e e did you just mute the meeting until we're ready to start e e e e e e e the adequate notice of this regular meeting as required by the open public meetings Act was provided by the posting mailing delivery and filing of this notice on January 12th 2024 this notice was on that date posted on the bulon board in the township office sent to The Courier News and tap into Warren and filed with the Township Clerk of the township of Warren all in accordance with the requirements of the open public meetings act please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance United States of America indivisible Mr Heel I will call the role Mr Mr Desai here Mrs fom Miss Keller here Mr Metta here Mr Otto Mr tour Mr Valentino Mr Weinstein here Mrs Z here we have a quorum to accommodate some scheduling issues that we're having this evening the agenda is going to be um more or less followed but there may be some rearrangement of items so at this time we will not be going directly into executive session uh we're going to head on to the minutes Miss Keller resolve that the Board of Education approves the public and private session minutes of the June 10th 2024 board meeting do we have a second second I'll call the rooll on the uh on the minutes Mr Desai yes Miss Keller yes Mr molfetta yes Mr Weinstein yes Mrs Z yes motion passes correspondence and information Dr mingle no correspondence to report there was one HIV investigation at summer fun esy it was not confirmed and then in the suspension report the board has the final suspensions from the end of the school year which was one in school and two out of school at the middle school and one in school at Woodland um thank you Dr minkle welcome everyone to the July Board of Education meeting just a couple of very quick notes petitions to appear on the November ballot as a candidate for the Board of Education are due next Monday July 29th by 4 pm at the County office forther information about any paperwork that you might need if you wish to file a petition to appear on the ballot can be found on the district's website on behalf of the Board of Education I want to extend extend a thank you to the New Jersey high impact tutoring for its Grant in the amount of $115,000 which appears for approval on tonight's agenda as item B27 and finally a sincere thank you to the township Committee of Warren who last Thursday approved a financial contribution agreement with the district which will represent a funding to the district of $150,000 in Pilot funds now that agreement has been signed by both parties and is a uh groundbreaking um agreement between a municipality and a school district for sharing and pilot funds and we are very grateful uh for the efforts of the township committee uh and their approval um superintendent's remarks Dr mingle nothing here I I do have a few agenda comments that I can give later on when we go to the agenda um so which is well first we do public there is no presentation scheduled for this evening there are two discussion items but in order to prioritize necessary business and given our scheduling challenges this evening the two discussion items are postponed until later in tonight's agenda um and they will be dealt with then um similarly committee reports are going to appear later in the agenda so at this point in time we're going to open the floor for the first opportunity of public commentary this is the first of two opportunities for public commentary I ask that anyone interested in addressing the board please raise their hand or use the raise your hand feature in Zoom each speaker is asked to limit their comments to three minutes please begin your comments by stating your name and address and by directing your comments to the presiding officer please know that the Board of Education welcomes and encourages input from the Public Public commentar intended as an opportunity for the board to receive such input but is not intended as a Q&A session following public commentary if appropriate the presiding officer or the superintendent May provide some response for this first opportunity we ask that your comments be limited to items that appear on tonight's agenda there will be a second comment opportunity for all other comments later in the meeting so at this time seeing no one in our live audience I'm going to go directly to zoom is there anyone on Zoom that would like to make a public comment at this [Music] time see none do I have a motion to close public commentary motion second all in favor I I opposed abstain public commentary is now closed Dr mingle do you have any comments on the agenda items I do thank you Mrs an I I actually have several that I'd like to just share for the board members but also for the members of the public uh related to agenda item A5 which is preschool expansion Aid the district is applying for state aid to support our general education preschool program if the district receives this Aid we will be provided funding for our general education preschool students which would allow us to return the tuition that families currently paying it would we' be able to return their tuition to them once that Aid was received and then over the next several years we would be expanding that preschool program for additional students uh as long as we are able to simultaneously expand our availability for facility space which is something that we'll be talking about perhaps today but also at Future meetings as far as uh adapting to Growing student enrollment in the district on that same front items B17 B18 and B22 are all related to Capital Improvements per the capital Improvement plan which was adopted at the last meeting we are are engaging the district's architect of record to develop plans for a 2025 referendum proposal a roof replacement project outside of the anticipated referendum and preliminary work to identify the options for meeting the district's long-term facility needs for new housing as it comes online and for our preschool and special education programs which continue to grow uh to meet the needs of our students and our community's priorities item b19 is approval for a strategic plan fac facilitator thank you to Mrs Zan Miss Keller and Mr tour for interviewing three candidates for that and a second round of interviews with two candidates approval is on the agenda tonight item b26 and c19 are combined for a shared services agreement with the Bedminster School District which is our way of supporting a colleague in the in the county with with providing a school media specialist thank you to Mr Hegel for working through some of those details we're happy to help another District in a way that does not in any way take away from our ability to provide services to our students I point to item C1 which has a lot of approvals for hiring this is a the annual process but when you compare it as well to item C5 which is the approval for new positions you can see that we have added several additional positions this summer this is to meet actual enrollment needs that are greater than anticipated so we have additional Staffing on the agenda tonight two long-term retirements Mrs razza and Mr Kilroy congratulations to both of them and thank we thank both of them for their long-term service to the district and finally item D3 which is the abolishment of a policy that was in place specifically for the declared Health Emergency there are no changes to our practices and the availability of our meeting on Zoom but that policy is no longer necessary because it's embedded in other places okay thank you Dr mingle uh does any member of the board wish to p any item for board consideration for further discussion or separate vote no okay Miss K motion to move items for board consideration A1 through A6 B1 through B27 C1 through c19 and D1 through D3 motion second I can call the rooll yes please Mr Desai yes Miss Keller yes Mr molfetta yes Mr Weinstein yes Mrs on yes motions pass 5- z uh thank you Mr Hegel at this time we're going to go back to item five on tonight's agenda which is the board retreat specifically with regard to district goals only Dr Mingle so annually at this Retreat we brainstorm on a long list of potential District priorities however last summer at this time we identified twoyear markers for our district goals so for the board members I would if you go to the very last page of the agenda we have our 2023 2024 District goals there around student achievement in ela math andal belonging and operations Our intention this time last year was to continue that exact same Focus but with our second year uh outcome expectations it's my proposal that that is what we do that would be on the next agenda in August for approval so that people can comment on it uh in the meantime with the addition of a goal to adopt a new strategic plan for 2025 to 2030 happy to answer questions about that or you know address any other ideas we have questions comments from the board with regard to district goals for 242 no I don't have any questions we've uh seen these before yep and okay I that this will appear for approval then in on our August agenda so at this time we're going to move into executive session whereas the open public meetings act njsa 104-1 permits the Board of Education to meet close session to discuss certain matters now therefore be it resolved the Board of Education jours to close session to discuss material the disclosure of which constitutes an unwarranted invasion of individual privacy pending or anti anticipated litigation or contract negotiation and or matters of attorney client privileged and prospective specific prospective or current employees unless all who could be adversely affected request an open session action will be taken May may be taken may be taken upon return to public session um the length of the meetings anticipated to be approximately 45 45 minutes and be a further resolve the minutes of this clo session be made public when the need for confidentiality no longer exists have a second second all in favor I I opposed abstain the board is now in executive session e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e motion to return to public session motion all in favor oppos abstain the board is now back in Open Session at this point um we are moving there is no unfinished business listed for this evening so we are moving directly into new business which is a discussion by the board of policy 5516 use of electronic communication and recording devices a conversation on this policy was requested by our board member Mr Weinstein so I am going to let him lead us Mr Weinstein all right thank you um okay so yes it is 5516 use of electronic communication recording devices I printed it out made sure to read it a couple of times so I knew what I was talking about um I specifically would like to and if you don't have it in front of you that's okay we can have a discussion either way it's the third paragraph that speaks about use of cell phones in school while school is in session um and the discretion of the teacher in terms of the usage of that phone during a classroom lesson and and permission of the principal and there's other uh verbiage within the policy so some of you may or may not have been paying attention to some of the the chatter that has occurred close to us in New York across the country in LA and and other places uh regarding and I guess the two are connected but I want to focus strictly on this policy because that's what we do on the board of ed versus Beering elsewhere in terms of social media the impact on on kids um but then very closely connected cell phones um so so there are schools in La that are that are Banning phones um New York City schools are planning this in February um there's a social psychologist whose last name I'm probably not going to pronounce correctly Jonathan hate or height H AI DT who's well chronicled through CNN The Wall Street Journal and other news outlets as well as uh the American Psychological Association piggybacking a lot of his comments in terms of how he feels the effects or impact that social media and cell phones let's just talk about cell phones are having on K througha districts um and by no surprise the impact and effects are not positive um there's another Outlet uh called wait until 8th which is e8th grade uh it's a pledge that 60,000 plus families have uh pledged or backed to delay smartphones until students get to eth grade or Beyond um so I I think in light of This research which admittedly is one-sided uh I just think it makes sense to revisit the allowance at all of cell phones in ourc through eight district and I'll kind of leave it at that and I'm happy to have a discussion on the board because look I don't think we're going to come to consensus right here now on on a potential policy change but I do think it warrants a discussion um if I may before the rest of the board comments um perhaps it would be helpful Dr Mel could you say what the current describe how phones are used if at all in our schools right now so policy-wise as Mr Weinstein was talking about it says that they can't be used unless the teacher has a an instructional purpose for that so by policy they're not being used almost at all but I think the the unsaid part is about students finding ways to get access to their phone when they're going to the restroom or this is really a Middle School uh discussion yeah um be the policy predates our one Ono one being so ubiquitous with Chromebooks so there's really almost never a reason now that a teacher should need students to use their own device in Warren because we provide them the technology they need on a day-to-day basis that significantly changes when the bell rings and students go to extracurricular activities in athletics that's when the phones come out widespread the current practice at the Middle School uh is that according to the handbook cell phones are supposed to be in their Locker in students Locker during the school day and not on their person um this is a common cause of disciplinary consequences for students who are seing with their cell phones at other times okay yeah I mean that's accurate I think it's I think to not have maybe severe consequences is probably part of the issue is there's there is a policy and and you know as Dr mingle stated there's certain aspects of it that really show that kids shouldn't need it during this school I guess session but to not enforce a severe discipline I think is the problem there's no fear of consequence they know ah you H it's what's the big deal it's it's and we know it's a big deal we know it's causing issues I know personally as a parent I like my kids more when they're not using their devices they're just a better you the better version of themselves and I think that can be said probably for most kids so we as a district I think Todd I think we should do something about it do you know how you get rid of consequences Rich say again Mr Mett excuse me do you know how you get rid of consequences you eliminate the problem I think it's I happen to agree with you on this topic a whole 100 well the alleged problem my alleged problem and I think there's a concern from parents to say well God forbid there's an emergency how do I get into with my my child and we do understand that and and we're not being insensitive to that but if we apply a little bit of common sense to you know our lives growing up not having it um what we the amount of time that we spent with our eyes up looking at the world around us and and getting a a a real life experience versus a virtual experience and I I'm not going to say which is better but I will say that I think that's what's missing in today's um world so I could I mean I could be wrong I don't so maybe there's some language updating that needs to happen to say they shouldn't be allowed at all if we now have Chromebooks if everybody has a Chromebook then I don't really know if a teacher is going to be in a situation where they're like would you take out your phone I I don't know maybe that's where we need to do some more research to see how often this is a problem it it seems like most kids are leaving it in their lockers they're not bringing it to the class from what I understand they have such little time in between classes to even get to their locker let alone check anything on their phone so maybe we need to just figure out like how often is this really a disciplinary issue is there a lot of repeat offenders if you will um because I don't I don't know I I just don't I honestly don't know if it's that big of an issue if kids are actually using in the class when they shouldn't be I just don't know I mean we didn't my seventh grader just got one like last month so I didn't so I totally I mean but I I just don't know it seems like it's a it seems like it's being pretty well enforced that kids aren't really using it during the class they're not if anything I think there's a lot of kids who have smart watches that are texting so we might also need to include that because that is a communication vehicle like you can text from your from your Smartwatch so um but I don't know I'm a whole I'm sorry Mr Des you no it's just going to add to what rich said in in case of an emergency the kids should be paying attention to the authorities yes not not getting distracted giving you know information to the parents there's no need for the kids to have phones during emergency that pay attention to the authority Dr mink is there any circumstances setting aside the language here about teachers can use some whatever set that aside is there any circumstance during the course of the school day where any student should have their phone on their person at all lunches bathrooms anything the only example I can think of is there are some students with uh diabetes who their diabetes management goes to an app but that's I mean we're talking about like okay three students out of 17 okay so we can provide for exceptions so if they're already not allowed at all then is it true to say that a a child who is observed with a phone at any time during the school day that consequences perhaps insufficient consequen but consequences immediately attached that the phone is what taken from them so the policy allows for confiscation and if if the board is going to consider changes to the policy I did ask the Middle School administration what would be helpful to them in enforcement the the biggest challenge are parents being opposed to the consequences being impos imposed on their children and so if it was in the policy that Administration shall confiscate a phone or maybe you get one offense the second time uh or that and there are some places that do this if if the phone is is confiscated it has to be picked up by the adult responsible for that child um those sorts of things would probably have an impact on what happens okay um it's not that the policy doesn't allow that right now but it's very difficult for the administration to enforce something like that but it with the backup of the board that would be significant there um so yes consequences follow there's a you know an increasing gradient depending on how many times somebody the other thing I want to point out is that the I appreciate the comment about the smart watches this has been a conflict with some parents in the last year or two where they'll say well it's not a cell phone but it operates effectively the same way it's extremely distracting yeah um I just right now there's nobody in the audience and maybe not a lot of people online either uh we do hear this argument that that you're all expressing from parents a lot about in case of emergency I would reiterate what Mr Desai said the last thing we want kids doing during an emergency is taking out their own personal device um it creates more chaos than us being able to manage the situation when that's going 100% I think it's any device that allows for two-way communication you know during the school this session that's it it's is it practical to ban their presence at all I mean is that enforce how would we even enforce that we're currently saying they have to put them in their lockers they have to stay in their lockers during school hours is there is it even possible and enforcable to say they may not be brought at all the the places that are putting those kinds of bands in place generally have metal detectors so that you can you know if somebody's bringing it in I I would go further to say that I don't know that it's necessary to do that because there are legitimate Reasons Why students need them after school hours and before school hours to contact their ride at the end of soccer practice or whatever um increasing the the lockdown if you will during 8 to three or whatever the school hours are would probably achieve many of the goals people are talking about and still leave the room for after hours it doesn't eliminate things that could happen during that window um or on the buses and that sort of thing but it would be very it would be difficult for us to do that without searching or metal detectors or something like that and I think you know upping the consequence and maybe it's you know you get a pass once that's it like no more than once once twice no one time like know what your focus is and be focused at school follow the rule and and you will be fine even uh on the bus uh Mr mangle is this possible we have a basket they just Dro there some of the things that happened last year to the hi cases was related to being some of the hip cases that happened last year was due to the phones being used on the bus maybe there's a common basket that people just drop their phones on the bus and spot we would probably have to find out so the the tricky part about the bus is that we're not the ones on the bus it's drivers for a private vendor however consequences for disciplinary violations on the bus are our responsibility so it gets a I get a little bit nervous about taking possession of a device that costs $1400 from each student as they get on the bus but the consequences for being seen with a device could also be increased on a USS and we do have camera access so we would we can check on complaints about that sort of thing got so it might be possible to ban the use I I don't know the enforceability question would be a challenge but it doesn't mean that it couldn't I think for me it's classroom time like I mean I understand if we're gonna we're GNA fight a fair fight or something that we believe in um there has to be a level of compromise and I think you know we we we we always hope that kids are raised to not right be negative or bullying or whatever it is on the bus and and that when they get to school their focuses on on learning and and and socializing to a degree but you know at on the bus is going to be hard and I think you know during the school you know period school day uh and then you know after okay they need to communicate extracurricular that's fine but it's the point is it's like okay if we're going to if we're going to say so then when it's violated we're going to say so and there's going to be a consequence Dr mingle do you know if if it says the policy says that um the building principal May confiscate cell phones that are turned on in violation of this policy do you know how um often that happens I mean I'm not I don't want to put you on the spot but like our teachers our staff do they feel empowered to be able to do that or is that more of like a repeat ofense it it definitely happens um I don't know I I don't I can't answer exactly how much but I could follow up on that yeah it's good question I think I like Miss Keller's idea of kind of understanding what the the data is around the volume of incidences um that might help to if we want to go down the path of of rewarding this excerp in the policy could be beneficial because I mean I personally am a believer in using whatever data is available to drive a decision because the data is unbiased volume of reported issues though yeah that could be one you know like just could be could be under reported you're right I hear you yeah I mean that's the other thing it's like I we all know what the policy says but we all know that there's a gray area within rules and ways around the rules because that's just what happens and this is just one example of some some rule breaking while not being seen by a teacher or a principal or whomever The Authority is so I I I'm a Little Switzerland on this but I'm more in favor of if you completely eliminate the quote unquote problem then the consequences do not matter and I know that there will be parents in the community that are not happy with that I'm fully fully aware of that but again if I go back to I'll butcher his name Jonathan hater height one of the things he brings up is think about when you grew up in whatever decade you grew up free cell phones and you brought your TV to class you brought the VCR you brought all your pictures you brought encyclopedias that you were reading on your desk I'm not saying this happens but hypothetically while you were there for a specific solitary reason which is to learn that's the best comparison he could come up with pre- cell phones to what potentially is happening today and again I know they're not looking at their cell phones while class is being picture book actually makes sense like your photo album like know that that's something I mean nobody's bringing a VCR but I mean yeah that's why I think I think I'm struggling like I think we all agree that it's a it's a problem it's a you know systemic issue it's social media the devil I I totally agree I just don't know if we really how much this is really a problem in our classrooms today that's that's what I'm kind of Str think it's a problem not only in the classroom I think it's a problem in general I think if you look around the kids today how many more kids get the dopamine Rush how many more kids are over stimulated how many more kids don't have the ability to have a normal conversation because they speak in sound bites because they watch garbage short clips and we're all guilty of it I mean as adults we do it but I I think it's not just a problem in the classroom it's it's a problem in general totally agree we can't we can't control all so I'm trying to get to like what are we actually doing with this you know what I mean like what yeah I I think there's two roads right there's revising the language in the current policy to um be more consequential and direct if possible or the path that I was talking about which is completely eliminating the existence of cell phones and smartw watches in schools if I may um just my personal view I oppose cell phones in the hallways in the lunchrooms in the classrooms during school hours period love to keep them in the lockers and if they're seen I think they should be confiscated and the parents should be required to come and pick it up so that's just kind of where my head's at but at this juncture we are beginning to run up against the clock here so um as a moving forward item because I do think that there's that there's a messaging benefit to having the Board of Education take on this policy change the policy change the underlying code of conduct manuals that the children get before they come to school and messaging out that this is something that we take seriously and that there will you know that the policies is being changed to address how seriously we take this and that the consequences are clear and um consistent so again start the year off fresh and in a good way with the support of you the administration telling us kind of what they think they need in the way of board support to get them to where they can run the schools effectively um that to me seems like we need some sort of um delegation of the policy to somewhere to be Rewritten that's a committee item I think we so my request would be the the curriculum committee has a meeting on August 19th which is one week before the next board meeting so um yeah if you direct Administration to bring to the curriculum committee a first draft revision which can also be circulated to the full board yeah that gives us time to even have it on the next agenda for first read that would be my recommendation does the rest of the board uh agree with that okay so so we're going to send um this policy to the curriculum committee um and then come back to the board with that committee's recomend okay great awesome um at this juncture we're going to move into the second opportunity for public commentary um uh this is open to any topic you wish to raise to the board's attention again I ask that you raise your hand or use the to raise your hand feature in Zoom remember that comments are limited to 3 minutes please state your name and address before beginning we have nobody present in our live audience so go into Zoom Last Chance seeing none do I have a motion to close second commentary motion second all in favor I opposed abstain at this juncture I need a motion to table all of the remaining items that appeared on tonight's agenda that we were not able to get to in the time frame that we had and those will appear as unfinished business on our August agenda Miss Keller do you want me to list everything or or just say just everything we didn't cover okay motion to move all the items we did not cover this evening to the August board meeting motion second I think that's probably [Music] right all right so this is a motion to table all unfinished business Mr Desai yes Miss Keller yes Mr Metta yes Mr Weinstein yes Mrs Z yes okay that passes oh yeah yeah passes 5- Z thank you um so I think at this point we have a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn second all in favor I I I opposed abstain uh this meeting of the board of education is adjourned thank you thank you please uh stay and have dinner or at least take some food with you I'm eating