good evening and welcome to the Tuesday February 13th Board of Education meeting it is now what time 708 7:08 and we will call the meeting to order if everyone could please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance One Nation indivisible with liy and justice for all a reading of the meeting meeting notice the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provision of the act the Verona Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be published in the Star Ledger posted with the township of Verona and the Verona Education Association posting of this meeting setting forth the time location and agenda were posting at the Verona Board of Education Office and the Verona Public Schools district website copies of tonight agenda and resolutions have been made available to the public via the Board of Education website Mr Cruz if you could please call attendance Mr W here Mrs Vella here Mrs Farrar Mrs prisco here Mrs Boone here we have quum thank you thank you so we're just going to go um the agenda has just changed a little bit so we're going to go into I need to a motion to approve our minutes from uh January 2nd our reorganization meeting and regular session on January 2nd 2024 motion motion by Mrs Vella seconded by second Mrs Ferrara are there any any discussions Mr Cruz if you could please call well Mr Waka yes Mrs Bella yes Mrs Ferrar yes Mrs prisco yes Mrs Mr BR yes a motion passed thank you great thank you moving on to our agenda um we have Miss um Charlene Peterson here tonight um from New Jersey school boards our representative for Essex County and she's going to present our code of e ethics presentation thank you for being here shie thank you it is my pleasure um you know the board is continuing its commitment to train together as a board team and so you know part of how New Jersey school boards helps recognize the work that boards do is to um have a process in place for them to become a certified board so this board has been working D diligently toward that process so I checked before I came here and the board has 12 of the 16 credits that are required so tonight we'll make 13 um so we are continuing to move through that process so the board you know has four years to earn 16 credits with each credit essentially being an hour um of training so it's possible maybe you could earn it by this year but at the very least next year but you know I think um and then the boards are recognized at the spring County meeting so that would kind of be the you know the guidance of when we would be aiming for um so the the training that we have today is you know has mentioned that boards are required to um have ethics training to talk about the the school ethics act every year um so this is just a way then to help fulfill that responsibility I me you know it's not required that it be this level in depth but it's just good information for the board to have so just going to kind of take you through it um with the you know starting out with a disclaimer that this is not legal advice that the board receives legal advice from its board attorney this is just sharing information um and as we look at the the requirements of the school ethics act um you know hope that we would consider that to be the minimum standard that we hold ourselves accountable to um and would hold ourselves you know to a higher standard than that um so the school ethics act be you know begins with the uh the act itself of kind of guiding our conduct and saying that we need to look at ourselves differently not as volunteers but as elected public officials and with that comes responsibility and that responsibility is that you have to hold the respect and the confidence of the people that elected you um and then you then it looks at our conduct and said that we would have to avoid conduct that would be in violation of the public trust and then hold us to an even higher standard of saying even if you've done nothing wrong but it there's a justifiable impression to the public that it may look that way then that's the higher standard then that we are held to you know and I had a one time I had a board member say I feel like I have a hand tied behind my back and I said you know what in a way you do but that's essentially your responsibility of being an elected public official so these are the different components that go with the school ethics act so I'm just going to um go through them briefly so wanted to point out that some of the provisions appli to board members only so that's the code of ethics and the mandatory training and then the other two items prohibited acts which used to be called conflicts of interest I mean the disclosure statements not only apply to board members but also includes some administrators and the those administrators that applies to are identified there um so as we look at then the oversite of Ethics the body that's in charge of that um is the the school ethics commission and they are appointed by the governor for a three-year term with no more than five from one political party um and it's two board members two administrators ERS and then the majority five members are non-school officials and so similar to the way we meet monthly so do they um and essentially then when they meet they are um looking at ruling on um issuing advisory opinions which is um you as a school official can ask about conduct or propos conduct that hasn't taken place yet and saying okay School ethics commission if I were to do this would you consider this to be a violation of the the school ethics act um and so if it is thought that um the rest of us would benefit from the advice that they would give six of the school ethics commission members can vote to make that public and then take away all the identifying information and then they have that posted on their website and said okay this is guidance now that you can use recognizing each situation is unique but at least this provides us some general guidance so like a good example is there was a board that had a high school senior elected to the board so this you know so if the think about the other board members had all kinds of questions like what happens if we talk about their friends or you know classes they're in or teachers they have and had a whole list of questions then that they put before the school ethics commission for clarity about whether they would be potential conflicts and the school ethics commission you know essentially came back and said you know what we're not going to treat this student any differently we would treat the rest of you whatever would be a conflict for you would be a conflict for this student so again just an example of getting you know advice before it happens um they also can um rule on ethics complaints so while only a school official can ask for an advisory opinion anyone who thinks a violation took place can file a complaint so it can be a board member it can be a member of the public it can be a staff what it can't be is the the Verona a board of education as a body so um one of the other requirements we have is mandatory training so one of the things we don't really realize is that we are the only public officials in the state that have mandatory training and I know you just went right this weekend to fulfill your mandatory training um so it is required in your first term that you are serving as a board member in your first three years of board service so it used to be that you had a full year to complete that training and then last year last I guess it was March the rules changed um to now require new board members to complete their training within the first 90 days thinking that it would be helpful um to you know have new board members up to speed and trained as quickly as possible um so that is you know now the standard that we work under um and you know so now that they just changed that ruling now too of you know so both boards have an April election I mean a November election we're kind of geared up for that 90 days and now that they've just changed the ruling that boards can switch to an April election without having to vote on the budget so now we're wondering how many boards are going to shift and whether that will impact kind of you know how we have to gear up to to provide that training um so at in your second year of board service um you know you now then have the full year to complete the training so that's governance to per Finance third year is governance three student achievement and then if you you know opt to run again and get elected every time that you run and get elected the year following your reelection then you need to take governance four which legal update so it's something that's always different so regardless you know if somebody said they've been on their board 20 years and said like Charlene do I really still need to take governance for again and the answer is yes you do so um the other thing that we're held accountable to is identifying any potential conflicts that we might have by filling out disclosure statements that would identify any relatives um and any um potential Financial conflicts so for a new board member and a a new staff member that might be held accountable it's within 30 days of either starting employment or taking office and then for those of us that are returning elected officials it's by April 30th and so these will come directly from the state so that the school ethics commission um you know we had mentioned that it could rule on ethics complaints um so there are penalties that the school ethics commission can impose um and so essentially they just make recommendations and they make the recommendations to the commissioner of education then who actually then is the one that um has jurisdiction over the penalties more often than not they are in alignment with what the school ethics commission recommends but sometimes they are different um so the the least restrictive one is a reprimand which is just kind of a verbal hands slap of you know kind of acknowledging that yes you did something wrong um the next one is a centure and that's more formal and that a resolution is read not only like at the state at your board meeting in all of those places that you just mentioned in the open public meetings act notice that that resolution is posted there as well um board members can also be suspended and it's usually in like a 30-day increment we've seen it like 30 days 60 days um so not able to participate in board service at all during that time um and then you can be removed from the board so those are the the four different penalties that can be imposed um so the next section here are the code of ethics which you mentioned are applicable to board members only um so this is what we are H so when somebody said did you violate the code of ethics it's looking at these tenants um so in the green box is the actual tenant itself self and then underneath that are the standards which is essentially if someone did file ethics charges against you and said okay you violated letter A underneath that are the standards then that the school ethics commission would use to determine if a violation took place or not so they would compare the evidence to the standard to make a determination um so you know the first one here is really kind of what holds us accountable to being kind of the States Representatives at the local level you know saying that we'll enforce all laws rules and regulations from the state and before covid came we really had a hard time coming up with any examples of what that might look like and then once the state start imposing The Mask mandates and started imposing other mandates that boards were held accountable to th this is what um you know this is the reason why we did those things this is what held us accountable to that um this next one here talks about kind of what our responsibility is or the lens that we look at things um you know people may come to your board meeting and have concerns about particular grade a particular School a particular issue and you on sitting on this side of the board table have to take that step back and say I need to look at this through the lens of how does this impact every single student in the Verona Public Schools because that's who I'm responsible for so this is what holds you accountable to meeting the needs of all children um this next one here talks about the state starts identifying our role and saying okay board this is your lane your work is policymaking planning and Appraisal that's what you do that's your work um and says that also importantly that you have to consult those who might be affected by that so that's why then we traditionally do two readings on a policy the first reading puts it out there everyone's aware of what it is and then now I can come back and I can say Okay board just so you know that's how this policy impacts me so that you can now take that into consideration before you vote the second time to adopt it um the next one here talks about you know kind of pretty much New Jersey school board's Mantra right of telling us that we don't run the schools we know that that's what our superintendent does we just make sure that they're well-run and importantly says together with our fellow board members so the way we make sure they're well-run is by doing what what assigned to us in the previous one of our policymaking planning and Appraisal um this one talks about all of us being held accountable for not taking any private action that could impact the board and in a few minutes we're going to look at the cases from this year where board members were found guilty and in every single case it included letter e it may have included other things but every single one um the board member was found guilty of this of taking independent action and it had the potential to impact the board in some way so recognizing then that we have to be mindful of what we do how it impacts this body um here helps us accountable to not surrendering our independent judgment and again to me this goes back to all children that regardless how you got on the board who you think you made promises to whatever um whatever reasons once you're now on the board the group that you are held accountable to are all children all of your students so um as boards we know that we are a public body we do our work in public but you know the state has identified nine different reasons that we may need to go into executive session um to have discussion and it's typically to protect the the rights of our students the rights of our staff the legal rights of the district um so recognizing then that we while much of our information is public some of it is not it's confidential and this is then what holds us accountable to maintaining that confidentiality um and sometimes you know we don't always realize kind of the impact of what happens if we don't honor that commitment a couple years ago one of the cases there was a board member who somehow like told their family about a student issue and one of their family members went on social media and posted some information about that student and that issue and it really ended up being harmful to the student so you really have to think about the consequences of what could happen based on the information that you have um you know the other thing that the state said is that we are responsible for providing accurate information and that's because you know there is perception by the public that you have um to be in violation of um so in this case someone had forwarded some board communication um to Township officials so again said that independent action and you know compromised confidentiality um so a couple of these are using emails want to go to the third one where it talks about the the Chromebooks and so there was a situation where um the district was using MacBooks um and the superintendent had put a like committee together to to look at moving forward you know a recommendation and the committee um came back with their recommendation to continue using math books and one board members said well like I think we should using Chromebooks shouldn't we be looking at Chromebooks so on their own then they went and called business administrators from other districts contacted venders um even like had one of their like administrator support at work doing this on their behalf so essentially kind of so someone filed ethics charges and so kind of came back and said you know you can express your disagreement at a board meeting but it's inappropriate to conduct your own private investigation said that they effectuated plans without consulting those who would be impacted and you know potentially place the board ESS um in this one just wanted to like I said you know these are for the board to kind of study later so they don't want to go through everything in detail but here's a situation where a board member um was um a secretary in a local organization so like outside of their board work um and I guess it was typical that the the high School chorus would perform at one these organizations's events so the board member had as the Secretary of this organization had asked the principal that the cor is would perform against this year principal came back and said sorry it's not possible so what this board member then did is texted the chorus teacher and kind of said like what is like how come how come you're not how come the chorus isn't performing so again the school ethics commission came back and said that a request for explanation from a subordinate was administering the schools gave appearance that the board disagreed with the administration and put the chorus teacher in an uncomfortable situation and then said and was tantamount to an investigation before referring it to the superintendent so again just kind of as we kind of think of how the you know the logic and the rationale is being imposed um and then in another situation here that in the district where Bo member made a walk on resolution to change the name of colus day to a different name and it kind of created a firestorm um but you know the board did vote to make that change so a couple members of the public approached the board member that made that lock on resolution and said you know did you go out to lunch with us and explain to us why you did that um so it you know so it turned out then that they were reporing it fil ethics charges um and so essentially um the school ethics commission said you know what once the board makes the decision only the board should be the one who explained rationale for for the decision that the board made while this person made the walk on resolution it was ultimately the board that voted so it should be the board at a public meeting explaining the rationale for its decisions and then this is kind of one of the first times too that we also Alo saw that ought in that relationship with the administration and that it also undermined the administration's Authority um and imposes an unnecessary strain on the board and administra relationship when the board kind of goes outside of its Lane like that so we had just talked about the tone of Ethics that applicable to board members only um but prohibited acts it used to be called conflicts of interests um is again applies not only to board members but also those administrators that we had identified and saying that there are situations when we need to recuse ourselves not take part of discussion um because of some potential conflict so usually those conflicts are from a business interest from a financial involvement from some kind of a a financial gain or gift or favor but then when you look at letter B it says and also using your position to secure warranted privileges advantages or employment um and when it says recuse yourself if there's a benefit to you or to your immediate family in this letter B they use the term others to kind of extend who that could apply to so it's more important did somebody get some kind of a privilege or Advantage as a result of you being a board member as opposed to if conf find to this specific relationship um so one of the things and this is something new that I learned this year is that typically when a board member had accomplished it would not be unusual to have them obstain from voting on it so what we've learned is that a s that actually what you should be doing is recusing yourself and so when you're voting saying on recusing versus on abstaining essentially saying that abstaining from a matter is not sufficient to memorialize the fact that a board member has a legal conflict it is not eligible to vote so this is helping make that distinction um so these are those relationship definitions that the state provides so saying immediate family members your spouse or partner or dependent child residing in the same household and then relative is essentially the the nepotism definition of of a relative so pretty much we everyone is there except for cousins I think the only relative we saw that's missing um in this long list but your cousin can easily be an other right if that that in that situation has happened so one of the things and and I was just on the phone with someone today going through the chart so one of the things that the schol ethics commission did in one of the advisory opinions and this is actually about two pages long took every single possible potential kind of relationship there could be and is telling you yes or no whether that you know would be a conflict or not um so the the reason that there's that this is important is it comes into play in a couple different ways so one of them is in hiring that a district can't hire the relative of a board member of a superintendent and if the relative already works in the district um then the administration can exercise direct or indirect authority over the relative a board member cannot take part in any employment matter concerning um the superintendent or supervis ERS and the chain of command between the relative and the superintendent and for those so that means they can't take part in evaluation or anything and for those districts that are undergoing a superintendent search they wouldn't be able to participate in that either it also impacts um your ability to participate in negotiations so if you have a relative that works in the district you can't participate in negotiations whatsoever however if you your spouse or that dependent child that immediate family member let's say if you are a teacher or another District um you are not able to be part of the negotiating team you're not able to be aware of what's being negotiated on the board's behalf but once the board is done has finished the negotiations the memorandum of agreement's done the selling guids are done it's essentially too late for you to have an impact on the outcome and then you are able to both at the very end um and then in that bigger broader definition if you have a relative that works in another District somewhere in New Jersey is small enough right that almost everyone has a relative somewhere that's a teacher right or Works in a in a district somewhere saying that essentially you were fine to participate in negotiation able to vote um absent any other conflicts and so essentially they would say that other conflict might be if your family member um has heightened involvement um and also um you know one guidance we got is sometimes in some communities the um the bargaining units May endorse and provide um Financial contribution to board members campaigns when they're running for the board and saying that if that's the case then that you would have to sit out for negotiations um at least a year so these are some of the these are the either the advisory opinions or cases that go with the prohibited acts and I'm not going to go through these I just wanted to kind of point out the wording like in the first one that's consistent of saying you have to recuse yourself saying that you have to do it from any and all matters related to whatever the conflict is and then in the third one like it says it has the potential for conflict actual or perceived so again recognizing that we're looking at sometimes what is that perception um so this is the first time we've seen seen some guidance you know beyond okay like we knew that we had a relative that worked in the district you we just talked about the confli the you participating in matters involving the superintendent with negotiations this is the first time we've seen guidance that also could extend to your committee assignments and what committees you can be part of so in this case the person was the board president and had a relative that worked in the district and typically most boards um the president has given the author to assign committee chairs to assign committee members and saying in this case that for president would not be able to do that and any committees that might touch on their relative and also would not be able to serve on those committees and then the same was also true for a board member who had a relative that worked in the district and when you look at the Committees that they identifi like Personnel negotiations instruction Finance that's pretty much almost every committee we have right or or close to it so you can really see how it can um have an impact um in this case in terms of a conflict there were two different situations where board members attended executive session meetings of the board in both cases they had um talked to the board attorney um and turned out that um it was questioned or found to the evolation um because of conflicts and the first one the board had of vac board seat one of the people that applied for the vacant seat was the board members husband so when the board went into a executive session to talk about the candidates for this St can seat the board member went into executive session where they were talking about her H um in another situation the board president attended executive session where there was a discussion about an incident that the other board members didn't know who they were talking about because it was just an identification number but it turns out it was actually this board member's family member um so kind of one of the things that Guidance the school ethics commission gave us then said when when a member with a conflict goes behind closed doors it creates a justifiable impression to the public that their trust is being violated um and if we essentially say that a board member that has a conflict has no more rights than any other member of the public um that it really created an unwarranted or privilege or Advantage because other members of the public can't go into executive session with the board and then said the members presence could chill me or intimidate or sway the comments and opinions of other members and said that we're essentially responsible for our own actions um so the one of the cases kind of got to this point then of saying looking at saying well I asked my attorney so so this is kind of an open-ended issue now of saying this of council defense and saying okay that pretty much that these kind of four factors have to be taken to into consideration um and saying that and if all of these factors are true saying it may not exonerate you completely you may still be found guilty but it may either you either may not get a penalty or it might soften the penalty that was inlo um one of the other things that guidance we got from the CICS Commission is about volunteering in the schools you typically would think that that would be a good thing that's how you many people get their start on the board but you know essentially the SP commission said you know as board members we kind of have that have to have that 30,000 view of the district not be involved in the day-to-day operation so you have to make sure that you're not putting yourself in a situation that would make it hard you to separate them so that's the two factors that would look at is what's the degree of involvement you have with staff and students and then what is the degree of authority that you're receiving directions and ordered from staff and students and so saying if you can be mindful of that then you can volunteer you know they gave examples of like reading on do Tuesday shaer on the field trip kind of nonfrequent things um was kind of got started when a board member's wife worked in the district she did then the school place and this board member would come in and help was F with all the rehearsals and all the work that goes on for school play When the scho commissions that like whoa like that that's too much you're in the schools too much you're getting orders and taking orders from staff and students and um so we have to be mindful of that and said okay and also you know recognizing that like say the rec department may use your school gy you can be a coach for the V Department because they have their own budget and their own guidelines but you couldn't be a volunteer coach for the schools team they need that separation um in voting there just kind of just wanted to emphasize the point that someone had asked for an advisory opinion just to kind of prove that point of that um letter A of the code of ethics that were held accountable and someone asked for an advisory opinion and said if I were to vote affirmatively to refuse to implement the new student learning standards for the Comprehensive Health and um would that be a violation and so the school ethics commission I came back and said it was shown that a school official acted contrary to the laws rules and regulations prated by the state board that they could potentially be in violation so again just kind of making that point so one of the areas that we really got more guidance this year is on social media you see all like the number like the C whatever those are all different cases and all of those cases which same guidance was um offered and essentially saying that we you know as individuals we don't lose our first amendment rights just because we're a school official but said that we have to make sure though that we are Guided by you know the the code of ethics the school ethics act and saying could a reasonable member of the public one bu I did this on like and how do you determine what that is right I said really not sure that's up to the school ethics commission but that a reasonable member of the public perceive that a school official is speaking in their own official capacity or pursuant to their official duties so so said that the content matters if what you're saying would lead me to believe that the reason you're saying this is because you're aboard member then that's what we're going to be looking at so you know the school ethics commission has provided disainer that we should be using to make it clear that we're speaking as the individual um so this is guided language that they gave us um that said okay but if I use a disclaimer does that automatically protect me from find being in violation and based on what we just saw before said no um again it goes back to the content but said it does help clarify the capacity in which you're speaking so then what would cause me to be in violation if I had a disclaimer and again it's based on the content if a reasonable member of the public could perceive that you're speaking in your official capacity or pursuing to your duties then it's could make the disclaimer inadequate and of No Force or effect so taking that into consideration and saying well how about if I don't use it for does that automatically make me guilty and again if what I'm saying there's no connection to my board work then you know then then I'm fine and said and must I use the exact display said the failure to par these exact language will not mean that you didn't use an appropriate display like I said that's kind of more guidance than information that we've seen in the past um did I skip okay um and then this one was a um a case that or an advisory opinion that someone had asked for and in this town there were I guess different Facebook and different social media groups that have conversations about with the school district and so this board member said well how about if just put for one kind of one group and it would be the Q&A between the parents and the board and I'll be that board member that then will help monitor this page so so the school ethics commission came back and said okay like that the community's aware of your status as a board member would likely attribute any statement from you as being in the capacity of you know on behalf of the board so it would be Beal to disclaim your speech and then I thought this last sentence was kind of telling it said even if you only ever provide links to publicly available information it's possible that it would not immunize you from being a subject of an ethnics complain so really kind showing that standard that we are held to um so one of the other things you know for those members that are running for the board you typically have like a campaign Facebook page or kind the campaign website um so again just clarifying that um once you're elected it's no longer appropriate to have any kind of a social media account that identifies you as a board member um someone had asked if if I just like or share something does that you know constitute of violation and again it goes back to that what's the content right and then there were a couple instances where someone filed ethics charges against a board number because things they posted were so horrible and so egregious that like someone just felt like they were compelled to bile ethics children so the school ethics commission said you know what like if we took those tenants if we took those standards there's not really anything here that we can connect them to is to say yes you violated you know ethics charges but you know kind of saying that you should refrain from inappropriate Communications that have no place in the education setting and then said that essentially your your real judge is the public that they choose not to elect you again next time you felt that you were not the best one to represent so kind of in closing here of saying you know that we as boards we should make sure we're aware of and conflix our board numbers have recognize that our board attorney is the person that we would go to for any questions on ethics issues um and then School offics commission said that not knowing is not a good excuse um so New Jersey school boards every Wednesday publish the school board notes that come to your email that will provide you with updates and changes so that we you know that we can be um AIS of what's going on and then just kind of wanted to close with again this parting thought of kind of the kind of the honor and the responsibility that comes with being a board member and saying that if we ignore the ethical standards that we we were required to uphold um that when we do that it not only threatens the Integrity of the board it also unnecessarily compromising District personnel and subverts the Very purpose for which we were elected to serve the need of our school district in our students so we really need to hold ourselves accountable to that right so wanted to thank you for being a patient audience the board members have any questions at all for me thank you sh I actually do have a question for you um thank you again for coming out um so my question is regarding social media for board members like you said so me my me personally I like to share on my board of education when I started running I created a page on social media and I usually I'll share information School play games if it's team wi something I usually share that out they don't really comment I'll just put congratulations or something so are you you're basically saying that that when our volleyball team on the state championship I commented I you know posted a picture that should not happen on personal or even our page that we created for writing as a a member so so the GU you know definitely stated that you shouldn't have a page that apparently identifies you as a board member so on your personal page again it could just be again a reasonable member of the public would have to say are you speaking on now is this part of your board um part of your board work so I gu it could be innocuous enough but it's one you mentioned the the training from over the weekend one takeway is nobody's going to complain if you're saying something positive so if you're saying great job volleyball team who's who's really going to be mad about that now if you said something controversial about what was going going on in the game that might be pro at least that was my take away from broader training so I I mean the only judge is really the the school ethics commissioner I mean and like I said each situation treated separately so you would get advice from your attorney I mean on you know on that situation or any situation that that you're not sure about thank you does anyone have any questions yeah just one thing um again coming off of last weekend's um conference uh I just really want to thank you Charlene and the njba for all the efforts that you do um I I was there with a hundred other people from all the way out from uh susex County all the way down to Salem County and the impact that you folks have is um truly inspiring and people running it were deeply engaged and want the number one thing that they kept pushing um or highlighting excuse me is that we there for the benefit of the students and everybody was aligned on that and it was really encouraging to see that spirit so thank thank you you and we'll see you in two weeks for our next stream for February thank you thank you again okay moving on to our agenda we have our superintendence report from missy good evening I just remind everyone to if you do have a comment make sure you switch on your um microphone we had very hard to hear remember to turn it on as long as we push the button that works we have he'll come I might have you click some links for me if that would be okay so uh before I start with District go and a little bit of an update I just want to give you a couple of other pieces of information um you've been following our qac preparation uh for our quality single accountability Continuum that's our on-site monitoring and self monitoring by the State Department of Education we received our um on it District monitoring date it's March 6th um and so we still have a little bit of time to clean up anything that's left that has to be organized for the Monitor and uh we look like we're in Fairly good shape for that uh another uh very large report that is due on February 15th is the Civil Rights um data collection and just give you an example of what is required of this right dat ction there are two collections there's a district collection and then there's a school collection the same information is collected from all of the schools with the exception of the high school there's a whole host of different types of information that's collected um what what we do for for the district collection it's primarily uh enrollments um gender you know have the Breakout by gender uh ethnicity um number of special education students number of that are in Learners or multi multilingual Learners um and students that are working under for um plan um that's a pretty small piece of it probably takes an hour or two to um do that piece with regard to the school I'll give you an example just from preschool so um anything you can kind of strap uh what they're asking us to provide them so just in learn in terms of enrollment and this will be for the preschool they as a separate school and then we have to do this for all the schools so males enrolled uh males that are Hispanic American Indian Native Alaskan Asian native Pacific Islander black white to a more racist same thing for females and then uh General numbers of students that with disabilities are enrolled then they go through the same group Mal female stand group of ethnicities for those students that are also English language Learners also have I student disability or with 504 and it goes through um it goes through that for each school and then then they're looking for this year for the first time they're looking for nonbinary student indicators uh General enrollment for all students in the new school uh programs what programs we have uh for get through Talent dual enrollment cred recovery and again it breaks out by male female all the ethnicities in three tables we do it for general education all students and then students that are engl language designers students4 or um I um then for they want coures in classes this is mostly isolated out to middle school and high school and they're looking for uh students inv in algebra one in eth grade algebra one in geometry in eth grade and who p in each of those categories at the high school more complic because it's Algebra 1 Algebra 2 geometry and higher mathematics biology chemistry physics higher science any AP any du enrollment if we had International Balor same thing across the board um again for all of those groups sat act information uh School of support staff our staff qualificat of our staff how phds how master's degrees SCH security staff attention at each School inter schol Athletics student discipline so they want number suspension exposion punishment that's an easy one can just not referral to law enforcement for school related arrests um any offenses intimidation bullying restraint and contusion um and then there's one for justice that has to do with and then all internet access so this is a huge report that takes many man hours and Mr and z and I have begun pulling information out of genis and trying to um organize and collect and verify that our data is correct because it's interesting you put data into this report that's not accurate it tells you it's not accurate if you already have it but it's so it's a huge report do on February 15th because of Co we all have do again next usually it's two years now it's not so this report 21222 that's a b and some really good news um oh one more thing negotiations process has is underway um Mr Cruz has been diligently scatter grams and all the information that our two associations need to uh sit down at the table and start negotiating is our go to finish negotiations prior to the sum we can ratify teachers and principal summer uh good news we had two students that are recognized two of our music students that are recognized um uh to perform at um State and Regional um competion performances ma um was is the 2024 New Jersey All State syonic band uh miss one point and he play and next were also admitted to 2024 Regional so this is a short presentation I think there's only maybe five and then I'll um so our mission this is our [Music] other our goal is to EMP students to Cate and responsility um so we' linked our district goals to our strategic plan and we have four goal areas uh including student outcom and achievement um developing 21st cury students who are college in career ready social and emotional learning and diversity equity and belonging inclusion and belonging and uh community and school relation so starting with goal area one student achievement uh basically we we did some some different uh goals this year so it's been the habit of of the principles here to develop goals um like for instance four Elementary principles develop goals together and that's been what they've been doing for a while now um I switched up a little bit because my learning about writing goals is really about Baseline data and since our schools are different we have different data so the goals are they're both about school Improvement but you'll see there's differences in the Target percentage Point increases so we're using uh the NJ uh student learning assessment which is based on the New Jersey student learning standards and most of the ranges of percent percentage Point increases is between five and 15 and the reason that there's such a wide range if you have students a group of students at a grade level that are performing um above 75 or 80% or well above the state it's hard to move that group higher so the better they're doing it's harder to push them we have a group of students that are performing significantly lower than where they should be a lower than the state that percentage Point increase is up to 15% so depending on so it's really 5 15 10 there couple of 8% depending on looking at um the student specific student data and the action plan and strategies in action and timeline are by so um on that so for instance in Brook School you can see that in grade three the Baseline is 86.7% of our students met or exceeded the grade level standards so we're going with a 5% five percentage Point increase so our goal for grade three BR down next year is that we get our students 91.7% um that me SE they took map the map growth U tests they're taking them this week so I don't have data for you that would be our mid your progress so uh By the time weet again in February I should have it if not the first meeting definitely the second um we can't close out those uh M so we can see the scor until all the students have made for instance if you could scroll down you look at you look at um like uh for Forest Avenue 53 the Baseline is different than than Bale so different percentage points and that's true all that gives you an idea ofarts where those both are you can go back to the [Music] presentation no no it's a good question we are we are looking at [Music] yeah so one of the things we're looking at for that is we're looking at um well first what do is we look at the correct so Mr uh for instance for math you asked about math Mr Stevenson put together a tremendously detailed spreadsheet before the teachers can look at looking at what was the standard what was the type of questions that we know were asked based on the evidence that we receive from the state how often did those questions appear have our students ever seen those types of questions before because the first time students SE a question like that should not be test and also where and the CC is it found right so if it's found after the test and it's something that's there's a good number of items on that test then we maybe need to move that b around as long as it makes sense with three not so um we're we're looking at that now we're looking at whether or not um it's found in our cour for instance I was talking to one of the third grade teachers and in the unit of map that they're doing some of what they're doing our fourth grade standards we have to ask ourselves is that at the sacrifice of the third grade SE so there's a lot of work that goes into uncovering why the scores schol score are different or what or how we can bring our SC show you the action plan so you get a sense of that question so when you when you when you say um in the third grade classes this is that the program that we use have that not our curriculum the program that we use but our curricul is written based on that program yeah okay so we're these are all things that we're going to have to TW going forward um and the math and language Dr standards have to be Rewritten as you know anyway this summer to reflect the new standards that were adopted by state so then would we considered when when we're looking at the new standards and comparing that to our program just really FOC on the New Jersey state standards even if it's in that program you don't necessarily or if if we wanted to stretch them to the fourth grade standards make sure you're getting all the third grade first or you can look at for the most part the standards especially with Lang Arts more than that it's the same like you do inference every year it just gets more and more in depth so if you're hitting the fourth grade standard in third grade and it encompasses the third grade standard and extends that that's not much you know what favor go back into that and then scroll down all the way down below Elementary all horol and you see a link right there you click that link so for instance with u the LA strategies and actions uh that we are doing to address the deficiencies that we're seeing first of all we started out the year doing these standards um unpacking teachers are unpacking standards they're asking themselves and each other what does this standard say sometimes standards are very complicated sometimes they're very simple sometimes there are five or six learning targets andal standard we are also asking our teachers to determine levels so what level of cognitive need is is this standard out is it simple recall remembering executing kind of like that easier um and I remember this standard to okay I remembered it now do I comprehend what it means am I analyzing it and taking it to that that next level or ultimately am I asking students to um do a cognitively complex is it knowledge utilization are we asking kids to generate hypothesis test that hypothesis and that always sounds like science but you can do that in any subia and then um execute and defend your your hypothesis or your argument so if you're teaching the standard but you're not teaching at the taxonomic level that's going to be tested at that's the thing you have to look at are we teaching this at the same level going to be assessed then we're we're doing we did a deep dive and and our supervisors are working with grade level meetings looking at individual student data and looking at those students like for instance we had a a large number of kids at one of the schools that you mentioned before that are within five points of passing that's that's not a big effort to move so if we look at those individual students we see where are they deficient on this test you can work with those kids that's what differentiate instructions P them into different groups you work with those students on where they were deficient and try to move them into the next so you look at the kids on the C you're looking to move everybody but those kids that are on the C may it easy because it's only coule that could be two test questions that they that to take them from I'm approaching District level standards to I'm meeting District level standards so we're also looking at uh so for the language we uh using the state rubrics to do our writing assessment because we only use macro for reading and uh math um we are providing specific professional development to our teachers in both mathematics and um uh and Ela in sorry in writing and reading as well as instruction so rather than so everybody's getting some profal development and the standards and at instruction and then we're looking at small so we're looking at implementing tier one strategies tier one means what do we do for kids in our classroom to have in the classroom what how are we intervening to push them and stretch put them into the stretch Zone and fering we're calling it peer collaboration we're moving toward conventional learning communities and then con L monitoring progress for these goals so that we can tweak them along the way we're not static if we see something that we didn't see that teachers need that strategies so basically the elementary level strategies for math are similar and then and and the then we have middle and high school strategies but this is the way it's worked out you all have this document on post to District website I'm going to change the Strategic plan strategic plan District annual goal so uh our our community can see what we're working on so if you can go back into District regie pause sorry um along the bottom there are two tabs we're looking at um student achievement for ball one B areas two through four are on that next page but we can actually go back and into the um presentation slide scroll down go to the next slide I can so goal areas two four we 21st century still and college read those loal learning and University equity and inclusion of belonging and goal four was building strong relationships or and school Community relationship so these come directly from our strategic plan as do the student achievement goals just they're specific with Gaines on our state measure test so our goal was to implement the gifted and talented we call it academic enrichment The Talented program for through five um we pull out for two hours for rec construction and um the g&t which is into kindergarten um we have we were looking to have an inclusion model at our elementary schools and a like prr at at the high school right now we have U implemented written fre on a program hired a teacher and have begun providing instruction in get B area we do have a pilot inclusion model in three of our four schools at the elementary level in grade three We are continuing that in grade four and looking to continue to have it in grade three so and the life skills um class uh at the high school um has a classroom that is just about finished um with regard to the kitchen we've been providing the program since September but the kitchen is in cabinets and countertops are are coming they're in some they're like in limbo but they're being worked out right now and uh we have a curriculum that was written and students high school for goal area three uh we have a goal to um change um es to care NJ care NJ provides different mental health tier three supports than effective SCH Solutions or ESS um they have three clinicians with Care Plus provides up to about 40 more students have availability for this service uh than we had with effective School solution and plus provides supports for families in addition to students in our school high school um we are our another goal is to continue the work with the New Jersey school climate initiative U specifically utilizing their survey to create working groups generate action items based on the surgy result so we that is a goal that has begun it is just getting started we did do the survey last year with student staff and ENT parents we are going to implement the survey again this year to see if we see any Improvement uh and we are working on creating groups Mrs a is is the chairperson of this particular committee and uh she's working on having students on committee specifically at M schol high school so they can have inut into C create actions to improve it you know a third one was students education program um that is not we we do currently a little program for pack that our social workers Implement in the elementary school and we have conflict resolution and P mediation which are very good things to have we're not looking to get good of conf resolution mediation but I said sever times I think this board that is reactive that's after there's already been compiation or mediation um we're looking for a program that's going to prevent we'd love to not need your mediation and and conflict resolution going forward uh so what we did was we looked at about five different programs and we selected um the positivity project which is linked in the uh spreadsheet so if you're interested in going and looking at that program the link in the website is in there and we're starting uh in February at hbw across all three grade levels um small of teachers to begin to implement that program and uh we will make deter and also in the elementary school we'll make a determination schools as to whether or not that's a pres school program it's a pretty comprehensive program and it's really well done and then the last goal for area three is creating environment of diversity Equity belonging it sorry that um with staff and students this is actually also the same goal that's found on our action plan from last year after the um Grand River solution report and we have on feary sorry yeah on February 8th we have a group of people coming from Atlanta that are going to be working with students staff and parents over period so similar to what did last year um we had a hard time putting into our schedule put his schedule into our schedule to Dr actually I think was a teacher as well this is a group of teachers say they will be able to reach more of our school Community because they're coming up with people and the last goal is community and school relations and this uh has been a goal this been the goal of last year to improve Communications in general but also you using social media um just mentioned that um when we look at our reports we see there are many CLS that under 40% of our account read the emails or the posts that we sent out so a really important post I will follow up with the robo call get a call basically saying post try to get that information out I think it's really important um improve the use of District school websites the district website has been uh improved we're still working on webs um Mr vage uh cowi supports our current website is purchased by another company so we're using this opportunity to have a new template look easier to navigate we are not just bringing everything over that's on our website dumping into the new website we are building ground up so that it will be consistent between the district the high school middle school and all three elementary schools will have consistency process and uh we're going to make every effort to make sure that our post information are timely that they're removed when they're no longer timely and that they provide the information that parents and um one of the goals strategic planning is to encourage our students to volunteer in C committee I will report that we have two students that were named to the environmental commission um as um Stewarts we have one student on the and one other it's in it's in my head and last but to offer parent such as this is not an exed list nor is it necessarily the list that we were able to do this year academic acmy we've had a math parent math academy parent literacy Academy um we had a um academic achievement tal Parent Academy we did um positive use of social media or actually what not to do on social media and online with digital mindfulness and uh we have um I'm going to be putting together um a presentation for Gen generative artificial intelligence and how it should be used in classroom districts across the country or Bing it this is going to be a ubiquitous piece of equipment the calculator is the way spell check is and how grammarly is so we can try to say it doesn't exist we B access to it or we can teach kids how to use it to improve their understanding just like when we started with calculators many years ago like no calculators going to make kids not be able to think about math they not going to learn math but what it did is it raised we now are requiring students to do things that having a calculator doesn't simply make it so it does raise the bar this will raise the bar but we need to focus with kids on it's not about output or products it's about using the tool to help you think different so um that is my presentation on school goals and we will come back in a couple of weeks with a another update and we'll continue to upate question we started I talk about the you did we get our ID for yet how is it possible I have asked three times that's okay nobody in has just comment and question really appreciate you to say about AI real world I said on an AI staring committee for my Corporation and and the lead them is it's not going to do the work for but it is an awesome tool and every day every week uh we find something new just us try to do our better um the question I have back to uh 21st century careers um I know this probably for few years but where do we stand on the relationship with the votte and and and spefically and I know I'm B to talk about communicating the value and potential of that at an earlier age J high but um kind of being new guy here I'm just curious where stand on that so we have an obligation under the law to encourage and explain and teach kids for vex the fact that it wasn't happening uncomfortable uh but we're we are now we actually have four kids this year that are against ready to apply for botch for next year we had more students get in the issue with botch here in Essex County is that our Essex County bch doesn't compare to Bergen County or Mars County so there's we have more kids that go for day full day or they go to P county is also very good they go to P County Tech we have two students County technal school what bigest sorry I think I think the kids that really need V you know greatly benefit should have the opport to go there but that's the biggest threat to our budget it both and I think the reason for that for the wondering is that VCH is is there's a cost you know sometimes can be up to $15,000 per student in school district P so we still are we still have them um they're part of our district but it does if our cost per pupil was $155,000 it doesn't really cost us $155,000 to educate that child so you move a child in one child into into a grade level it's not going to cost us $15,000 because we a classroom you sexbook but if you pull a child out now you're taking $115,000 and giving it to another entity it does and you're busing there and we're busing yes is there any opportunity Partnerships for organizations that need need electricians or whatever help that's a good question I'm seeing you here to know what's in the area that's should whether not there's any willingness and whether it's legal well that's that but yeah not sure there's a work see what that new programming development special um that there there are Community Partnerships with both and potential employment um but I think unless our I know that at the they have much more esta Partnerships right um I do know see that thank you any else have question thank you very much thank you moving on to our business administra report Mr CH all right good evening everyone uh in finance this month uh we do have uh tonight our November and December secretary treasur and trans report happy to report that they're all in agreement uh right now at this time of year is extrem visit for the business office um uh as uh Mr mentioned we're uh collecting and priting for uh colle barting negotiations along with budget prep uh recently we finished our midyear budget review with the count office um the process in that review is uh really looking at our fiscal efficiencies in comparison to districts of similar size and type uh across the state um also uh we're in the middle um as I mentioned preparing for fiscal year 2024 25's budget uh Mr myself will be continuing review meeting early in February um right before our next FL meeting to present you the preliminary budget um which is actually an overarch overview of the budgeting process um and once the governor releases the state a figures um later in February uh we'll be able to use that uh to present public the sentive budget for 20242 on at our March 12th meeting uh that concludes my update for tonight thank you thank you any questions moving on to our student representative so uh this week the school district we're running the of schools programming uh so that'll be 22nd through 26 including Spirit Meeks morning announcements High School display and programming at the lower level so child has been instrumental in pushing in those lessons and providing that programming and information to really allow the to sort of take off in this uh coming up on February 3rd the Mito and the Mandarin Club have organized the annual Chinese New Year celebration which will be held in the VHS up at the commun last year but it's just down here this year so 6:30 on February 3rd and thank you to miss and Jack Lon for coordinating student council involvement and support in that as well communities invited it'll be performances from students and professionals should and lastly student council will be holding the annual 20 formal February 8th for high school and that's thank you any any questions moving on we are going go to our committee reports first up is Athletics would you like that be lovely so we did meet on um last week our winter sports are starting to uh G their County hbw there was an issue um with the flooring at the gym it was very slippery so um that might I don't know if we have and Browns but that I think may have been rectified so that's that's been a problem for a while where it was like an ice skating race for the basketball team uh the our senior kns are coming up for winter sports so swim has their uh swims January 25th hockey will be on January 28th wrestling January 31st girls basketball and wi here will be February 1st and boys basketball on February 12th so congratulations to all those seniors as well this is their last sport you playing for the year um field trips uh for March 4th to the 6th uh is DECA will beend in that and on Personnel we will be approving tonight we have a boy assistant lacrosse coach Kyle Matthews and we will be also approving our football assistant coaches which is um the head assistant Chris farrara assistant James Romano assistant James mattelli and assistant Sten Brown actually there is one of um well that's not do miss anything no any questions thank you moving on to education thank you thank you um so M spoke to much of what we discussed during our education committee so I will just very briefly go through um in in special education again we have incl school week um the team just draw me in which is wonderful um at the middle school there'll be an assembly Mr Jordan will come and be speaking about um I think it's called yeah that'll be the middle SCH Wednesday which is wonderful for the kids uh preschool will be holding their open house and parent meeting scheduled for Friday for current preschool students going into kindergarten um so that is an important meeting for any preschool current preschool parent par to attend um first per conversation um about entering into kindergarten um they're continuing ongoing evaluations for students who are referred from ear Intervention Program into the preschool program um again just backing M said uh continuing with the inclass inclusion in grade three along to grade four next year also forest and E Brown projected to also continue at birdale um and uh Miss Simmons is working on projections for next year um to continue that that program life skills program kitchen is underway we're almost there with that um as far as home instruction goes we're continuing um to continue with the procedures that we had implemented to support collaborative approaches for students and staff working together with the home instruction we currently have 10 students um receiving home instruction um Car Plus um some training risk assessment training uh with District counselors and admins and District which was um great you report [Music] um so continuing vage Pro yes as far as janed goes um curriculum Council met um and they're beginning to discuss new course proposals for 2425 um there is professional development coming up on February 8th where teachers in the district will be uh presenting to each other on best practices um again piggy back what M ji said March 7th and 8th jar batella the consultant firm will be coming in provide professional development um customized workshops for Teacher best practices to support and then there'll be that Community um invitation to attend a session on March 7th so District communication will be going out for that uh math assessments are underway throughout the district family reports can be expected to be home by either the end of the month or early uh February um there are we discussed before the letter PD um which is like a program that there are cohorts of teachers attending um so they're continuing that PD there's a math PD happening continuing with the mentor and new teacher orientations um and then there which is on the uh agenda tonight for approval um we are going out as District again for the second time for the New Jersey high impact tutoring Grant which um is offered through the state as a grant for fourth and fifth graders to provide extra support um for students who need it so fingers cross that second time around we receive the grant well I spoke to the person who reviewed our grant and got feedback as to what was deficient in the initial Grant so um committee that's doing it Mrs Coler Dr Miller and Mr Stevenson have that feedback and they're running through tomorrow to make sure that they have everything that they need for um to make sure we get that in that would be amazing that would run from March 20th to December 20124 including summer month so it's a nice um intervention for for students I have a question so um there's a lot of good information you gave but I plan on talking about um during newal business item V8 on our agenda um I want to know during the U education committee was this discussed this it yeah no um and is it fair that the assistant super attendent with liit set up and schedule that meeting the yes very good that's all thank you thank you any other questions or comments moving on to [Music] [Applause] finance you do okay we'll add that on I okay thank you have to Mr Cruz hit a lot of the the highlights um but just under old business the playground update we going mediation in on5th so hopefully we will come to a resolution that will allow us to fix and or replace playground that we spent a lot of money on and then our time clocks have been installed and they are being used and over time being tracked and monitored so that's going to help us um in terms of stepping and saving on overtime hopefully and then one of the things that we did discuss Fair briefly with the uh if as and this is a more broader discussion that the board should have at some point if we want to op national school program um the governor again raised the limits the income limits so now I think they went up about $8,000 76 8,000 for down4 you can make that or under they qualified or it's free lunchers all three um you know again we only have about 22 25 students that currently have filled out paperwork and get fre lunch through school system that we pay for but just this increase alone could add people and then as we add more residents to the community Through um the housing developments that are going up we can expect um that's significant increase of people applying of course we won't know who is coming until they show up the first we is think August I don't want to say that I apologize the first group of families that are moving in are schedu to Mo in August um again we won't know how many even our school age know can be so but this just something that we should keep it keep in the back of our mind if we going to ask for next year we have to do that sometime in April U we may want to take year and collect data and see if you know where we fall um because it can impact some fundraising that's done on the school level by our SC and other entities that lunches as the to something that it's not as as simple as one would want it to be we just have to balance all I think that is about it anything U no no other than and I forgot where we came down on this question um with to the school lunch it's not something we can opt in and then leave the money on the table each side want is it once you're in you're in invol doing rfps and and getting a new you know potentially getting a new uh launch provider it's special requirements that going [Music] to a bit complicated and it didn't conclude the FAS from continuing to run fundraising just it limits what they can serve and this portion size and they have to have whole grains and low fat I just do have a quick question so I want to make sure that I'm understanding this correctly currently for any child who do aen for reduced lunch the district pays out of pocket because we have a private vendor So currently uh all families are eligible for free lunch uh the district uh spons that cost so for example the cost of lunch for the year is $800 for each each of those students um right now is about 1% participations 25 students in the entire District um that as Mrs brazilla actually mentioned um that actually submitted the application and qualified based on the the current eligibility uh the board does uh sponsor that cause um right so then if we're if we're participating increased amount of students we can also anticipate that that amount can go up significantly in our small budget correct so if if the the data Trend actually goes upward uh sustainability wise going forward it it will be beneficial for the board to shift over to the national school because then we're no longer sponsoring and covering that cost right and then once we get 4% so yeah once we get 4% we'll have no choice but to par and and be part program right okay thank [Music] you great thank you moving on to our buildings and grounds committee report yes U Gala mentioned the uh playground uh issue um a couple other quick items uh we have two custodial positions that are open one at hbw and brown uh there are two suggested hires for that that we will be voting on shortly um and then also the situation involving the Press Box on the high school football field uh we expect that uh to be closed uh officially now at the end of the school year uh postgraduation uh we are awaiting feedback from the arch on uh proposed changes to the plans and the expectations uh for this will be about 10 to 12 months for uh 12 completion thank you very much for your first committee report anyone have any questions moving on we are going to open up the podium for public comments on agenda action items only so if there's anything that we will be vo on that you would like to speak on please come to the podium and state your name and you have three minutes none moving on to our discussion items business and old business Mr w we can start with you yeah so U I want to talk about V8 um on our agenda which is under the education section and I'm always going to be in favor of of awarding Cycles to teachers that go and do work for students or student groups outside of the you know the contract and service time um the one the one thing that bothers me is um I see a whole lot of Administrators um getting assigned responsibilities here um but you know never well with me when there's administrators who getting sens for things that they're really are part of their job and part of their job in a whole lot of schools and I think this board has done a really good job kind of limiting and and reducing the amount of what I can to say unnecessary sens uh to administrators um but I see this whole list of people that aren't getting extra compensation for Duty and then of the the three spying position one of them is for the mckenny mental homeless of course I want to make sure those kids get what they need um but it's it's it doesn't sit well with me that the the person that's making the the education committee agenda and talking to the members of the board isn't reviewing the the this particular document with that committee when they're when they're the one that you know one of the two two one of the two people that's getting compensation for this um I I I think that you know i' I've been a sended principal for about eight or nine years now and I've had one Title Nine thing I've had to do um I can imagine and grown I we've only talked about it once I'm not sure that it's something that would warrant a yearly siphon and this this farma of action like I don't think we have such a rampant problem where employees are feeling that their protected class statuses are are violated each year to to justify um you know an annual compensation where if you let this go for 10 straight years that's that's $50,000 you could have done something with right um and I it's something that doesn't sit well with me so I want to bring this up the thank you I do want to point out that um I'm have always been agreement with that and we have reduced the administrative sens by $30,000 we have than you got that but this my my opinion is you know would be to I'm I'm not very likely to vote that are you suggesting tabling this um I would be I would be happy you know commissioner barzel was happy to show me the uh the the contract between administrators and it gives the board some superintendent a whole lot of power to determine how much much money should reasonably put be put for an activity and and I'm not opposed to if if there's x amount of cases or x amount of hours work then we we look to add certain amount of compensation but the the idea that you got this and you might have you might know three or four years that I don't and and the fact that you're still G to get paid even though you didn't do any work that's that's how it this currently runs in and I'd like to fix that Mr walk's point is it possible to line item some of these you could table yes so you would vote Yes on such and such exude you know abstain on or vote no on however you wanted to do that or we could table I I would recommend just because we have we have like seven people assigned for title mine and one person's getting receiv receiving compensation so I would I would support an idea of let's table Title 9 and affirmative action and everything else to me seems logical because there's no money and I think we'd all agree that with the homeless Kento those I'm not even sure if that employee happens to be administrator or not I don't know um and I want to make sure those to me that's def we want to make sure that that person always is as commissioner uh noted we do have students that are in Closter caring they part of that activ that is also um there's two components to mckin vento the actual homelessness leison which is the m vento and then the educational child welfare dcpp which is M was oh yeah but she also deals with any student that puts place in our district with under foster care that falls under because they're not considered homeless are being placed here because of a home issue home life issue and that's a this is a that takes care of that so little different than Theo but I can't speak for this board but I imagine this board would agree that we were comfortable with the mcken event the homeless welfare getting you know the compensation um but if the board says let's just go forward and I lose 415 I would recommend we table one be a motion table how do I do that move the table whenever you specifically want I moved to table B and specifically the only part of that I move to table is all the title title line position and the affirmative acting position um why don't we just wrot all of the titles to take a look at the whole entire process maybe the resolution we say let's split the pot so that does come up everyone gets top of just one person need second it's not motion it's Mr Walker yes Mrs fella yes Mrs farar yes Mrs pitco yes Mr Bo yes thank you I also have something um I just I wanted to um discuss possible immediate action as a board that we can take with respect to security um and I I want to propose that a way that we can do that as a board is to create an ad hoc security committee um where similarly right how we meet in these other committees we would have two members meet and then that would allow us to you know say rest of any security current security practices we have in place things that we're doing as a district allow us to collaborate um possibly with Verona PJ and also it allow us to report out to the community obviously whatever is appropriate I understand that security is a little different in the way that we can report out to the community but I think by having a security committee ad hoc in that way right now would be a way for us to take immediate action good idea I think lots of things that we can do better I'm always for improvement um and so you know everything from looking at our policies so looking at our buildings and making sure that um our children and staff admin are as safe as possible you know schools are among the safest buildings in the country it's you know statistic but it is also having our most precious people um so if we can keep them even a little bit safer happy to do that for a point of understanding when when we look at uh policies does if there istion that policies need to be changed what happens coming out of that you make recommendation to the policy committee to look at those policies they would make Provisions um most likely if there SCH security revisions they would include Mrs P and Mr are two train districts school safety special I also am training as safety special district so between my on every committee and having their expertise as well they could work between the policy committee and the ad hoc security committee we do have to put a time limit you have to you have to your ad hoc has to be end so you have to get a year whatever you want but when you make that um when you make the recommendation you make the motion you go on to have the committee there has to be an end time for it right you can always up the top you can always extend it but when you first make the motion should I think December 31st would work that allow us to kind of work through this year plan ahead for next year and then if we feel as though this is something that can we go from there um the other one thing I don't know if this is something that we do right now but um I had mentioned the collaboration with P but also possibly um an admin I don't know that's so I I think that not to interrupt you um I I believe to board president if you were to move forward and recommend that I also would support specific adop comme just on safety um and I I you know I think that uh you we can encourage the superintendent to assign principle at least one principle to be part of that group you mean the way Miss Dr Miller and also principal really with an admin um so that we because they're building B yeah um so we could even rotate a principal rotate each meeting have having one or two principles I do think the way Mrs palmeri sits on the Athletics and curricular committee and Dr Miller Simmons sit on education our school safety specialist could be a regular [Music] attendee yeah that's that's not they're not soal members of the committee but they participate and I love that idea of the rotating principes thank you could input be sought from verd on any guidance yes and we do that regularly that's the same you can invite anyone to a commit meeting right I just met with uh Chief kman earlier in the week over the memorandum of agreement between law enforcement and School District so I more than5 an hour in that range and I will say that they are very accomodating for our needs so I'm sure they be e to to do that have a Shand Shand as well did we do motion for creating a got I'm going to do Mr W yes M yes Mrs yes Mrs yeah yes thank you thank you you have any anything you want to bring up I just um thank you for bringing that up Mrs fera and getting that going I just wanted to go over just a couple of quick things um there are 10 of us and I wanted to just thank U Mars V Prout and family for allowing um 10 members um some of the board members and actually um our student representative ree is attending with us on Thursday administrators and staff they are funding us to go over to um St Benedict's prep in New York um it's going to be a learning day experience and I watch um 60 Minute episode it's very um re seems like it's going to be very rewarding to what we're going to get out of it so I would really um like to thank Bob Crow for reaching out and allowing us to attend this on Thursday so we'll be report back when we come back from it at our next meeting and um Mr Bo and I and GRE will be attending so we'll bring back everything to the board but it should be a great day I'm looking forward to it um I also wanted to congratulate our hbw Winter concert our students for the Winter concert that they were in last week they were amazing and all our students that participated in the fourth and fifth graders um congratulations to all of them because wow amazing out first round yeah knocked out when I had to spell my name because I wanted to put Capital um so so congratulations to be honorary competitor yes so congratulations and thank you M for being one of the judges and to mayor tamboro for being the judge and for everyone who attended so all good things and I think any sorry sorry everyone for such a long meeting thank you for being um anyone else okay back to the beginning so we are going to move on to our correspondence correspondence there's no okay question so at the next meeting the board president have to nominate the two board members that are going to be part of the St plan the authority to it does have to be formal to just decide okay very good that President apps to members moving on to our resolution so I need a motion please to approve resolutions one motion by Mrs F seconded by any discussion Mr Cruz if you could please call well Mr yes yes M yes bris yes Mr yes car moving on I need a resolution to approve resolutions um per Personnel so resolutions A1 all the way down to A6 motion to for resolution A1 through A6 on Personnel motion by Mr W seconded by Mrs Bella are there any discussions then Mr if you pleas call Mr Walker yes Mr R yes Mrs far yes Mrs uh uh Mrs yes Mr Boom yes motion carries thank you moving on to our education res resolutions I need a motion to approve resolution B1 through b 9 and 10 oh B10 sorry and are we just Reed that okay to B10 motion byov Mr WKA seconded by second M Bar are there any discussions I have a quick question for P6 what um the nonr what sta level so this is thank moving on to oh no I need a vot call Mr Cruz sorry thank you Mr Walker yes Mel yes Mrs ferar yes Mrs Frisco yes Mr yes motion carries thank you I need a motion please to approve Athletics and co-curricular resolutions C1 through C2 and remember C2 is added so it's not on theend on the yes Bel the line motion by Mr W seconded by Mrs Rella are there any discussions Mr you please follow Mr Walker yes yes yes yes yes thank you there are no resolutions for facilities on to finance I need a motion please to approve resolutions E1 seconded by seconded by Mr any discussion Mr if you can please call all W yes M yes mrar yesco yes Mr yes thank you finally um on a motion to approve governance and policy resolution F1 by Mrs Mella seconded by Mr W any discussion Mr Cruz if you can please call Mr Walker yes Mrs brazel yes Mrs Ferrar yes Mrs PR yes Mr yes thank you and we are up to public comments so anyone that would like to speak on anything we have three minutes to please state your name and come up to the podium and thank you all for being so patient and being here hi yeah thank you um I'm um few minutes some things um thank you Miss far for um suggesting a security committee um I think that is great I had sent you guys an email a few months ago um I think security is a uh very important topic and I hope that it is something that we see move forward um especially with the Budget moving forward for the 20 24 25 school year um I think with the security committee uh knowing the budget is coming up we want to start thinking about how you can utilize the finances to bring in um you know security guards and SRO officers um security cameras something something along that line I was floored by the fact that I just open up that front door and walk in I've been in this building before I'm not super familiar with it I didn't know where learning Commons was I walked around by myself nobody directed me found it on my own that fled me that's not what I'm used to in the high school that I work at I've been in education for 20 years have a master's degree I'm a high school assistant principal so I know a little bit about um where I'm coming from this was totally knew that I was able to walk in a building and had um no guidance no security uh nobody walk around with me and tell me where to go so um I think that is something we we need to look at um uh Mr D you said that there was a memor of agreement withon p is that something that is public that like is that a new thing um that we would know what's going to come about um it's posted it will be posted to our website but it's also if you just Google memorandum of agreement between law enforcement it's the same in every um school district oh so it's is a boil one it's not a specific one with how grown is going to work like in in the school yeah it does but it's the way it works in every school district with regard to um substance abuse um see certain types of crimes I was just hoping it was something a little bit more specific to put more uh gron presence considering we don't have um SRO offic that's that's what I was hoping before bur police is in our schools quite often actually and we do have h a very comprehensive Safety and Security plan for each building that conforms to the 108 point of requir checklist from the State Department of Education so uh they are not public for obvious reasons but uh we do have one for each School very comprehensive okay um mention the parent cies if you knew of any ways to actually get parents in the building I would love to know about that I went to the digital one and it was not greatly attended that was really sad um I am the title one coordinator and I try like crazy to get parents into the building of the high school and I can't do it so I would love to work together maybe we even work together blomfield and Verona to try to get get parents in because I can't figure it out um and the other last thing go hope I still have time the school lunches my daughter goes to hpw and I cannot believe the amount of money that I spend on her school lunch it is insane um and then to find out that milk is not included with her school lunch so that she spends a dollar on the chocolate milk and then right before the new year that dollar chocolate milk wasn't available so she had to spend almost $3 on oh is that my time okay so she spent almost $3 and her $4.50 lunch was almost $9 it is insane amount um that I spend on lunch and it did a cost comparison just real quick Bloomfield Verona um the school Lun in blomfield is $310 in Verona it's $44.50 and that doesn't include milk a bageland blomfield is $150 and Verona it is $3 or no dollar $2.75 sorry I'm nervous and I'm worried I'm uh missing my time here um a pretzel of Bloomville is $150 and grown it's $2.60 I know that has to do with the lack of participation in the National School uh lunch program um we also missed out I'm not sure if any body knows in two years of free lunch for our students because we weren't part of the national free lunch program during the co years soill those kids got two years of free lunch parents didn't pay dying for lunch for two years that was huge um and ver I paid every single day for my kid um so those are just things that um I know there's down calls for participating in the National School L program I know there's reasons why we don't want to do it um but we have to find a ways to if we're not going to participate keep our school lunch down because it is it's a lot that that a lot of money that we're spending um P school lunch for every day with everything else going on that's it I just jump in real quick as far as the um the memor of agreement a lot of the mar standard and you know there's also a forget the statute that was the schools have to send the blueprints of all their police local police but what you see in a lot of moas is the agreement where if there ever was an emergency that in these CS they have their their their screen they would have access have the ability to have access to whatever security caners from the school so I think that's a good one as far as the r as far as the the food service every five years the district's required to put out to bid to bid Their Food Service programming so I don't know where we're where we're at in that timeline but I know that within the next five years we're going have to put that out anyway and we'll see sometimes bid only one person bids uh but sometimes you put it out bid there's more competitors looking to get to that that market that they have so I I also hope that so just so that you're aware we've been working with crg um to do the maing of our school yeah and um they are finished and they are being their in process of being uploaded into uh bur police it's a I'm sure blomfield has it the governor came out and made it free for everyone that used to be a CA uh so that is finally done that's a very tiny Pro process but um they should have them in their cars on their phones hopefully we'll then have to use them than you thank you very much I just want to add regarding the um our national school launch uh program and uh currently the provider that we have right now is hon in um they do provide um they do participate as a national school launch uh program provider uh the uh RFP that we're currently with them we have one more year so technically the school district will go out um and the discussion I know that we're having this in finances um if we do decide to venture into the national school lunch program there a separate RP for that specifically so um it wouldn't if we are going to participate in the national school lunch program we do an RP for the national school launch program and look for a provider in in that Arena or continue staying private um and not participa in the program um I know that the cost um is something that it has always been an issue especially now with food supply issues I think this past summer in the previous year 450 uh I I I understand the concern from the parent I think um sometimes you know you actually load a lunch account for your your child but then there's also out cart menu where they have U Snapple and Gator I'm not sure what what um drinks that are available that could actually um rank up pretty quickly it's pizza and and these other additional items that they have at the disposal I think um I know that that's something that um it's a home discussion um and and I know it's a little not sure how much controls we could put in place but that's something that we could definitely uh discuss with um you know School administrators and and especially at the middle school um I men school is limited but middle school and high school that will have those options thank with regard to rmp Food Services I would be willing to entertain um when this contract expires going out for an RP regardless of what we do I I really felt a little hijacked on that our early dismissal the other day um I was told that night that if you call an early dismissal and we've cooked food you're on the for all of it so I I felted I hav either I've been superintended for 10 years I called a lot of early dismissal in that 10 years and we were never charged for the food um if we went on a dismissal so I wasn't pleased with that and I don't know whether that actually would have come to fruition or not or that was but I'd love to have a conversation with you and with the ponan uh leadership about that this just make sure we're clear this is not inflection of our we we appreciate the Food Service workers about th% and a lot of times when you switch companies the same the new compan hire the same workers uh but I want to make that clear thank you is there anyone else that would like to speak right yes first of all thank you Mr um so on Thursday June 18th I emailed the board with a few questions about the incident that I on fray June 12 and I did wish the forly during our conversation some my questions conerns were definitely addressed from the time we discussed and had the conversation till now things have continued to unravel and the story continues to change with many of us feeling mistrust for the Board of Education thatness trust has led me to now file for an open request obtain the police reports police video to verify the information that shared or not shared with parent by the Board of Education this was trust could have been simply avoided by sharing information beforeand the same information that is available on the Internet to our children and families alike that's my statement the crg works it's a great program that you're speaking of but the problem with the crg is that when you don't have enough police offic ERS to respond to the PO who will respond to correct but the unfortunate part is that the amount of walk Serv that we have here during the day and with the new housing going up the calls up service that we definely go up from civil C service from parking complaints to noise complaints to neighbor neighbor complaints will I believe put us in a difficult situation to be able to continue Safeguard our kids with that I do think once again thank you that we do need another line of safeguarding our kids which is truly the most important part in the je and why we're all here as a community thank you just the note um you have to Oprah um police Rec from the police not from us that's correct okay yes I found that oh okay I thought you were asking no correct thank you yeah anything Howard uh I didn't prepare any remarks but I mean here's a punchline the safety of our kids is the absolute it's the only priority you know you talk a lot about a lot of important stuff uh tonight you mother law is a teacher cousin and teachers I I get it nothing Else Matters right Sandy Hook Coline these are places where there were board meetings like this and there were parents that raised concerns and maybe there were committees God blessed but who knows what they did and how fast they did or how not fast they did it I don't know what the next scheduled ad hoc committee or committee meeting is you have a board of ed meeting and then it's it's Thursday maybe the meeting Friday Monday Tuesday next week whatever your next meeting is I highly recommend you pause that meeting who does the appointing of the safety people new P yes you know you go home tonight pick two names out of a hat think you got them right here whatever the next meeting is defer it and have that first meeting and out of that meeting come up with clear objectives on how you're going to get P whatever it is more cops more cameras SRO get the parents involved we don't have buses take the money for the buses and get some people here the only thing that's going to keep our kids safe is just more okay I appreciate your work whatever your next meeting is please defer and replace it with that first safety meeting and let's hear some like concrete items not like pushing off to the the year okay all right thank you thank you well first I just really want to start with Miss far thank you so much for finally bringing to light this important issue um I really appreciate it so thank you so my name again is Kristen kissner and I am a r a resident of 15 years and have three children attending Public Schools I'm here again to voice my concerns of the lack of transparency communication and training when it comes to the school safety during the last board meeting I spoke about the safety concerns at hbw following the building being accessed by an outside individual on three separate occasions in early December in which parents were only notified following the third access it is important to note again that only after multiple emails and phone calls were parents finally given proper communication nearly 10 days following these events unfortunately we are here again following the arrest of this same individual for Criminal Trespass on licensed entry of structures at Brookdale Elementary School on January 12th resulting in an incarceration for a period of two days this incident occurred exactly 10 days following the last board meeting and parents were only given formal notification on January 21st this again is nearly 10 days later and only after multiple phone calls and emails since December we have heard comments from the district that minimize the situation for example we have heard it happened outside of school hours you do not want to create Panic you are just one of two parents to email parents have not been attending board meetings and most recently we must balance Community notification with protecting the district from a defamation me first it's important to point out that a school shooting occurred in Iowa outside of school hours just two days following our last four meeting in which the school principal and a sixth grade student were shot and killed along with multiple others injured the reality is our children and staff access our school buildings at all hours just last week VHS hosted hpw band concerts with hundreds in attendance in the evening hours with the doors unlocked and no additional security measures as a result we should all be concerned about access and trespassing both during school hours and outside of school hours second parents in the district have a right to know about these recent events as this issue has been ongoing and has now impacted two schools resulting in two separate arrests over the past month parents have a right to know so that they may educate and protect their children parents should not have to write emails make phone calls or attend board meetings access this information administrators and staff should be trained so so that any incident of trespassing does not take 24 hours to report and does not require a check-in with our superintendent as to whether or not it should be reported to the to the police by now the protocol should be clear third the district is expressing concern over a potential defamation lawsuit is not prioritizing the safety of our students and staff this only demonstrates that the district is more concerned with protecting themselves over protecting our children as stated in the last board meeting we must do better and I very much appreciate you trying to do better thank you thank you thank you Mr anyone else can I just clarify something Mrs dudo I want to clarify Mrs did the right thing by calling me she was notified 24 hours after the trespass had occurred she reached out to me because it was not a clear security it was not something she noticed it was something that was brought to her attention the next day she reached out to me does this fit the scenario but we can't even bring that employee's name up that right we're not talking a close session oh very good and and again just to reiterate um we have increased the security in this district tfold and a little over year so we are security I know there's some differences of opinion and we will we'll work those out um with regard to this particular event that occurred I'm not here to argue with anyone I don't want to I appreciate you come out um I tried to reach out to people uh have a conversation because I think email loses um a lot in Translation so I've picked up the phone and tried to have conversations uh with people that have reached out to me um I hear what you're saying I understand your point of view it will um hopefully not continue to happen and then we don't have to continue to have this conversation but please know that we have as I mentioned before a checklist that is 90 something Pages for each School our our principals had to be involved in producing that when I got here in July of 2022 we did not have that we spent several months going through our schools we had experts come in from Homeland Security school security and we went through our schools they went through our plans they made recommendations I will have director gaale come up and and do it again this year put us into a lockdown tell us what we're doing right what we're doing wrong we are very security minded I know it doesn't appear that way with this one instance this district is more secure today than it was to Years Ago by far you miss Jia I do have to um because I since I've been on the board the longest up here I do have to agree with you um since you came here that was your main goal when you started you could not believe um the security issues that we've had so you know I understand what listen I we all understand everybody our children are are thing we our most PR possession right so we want to make sure our all our children are safe absolutely um and we are you know we are continuing this is theia is continuing um to work towards both goals and you know it's going to take one of our goals is communication I can do better agreed everyone can right like everyone in that life can do better but you've been you've been throwing a lot of things since you started here so um I you know I'm not giving anybody a pass but you know you have infused a lot of things with security that was unone anyone else like to come to I ask a question sure so I have a question the interior door is talk about vut doers yeah right are you aware that your VES doers are missing a strip in a moon so if somebody was to come the exterior door the inner door wouldn't lock no I was not aware of that and it's through the entire high school that's I'm sure yeah um it's I was a police officer for 28 years a lock for 30 years these are the things that I thought I for our officers so just so because it's important right so every time I come here point I come through that door and the next of doors there's nothing that would if somebody came in that first set of doors there's nothing that would prevent anybody here to secure that second set of interior doors Mr I think when somebody gets buzzed into the high school they get into they they're going into a separate area yeah so that they're not coming in through those doors just happen to be unlocked where you came through yes so you're 100% right what I'm saying is the and I'm saying maybe it's by Design I'm just bringing to your attention if you look at the interior doors by the gymnasium per right that's most of the time the second set of interior doors and that VI is missing a it's kind of like the contract then put the latch on the door the strike plate and the double doors that are Breakaway doors in case of emergency the mullon is missing completely maybe it's by Design maybe it's something that I overlooked just simply bring it to your attention is maybe it's something that we need to look at in our school systems that it's known contractors forget to put things and to us it appeared to be the norm unless you are familiar with these type of security measures that carry out so we'll have Mr um B Terry take a look at that Mr Bru thank [Music] you anyone else no thank you again for all coming out um next Retreat do that so I'll say both okay so our next public meeting will be held on February 13 2024 we are also um having a board retreat with Charlie Peterson attending um for us on February 6 from 5: to 8 so our regular meeting on February 13th will begin with confidential at 6m and the public session at 7.m in BR high school learning commments I need a motion toil piz where's I don't know where you want it from oh for the six yeah I need a motion to the meeting motion second Mr f um All In Motion all in favor I it is 92