##VIDEO ID:1de4zTz2P1U## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e okay it's 6 o'clock and call the work session of September 12th to order R are you ready have a br call please Mr slam sorry I just got to find the the minute document I sh we could have it right here a hard tech over here yeah yeah how about glasses too I have La I don't know if it's wearing off but Miss Ahern here miss Brock here Mr samaca Mr cantino Mr Krauss here miss pallet here Dr Ross Mr Sweeney here Mr Zimmerman we have a okay welcome in Charles and R all right there you go Mr zerman is here and so is Mr samaga just made it all right is recommended that the board enter closed session for the purposes of disc discussing legal personnel and student matters may have a motion no move by Miss pellet second second by I'm sorry I didn't C Miss Brock all in favor hi we are now in Clos session 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 we're going back into all right is recommended that the board be turned to the public session a motion move Mr KRA second second second by Miss pellet all in favor okay we are in Open Session uh can you please uh rise oh no no we need a roll call vote roll call First Mr swam Miss Ahern here miss Brock here Mr Saga here Mr Cino here Mr Krauss here miss pellet here Dr Ross Mr Sweeney here Mr zberman here we have a quum could you please Jo rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible justice for all thank you Mr slam reading of the meeting notice please 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 of bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of the ACT bur in Township Board of Education as calls notice of this meeting to be published and adequate notice has been provided and notice this meeting has been properly posted in accordance with the New Jersey open public meeting law uh just a quick note the next public board meeting will be hold held uh Thursday September 19th thank you Mr slam okay we're going to be opening up the meeting to public I just want to remind everybody this is for agenda items only and you will have five minutes so uh the meeting is open to the public anybody who wants to say something please come to the podium and identify yourself and what municipality that you're from and the meeting is open to the public if there's nobody in the public that wants to talk how about online okay there will be a time afterwards if people want to talk about something else later I'm going to close the meeting to the public and then we're going to review the public agenda which is the draft that we have in the back of our manual anybody have any comments or questions about the agenda um do we have a student uh they in the process of I think she put it out and had a vote recently I haven't asked her who who has been selected yet so I'll follow up with that tomorrow that would be item L yes I saw our last year's representative at the football game oh she said she has five AP classes so she may not be uh putting her name in I don't know she needs those six or seven hours to do her homework yeah that's an aggressive schedule um Jo a question we're moving the policies to I mean the uh committees right to next week yes we are is that going to be the way going forward and then you mentioned something about the report last week I don't know if you did I did no but we're gonna work towards that okay but that's not going to be this time okay but what I would like and we we can all talk about this is a written report for each of the Committees ahead of the meeting so that we can all read it and speak intelligently when uh the committee presents a report that's all I just want us us to look good no because it's going to be in writing and a lot of the things that the Committees are going to be reporting on we will be voting on no I agree I think it's great because then we have the background information right I've also asked the administrators who are aligned to those committees to help in getting a written report to move forward so that you know we all look good love it okay okay like it um with regards to the meet the agenda there's two presentations next week the AP results and the facilities update which I like to call what I did on my summer vacation double good news good good okay um are we doing test course they just the isrs just got delivered today they need to be sorted delivered to buildings and mailed out to parents before we could present present on the test results so the test results will probably be presented next next week we have we have 60 yeah we have 60 days to present from when these were released and okay but you're GNA try to do it that next week's next month next month next month yes okay what is ISR individual student reports I apologize for that okay that's all right so um in this agenda for next week there are very few Personnel recommendations because they're tonight as school started this month we're trying to get rid of we're trying to we're trying to address any Personnel concerns as early as possible make sure people are in the right places for our students so that's why we're doing it at yes tonight's meeting normally we would wait for the next meeting okay anybody have any other questions about the agenda can I can we um can we also talk about if you're going to talk about the building the grounds like I know the list that we had it was also other items that we had on the uh when we did the revised budget can we just see where we are update on that yes those are included in that list be included in the report they separate them out or no because we also had like teachers hire Oh you mean other yeah other besides building ground issues um yes I know the busers came back right just we could just say you a check a checklist like right that's a nice idea good idea so we could follow up you can follow up with him in the buildings and ground committee on Monday no but the whole the public as well yes so we have it okay we're going to move on item F something that you have all been looking forward to for months these are hard copy hard copies of the uh District goals board goals hopefully it's a final draft but I'm wel I welcome uh feedback from the last draft there was one about showing specific amount of growth in the njla assessment scores at various grade levels I felt that that was not a board goal that was something that the administration should be striving for we we can uh allow assets to be moved in that direction to help them and monitor it but it's not something that we should be saying we need a 5% increase in scores or something like that we mean we want to see that of course would that be a district goal yeah it would be more of the administration's goal I'm thinking but like the superintendent right like I did that last year for target areas of opportunity I'll probably do the same this year as well I need to start working on I need to start getting at my superintendent goals now that these are out for you as well so like let's say we did have that if we didn't reach the goal we we couldn't do anything about it we we would have to move teachers or or evaluate what teachers are doing good in that area or not good and move them around so as we can not our job that's what I was thinking it's not our job to decide how to do it but I I do think that that I mean I've seen that as a district as a board goal before so I I think improv scores or having metrics tied to improvements likees yeah like scores yeah because because you can say that you want to achieve that and then it becomes the uh administration's job to decide how the how you can say what you want to to look for and to evaluate and then the that's my understanding you know we should all go if there's a session on this at the and those of us who are going should go to the board because it is confusing right what's the board what's district and what you know absolutely but I think that would be great but I have seen that as a as maybe they were doing it incorrectly though because when I was looking for um examples and four goals I did see metrics tied to improving test scores and that's why it came up here because of that example that I saw at a few other places so I should definitely that we should see what so I I do kind of agree with Jen that I don't think it's necessarily a problem for us to include that in our board goals even if it is something that technically is not the responsibility of the board it's the responsibility of the administ ation it still shows that it's something the board really wants to see and even if it's not something that we can evaluate ourselves on I think it still shows that we care a lot about it and that we will devote resources that we'll devote resources to it needed by the because I do think that's a very important thing I do see what you're saying though I don't I don't not see your point it was show 5% growth in njsla assessment scores in grade four math NJ SLA grade five math and jsla algebra 8 that's very specific it is it is I don't that's not an over all goal for us I don't think that's I that's kind of that's what it was specific I don't think in a board goal I don't know I I I would defer to somebody who really is an expert in what we can and canot do with a board goal because I'm not one but but I think that you can say that you want to see a specific percentage uh Improvement in in a metric like student achievements so what other metrics are there there's there's I'm sorry Charles yeah go ahead sorry no I I see both I see your side definitely both of your guys side and but I I think I see the other side of too where I I if if we make it a board goal and we say 5% right who we're like Joe said who we evaluating us so I think our our opportunity here is to make sure Russ understands this is important goal for us to make and he comes up with his goal that way because at the end of the year we're evaluating us right so on his that's the only that's the only effect we have as a board right to evaluate the superintendent and if we give him a goal that it's impossible for him to reach then how how do you evaluate them at the end if it's his goal and he says I'm committed to this and we can ask him say like if he says oh I'm going to do 1% we're like that's not good enough for us you know we can I think we can adjust your go or we can ask you to that may have been my original input um I would I would want to wait to we present the uh scores next month to show you and then talk about it in some of our uh committee meetings because I have specific goals based on areas opportunity based on test results this this year yeah and and and and I I think I might have had something to do with writing those goals or or or offering them as suggestions um could we perhaps change the verbage to say um collaborate with Administration to um um improve test scor improve test scores through the designation of resources or or something that it's something we can contribute to help Administration set that as a goal and I I mean I was expecting you to do that anyway because that's but I I do feel just demonstrating that the board really cares about this and and even if it is something that technically may not be within the reaches of the board I don't see there being any harm in it being a part of our Bo goals if that Mak it's a lot more General you worded it yeah I like the way that's a good idea yeah and then it would be collaborate with Administration to improve to improve test scores through designation of resources or something attainable that we can do and that will then allow him to make his specific go are we allowed to when Russ presents his goals we can we can reject them right we don't like okay so we do have we do have the flexibility when he he yeah he may not be aggressive has been up I'm sorry Carl I was it's okay collaborate with Administration to improve test scores through I was suggesting allocating resources or um anything attainable that we can do as a board that might have to be rewarded I don't mean to drag this process but we don't have our uh yeah she that it back to school night she's also a much faster typus than Joe I am not typing writing I said M has good but I'll uh follow through with that like the dots etc etc etc how about some of the other ones did anybody have a chance to I mean I thought the Boe goals were specific enough that we could actually get some of this done well I was also I we going an order I just had a suggestion about the uh safety yes on all yours um so this is something that happened Rec within the last week um I think we as a school district you know it's our job to help keep kids safe and uh what happened was um there was um people were um do social engineering were getting passwords to people's Facebook um Snapchat accounts and they were texting each other somebody somebody got hacked originally and then they took their address book and they kept on saying oh what's your phone number and what they did was and they said they I text them and said hey what give me the code that comes up so they got past the MFA and these are young kids MFA authentication okay yeah so um what happened I mean a lot of these kids I don't know how much monetary damage happened to this but I'm sure some things probably get out that they don't want to know or I'm sure I think I've heard a couple kids was one they Apple paid them yes and they lost money this way and it had hit a bunch of our students it was in I want to say probably under 50 but 20 or so maybe so in our I would like to be see some of this newer 20 21st century kind of safety from the you know I don't know I'm from the 90s so you know we had the uh lock and Keith you latch latch kids latch home L kids yeah for strangers but like we should we have to modernize that and I would like to see if we can get somewhere that if not this year into our curriculum but Al but maybe work on it towards next year so if we can get a goal where it's a little bit more safety would be inclusive of cyber too you know million of these kids on a like a cyber security issue well we do have that I mean we have addressed issues interfering with the strong learning environment and cell phone usage it could be could go in there somewhere cyber security listed I that could be some of our Outreach with cell phones ins yeah we used to have that great uh present presentation right that was so helpful I know it was under intended I know but I think it was under 10 really that was one I think but we have to try to very valid obviously it just happened we should include that yeah it would be a great time actually to have something for the kids now that they've been burned right yeah do they have didn't we used to do like digital citizenship or something or some of that's with within the curriculum but I need the Outreach to where a lot of times when the parents and students are there together it's more of a um because especially some of the younger grades start Lear to use the technology there's more awareness by by the parent of what can happen and this all happened after school right because the kids right before school started they were getting text about what's your schedule and that's what I think yeah then they yeah there's some apps that you want to stay away from yeah um anybody else I'm very satisfied with the board goals beyond that I think that that's I know I know it's been dragging on and I apologize that but it's we got nobody wants to do it it's like pulling teeth job but it's a very important job and I feel like now that we have this established next year it will go a lot quicker true because now we have something to work off of and we will we seem to be moving to getting some of these things done yes yeah so thank you all and I'm moving to report out with our interventionists and coaches some of the progress we're making in areas as well throughout the year good cool so I will speak to my Wordsmith and uh we will get back with a final copy and I guess uh do we have to vote on this I think we do right don't we have to vote Mak sense imagine try to remember it's been so long I remember back at over so okay find I wasn't here for last year I started in October so if you could find out power from Kelly I mean is it in there somewhere probably is I have that I'll look accept them right yeah yeah I would think we maybe if if if we can I'll try to get it on next next week's agenda if that's what we need to do then what do we start the next year we're gonna start ad hoc committee Charles and you'll be the chair person so thank you very much all and uh we'll move on Mr Rogers item G informational uh item 1A harassment intimidation and bullying random drug testing and school safety reports attachment ws1 from from from August there's not there's not much there we also have an enrollment report and B and uh wait I want to talk about the enrollment report I have the we also have a lot of uh enrollments happening as we speak throughout the first week of school in various grade levels at the start of the school so that number is going to go up so I just want to point out that in September of 2023 the e8th grade had 221 it now has 224 and the nth graders are now 224 so last year we went up three in 2010 the ninth grade was I'm sorry not 20 in 2023 the ninth grade was 210 the 10th grade is now 220 subsequently the junior year of last year I'm sorry the sophomore year of last 213 is is now 215 in 11th grade the junior year last year was 245 this year it's 253 so high school is going up nowhere else is but the lower grad lower grades are mostly going down down a lot first grade kindergarten down a lot the high school is going up so where the kids have an opportunity to go elsewhere from the eth grade to freshman year we we gain rather than lost we usually in the past we've lost to Tech to Pope John to other schools so just saying it's a it's a sign maybe it is a sign that things are going well we're doing the right thing or maybe it was our athletic programs who knows but we have more in the high school than we did last year also we have over 11 kids less out of District yeah that's exciting so we're at 21 now right yeah it's good which is a phenomenal thing for in program inhouse programs effort that's all I wanted to point out informational uh I want to talk about an event that happened yesterday um I want to thank the Vernon Community for promptly contacting the school district and police department yesterday after noticing a suspicious post I encourage everyone to continue this vigilance in the future the Vernon Township Police Department responded swiftly and effectively immediately investigating interviewing those involved thanks everyone cooperation it was determined that there was no threat to gleno the circulated post that included gleno was based on unrelated social media content and had no connection to Vernon Township Schools there was a strong police presence at every school building today thank you Vernon Police for your vigilance you are appreciated and valued by the Vernon Township School District I want to address security measures in place within our school district we have a highly experienced director of Safety and Security with over 28 years of service in law enforcement and a retired police officer stationed at each of our school buildings daily each building also has a dedicated threat assessment team composed of security Personnel administrators teachers staff and counseling members security is a priority and regularly reviewed in meetings throughout the school year improvements are made based on feedback from these teams and through walkthroughs conducted in collaboration with local law enforcement our school buildings are checked daily for security and equipped with man traps all visitors must check in with security and present a valid driver's license before ing high school and middle school students must scan in with their student IDs to gain access to their schools and staff receive yearly security training in addition regular safety drills are held in every school building each month the most crucial aspect of maintaining a safe school and Community is a relationships and open communication between students staff families and the police please continue to speak with your children and contact the school or the police if you have any concerns thank you Mr R item two is about recommendations it recommended that the board approve the following appointments before you start does anybody have any comments that they'd like to make about Mr rogers's statement just thank thank you to our police officers and to you for working all night to keep our kids safe yeah the police did a great job um at at the time when you have to send announcements out you're not privy to all all the different posts everywhere so so it's very difficult to post about any specifics related to the event when you're not sure if you've had access or seen all the different things on social media which is quite extensive at time we I appreciate you guys doing the administration do and administration and the police doing what I did I have children at that school I was a little nervous this morning but you know I felt comfortable that you wouldn't put our our children Harm's Way so I appreciate you s out the message and get it to us as soon as you could thank you I drove past Glenn meow this morning at the arrival time there were at least three Vernon police cars there and a state trooper that were visible you know who knows what was uh you hidden so I was very pleased with that response and thank to ver police thanks for the transparency of being right out there with it all the time and you always do that Absol I'm happy you do that no matter what goes on in our district it's immediately sent out to the to the public thank you thank you and and a lot of people who responded early in the morning or had questions were you know if they if they reached out they were would they were responded to and talked to especially if they reached out directly to me I made sure I had a conversation with that's all you can do in a situation like that I mean you tell people what's going on and try to do what you can to keep kids safe it's great all right I'm sorry to to recommendations I important at the start of the school year recommendations it is recommended that the board approve the following uh faculty appointments Etc listed in the chart below it's an extensive list at the beginning of school year so I just want to make sure that you have time to review it you have to make comments on it yet or we we're going to have to have a motion we're going to go through to take some notes we're going to go through ABC D and so forth first because we had a lot several people uh leave resign Etc so you're going to see as they leave or resign there's someone to take their place also letter B it is recommended that the board approve the following six period appointments as listed below in letter C it is recommend the board approve uh two summer days for the people in the in the chart below and as recommended the board approv the following staff for additional seven days of summer curriculum work letter e is recommended the board approve the following substitute teachers to be inactivated and no longer accepting perdm assignments for 2024-25 school year letter F it is recommended that the board approve the separation and release agreement with employee number 5319 letter G it is recommended that the board approve the following job description a I may have a motion for items a through G so move moved by Mr cantino second second by Miss pellet uh any comments questions or anything uh yes I I'm sorry Mr had his hand up oh for a change instead of interrupting sorry call he had his hand up it's okay I'm just curious about these Corrections why the money went down compared to what they were supposed to be making a certain amount and they making less oh for what specific correction what page um page five page five where they all say Corrections and usually seven yeah some of them went down with 357 a day to 328 a day four 546 a to 517 a day I I would have to check with uh like 192 21 yeah I would have to I would have to check with uh payroll and Human Resources but I would I would assume that something like they may have been paid on their 2024 instead of the 2023 rate okay but I I I will have to get back to you with the exact answer to that oh I see and the resend appointments are those because positions were filed at or something I'm sorry uh 30 line 37 to 39 on page six um some didn't want some of those positions and other people applied and um others it was a matter of as people left trying to find the right spot to to fit them in or they may have uh left the district to go to another job before they signed the contract I we we were very aggressive last year with with the uh with the budget to get it approved to hire people and I think we were some of the first people to hire but I think what happened is a month or two later a lot of these other positions started to open up in other schools that may have been closer to home for some of the some of the people who who originally accepted a position but had not yet signed the contract there are a lot of districts that are dying for personnel um I was going to ask it says is recommended the board approv two summer work days and has recommended the board approv the following staff for seven days of summer curriculum work that is being done retroactively I'm guessing these These are days that were probably missed in the last meeting that we have to go back and make sure that we included in in in this uh in the agenda and they were they were they were planned for they were approved I think they missed missed the agenda but they these were like uh I think when when we made a lot of the cuts a lot of the summer work we we we really cut things to the Bare Bones but uh a lot of these positions are to get scheduling ready and and so that we hit the ground running at the start of the school year yeah and I think we had great success so we we had to include back a lot of the uh supports that we needed for our students both in guidance and the these positions nice thank you okay um Melissa uh just a question regarding the aid description and then possibly several follow-ups but do we write those job descriptions ourselves or are they pull from like the Civil Service Commission what mean see is it an attachment yes yes a lot of those we we look we we create those ourselves within the administration and look at the job responsibilities some are unique to our positions because AIDS in different buildings always have a different set of responsibilities we have a wide range of types of responsibilities for AIDS but we we wanted to be very direct to let them know specifically what they did in their rool as and Aid so is this a new position or we we have had Aid to description a lot of a lot of the if you remember the last couple years we did job descriptions over and over and over again because they hadn't been changed for for 15 years or so so I I think this is just the most recent one that was worked on I believe with our with HR and uh uh our other administrators that are in charge of AIDS to make sure that it accurately reflect what the responsibilities were in the position okay follow up to that um it indicates that experience as required is the verbage to me that's a little unclear does that require one year of experience two years of experience and can you substitute additional education for the needed experience um would that open up more candidates well it gets each each student has a special set of circumstances and experience needed for the child so there's a very diverse uh need and different types of experience depending on the the ISS issue with the child and the support that they need so it you could have anywhere from uh you know a wide variety of different types of students that the aid could be serving so making it more specific might actually box people out of the position I'm just trying to get as many app or you you might need a a certain uh a certain requirement or a certain experience for a certain child that has that has a need in their IEP so it has to be left somewhat General yes General yes okay just double checking thank you Mr Krauss he had his hand rais again Charles I'm trying to do it right the two music teachers that are resigned are both kind of out of Glen meow do we have somebody going in there as uh we already have a replacement for the Glen meow teacher the other is a high school and we're we're still actively trying to pursue a replacement they're fulfilling their their time their contract at time until yes thank you I have I had just one more I see that we have a a period six from military history do we teach military history um that that's one of the we looked when we added the positions at the high school at a certain point to find period like you get to the point where you have a teacher and what is the need that could best meet the students so that we could fill the class so this was a teacher that was planned for it what it was and they decided to have a social studies teacher and the high school decided that this course would draw the most students in for for an elective period during that during that PO schedule okay I just usually because I know I had to ask RC when I saw military history I didn't know me well we might be taking a step in that direction that's a good thing that's a beautiful is smaga I just want to follow question from before that the the AIDS those are specific to a child they're not these are not like teacher helpers these are people that would work with along IEP driven Aid to to oh wait sorry necessarily the aid job description for AIDS in general so there are instances where there's a requirement for an aid in class like in a preschool classroom you have to have a teacher assist as required by Statute so this would Encompass their responsibility and they would not have a specific student so this description would fit all AIDS so it's naturally General is that driven by class size then when you have that requirement school's different oh okay and then second question is we had I'm looking at the sixth period the six period sens um I might be wrong but I counted up 25 so to me that's a like it's a large number of and I know that it's whatever is in the budget right now well I I could talk about like there are a lot of leave Replacements I I have I have well the question is are we doing something to minimize this in the future is there a way do we have a plan is there a way well that we could this these are teachers leaving to go elsewhere okay uh these are teachers on leave for various other situations that I would not let them discuss at a public meeting that I I'm hoping I'm anticipating the return and I and if you have specific questions I could definitely answer them after one thing is to look at some of the dates that are involved they're not the school year but the leave will match up with their with the sixth period some of them rep leave Replacements and like if they had odd and dates one is just till 9:23 so they're temporary right Solutions so so but you have a point though yeah because because like if it's a just temporary it's not another person going into that it's somebody's coming whatever some somebody was was off or whatever the reason is and they coming back so you just needed somebody to fill that position till they got there you're not refilling it with another it's it's it's really it's really hard to go out and get a person for uh a four to six month position when you have a teacher already in there that's established that can take that job or short TM before the person returns to work again I could talk I could talk that like like you said we had this discussion uh when we looked over this you have to look at when people are are are out for and when when when the six period covers and you can usually match up and you can figure out which which six periods and you need five people to to match to match up for those five six periods to match up for the one person leaving or on leave sorry yeah the combination of the two all right if there are no further questions then you will have a roll call vote Mr slam Miss Ahern yes Miss Brock yes Mr smaga yes Mr cantino yes Mr Krauss yes Miss pellet yes Mr Sweeney yes Mr Zimmerman yes motion carries thank you Mr Rogers item H Mr slam uh so under informational I just had one item I wanted to bring to everyone's attention uh we did post this uh today uh was includ as part of the Genesis application uh and it is also on the district website uh so the 2425 free reduc uh and somewh EBT applications are now available um one of the things uh one of the reason I want to highlight this at the meeting is because uh in this current year the eligibility uh in New Jersey uh for free reduced lunch has increased um so there may be families that in the past that did not qualify uh that may not qualify uh so even if you're not sure if you'd be eligible it's you know very important to fill it out just in case uh you would be eligible um and obviously the benefits of that would be uh whether you qualify for free reduced even if it's just you qualify for reduce in New Jersey it's actually still a free free lunch um so that's the main benefit um secondary benefit would be in the summer um there's a the summer EBT which provides funds for when school's at a session to uh to provide meals uh for anyone that qualifies for free reduced lunch uh and then additionally uh it does assist the district uh in terms of federal and state funding uh so yet another benefit and then it also uh could open up uh essentially other resources for families uh within the community as well when we have outside organizations reach out to the district to offer assistance that helps us get that assistance uh to families that uh may require it thank you Mr SL uh and that application is uh again in Genesis it's on the website uh and then I believe today it went on uh the news real for the website and then double check what it should have G down on on social media as well just providing uh some information that the application's available where you can locate it and who to contact if you have any questions what is EBT uh so basically the initials EBT stop I can't can't remember but it's actually it's I think it's electronic um benefits transfer electronic benefits transfer that's what it is Jeff um is there a deadline for people so um obviously the sooner the better just because the sooner you'll be determined eligible if you are ible the sooner uh a student would start getting free meals at school um but there's often instances throughout the year where someone circumstances may change so you can actually fill the application at any time during the year uh and even if you have filled the application say at the beginning of the year uh you were not determined eligible uh but later on in the year circumstances change you could always then fill that application again and then be determined eligible uh at that point if you meet the criteria so it's not you just fill the application once and then you've lost your only chance because things can change uh the state federal government recognized that uh so you can always submit another application at that time Charles I I was on mail time today and uh is that are they allowed to fill it out on mail time because there is a link on there and I didn't hear you mention that so my understanding is the link on meil time will just bring you to an electronic copy of uh the application one of the things we're exploring for uh next year um and it's not 100% certain yet we'll be potential change to our software which would allow for the application to be filled out electronically uh truly electronically not just an electronic document where you could go through and answer the questions and then it'll provide us that information through that software so that is something we're exploring but I don't think M time has that capability I can double check though um and report back on that that next week's meeting Mr CR John is it a requirement for every parent to fill one of these out in our district because the district I worked for it was requirement everybody had that's actually great requirement and and we push the kids every day you have your lunch forms if you have because it's more money for the district for yes so essentially that does lead lead to more funds for the district so this year the state uh updated the law where essentially every family either needs to fill the application out or through Genesis notify us that they will not be filling out the application so I we we could try to make it a requirement but I the state law itself says you either fill it out or you can say you're just not you're not going to f I just need to notify us could we as a district make it a I think it's something we could explore um let me check to make sure legally that we could uh so I can look into that um I think let me look into it so I don't speak out of turn and that's we started to push that I think about two years ago and the amount of F and reduced lunch went up tremendously and the amount of State funding to the district went up as well was up as far as what pushed every kid that bring them in it also helps all those kids eventually qualify for uh College Aid and free college applications another for and fre that's right yeah all that stuff get free so you get a lot out of it just pretty much and um a good example of it increasing funds of the district was with our ER program as the percentage of free reduced Lune students uh increased we went over a certain amount of K it was 20% last year it increased the amount of rebate we get for some VAR it improvements nice I think it increased it by about 10% think went from 50% to 60% that's just one area there are other areas as well yeah okay so under recommendations uh we have sent received for 2425 whereas the special services department has determined that individual students require special education placement oh we need a motion sorry we but I skipped ah yeah sorry the first recommendation yep so that's apologize uh the special services department has determined that services are needed and will continue until June 30th 2025 whereas special services department has determined that to school/ service listed below is the most appropriate placement therefore be resolve at the Vern Township Board of Education approves contracts as listed below um next is receiv received whereas special services department has determined that placement within bur town to school district special education program is appropriate based on students individual needs and whereas special services department has determined that services are needed will until June uh 30th 2025 and therefore be resolved that the ver t board initiation approves the contracts as listed below letter B it is recommended that the board approve the keny County Educational Services commission for services and evaluations needed to assist the child study team when necessary and the and appropriate for the 2425 school year that's attachment ws-3 may I have a motion please move move by m pellet second second by Mr Krauss comments questions or opinions I have a question the uh item receive that means that that child is coming to our school that's correct and that money is coming to us that's correct that's the wo Valley the one the walko valley one on the bottom Yeah Carl I had heard we have more than one student who might be coming here that's correct okay so this is just the first one and might this is the third so we had two on the last okay that's right and um we may have an additional uh non-related special education uh on the next meeting it's wonderful I'm glad we can provide those services and it's local so the kids don't have to go on them for long bus rides Mr CR I want to point out how expensive it is to send out of District students out of District if you're looking at some of these tuitions like $100,000 $81,000 it's not just on one it's we have 20 of these yes yeah 21 of these it's a lot of money and I'm and I commend you guys for chopping that down and bringing kids back to our district to save us lots of money that way I think several years ago was close to 40 it was close to 40 I remember then I just think that we can provide so much more and they don't have to spend an hour on a bus yeah and they get to be with their the kids that in their community and exactly participate in events and social activities it's it's better for them the one thing I just wanted to add U you see these approvals here but that you have to also consider there is transportation involved as well so this is just a to usually what about the other side their District picks up the tuition for the receivers well that's what yeah so any students we receive uh we would we would get the tuition uh and then reimbursing for any extraordinary Services we're providing so one of the things we had talked about in the that we're making progress on uh is the corrections we were making to uh the expense accounts making sure things are being accounted for in the appropriate accounts because as you get audited and go through that year we have something called the odd sum that is important for two reasons one it uh provides reports to the public on how where funds are being spent uh so we want that to be accurate and then also it goes into a letter that we always receive a year behind we'll probably get it sometime in February or the prior year uh that'll give you your tuition rate uh from the state based off of different grades and different programs so those expense accounts are the starting point and they feed into those reports and they feed into the tuition that you're about the charge to charge right okay so at one point the tuitions were were low because they weren't in the right accounts that it didn't make sense really to accept students so we're starting to get point where we can so possibly in the past if that if our number was wrong we were actually we were losing yeah what we had is we would we would charge for a program and we would have to charge at a very low rate and the amount of services we'd have to provide might not even break even well now we're at the point where we're able to save on Save on transportation and we have the services there so that we could make we could we could um provide a high level education uh and and make some money off of it as a district as well and we're hoping that this happens across uh multiple schools and mult multiple situations the problem we have up here in Vernon is in order to get to some of these schools you're traveling uh 40 minutes to an hour if there are no further discussions we'll have a roll call Miss Brock yes Mr smaga yes Mr cantino yes Mr Krauss yes Miss pellet yes Mr Sweeny yes Mr Zimmerman yes Miss Aon yes motion carries okay item I public participation for items that you want to talk about there'll be five minutes for anybody who would like to bring something to our attention and once again please identify yourself and the municipality in which you reside the meeting is open to the public you just come up to the front please yeah my name is Brian fiser I live in Highland Lakes I have two children uh in the school system so it was brought to my attention yesterday that uh Mr Rogers had signed Mr Zimmerman's petition for the board of B and I think that's a conflict of interest and I'd like an explanation i' I've encouraged participation in in the board of aded and I I believe I've signed everyone's petition that they brought it up to me it it it's not you didn't sign mine you didn't bring it up to me Mr Fisher I I don't think you should be signing any board members petition okay it's a conflict of interest this board decides your contract is that not right that is correct it does right so you your opinion is that it's a conflict of interest right he shouldn't be participating in political campaigns for the board event and I pointed out today on Facebook without your signature and two other school administrator signatures Mr Zimmerman wouldn't even be on the B all right thank you for your pointing It Out Mr slam uh I was just going to uh remind everyone that board positions are nonp partis uh and then Additionally the board attorney has been um we've references the board attorney and that it is allowed um as a resident of Vernon Township uh the any individuals that assign would not lose their right as a citizen of earn Township uh just because they work with school district sure sure it may be allowed but it shouldn't be allowed and I think from a a uh I don't want to say moral that's a strong word but you know it's a conflict of interest you know to me it's an error in judgment it's something that should shouldn't have been done and like I said with your signature and the two other uh administrator signatures he wouldn't be on the ballot there's also a question whether the ballot was submitted whether the uh uh petition was submitted in time I think the clerk is going to deal with that tomorrow but the only signatures on the ballot are the people in the room no voters outside of the people in the room think it would have been for to get 10 Mr Fisher is allowed to voice his opinion we don't have to agree or disagree with it but that's his opinion thank you Mr Fisher hi than for I just have two questions because I just want clarification so I'm looking at the um the supplement where it states the students the 21 we have F out District just curious and it might be too General to answer do these students like we have four in the 12th grade will they be eligible for that when they're adults they can stay in school until they 21 all kids children students with special needs are eligible through 21 okay so we have um 449 students under the special education that's IEPs that that's everything that they would need extra does that include speech and everything Russ have to look on how the I'm just trying to understand I just don't understand got to look at the chart it was the last color 388 and then these excuse me m Mrs har what what number you look again so I'm looking at um on my screen here it's page 19 where it says the total special education and ESL s is a total 449 of I'm sorry is it 449 I'm sorry it's 702 in our school system right that but that's not I mean that's everything that's all the services that we offer like um Mr Sweeney said speech IEPs what is e es LS Mr it is speech sorry so it does include speech um question oh I haven't heard an announcement on who are uh btea uh representative is for this year didn't they vote on that in June student Representative no she's talking about Thea union representative for whom for for the for the teachers teachers vot teachers vote I thought it was a two-year agreement two years she did my daughter's graduation year and this past year I have not heard either she's back again been dealing with we just didn't hear anything okay thank you this is ran calling is thank you anybody else in the audience live audience we have you online okay we have uh Mr Mr parer good evening good evening can you hear me yes all right uh couple things number one Mr simman if you need a signature you can see me okay so number two um watching the bed meetings for many many years over the past couple of years there are six periods have been going up drastically and so have been going up resignations at the beginning of the school year in my opinion that could be the can Canary and the coal mine that the Nationwide uh teacher shortage is coming to us too so it might behoove us to start planning on maybe making our district more attractable teachers intact from four fronts which is the community the parents uh Administration the students and the money so we can uh and not always in that sequence we can always uh we probably should plan for that on how we can make our place a more attractive place to attract our people so we don't have to have too many six periods and that stuff and other short ises number next is I hope I'm very happy that we are bringing people back with special ad I was involved with Mr Madrick under do alfier when he was superintendent of bringing student back and we reduced the tuitions that we paid out of District by more than half and we made some money by bringing some students back then Mr mudri went on to become a principal and Dr alfier went on to kenal pastur or whatever and our out of District placement doubled and quadrupled again and now I'm glad this TR Administration seems to be uh intent as by proof of the numbers to bring it back down again what my point is as a board is there v a mechanism that you could put in like a policy or something like this is Veron tries to service the special ad needs in District first before looking for an out of District placement because it is much cheaper for8 $100,000 a student you can do a lot in District heck you can hire that person his solo teacher and you come out ahead of the game and uh so that is my question basically thank you so we're not really supposed to have financial matters in mind when we do an evaluation for a child I understand that my son was a speci well he still special needs we we like to provide the best free access education to all students regardless of their needs we think we can do it best here in Vernon well that is most of the time through if and there's a big if of course Administration and the district and the board is willing to put the work in in the past we have had that once under Mr MRI as I said and then under other administrations we have been changing uh since Dr FY superintendent every two years up thereabouts it was like oh let's go look at the list send him or her out of there and we're done in five minutes or something like that whereas for example it took a lot of hard work and I was involved to put the spal behavior problem program in the high school where we repatriated so to speak eight students that were sent to a a school out 15 and who occupied one classroom with Le students only of eight students costing each one of them over $70,000 in tuitions to us and we could create for those $560,000 for half of that we could create a program that serve those students including my son much better without having to sit in a car for two hours one hour there one hour back each day and have it much better tailored and in control and not if there was a complaint or a suggestion you go talk to the local supervisor here that this supervisor calls a supervisor at the other school and that supervisor talks to the teacher at the other school and then so be playing Communications back and forth and before something changes the school year is over so and you get to run around we we understand yeah so I hope you can uh make it for whatever reason yeah but make a policy to to try to solve it in here first if it's just nothing else than to encourage the people to try to think of that first and put in the F thank you thank you very much have Jesse paladini Mrs paladini good evening good evening um I'm rather surprised that Brian fiser brought that subject up I have even greater respect for him now as a board ofed candidate Mr Rogers what a lame lame response that you encourage participation there were three administ rators you Mr Rogers Vincent gagliostro and Dr Shep who signed Ray zman's petition that is a clear conflict of interests yes it's legal any registered voter can legally sign it but what a conflict of interest but more so what an era in judgment should Mr Zimmerman be successful I hope he never sits in Judgment of your salary or your position or anything I for one who is involved in elections in this town for 40 years I have never seen a superintendent of schools sign a petition and Mr Fisher is Right were it not for those three signatures of Mr Zimmerman's subordinates he would not have had a legal petition and speaking of a legal petition I had hoped to have this conversation with you privately Ry but you didn't call me back several people are going around town saying that you told them you submitted your petition late the CL the county clerk did not want to accept it but then she did accept it now I have copies of every one of the petitions and out of the 12 petitions yours is the only one that does not have a date stamp so I'm going to ask you right now on the public record did you submit your petition late because even if you submitted it one minute late you should remove yourself as a candidate did you submit your petition late are you willing to tell the public no no you are not interesting okay so you are not willing to tell the public but you did go around town telling people that's really disgraceful as far as I'm concerned okay but we all know because we have the the government records that tell us lastly I would just like to say that um I believe it's Miss Brock I apologize I really don't know who you are but you had your computer open during most of the meeting and you shut it recently are you aware of the fact that your personal device has now become a public device and is subject to Oprah that's right in I'm aware yes you are aware okay so then you are aware that your personal computer is now a public device and subject to Oprah this is not a personal device I'm sorry it's not a what it's not a personal computer ma'am so is it a school computer it's what do you call these things it's a Chromebook provided by Library okay so then it's totally subject to Oprah all right thank you for that information you realize that we do have to reference certain attachments to schedules and whatnot so that's what I was doing but you're welcome you don't get you don't get print copies of them I don't see anybody else with a computer who else that personal preference that I like to you look at it on computer ma'am okay well well then just so that you know whatever you did tonight is subject to Oprah I don't see okay I don't see anybody else with a computer just you um you know what I keep hoping for better judgment better decision making on this board of education and this most recent situation with the superintendent of schools signing petitions for candidates and candidates submitt petitions late and still being on the ballot I'm asking you Reay to contact the County clerk's office before the ballots are printed on the 21st of September and withdraw yourself as a candidate thank you for your information superintendents have signed petitions in the past I know conflict of interest it's your opinion that is my opinion thank you for sharing your opinion with us it's legal but it's an outrage that thank you for your opinion that he would go to his subordinates whom he has authority over and ask for their signatures outrageous thank you for your opinion you're welcome and that's the end of anybody else Mr merendon yes you can feel free I wasn't planning on speaking just want to say thank you to everybody thank you guys for taking the hits continuously you're all taxpayers nobody mentioned that you may be an employee you may be board members but you're all taxpayers thanks for pointing kids first thank you Mr marand dunk with that I'll move on we'll close the meeting to the public and now we have item J open board member for for any item that a board member would like to bring forward the meeting is open to the board Charles yeah I do has anything um being on the policy committee um which we have on the website if you want to look at the policies um we we've uh I've been thinking about a couple things and one of one of the items I'm going to recommend next week uh for one of the policies is just has to correlate with uh OC committees um but I was just thinking about it are we doing things backwards because and and this is something I think we should think about as a group um sometimes we're writing policies and then before a solution right and in some cases I think that works we have to make a policy change because it's legal or something happens um an example I I would say where I I think it hurt us a little bit is um with the grading we we changed the gr we made a policy last year or a year before for the grade point average to disappear off with the student record and the change that away uh the great point average didn't we we didn't disappear the great point average we took away class rank class rank I'm sorry class rank but there's no solution yet right we don't really we took it away and we have an adhoc committee that's met this year to come up with a new way to start grading um the students the board doesn't have an ad hot committee no no but but the the district does so what I'm saying is and listen things happened in the past whatever we can't go we're not saying take the policy back or whatever I'm saying moving forward when we we made a like what just came up we had cell phon and we had umic abente right so if we're making ad hoc committees coming up with a solution right that's what I think is great we did the solution first we came put together they coming up a solution I know one me we're still some meeting some of them um but um then the policy should come afterwards instead of put in you know we had the policies up before we actually put put put the things into class rank came from the ad hoc committee's recommendations yeah it well it came but also be had but what happened with aren't we changing the way classes are graded right ongoing effort though that is we made but what happened is we made a policy change and yet we're still working on the solution for it because AR we the problem with what came up with the class rank was people were taking AP classes or he in the system right so we decided we're going to change that make it more fair which is great but then we put a policy and we're still working on that aren't we are we still do we have a gr point average yet I'm just going to have to say that there were multiple reasons about the class rank that was one of the many problems with class rank to so there two SE well no I'm just saying there were two separate things there was the class rank situation which there were multiple reasons for eliminating class rank which were which was some of them were uh related to the problem with class waiting and students making decisions based on wrong you know the wrong reasons um but then the the secondary project that the at that the committee is working it's not an ad committee it's a administrative committee um is is the issue of consistency it's like a massive project which you know would drag out over years so there's no reason to make that kid suffer with wrong class ranks while they figured out the whole big mess of the consistency take class rank of I'm just using another example that's just but we just did you we did two committees here right just recently for attendance and we did for cell phone and and and next week you'll see recommendation from the policy committee um about that because if you're have if you're putting something together then the policy should go along with it and become part of that procedure and if we make the changes and put it in place then we can actually vote on something that that has substance we're voting on something that says hey this is going to work we we thought it out we have a plan of action and we need the policy to to go along with it so we can put it into place instead of putting something into place and then trying to come up with the solution later I see what you're saying but I think legally we have to have those policies in place and they're always updatable so if we decide we need to change something we could just pull the policy up at that point make the change vote on it and put it back in I don't I understand what you're saying and I agree with you but at the same time we have to have policies in in place no matter what it says until you know it the way it is now and change it like you say if we if we have to make a change like there's a speed too if you're waiting you know for six months for a committee to make progress on every single front it's tackling and you can fix an aspect of something quickly with the policy change I don't know that you want to wait that you know no no but I don't want to throw it on the table because this is this is good A little discussing because maybe you're right maybe there is a reason and then maybe there part of the policy committee now to make sure that after it's updated we come back back and and ask for a recommendation of how you got how how to adjust the policy for so it may not be just like maybe it's just solution but that's something I I feel like um I haven't seen in the past and that was something I would like as a as a group that we encourage that because we don't want to change rules without having a policy and we also don't want policy committee for what a month no the whole board was the whole so I think before everything was all discuss together but now you have a literal policy committee so now you have to decide that kind of thing like how do you you know how do you incorporate everything and what comes take that on ourselves I mean Strauss Esme Keeps Us AB breast of all the legal things that we have to put in right so anytime there's a legal thing that comes down from the state Strauss s me says you got to do this and we open up the policy and look at it yeah if there are specific things like the great point average or absentees or cell phones those policies are already in place but we'll update them as the committee say we need to change it to this and then we can just pull them up and update them yeah absenteeism is a great example because the state has a very uh clear policy on that and yet you know we're not happy with our absentees and rate and we want to do more to address it then the state will ask of us so um so that's a good example of where do you you know how do you um which comes first and how do you join the two efforts and then you I'm glad we I mean having the discussion but I don't I don't mind being being on the policy committee and bringing that back right we we we we do it that's fine if we had the road because stuss resume tell this it's mandatory we have to put it in place we put it in place but then when the Committees finish conclude we should go back and say this is the policy so as long as we have something in place because you know I think I see what you're saying it's a good conversation um I have I got to ask about robotics I'm sorry keep bringing it up but um do we have someone I I don't know do we lose our do are we still doing Vex or we where are we Los I believe we're doing the same thing we did last year we are okay understand I haven't had that question I haven't had that question yet so I'm not I'm not aware but I have to check back with the I'll check with the principal get back okay that would be great I just want to make sure we're and can you speak not losing that have the cell phone policies taken effect so far I think uh I think we've been transparent and and had members of the public be on our ad committees to explain why um the first couple days there haven't been you know the kids will usually uh test you I believe there's been less than a dozen the first couple of days where instances where that they had to be confiscated from it by the student and I think after that happens they understand that this is the policy and this is what we're enforcing at the at the schools I think it's been one of the goals is to make people present in the schools and I think you're seeing that a lot more uh and uh overall I'm hearing great things from the from the teachers and and students about the opening of school and the presence of their students in school and and they're not as distracted as much so uh I I would love to at a certain point come back and and talk about how how this has affected the schools with uh Mrs Young and uh Mrs Van Orton as well and uh I've had a lot of uh positive comments by um parents and uh and teachers yeah I've heard some really positive comments from parents that they're if anything um wish we had done it sooner so I think that's a really good endorsement of it I was that back to school night yesterday and uh it was wonderful to see how much the the staff the teaching staff embraced this policy they they even talk they even some of the teachers were talking about how they don't even have their they don't they're not they're not supposed to have it and they keep their they keep their phones locked up as well or put in a safe place um and it was it was actually very refreshing they said that they've had I don't think any of them said they had any kind of issues so far with any students and they said even the students are are embracing it so it was it was great going to the back to school night and just I've never seen that actually another thing with a policy that it you could tell like the teachers really had a part of this and they were very happy with the decision that was made it seems as though people were looking for somebody to make the decision yes yes and and support and the support yeah because I had number of conversations with teachers at the high school and they they're thrilled yeah yeah it's so much better right so thank you everybody y okay I'm sorry you can have I also saw the Spanish program which uh my my I have a stu student in there and I was actually telling her not to take Spanish she request of the way it goes and uh Mrs Young uh met she was the uh substitute teacher for the night at back school night and she actually explained how it goes and and something I I just hope parents understand it she is actually um um evaluating the the teachers on the screen um a several time the marking period and and she's going through the same procedure she would through a regular teacher that was more comforting to know that yes it's on the screen yes it's not ideal it's not what we want but the same standards that we have in our district are still being held up so um I was after talking to her I was I was actually felt very good and there was a a lot of parents in there at the time so they a lot of people it's a concern for most a lot of people so it was nice good good to hear well well we'd like to encourage people to reach out to Administration they're they're very very accessible and we'll be able to answer your questions and a lot of times having a conversation is a lot easier than an email exchange back and forth yeah we're looking forward to some possible appointments on next next week's board meeting as well oh really W yeah I did want to ask about something Mr parenter brought up um do we have trouble getting uh the sixth period is that really related to having trouble getting teachers do we have difficulty with that that's what started like I am concerned thought that was about money back in the day we were trying to downsize and we were trying It's a combination of too like I said we have a lot of leaves but we've had a lot of people leave us recently as well I am concerned about the future of having teacher shortages especially in this area because usually most of the people that take the jobs in this area it's about it about a commute or how close they are to vernant so we're actively pursuing trying to get people especially for for jobs that are hard to fill I think I was very happy in the fact that we were able to fulfill a physics position last year was that's almost impossible to fill I'm hoping that we have some better news for you on other positions next weekend as well so you know there is a issue in those regards and and he also talked about our special education programs we've brought back the ER program you know K to 12 we have an ABA program K to 12 so a lot of what he was talking about he's talked about in the past we've been we' been aggressively pursuing to try to offer opportunities for our students and not only our students but other students that may be close by to offer them a shorter commute to participate in our program so that we can maximize our resources thank you um I just wanted to once again thank our Administration and the Vernon Police Department for the way they handled the situation yesterday and the transparency in sending messages directly to parents I think that was handled really really well and I'm really glad again to see four students coming into Vernon for our special services program to help avoid and also the fact that our number of out of District placements is down I think that's a really huge accomplishment and that comes from the hard work and dedication of our special services team I think it seems like we're off to a really great start this year and that we have a lot of things to look forward to and what we can offer our students um this year so and I'm just excited to welcome students back in school for these long summer months without students in school um when the kids are back you you remember your your purpose and to give them a quality education and make it a place where they feel comfortable learning at it's been very positive start talking to students and parents this year um about back to school nights and experiences in the first week of school I only know it's the first week of school but we also have some great results to talk about in the future about our our increased uh njpa scores our AP scores that have increased um our SAT scores that that we recently released that have been in increased so we're we're seeing marked improvement and this Mark Improvement was we did have last year with with the 50 cup position and I'm very excited to see what the return of intervention services with with our interventionist and coaches will do to help uh some of our other areas of opportunity that we might address uh heading into this year I'm very excited about we're able to provide for students to have success and to and to prove their success on on assessments as well and that that's not the only measure of success but but it is way is one anything else thank you guys for your hard work dedication um so far this year seems to be a smooth oh not on somewhat um smooth sailing for first back to school and like again I encourage people to reach out to people ask questions because usually that's the having a conversation with people is usually where you can get most of your questions answered without further comment with a motion to adjourn so moved Mr cantino second second by is pellet