e e e e e e e people would plant a lot more of them but too bad they only give us this oxygen stuff okay now I need to take yeah and this is Sarah um and we'll talk they're going to tell you a little bit about some of the things that they did this year but we had a little ceremony the end of our Earth week and Sarah wrote an original poem so she's going to share that with you tonight the only place where flowers grow the only place where birds can fly Where the wild animal goes where there's The Bluest of Skies our Earth is strong beautiful and green our Earth is Big with Secrets lost and seen sights Beyond comp hair and beauty beyond belief nothing shares the way that it beams the Earth is our home to both you and me it it's home to all from ants black and small to plants green and Tall it's home to the clouds shadowing the trees the Earth welcomes all and so should we we should thank the Earth for Sheltering you and me so we're going to continue with our um with our little presentation um and I also o just wanted to kind of remind you these are um fifth graders they are they just finished at Hurstville so as you listen to them just keep in mind how young they are and their passion for the planet okay so this is Giana recycling in our schools recycling is a process where many material that would otherwise be thrown away can be manufactured into new products this can help reuse materials and cut down on trash students can help by recycling materials that would otherwise be discarded and this is Paige what are the three Rs and what do they mean what is the meaning of reduce reuse and recycle reduce means to cut back on the amount of trashs we generate or create reuse means to find new ways to use things that otherwise would be would have been thrown out in the trash recycle means to turn something old and useless like plastic water bottles into something new and useful like glass playground equipment and recycling bins this is Franklin Franklin's pretty passionate too and funny thank you why we want recycling for our schools we want recycling for our schools because we don't want dangerous plastic to Blue our planet we want it to be recycled into new things and the environment to be clean and safe and Conor uh okay you did some math yes why are we here so there are approximately 10,000 students and over 1,600 employees in Washington Township Schools if every person discarded just two items per day that could be safely recycled how much waste would that be well 10,000 students plus 1,600 employees equals 11,600 people and 11,600 people discarding two pieces of trash would be two 23,200 pieces of waste per day 23,200 um * 30 would equal 696,000 pieces of waste per month 696,000 * 9 equal 6, 264,000 pieces of trash that could have been recycled per school year that's a lot of waste this is Liam again so I have three facts one of them is recycling helps to reduce the need for landfills and more costly forms of disposal my second fact is recycling helps the environment and the Animals Health Plastics do not break down and can cause potential harm to many animals and ecosystems fact three plastic tops and tops the list as the most common items found in the ocean including bags bottles bottles food containers Cutlery wrappers synthetic rope and fishing items where in order for our recycling to be recycled it needs to be picked up by the township Waste Management even if we have a bin in the building it just gets thrown in the trash imagine how much more we can improve all the recyclable items go right into the trash that's not responsible once there's a place to collect recyclables for the township then we can have two bins in each pod one in the TCU building four in the cafeteria one in the main office and one in the nurse's office and one near the fourth and fifth grade hallways green Club is happy to teach our students [Applause] how what is Recycling and why should we do it recycle is like the magic trick of turning old stuff into new stuff we collect things like paper glass bottles plastic containers and metal cans they go to a place called the materials recovery facility or mrf where they get turned into brand new things imagine your old homework becoming a new book or your old soda can turning into a new bicycle instead of putting our trash in the ocean that's amazing recycling is important because it keeps our planet clean saves resources and stops the piling up in landfills and other places like fields and beaches it's like giving things a fresh start [Applause] questions we have how do we go about getting the township to add schools to the recycling pickup route how do we get enough bins to to provide the schools with a place to put recyclables how long can this process take what would this cost and who would pay for it isn't it the law to recycle why don't we oh this is me um I said said I would talk about green Club past and I mentioned um a few the first one um the second one last year the project was the kids collected and donated number five Plastics um to be reused um they're broken down and used for different things like playgrounds and such and um we had about 10 large boxes that we shipped out to a facility um the kids each year are very passionate about educating so they go into the K through two classrooms to teach little mini lessons and have activities um they do all kinds of things from coloring plate Pages they made their own presentations on canva PowerPoint um to teach the littles and the teachers love it too they have about a 20 minute block of time they give up um once one time just one time their recess or their intervention period at the end of the day so that they could do that um last year the year before we sold refillable actually that's not true it was before the pandemic we sold uh refillable water bottles um that had little husky logos on them if any of your children went there you might still have yours um to reduce how much uh single-use plastic bottles um we had in our trash um years ago our very first green Club established a butterfly garden and it is a certified Way Station Wy um and it's supposed to have butterfly attracting plants which we have done in the past but they somehow get weed whacked and then uh last year with the proceeds from our spring Sprint we donated two trees um and this year they will tell you about what they did um but I just the point was clearly these kids care all right next we're almost at the end I promise what we did this year we went to the Town Council okay what we did this year we went to the Town Council to ask for helping for to ask help for getting recycled we taught K to about recycling uh we had an earth week uh where each day we had a different theme and we also had a no waste lunch during this Earth week and also at the last day Earth week we had a spring Sprint fun run to raise awareness enjoy the Earth and raise money for green club projects we also sponsored a poster contest with prizes for the winner um we also purchased a bench with what we got two two benches oh yeah you we got two benches uh with the fundraised money that we got from the spring Sprint Fun Run yeah we plan to mulch our butterfly garden which Nev gets weed whacked every year and add planters for the Outdoor Learning area we're working on that herfield Elementary can't do it without you please help our schools recycle thank you that's it thank you for having us thank you for having them thank you for supporting our green club and um I don't know they're special kids I think yeah don't go anywhere yet all right so two things that I have action items on right so number one we whacking clearly um and and two the concept of I I literally I'm baffled to think that we wouldn't recycle so I wrote that down I've already emailed to to have a conversation because that doesn't make any sense to me whatsoever so I'll get right on that for you that's great I mean that's something that's great for our planet you guys did a great job thank you very much another round of applause and I they they really they really did do this this was this was all them and we have some certificates and we want to snag a picture is that is that okay gang great awesome all right you want to come down you want me to call them okay we'll just take a picture with them all okay all right Paige but cavoli stand you have your picture TR isn't here we had some children who were um on vacation one is Trent shetley he was very very involved so want you to know that too Giana [Applause] Andress um miam could not make it either Mariam cashlin was a very active member Liam Berger Anastasia Morrison couldn't be with us tonight either Franklin Aila they say it right practicing Sarah Tuttle come this way honey um Nola Harmon couldn't be here either and Connor foodie do I have to say my name [Laughter] too uh big hand for Mrs colan and all of her hard work thank you very much thank you yeah pictage the have all of July right big [Applause] handy you're in a picture damn right good to see [Music] you like most amazing than for that we had a chance to see kids that was awesome we saw kids amazing we're going to continue with the meeting now so if you guys want to leave feel free if you want to stay that's bye guys have a great summer guys thank you job okay the next uh part of our meeting is to discuss the district and board goals which we'll be putting up there what I'm going to do is ask the board to comment on any of them I I everyone had a copy of them so I I hope that you had an opportunity to read them but they'll be up on the screen shortly School Board gos okay what you have in uh on the screen is the uh School the the board goals that we set um I think that's what we got right yeah those are the purs okay all right having said that give you an opportunity we'll go through them one by one um and I don't want in suchal your intelligence by reading them all so you can see them so I'll ask the board if they have any comments on uh our first goal what what we what we plan on doing is reviewing these uh goals and then we will have a go setting uh meeting uh probably next month we will do that and I ask the board to uh submit any of their goals that they might might want to see for us okay I guess my question is how have these been measured do we have information on whether or not we obtained the goals that are listed well it's my understanding that you know if the board has any concerns about them I mean I I read through these I mean I thought we were pretty good on them but I guess if the board has has any goals I guess I guess what what you're saying Pat is we have to some have some kind of measuring device to see if we met the goals yes yes okay well we should work on that for the goals for next year Well Ari gave me a uh a copy of something from the from the school boards and what we is the school what we will do is involve the school boards in helping us with this because they recommend that and then we should have uh periodic updates throughout the year which we will do so Hand this just questions yeah I don't know you can throw it out to the board talk yeah Connie uh on on the first goal uh create and maintain a self and healthy environment for the students I know several months ago um I tried to support our student board member um that brought up at a um a meeting that the U Mr Ross and myself attended where the concern was at the high school uh students were doing a lot of vaping in the um in the bathrooms and actually this is a goal that why I even brought it up is because it talks about create maintain a self and safe and ha healthy environment uh what the student board member brought to our attention was the fact that you know could we consider looking into getting some type of um for lack of a better word like you have a smoke alarm they have these these items that could actually detect when kids are vaping in the bathroom I did bring that up I think it was probably in February and we talked briefly about it and I just wondered if the administration is going anywhere with that we talked about maybe a grant that we could get that um you do have to have somebody that would be able to monitor that we do have and thankfully we uh rehired our Hall monitors that will be outside those bathrooms that could uh get that information uh if something was going on in the bathroom and I just wondered are we anywhere in terms of looking at trying to support our students at the high school with something like that or any any discussions going on um I haven't heard anything since February Al hibs um so they were definitely not in the budget um as you all know we had a a difficult budget there are absolutely something we can research however um there is there's good information and not so good information on Vape detectors so there's a lot of false positives that will come um they are not always tried and true however um sometimes they definitely do they do work um if the bathroom is large enough one might not be enough which could be a really expensive Endeavor however I think the the Genesis of that conversation was that we were we wanted to ensure that kids felt comfortable going to the bathroom I think that's really where that came from and one of the the goals this year um um you know under under security would be to have our Hall monitors be um be mobile and checking on classrooms as appropriate or bathrooms as appropriate um but there's no reason why we couldn't look into this and get pricing on it um we sometimes do get a safety Grant year toe it's not a consider considerable amount of money and the high school alone has I mean numerous and numerous bathrooms but it's certainly something we can put on our our to-do look or to do lists to look at that's great thank you yeah any other comments on on number one I'd just like to say I think uh uh the administration is uh working on a code of conduct which I think will uh will be a big plus for us uh I think that's going to change yeah absolutely uh we are taking good hard looks at our code of conduct uh to the community we've had um we had certain things that were not in our code of conduct that quite frankly needed to be there uh for instance the concept of uh students videoing fights was a real lenient consequence which should have been much more strict um fights in general we've had some real doozies the last few years um we are going to be you know always supportive but intolerant of of those types of assaults on other children and next year or in the years past we have utilized um budsman as our anxiety placement and then ALS also our behavioral placement uh we have severed ties with them and we will be doing this in-house with our staff next year so if you know you're going to see that if children are involved in in in very very severe fights there's going to be there's going to be very strong consequences we need to reframe and reset that those types of actions are not um they're not acceptable and I'm not saying we won't support our kids because we absolutely will um we have a ton of incredible counselors um but we need to set the frame that those types of fights premeditated videoing are just not what township is all about and we need to be better than all that so yes we are totally reframing uh across the board High School Middle School elementary school sir just on this one I think we made good progress on that one I mean getting you know an officer in every school was huge to at the high school so that that see is very positive the the other part of it on Mental Health I mean care soless was put in place and continuing that next year as well right we absolutely are and I I think you know was well over a 100 successful placements that we had right mral yeah so car Solace was good so it's being used oh absolutely yeah and it's and this one this this goal is tough too because um even if we wanted to it would be a horrible decision for us to say hey here are the 15 things that we did this year for Safety and Security cuz then we do on camera is talk about what we did for Safety and Security and the general rule of thumb is you should just never ever go on camera and talk about Safety and Security because there's there's a lot of things that we we do and have done um you know that that we put in place to to strengthen our security year after year and a lot of those conversations will run through committees and then the full board so you're never going to hear us stand up and talk about the concept of a new security technology I think Vapes different um you know they would figure out what they are I think we'd have different issues with them because I think honestly at times they'll probably just get ripped right out of the wall um so we're going to have to figure out how to how to operate around that um sinks toilets literally get ripped out so we have to you know we have to deal with with those types of behaviors um but you know I I think this is a part of what what we have to deal with and just I want the public to know that we're not going to talk about specifics but I don't want you to think that we don't have a ton being discussed there's always a ton being discussed with security with car soless I'm glad to hear it's being used I was curious to see if it was being used I think one of the things we continue and I know there's a lot of effort around making unawareness uh I know things were sent out to parents and stuff like that but just wonder maybe with um back to school coming up in a few months if we could do something with that Ian I think it's a huge topic that families and kids are struggling with and the more we can make them aware of the tools that we provide for them for mental health yeah AB on the list making you know families and parents know that it's available to them and what it's about I think a lot of people might still have questions about what it is and what it's about so maybe back to school night you could put something in around there yeah we can we can certainly do back to school night uh and I think other other times during the year I know I know Jen you blasted it out several times um and we typically try to do it in front of areas where we know that you know in front of holidays in front of vacations we know are typically times where people are sometimes sad um so yeah and for those of you that don't know Kos is basically it's a it's a support system that allows our staff our community to really get connected with the professionals that they might struggle to get with and you know if anybody has ever had a child that has had uh needs a mental health appointment it is very hard and you sometimes are very frustrated and the appointment is 9 months out and you need to help your child now so car Solace will help you with that and it actually streamlines the process Jen anything you want to add to that thanks for bringing this up because this is a really important topic um know carousels um does a great job in putting families in touch just like Dr hibs had mentioned but in addition to that I mean our school counselors are mental health providers and also we have a grant for transitional coaches who are also our school-based Mental Health Providers and we have another Grant from NJ fors um from the state of New Jersey and they provide tier 2 uh Services they also provide uh tier one Services for Families so um I'm happy to to blast that out again I try to do it periodically so families are aware and they do know what we have and I have it on our web pages as well for the counseling so thank you thanks Jen okay if there's no objection I think uh I'd have to say we met that gold L there's someone any board members so I think we met that met that goal uh goal number two uh ensure Administration establishes maintain fiscal responsibility within our school um let me first say I I think the administration tried to do that I'm not so sure you know we we met that because there were some some concerns you know with personnel and all so I I'll say that right up front so anyone want to comment on item number two be careful a go it's not to be evaluation of administration con I like to comment um Dr Hibbs uh as we're as we're moving forward and uh there's been a recommendation where we have Community getting involved in the budget and I'm sure this this is happening but I'm just wondering what your thoughts are in terms of and and being new to the district to completely look at all the programs that we have the different um responsibilities of the people that are employed to kind of have a an idea of uh you know what we need and what we maybe could allocate in different ways or change I know there has been some steps being done already uh for instance in the middle school with the foreign language program where you looked at that and I just wondered if the plan are to to be even more comprehensive as we move forward and as we look at where we can look at the budget and the kinds of things that we need to look at what we need and what we can make adjustments on if that makes any sense I know you've you've done that in some areas and I just wondered is that something that you're going to do more comprehensively this year yeah I I so the the very simple answer is yes you know so where we are with the budget is that we are compiling um we're compiling what we think at least the personal aspects will be uh it will probably take us through you know the end of augus is so that we know what a a decent forecast and then we need to start having conversations um so yes this this last this last budget um was very hard we had to make a lot of difficult conversations or decisions and have difficult conversations in a short window of time so the goal the goal this year is to hopefully forecast the board um I would say late August sometime September you that's a a fair sketch yeah yeah and and to be clear that's salaries there's no way we could actually forecast the entire budget because we don't have any idea of what benefits will come in at um like we had no we had no no forecast really that we had to budget as much as we had to budget for benefits uh last year so that those kinds of things we have to take as they come um but we can we can plan for contingencies and know what a 5% 10% 15% increase might look like um but yeah um and I I said this publicly before you know we you know S2 was not a surprise to Washington Township and you know I I came in in May and despite what was presented we did the very best we could knowing that we had seven years to prepare for this and I'm not judging I'm just simply stating what the facts are so you know you have to rightsize staff and I'm not saying I don't support staff it's a very hard conversation but you have a responsibility of rightsizing if you know that your trajectories are all going downward which they they 100% are it's it's a a proven it's a proven fact so we'll know what that looks like um and then we're going to have to make recommendations on what happens and the options are and the board is going to have to I I want you to to to have great in-depth conversations because you know it was there was varied opinions on the budget this year and I really would like to get to a spot this year we had plenty of time to talk about it and and really come to a a consensus as much as possible we never want to cut staff that's never what we want to do um people's lives they affect children they affect our programs uh but we're going to have to balance the budget so but we don't know what that bottom line number is yet but we will know you know hopefully by September regarding salaries at least and then we can go from there thank you okay any other questions I just wanted to say hopefully we have talked about that for the next year we'll update the public throughout the year at board meetings as far as how we're doing with the budget information and also I was wondering if we could think about creating a long range facility plan um and a financial diary for implementing the plan throughout the year because it seems like that's a big issue we have too is our buildings are old we need to start thinking about how we're going to take care of them in the future we we we we most certainly have a long range facilities plan um you're required to have one um you know I I think one of the conversations that we engaged in and I I it's all blurring together I'm not sure if it was B&G but um you know what is going to happen here at some point and for those of you in the audience and for those of you watching at home we we do not put a lot into our capital reserve account you know this year um I think inside our budget we had about $125,000 worth of projects which is not a lot at all for a district of our size it's actually alarming um we're once we do all of our Rod grants and Mr Liberty does a great job of discussing this we're not going to be able to even take advantage of the the free money the state is going to give us that's that's really it's really alarming and it it it just shows right there that we're we need to to make different decisions in order to bolster our Capital because I know that conversations come and go about bleachers and other specific items but it's really if you get out of the specific project and just get to 10,000 ft on it we're we're an organization that needs to fix things you know any organization has to worry about you know brick and mortar the roofs the paving the concrete the the big the boilers and we're very blessed and lucky to be going through the energy audit and I know we talk about this hopefully that will get us millions of things but it will only go so far so in my in my opinion what what should happen is that we should do a a thorough study of all of our buildings and then that way if the board ever does have to have conversations about different ways to do things like a referendum which inevitably I think you're going to have to at least talk about because we're not going to be able to carry this load eventually we will not be able to to address to address what we need to address address even with the energy audit um with what we're what we're looking at in the trajectory of our budget but if we had that fullscale look of our buildings then you would know what your high priority items would be we would be able to hopefully take advantage and figure out how to use the broad Grant how to really leverage the energy audit all would which is essentially free things and free money um and then you would you would obviously then have conversations I would think about a possible referendum down the road that obviously would have a tax impact but there's going to there's going to come a point where we're not going to be able to do things and we we consistently as a district put off capital projects in order to not cut staff and that is very Noble it really is but at some point it if you let things go past a certain point we know what happens if you maintenance them you can keep them you know Mr Lindsay I know you're you're in trades if we fix something and we we replace parts you know we might be keep it running 10 to 15 years longer and the bleachers are actually a great example of that everybody I know we're taking some hits for the bleachers but just so you know we kept all the existing steel now with that existing steel there were some areas we had to have treated and there's bolts that we had to have fixed but everything above the steel is what is gone so that we could redo so we are attempting to really be as you know as fiscally appropriate with with projects as possible um when we took off the I didn't say this in public but when we took last time when we took off the the plastic portion of the bleachers the wood was rotting and just rotted and we had you know we had a few instances of of benches breaking with people on them and if you've been in our stands the benches are really long so you could have a number of people on a bench falling down which is never never a goal um so I think those are the conversations that you're in my opinion you're going to have to engage in moving forward Okay I uh if there's no objection I think we pretty much met that gold as well um the next go recruit retain and develop and Empower employees who embody the core values of Washington Township I think with the uh uh addition of a new HR person I think we're really pretty much well on the way yeah uh to that yeah any comments on that and and Sean you want to I'll say something real quick and then you can maybe talk about some of the highlights and you know there are things this year that that we've done that we've never done for instance demo lessons Sean that was under your leadership that we implemented demo lessons right we didn't really have a full scale system for demo lessons so we would have an interview but we wouldn't see teachers in action so we're having demo lessons now I know that you are exploring another um another solution from Frontline um that is more robust and really integrates better uh with the the candidates that we're seeing now um I think you did one of the first meeting greets in here right you brought everybody together but take a second and talk about just 10,000 ft stuff that we did yeah to follow up with what Dr hips just mentioned um just lean in Sean yeah to follow up with what Dr hips just mentioned the um lesson plan the demo piece um in terms of us interviewing candidates for certified teaching positions U we wanted a consistent approach to to make sure we're seeing teachers in action when possible um to allow us to gain a greater sense as to what they bring um to the table in terms of instruction and classroom management so demo lessons have become a staple in what we're doing in the hiring practice for our certified staff um we talked about you know the attracting candidates we have a a system in place right now for our applic online application process um it's it's cumbersome takes a lot of time for an applicant to complete that process so we're looking to streamline that um with some new tools um to to make it a little easier um and allow us to to kind of screen candidates to bring them in um before they have to submit a a formal application in its entirety um another recruiting tool that that we uh started to bring into place was um College job fairs hosting them here in District uh we had one in the fall and one in the spring um turnouts were were good from our local colleges and those relationships are are strengthened um and we'll continue to work on those um we also have you know we try to welcome as many student teachers into the mix as possible um it's great experience for them and it's also helpful for us as a school district um it's helpful for us in order to to get to know these candidates and potential um teachers that we would Welcome to our schools um we we met with them with an orientation at the start of the school year to lay down you know expectations and to let them know about the job opportunities that await them um not just with us but with also with our substitute provider ESS good job did you talk about the job fairs that you put on to did you hit that yeah awesome good thanks John so I think uh there's no objection I think we met that goal uh goal number four is support the staff Administration in regards to uh the analysis of data you want to talk a little bit about that yeah for sure um Pam you want me to start and then you can jump in okay so for those of you that don't know we transition to an online platform called linkit link it is an online testing platform uh so essentially in in one year we revised pacing guides at the elementary built pacing guides at grades six through high school with the ex uh no six through six through high school um they were developed then we developed uh common assessments uh to be administered in linkit in in every grade level with I think the exception of geometry we couldn't get the geometry because there was um there was a it was a new book issue that we paused for there so in one year we literally framed out the standards um through pacing guides which we didn't have at certain grade levels and then and then built assessments that is literally probably like a threee that's like three years worth of work that we did in one year uh and then that will be a continue uh a continue revision process uh we also and I I'm going to give Pam massive Kudos because one of the many committees that she ran uh with with a lot of other staff would have been our digital vetting committee and uh we're going to have um we're going to have I ready in place next year instead of star which I ready is not only adaptive so it'll it'll push a child to their zone of proximal development but it will also be able to be assigned by a teacher on specific standards so the reality is is that the simple concept of common assessments we have major additional and supporting standards that we have to teach um let's just talk about math as an example so we will use a pacing guide to outline those standards and when they should be taught the common assessments measure the proficiency on those standards and what staff are going to do is they're going to remediate all Mis standards in the classroom with kids whether it's whole group small group any other way that a staff member wants to do it because they're the professionals and then we're going to use our online tools to support that learning uh which is a it's really all comes together in what is an incredible process Pam anything you want to add to that um than yeah um in this school year um I've had the pleasure to work with um our talented teams of uh administrators and teachers and we've established a district data team so when we talk about the analyzation of the linked assessments of any of our digital content of our state assessments um this team is playing a large role in that it's also giving us a K12 concept for how to look at data across our district um we worked as a digital vetting team as um Dr Hib shared um we've been having professional development on instructional approaches so that we can reach all of our students um and we've built that data um a cycle of data review again having that shared concept from elementary middle and high school so that we're all talking the same language um as well so we're we're excited to see that impact on our overall student achievement yeah and and I I'll just say this I know that our scores recently came in uh and we saw more green than not green so uh we saw improvements in in a lot of grade levels and that's that's one year and we're excited to see how this process keeps moving into the future to helping our kids just just you know we're all trying to get better one day at a time you know one standard at a time lot of lot of lot of hard work to be proud of you your team all all of our staff so it was it was a lot of hard work in in one year so great job very proud okay there's no objection I think the board met that goal and I feel good about the goals uh as I indicated we will uh uh meet in our one of our August uh meetings to try and develop new goals ask the board if they have any that they want to send in please send them in to uh actually send them in to me through Lori and then uh we'll when we discuss them we add that okay well on on the board goals did you also say you were thinking about bringing school boards in yeah I think yeah cuz I think that would be helpful cuz I think yeah I think it'd be helpful to have school boards come in you know I know like last year Carol did a facilita process where we talked about buckets and things like that areas that we wanted to make sure we had goals in but crafting them such a way that it's within the board's scope of responsibility I think is an important concept we need to keep in mind right because there's like some of the goals like hire and retain well we only hire and retain one person right but so we have to figure out how we word it as to what we as a board can do to help Advance some of the areas and the concepts that we want to make sure you know the district pursues so I look forward to having school boards come in to help us with that I'll talk to ter Lewis about that and we'll set that up thank you I just had a quick comment for uh Dr hibs actually um was trying to get it earlier but move forward a little bit faster sorry um no it's okay um what's been the since last year to the implementation of the new uh systems as far as online with linkit and everything like this has there been a very positive response as far as the ease of use with the programs compared to last year's systems or has has the response from the teachers been this is really this is really helping our students this is you know has it been more productive has it been more of a is a you know I mean I understand it's only one year into its term but it seems from what you've been telling me from the data that and Dr Nathan you can confirm this that you saw a lot more positive with the implementation of link it and these other systems and also the possible support for the teachers as well I mean is that pretty much what's been so consens we definitely saw growth um in in the same year that we did Implement that system but that's not discounting all of our incredible staff and teachers um what I will say is that there's there's been a lot of change in in the first year um and I think that the staff is is doing really well with that change and we're going to have to continue to support with professional development uh big shout out to um our intervention Specialists uh who I really think have done an amazing job uh and really take all of our online programs and really detail them for our staff um Kathy Liz Mike and Josh um do just an amazing job if you don't know any of our intervention Specialists they are truly special people and they bring our initiatives to life so they're the ones helping train on Google and they're the ones helping us learn about parent Square um they're the ones that are helping us train on link it uh so I think that we're I think Pam is doing a great job of trying to um of trying to have realistic um implementation expectations so what we look like now will probably not what we look like two or 3 years from now but I don't think it's possible Link's a massive program and as a leader what I what I believe is is that you have to set the frame on what the basic expectations are and then hold hold that line on on what we do and then you'll have people that will go way above but if you just have everybody on the same footing then a child in third grade at herfi is going to have the same basic experience in in in data or in having data remediation than at TJ um Pam you want to add anything to that sure yeah just a second our Tech integration Specialists are amazing um and our interventionists have been piloting and providing PD helping on that data team helping with teachers understand the data um so we do we have great teams working with us um I think anytime you create an assessment it's a very challenging task and it's not something that's a oneandone so you'll see um throughout this summer there was um uh board agenda items for revising our assessments and that's because in year one we see what worked what didn't work and in those analyses analysis we're able to see these questions toed to get information and uh accurately assess our kids um so you're going to see a lot of that revision work this year um and we're adding geometry uh as another example of just kind of scaling up um our impact in these areas so I think everything's hard before it's easy and you know what I I should have given a a thank you to Jamie Morgan uh Jamie Morgan did a tremendous amount of work on linkit in in all of our buildings helping staff understand what it is and working with people so definitely want to make sure I recognize Jamie and his hard work any other board members okay if we can put we can put up the district goals now [Applause] okay um and we'll go through them the same way we did the board goals uh goal number one elevating academic Excellence I know that we get criticized about this but I think what Dr hibs has done he brought in and takes a little time brought in his own team he's got we got a new assistant superintendent new HR person and you know working them with the people that were here I think uh I I think he's working pretty good with the academic elist excellent you want to comment yeah I I think that um so I I think I think this this this District goal is is very similar um to the fourth board goal so um you know meaningful personalized learning you know um student empowerment student growth um data driven instruction I think we really kind of hit a lot of that in the first conversation so this is something you know Pam is there anything else you want to add I think that we really kind of hit it so the first so what we everything we said for the last one with with link it and progress monitoring um for the achievement gaps that that all just applies right to to what we're doing here we also uh Revisited all of ourmes last year we built newmy um constant revision of curriculum anything else no I mean yeah I think we hit it I think we did all right goal number two to Safety and Security that pretty much parallels uh the the board goals uh I don't know if you have anything new to say about anything additional to say about that no yeah I think that yep I think that would follow right along what we talked about and and it's very common for board goals to dovetail into District goals dovetail in the superintendent goals because we really should all be you know rowing in the same in the same direction so yeah nope I think we're okay secur he's not here yet afterwards yeah okay foring well-being yeah and I I think this really you know we talked about the concept of under the safe and healthy environment Scott brought the concept of um of care Solace I think that would go here um Jen is there anything else mental healthwise you want to hit on thank you we actually did a few other things regarding um mental health so one area is at the high school we have a grant uh which is for team mental health first aid and we targeted our sophomores and everybody received a tier one um lessons um in the springtime and we want to continue we train teachers and counselors and they Implement um team with the health trainers at the high school so U we have a year two of the Grant and we're going to continue that so this way we'll have uh 50% of our students trained in first so it's really been beneficial we've been really forunate and also I'm partnering with the Mental Health Association and uh we doing uh September is suicide awareness month so we're offering a what is called a QPR training and they're going to be offering that again we did it for May for mental health awareness but we are opening up for a free session training for uh anybody in the community who wants to join us on zoom and they can be trained in suicide uh prevention and the steps of being a goke keeper and we're also going to be uh offering that to my staff for professional development so those are just some examples of goal number three yeah great job Jen uh and you know our we couldn't do that without our incredible counseling staff um at at all of our levels um so I think that's that's something that we focused upon string yeah I like to um make a comment on goal number three ums I'd like to make a comment on goal number three um I'm really happy to be a part of this board where we were able to find a pathway to bring back our traveling counselors and the counselor at the high school there's been a lot of research and a lot of things in the media that has pointed to the fact that our kids have have suffered and continue to suffer mental healthwise as a as a uh out outcome of the pandemic and I'm I'm really happy that we together collectively have done something to bring those people back because our elementary students deserve their support thank you yeah second I second that it's awesome all right goal number four professional development yeah so um I mean I'll go 10,000 fet and Pam I see already grabbing um we start this process the year prior in in figuring out what what PD we we really are looking at for the following year this year especially um you know you know from I'll start you pick up uh a lot of PD on linkit a lot of PD on Google um a lot of PD on um Dr Nathan has um instructional strategies small moves with uh for big impact so Pam you want to take it away sure so just speaking for this year we had our district PD days so the opening of the school year um we had mapped out we plan as an administrative teams so that roll out is um uh consistent in all of our buildings um we had our Google PD Day in February where all of our different Google applications our staff members who were our Google experts uh were also um we utilize our department meetings our sessions our faculty meetings all of those um opportunities this summer we've already uh listed about 83 different sessions uh for professional development thanks it's good service um uh for our teachers um and it's a combination of inperson and remote sessions so that we provide that flexibility for um our teachers during the summer um our topics uh again are focusing on our digital tools um so the range of digital tools Genesis Google um linkit I ready um all the way to um instructional approaches are specific to content especially with curriculum adoptions um and then also our Danielson evaluation model um so those again will be what we're keying off on as we enter for this new school year as well thank you anyone else all technology we pretty much paralleled that with one of the board goals you want to yeah I so I mean the main one that we did is that uh transferring to Google will save us millions of dollars over the next few years um it will also increase battery life Chromebooks you know I think the one that we're going for uh is about 14 hours on a charge whereas older um surfaces you know sometimes last an hour or two without being plugged in and there were power issues so that that alone technology-wise was just a massive undertaking and I think we'll we'll pay dividends um pay dividends we are in the process currently right now of the final transition from um from Gmail or to Gmail and also uh from one drive to Google Drive so we're going to have everything buttoned up uh before staff arrive uh we're working through some of those you know final hiccups trans you know movements right now but I think we'll be I think we'll be in a good spot Dr hibs I just have a question uh this will replace entirely po School great question so Genesis will entirely replace power school yes uh it also will replace IE observation which is where you paid separately for that you might not even realize you did it that's where we had our value valuation model for Morano uh in moving to uh in moving to Genesis which has a an evaluation piece we were not allowed to legally Place Marzano into it for proprietary reasons so rather than waste that portion of it which really would have been silly because the whole point was to have one integrated system Dr Nathan did a great job in working with the with the staff to to pick a a new model and working with the indicators for year one to really have a pretty seamless trans transition um you know at least indicator wise and then we'll continue those conversations year after year but yeah Genesis for those you who don't know is our new power school um but it's it's more than that it's evaluations it's also professional development and it's HR and its financials so so we won't be uh we won't be utilizing power school at all yeah power school is going to get phased out absolutely um thank you yeah yep okay um pretty much I think we we did pretty good with our goals board goals and the district goals once again uh I ask the board members to send to Lori uh any any board goals that you might have so when we have our meeting um sometime in August we'll be able to there was one more that was on the bottom just to draw your attention I think if you go on the website one of the district goals was on retention recruitment but we've already address that through the the board goals that was very similar just didn't want you to think that we Overlook that one okay moving right along uh school and community relations Dr hibs you have something I do give one sec okay uh let's start with the food bank uh quick reminder that our food bank is scheduled for August 21st behind the 910 wing of Washington Township High School from 8:30 to 10:30 anyone visiting uh the Mobile Food Pantry uh asked or asked to enter the back of the high school at 509 hille Cross Keys Road off the ganttown road entrance and park near the basketball courts where the pantry will be staged clients will be asked to provide proof of residency at the time of registration uh blood drive uh the Washington Township Public Schools are partnering with the American Red Cross to host a blood drive on August 6th it will take place in the boardroom right here from 12 to 5: only 50% of our appointments are filled it's actually probably less because I signed up for 12:30 um and uh we need your help from the community so I don't know if you know right now but there is a you there's a very big blood shortage um and they're they're desperate for all types so you can uh you can contact us you can go on uh the red uh redcrossblood.org and enter um the code wtps or you could actually just add extension 6321 um and it looks like they're giving away a $20 Amazon gift card for for giving blood not a reason to give blood but I'm reading what I was provided meal applications as we prepare for the upcoming school year ensuring that every student has access to nutritious meals is more important than ever the New Jersey school nutrition Association recently released a video designed to encourage parents and Guardians to complete meal applications for their children uh please see the link on the front page of our website to access the video address changes uh has your family moved within the township this summer if so we definitely need your change of address information so we can ensure your child's proper placement and transportation for the 2425 school year please contact Matt at uh extension 6698 to start this process uh if you get to anybody in here and just say you need help with registration we'll get you to the right spot uh you can also check your parent Square account for instructions on how to complete the process electronically um and if you don't know parent square is our new um K Swift We were we were told emergent that they were going out of business so we had to completely stop what we were doing and find a new a new uh communication um pathway as of right now we have uh we have really good parent support on that so we can see it daily on who comes up we can see the dashboard what percent we have to work on texts because I think that um it looks like you have to opt into that so we're going to have a push to have people opt into texts so I make sure that everybody has what they need uh but it really is um a robust system way better than what we had uh last and certainly not least mother's cupboard and Angels community outreach thanks to the donation of non-p perishable items by students uh and a staff dress down day the Washington Township School Community was able to benefit both mother mother's cupboard in Township and Angels community outreach in Pitman uh Mother's cupboard received groceries $300 in shop rate gift cards and $35 WWA gift cards Angels community outreach received groceries two boxes of children's socks and a combination of shopright and Aldi gift cards worth about $300 sir okay thank you uh correspondence I have a motion to approve the letters of discipline and correspondence under correspondence is listed so moved second all those in favor I I opposed thank you approval of the minutes ask for approval of the minutes for the April 2024 uh have a motion so moved second second second second thank you all those in favor I opposed okay old business uh just to note that our student uh our student uh uh person that Edward Mill will be recognized at our August 20th meeting and we'll be introduced to our new student board member kalista Tara barelli yeah and and she goes by C we met with Cali I think it was yesterday but it's all blurring together uh she seems like a fantastic uh student rep and uh you know Mr Anderson and I met to talk about how it would work and how we could have uh not only horizontal articulation at the high school but vertical articulation at the middle schools as well because I think it's really super important that we have that and we also talked about uh having all those groups having a project that we could work on so that we could really show that we benefited something I know this you love measurables so we want to have like a measurable so we can say hey we worked on this this is what we got better cuz a lot of times we put kids in a room talk about hey what can we fix a lot of times they're they're very quiet so that's just how kids are um before you go on can I talk about Kindle for a sec so old business um for those of you that don't know we are opening a we're opening a brand new building uh essentially from scratch Kindle Elementary is going to house about 150 of our of our prek I want to I want to thank a lot of people but um Christina Cox gret and Gerber Pam um the business office um Jerry and Jeff from buildings and grounds all of our maintenance and custodians um I definitely want to Will shout out Tom and Jeanie who really hustled to paint the classrooms so we really took a building that was sitting really kind of dormant for a good stretch at least a year to two years and we all know what happens when you leave things dormant so we are doing every everything from cleaning to mulching to tree cutting um to addressing the playground to lowering the toilets nursing supplies you know books for the library you know figuring out you know the air conditioning piece um you know security Food Services Bobs so top to bottom cleaning painting um flooring and all of this is happening out of the paa grant which is amazing so it's it's coming not out of our local you know it's coming those types of things are coming out of the Pea Grant so our goal is to have a building that we are very proud of that you know when you when you drive by and parents drop off it's going to be a very presentable pretty old building it's for those you have never seen it it's very similar to um grenlock older building um it's it's very old when you walk in it's anybody wants a tour happy to arrange that I mean like molding this thick off the floor it's just it's awesome now we had to do some Renovations because not really renovation but we had to take out um closets for cubbies CU there's specific Cubbies we have to have but I just want to this is this is a massive Endeavor just it's massive so I I just want to let you know all the hard work we're engaging in I was there I don't know if it was once or twice this week already but I'm I'm there weekly um you know we're dealing directly with Pitman Pitman is being very Cooperative I hope it's a partnership that we can continue for years to come and quite frankly I hope there's other spaces that we can take over because obviously it's way cheaper than building and we get the money from the state um the struggle we have just for full transparency sake is the providers that say they're going to use us and then drop so we sometimes have to scramble because we we wait on notifying parents about providers for that very reason so if we can control it with other buildings it's it's way better but in absence of building which I don't think is a possibility right now um this is the best we can do and I think year after year we're going to research new buildings I know Scott put us on to one that we're researching right now they just there's a there's an application process just so you know that if we miss that window you wait the whole next year so if you you might drive by a building and think well why isn't Township using that um hey if you see something always email us we'd be happy to go look into it but we're we're really trying to make sure that you know we go after things in the right way but if odds are we found it we found one massive building right after um right after last year's closed um and they close windows for us for whatever reason the window for a new District who does not have paa is longer than the window for existing peas um I don't make the rules we're just trying to do what's best for kids so um we are we doubled our universe in in one year which is just downright amazing for Township and if we can keep doing that in the next few years will will will be over what they say is our universe which is something that will'll pay um will'll pay dividends for for for a lifetime you know there's so much research on on the many benefits of prek not to mention it will save the taxpayers of Washington Township you know you know Millions over the long if we stay this way forever okay thank you any other old business Scott one um so on Old business so uh since the last meeting I got uh on the budget Community input task force uh Ari got me his uh updates and edits and suggestions so those have been Incorporated um I sent that new version out to the board so you all should have that in your email um I think it looks pretty good I mean um and I would like to move forward with it so I think everybody's had a chance to look and comment and hopefully we can keep this moving forward so unless anybody has any objections I'd like to make a motion that the board um supports the business committee moving forward with the budget Community input task force and that we uh post it and start to get applications in absolutely okay so if that's the case I'll put forth a motion that the board uh supports the business committee someone needs to Second moving forward with the budget Community input task force and moving forward with publishing that so we can start to get applications second any discussion I I'll just real quick Scott thank you for for doing that yeah because I mean I think that if we could use uh community members and their expertise to help augment on what our great you know business administration does here I think it's a win so the more people that we can involve the better so thank you for doing that yeah you're welcome absolutely any other old business Bloom roll call yes Miss Chilla yes Mr de Mayo not here Mr Li Liberty yes Mr Lindsay yes Mr Serano yes Mrs Baker yes Mr Ross Yes okay any other old business ask a quick question how do you want to do you want us to post that like we post like yeah I I'll send you the memo and then I think we can just work on taking that and posting it and Janine and I talked a little about kind of mirroring some of the language that we use for the um open board seat post I got it you want this to go um like through parent Square to all the people that we can reach do you want us to try to send this out using Township further that'll get you up on the website or you could or you could just do the website I I would I my recommendation would be do that and however we advertise for the open board seat okay we'll that perfect yep guys okay that y okay okay Ral I have all business yeah go ahead Connie um yeah at the last meeting um I I brought up rather late so I I realized that the administration didn't have the information on hand uh there was an item that was voted on uh with a teacher for last year who um was to be paid for emergency uh coverage um it seems that a teacher that was working with her in the class maybe a special ed teacher I don't know that um was on leave and not there for a period of time and the district wasn't able to place somebody to replace them so this teacher did the work of two people and uh I think it was brought up do you want to table it and I certainly didn't want to table it I voted no because I didn't have all the information but um because I wanted you know I wanted it to go through if it had to for her to be paid so I didn't hear back uh Dr hibs from the administration since our last meeting what the what the total amount of that was that was my question um I didn't have a question about the necessarily paying somebody that did a job last year and uh it was a $44 an hour that this person would be paid and my question was what was the total amount that we were voting on so I'm just wondering does anybody have that information today yes ma'am Sean $1,724 66 thank you okay any other old business um I have old business so um we had our interviews for the open Board of Education seat and we had a lot of wonderful candidates and we did not arrive at a decision so I think as a board we probably owe it to the candidates to at least formally communicate what our next step is what we plan to do um if they haven't received letters which we didn't direct Lori to do that I think it would be incumbent upon us to at least I saw uh one thank you letter come in today but I think it's we should be reaching out and saying thank you for interviewing and then letting those candidates know what the next step is instead of like kind of leaving them hanging wondering what are we doing so that's my first question I guess to the board we're going to communicate with them yeah we can do that you have another question are we going to communicate now yeah we can do it we'll send a letter out to them what are you communicating just to be clear just to tell them tell them where we but we decided last last week that it was a deadlock and I mean I I thought AR you explained what the process was I explained the process in public I I did explain the process in public last time as far as communicating to them I'm not opposed to it I I just don't know if you all are in agreement as to what you want to communicate right now so um that I think we probably should have a conversation as to what the next step is for us as a board and to communicate with them to let them know that obviously there's a lot of community confusion I know everyone's looking at me like I'm crazy I don't think people there's a few people here that interviewed that would probably like to know what the the official next step is because I think it was a little confusing when we came back in a session and didn't have a decision but there was no timeline to say we're going to do this next we're going to have a discussion at another meeting whatever that is I think we should communicate that next step whatever that is I as as far as legally speaking the board has 65 days to appoint somebody which we talked about last time again I don't you know I can't speak for the board I don't know if there's an intention to revisit this at a future meeting and if so which meeting um I the board is going to have to answer that collectively you have 65 days to appoint someone if not the county superintendent makes that decision okay can't we just we have the email probably of all the candidates couldn't we just email them all and let them know that we were deadlocked and that the board will continue to discuss this at a future meeting and that when we have a a a decision we can communicate with them I don't have an issue with that we can but I think as a board we should what date will we be talking about it right because I think that we should probably know as a board to make sure that we're all going to be present August is typically a busy month but I would like to know what date we collectively is board would like to have a formal discussion I think we owe it to the candidates that took their time to interview so that's all I'm saying I like to make a comment too uh Ari did you tell the public what would happen at the end of day 65 if we don't have a decision I did I just did it again the the county superintendent has the authority by Statute after 65 days to appoint a candidate generally what happens is they collect the resumes of those that applied and make a decision okay well you know uh my suggestion would be at the next uh board meeting being an executive session uh we can have another discussion we can do that okay so next session in executive we'll discuss yes okay good 20th would you like Lori to send that email out yeah I mean I think it would be appropriate is that okay everybody okay L you okay with that thank you and then I have another uh piece of all business so at the last meeting um I mentioned and it seemed as though there was board support for an ad hoc committee for a community council um I referenced the cell phone usage policy and different things that I think would be helpful to get the community involved um I just wanted to know the update because as I read our board policy ad hoc committees are designed and appointed by the president so I didn't want to take ownership and do anything because we have a policy in place that says that's a Ral to do so I didn't want to be bold and do that I know the full board wanted that um I mean we can go back and look I believe Scott I believe there was support for the the community council am I mistaken car that is that the same as like years ago we had a parent advisory committee years ago is can you tell me is there a difference between them years ago I don't I don't know about a parent advisory my my suggestion was just to refresh to have a I'm just calling it a community council that uh can meet with the superintendent so when we have different initiatives that are being rolled out the superintendent has the ability to also reach out to I'm just calling it Community Council so then that way he can solicit opinions maybe bounce something off of the group that he's going to send out and I I mean I just think that that would be appropriate and last meeting unless I was mistaken everyone was in agreement that that would be a good idea I don't know if I'm wrong I like to make comment you brought up a good a good point that the cell phone usage I think Dr Hibbs brought that up at the next last meeting that that's something we're going to need to talk about Y and that being said um one of the things that I I wonder with that would would the administration be meeting with the teachers first before we would have the parents get involved or would the teachers be involved in this committee yep and also we received some communication as a board that the and I you know maybe Dr hibs can weigh in that the the uh code of conduct is not being followed is is that true or that statement that was made that the code of conduct is not being followed with the with the cell phone stuff um Mrs Baker I I I did respond to you on that correct uh didn't see it today you no I think instantly on a Sunday um so love the gotcha moments they're just awesome in Township can just can I interrupt for a second can I just get an answer to my question about the ad hoc Community Council because I feel like we just went in a completely opposite direction I don't mean to cut you off and I apologize I I'll come back I'll I would just like an answer let's go back to it I think that yes absolutely teacher representation should be on this Council I mean we can talk about it I I just want to know the ownership of it because our current policy 0155 states that the president designs and appoints ad hoc committees so I don't want to I'm not chair of any committee to be able to own it like Scott's chair of business and took ownership I'm just saying how can we do this what are the next steps to get this off the ground to start because I September's going to come fast so I'd like to get it in place take the cell phone issue that was a very pertinent issue and I think that part of what you brought this up my my question would be does the administ administration feel that's the direction that you want us to go you know um I don't know so why don't why don't we I don't think the administration hold on a second this this is a function of the board let's just to create a committee what Carol's saying she wants an ADOT committee if she if the board's okay with that then I will talk to Carol about designing it and if the board wishes to do such a thing that's the way we'll go just like we did with Scott I'm got to pause for a second what going to be an ongoing committee is that it one committee doing a lot of different things okay the very nature of an ad hoc committee is they're created for specific reasons so typically ad hoc continues until there's a time that the board feels as though that the adhoc committee should be discontinued so we may never dissolve the ad hoc committee for the community council this was really to kind of benefit and have Dr Hibbs have a direct line with members of the community that as we're rolling out different initiatives I also gave other examples of things that have been rolled out that it's just to benefit that he has bounce things off of parents in the community so what I would like to do is I would like to just take a vote are we all in agreement that we would like to then we can talk to Dr Hibbs and others as to exactly how it should be formed I just want to know are we 100% in agreement this is a good idea that's why I'm bring I ask a quick question first sure so the only thing that would be really important to me is that and I this is not me with any disrespect um and and I am the one that's held most accountable here right so feedback is feedback sometimes feedback is taken sometimes feedback is not taken I I this has to be very clear that this is a awesome Community Forum we'll sit down we'll have great conversations but if I decide to go a different direction like I I'm doing it because I think it's the way the district should run so I'm absolutely all about having and we could do it like a coffee clutch we could do it however we do it we could do it we it'd be great conversations with the Proviso that and it's the same conversation I have with my administrators when we sit down if we're hiring for instance um uh a supervisor or a principal at the end of the day I have to put my stamp on it so as long as that's the clear understanding here is that I I have to sometimes make a call you know cell phone could be a great example of that you know we're going to have good cell phone conversations um no I I would definitely not to replace this this going to be an ad hoc committee that's going to vote one way or the other vo nothing like that it's really just a matter of it it appears as so sometimes communication is hampered in various areas not necessarily your fault it just is so I think that this would just be a great Avenue that we can grab you know parents and other stakeholders you know whoever we think is appropriate so so you can sit down with them whatever the Cadence would be of meetings I just want to know as a board are we a yes do we want to proceed forward because we have to as a board Carol just one is it a committee of the board or are you just asking Eric to sit down with parents an ad hoc of the board that we report out I understand but are you the way you're explaining it it's the superintendent in front of the community members are the members of the the committee me the Ed hoc committee members of the board going to be part of this have to it's committee no the way you were explaining it that was not the case Okay so sorry so it's really the same setup as Scott is doing with the Strategic business planning committee this is no different this is just community council members yes as board members we have to certain whoever rap wants to appoint to be on the ad hoc committee would have to be on it cuz it's a board committee it should be formal that we report out at a work session as to what's going on with the ad hoc committee okay so this isn't a one and done is everyone in favor of that well I think one of the committees or a subcommittee should take take it and kind of draft out what it's going to look like I I haven't gone through the experience of putting the business one together people brought up a lot of things I hadn't thought about Ari brought up a lot of things that I hadn't thought about and that we hadn't thought about we put parameters in there to make sure we didn't get in trouble and I also think making sure we get you know Dr hibs is input on what be so I don't know maybe sack right like maybe or instructional Affairs one of those two committees could take it and work to put that together take it I don't know if it fits there but yeah we could force it I guess my point is is that we also maybe this is a policy that we have to review because it specifically says the president design and designs and appoints the ad hoc committees and we didn't do that in this case for what you did with the Strategic business plan did we have one last year well with the with the Strategic business plan I think it was I made a motion so that it wased by yes it's just that this doesn't really neatly fit into a current committee I guess that's the issue right so I don't know who owns it I just want to take a vote make sure we're all in agreement and then what's next yeah why can't you just put it through sack which is also I mean that is Communications why could you do the same exact concept that you did with with uh with business yeah right am I am I missing this so what's SC brought off is going to filter through the business committee correct right is that right that's that's the a hoc it's it's filtering through the business committee the business focused one yeah yeah and what I initially did was motioned to make sure the board supported moving forward with drafting yeah corre and we weren't going to actually implement it until everybody approved moving so why don't you do the same exact process I'm not on sack but sure if the sack wants to do it that's great you are cuz sack is IIA it's together no oh I'm sorry what are you saying gets done it doesn't matter what I me sorry I think Pat your committee could spearhead so yeah I just wanted to say we haven't talked about board goals tonight I thought that would be tonight but it's going to be next month but one of the board goals I had hoped we could do was something with Community communication and the way we could show we did it was I would talk about Scots we could do that and report back this is a type of committee we could and to me that's going to create a better environment with the community if we have these kinds of committees correct so can we first I'm going to make a motion to create an ad hoc Community Council committee that's my motion you say that it put forth a draft of of the that we agree that we would like to have one created we're not I mean a draft of having one cre yeah Carol you said community did you say that you thought we should have teachers on this committee or just the community um well I think we can figure that out with a draft We could decide that when we when we get the committee I have no problem with st on all right I'll I'll talk to Carol I made a motion yeah I'm going to talk to Carol about that so I just want to make a motion to create a draft of an ad hoc committee um deemed Community Council that's what I'm looking for so if anyone wants to Second it perfect a roll call we don't need a roll call do we well we don't need a roll call for this m chill yes Mr Li Liberty yes Mr Lindsay yes Mr Serrano yes Mrs Baker yes Mrs Bloom yes Mr Ross yeah I'm in favor of that but we didn't have this such ad hop committee last year did we no just starting it this year okay yeah yep okay I can share all the stuff I have too okay I'll share everything I have like all the input I got CU I think a lot of it will be transferable to that awesome thank you all right I have a motion to open to the public on agenda items move second all in favor okay all right Randy Ford hi good evening Randy Ford uh wanted to talk about I3 which I think is the harassment intimidation bullying report and this is uh just first I want to say that this is no intent to be a gotu moment I just reviewed the agenda before this evening and I think the reports wrong um not having any of the independent verification for the report just a few things the total incidents on I think the second page do not add up so you have 17 52 and five incidents totaling 62 but it's really 74 um I'm assuming there's multiple locations per incident because there's 114 incident locations across the 74 incidents uh reporting periods you have a summary sheet but then the backup behind the summary sheet doesn't pull forward the right numbers so like for instance you say there were 39 trainings and 93 programs but then the supporting detail shows 55 and 60 respectively and even that 60 number so not a not trying to be a gotcha just before the board votes on it just want to make sure that it's accurate and then also what's reported for reporting period one earlier this year that report that the board approved in February those numbers are not the same numbers that you're showing as reporting period one in this reporting period to report so those are the things I wanted to point out on that and then also just it seems like a it's a there's a low number of students that are targeted in the Target population for trainings and programs for instance if I'm looking at the report total for the year says 100 students were targeted and during that same reporting period our average enrollments 7300 people or 7,300 kids so that's like 0 1% if I'm doing the math correctly so I'd love to just recommend or ask why we're not targeting students more with the programs um so that's that's that on that um and then just the other item I wanted to call out was uh J1 the instructional Affairs so the only thing I'd wanted to I can't tell if reading the paperwork that was provided for what I think is a great case study whether or not Washington Township will be one of many districts looked at or it's just we are going to sort of specifically be spotlighted and if that's the case I'm concerned about how they would maintain anonymity of the district when we have public records showing that this person who's also a past alumni of the district which is awesome right class of 2010 according to the documentation I just would get concerned about anonymity and would just ask that the board consider look to make sure that anonymity of the teachers the district and you know any other identifiers are actually kept Anonymous or can be adequately protected before voting on it so those are just my two items and I know Dr Hib and Janine I sent some stuff earlier just about some other items I saw but so again no intent of a gotcha moment just wanted to call those things out so thank you um I I don't have a way of of double-checking those numbers right now so I think the best call is to just pull the uh report for tonight and then let me let me double check the numbers with Dr Gregor to make sure um there are other variables here such as the um there is a way that we actually can um make a a preliminary determination that it was not HIV that could skew those numbers but I I'll pull that back and I'll have Dr Gregor watch this um thanks comments thanks R appreciate it um can you hold that for me and then I'll get that to Dr Gregor thank you lur um so if we pull I think that's the best way and I can put it back on in August I I3 so we we'll pull that number yeah okay yeah and then as far as the second one goes there there is definite clear language because we always go through this um on how to protect the an an anonimity of you know of the district and the individual staff that would choose to to go so I don't Pam I don't think we had any concerns about that piece of it um so I think that their perspectives definitely outline that piece but I think the the proper course for the first one to be safe is to pull and just double check our numbers thank you Randy okay thank you ter she okay don't mess with it okay hello good evening everyone I got to cross a lot out because a lot of things were discussed already tonight so I'll hopefully be brief thanks for your time tonight um I wanted to follow up about the curriculum for media studies when there will be some updates and how we can review I'm still very concerned that we're trying to include computer and Technology curriculum into the regular skills learning for classroom teachers it's almost August has any training or skills review been provided to elementary teachers at this time um it just goes to my overall concern that Personnel are being asked to do more with less um we can't afford to fall behind and stem and this means focusing on those skills especially in Early Education the world and essential Services just ground to a halt last week because folks may have um become very Adept with interfacing with technology but they are missing fundamental foundational understanding some very Elementary Concepts like starting your comp computer in safe mode what's an operating system right um anyone else's kids ask them to search it up um try explaining that I can't just ask Alexa if Five Below and Pitman has hand sanitizer with flowers in it um you can't and I unfortunately do not have the skills to teach my young children about Boolean searches I think it's a mistake to not put more investment into stem and have the best and most robust pro programs just because of the pervasiveness of Technology um again I just have concerns about asking classroom teachers to take on very specialized curriculum in an already busy day are there any updates on the enrollment numbers for the elementary schools particularly my children's School Birches or other schools are there still planning to be a reduction in classes resulting in larger class sizes per um grade has the administration confirmed that evaluated any of the physical spaces needed for the those extra students and extra adults required for inclusive class classrooms in the existing space um thank you Mr Chile you brought up a lot of my concerns around more accessible and better communication for the community I think an ad hoc committee is a great idea I fully support it and I would love to participate I was happy to hear some my other questions were around the preschool program about the new buildings um so happy that we're investing in that I was wondering if you have any other details you could provide about the future growth of that program for the next year this beyond the buildings especially since some funds are going right now to non-district employees and to non-district schools and are there any future plans to transport those students thank you yeah I I you can only do some um Pam you want to take the the first part sure um so our technology uh skills standards they're going to our media Specialists they're certified to teach those things it's actually part of their license um so it's a special that our elementary students have so it's not an extra um additional portion that's being written into the classroom teachers um day or schedule it's part of their specials um as far as curriculum any revisions and writing is done in the summer um which is all finished before the school year begins so those opening days of school anybody who wasn't a curriculum writer because often times the people who will be delivering that curriculum we hire as our writers they work with our supervisors to make sure that um we're all ready for that start of the school year um so anybody who wasn't a curriculum writer gets that training as part of our opening days it's built into the contract to have that PD time and then we do PD throughout the entire school year um class size we monitor all the way through the summer and if things get to an uncomfortable spot we will um we will pull the plug and we will add a section so we're going to constantly monitor all the way through I'm not prepared tonight to talk about specific buildings or or or classes but that's 100% what we'll do and Mr Sweeney will lead that charge with Mrs Gerber um communication I think we hit on um future growth so future growth is interesting so as opportunities come up we're going to grab them um I I can't create opportunities because really the best thing for us to do in my opinion and I'm not saying it would be the the best financially would be to build a very big building where we could house all of our kids knowing that Washington Township is an enormous School District right cuz we're we're always going to have little ones that we want to have as part of our three and foure program however that's not an option so being that that's not an option and our buildings are really they're they're jam-packed um we have to look for outside space and then providers we don't love providers cuz in the end they're not really our staff um they have to they have to adhere to our requirements but they also can bail on us at at any given moment which is just very sad but it's the way the system is built I can't change that so so you know in in one year you know we went you know and more than doubled I think our universe and our goal every year is to hopefully find better places but that's really the path that we're on is the constant search it's you know it's it's like The Hobbit we're going on the track um every year and and hopefully we can we can continue to find spaces we are not allowed to as part of those spaces we're not allowed through that money to just you know to totally construct so we are allowed to do small Renovations there's very specifics that's why coming across a Kindle would be great um we would love to expand if um you know they also have uh I think it's walls is walls is it wall or Walls Elementary plural right or same s so Walls Elementary that they're not using as well so we're hoping that you know if if an opportunity exists there or any other buildings in and around Township Kindle obviously is not in Township but it's literally 7 minutes from here so it's closer from here than you know than a lot of our other our other schools so that's that's the best I can give you in the moment um uh we have uh strict time parameters on that so we're on the hunt now so if you have any good spots let us know um and uh and that's our goal you know as you you mentioned Transportation you know transportation we we try every year to to throw some more kiddos onto buses we just simply you know and you everyone knows our budget from last year we just can't physically afford to do all that in that year so we make the call to to know that you know you know the average if the average prek is you know call it $10,000 for the year and that's probably under um right under but let's just use that as a number you know we're saving that times 150 for next year and I think parents are thankful and I think that that part is you know I don't want to use the word hardship but a responsibility we're going to try our best year after year and if opportunities come to to keep transporting more that's what we'll do gotcha thank you thank you Ron [Music] luini yeah um two items that I would like to talk about are old business and student achievement which uh the old business is kind of connected to that um I like the board members to kind of put themselves in a position where you're reacting to this as the average taxpayer SL resident all right not as board members think of the average taxpayer SL resident out there watching these meetings let's say periodically Tunes in once in a while watches it talks to his neighbor has a general interest in education but beyond their own kid you know that's most that's the average person I think uh nobody likes a an increase in taxes right but if you're going to have an increase in taxes you want to make sure that you're maximizing that new money right and if you're a taxpayer resident in Washington Township and you uh read the paper once in a while or tune in to some uh things related to school on the internet whatever you would understand that major organizations that measure or ranked schools have Washington Township ranked in the bottom third of 410 schools in New Jersey like the number 355 whatever all right on top of that if you look at test scores because the rankings don't always include just test scores that came out recently in New Jersey if you're the average taxpayer you'll see schoolers uh where certain schools in the district were like at the 8% Mark 12% Mark 25 we're in the bottom uh 25% let alone uh the top 33% in many cases so you're concerned about that achievement right then um I sent a couple Snippets of the last couple meetings because I can't bear to come to these meetings uh too often it's bad for my nervous system and the snippet I had of the last meeting showed Mrs Baker and Mrs Chilla having a conversation about the fact that Mrs Baker is the head of this committee I don't even know what the committee is it's unimportant and she purposely based on what I could see from this snippet and from what I you know the average taxpayer if they've watched Mrs Baker over the last year they could see that she's changed her way she flip and flops on her philosophy uh based on you know who she likes and who she doesn't like looks very personal anyway but based on that conversation it certainly looked like Mrs Baker was intentionally set setting committee meetings which she's the chair of so that Mrs Chilla would not be able to attend all right I didn't hear one rational statement from Mrs Baker in that snippet that would make me conclude that based on her history and based on uh her personality and based on what the argument she gave that that wasn't the case that she was person personally asking why what days they couldn't make it and then scheduled the meeting for the time she couldn't and Mrs Chilla was accusing her of that all right and as a average taxpayer I just want you to know that those committees are the start of the student achievement you're supposed to be on those committees working collaboratively to better the school system to get us on a winning record up from the bottom third okay and if you aren't including everyone on that committee that board committee it's three or four people I don't know how many people are on the Committees if you're not including everyone intentionally you're not working in the best interest of the kids in this school system okay regardless of even if that person you think that person's insane you have a responsibility that person was elected by the residents of this community and you have a responsibility to make sure everybody's heard and that all ideas are exchanged you don't know if that person is going to come up with a a major idea to get us out of the bottom all right all right that's what I saw as a resident and as a taxpayer and I sent that snippet to other people who I know who aren't on the board of education who don't have an acts to grind and I got news for you every one of them said the same thing I thank you Ralph I like Ralph I'd like to make a comment not supposed to go back and forth but go ahead okay um yeah I'd like to respond to that uh I'd like to read an email uh to the public and the people here um as chair of the committee I received six dates from the association about a meeting on June 28th at 11:34 a.m. on June 28th at 139 p.m. I wrote to the members of the committee please respond to me only in capital letters dates you are unavailable as per the email below your attention to responding as soon as possible will help expedite the process involving involving many people during this busy time for people during the summer during the summer with vacations as always thank you for your interest and involvement I received two responses from the committee one from Mr Ross and one from Mrs Chiller I wrote to the committee on the 29th at 7:04 in the morning Carol is only able to make the 15th and 17th let's go with these dates please confirm if Administration is unable to confirm these dates we will have to go with the majority of the board committee that can attend the dates confirmed by the administration this is a difficult time for the board members with vacation schedules however this is an important task to address relative to the financial and staffing needs in a timely manner so I just want to point out that I took the two dates that I was was given by Mrs Chiller and I use those dates as the dates that we would have the committee meeting in no way did I that I that I block anybody out just wanted to bring that up thank you what were those two dates together come with those two dates again I have to find it those weren't the dates that we used the two dates I think they were well let find for sure I'm going to say thank and who else be there uh we were given the dates of the 9th the 10th the 11th the 15th the 17th and the 18th and the 15th and 17th okay what date did we end up going with so um we did not go with the dates that I said I said I was available on the 15th and the 17th the meeting was July 9th I raised several concerns and questions absent me reading emails which I can but I don't you know I don't know if any everyone wants to hear my emails but I expressed a lot of concern conc ER because I didn't pick the ninth I couldn't make the nth I was at my child's orientation in New Brunswick that was one of the dates I did not pick so yes you acknowledg I think I responded within 3 minutes to your email at 7 o'clock in the morning on Sunday and said those were the two dates you said those are the two dates we're going to go with the meeting was on the nth um and I'm four for four I said this last meeting of not being included in these meetings cuz I feel like every date that I pick there's a reason why can't have the meeting on that date right so then I try to shuffle everything to make it this was a date that I could not Shuffle I expressed concern over it I also expressed concern because the superintendent and the Director of Human Resources was also not invited to that meeting they were told when the meeting was so that is the truth of what happened with the meeting and it was an important meeting because if there's a meeting that I'm supposed to be at as a Committee Member it's my obligation to do my best to attend which I do and it presents me in a negative light when I don't show up to a meeting that I knew full well I could not so I included the members of everyone on that meeting to make sure they knew why my attendance would not I would why I would not be there um so I don't know why you read the the emails Mrs Baker because you literally just said I'm going to do everything I can to work around Carol's calendar the 15th and the 17th and then I find out we have a meeting on the 9th so that was the opposite of what happened and more importantly Dr hibs and Mr Sweeney were not told about this meeting they were just this is when we're having it there was no calendar to be solicited so that's why the last meeting we asked Lori to start scheduling the meetings because that's what she should be doing because she has everyone's calendar and then funny enough there was another email that came in brought to my attention and I wasn't going to bring it up but because you wanted to talk about emails after that meeting you still reached out to the high school principal to ask about meeting dates with the supervisors and the principles when we literally at that meeting said you're not going to do anything we're going to have Lorie reach out and coordinate schedules so that's the truth I really didn't want to talk about it tonight because I'm really trying to like really move in a positive direction and not bring up things that happen that are negative but in this case I have to because because I'm part of a committee that I'm routinely excluded from I asked Ralph to cancel the meeting I asked Connie no one would do it it was like we're going forward we're doing it no one would cancel the meeting after Dr Hibbs was not there Mr Sweeney wasn't there I then found out later Mr Serrano could not make it last minute emergency no problem but we paid our solicitor to come to a meeting that we had two committee members that's all we had at the meeting so we paid our solicitor to come down from North Jersey come to meeting that we really didn't have to have there's no specific urgency and timeline around this meeting that it had to be on the 9th that's the truth of what happened I'm hoping in the future that we could move forward have Lorie schedule the meetings so then that way we don't run into this but what I don't like is that I was hoping you weren't going to comment to Mr lucarini and just leave it alone but because you did I'm now forced to say something of it's the truth Okay so I hope we move forward in a good direction I think Lori is going to be the best person to schedule all these meetings but that is what happened that is the truth oh Carol I'm I'm sorry I do want to say something okay I I don't want to go go down this direction but talking about the truth okay those two dates when Ari responded to me he had other scheduled meetings during those two dates but said I'll change it Dr hips responded that he couldn't make one of those dates cuz it was your daughter's birth birthday I think when I originally asked the people to tell me what dates they couldn't make you were the only one that said the dates that you could make okay you couldn't make the other dates so I assumed if nobody got back to me and said those other four dates were no good then I assumed it was okay I mean how much time do you want to spend on the on the scheduling thing all right I've worked with Ralph throughout the process I want to clear up something uh in terms of Ari I I maybe it didn't come across properly but he did not tell us what to do he had some we had a phone conference and he had some concerns about something that I won't go into detail he checked into it and got back to us and it was not a concern we moved forward with it to get the proposal to move this along okay we don't want to constantly uh be kicking the can down the road all right we still haven't gotten a second date so that was the purpose of it we got the proposal this Administration got it and we're moving forward on it but there was no intention to to to to give you a problem just want to let you know that I'm going I'm going to keep talking that is not the truth because if I say the only dates that I can make are the 15th and the 17th that means I can't no I'm going to keep going because that means that I can't make the other dates so to argue semantics it was deliber you did not ask the superintendent ahead of time we didn't ask Mr Sweeney he's the Director of Human Resources in like a part of the negotiations team that's what happened okay so I'm just saying I we're not we're not going to argue this back and forth no we're not going to argue we're just going to say the truth and you know what's funny you know what I find funny when I no no no no when I talk when I talk I get cut off by you and often times Ari but when everybody else talks it seems as though it's free reain so I'm going to tell you the truth is I was overlooked that's what happened all right and that's the end we alleviated by glor doing the scheduling and I hope moving forward it doesn't happen again all it won't happen again Lori's doing the scheduling okay Angelo Tusa um i' i' like to talk about agenda item Personnel item number 28 once again hiring a teacher assistant at Kindle for the top at the top of the scale at 1754 um many many people called me to point that out just so that you know that's not the first time I'm guessing it's not going to be the last time um the other thing that I got multiple many many phone calls about and between phone calls text messages emails um I know as board members you're entitled to vote vote however you want to vote I respect that if you want to vote no on something you vote no on something if you want to vote Yes you vote Yes I respect that but when you vote and then you make a comment afterwards that insults my members it insults special ed parents it insults their children I have a problem with that um the remarks that were made by a board member here when he voted no on the budget last week to say basically we were getting pity jobs that's basically the way it came across as pity jobs and you might have even used that word I'm not really sure um it is deeply insulting it's insulting to the kids we work with it's insulting to the adults that do that work it's insulting to their parents who trust us it's insulting everywhere if you want to vote no go right ahead and vote no I don't have a problem with that I wish more more of you would vote no truthfully but when you vote no and insult my membership that's a problem you're insulting good people they're not pity jobs because clearly I look today we have two more 5.75 specialized assistant jobs posted two more special at assistant jobs posted two special ed at the high school posted one 5.75 clerical assistant I'm blown away because we just got we just went through this whole disaster of why are we bringing back people clearly the people you brought back were the people you needed to be in compliance to do the jobs that need to be done and it's highly insulting insulting when you insinuate that these are pity jobs for people let me let me jump in [Applause] first I I really pay attention angel I I have no idea what you're talking about can you actually come can you come back to the microphone and use the exact words that Scott used do you have his exact words I have the exact words okay so then so what what I I I know I saw that and I I I honestly think that we all need to work on our professionalism here that's one of the things we need to work on and I'm very respectful Eric you know when I come to these let me speak it's not real respectful and I'm going to tell you why you know we all have to be able to professional speak to people and hear what we don't like and still have good discourse leaving a room and it it happens here quite often that's not something that we should do in my house you don't get to get up off from the table and walk away from Dad or Mom you have to sit down and have the conversation so that's a B I I I I would just say encourage you if you're going to come and make accusations about somebody you should really come with the facts because to stand up and talk about someone whether it's it's person a or person B and say that they they literally are putting down special ed kids that's not what happened last week I didn't say they're putting down special ed kids oh wow that's not what I said what I said was they put down the people who worked with special ed kids you mentioned the whole course yes because those parents called me out we're going to have is we're going to have a video where we go back to well we can I'll get you the I'll get you the the spot on it so next time and and you know I'd also like to ask too like if you have an issue like where you think that we're doing something wrong come in and sit down um and we can have that conversation I know Sean's reached out on a few occasions yes and I reach back to Shawn Sean and I no all the time I have conversations with Shawn all the time I am overwhelmed and over inundated with emails back and forth believe me I have you know I'm responsible for 600 people and those people are confused today there was confusion again over the start dates I sent one email out because I had the information then I had to have a clarifying email go out afterwards it's it's just one thing after another and it's aggravating one thing it is one thing after another for me it is Angela what I'd like to say is we actually worked exceptionally hard to put everybody back into spots um we hours and hours and hours and hours and hours to really try to to rectify what we had to do so I guess what I would ask is is that if you're going to stand up or anybody for that matter if you're going to stand up and you're going to go with somebody you should you should really come with the words that that person said because that's that's not the I didn't take any I will I will bring those words back at from that from that spoken language last time I will bring those words back at the next meeting but I spend many many hours on things so I'm not I'm not questioning well maybe we can bring the special ed parents here and they can tell you what they told me CU they heard those meetings too you know how many people watch these meetings more than you can imag and I'd be happy to have I'd be happy to have conversations insulted I'm insulted to think that you act like I'm disrespectful I've come to every one of these meetings and I have not been disrespectful not at all I I would I would argue well you can argue that Eric but I have not been disrespectful I will be disrespectful right now cuz that's what's happening I'll let you finish are you done I'm done yes okay so I think walking out of the room when someone's speaking is not is not the correct course of action well I pulled a card and the reason why I walked out after that conversation is because I didn't want to say something that would be disrespectful well you but as a as a as a leader as a leader an we have to we have to say things respectfully elain Clancy hold on hold on hold on hold on El no hang on I I want to clarify something first of all I'm guessing the word was probably compassionate and the word compassionate in no means was meant to mean pity I I was not insinuating or did not intend to insinuate their Petty jobs I would saying it's compassionate because it is very hard to watch people lose their jobs to lose their benefits it impacts families it impacts lives it impacts children and that's why I use the word compassionate the what I meant by that is it was a compassionate thing to do it and those are two different things compassion for human beings and their families is different than fiscal responsibility are two things if anyone interpreted that to me and I was putting those folks down it's absolutely not what was intended I have the utmost respect for those people and and I take it you know it's very painful to have to do things that impact residences community that are my friends many that you know I consider family so that's why I used the word compassionate it was not meant to be seen as pity job I have the utmost respect my wife used to be a special educ education teacher in this district and she worked with many par professionals I the utmost respect for them so if anybody took it that way I apologize okay all right El can you one I'm sorry El Sean just and I want everybody to understand too when you're bringing someone in at a higher spot on the guide and that that is because why Sean we're trying to be competitive you know we've talked before about you know concerns over and Sean is there experience that's involved there as well absolutely yeah that that's the number one um somebody's coming with experience just as we do with our certified staff we try to honor it if and when possible um again we we need need the best people here for these positions and and sometimes we got to make those adjustments thanks all right it's it's not on my card but I can understand how the support staff have a problem because you have people that have been working here for many years and do not make that much money so I I can understand their concern but that wasn't on my card um so my question is that curriculum writing for the sixth grade which is the semester what is How To Succeed what is it exactly cuz I you know I have no idea what that how to succeed curriculum is that's my one question the other question is um the separation from a budsman where are these students going to be serviced like what building where are they going to be serviced okay um the other thing is about the cell phones correct me if I'm wrong but in every classroom there is a phone that if a parent needs to reach their child or their child needs to reach their parent there's a phone in every classroom and correct me if I'm wrong CU When I taught there was a phone in every single classroom and then the other thing is is there a lottery for Kindle those are all my questions thank you ele Pam yeah I I missed the second one but um how I'm budsman oh thank you um How To Succeed is uh the how is habits of work um so how to succeed is a sixth grade um semester course that we're able to build and offer to all of our incoming sixth grade students it'll be paired with our financial literacy course um so what you're seeing on the agenda is our curriculum writers who will most likely also be teaching the course um we're excited to use um the habits of work they're uh they've been utilized in elementary school and we're able to kind of roll them into our secondary um education as wellan how to financial um How to Succeed uh would look at Financial lit will look at uh the finance end of that um How to Succeed deals more with the executive functioning pieces how to initiate a task time management how to be a successful student how to be a successful um human as far as the learning process you know these are skills that even adults utilize in that executive functioning realm um collaboration cooperation all of those skill sets so that's every sixth grade student every sixth grade student yes um as far as on budsman uh we're no longer Contracting with them I understand that where are they going to be serviced sure Y what buildings yep yes um so uh the families who have been part of the program uh have uh been communicated with there's a letter um that had been sent home and I've talked to many families personally uh myself uh Miss Grimaldi um and other administrators have gone and talked to the students as well as as far as this transition process um we're going to be able to divide the program into emotional support and behavioral support so right now in um budsman it's somewhat divided between an afternoon and a morning session but often times the classes are combined um so we're able to really offer two separate programs uh very much like a school within a school we want to keep the same um uh structure as far as a different uh entrance and exit different space for learning a different way to learn our courses will be um through ad menum a virtual course provider and we'll have a teacher with them the emotional support program will be housed in Orchard Valley and the Behavior Support Program will be housed at the high school uh we have a green room which is uh kind of an off of the building um location but close enough that uh we'll be able to access all of our resources while still providing a safe environment for our students okay and that's not going to conflict with ages of the students it's no different than our EMB budsman program currently okay thank you um and the thing about the lottery for Kindle is there a lottery uh I I didn't hear you mention that yeah I did um is there a lottery for the students to get into cellones U yeah there was a lottery for all of our all our Kos yeah for sure I just wasn't sure because I know there's more classrooms available so yeah yeah there was yeah there was definitely a lottery okay that's how and everybody knows where they're going okay yeah the only the one that we do last is the providers I believe because like I said before they they they sometimes leave us yes thank you all right thank you Molly hour pronounce that hi um earlier this evening you talked about the 23 24 goals and what was done and how the board met every goal I personally have never seen a review process like that uh in which the person or the people get to vote on how they performed and approv their own actions typically in the world in the real world we uh get others to weigh in on how we've done a lot of times that's a 360 review process where we talk to our managers our peers and our employees in regards to our overall performance um obviously that was not done and I personally would argue that based on tonight's board meeting and the last few board meetings that it would be hard for me to recognize that the board did do its job especially in regards to school safety or budget transparency um I would personally like to ask that for the 24 25 school year that we look at a more robust data driven review process in which our teachers AIDS students parents and taxpayers can weigh in on the overall performance of the board of education so you guys can get some constructive feedback on what are doing and hopefully look at ways to improve that's it thank you okay okay motion to close the public so move second all in favor I opposed car report of the superintendent pulling number three yeah so number number three is going to be pulled um and then just uh just for a quick discussion the safer term plan uh is something and the emergency remote plan we have to do uh as per the state we have zero intentions on being remote at all in any time so we're voting on one two four and five one two four five six six yeah leave it out number three yes ma'am okay have a motion so move second second discussion motion carried roll call Mr L Liberty yes Mr Lindsay yes Mr Serano yes Mrs Baker yes Mrs bloom yes Mrs Chilla yes Mr Ross Yes instructional Affairs Motion in second to carry instructional fairs items one and two it's just one right move one just one oh just one that's right second discussion yeah so I asked a question on this one and I appreciate the response that you guys gave me I I do have one concern on it um so the researchers they don't have to sign an NBA or non-disclosure or anything like that I think given that they're going to be interviewing staff my concern is there's nothing that would prevent them from disclosing that even though they're supposed to De identify their report so I don't know I'd like to get R way on this but uh when does this have to be approved by I if if there's any concern about getting Ari take on an NDA I think um you could pull it and we could put it back on for August okay that I would feel better about that we just had a little sidebar on it and okay yeah I I think always in those cases it's better to pull than to do anything that we would regret so and I I didn't have an opportunity to talk to AR about it either so I know that just occurred so we can we can we can out you have a motion to pull that pull item number one I'd like to M make a motion to table number one under instructional Affairs second okay this roll call Mr Lindsay yes Mr Sano yes Mrs Baker yes Mrs M bloom yes Mrs chello yes Mr Li Liberty yes Mr Ross Yes policy nothing at this time student activities communication motion to approve the student communication items number one second discussion roll call Mr s yes Mrs Baker yes Mrs Bloom yes Miss Chilla yes Mr Li Liberty yes Mr Lindsay yes Mr Ross Yes Human Resources uh Motion in a second to approve Human Resources items 1 to 33 excluding 29 item number 20 1 through 2 8 and 30 through 33 29 was deleted same again 1 to 2 1 to 28 1 to 28 and 30 through 33 30 to 33 so moved second discussion roll call sorry I'm sorry did you want to pick it up or there is one retirement I know if you want yeah thank yeah Sor I don't see thunder on that one hey yeah so just uh we have a retirement Barbara check checkman uh 33 years as a secretary of crms 33 years 33 years that's amazing I just got one other one to make sure it's under personel but just so I understand when when we bring somebody in from outside yep we contractually are able to recognize the outside experience that they're bringing to the district and we pay them on the guide accounting for that outside experience correct yes okay Sean I think that that that conversation is is leaning towards when we give assistants some credit I'm guessing um we're giving them credit for from from outside experiences which we do in in and just for the public we do in in every facet of every job that we hire and you'll notice on here that some people hired at higher stages and some people aren't so experience does matter we don't always Grant every year um some positions are really hard to fill others are not as hard to fill which makes those jobs more competitive I can't speak to if that was a practice before my time here I do not believe it was based on conversations I've had with folks that are around but again what we're trying to honor those years of experience and we're trying to be competitive in the market yep myself Ralph like to make a comment Ralph like to make a comment yes sure um yeah I just want to make a comment on some of the resignations uh I know we seem to be having more and more resignations and there are some uh on on this list of uh our experienced teachers who have been here for a long time that have resigned and they uh I'm sorry to see some of them go that's it any other comments roll call Mrs Baker uh number 26 I'm going to abstain um I did put in a question late and I'm sure the administration busy didn't have time to get back to me so I don't have all the information that I wanted so I'm going to abstain on 26 number 27 I'm going to vote no based on compensation yes to the rest Mrs Bloom yes yes to everything no on 28 M cello yes Mr L Liberty yes Mr Lindsay yes Mr Serano yes Mr Ross Yes Finance facilities motion to approve items number 1 to 22 so mooved second discussion Mrs Bloom yes Miss Chella yes Mr Li Liberty yes Mr Lindsay yes Mr Serrano yes Mrs Baker yes Mr Ross Yes special education a motion and a second to approve special education items number one and two move second discussion roll call M chill yes Mr Liberty yes Mr Lindsay excuse me sorry good put your hand up yeah sorry about that Mr Sano yes Mrs Baker yes Mrs yes Mr Ross yes let's take a moment for Sean sorry sorry I'm good I'm not going to I don't want to wave him around life just don't care do yes all right um yeah's get to this any new business before before you get to that um can I want to take a man a moment and recognize George Hilbert who's going to be our new uh supervisor of security give him a [Applause] hand welcome thank you very much congratulations I'll get you again good job thank you congratulations good luck sir congrats good luck thank you sir any other new business yeah Scott all right so uh as you all know we got the uh proposals in for conflict Council business committee went through and scored them um and then we reviewed that in executive session uh based upon that I'd like to make a motion for approval of RFP number 25-0 22 special conflict Council and to award a contract to Cleary jacobe alfair and Jacobs LLC second discussion roll call Mr Li Liberty yes Mr Lindsay yes Mr Serrano yes M Baker yes Miss Bloom yes Miss chillo yes Mr Ross yes yes any other new business I have new business go ahead um something that i' I I noticed uh in another school district I have the name at home but um I know Dr Hibbs one of your goals was the the job descriptions uh revising job descriptions and I notice um that there are school districts that list the jobs descriptions on their website and um in terms of transp Arcy is that something we can consider I know we talked about and I didn't get a chance to look there's been a lot of lot of lot of website up you know upgrading or whatever we were going to put the contracts on the website all the all unit contracts and um I wonder if we could consider having our job descriptions on the website as well yeah I'll I'll take that back and Sean I we'll have a conversation on it can I just would you want to know that District where just real quick on the Technically when you post a job the job posting and the job description are two very different things so as a matter of process I think we have to think about it because you typically would not post a job description you would you would never do that actually you would do a job posting that describes the qualifications and the functions of that job an actual job description should be given to the employee at the time of like on boarding and hire but you should never put an a big job description as a posting it's two different things so it should be a posting that outlines qualities and things that we're looking for and skill sets that are in the job description but a whole job description should not be part of that's not what I'm talking about you're not talking about I'm not talking about that I'm talking about having on our website just like we have policies and regulations uh I have the name of the district and where they have it listed maybe the solicitor could weigh in is that against the law you can do that right I mean you can it's not against the law a job description is a public document I mean that's really up to the administration yeah whether or not he wants to post it that's a conversation for him to have yeah I mean I I think the I think the proper thing so it's an administrative function right let's start there all right so being that it's an administrative function I think that Sean and I should sit down and have a conversation weigh weigh the the pros and the cons on it I don't think that's something I'm ready to do right now um I think we should be respectful all that process and then also be mindful too that we're going to have probably 150 job descriptions so it's going to be a massive undertaking and an Endeavor um and you know for you know we use the word transparency a lot some of our job descriptions date back to when I was like literally in fourth grade and I'm I'm going to be 50 this year so and that's not a joke so I don't want to put up job descriptions from from from literally 1984 I think that's kind of embarrassing so there's some that we still have to work through to to upgrade so I think that as we could it be a process where as we revisit and we have Revisited a ton put them up and then have it be a working progress that could be enough that's interesting that could be just to have the discussion that would be great andt transparency and yeah I I get it you know we don't want to have something up there that's been from 1960 or something yeah but uh maybe you know you've done a lot of new ones we that was one of your goals you got paid I thought that you know that that was excellent and why not show the public we well we do we do we we we publish or our policies on the website isn't it yes we do we do so that's a we do yeah I I'll go back and have a conversation with Sean about it for sure thanks a lot yeah of course other new business okay motion to open to the public so moved second all those in favor I opposed okay Randy Ford uh just a couple things uh first the green Club being here from hille was awesome and it'd be really cool to see more programs and more students being highlighted at these meetings so especially towards the front end so then people can just stop watching if they want to after that part uh this yeah hey I stay after close session so and wait for you guys to reopen so that's uh that's just anyway uh on the contracts thing that Mr Li Liberty brought up and I know I I brought it up under J1 um I'm under the assumption and maybe it's a bad assumption that the solicitor would look at these types of contracts like for instance this document with Oregon State University I'm assuming they're going to want a contract or of some type they're a public entity as well um I assume that outside of like cooperatives and things like that where you're buying in with some other entities or groups that you join like purchasing has its own form contract that they use that includes things that like tour reforms act uh confidentiality data privacy uh background checks for uh service providers that are going to have access so like there's no signature line on this J1 document with Oregon State so if it hasn't been done I think it'd be it' make sense for Mr Schnider or his firm to review uh whatever ends up getting put in front because again the resolution is I think the board authorizing that the administrator Administration enter into the contract not the actual contract itself uh and then the third thing is just curious in terms of hourly rate for conflict Council and there's my three items thank you okay I I agree green club was awesome right I think that was probably that always is just great to see the Kids In Action for sure um we did have more scheduled just to be honest this year but the meetings didn't lend themselves to to having kids come so whenever we can do that we always want kids here because I mean that's the reason why we are all here we are here because we care about the kids of Washington Township we want them to have the best experiences um and we want to make sure that we can give them the very best um or you want to take the second one the concept I'm happy to have you run through this I don't think is it a contract or this is this was a research proposal so just in my experience oh Rand whenever we do things like this I don't think we sign a separate contract Pam you want to take that with with the with the college yeah no it's a it's a research proposal so the college themselves have their own IR system so they have to go through a they have to have all of that confidentiality pieces they can't even identify the school district they would say a large suburban school district in New Jersey for example instead of naming Washington Township um those safeguards are all a part of like a dissertation or a um Master's research thesis um so basically they're just asking us to be able to send letters to our staff here for volunteers who would be part of their research study with all safeguards in place it's not a contract between us and Oregon State or us and any other university when we have dissertation students looking to to do research it's actually just free research for the district essentially and then hourly rates was your third right your third question the hourly rates is $185 an hour for partner and counsil 175 an hour for associates and $95 an hour for law clerks and IL legals else no I think we got them okay Dana zakowski is that how I how do I make out on that okay so I have two questions just as a parent of an incoming sixth grader now so financial literacy and keys to success which I feel like I should teaching my son the keys to success time management and stuff like that as a sixth grader that's more important than starting a foreign language for the kids cuz I just don't understand that my son took foreign language in fifth grade now he's going into sixth grade he doesn't have Spanish anymore now and my other question was bam bunman so you said that they're going to be social emotional are going to go to Orchard Valley the BD will go to the high school are you saying that sixth graders 6th through 12th will be at Orchard Valley so my sixth grader will be in the building with the 12th grader ultimately and that a sixth grader is going to go into the building with the high school students cuz my concern for that is first of off they're safety obviously you have an 11-year-old with possibly a 17-year-old but then also the mental regression of a student who might have social emotional issues and they're 15 16 in a classroom with middle schoolers I you it's not put out there what the information is as far as what what classes and what grades they're going to be combined with but I fear for a 15 who unfortunately might be suicidal or depression anxiety and you're putting them in with little kids so they were my two concerns that's happy to address yeah so I I think the first one may might have been more of a statement than a question but um if you're asking um do we value both how to succeed in teaching our kids the essential skills um you know those executive functioning skills we value that and we value foreign language um we're able to have three language offerings if you look look at uh a lot of schools in New Jersey that that's actually a pretty large uh feat in a middle school so we're still offering German French um and Spanish we have our students taking that every single day in seventh and eth grade that's also not a typical schedule in other districts so you might have it in sixth grade seventh grade and eighth grade but you might have it twice a week you might have it every other day might be a shorter period um so we we value all of those things um and we managing our resources so that our kids get a holistic experience um as far as um the Behavior Support or the emotional support that's a program that's currently running and has been running in District for years um it's an out of District uh placement right now but it is a program that is multi-age so already we've had students who are in middle school and in high school in the same setting together and we've had students who are there for Behavior Uh reasons and also for emotional support needs in the same setting together so we're very mindful of our students needs their counseling needs who can be in a setting and who who should not be in a setting um some of the things you mentioned you know that that's where we are able to tap into our Mental Health Resources and a student who is suicidal would be getting a separate line of treatment not necessarily staying in the same classroom setting as uh other peers we we have to meet all our kids' needs in a multitude of ways um so we we are running a school within a school so your if your child is in Orchard Valley for example the setting is separate they have their own um bathroom facilities and exit entrance it's a it's a self-contained program within within the building so they're going to have separate times that they're in the hallway everything so it really truly will be uh setting away from the other setting even though we're able to house it in District in the settings within the program which are like a school within a school separate entrance separate exits separate facility within the school or within the um High School um campus it's separate busing as well separate busing for students in the program than Ron lugarini yeah real quick Dr hibs in relation to the uh that's not what I came up here to talk about but uh to Mrs tuso about leaving the meetings well let's go back to that taxpayer watching these meetings over the last few years and even tonight's meeting in terms of gotcha I noticed Ralph that turned to Mrs uh chill and said that ad hoc committee wasn't uh developed last year was it meaning when she was President it wasn't developed to seven years before that either when all your political friends were destroying the Board of Education um maybe the adoc committee wasn't necessary during that time but given the status of this board of education and what's been going on since you've been president well we need an ad hoc committee and by the way Mr chill it's a very good um suggestion years ago we had a schoolwide Improvement committee that that actually Jerry Lang Longo was the mayor and he sort of orchestrated the the meeting and a lot of good things came out of that uh dealing with safety and a lot of the good things came out and dealing with uh activities for students the hogy sale ended up coming from that uh originating from that so schoolwide Improvement committee an a hoc committee whatever you called it I think it's a good idea but people leave the meetings because there's a double standard here okay I I don't know if that's the case with Mrs tuso because be quite honest with you angel I think you're great person you're not a bad person you're not one of the evil ones but uh you get more than your share of uh extras at the microphone okay and the unions all right and I as if I'm a taxpayer I'm watching these meetings I see the guys from njaa that don't even live in this community uh and Mrs Baker or whoever it was putting forth a motion that they get to speak longer than three minutes or five minutes whatever it is and then everybody joining and yeah let's do it after you spent uh I guess a half hour at a meeting a long time ago a few few months ago uh trying to curtail people's uh the resident's rights to come up here and speak trying to limit it as much as possible all right but um getting back to the average resident watching the nonsense that goes on and the fact that it's your responsibility to act appropriately to get us out of and to work towards getting us out of the out of the Celler so to speak the other snippet that was sent to me was a very innocent situation on the board of education where the graduation was going to be moved up two days right because we didn't use all the snow days all right and the board had to vote on it it's just basically an understood thing it's been going on for years right when we don't use all the snow days go around everybody yes yes yes Mr Sano who tells us that he's a board member and he does what he wants because the people elected him he didn't have any competition cuz his good buddy over at CER County uh another iCal hack Hogan uh erased his competition and kept his uh his ballot in place and got rid of Mrs Clancy's so I don't know how you could say that your votes were a mandate for you to do anything because you didn't say anything you didn't even show up for the the um meet the candidates tonight from what I understand so you know how anybody voted for you based on any kind of philosophy or ideology that you express is beyond me but you voted no to that and then you didn't give an explanation and as I'm watching it as a resident I'm like what's the purpose of that why would you vote no to that if every board member voted no Mr Sano then they'd all be making their little political statement because I know why you were voting no to appe somebody else and uh we would had M to have every all these kids and all these parents hang around for two more days to uh you know basically see have graduation we would have you know held up the entire Community but thankfully there were eight other board members who didn't have to satisfy some woman who's up on ethics charges all right so in any case uh that's what we see here okay we see something like that as a resident and and it just makes you makes you want to puke all right that's basically it and you and and you said to yourself how can they have these meetings and not talk about the placement that they're in which is the bottom third you got to get out of the Sellar and you don't get out of the Sellar by carrying on like this and I'm not sticking around for the rest of the meeting cuz I really don't care what Mr Sano has to say because because he's already lost the Integrity in terms of you know acting responsibly on the board with that vote thank you there you go there's a chance is sh Shen Dukas Dukas yep good evening everyone how are you doing so um sharen du WTA Middle School EXA representative I here today um to address the board with a major issue that we are having with our new healthc care carrier our members are dealing with serious situations where their appointments have been cancelled because um the doctor's offices offices are saying that um we do not have insurance coverage um I we have had conversations with Dr hibs um HR um already so I just need to make the board aware that our members do not have access to their health care and they are basically being their appointments have been cancelled like eye doctor's appointments you know how it takes a long time to schedule those appointments um and frankly the WTA believes that this insurance that we have may not be equal to or better than the insurance that we had before so we're kind of putting you guys on notice and letting you guys know that we are continually getting um information from our members saying that they're having problems um we've been trying to work through HR Dr hibs but our members are continuing to have problems so I want it to be very clear that we believe that this insurance may not be equal to are better than what we had before thank you yeah it has me um okay so the the I guess the first thing is that I'm trying to process to say that we don't have access to healthcare I think those were your words totally totally inaccurate you have access to healthcare um in and help me here in in the switch in the switch in aera health we've had some some issues with the cards and the numbers so we've had issues with vision that we're working through and anyone that's using the old number has to reprocess what the process is that we're doing is that anyone that has an issue is working directly through HR and Dawn and that we are rectifying situations um you there's always there's times when you switch and even though it is equal or better for sure um correct mhm yep yep um whenever you switch there there are minor hiccups that occur in any big switch we have we have a whole lot of members so it is equal to or better um it absolutely is um and we are helping each member uh you know go through each individual experience Sean Janine can you weigh in and add please I'll just jump in real quick in regards to um you know communication with members through the HR department um Don mccan is our health benefits coordinator and and I got to compliment her she's done a fantastic job of communicating with each and every um employee who has reached out to her um been very patient trying to be understanding and get them the the support and assistance that they need um that doesn't always you know isn't always reciprocated by the members um but I can tell you Dawn is is working tirelessly with our providers Brown and Brown Brown and Brown is connecting directly with um our employees as well to provide them with assistance um so you know as we are hearing concerns we are trying to address them as swiftly and directly as possible yeah but definitely are equal to or better and every employee has access to healthcare now if they process the wrong card then what happens is it comes up as terminated and then we're working through that you know we put out information on what to do I think Vision needed a work around right in the moment correct that we have um you know and even one of my children had had surgery scheduled that I had to we had to resubmit a card for um but we're helping everybody that comes in um I know recently it was put out from the union to copy me on on uh on any issues that were coming up and I think today there were two and Dawn had responses to both members so I don't want it to be perceived that we don't care and that we're not supporting members that they don't have access to healthare and that it's not equal to or better I never said you didn't I never said you're right you didn't say that I'm saying that I want you to know that we care about the situation and in in regards to the vision there was an email exchange today you I'll obviously leave names out for confidentiality purposes but there was a senior account specialist from brown brown uh who communicated with one of our employees you know in regards to the vision just stating the coverage will be with still will still be with dav's vision we're working behind the scenes to get the mer Health System corrected the vision coverage will be equal to what you had you should be receiving correspondents from Mar Health this week advising of the correction in addition you'll be getting a new ID card that will have the vision coverage information printed on it y so we will continue to work through any issue that we have with every individual staff member and I can't go into specifics but a lot of times or sometimes I shouldn't say a lot of times um sometimes you know issues that people might have medically don't always fall into things on our end there's also the whole other provider end that ends up sometimes being an issue too and even in those situations and I won't go into specifics we're still helping even though it's not it's not our our issue to solve R I have a question Dr hibs y um when I remember when I was here and we switched Health carriers we got a new card now is the situation happening that people didn't get a new card and they're giving the old card and then the numbers coming up that they don't have insurance and if that's the case my question to HR does a district have a master list of everybody that's employed here and their new number for instance if they if they got turned down an appointment could they just call and get the right number from you yeah or do they have to get a new card how's that yeah so before we used to be able to if I I'm trying to speak for daone she used to have a seamless login to a mar Health um there's a a couple day wait on her login now but we can certainly get and get staff members their numbers um and they can also um download the am Health app and then the numbers will all be right in their um in their app and then you have it right there yeah so unfortunately you know people don't always and it's it's no fault of anybody's you know I had my old card in my in my w until just yesterday when my wife handed me my new card so if you if you if you utilize an old the old card with the old number it's it's not going to work so we reprocessed and res if any you know shine if and if you want to put out to any specific people and I think you actually it's the new card it's not the old card I had my problem on July 1st and it's the new card it's not the old one you're you are getting a little uh Sean so I don't you know it's the new card people have to put money out they're being asked for debit cards and credit cards and some people are if they don't have the coverage coverage they're going to have to put their own money up to have their appointment and a lot of our members are not getting an income I don't know how to respond because people bring it I apologize for you know but I just wanted to make that I clar it's okay and what what I what would be awesome and we'll we'll be happy to put it out as well if anyone has a specific instance where they feel is there something things occurring it it's right to Dawn and then she has worked with brown and brown immediately to Rectify every situation so that's what I can say so I'm happy to put that out as well but the specifics the coverage we are being told in writing correct that the the level of coverage is the same or better so if staff members have a specific issue we're happy to assist DA's been assisting for the last two weeks ish maybe more so so B I guess there was some clarification like I was thinking that they just didn't get the their card but here they got the new card and it still doesn't work so if I may have a new card but I didn't go to the doctor's and I don't I might not even know that this is going to be a problem two months from now it just so happened that people that needed it right now got turned down so is there a way we could double check on us for people there could be people that have a new card in their wallet and they haven't used it and they're going to use it in at the end of August and find out they don't have insurance yeah I'm not I'm not hearing that the new card was the issue so that's this is the first I'm I'm hearing of that piece we're happy to look into it um but I I don't think that's the overarching problem okay um I have a question we U we reimbursed one of the uh one of the persons who had the problem um the the the question that you're referring to was um someone having access to COBRA yes we are working with that staff member yeah that's great I appreciate that yeah she she she didn't have coverage for about so what what happens if some of these people let's not talk about Yep this is It's a entirely different entirely different situation I'm not talking about I'm talking about if other people have this problem if other people yeah I don't think anyone else has had that problem that's brought to us um we're I mean we're handling these issues that come in as high priority and this is really what Dawn's doing on a daily basis so assisting our staff members to through this process okay no other yellow card card so I have a motion to uh adjourn close public close the public motion close the public yeah so move second second all favor I post all right motion to adjourn move second all in favor yes e