##VIDEO ID:1dFtDivatzg## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e um okay I'd like to call the uh August 22nd ver Board of Education public combined work session public meeting to order I have a roll call please Mr slam Miss Ahern Miss Brock here Mr smaga here Mr ktina here Mr Krauss here miss pallet Dr Ross here Mr Sweeney here Mr zimman here we have a quorum okay recommend that the board enter into close session for the dis purposes of discussing legal personnel and student matters I have a motion assembly by Mr cantino seconded by Mr Zimmerman all in favor I opposed we are now in closed session good e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e okay uh it is recommended that the board return to open session may I have a motion please so moved moveed by Mr cantino second second second by Mr Somalia samala sorry all favor I we are back in Open Session okay everybody please join me in standing for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the repu for it stands one nation God indivisible andice thank you Mr slam may I have a roll call please Miss Ahern Miss Brock here Mr saglia here Mr cantino here Mr Krauss here miss pellet Dr Ross here Mr Sweeney here Mr Zimmerman he stepped out from it he'll be back we have a quum okay thank you a reading of the meeting notices Please Mr slam the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of the ACT Vernon Township Board of Education has caused the notice of this meeting to be published an adequate notice has been provided and no this meeting has been properly posted in accordance to the New Jersey open public meeting law uh just a couple of quick notes the next work session meeting will be Thursday September 12th and the next public session meeting will be Thursday September 19th thank you uh next we'll have a presentation on cell phones and the vtsd schools uh we'll be join joining me will be um Mrs Jackie van Orton and Mrs Lindsay luk and Mrs Lindsay young and Mr citro and Mr citro as well one of the big uh one of the big issues we've been addressing as a district is about students being pres in the school district and by addressing them the board has formed two ad hoc committees one of the ad hoc committees has been on chronic absenteeism and one another one has been on cell phone usage and again this address presence in the school districts to help uh improve uh student performance in schools as well so you've read a lot about it with other states other districts I've talked to other superintendents uh locally as well about uh what to do to to uh engage with students more inter schools and be honest with you we've been talking about this for several years for a while we thought that this was a great opportunity uh to uh change how we do things in some of our school districts to engage more with our students uh in our buildings so this is thank you first just to go a little off track here um good evening Board of Education and superintendent Rogers we had our open houses today and I just my heart is so full having so many students back in that building um they were the excitement the enthusiasm the running around the halls with their friends Finding their classes um it's it's exciting to know that's just a couple of weeks away so just I'm elated and just I've been on cloud nine all day having had that that her today in the building so I just had to put that out there so um thank you for having us to present this evening as Mr Roger spoke we um there was a group of us that got together parents teachers admin board members talk about cell phone use in schools and um and our goal is really to come together as various stakeholders in the community to uh to determine uh what we should do moving forward when it comes to both policy and um and and and code of conduct and uh what what we want to present to our families in regards to utilizing or not cell phones in uh in the schools so as Mr Rogers said this has been an ongoing conversation this is nothing new I'm sure you've all seen in the media this is a very hot topic right now um the usage of cell phones not only at the K to2 level but at the University level as well because of the negative impact many are seeing it h uh it it giv it um transpiring against the students that are using them during their instruction and so we've met quite a few times uh throughout then you and I'll show you a little bit of you know where we uh we connected with various stakeholders but we all wanted to focus on the same priority and that's really just to remain uh committed to create a safe healthy optimal learning environment for our students and what we found is time and time again there's this consistent denominator with what keeps coming back at us with challenges in the classroom challenges in regards to harassment intimidation and bullying challenges with lower test scores and the research we've done the conversations we've had not to say that it's the end all but there's been a lot of conversations surrounding the usage of cell phones in the classroom so this is some research that was conducted um in regards to mental health looking at Journal of American Medical Association the relationship between a dose of utilizing a cell phone and what that response is and challenges that are being seen and certain mitigators to those challenges I do want to give a shout out to Dr Beck and um various administrators at Sparta because we have been speaking with Sparta Administration as well and they have also shared some of their research with us um this being one of those slides I'm sharing this evening and one of the things that we're seeing in time and time again with in our research is students that have higher level of screen use are we're seeing higher levels of depression and anxiety behavioral problems irritability hyperactivity inattention and overall addiction to the use of the cell phone and there's this fear of students I think probably most at the middle school and M leuk young at the high school there's this fear of students fear of missing out or fomo and there um just not feeling that maybe perhaps they're not being included even throughout the school day um as they see things being posted by their peers lack of sleep I hear that from a lot of parents well my child was late today because I found out they were up until 2 am on their phones um feelings of inadequacy and cyber bullying research that I've looked at and I'll talk a little bit about this the average student receiv receives 75 notifications on their phone during the school day some check their phones as much as 500 times a day 75 notifications a day is the average so there's more there's some less and the research that I did I also saw that for every notification a student receives on their cell phone it takes roughly 20 minutes for them to refocus their attention on the lesson so that's two notifications in a class period and you've lost the student and that could just be the student simply replying with a thumbs up that's enough for a student to lose their attention to lose their focus and now it could take in essence 20 more minutes for that teacher to gain that students's Focus so that is a big problem we see here that you know students the average is 75 but up to 237 notifications a day this research shows uh 23% during the school day 50% of students are using Tik Tok two to seven hours a day that's middle school and high school again often during school and overnight hours using Instagram and Snapchat 32% students at school and 97% of students admit to using their phones during school hours and 60% using them at night we know that social media is designed to be highly sophisticated it is using one psychology it's highly addictive and unfortunately it's something that we feel we need to address and so those challenges we've proposed certain mitigators to address those challenges here's additional data in regards to the effects of cell phones on one's own learning and for the teachers in the classroom we know that cell phones are a part of culture we understand that we understand that they're a tool that many use for many reasons but the focus is really to get our students to be present to be involved in their learning environment and unfortunately I know Miss Young has spoken about this before the cell phone is always going to win it's more enticing it's more intriguing it's more exciting than what's going on in the classroom and I know that Miss Young has also shared it's very difficult to multitask if you're watching a movie and you're also you know texting away on your cell phone as grown adults oftentimes we lose the plot of the movie because we're so busy on our cell phones so we can imagine in a young child's developing adolescent brain how difficult it is for for that child as I stated earlier 97% of students admit to using their cell phone for non-educational purposes throughout the school day 80% believe that their performance academic performance has suffered when using their phones in class 35% of high school students in this one specific survey admitted to cheating on exams 15% of students see lower test scores because they're regularly being distracted by the cell phone use 70% of students report being distracted that's not just students using the phones that's students being impacted by the student next to them that's also us utilizing their phone and 94% of the schools in the country have implemented some sort of policy it's just at this point we think that enforcement of that policy is where we we see a lot of this lacking so really the goal is to come up with Solutions bring about awareness with some balance and of course support I wanted to talk a little bit about the positives of perhaps prohibiting cell phones in the classroom as well so we know what they do when they're using them but research shows positive significant results when they're not there's a 94% increase in student mental health and well-being within the school walls when students are not permitted to use their cell phones there is a 46% decrease in Hib reports harassment intimidation and bullying I would venture to say more than 50% of Hib cases involve some sort of Technology social media texting something along those lines when schools do not permit cell phones 40% decrease in discipline referrals and overall a 14% increase in test scores in schools that prohibited cell phone use so what are some of the effects that we see in regards to Safety and Security we as administrators are faced with many challenges throughout the day as our our teachers and often times what we find is the cell phones are leading to instances of cyber bullying and harassment but it's not to say that won't happen after school hours and it's still not going to be something that will need to take very seriously if it's impacting the educational environment but not having the cell phones in their hands does put a damper on that there have been threats made via text social media and other apps sharing of inappropriate content throughout the school day on cell phones via text Snapchat what have you and taking photos and videos which we know is a violation of policy 5516 yet students are taking videos and pictures of other individuals in the building unknowingly and then posting that to social media both students and adults they're they're taking photos and videos of both students and adults so research has shown a decrease in the above mentioned concerns when there's proactive measures that are taken so what have we done we've had many administrative conversations about this but we have also included our faculty staff and parents and Guardians this is a Hot Topic in our buildings amongst our faculty and staff when you ask them what's the number one issue in the classroom hands down cell phones if you can do away with cell phones fill in the blank with every single principal's name in this District that sees the problem in their building they say we will have our students back they will be present once again with their learning they're begging us and I can't help but agree with them wholeheartedly that we have to do something we've met with our school Improvement panel committees throughout the school years again number one concern that comes up how can we best improve our school we ask them do away with cell phones and our school climate committees feel the same it would improve climate and culture in the building amongst our students as well as our staff you've seen the research I presented this evening we've consulted with other districts as I spoke uh regarding Sparta and we've partnered with various organizations so the center for prevention and counseling they've been a huge partner to us in Vernon and we're very pleased that we have this strong partnership with them there was a 15-week program at Glenn meadow middle school the bot vins life skills training that every student had during their enrichment period that talked about social media use and ways to engage with the world around you and and and work on one's mental health by pulling away from you know various technology devices there was a a a program a 10we program that ran through the summer at Glen Meadow strengthening families program and that was a program where parents came together um ways to strengthen communication amongst their families without the use of Technology we've also use the mha the me NJ fors Mental Health Association for their expertise I know that they've been to the high school and youve partnered with them this year they've also been to Glenn me Meadow on two different occasions this past year want to talk to the students about mental health and mental Wellness but also to talk to students about the impact that social media can have on one's mental health once again it came back to social media on cell phones so what have we looked for regarding next steps and timeline we wanted to revise policy 5516 and that will look a little different prek through 8 as compared to grades 9 through 12 in collaboration with that we want to re wanted to revise our parent student handbooks to address the needs of our students faculty and staff again that's going to look a little different fled Meadow versus the high school ongoing committee engagement and talking with various stakeholders making those revisions we've we've completed that as well that's posted on the website as far as the handbook revisions and ultimately we're here this evening to take a look at the policy revision for policy 5516 and hope to have a second reading September 12th and look for September full implementation so cell phones at schools this is a big question we get what do you expect our child to do with their cell phones at Glenn Meadow and at the high school every student is issued a locker with their own combination lock students are asked or requested will be do will be walking to their lockers first thing in the morning and will be turning off their phones placing them in their lockers for the day I know at the high school it's a little different they can retrieve their cell phones during their unit Lunch Period they have 58 minutes 57 minutes of time at the high school and we we feel at that point you know they've earned that privilege as a high school student but in Middle School our focus is for our students to use the 48 minutes that they have during recess and lunch to socialize with one another to build community and relationships with one another and I know at Lounsbury uh Home Room teachers will have lockable cell phone boxes in their home rooms and they will ask the students to place their phones in those lockable boxes and then they will retrieve them at a PM Home Room at the end of the day if at any point in time a child needs to call home they will never be turned away we it happens throughout the day all day every day and every one of our our schools sometimes multiple times a day if a child needs to call home we have two phones as do the other buildings there's phones there for them to reach out to their parent or Guardian if some if a parent or Guardian needs to reach out to their child just call our main office I promise you within about one to two minutes we will get your child and you can speak to your child for as long as you need to regarding whatever that emergency was that you needed to speak to them about so I I there will be ways to communicate with your with your child and then ultimately the every phone number we just wanted to place this on there is on the very first homepage of every District every school within the district clicking on your child's School scrolling to the bottom of the page on the left hand side the direct line to the main office should you need to speak to your child in an emergency situation so in conclusion I thank you for your time again our goal is to remain committed in creating a safe healthy optimal learning environment for all of our students and we feel as do our stakeholders this is a step in the right direction to give our students the environment they deserve thank you thank you thank you we wanted to thank everyone that was involved so far and we're goingon to have a follow-up meeting as well with our ad hoc cell phone committee we were able to talk to parents teachers administrators and we had a lot of different input um that was important we are as transparent as possible with this if you're able to go through my long 12 Minute Podcast I apologize it will be shorter in the future we wanted to get it out there that what we were doing with cell phones um I believe B schedules were released last Friday which gave us time to correct any errors or situations that we may have as well as Genesis uh this past Monday and in order to get access to class schedules the handbooks had to have been read and checked off as well as I think we had a pretty uh big portion about with the cell phone policy and how we will be addressing uh cell phones next year um we've heard a lot of positive comments from from parents in the last several days and some groans up with students about the cell phone policy but I want to let you know the conversation we have always as administrators is the enforcement of the policy and we want people to know that we will enforce this next year I would like uh Mrs Young to talk a little bit because she does have the same issues as uh Mrs V Orton but maybe a couple little different perspectives at when they get to the high school age I'll speak briefly because Mrs Van Orton did a fantastic job uh yeah at the high school we we're seeing the similar very similar things in regards to um hibs uh disciplinary issues that stem back to cell phone usage I I can guarantee you if I pulled all of my uh HIV reports somehow some way they stemmed from somebody posting something on Snapchat Instagram so on and so forth and so my My slogan has been this year and it will continue to be I just I want them back and they're so engaged in their cell phones unfortunately our students are living in Two Worlds right we didn't grow up then I said I was right at the cusp of where like the cell phone you you know it was free after nine o'clock and then if you went over 200 text messages it was like 30 cents a text message and then your dad found out or whatever and now the worst thing they did was do unlimited anything um so these students they're Forever Living in Two Worlds right the virtual world and the one right in front of them and I have some of the most phenomenal teachers ever doing the best they can to engage our students and still the the cell phone is just instant gratification right it's so stimulating that it's very hard to compete with and um I think taking them away I had a teacher last year say she finally at one point there was an incident in the classroom she said no more cell phones and she was like the conversations that I had in that classroom I got to know students at a different level just by just by having them not have their phone um so my hope is that students start to realize that they feel better about themselves because I think year one is going to be very difficult it is going to be very difficult we're going to get push back from students they're teenagers we get it but my hope is by year two and year three that it's just what we do right and so that they know when I'm in school this is just what I do at the high school because they've earned that privilege we do have students that leave um during the middle of the day uh either for work study or for open campus so uh allowing them that time to utilize it I think is a privilege at the high school level we'll see how goes for next year but then right when you get to block five after lunch the cell phones go back to where they need to be and my hope is that the staff want it and I know they want it but we need their support as well and I can guarantee you they will give me that right because I can't be in every classroom every day but my teachers are in there and um if we're all on the same page with the same vision and the same goal I think it'll be successful and I think parents will be happy too they want their kids back and like Miss man Ordon said try watching a Netflix show and scrolling through Tik Tok you got to keep hitting rewind because you keep missing the the plot of the show so um I'm excited about it my assistant principles are excited about it and we're just hopeful that we have a positive outcome and hopefully we can come back next year and talk about all the success we had with it so thank you thank you thank you we look forward to our students being present during next school school year which is only week a week away a week and a half you're on this committee right thank you very much Mrs Van Orton and Mrs Young Mr citro Mr Rogers it's very important and the board is in support of this as well thank you next item is uh board uh board's reports summaries for the various committees uh Mr zerman buildings and grounds yes so uh previous night we uh interviewed new Architects hopefully come to a decision on an architect you did Yep this meeting yep okay so the committee is recommending USA as the new architect on record which we B on today uh we interviewed four firms one being the existing firm and three newer firms okay um so that was pretty much the finance building grounds so I have a list of 30 40 projects that are currently going scheduled or some completed going on the district right now I'm not going to read all 40 but the parking lots at Glen Meadow and up at the high school are two of the bigger items um that are B are they basically complete they're completed um so I'm gonna ask Mr slam to put this up on the website so people can read all 40 of them instead of spending 45 minutes reading all them um the kitchen uh Glen Meadow access points Rolling Hills access points have completed the window project we're still waiting for approval that's at Glenn Meadow um so hopefully we can finally get done with that project which was something we wanted to do when I first got on the board years ago so those are some of the highlights but these will be listed on the website hopefully tomorrow the next day for people to go through and that's my report thank you Mr Zimmerman Mr cantino community relations and curriculum uh as well I think no no not curriculum special services okay who um community relations yes don't have anything to report okay curriculum nobody it's Jen Jen's not here okay save that for the next time partnership there is no meeting the meet next meeting is in October I have to get iron out to date uh Mr samaga policy yep all right so um so the new committee was formed I just want to so everyone knows it includes Russ Rogers Melissa Brock uh John Krauss Carolin Ross and myself um we have met twice already I I missed one meeting but um the Mee the group the group carried on without me so we had a meeting on the 17th of July we also had one on the a August 1st everyone's in in attendance for the first one and the second one was just uh me wasn't involved um so we established a couple gr uh ground rules I guess because this is a new committee for for the board um so we we established our first meet our meetings are going to be the first of each month um at 5:30 and right now we're just going to do them at virtual we're looking at the next meeting probably going to move it because it is the first week of school so Russ might be a little busy that week so we might help him out a little bit and move it um the uh we also established a a Google drive with the administration actually started it so uh the administration set puts the policies in there we're all able to view them and we were using the Google uh Google docs to um make comments um Russ is able to review them and or someone else in the office and we can get back the answers to the to the group as possible as quick as possible um the the point of this is to have the preview that we establish somewhere along the line to kind of disappear again the preview is going to be done with the committee and we should have something so we can give recommendations for the first reading and hopefully carry on the pro policies quicker um another thing that we saw was a problem in the past um and I think you know Ray and Joe and Russ you guys put this together in the beginning of the year you had a bnch bunch of policies that hadn't been looked at for years so as a as a committee we're going to be looking at policies just not just what comes up in Strauss SME but other policies as well um and to help them out um so we have a I didn't really know how to do this because we it is on the agenda as a second portion right because you have to Russ has to ask to us to accept it or recommendations so um one of the policies that I did want to BR bring up though as a board because I think we do need to discuss it um most of them are mandatory that were in there there's about one two three four is a lot and um um most of them mandatory there's not much changes to it but one of the things that I I think actually Joe you might have brought this up uh Pro previously uh was the and it also came up from Al SMY is the board uh the remote um remote board meetings um which were there's a policy aaish and that one that one is six uh uh p0164 d66 um that is being abolished because it's there is no need for it it was uh had to deal with the you know the pandemic um it's actually not in the Statue anymore um talking with our Council um we that we are able to still apply those rules for the for the commit our our board members um on policy uh p1551 where we can attend it now we got some verbiage from other districts and um what they what they done and um I I don't know if it's going to come up I had it um give me one second take your time and I think I'm not going to be able to get into it um well basically we're saying that we're going to have the committee meet together uh I'm sorry we can have uh members of our board re meet REM remotely um couple stipulations would be that the board president would they would have to contact with board president allow the board president to give the okay it's going to be on the first first come first serve basis um only a maximum of three members can can be remote and this has to do with a quorum so we so we we have to do it that way um twice a year could happen on SK reg regularly scheduled meeting so we had a special session or something we could make an exception for that um so two I think that was it right that's right yeah I think from the top of my head so is this the policy that St ese is recommending so they recommended removing the policy and P 01 55.1 six no the six six one 0. 64.6 yes which we are you agree the policy committee agrees with that correct yes and the policy committee agrees with keeping 0.01 55.1 right we want to revising oh you want to revise it yes and is it in this first reading the revisions that you guys are recommending that's what I I I meant to check and I I don't think it was so originally we just requested I think at our last meeting to be brought up so you can discuss it so they can make the so that the next committee meeting we have we can make those changes so we'll pull it this time and then bring it back for a first reading time members of the committee fine with that yeah um I'm fine with that too Ray Carl Melissa what what is the change um what I were saying were members of of the board can meet uh twice a year remotely a maximum of three members can be out per meeting these are only reg regularly scheduled meetings so workshops or public meetings um you have to get in contact with the board president if you if you need to uh meet I think we did say something it had to be like two days or as soon as possible we we'll fix that when we when we point it out and um the board president can you know tell no because we're over the limit but we need a we still need a quorum here in person so we can't have everyone taking a sure and three is what the three people is what the committee agreed to a maximum of three people the policy is in regards to if we still hold an in-person meeting and people have to join remot because for whatever reason they can ask Joe if that's okay there you can't allow more than three of us to do it on any given night and any one of us can't do it more than twice a year school year count what happens if three people ask to be remote somebody who thought they were gonna attend can't make it so we still that would still be a quum right we five so we still have one and if Joe Knows Pro hopefully we're all communicating with Joe or Ray that whatever the president whoever the President right or whoever president or vice president is that we can't attend you know I'm sick um going away so that person that the President should have the knowledge when someone else calls and say hey can I go remote and they say nope we already have three people out because they're sick Family Matters or whatever and they would have to attend and if that they can't attend then we also have we don't have a forum so we would have a problem so the president could take care of that my recollection is that our suggested changes are just slightly more specific than the existing policy and slightly more stringent like it either allows for three and we thought we should only allow for two or something like that but pretty much the existing policy we we made it a little more specific and the first policy that was extinguished was the ability to have a fully remote right meeting so yeah yep okay I'm okay with that ready you have any three seems like a lot but to be out yeah I mean I think it was a concern of ours to when we were talking about it but we we're going to meet again so before we present it so we'll take that we'll take your uh my two cents two cents consideration thank you very much I appreciate that and that's the other thing is too is uh if people have if anyone else on the board you know because we're trying to streamline the process right so we still all have to vote together we all going to vote first reading second reading right but if anyone else in board has any questions or whatever um I I I think we didn't really establish this in the group but I'm what I'm my my thoughts are right now are at least until we establish something is get in touch with me and Russ just send an email to me and Russ so we one of us will know and then we can bring it up in the meeting so it is incumbent upon all the board members to read the proposed policies I know that's not always you know you don't have time in your busy lives but do the best you can well that that's why we we formed the committee if you know notice the the policy changes are always quite voluminous and instead of just sending them out there and trying a couple days to look at them the members of the committee are taking a deep dive into them for several meetings to look at and make adjustments so they can communicate during the meetings any questions that people may have and especially when you're dealing with policy if they're making a change it gives us time to check with our board attorney to see if uh certain changes are are legal if if we need to as well and while this is still we're still working through this new process the the members of the committee can still call other board members and you know say what do you think about this aspect yeah yeah we just we like what Russ was saying with especially with the Google Drive and stuff is we can't all because then we're having a have a quorum right so as long as we're communicating as with normal procedures we should be fine great thank you very much there that there's also one other policy on the board on the ballot tonight or agenda tonight um that has to do I'm trying to get the number here it's the attendance there's a couple options um that's a policy I'm sorry Regulation Code 5200 attendance there are options that have to be chosen uh page I'm going to unless I'm reading it wrong somebody can double check my work yeah I think page uh towards the end page 11 of of of that policy or regulation sorry there's optional sections those have to be chosen am I corre correct right so we have to so the committee didn't put their recommendation in yet no we didn't have also our stuff is not in here just with st s me thinks yeah yeah okay all right but I was looking at the one with service animals because I know we made a decision on that too you took that out in here no it's in there I'm looking at it are you looking on the website I'm looking at the what was emailed in drive in the drive okay it should have been the policies that we've been working on yeah it is but it's it's the the service animal one and we talked about miniature horses and it's right kind of still in there okay it it shouldn't be I believe we took it out in the version we were working on okay all right well I'm I'm just going by what I can read here so I'm a little confused as to what we're first reading we're approving as the first reading yeah I thought I thought most of these policies and regulations I apologize that they weren't have been edited already based on the policy committee review um I apologize that they were not or they weren't the ones that okay that's where it's a first reading you can go through it again and still so R I think for the most part they were they they are yeah those are Thea areas you found yeah so uh um I think we should I guess this is what I should recommend right 50 regulations 5200 because it still has the options on on there that should be removed from tonight okay okay and then uh 5 one uh policy 1551 should be removed that's the one I was talking about remote earning wrot sessions and um John do you do you know which one what policy number that was oh 5337 5337 so that is being removed as well yeah so those three and the rest okay thank you and they will be re reviewed at the next uh policy meeting commit meeting correct y thank you Charles Mr cantino I believe you are stepping in for so yesterday we had a very productive meeting of the special services committee um to start um I'm just going to talk about some of the new things coming in this year to start our ER or emotional regulation and impairment program will be K12 starting this year this helps to keep students in District and with their peers our ABA program will also be K through 12 starting this year we've opened two new er classrooms and an ABA classroom in the high school um we've brought back two intervention teachers and two instructional coaches to help RTI staff meet student needs in September we also have about three new students coming to Vernon from their home districts due to our special services programs and I just want to shout out the dedication and teamwork of our teachers and staff because the work that they're doing really is incredible but we have a lot to look forward to coming in September in special services thank you absenteeism ad committee we have a update maybe from Mr Krauss did you have any well I was at the meeting and Miss pellet was uh is the coordinator of that but I had to leave early because I was doing something else at the high school that I had be at as well so but I know Mr Benin Orton was there to finish if you if you could just fill me in on what we finished up spot or anything Mr van Orton I put her on the spot after the meeting as well I'm sorry I I don't mean to put you on the spot but I had it you remember no that's okay Mr Krauss so it was a productive meeting I think we all came together with one common goal and that was to be proactive rather than reactive when it comes to absenteeism in the district I know that chronic absenteeism is is an issue not only in Vernon Township School District but really Across the Nation uh this this is something that's become kind of a an epidemic if you will and um so what we talked about is being more proactive with um educating our families a little bit about what that means to be uh excused absences versus um unexcused absences I think there's some discrepancies in regards to what constitutes excused and unexcused and the state of New Jersey is very very strict constraints with that um excused absences are uh are really College a couple of college visits and bring your child to workday and uh that may be it uh correct me if I'm wrong but I think so medically documented absences um are not excused in the eyes of the state um and so there's you know we just want to educate our parents about that not that to say that students won't need to stay home and if they're not feeling well and and have a doctor's know it's certainly enough for us so that we know that the child is is home resting and taking care of their health um but we talked about ways that we can just uh proactively uh connect with our families and um encourage them to reach out to us if they're struggling sometimes it's a matter of Transportation sometimes it's a matter of uh you know the family themselves is is perhaps Ling or going through a lot and it's difficult to get a number of students children out the out the door and maybe connecting them with a Community member that lives in their neighborhood that could help bring their child to school so we're we're coming up with ways that we can help collectively uh within each one of our buildings we're we're following the same pattern if you will so making sure we're letting our families know when they they're at five absences 10 absences 15 absences at the high school 18 absences because that does constitute loss of credit and then students have to fulfill an appeal process to get their credits back so um so we talked about all of that I know we plan to meet again we set another date um so that we can see how the the year starts out as an admin we met yesterday and we talked about how we're going to have a more consistent approach with sending those letters and notifications out to the families and um we're monitoring each one of the buildings the administration is monitoring the students with prior year chronic absenteeism so we can support them along the way so that's kind of what our conversation was that that day thank you very much you're welcome thank you Mr gr well thanks Mrs Van well you're the re thank you Mrs vanord I apologize yes and uh we I guess we had the cell phone ad hoc committee report huh okay so item I public participation anybody in the public who would like to make comments please come to the microphone and identify yourself and say what municipality you're from the meeting is open to the public hi Denise Vernon um just a couple of questions um start down can relations have we had any meetings this past the new Committee just started we have not had anything and is that in place of H what was it called liaison right well liaison and it was liaison and Student Life yeah because a lot of student life things went by the wayside this year and I was wondering um if community relations was looking at some of those Student Life matters that were that you know not not offered this past year well we're still talking about the definition of the Community uh committee and we're not sure exactly how it's going to evolve I'll check back that would be nice I'll check that um thank you for saying that you're going to post the 40 Projects on going to the website have we got any more information on the status of the posos in the water Mr slam uh yes uh so the filter filtration system is in place and uh we've had that water removed by the D so the filtration system is working well the tests are back and everything's clear okay than you um that's good news yeah we've been waiting for that news um I noticed in tonight's um packet we're going to be talking about the PPA agreement for solar is this to vote on using this company and moving forward or is this still being researched uh so this is just a resol solution for us to start the competitive Contracting process so we'd have to put together an RFP and then companies would have to put together a proposal okay um because I've been working with that on the residential side so I'm getting quite an education on it um and would this be for all schools that you would be looking at this or for um certain schools or putting it in a field because rofes would be a concern so we're we're still at a early phase we're working with through our esip with honey um and as part of our investment grade audit we would be looking to potentially use a PPA it's not yet clear which buildings we would put the solar on though because we're still in the process of that in res cre audit and are we still s or jcpnl uh we have jcpnl and then we have a prior PPA with Tesla okay thank you um the presentation was lovely and will that presentation be available for the community to see it's on the it's it's a board meeting and it's tap so it will be on tape but the actual presentation that Mrs Van Ordon had with all the statistics that should be on the board meeting as well and the stats where did they come from again I might have missed it I'm sorry that's all on the presentations B whether there's Common Sense Media research be University Research which you have that'll be all I guess we just put see it on the screen okay thank you and you realize smart watches are going to be a concern too yes okay um architect is this a returning architect that ended up getting this bid or is this a brand new architect brand new new okay thank you on that um okay I think I'm done thank you thank you anybody else nobody else present how about online kski hello hi can you hear me yes hi uh Katie pataski I live in the Sussex section of Vernon um I just wanted to take a moment to speak to the board and let you guys know my feelings that um the back to school night for the first grade is scheduled at 3:00 p.m. in the afternoon so I don't know if you are aware of that but as a working parent you know it essentially requires us to choose between our jobs profession livelihood and attending something that I feel you know is really important to my child's education setting up the year for Success um in addition you know you know it requires us to take a day off before the school year has even begun [Music] um that was really all I wanted to say just to bring it to your attention you know first graders don't understand that parents have to work and I might not be able to attend a more fun event later in the year because I chose to go to back to school night before the school year even began um you know last year year it was early as well for kindergarten but our kindergarteners attended with us so I understood it at that point but you know at this time it really just is a burden to us so I know that that's not necessarily the role of the board to make those schedules but I wanted to bring it to your attention other than that I wanted to share that we've really loved our time at Cedar Mountain it's a great school and we really appreciate all the work that you're doing thank you Mrs fosi and your comments or your criticisms are very valid we will look into them yeah thank you thank you uh we have Jesse paladini Mrs paladini yes good evening um first I want to say that I have two grandchildren in the school district so I believe I qualify to comment um why they would schedule uh back to school night when parents are not available just boggles my mind I hope you will rethink that um I want to say that I support whatever this cell phone committee is doing I think it's wonderful that they're addressing this those statistics and numbers are just horrifying and um when I was teaching in the college classroom 15 years ago it was a big problem so I can only imagine what kind of problem it is today so I support whatever they're doing totally um I want to ask the question what is your reserve or cap bank and what is the difference between the two um how much is in it and what is the difference Mr slam would you like to try to answer that yep uh so there's no money in our bank cap I think that's might be what you're referring to so um there was money in bank cap several years ago um just a little bit of background uh for everybody Bank cap would be when the school district does not raise uh the tax levy by the full 2% you then three years have those funds available uh to use in the next three years uh to raise by that same amount of money uh so uh there is none now several year years ago there was a fairly large amount that did expire um capital reserve is a reserve that at the end of the year um you'll not in the June board meeting there's a resolution talking about capital reserve and maintenance Reserve so basically at the end of the school year after the audit is completed if there are any balances left uh to the district uh there are a couple things that can happen they can go into capital reserve It Go on the maintenance Reserve or it could go in excess Surplus and used as a revenue in the creation of the not the next year that's starting but the next year's budget that's going to be created so for example this year be the 25 26 school year budget uh so uh it would be ideal if we could put money in the capital reserve as our Reserve is very low right now um but that is a reserve that will be utilized only for capital projects um by Statute that's the only thing can be used for so what is the reserve right now uh so I'll have a final number once the audit is complete um because as it crosses school year you have money that's going back in from projects that either came in lower uh or projects that weren't able to be completed during that school year a good example that would be the window project for sea that project wasn't completed last year because we're still waiting on the uh approved agreement from the New Jersey school Development Authority so those monies will flow back in um but other monies are flowing out as this budget's created um my estimate have a number do you have a number in the reserve uh I'd have to pull up a sheet for it it's probably let me check into it and I and if I can find it out because I want to talk on the top of my head either because I do have a an estimate but no problem you could you could email it to me if you'd like um I will say that it that for dist St size it is very low okay um I want to talk about the budget and um the fact that we are coming off the this this budget is the biggest increase in years and this is coming off the most egregious years of mismanagement on our Board of Education yet and I just want to say that to increase at 9% because the governor said okay you could do that and the next day the Vernon Board of Ed said okay then we'll do that um I just want to say that not one board member even questioned it not a single one you just all rubber stamped it and voted on it and one of the things we need to do is we need to stop the rubber stamping last but not least I want to address the dog park and the community garden now you sold two buildings that only got a fraction of what that property you're holding on to is worth and this keeps coming up and coming up and you keep saying oh yeah we'll look into that and then a year goes by and you still haven't looked into it right now properties and homes are just skyrocketing and going for more than they have gone and I don't know how long you don't need that property don't tell me that there's a solar farm on it or whatever you can subdivide don't talk about all of the difficulties of subdividing that's not true at all but whatever you decide to do you need to get rid of that because you're holding on to possibly a million dollars while you're raising our property taxes 9% and please don't even think of just handing it over to the town because that would not be tax relief and that would not help taxpayers one penny so you sold a building for [Music] $176,000 and the very next day as soon as it was consummated that developer put it up for sale for close to $700,000 you gave another building to a realtor a real estate company and you took 10 $20,000 off the price for sewers which never even got done and you're holding on to a piece of property worth about a million dollars when are you going to give that money back to the taxpayers and I don't expect you to answer that tonight unless you have an answer but I just want to remind you of that property again that you're sitting on while you're increasing our taxes by %. that's all I have thank you Mrs paladini thank you that's it okay uh nobody else so we're going to close the meeting to the public and move on the next item is President's report once again we are going to discuss board goals later this evening last month in discussions at the public Board of Education meeting it was mentioned that we as a board are moving towards a more towards more of a committee approach and less of a committee of the whole approach this is to reduce redundant gencies and be a more efficient board in that regard we have discussed having regularly scheduled committee meetings and one full board meeting a month rather than having committee meetings a work session and a public meeting each and every month it is hoped that this can be a goal of the board to be implemented by January of 2025 with this approach communities would meet on a regular basis and must provide written reports to all the board members prior to the public meetings the the finance buildings and grounds committee would generally be supportive of the recommendations made by the business administrator and the policy committee would support the new policy recommendations or provide alternative recommendations the curriculum committee would likewise report on new curriculum or other matters related to enhancements or improvements related to curricular or and other committees would do likewise to move towards this goal I need each committee chair to liaz with the appropriate administrator to set up a permanent schedule for the upcoming school year then we can merge the various dates into a master schedule which would also be one of our goals for this year regarding other matters I hope everyone is enjoying what's left of their summer we have a few short days remaining before we hit the ground running when school begins but apparently we've already begun this back to U school today best wishes to everyone students Administration teacher staff and the residents of Vernon Township for a successful school year at our September meeting we will have a presentation from the buildings and grounds Personnel presenting the highlights of the work that was accomplished over the summer we are looking forward to that presentation and that's the end of my report minutes may I have a motion to approve the minutes so move move by Mr Krauss second second second by Mr Zimmerman comments or questions r call please miss Brock yes Mr Saga yes Mr CLA he has to obstain but he's also Ste away Mr Krauss yes Dr Ross yes Mr Sweeney yes Mr Zimmerman yes motion carries okay superintendent report Mr Rogers I'd just like to highlight a couple of the uh activities or projects we've been involved with this summer we've been very busy this summer with projects and preparing for upcoming school year the various committees have already shared many of the details uh the Board of Education offices have been moved to the Walnut Ridge School side of the building and the Walnut Ridge classroom to the Board of Education side to prepare for potential preschool expansion we submitted our preschool expansion aid application if approved we can offer free preschool to three and four year olds living in Vernon Township possibly as early as November 2024 and that would be a set number of students and there may be a lottery system in order to attend preschool to begin with I would like to thank our Summer Staff for their hard work this summer preparing the schools for September we're committed to providing a safe and healthy learning environment for our students and look forward to a positive and enthusiastic start of this new school year the Glen Meadow cclc program 21st Century Learning Community Center had a successful summer session with over 100 students participating uh meetings took place this summer with their new instructional coaches and administrators and interventionist and we look forward to the academic support they will provide to our teachers and students the absenteeism and cell phone ad hoc committees held meetings this summer and you heard a lot of of their uh the positive results and impacts in going into next school year that's my informational matters uh onea harassment intimidation and bullying reports we're in attachment a fortunately not over the month of uh letter B good yes the following certified staff members are recognized for receiving ten years tenure in a month of September in the chart noted number 2A as we start the school year it's been a month since our last meeting it is recommended that a board approve the following faculty staff appointments assignment changes leaves mentoring resignations Etc in the charts below give you a little time to take all that in um and there's an addendum there's addendum as well for a couple of these a lot of these were adjusting fees based on years of service and uh as schedules changed over the summer so did hours uh to AIDS as well so you'll see a lot of uh hours for uh certain schedules as well changed letter B it is recommended that a board approve the following Staten appointments is listed below effective 991224 letter C it is recommended the board approve the 2024-25 burning Township to district schools district mentoring plan and attachment b letter D it is recommended that the board approve the harassment intimidation and bullying school safety and random drug testing reports letter e it is recommended that the board approve the following staff Freshman Academy orientation planning on 826 2024 letter F it is recommended AB board approve the following staff for Freshman Academy orientation at that same rate of 125 a day on 829 2024 letter G it is recommended that the board approve the following substitute teachers to be inactivated and no longer accepting perdum assignments for the 2024 25 school year letter H it is recommended that the board approve the following staff for summer CST meetings at the rate of $40 a meeting letter I it is recommended that the board approve the following staff for additional summer case management days letter J it is recommended that the board approve the revision of motion 2i from the June 20 June 20th 2024 agenda to include the portion funded with ARP sr3 summer learning subgrant as follows in the chart uh John gats in sorry uh second second uh row last column should be changed from 3, $3,600 uh Mr smaggle noted with the exception of the uh policies he talked to be removed uh the following policies and regulations for a first read reading except for those uh that one regulation and two policies he had mentioned letter L it is recommended that the board approve the following job descriptions preschool instructional coach preschool intervention and referral specialist pyramid model coach and there's one on the addendum m page one on the agenda on the agenda recommend the Board of Education approved the district curricula for the 2024-25 school year the curricula has been developed and reviewed in alignment with the New Jersey student learning standards and reflect the district's commitment to providing a rigorous and comprehensive educational program that meets the diverse needs of all students the curricula include updates and enhancements across all grade levels in subject areas to ensure relevance rigor and alignment with the state and National standards the public can access to curriculum through the following link on the district website and the link is provided to our entire curriculum and that's it for my section okay may I have a motion for the recommendations by the superintendent and so moved moved by Mr cantino second second second by Dr Ross comments or questions Mr Saga I'm sorry I didn't see your hand at um I had a question about the uh uh mentoring if if it possible if we can just get um the cost I I know the me uh I know in the state that the teachers do have to pay for the for mentoring but if there's any other for that may be involved we have approximately uh 12 teachers that require mentoring this year with their mentors as well we usually would do two half days uh so I'd say a day a piece at uh about 12 and 24 teachers at about 150 a day is probably the maximum cost that we can pay for the mentoring uh and I I believe there's statute that that advises us to support this uh Endeavor as well to make sure that our new teachers are supported so that they have the support that they need as they enter new as their school district okay then teaching profession no it's good because I mean obviously their new teachers and mentoring we probably get them another a cheaper for but there were probably a little bit of a Quest associated with us on our side so thank you thank you for keeping that listen I'll take 150 a day for each one I'll take yes I look forward to the new teachers joining our staff this year as well all right and then I also had um question on letter E and F is it common that the organizers don't attend the Freshman Academy I'm just curious it looks like we have um we do have a couple that are attending it but then we have more that different ones that are we have organization committee I guess and then greeting committee you're talking about letter enf enf for the Freshman Academy I I really don't know much about the Freshman Academy I was actually gonna ask you just fill me in on the that was my question the Freshman Academy what that is and the orientation planning what that is um they do a lot of planning for the day that's when the the ninth graders will be bust up to the high school that day and it's their first day in high school and it's mainly to set the tone of the high school being a a a positive place for them to be out and what we all offer so that when they come in their first day of school with everyone else they feel a little bit more comfortable they develop some relationships with their their classmates at the high school and they they know where to go to and who to seek and who their teachers are the first day of school as well so we think it's a very important uh day to to plan that appropriate to give them the support that they need as they uh enter High School for the first time from middle school when does it take place is it in the spring like for the eth graders 29th oh that's when the fresh that's when the incoming freshman come yes they'll be and there's busing as well so that it's quite a a comprehensive uh situation for undergo undertaking to get everyone there to talk to the administration develop the relationship with the teachers to understand the program I think we go go over uh uh the Pyramid of Success and the and a lot of the uh I think we pres I think Mrs Young has presented that to you as well in the past um to expectations at high school and to make it a positive experience for them so that um that first day uh they have a little bit more grounding of who to go to who to talk to if they have any questions I get okay so the planning is on the 26th and the day on the 29th okay got it and yet uh Charles you were wondering it's different people for the planning and for the actual orientation you know not knowing much about it I'm just curious why uh the planners don't go to I mean there are a couple some overlap yes yeah I'd have to ask uh Mrs Young okay why is it two days one day they they spend the whole day um I think going over not only the orientation day as to how to plan for that but the activities and the uh the program that they want for the students for the entire year and how they want that run with within the teachers and then the other one is the students are there for the for the entire day okay um I was just wondering if you could elaborate on the two job descriptions we're ping um and what they're going to bring to our districts the preschool instructional coach and the preschool intervention and referral specialist pyramid model coach um I answer to you I would I would rather instead of giving you a generalization refer back I I'll check with the uh preschool principal and give you a specific a job description for those two positions yeah I just because it's it's sounds great I just want to know what they're bringing to the district I I could speak to it but I do it in gen generalities and I wouldn't I wouldn't do it justice totally is this an anticipation of the uh preschool program there that's a whole like I said we just submitted that recently I would have to I would have to talk to the principle of uh wallet Ridge to give you the the details and I I I refer back to him and I'll ask him those questions for you sorry Alissa you had questions yes so under letter A on page seven um lines number 25 through 31 where they say Corrections um I tried to go back in the minutes to see what we were correcting but I can't find it there's so many pages a lot of those are uh steps uh we we're we're making a transition they put people on who had been in the position for many years initially on step one when based on the contract they should have been on a higher step so you're seeing a Transit you're seeing a correction from step one which they thought they were first year there and they actually belonged on a step three based on their years in that position I'm sorry can we just uh can we just clarify so they were hired and they should have been hired at step three but they were hired at step one they didn't just receive a two-step raise no they were renewed for the position okay and we we have staff that is we have new staff in that position and they put them on step one right they were given the position okay they have earned and they have been there long enough for step three so it was an error mistake they put them on the wrong step there stiens right yes all right okay anybody else have anything you I'm sorry Jo can I one more question yeah sure sure I have a couple too I just had a question about the six period um just just curiosity so when they're when they getting paid for that s that that is as they're working it right so if a teacher leaves let's say in the middle of the year or something happens and they miss half of the year that's St type in ends for them and correct picks up with the next person correct okay until filled sometimes we have people out on leave for certain reasons and we need a certified teacher to teach a certain class we'll put them in there for until the teacher turns okay so that that that that is the the biggest number it should be right in most cases it's going to be the full amount it's it's not uh it depends on why we have the six period there's multiple reasons for that whether we have certified staff or not or whether it is a it is a part-time leave okay item M us that's approving the curricula for all of the curricular for the year right is that right that's a that should be a year early process of approving the curriculum uh and next year is a qac year as well and I want to make sure that we have it clearly defined in the in the in a board agenda that the curriculum has been approved by the board all right it's clearly defined now anybody have any other questions you guys are good other yeah Mr a roll call please miss Brock yes Mr seaca um I I yes for everything except for item a line 16 I'm not opposing to the person or the reason for it it's just out of the budget and I feel we should have a full-time job uh created outside the budget thank you uh Mr Krauss yes sorry Mr Canino yes now Mr crra sorry still yes [Music] maybe Dr Ross yes Mr Sweeney yes Mr Z yes motion carries okay item M Mr SL uh informational items uh please see the use of buildings and grounds as noted Below in the chart letter uh B Bill trips as noted below recommendations letter a is recommended the board approve the following Financial reports list of checks number 9 3218 through 93397 for August 2024 in the amount of 1,721 10911 as ATT attachment F1 list of hand checks for July 2024 in amount of 2,458 $481 that's attachment F2 transfers for July 2024 that's attachment F3 purchase orders for July 2024 an amount of 59 m6983 18 that is attachment F4 uh you'll note that is a very high amount and that's because it's the beginning of the year so best practice is to encumber your POS that you're aware of at the beginning of the year so that money do get spent on something else later do that again please so I was just noting that that's probably a higher amount than you normally see but it's normal for this time of year uh because at the beginning of the year you encumber your budget funds on the purchase orders for things that you know the district is going to have to spend money on later so U things like help benefits say July is an awfully expensive month y yeah uh so that's just showing that the money's being put aside for its intended purpose uh anything that we're aware of at this point Thank You yep uh letter b approval of the board secretaries and treasures reports um I will share you my wonderful voice and say as noted below it has F5 and F6 letter C is Rec to the board approv of Transportation as listed below we have August 2024 quota routes quota trips and then uh you'll note down there's a chart there with bids as well I I'll read the bit so there bid 2024 2502 2024 2503 letter D is sent reive for 2024 2025 uh so you'll note that the received portion is on the addendum but I'll read them both now just so they're under both under letter d uh so where special services department has determined that individuals uh students require a special education placement based on their individual needs and whereas special service department has determined that services are needed will continue until June 30th 2025 whereas the special services department has determined that the school/ service listed below as the most appropriate placement therefore we it resolve that the ver Township Board of Education approved the contracts as listed below and these are for sent students received whereas the special services department has determined you determined that the placement within Vernon Township School District special education program is appropriate based on students individual needs and whereas special services departments determine that services are needed and will continue until June 30th 2025 and there therefore be resolved the ver Board of Education approves the contracts that's listed below uh those are listed on the addendum and those are received tuition students so the students that are coming here from other uh districts letter e is recommended the board approve the disposition of the following items as they're either obsolete or IND disrepair as noted in the J below letter F it is recommended that the board approv the Somerset County educ Educational Services Commission for services and evaluations needed to assist the CST when necessary and appropriate for the 2425 year attachment have S letter G application for dual use of educational space be resolved the burn Township Board of Education approves the cedar Mount Primary School rooms number 2011 revise number 202 revise number 206 to be used as dual use class for the 2425 school year far the resolve to direct the superintendent business administrator slbo secretary to execute set application on behalf of the ver Township Board of Education to the sussa county superintendent New Jersey Department of Education letter H has recommended the board approve the agreement between project Venture Inc and the Veron Township School District for the challenge course inspections in the amount of $3,245 the courses are located at lsbury Glen Meadow and the high school letter I is recommended the board approve the following parent volunteer drivers for the vths band equipment letter J is recommended the board approved the tuition contract agreement for the 2425 school year between the Vernon Township Board of Education and the susus County Technical School school board of education at an estimating cost per people of $2,750 letter K is recommended that the board approv the following whereas the Board of Education of Vernon Township and the county of Sussex New Jersey referred to as the board authorizing board representatives to the submission of require approvals from the New Jersey Department of Education in conjunction with the following projects fire pump room upgrades of earn Township High School prek and Boe office reconfiguration at walut Ridge school and kitchen equipment updates at all six schools whereas the district is not seeking Debt Service Aid therefore the project should be considered other capital projects now therefore be resolved by the Board of Education of the township of Vernon in the county of Sussex New Jersey as follows section one in accordance with the requirements of section six 626- 5.1 through 682 626- 5.3 of the New Jersey mry Code the board approves the preparation of schematic preparation of schematic plans and educational specifications if applicable by EI Associates in the connection with the project and board rather authorized and directs architect to submit same to the New Jersey Department of Education and to the suex county superintendent schools for review approval section two in accordance with the requirements of section 6 a26 -2.3 of the New Jersey Ministry of code board approves a major Amendment to the La Range facilities plan necessary to reflect the projects and approves the submission of such Amendment to the New Jersey reir education section three in accordance with the requirements of section 626- 3.2 of the New Jersey ad Ministry of code the board approves the project applications the AR architect has Irby directed to submit such applications to New Jersey Department of Education the district is not seeking dead service therefore the project should be consider other capital projects the fire room pump room upgrades have run town ship high school and pre bu office reconfiguration at wut Rich High School sorry Walnut Rich school will be funded with capital reserve funds the kitchen equipment upgrades and all six schools be funded with fund 60 section four respect the projects the board authorizes and directs the board president the superintendent the business mboard secretary as applicable to execute the static plans and educ educational specifications if applicable the amendment sorry I'm not here on this one the amendment to the longrange facility plan uh the project cost es sheets and all related project documents allowing submission the same to the New Jersey Department of Education it is recommended that the board approve the exterior ramp and stere replacement of Run tonship High School plus building Through The Hunton County Educational Services Commission in the amount of 9,33 letter M it is recommended that the board approve the addendum to Investigative Services agreement by and between true viiew BSI LLC and Vernon Township School District for 2425 school year letter N is recommended the board approve USA Architects as the architect of record for the district letter O is recommended that the board approve the agreement between Patricia e p teacher of the death in the burn T school district for services during the 2425 school year at a rate of $75 per hour letter P is recommended the board to approve the following travel for board members as per board policy 0147 travel for board members may occur only upon prior approval by a majority of full voting membership board and the travel shall be compliance with section four of public law 1991 c. 393 and section five of public law 2001 c178 uh as known below and we have an addendum I had already noted letter D for receiving students there is letter Q is recommended that the board approve proximity learning to provide Professional Service to Spanish one live instruction set up meance and support in amount of $129,999 90 for 2425 school year and then letter r is recommended that the board approve the following resolution resolution of the Board of Education of the township of Vernon in the county of susex New Jersey proving the use of competitive Contracting for the solicitation of proposals for a school solar power purchase agreement to be undertaken in connection with the school district's proposed CIP and authorizing other matters in connection there within as noted below are you allowed to say that or do you have to read the whole thing I can read the whole thing no you're allowed to say that as noted below as as after the first one I decided that was a smart one smart route thank you you learn you learn I'm sorry to it's a growth mindset Mr s thank you I have this in the form of a motion please moveed by Dr Ross second second by m Brock comments questions opinions I have a few question question Mr zerman can you explain what project Adventure is on item H those are the uh ropes courses that you see behind I think the tennis cour at the high school and the uh meow Meadow on the side so they have uh okay we have trained staff members that will put kids through uh different uh training on high ropes courses and they want to make sure that they're safe for the for the for the training that they provide not for me but maybe for the kid not for me either Mr and then we only paid $ 2750 for tuition at Sussex Tech per student but don't they go there full-time this seems extremely low to me $2,700 per student it's correct but don't tell them it's low I don't want them to raise it okay and then section one it says we're going to use EI Associates as the architect but we just approved we will be approving well we'll be approving USA so these are projects that are already working on um I plan on having a meeting with the new architect assuming that it is approved tonight uh sometime next week where we're going to walk the district and also talk about a transition plan for some of the projects that are still uh in process uh so this would basically just allow them to submit to the New Jersey Department of Education so it can still be if we choose a transition it could still be picked up by the other architect after that submission okay thank you and the same thing in section two I'm sorry it the long range facil plan is going to be done by USA then right yeah so there's two different things so uh one of the big things that you know I think were're everyone on the committee was pretty impressed with was the U approach to the facilities wide assessment by say Architects y so that will be completed uh but what happens is that feeds into a long range facility plan okay which is a plan that that always exist it's kind of like a master plan that needs to be continuously updated for each school district and then they'll update what necessary assessments completed the next part of that process will be they'll do a more a bigger update essentially a major amendment to uh to the long range facility plan to include all the items in the facility wide assessment thank you um I saw him first so s Mr sagia um well first thing I just wanted to mention U great job that we actually that that race in that the Spartan Race house really benefited not only the town but also benefited a school district with a little income um I had a couple of questions on the on the bus bids um first the you have uh you I there's routes that start with letters right and you have have qf and those and they're they're written in the table below but are the ones that start with f are those just regular routes or no they field trips that's what F stands for yeah qf would be uh would be field trips Q QA is an athletic trip no no just qf is field trips but then there's ones at F only the first eight I did just missing the letter or they're going to the high school is that for that um I'll have to check to see if they're just missing the letter on that one um I'd have to double check but I can I'll check and I'll show you an email okay then and then the next section when we have the we have the late buses which is great that it looks like they're coming back um we have a couple we have Le Bus B and bus C has um three and and C has two and I'm pretty sure one of those Highland Lakes um is that what why why are those routes have more buses and then I have a followup question for that uh so in the charts uh you'll see the um route that it has the asri is who was awarded but we listed all of the proposals that were received so uh for example on the top of page 21 um I think that's where you're looking right now right so you see two for g16 but you'll see an asri next to craft bus so that is who won because they had the lower price and then the same thing for late bus B and late bus C uh it's actually they actually won all three um so they had the lowest price for each of those routes uh so they awarded but the other ones there aren being awarded they're just the proposals that we also received okay that's part of the B process yeah and I'd like to thank our uh transportation coordinator and uh the busing companies uh it was not easy to staff uh the late buses yes there is a school bus driver shortage so thanks to both for the companies and our transportation coordinator originally we only had two of those routes and it was it was because of her hard work that we were able end the busing companies to get four routes quoted for the late bus bring her back yeah she did a great job the first as as Mr Rogers mentioned the first time around we didn't receive bids for a number of the routes so she worked the phones and got got some interest and we went back out the bid again and received multiple bids that see the second time Charles I have an answer for the the F routes if you look at the date the contract term 8294 that F is for freshman orientation okay process of deduction sorry all right are you done or is yeah can go whenever I just the Dual if you just explain what dual use is I just letter G for the we may have a very large classroom and maybe there are h two interventionists working in there with small groups so when you have two people in a classroom I think we the dividers have been put up so we have we may have two classes in one large classroom at the same time and you have to put in for dual use um it's also same same um during the day I think we have uh other services where it is a dual use and it's not every period of the day but in order to make the most efficient use of all of our space in the building um sometimes there's a classroom that has two groups of students in it and you have to file for dual use okay great Mr cantino he had the he had his hand up um so item I it's recommended the board approve the exterior ramp and stair replacement at the Vern high school plus building through the hunterton County Educational Services Commission in the amount of 98,3 can you just elaborate on that a bit for me yep so the hunon county of Services Commission uh went out to bid uh it's a Cooperative that we're part of um so they went out to bid so instead of us having go through the bid process uh we're able to use their awarded bid to go direct to that that contractor while still following essentially purchasing law um so at some point later on I'll do a probably a part of presentation on purchasing just so everyone kind of knows what I'm talk about when I say purchasing La I'll talk about Co threshold with threshold and everything but a Cooperative is a way for you to use essentially someone else's bid process which would reach more people if they're a larger organization they're much larger than this because they service last schools uh so we're able to use that that bid award uh to go through this project this one specifically we actually had gotten a quote before that um I remember the exact amount it was I don't know if it was 120,000 129,000 that was under a different Cooperative uh so you know we looked around we checked some of the cooperatives out and we were able to get a better price to this Cooperative um now the benefit of Cooperative is that you save money on architect fees as well so it's faster timeline but you don't have to pay the architect fees and is it partially less expensive because you're going through an ESC because that's kind of a public body I don't want yeah so they so they went out to bid and they awarded a contract in this case I think it was for uh if it was for concrete or for or for stairs or a mix of the two um and they went to a bunch of different vendors and this is the vendor that won so it it saves US money because they got more competition because they have a farther reach than us it's not always less expensive uh but you want to be smart in how you use it you want use it in the inst where a timeline matters and where you think you're getting a good price in this case since we had multiple quotes from other from different cooperative vendors this is lower price uh we felt comfortable with it plus you end up saving fees on AR end up saving architect fees and it was a safety issue for a classroom that we're gonna be opening in the next week and a half I'm glad we were able to do it that way and save money that's awesome always looking the sa Mone Mr Krauss yeah just one more question about proximity learning for the Spanish one live instruction if we get the certified teacher there in let's say month three month four we don't have to pay that whole full money or we only pay a portion of that so we don't have to pay the full amount there is a termination Clause uh I can't remember off the top of my head but there a certain number of days notice I can't remember if it's 30 days or 60 days but we would have to give them a certain amount of notice okay uh but in that instance if we were hiring a teacher that and that teacher was in another District they'd also have to give notice 60 days anyway right we would transition that teacher in as soon as we possibly yeah I know I know so we would only pay for the portion anyone to know any foreign language teachers please reach out to the Vern sship high school thank you with regards to the uh exterior ramp and stair replacement what kind of timeline are we looking at so we're we're looking at that right now um as you heard there's been a lot of projects happening over the summer know so this this one obviously would be more ideal to happen when students are not there uh so that's why the question so we have reach we're reaching out to the vendor seeing how long they think the project will take obviously it's going to be loud because they're going to be essentially using a jackhammer to remove I don't know if everyone's familiar with the staircase and ramp there but it's settled probably at least six to eight inches um the railings are in bad shape when I first started here the railings are actually would were actually not connected to the concrete I had them you know secure them as a temporary solution but still not ideal right so it's have to see how long it's going to take see if we can have it happen over one of our breaks where the students aren't there and then if not it's probably going to have to happen in June uh say take the two or three week project would have to happen in June once the kids are and there's two access points to the door so there's two different ways up to the to get into the building that's the other part as well we have to see how it affects access into the actual Plus thank you but we're looking if we can get it in on a break we will but we Al obviously we don't want to disrupt sta students so thank you anybody else roll call please Mr slam Miss Rock yes Mr smaca yes but extend abstain from letter P item four thank you uh Mr Cantina yes Mr Krauss call it you should abstained from item P5 oh because yeah that's right it says it here yes same sorry same thing Charles did sorry I apologize how was it P4 or P5 P5 P5 oh oh yes the travel yep yes I'm sorry okay I need to abstain same one Whatever number that was P whatever for me3 P3 also I want to abstain from letter q just checking what was Q that's proximity Lear uh so when technically exstension uh is it an an a for Q say again is it an a for Q because I just wouldn't technically an extension then I have to say no for okay thank you you're welcome Dr Ross Yes um Mr Sweeney yes abstain from item P1 Mr Zimmer yes abstain from letter P to motion carries okay moving on to public participation I'm G open the meeting to the public any item on currently any statement you'd like to make please identify yourself and the name the section of town that you're from or the municipality that you're from hi to me har Vernon again um I don't see any appointments for new staff have we have we completed the hiring of all the staff that was going to be part of the increase for taxes yes so we did that at such an early time I believe that was at a prior board meeting all I apologize my resent for the last one um because I know one of the things that was mentioned by I think the gentleman's name is Russ from Special Services was that as many interventionists as you could get and I see only two for 12 believe we we brought back two interventionists two coaches and uh Mentor mentees I know we have and and some of the teachers who are veteran we had 12 uh new people that I have mentees as well as teachers um but we have the interventionist now we brought back to the level that we had um PR last year to provide the support that needed in those grade levels does mes mean student teaching non-tenured staff that are uh being hired to the district it's a requirement that they have a me a mentor so that as they enter the profession they're properly supported so that we could uh build a strong teachers and and help them acclimate to the profession okay so they're not they're not in their senior year of college doing student teaching no we have to get those approved on board meetings as well okay um thank you for answering about this Spanish teacher that was on my list um Freshman Academy I also wanted to mention I think students help with that that if I remember correctly upper classman helped with that just because you were asking about it and I know that was a benefit when my daughter came in cool one of the things I just want to mention and with taking the phones away which again I'm not necessarily against especially when we're trying to get our student um our test scores up and all of our testing uh um but over the years students cameras have been the reason we have found out things were going on in the school because school cameras were not working and there are areas where there are dead zones of No cameras so this is more of a statement than a question um I would hope that in the effort of trying to get the students not to use their phones that you install cameras in dead zones where there are are habitually known to be problems my daughter um witnessed numerous fights in the Middle School by the elevator when she had her ACL surgery and was on crutches um and it was FL on camera to be able to justify it and also in the High School uh in 2021 one of one of our teachers was injured and it was because of students cameras recording that that it was addressed appropriately to my understanding so I would just ask that now that on planet net Planet network oret network planet has I think you're on FiOS up there now that maybe there's a way you can install more cameras throughout the especially middle school and high school that has been an initiative and and and a priority I can't speak to how many we're planning to install or to increase uh it's a security thing I'm just asking I just we visit year and especially after this the last couple months we're looking to address as many dead dead zones as we possibly can to to have complete coverage okay and I I appreciate you answering that um also of the 40 items that were being worked on only this came to mind did the ramp at Glen at Glen meow and that ramp Bridge off of the upper parking lot is that on that list because that was a structural concern previously yeah the bridge I think the bridge going from the parking on the upper back about three years ago we completed the bridges were done yes okay I apologize I just got so lost track of it okay thank you very much thank you Mrs Hart anybody else in the public nobody uh anybody online do not have any hand okay close the meeting to the public I asked Mr Rogers to put the next item on the agenda board goals and I had asked Mrs Dr Ross to send out the spreadsheet that she worked diligently on word doc Google doc Google doc spreadsheet Google doc I just don't want everyone to be like what spreadsheet I didn't say a word doc so um it's because of the hour and our I'd like everybody to read it over very carefully and I want to put it on next month work session agenda an early part of the agenda so that we can all be uh as Kelly used to say perky when it came to talking about some of these goals I think we need to get this stuff behind us yeah because I know everybody's tired of hearing so and I'd like everybody to be here if if they could be you know I want Jen and uh Rose to be here as well so we're gonna just move that to next month early in the work session okay thank you for that Latitude uh item P open board member Forum board is open the floor is open any board members comments issues we're in this wait wait let the board go then you can go jumping on sorry Charles I I want to because I want to promote my uh my new committee that the policies are on the board Board website if everybody goes to the menu and then you go down to board of education and on the bottom of the page it says policies and regulations no no I forgot I didn't write it down regulations all right that was good so and then uh two I had also just wanted to uh follow up on U the cell phone use um I'm glad everyone put together seems like a solid plan and um hopefully it works and we we can come through this but um we talked about the teachers being on board but what about the subs coming in who maybe not from the district don't know our initiatives they don't know what we're looking for is there a are we educating them as they walk in the door that day and saying we do have a zero tolerance policy for I will talk about that in our subt trining to our human resources person as well as the building principles to make it clear as to what their their responsib we have to make it clear an excellent idea I mean the subs going to come in they're going to have their cell phones out as well too you know but yeah it's up to the like I said it is up to the the human resources and initial training but also the building principles I think they usually will give them a guidelines on on what to do in their building and I think that should be a priority and I'll make sure that the principles note that as well okay and then one more thing about um I I just wanted to see where we were with MFA we I know um multiactor um authentication so um I know I know we didn't have we didn't have the the committee um talk today but I I was Wonder I know got so far last year how how we started I'm not sure what phase Nick is at this point but I want to like to rest rest assured that uh I am participating in the multiactor identification in my daily usage across the different buildings in the district right I I don't know I know he started with us I'd have to ask him about where he's at right now across the entire District okay just want to say that I went to the band camp family picnic it was a great day they were showing us the halftime show looks spectacular was a whole Japanese steam I suggest everybody should go like to the first football game and watch that thing it's it's amazing um I just want to say kudos to all the music department they do a fantastic job here they have a tough act to follow from last year's they do they do they do and last year they were state recognized right nationally I think National recognized right I want to thank everyone for their coordination on that day as well because I believe they were finishing the the paving in that parking lot as well it tricky it was a little dicey but we we we had a safe plan to get everyone so that we they could uh the people could view that U the band I for one never went out the back of the cafeteria down those stairs that go forever to the field I got we got some good cardio that day as well huh we got some good cardio that day yeah I did I did yeah is it true that the first game is before school starts I I'd have to check the schedule it's very close I know they're having scrimmages this weekend already yeah I would just like to um commit commend the administration um custodial staff maintenance the teachers and everybody getting schools ready to go it was a big a lot of work going on this summer in a lot of different places cell phones curriculums staircases everything so menend them to hopefully have a great year as we start up two weeks thank you Dr Ross thank you two things one I was at Rolling Hills in Cedar Mountain today for the open houses and they were excellent um I also really appreciated the question from um in the first part of the public forum about the back to school night so I would like to learn more about that I think that is such a hard thing to balance so I'm sure that there are you know on your end you're balancing all kinds of scheduling things too um but I thought that was an excellent point we're trying to get as many parents to be able to participate as possible I know it's a shared goal um and the other thing is just back to the cell phone ad hoc committee that was a really uh fruitful committee meeting we had I think 15 20 people at that meeting parents um teachers and rare it's rare that there's so much consensus around a topic um but I think the consensus we feel in the room and from someone who participated today um was present there too a lot of parents really behind us in this not too much has changed with the policy but a lot of the administrators talking about the implementation of the policy making sure that it's implemented I think the sub thing is a great point and looking for other areas where this might erode uh is a great idea and the other thing I noted at that meeting that I think is important two things one um how to get the info out to parent how to arm parents with more information about this I appreciated your podcast I watched it and uh I think whole podcast yes I did I did I actually had it on in my car so I wasn't watch I was just listening this great and I think info and we talked a little bit about info night to help parents understand how their kids are accessing basically how to help parents tackle this issue of how all their kids are addicted to screens and phones and I think that if we could offer that to parents that would be really really helpful I know many parents that would be thrilled to learn more about what their kids can access on the Chromebooks that come home how to protect their kids how to think about setting limits with the screens at home this is these are things that the community would appreciate so I think that that's great and I think I said two the police used to also be involved in in some of that education that would be great yeah remember yes I I know Mrs vanor talked about something that she gives at her building but I think we we we'd probably promote that a little bit more and maybe maybe offer some food those nights yeah but uh trying to get people out just to give them options and maybe recording a session too so they have access to it so if somebody has a great idea on how do you limit cell phone usage or how do you talk to to your children at least having something to go to even if you're not able to make that night and I think the last thing was just to set our expectations that September will be a lot of phone confiscations there'll be a lot of phones that we're taking and that's a good thing we're setting that boundary that expectation across the board so parents might have to come to the schools to take their students phones back and all of that will be the the more you know firm we can be about that at the beginning the quicker that will die off just like sleep training or anything any boundary we set with our kids I think that um we should expect that that's going to be a little bit of like a rocky start but overall be really positive I think the parents and us are have the same goal in mind yeah the success of their children yeah yeah just a piggyback real quick off the first thing that Dr Ross mentioned is there any way of changing that time in the first grade back to school night from 3:00 in the afternoon to a later time it's it's all set right now with this kindergarten of first grade with the parents and the planning yeah I figured that's G to be tough but I mean she did have a good point that is kind of early we will look into that yeah I know for next year it's really it is inconvenient yeah totally anybody else um I was going to piggy back off of what they were saying but it seems to to have been addressed but the other thing I wanted to mention was I'm really impressed with what the policy um committee was doing tonight I think you guys really ask some great questions and really I'm happy with what that committee has come up with um and just to reaffirm um how much sorry just to reaffirm how happy I am of um what we talked about in the special services committee meeting yesterday the fact that we have K through2 ER and ABA how big of a deal that is for our district the fact that we have three students coming to Vernon for our special services that's really something our district should be proud of and I'm really glad that we were able to accomplish that this year so that's everything I wanted to say and we make money make that's not the main thing it's best for the kids best it's best for the kids it is but it's great that that our special needs department is doing that and maybe in the future we can get more kids to just stay in house rather than being placed and and I I want to mention for most of the kids that are coming here it's a closer commute for them as well so it's it's better for the parents and the students that are coming through our schools instead of other out of District placements and there I just want to add there have been a number of students uh Vernon students that were out of District that are returning to ouram great as part ofion of those classrooms thank you okay any other items I don't want to cut anybody off is is it my turn now now do Mr Ro we all get in this business because of students in education and uh this is always my favorite time of the year because we're welcoming students back into our buildings for for Learning and I appreciate it that they get dedicated staff members that are are are returning as well because they chose a profession to be committed to education as well so I look forward to everyone's smiling faces on the first day of school uh teachers staff members administrators parents and students uh they know I always ask them the first day that I love to see their smile uh especially up at the high school at 7 o'clock in the morning thank you motion to adjourn some move Mr Cano second second Mr Zimmerman all in favor opposed we are adjourned thank you very much