in order to make these recommendations we need to know what we're talking about in dollars and we need to look at our programs to thoroughly assess what we can and cannot do so I just don't want that to get lost in the discussion I I completely understand just so you know it was never our intent nor did we uh say that we would we would provide any type of budgetary impact to any of our recommendations no and I know that Mr MO it just seems like there was a disconnect in terms of how it was presented either way we have these recommendations but without the financial component it makes it hard to really look at this without seeing Battle Hill makes it complicated to kind of really look at it but to be fair you nailed it on a lot of things that we could do better and also issues that we have within the distri district and as well as noting what we do well in terms of special education so for that part thank you Dr bener and Mrs kti has a ton of work to do um with the community at large in general to this but I just didn't want that to get lost that this happened and we move forward to make it better moving forward so thank you commissioner Cohan you had a question yes thank you madam president I Mr molar I just wanted to uh clarify a couple of things you said in your presentation and get your perspective on one of the one of the conclusions you reached or one of the data points you indicated that the parent survey was a 14% response and I heard you say something about 30% we usually get around 30% in in a per but in your opinion even at that percentage rate uh response would you feel confident making inferences and decisions based on that level of of response I would always make recommendations even at a 30% response rate but by indicating the caveat that this is a 37 response rate like I did here where I indicated that it was only a 14% response rate so yeah I mean it's it's really hard to draw generalizations or inferences or conclusions from such a low rate however it was part of the review so I think it needs to be reported out right yes thank you for that if I Mike could I just make a brief comment I I think we should be very cautious about making uh decisions or inferences based upon uh something that's really not statistically valid enough in my experience you want to see a 70 or 80% response rate of a sample in order to say that that represents that sample the responses that we got represent those 14% And that's it and you know if it's a self uh self- selected response people that have different motivations are going to be responding and giving their answers which may not represent the the the entire par population absolutely yeah thank you well thank you thank you so much thank you absolutely absolutely thank you thank you thank you so much Miss Cony thank you Mr molar thank you Miss kti um so next up we have our fiscal Auditors I'm gonna have Miss  who uh her department works very closely especially for the last few months yes with sub Clooney and um so go good evening um the state of New Jersey uh requires that all school districts on an annual basis be audited by an independent auditor our Auditors are Supply Clooney uh his team camps out uh at our uh department for roughly three or so maybe even four months uh pulling data and requesting several reports um today we have uh the head lead accountant on that team to report out annually our fiscal 23 and his findings um regarding star in last year's uh fiscal Mr Eric Zimmerman and the partner with uh Supply Clooney could not make it tonight Mr Warren krei so Eric with that said Thank You Yanda uh thanks for having me again I'm Eric Zimmerman uh and I'm was the manager on the account for the audit of the township of Union bordered uh a little bit of good news we're kind of getting back into a more regular audit period right we've had a lot of delays since covid and numbers from reports that we need to put into your financial statements that are in front of you tonight that have caused delays in US issuing those reports in the past few years um even last year we were we were doing this presentation at the end of March okay so we're we're getting there uh and these numbers that we need are starting to be released a little bit earlier each year now I'm I'm kind of hopeful that going forward including next year you know we're going to be back towards you know November December hopefully January type thing uh so we're moving in the right direction in in that regards um I apologize for having for being the the second audit presentation of the night that that's rough for you all but what what our job is to or what we're engaged to do is to issue an opinion on your financial statements whether they're free from material misstatement and in compliance with the rules and regulations of the state of New Jersey so I'm pleased to announce that you know your financial statements we issuing an unmodified opinion um that's a clean opinion it's the best opinion that you can get and basically what that means is that your financial statements can be relied upon by the various users that may need them um we are we're issuing you two reports okay so the thicker report that we have that you have in front of you is the Acer report it's the annual comprehensive financial report and in that report that basically has all of your financial statements in there and subsidiary schedules that go along with that for the fiscal year I want to draw your attention to probably the most important schedule that's that's in that report the exhibit C1 it starts on page 90 and basic basically what this is it it tells you your budgetary revenues and expenditures for the year and at the very end of this report it tells you where you ended up okay so what was your final fund balance for the year um that said you know I think it's important to point out you know what we look for as far as a a conservative approach to budgeting and long-term sustainability of a district and financial you know we're looking at finances all the time is to to uh generate back what you're using in your budget each year and what I say when you're using in your budget each year you're you're allowed to balance your budget your your budget appropriation side with revenues tax levy uh state aid Surplus okay so the Surplus is what I'm talking about and when you don't regenerate back what you're using in Surplus in your budget each year your your Sur your total Surplus your total fund balance is now going down and that was a situation that we saw when we came in to do the audit for fiscal year 23 um again I know this is we're we're approaching march here of 2024 uh just to to note that these financial statements are as of June 30th 2023 um we're already almost out of the the next fiscal year so all the more important to you know how I started the conversation that it'd be really good to get back onto our regular schedu schedule where we're having these meetings earlier or towards the end of the year before the holiday season um last but not least the other report that we have is the the smaller of the two it's the auditor management report and the state of New Jersey requires us when we do our audit to look at various departments and components of uh internal control and compliance and these areas are uh payroll and s say um cafeteria purchasing things like that and if we find issues in those areas we're required to make a recommendation and comment on them here we do have one recommendation in the report that is listed here and it's required to be read out loud so that recommendation 20231 is that the district should keep an accurate analysis of the balance on deposit in the the payroll agency account okay the more specifically with this recommendation the the agency account that you have in the district it was being reconciled but that money belongs somewhere and we need an accurate analysis of what makes up that balance to be done on a on a regular basis uh that's the finding that's in the report there's a corrective action plan that has to be to file that up to be approved when you go ahead and accept the audit and you know hopefully that's that's ready for for tonight so you can accept the audit and be done with this and move on from you know from from that so that's what I have as far as the audit is concerned I mean if anyone has any questions I'd be glad to to answer them question Madam vice president I just want to say thank you and you being second this was to me um so important that we not only us as a board heard this presentation but also the community at large um as you mentioned we will have to start working on the budget pretty soon and everyone in our community has things that they hold dear and people that they hold dear and priorities and our job is to balance that out with also being fiscally responsible so please understand that sometimes we have to make certain decisions and and vote on certain things um because of the fact that we also have to be aware of our limitations with our budget um so thank you so much I know it's not good news but it is real news and um we should all be on the same page with that the only thing that I wanted to say is that sometimes having these realistic conversations is hard um year to year uh but what I feel is that our board is now stable and as we hand down year-to-year uh uh different change in leadership I am confident that we and and our AC and our district leadership um Mr uh I know that we are going to have these difficult conversations so that we can stay on budget on task and realistically know what we're going to spend so that we are it giving back to our Surplus and um and moving forward come out of this corre corrective action plan and uh and Lead Union forward thank you so much we appreciate you thank you and before we get started there was a question before about iron arrest we're have a presentation for you next month that we're probably we just finished our second session as a group districtwide to make it consistent throughout our district because I know so I'll have Dr prz um just update uh the board and the community on where we're at with that process um so as we know monthly um I picked one person to recognize uh this month uh with I knowing knowing we had two presentations I wanted to be quick we can probably pick 10 a meeting we have a lot of wonderful things going on but I would like to invite Miss Royster up uh she oversees our cosmetology at Union High School so um you know again I could say a lot about what Miss Royer does again we're looking for people making an impact beyond the the da daily hours of that classroom and Miss Royster goes above and beyond some of her students are here correct that are even supporting her tonight you guys if you want come up but she cons she she's not just their teacher she's a mentor uh with within the vocational setting a lot of times that needs to happen and Miss Royster again getting the students ready to pass their state for their state license you need you need someone you could rely on a mentor um she continues to provide Union High School students with real life experiences you're going to get to see some in the pictures that we're going to show you um you know and uh Miss Royer is uh shows us a transformative power of mastering a craft and today the students could walk out join an established um business or or even venture to start their own uh we have so many people that I just run into that graduated from Union High School over the years that you go to a salon and there they are there's so many people that went through our cosmetology program and now are successful and they have all the levels you know I don't know all the terminology but there's different levels in hair cutting right so and these people are at level five or whatever the top one is um we have I I've seen our students as they were younger start at level one and work their way up and and and and making their living and some of them own their own pract or own businesses very successful so um she's helping them Master their craft and nurturing them uh the confidence is so important especially you know when you're when you're out there then on your own um so so really you know she goes above and beyond helps our students with creativity self-expression self assurance um and I'm just excited to be able to honor you in this small uh fashion of all you do and the biggest thing is at the end and I'll let you share that a little bit uh about the licenses that the students get and why now that what what you have them go through allows them to leave with the licenses um you know the the program is under the leadership and Mr Rego is here of Mr Rego as well as miss bostard being the principal of the high school we need a lot of support especially to keep our vocational programs going uh this is one that I think is so important for our students to continue to offer over the years and and with um us all supporting uh cause like some of the other programs we'll keep it successful uh if you want to just share a little bit and then Madame President Madame price president if you want to come up we'll just take a picture uh while you're sharing I'm just gonna go through some absolutely absolutely about the upcoming event that's going on sure absolutely good evening board um thank you so much for having us here tonight we are truly honored um I am actually a gr graduate of Union High School cosmetology program uh 31 years ago and this is home this is home I'm still a union resident been a lifelong Union resident um and I just feel it's it's a blessing to be able to come here every day and pour into these students um the program is a two-year program the students take in their junior year as well as their senior year and it's definitely growing um like right now we are recruiting for the sophomore the current sophomore class to come in their junior year and we have 66 registrants so um you know the program is definitely growing um after they finish their two years um they will sit for their cosmetology state board exam which allows them to become a hair stylist makeup artist whack specialist skin care specialist OR Nail Tech um with the with that license they can go anywhere um there's so many different avenues that they can go down um they can be you know uh hairdresser for Broadway they could work in TV and film they could work Behind the Chair they can uh become a scientist I have one student uh one past student who actually works for L'Oreal and she comes she's a chemist now and she comes up with all the hair color products and things of that nature so there's nothing that these students can't do um I support them 100 % um it's a lot of work a lot of times people think that it's just you know doing hair nails makeup but there is a academic portion to this this is just one of our books and they say Miss T we got to take this home tonight absolutely you do okay they go through anatomy and physiology they go through skin care um the structure of the skin the structure of the hair diseases and disorders of everything so there's a lot of information that they need to know and then another thing is that they have to practice practice um for for 500 hours on real people so developing their their confidence is so very important one of the things that we do is um we have senior Thursdays where we partner with the uh the sit uh senior citizens program within Union and it's so nice to see the older generation and the younger generation be able to kind of bridge that Gap teaches them soft skills to be you know just a little bit more um demure around you know our our elders um it teaches them a lot they also do things such as um providing manicures for the teachers we just had a professional development where the students was able to provide manicures for the teachers we had about what 40 50 teachers come and they're able to connect with their teachers on a different level you know um soon we are going to do what's called Queen for a day and what that is is um women who are coming out of or transitioning from domestic abuse situations um we are going to provide makeovers for them and we're super excited about that um just allowing them to reenter the workplace and reenter society and feel good about themselves um this I always tell them this this career is nothing that AI can take over AI can never take over getting your haircut and doing your nails and things of that nature so they will always always always have the ability to work um I still encourage them to go to college if that's what they you know want to do but there's nothing wrong with having that license in their back pocket so um you know I'm I'm just super excited about everything that we have going on and everything that we will continue to do Under the direction of Mr Rego as well as with the support of Mr uh Dr benaquista and and you all so I thank you so much thank you very much and I have to say when I was at the senior center they were requesting your services coming out so it it it is great um the seniors more than ever I think the center's thriving and and they're looking for our students to come over and this is just another Avenue that's happening so Madam Dr Bist if I just might say a few words myself uh when Dr bista told me about this um idea had about every uh month recognizing somebody I never would have thought um it it would have been you first I believe right is this a first last one we did the um the yeah uh just because I and I I say it personally because a lot of people up here know where I have an eighth grader that is dying to come to you and she and FYI dad wants her to go to Catholic school cuz he thinks Union isn't it and I said I'm sitting here Union is it it and my baby's coming straight to you thank you so much we just come for a picture come on thank you again so as as we continue um when we talk about small glimpse the reason I say small glimpse because a lot of this stuff is happening and unfortunately we're not hearing about a lot of the stuff going on so I try to focus in on on some small things happening but it together it's so much positive stuff going on in our district um we've talked about it from the board the township uh Union Township Public Schools mental and emotional support resource guide it was uh completed it's going to be up on our website uh we'll make sure everyone uh has a copy of it it's not just going to be there and stay there it's going to grow so as we add more resources anyone that has any I I you know I accept the feedback if we something that you know is working that's a resource for families uh we'll add it to it so it's going to just be a fluid growing document but thank you that's through collaboration of us together um Jefferson Elementary School girls who code um I'll highlight a couple things about it number one it's it's being funded through our title program Title One program um and under the direction of Miss noones we have 27 girls who meet weekly to explore coding um going back a couple years uh we we were trying to get two or three students involved in coding uh girls so here we have at Jefferson School 27 that are interested that we meet weekly and I'm sure miss noones that's going to be growing I'm sure over the years you'll get it up to probably 50 or as many as you could fit in that classroom so thank you for that um they they also uh are working on dash robots um and the activities are lined to coding Concepts and students learn the basics of Robotics and problem solving skills so that's awesome um fifth grade recreation basketball program it is run by the UTA Miss Shannon's here I know is this the second or third year okay so third year girls basketball is thriving uh Miss Shannon started it a couple years ago with the UTA supporting it um with t-shirts and getting coaches and stuff like that but uh there's some great shots of our uh girls basketball uh program again collaboration uh amongst uh our associations it really does help us support our students Connecticut Farms student council raised funds for the homeless by taping a teacher to the wall and I know the picture's small but the teacher is the feet are not on the ground they did taper to the wall which is awesome and the student council raised funds for homeless by taping the teacher to the wall Miss C cartright spent three and a half hours taped to the gym wall as the students brought tape up to raise money and the advisers are Miss Kats and miss cartright so that's an awesome uh fun activity to raise money uh for the homeless um I know we mentioned before but uh it's official again um Joselyn and Nissa who couldn't be here tonight members of our RC uh both accept it such an honor into West Point many schools don't get one child or student in we've gotten two um and it's obviously a prestigious four-year academic physical mental education that results in a Bachelor of Science degree so congratulation a couple months ago we spoke about Angelina Carney and how she had that opportunity to now um go uh on Carnegie Hall and play with some amazing artist that happened um so I just wanted to highlight she made her de de debut at Carnegie Hall and um even though I wasn't there I heard some wonderful things uh about it uh we had three uh wrestlers um that are will be wrestling this weekend in the Regionals um those that don't know wrestling it's not easy as a wrestler you have to become top three in the our districts to make it to the regions top three in the regions go to the states uh this is what they work for all year uh so congrats to them uh good luck this weekend um and they did mix up the districts this year the njsa which made it a little we were in a a harder little tougher District um and we still had three three wrestlers make it out and the regions are here we H uh uh host the regions our region I think we're three or four um but we hosted so you could they're wrestling at home uh this this really amazed me uh I said let me open up the first hour of PD for any student now you remember we're closed we were closed um last Friday students didn't have to come in they had the day off 60 students came in at 8 o'clock to say I want to be trained we're up to over 120 students and over 100 faculty uh we're still making a pledge to get anyone that wants the trained we also are going to keep pushing uh first aid CPR AED as well it's a life skill these are all life skills for all our students we want to offer it to as many students as we can and the and the the the people that we partnered with to supply our boxes said as many times as you need us to come back we will train um so that that was amazing uh that they came in our dance team led by Miss Carr um which is fairly new uh finished first place uh recently and they have another um competition coming up but if you see in the different dances so Jazz uh received a high score of high gold uh contemporary received the score of gold um hipop placed first overall and Jazz third overall um and a lot of time a lot of this was their first time they were entered into a dance competition um and then the the second and final competition so that's I mean amazing that this year she was able to bring the girls to two competitions um you know is uh uh coming up so uh Sunday this Sunday so we I wish them the best uh our girls wrestler also wrestlers also did amazing in the counties and as you see there we had three uh that placed in the counties so girl W girls wrestling is is um just taking off and we have some amazing athletes with us here at Union um just like flag football is coming as well so uh Dr pre do you want to just highlight some of the uh things uh as we mentioned last month uh this month is Black History Month if you want to just uh mention some of the activities we had a lot that go went on this will be posted on the district website if anyone wants to click on any of the links um but I'll just switch through them while you're talking so uh we have we have a number of activities that are happening District reading poems to doing read alouds from prek all the way up to grade 12 we also have our students uh reading about poets artists activists uh one of the interesting activities that I came across was this Periodic Table of Black History Month I don't know if we can get a glimpse of it but it definitely is going to be shared on the um website and it pretty much just categorizes um in and it's colorcoded of the number of activists artists actors Etc that we have and it's just a very creative and intriguing way of representing our African-Americans or black Americans in the United States and what they've contributed so just a number of things that have been uh done in our schools and I'm very pleased to see that our our teachers are being very creative in what they're doing with our students in the classes thank you Dr PR and as you see there's three slides very small print of a a lot of different activities uh and again this is uh some of the activities going on we our teachers really do an amazing job uh with our students um harassment intimidation bullying I have to affirm uh to found it this is from the period of January 24th to February 13th two founded zero unfounded zero inconclusive there's the locations of the two found it and then for the period of February 13th to February 20th uh what was reported which will we will affirm next uh meeting seven were founded zero unfounded one inconclusive and they're the locations of where they were founded and inconclusive and just to look forward we um we sent out we we'll be able to announce in a month or so uh based on the the voting um our teacher of the year uh that's always exciting and um you know we also do ESP of the year uh Miss Shannon um you will have that probably April May okay um and then uh this past Friday February 16th the township of Union board members uh office central office leadership principles supervisors leadership UTA leadership uh embarked on professional development and Labor Management collaboration as a collaborative unit we uh we will take part in continuing this journey on March 4th there is a resolution on tonight so I'm very excited to have that approved so we could continue with this professional development learning and uh just so if anyone wants to look it up this is a a Labor Management collaboration amongst all the big associations in New Jersey so you have the superintendent you have the school business administrators uh the uh administrators uh supervisors as well as um the nja and um I think I got all of them PSA so it it's all the associat working together to um have this uh format of collaboration Labor Management format and and so many districts that are taking part in it have seen such an improvement uh in their school climate and how decisions are made so I'm looking forward to continuing that Journey with all of uh the entities involved and then just uh a heads up uh any of the tubs parents students in grades 3 to 12 there's an info uh session coming up uh it's free online tutoring service it used to be called tutor me now it's PIR deck um and it's February 22nd at six o'clock and that information will be online if you have any questions the also the coordinators of that are are listed Miss bream and miss dabler you could reach out and ask any questions on that but uh that is another great thing we brought in uh with uh Grant funds to offer uh one-on-one tutoring for any of our kids uh that need it so next I'll pass it off while I put up the presentation to Gia Patel to just share some of the great things going on in January and February correct Dr B did we have a date for the wrestling thing that we're that we're hosting Friday and Saturday this Friday is hello so this is the slideshow I've um composed for January through February highlights but first I just wanted to say um great job to cosmetology and all that you're doing I saw that you guys were having the that you guys were having the free blowouts for the week of Valentine's Day and I thought that was adorable and Dr benaquist I really enjoyed your slideshow Daniel Colin and Bianca Cordova on the dance team are two of my bestest friends so it was really nice seeing them up there so first for the um extracurricular curriculars and like incentives in the school is stop the bleed it's a vital campaign urging bystanders to be prepared to assist in a bleeding emergency in the program you'll acquire three essential techniques to potentially Save a Life um and you address severe bleeding before professional assistance arrives and is needed so there's just a few photos of Union High School's athletes from soccer volleyball taking part in this initiative next is School counseling week this year's National School counseling week's theme was um standards based and student focused school counselors spent the week advocating for their Department this included morning announcements um talking about the school counseling profession and services they provide and they also set up information tables during lunches and had students input to help sorry and took students input to help build a new bulletin board outside of the counseling office so those are the photos very pretty um next is the roots black Excellence Club they've been doing daily morning announcements highlighting influential African figures for Black History Month and now on to sports and um accolades so for girls wrestling this past week was the first Union County girls wrestling tournament held in Scotch PLS Christine Pier Lewis and Alisa um elander both won the county championship in their respective weight class Nissa philas my fellow leaz on um finished third in the county this Sunday is the north two girls region wrestling tournament at Union High um Alyssa is the number one seed at 235 pounds and Christine is the second seed at 185 pounds and there's the photos of them boys wrestling this past weekend the boys competed in the New Jersey state district 13 tournament held at Milburn high school I went Dan Colin finished second Gabe harrove and Nick um balodi finished third and they all qualify for the New Jersey state region four Tournament being held here this weekend girls basketball the girls basketball team will play in the njsiaa state tournament this Wednesday at 5:00 pm at planfield High School for track um marara pundo won the girls North 2 group four state championship in the 55 meter Baba Alo earned second place in the boys North 2 group four in shot put that's all thank you and Madame President that uh concludes my report for this month thank you next we will have the education student discipline committee chair Mr Cohan to present the resolutions to be voted on tonight thank you madam chair uh before I move the action items I'd like to acknowledge that resolution E1 was approved at our work session last week and uh resolution e1- 111a uh does not require action it's for reporting purposes only and resolution E8 has been tabled for further work on the report so um upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools the education student discipline committee presents the following resolutions for the board's consideration I move the adoption of resolutions E11 through E10 with the notations that I mentioned previously stud ini St so the one the one I would like to make a recommendation to continue the longterm long-term suspension of for student ID number 268 119 that's one I have that for him the to overturn the administra determination on HIV regarding student um it's it's Battle Hill hi number two number two basically resolu is to overturn the administra administrative determination of a sustaining stud number so I'd like to add those two resolutions to the list M pres thank you so much do I have a second thank you so this has been properly moved by U Mr Cohan and seconded by Miss Kimberly Scott Hayden um Miss Capo roll call please miss caranel yes Mr Cohan yes Mrs k macki Mr McDowell yes Mrs Scott heeden yes Mrs Williams abstained from the um two additional and yes everything else and Miss Santana yes we moved everything next we will have the fiscal and planning committee chair Mrs car benel to present the resolutions to be voted on tonight good evening everyone I just want to make a note the resolution f-13 approved the increase to the purchase order our house will be tabled until we have an opportunity to discuss it a little further um upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools the fiscal and planning committee presents the following resolution solutions for the board's consideration with that exception I am going to call this as a block F1 through f17 any discussion Madam president uh there was some discussion about tabling f-13 that's what I I'm sorry that's okay no it's okay it's been a long night yes any other discussion are we good great so this motion has been properly moved by Mrs carbonel and seconded by Miss Kim Scott Hayden can I have a roll call please Mrs capol Miss carbonel yes Mr Cohan yes Mrs K macki yes Mr McDowell yes Mrs Scott haeden yes Mrs Williams yes Miss antenna yes upon recommendation of the superintendent of schools the agreements negotiations committee presents the following resolutions for the board's consideration approve Side Bar agreement UTA so moved thank you any discussion this motion has properly been moved by chassid Santana and seconded by uh Mr Cohan can I have a roll call please Mrs ciolo yes M carbano yes Mr Cohan yes Mrs kte Macky yes Mr McDowell yes Mrs Scott haeden oh I'm a Mrs Williams yes Miss Santana yes next we will have the operations committee Miss Miss Scott Hayden to present the resolutions to be voted on tonight upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools the operation committee presents the following resolution for the board's consideration and I'm moving them in Block since there's only two 01 approve security bus drill evacuation reports and 02 approve the request from the township of Union Chamber of Commerce to you to utilize the UHS facility second is there a second excellent any discussion the motion has been properly moved by m Miss Scott Hayden and second it in by Miss Williams can I have a roll call please miss Capo Miss caranel yes Mr Coan yes Mrs K Macky yes Mr McDowell yes Mrs Scott haeden yes Mrs Williams yes Miss Santana yes next we will have the Personnel Committee Member Miss KY Mackey to present the following resolutions person sorry um upon recommendation of the superintendent of schools the Personnel committee presents the following resolutions for the board's consideration p1a through p111 second any discussion Madam president I'd like to move a an amendment to p3a and ask that we in the future accept letters of resignation retirement with regrets uh I'll let that move before make in comment yes are you amending the current no yes I just want to add the words with regret is there anything inappropriate about that with resign retire with regret moving forward or moving moving forward yes yes to make life easier yes yes yes yes I I apologize for not offering that last week no no moving forward we can uh we can definitely do that that' be great so and we we said there was I forgot who the second was me second okay great so the discussion is that we will add that moving forward yes and I'd just like to point out that you know every one of these people who are uh leaving for retirement purposes have served the district long and well I know several of the people on this list personally and U public will note there are three social studies teachers leaving Union High School it's going to leave a big gap a big hole uh each of these folks have served with distinction and Mr Zer who's the head custodian at Battle Hill has also had a long and successful career in the district uh and I think that it's appropriate that we make sure that we acknowledge that we uh really honor and and uh appreciate the long Service District thank you absolutely thank you so much Mr Co and and we are just so everyone is aware um organizing a we invite them to a lunch towards the end of the year Rec them all our retirements uh at one meeting at the end of the year wonderful any other discussion so this motion has been properly moved by Miss KY macki and seconded by Mr Cohen can I have a roll call please miss Capo Miss carbonel yes Mr Cohan yes Mrs K Mackie yes Mr McDowell yes Mrs Scott heeden yes Mrs Williams yes Miss Santana yes thank you so much much next we will have the policy committee chair Miss Williams to present the resolutions to be voted on tonight upon recommendation of the superintendent of schools the policy committee presents the following policies for the board's consideration this is the final reading adoption policy item one approve policy 2270 religion in schools policy two approve policy item two correction approve policy 3161 Examination for cause polic item three approve policy 3212 attendance policy item four approve regulation 3212 attendance policy item five approve policy 3324 right of privacy policy item six approved policy 4161 Examination for cause policy item seven approve policy 4212 attendance policy item 8 approve regulation 42 one two attendance policy nine approve policy 4324 right of privacy policy item 10 approve policy 516 5116 education of homeless children and youths and policy item 11 approve regulation 5116 education of homeless children and youths and our last is policy item 12 approve policy 8500 Food Services second thank you any discussion this motion has been properly moved by Miss Williams and seconded by Miss carbonel can I have a roll call please miss ciolo miss carbonel yes Mr Cohan yes Mrs K macki yes Mr McDowell yes Mrs Scott heeden yes Mrs Williams yes Miss Santana yes thank you so much so uh the committee chair moving along we will have Miss Scott Hayden that will present the following residency resolutions upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools The Residency committee presents the following resolution for the board's consideration which is R1 report of students voluntarily transfer to District of residence um is noted in the agenda um student ID number and School location for informational purposes only thank you so much is there a second second thank you any discussion yes m' Madam president I just want to make a note this is one of the largest list that we've approved in this past year and um as we consider the services and the different resources we provide for the district as well as the budget this is so important and we can we cannot underscore it enough um so thank you to all those involved um Dr benaquista in making sure that the services that we have go to our Union Township students so thank you and we did have two more that we had a hearing set up for but decided to good and I and I would just like to as a um individual serving on that committee I would just like to also note and say thank you to the um actual investigators because I'm going to tell you they do a thorough thorough job so thank you to them they give up count countless hours of their time early in the morning in the evening I know they collect the salary but when I tell you that the reports are extensive um basically by the time we get to the stage of a hearing you really can't even refute the information that is before you because it is really just that thorough so I want to just say thank you to them because and make sure that it's noted that we do appreciate all their efforts and Dr B thank you as well absolutely uh Madam president just a question question uh I don't know if uh do we have a running total of the number of students that have been uhif exed this year I think we used to okay no way it'll be good to know next meeting updated on that next next month thanks do great question Madam president I have a question yes what is the estimated amount that we're saving with these kids taking off of the role well an average education is about what 16,000 per year per child per child I think our average cost is around 14 and change 15,000 and then depending on if it's a child with additional Services it could end up you know if they get trans ation for if they're at a district is sky rockets you know so could be do we request that money back um at times through legal we have uh we have someone right now that was ordered to to reimburse um but and stuff like that it's through our our attorney okay and um many times when cases get challenged to the commissioner uh it'll be a ruling okay thank you any other discussion great so this motion has been properly moved by Miss Scott Hayden and seconded by Miss carbonel can I have a roll call please miss capol point of order point of order Madam president there is no vote required oh they great wonderful even better for us so uh so technology committee so this month there are no technology resolutions to present but I know that uh Mr McDow always kind of likes to give us an update on on things going on in technology and I have to apologize I I oh I'm sorry I sent the notes to U Mrs uh Paul just a review because uh it was actually her agenda from our meeting and uh I promised last week to send him to Mrs Capello and I did not okay I'll do that this evening though no worries no worries I just I didn't want to Omit you I know you always like to to let us know what's going on with technology excellent moving right along may I have a motion to approve the Bill's list so so moved is there a second any discussion this motion has been properly moved by Mr Cohan and seconded by uh Miss Scott Haan can I have a roll call please miss capul yes Miss caranel yes Mr Cohan yes Mrs K Mackey yes Mr McDowell yes Mrs Scott Hayden yes Mrs Williams uh yes Miss santen yes and I'm moving on to unfinished business yes Miss I just wanted to um say that Miss Royster didn't really explain just how intense the State Board is um I've been on both sides I've been a model for a cosmetologist and I've taken the State Board because I am a licensed esthetician um and what happens is these young ladies and young men are in a big room and there are people that are watching them do their work and one group of students is taking the Practical while the other group of students is doing the written part of the test and is it two hours now she just aged me because when I took it yeah yeah she looks like she's 30 oh then they take their practical so they don't do it the same time anymore yeah but two hours and three yeah back in the day right not any so it's it's really a very intense um test take um and just to have somebody watching over you while you do it and I do remember when I was taking the test the the people that watch you the Proctors they don't play because one of the girls dropped her brush and she thought she didn't see her she picked it up and the woman came over and she's like you can pack your stuff up down you know so it is really really these kids have to be on point and um y'all know I'm a Chatty Patty right so when when I was the model I kept wanting to ask her stuff she's like you going to give me kicked out of here shut up so it's it's really that serious for them in terms of being quiet in terms of being on point in terms of Sanitation um and then once they get that license you know then they're in the salon they have their permit that still goes right they still get the permit and they can work to start going yeah so I'm really really just so incredibly proud of our students and the work that you're doing with them because they have unbelievable futures um the person that I modeled for um she owns a spa now she's got three facial rooms um she's got six chairs and she was one of the first African-American women in Bloomfield to open up a salon so our kids have tremendous tremendous potential you know so I just wanted to put that out there and let people know just how hard are kids working yeah thank you so much and if I may I just want to also add to that uh my son is in your class uh he's and it kind of surprised me when he wanted to do that a couple I guess last year but a couple of Christmas Christmases ago he wanted some clippers for Christmas fine no problem and uh so now he's cutting my hair what I have left there you go but but but he uh uh he cuts his his teammates having football team and uh I think his other brother has come there to have his hair done and even the seniors over the senior senator where where I I hang out a lot uh they are talking about uh the services that you provide there on Thursday so uh as Mrs Williams said I'm sure the rest of the board feels please keep up a good word thank you so much um and I I I had the opportunity to ask Miss Royer is it what the success rate was and she can brag about this all day every day 98% of her students are doing so well and I also appreciate what you said what people don't realize is that in order to pass that test it's not just the Aesthetics of it but it's also the anatomy and physiology so you have to be good in biology and there's a lot of chemistry involved and as you mentioned if you don't do well on the theory part of it you're never going to go into that practical side of it so congratulations to you nice job and and just correct me if I'm not wrong not every cause teacher holds uh has the requirements to teach the Sciences behind it but you do yes so that's even any other unfinished business I mean I think I update the public on the board open board seat yes please thank you so as uh many have known um the board did advertise um for resumés for people interested in the open board seat that has been accomplished um now that process is closed the board did receive résumés um with candidates that are interested and I would just like to as part of the process update the public that um the next phase of is interviews as well as a selection uh you know recommendation and and a vote on the open board seat um so this board will be back to nine members um that is going to be a special meeting on March 12th um they will have the interviews in executive session and at the end of that come in uh make recommendations to be voted on so that will then close out the process of the open board seat so um part of it is making sure the Public's aware of uh the process and that's what I wanted to do thank you so much if there's no other unfinished business I move on to new business I just want to say one more time I want to give a shout out to Melissa it was a rough week I believe it was last week everything is blending in but um several of us went and enjoyed the pasta and meatball night at Battle Hill and we had a great time so thank you any other new business going going move to adjourn second the board will go into executive session to discuss personnel and legal issues and actions will be may take place once when return once when we return may I have a motion to move to go into executive session some and second thank you Mrs capiello I have have uh Miss Scott Hayden that moved it and Mr Cohan which second it roll call please yes did I get that right no I oh I'm sorry yes Mr Cohan yes Mrs con Macky yes Mr McDowell yes Mrs Scott haeden yes Mrs Williams yes Miss Santana yes okay yeah I was gonna say these two left which one these and Sana no we'll get them in we got to come back after we just need to lot you didn't say anything that's why oh what are you leaving oh my God like but even the LS it's not his fault they I didn't get a either good you guys operation oh yeah definitely you have a scheduling conflict today was a good day this was a good evening get you when we can oh yeah girl sorry I missed that I was stuck at work I hate my job I work all the way in white PLS New York girl I'm like wanted to like jump out my skin I was just like I didn't even see your thing I didn't even see it no I like legitimately didn't see it I was just like yeah I didn't get a Ser so that's my question like jastin get a survey and we all have kids that are like in District out of District so now I'm like