##VIDEO ID:_8awoDUkSTc## 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 12 2024 this notice was on that date posted on the Bolton 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 all rise for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the repblic for it stands one nation God Mr Hegel I'll call the role Mr nay Miss Keller yes Mr Metta yes Mr aotto Mr tour yes Mr Valentino Mr Weinstein yes Mrs Z yes we have a quorum whereas the open public meetings act njsa 104-1 permits the Board of Education to meet and close session to discuss discuss certain matters now therefore be it resolved the Board of Education adjuren to close session to discuss material the disclosure of which constitutes an warrant an unwarranted invasion of individual privacy specific prospective or current employees unless all could be adversely effective request uh an open session and a matter involving the purchase lease or acquisition of real property with public funds action will be taken upon return to public session the length of the meetings anticipated to be approximately 30 minutes and be it further result the minutes of this quote session be made public when the need for confidentiality no longer exists I have a second second all in favor I all opposed abstain the board is now in executive session thank you g to go to the RoR committee e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e public session motion all in favor abstain um oppose okay act in public session um yep resolve the Board of Education approves the public and private session minutes of the July 22nd 2024 board meeting do we have a second second second which just a second to um make a few notes Here all right this is on the minutes Miss Keller yes Mr molfetta yes Mr tour yes Mr Weinstein yes Mrs zong yes motion passes 5 correspondence and information Dr Ming just one thing report here the board received one email in support of the revised cell phone policy which is on tonight's agenda thank you everyone welcome to the August Board of Education meeting and the beginning of the 2425 school year uh this is a time of year we get an opportunity to thank a lot of people that got us through the summer and are preparing for us to start the new year I had the opportunity to extend a thank you on behalf of the Board of Education to all of the individuals that work for buildings and grounds and transportation um without them our buildings would not be ready to be occupied by our staff and our students uh they do an amazing job both uh during the summer and during the school year and um just thanks huge thanks to our transportation department who got the bus routes out to everybody um and getting us ready to start the school year tomorrow will be the first day that teachers return in full and I'll be extending a thank you to them um tomorrow morning as well and in the spirit of thanks Miss Keller had an opportunity to speak to some of our new teachers Miss Keller would you like to talk on sure I actually forgot I was going to do this so I will I will wing it um no it was was lovely it was very nice to meet all the new staff members and employees who were joining um I spoke a little bit about uh the adjustment I had coming to Warren both from a a resident standpoint and as a joining the school district and kind of shared some stories there and um just told them that you know they made a decision to come here and um it's always hard making that choice if it was the start of their career or um changing jobs and so that we were grateful for them to choose coming here and uh I'm sure they won't regret it and we just want to welcome them thank you Miss Keller um we do want to welcome everyone back um and looking forward to a great school year um item C5 tonight I want to extend congratulations to the 17 staff members that have um earned the right to a movement on the salary guide through their continuing education um we're very grateful for the quality of teachers that we have here and the efforts that they continually make in their own development that serves all of our community um on the 14th of August uh the board received the resignation of board member Natalie viban um very sorry to see any board member leave very sorry to see Natalie and leave um and we want to take a moment although she couldn't be with us tonight to honor her uh in the form of a resolution of appreciation which I am going to read now whereas Mrs Natalie fbom has served the children and community of waren Township as a board of education member for one and a half years and whereas Mrs fiked bound has served the board as a member of the curriculum and Technology committee and the Personnel negotiation and Communications committee and whereas Mrs fik has served board as its representative to the New Jersey school board's delegate assembly and to the watching Hills Regional High School shared services regionalization advisory committee and whereas Mrs fik bound has established in the teaching staff parent community and administrative team a reputation of trustworthiness fairness and commitment to the district's high standards and whereas Mrs fik has served as a champion for excellence in all areas with particular attention to providing the resources necessary to support the district's growth now therefore be it resolved that the Warren Township Board of Education on behalf of the entire Warren Community does hereby extend its sincere thanks and gratitude to Mrs fown for her service to the children of Warren and does hereby wish her all the best in all of her future endeavors Mrs fik bound's resignation does open up a seat on the board of education the seat that will be filled is the balance of Miss fik bound's term that is the remaining 2024 calendar as well as the entire year of 2025 uh this is because it's late enough in the year that there's no part of her term which will appear on the November ballot so a candidate wishing to serve on the board of education um through the application process to fill this seat should be prepared to be um in that position for at least 15 months uh as every member who's ever been on the board of education currently and past knows it is a weighty decision to make um we work pretty hard but this is an opportunity I think um I would certainly Rec recommend to anybody who feels strongly about quality of Education in Warren so this is the process if you are interested in sitting on the board of education and fulfilling the term um the seat vacated by Miss 5 you should submit a resume and cover letter in which you outline the reasons for wanting to be on the board and the qualifications for being selected the resume and cover letter are due at the board office office by or on September 10th September 10th at the end of business being the last opportunity to submit those resumés anybody who submits those résumés and cover letters seeking this position should plan to appear at the September 16th Board of Education meeting where an interview will be conducted each candidate will be provided with the opportunity to make a brief 5 minute maximum statement that elaborates on the resume and cover statement reasons for wanting to serve qualifications expectations for service areas of priority as board president I will pose a series of questions to each candidate on behalf of the board and then the board will adjourn to Executive session for discussion the appointment will happen that evening when we return from executive session an individual will be appointed to serve and will take their seat on the board immediately at that meeting so I do hope that we have um great interest again I I think it's obvious I think this is important work and we have a lot of um talent in the community that uh the board could really benefit from so that is the end of my comments uh Dr mingle superintendent Mr thank you Mrs Z we are excited to welcome our staff back to the school district tomorrow all of our K8 students on Thursday and all of our prechool students next Tuesday right after Labor Day for preschool I'll provide a more complete picture of the demographics of the opening of school at the September meeting which has become sort of a tradition here but as of last Thursday and these numbers are already out of date because we've had people registering since then as of last Thursday we had 1625 students which is a few lower than last year which was expected because our incoming pre um kindergarten class is much smaller than our outgoing eighth grade class so although there's growth across first through eth grade that kindergarten class didn't make up for e8th grade however there are 101 students living in developments at addresses that didn't exist five years ago 19 students living in a development that only began issuing certificates of occupancy this month and we anticipate many more students coming in the next few months during the school year I'll provide a little bit more information about that next time but we're very excited to welcome 1,625 students plus to our schools later this week thank you Dr mingle we do not have a presentation or discussion on the agenda for tonight so moving on to um committee reports the curriculum and Technology committee Mr to thank you I actually have the two to report back not so June 10th we met and Mr Kim ran us through the IR ready results the only thing really to say from there is that um think there were no concerns or red flags that came up there was a discussion about District providing interventions and again everything that was needed was being there so we were very confident with that uh we also reviewed the Strategic plan results and as I recall when it was June 10th we're on track there so all the Milestones were supposed to be hitting at this point of time that's that's happening the only real uh I think significant update from that meeting was that it was regarding Chromebooks which for kindergarten not seen as critical and fact potentially a hindrance to the children's progress in in that phase of their education so they are not being issued uh this year to children and there's an ongoing discussion but no recommendation or decision regarding so back so in August we also the 10th uh Mr kimick ran us through key changes to math and English language arts the curriculum the probably the important things to say is the biggest biggest changes I believe are recall were kindergarten first grade and all the teachers are comfortable and happy and supportive with no issue there uh probably important to mention there was full representation across the from all of the district schools believe with two from each school I think um that were involved in this and they sat on the overall committee uh they also so were the authors of the the changes to the curriculum so it was the people using this with the best insights to as to how best the structure is they were actually writing this and are involved in rolling it out so again nothing nothing problematic there and there's a recommendation to approve that think tonight okay um the other item on here is the cell phone policy and I think some mentioned ear we have inbound on that email report the key changes to be aware of are really five so removing teacher discretion on utilization uh increase the Mandate for confiscation from May confiscate to will or shall confiscate uh a requirement for parents guardians or emergency contacts to retrieve the to be contacted retrieve the devices it includes SmartWatches and other devices Beyond cell phones and remov the allowance for use of devices during emergencies now I should should mention that for the middle school this is no real change so this is something place for some time it is a change for the for the uh for the elementary schools but again we're recommending full VI appr approval of that policy for change for the the elementary schools uh there was the only other thing of note is there was a discussion about the expansion of the preschool program but really our discussion was very with Pros cons and it's any further discussion Within curriculum committee is really planing the discussion with you guys in the finance committee as to what's really achievable and what there were Pros there were conses and general interest in landing but depending I think those thank you Mr tour the finance operations and security committee met August 19th um um we were joined by The District's Architects and director of operations for the district for a robust conversation regarding District growth and future space and development needs within the district um as has been mentioned a few times in the past board meetings and with readouts both in this committee and other committees um the district is moving in the direction of meeting a 3K um Universal pre- program need uh as well as addressing the needs that are arising out of the continuing growth within our community uh those con those conversations are ongoing and more information on that will be available at future time the committee also approved a timeline for an RFP for Council to the board and I'm going to take a second here because we had a we had a moment we're able to praise our ba who um has been investing funds for the district and earned uh about $800,000 in investment revenue for the year uh 2024 that's well done and uh that's the kind of um aggressive attention to um investment that is allowing the district to meet unexpected expenses and to keep us all um being the very best school district available anywhere and it's particularly good because we were advised that um the projections for the district's health plan for the year 2025 are expected to increase uh by double digits uh we're looking at uh potentially as much as 133% increase and uh in addressing that the um business office is going to be looking for um claims history and potentially shopping insurance providers that was the end of that meeting Personnel negotiations and Communications Miss Kell we met on August 22nd uh we had two items to discuss we talked about an adjustment to the school business administrator contract and discussed the timeline for the superintendent performance evaluation in 2025 and that was the the only agenda items okay thank you Miss Keller also miss Keller uh the ad hoc strategic planning committee so we met on June 10th and June 11th uh to hear the final presentations from two potential Partners to lead the strategic planning work uh we subsequently decided to move forward with comegno education which the board approved at the July meeting and this is to help with facilitation and documentation of a new strategic plan which is one of the goals for the next year which is agenda as part of agenda item 8 to uh on the agenda for approval tonight that's it okay thank you Miss Keller that concludes committee reports we will now move into the first opportunity for public commentary uh this is the first of two opportunities I ask that anyone interested in addressing the board please raise their hand or use the raise your hand feature on 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 not that the Board of Education welcomes and encourages input from the Public Public commentary is 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 will provide some response for this first opportunity we ask that your comments be Li 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 looking to the audience which I do not have an audience so moving directly on to zoom is there anybody on Zoom that would like to address the board on agenda items see none do I have a motion to close the first public commentary motion all in favor I opposed abstain the first public commentary opportunity is closed Dr mingle do you have any comments on items for board consideration I do have a just a few uh item A7 which is the curriculum approval uh thank you to Mr kimmick and all the staff who contributed to the curriculum revision process there B2 and B3 which is extraordinary aid for 234 acceptance and allocation I just wanted to point out that thanks to the work of Mr Hegel our director of special services Mrs Lang and our staff in the business office our extraordinary Aid allocation is about 10% higher than it was the previous year due to their efforts uh B5 this is all this is the kind of thing you'll see now as as streets come online we add them to our zoning Maps so again more information coming down the road for that B6 we've already sent a letter home to the applicable families but we are happy to be able to offer a handful of seats for a fee based transportation to our general education tuition preschool program uh we wanted to make sure we had enough seats for all of the students we are obligated to transport before offering that but we are able to offer a handful of seats on a first come first serve basis at this point c16 I want to reiterate what Mrs Zan said and thank you Mrs bbam for her service to the board of education and then finally D1 which is the it has a long name but that's the cell phone policy that um Mr Tor reported out on just to reiterate what he said this expands on our existing ban of the use of cell phones and other electronic devices during the school day I will send a letter home to all parents tomorrow afternoon giving more information about that so that we're ready for the first day of school on Thursday that's it for me okay thank you Dr mingle does any board member have any items on board consideration that they wish to pull for separate Vote or discussion see none Miss cower motion to move items for board consideration A1 through A7 and A8 as it reads resolve that the Board of Education affirms the recommendation of the superintendent and the special board subcommittee regarding students 622 2203 and approves the attached resolution items B1 through B7 C1 through c19 and D1 through D3 motion second Mr H I will call the RO on the consent agenda Miss Keller yes Mr moletta yes Mr tour yes Mr Weinstein yes yes Mrs Z yes right the Motions carry 5- Z thank you Mr Hegel um we do have unfinished business from our July meeting um so we're just going to go down those one at a time the first item that um was carried to this board is the board retreat item uh board self- evaluation and goal setting um I'm going to recommend that we table that further to the next meeting when um hopefully we will have a a cre a percentage of our board members present and a new board member so um I'm going to make a motion to table that do I have a second second second I don't think so all in favor I I oppose abstain all right so the board retreat item is carried um moving on to the next item which is the election calendar um you'll bear with me I'll give a little bit of history on this item traditionally in the past up to about 20 10 um the election of Board of Education members took place in April not in November also on that ballot in April was the board's budget uh budgets were always submitted to the um voters to be voted upon in 2010 under the administration of uh Chris Christie there were a lot of changes made including the concept of um being able to um approve budgets without going to the voters as long as they met certain criteria um including no more than a 2% increase on property taxes um and then a limit on defined waivers um and adjustments at the same time that that happened um districts were told that if they wished to Avail themselves of passing budgets without going to the voters then they were required to move their elections of board members to November and for obvious reasons most districts did that in January of this year um the governor signed legislation that gives the option back to Boards of Education whether or not they wish to have their Board elections in April or November without consequence to the budgeting process um so we're putting that out here for at least an initial conversation to see whether or not the board has an interest in that among the benefits um experienced in the past by having an April election of board members was that it more closely aligns to the Academic Year and so rather than seating new board members in January when the district is deeply in the budgeting process um we would get through the budgeting process before having a change in board members um so with that um brief background um I'm going to open it up to conversation with the board yeah I mean I think there's I think the budget has benefit and I also think things like superintendent evaluation it's just when you have that stagger it if it doesn't align with the school year you don't get to see those full you know the full school year experience because I'm assuming when would the term when did the terms then start it's an April election for a what may is I think typically when the new members were sworn in U one consequence doesn't bother me but I'll mention it it would result in every currently sitting board member would have their terms shortened um by about seven months as we roll over to a new election date so anybody whose term currently expires at the end of next year would have a term expiring in May instead of in J in December I do think it aligns more with the school year and it makes sense um because I as a new as one of the newer board members I remember saying okay I'm really just inheriting what somebody else already had agreed to so I think there's a greater uh opportunity for impact if you come on kind of at the end of the school year and preparing for the following it would be at our cost but I don't believe the cost of holding an election is all that high we've done this in the past for referendums Chris do you do you have any idea roughly what we spend on that not offand but I I don't I don't believe you should let that get in the way this decision fair enough I mean at this point um you're paying for two things uh you're paying for the staff to run the elections and you're paying for the space to have the elections and now a lot of that space is here so we'd be just paying ourselves in those cases so um yeah I wouldn't let typically a low turnout election so if um the board agrees that this is something we wish to pursue um then I would uh ask our Administration to look into the time frame and whether or not we can get this on the April election in 2025 if we're going to do it if that's something that the board believes is beneficial and they want to move on it then I think we move on it expeditiously dise is it consistent across other District s and or other no no um I'm not aware um of any other District having made the decision to move back to April um that's not to say that they won't this is fairly new um legislation um so I I really couldn't say I will say that this has come up um before the boards of long hill and the and the high school um I believe also watch on I watch their board board meetings and it but it's come up very tangentially and in passing and and none of them seemed moved to act upon it or move on it further okay we're definitely going to get less voters in May than we will November I think that's I don't know that that doesn't drive my decision but I think if it's not coupled with uh governmental elections you'll see lower turnout for this maybe those people are more dedicated I don't know but I do like this separation of our Board election from anything political that is a benefit and I will say that um if you go back a couple decades and look you're not going to find it very often it was a competitive race so whether it's in November or it's in April um we have three seats this November and three candidates if you were doing that in April it' be the same y three so I'm not sure it matters people show up if there's not choice true so so we are at form we can direct the administration to proceed to identify what the process is for this and then put it on the next board meeting as an item to do a full presentation and approval on is that appropriate [Music] to okay we Direct okay um okay thank you um any further comment on that folks nope okay moving on uh one other um unfinished piece of business relates to District policy 0145 uh board member resignation and removal there is a um language here that I'm going to propose um we modify slightly if you agree then this would appear modified for a first reading at the next meeting um so this would be the second full body which currently reads a member who fails to attend three consecutive meetings of the board without good cause may be removed from office and I am proposing that it reads a member who fails to attend in person three consecutive meetings of the board without good cause may be removed from office on the affirmative votes of the remaining board members um we um approved a year ago a little more than a year ago um Zoom access for board members and this does not disrupt that um but we would like to see board members actually at least once every three meetings appear in person um we don't want a situation where somebody is on the board and they every third meeting dial in on zoom and we never have the opportunity to benefit from actually interacting with that particular board member so that's the that's the modification I'm proposing again a board member who fails to attend insert the words in person person three consecutive meetings without good cause may be removed if um so I opened up to conversation and uh see what you think about that just so I'm clear yes okay you're you're stating that board members need to attend three meetings in a row is that what you're saying here yes in person in person yeah well they can't miss three consecutive so it's the opposite okay you can't miss three consecutive meetings without having in person and that dialing in by Zoom doesn't cure that okay all right then uh that'll appear as um a modified for a first reading on the next agenda um no other there is no other unfinished business um we have no new business for this evening so we're moving on to the second opportunity for public commentary uh this is the second opportunity for public commentary it 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 raise your hand feature on Zoom remember that comments are limited to three minutes and please state your name and address before beginning looking to the room where there is nobody except Brenda we love Brenda but do you have anything to say Brenda no she got nothing um and moving then on to zoom do we have anyone in our Zoom audience that would like to address the board on any topic seeing none do I have a motion to close second opportunity for public commentary motion all in favor opposed abstain a second opportunity for public commentary is now closed um we will not be utilizing the second executive session and therefore is motion to adjourn motion second okay everyone in favor opposed abstain thank you everyone