presentations discussions all right school and community relations report nope not for not that yep no we're good Y no old business yes at a piece of old business Mr President U at our committee meeting on January 8th uh 4:30 I put on the last committee meeting minutes that Ralph Ross was present uh making that a quan which would be five board members that was not the case so that was an error on my part it has since been corrected take full ownership won't happen again thank you you're awesome I got one um um I want to give a shout out to the I think the best school experience I've had in all of my years in education which was the Pops concert last week uh I don't even have words for how amazing that was in our town if you've never seen it you have to put it on the docket for next year the whole house was rocking Eddie was on stage doing his thing right Eddie it was awesome so I and I mean of anything I've ever seen it was it was it was hands down the best experience I've ever had so massive shout out to to miss to Mr kugo all of our vpa kids it was at the end I think it was probably 400 kids on stage right 6th sth eth right yeah no no eth grade eighth course and then all through high school and they literally took up the whole entire stage and I think that was sweet Caroline yeah yeah so lots of bump bump bumps going on so massive shout out for the for the Pops concert thank you anyone else some old bus um I know this brought up but we recently fortunately uh we now have signed contracts for the wtea support staff and I brought this up before because I noticed that a lot of districts have it um I think Dr hibs even more girl had it in their in their District on their website that we list we list the different contracts on our website okay uh the teachers contract the principal's contract uh the support staff contract uh we used to have the superintendent the da uh the director of grounds those those types of contracts listed and that is not something that's unusual unless the attorney can tell me otherwise Not Unusual there's no right answer for that some districts do it some don't I would I would just like to bring that up for consideration uh and so that for a lot of reasons if um if I'm a person looking to come to Wasington cwn as a teacher or administrator I could look on our website and see what the salary guide is and see what what the contract looks like um I don't know Dr hibs did you have any issues with in morar with that that did that present problems no I think it's a great idea okay do we need to vote on that or is that something that you have the authority to just put on the website put them up put them all up when they're ready okay anybody disagree public yeah okay thank you got it okay any other old business okay all right we have a motion to open immediately to the public so moved second all those in favor I post yell cards keep every okay just hi good evening um I just wanted to talk about 5756 the policy first I want to explain the policy that um I call it don't tell don't tell your parents what you are doing in school maybe changing your name changing your outfits um maybe even using the U girls bathroom when you're a male so they're saying don't tell the parent I believe the parent has a god-given right to know what's going on with their children in the 5756 it is not a law it is not even a mandate policy it is a guidance from the state um as I said it's not mandated a lot of people are saying and referring it to it as a law it is not a law close to 20 districts have repelled the um 5756 including the I guess the recent one the first in South Jersey is violin viin has repealed 5756 on a 7-2 vote so I'm I'm asking the members here of this board someone to make a motion to repeal 5756 um last time I was here before um you talking about 5756 I remember the superintendent Hibbs said we were going to follow 5756 you can't dictate the board tells you and takes a vote on what's going on one um you as a superintendent superintendent hibs you are to enforce the policies so I'm asking the board we cannot allow someone to tell us what we're going to do we need to take a vote on it once again I'm asking someone to make a motion to repeal 5756 and someone to Second it this evening and put it on the agenda and let's vote on it let's take a vote thank you any other yellow cards anyone I make a comment on that last one yes sure as well sorry I'm late literally just got off the plane about an hour ago so apologize for me early um walked in heard most of that I think on the uh that particular policy I did have some questions on that one as well because it had come down from the state um there was some things in there too about needing to keep separate Student Records things like that that I potentially put a burden on the school but I also know there's litigation going on relative to it I would motion that or not a motion but suggest we talk about it in policy committee and I think it' be good to talk about it you know with the um input as well as to what we can and can't do and possible ramifications for the school as far as uh uh having to keep duplicate records and also you know with the interest of the kids as well I think um there's a lot going on there that needs to be considered with uh children's mental health so good suggestion yeah I'll ask the policy chair bring that up as policy committee yes Mr President we'll do anything anyone else have a motion to close the public so move second second all those in favor I okay by committee reports negotiation committee Mr Sweeny anything again I report on that okay sorry um the the committee met on February 12th uh from 4:30 to 5:30 president was Mr Sweeny Mr Ross Mrs chill Mr Sano myself and Dr hi came towards the end we had a prior meeting the discussion revolved around Personnel issues we reviewed the job descriptions were informed about Middle School Club checks and balance procedur and perspective new hires wereidentified thank you anything else okay uh policy Mr San yes sir thank you uh policy committee met on February 12th 2024 at 6: pm board members in attendance uh Mrs Baker Mr La Liberty myself and Mr Tomac administrators in attendance Dr hibs Dr Nathan Dr Gregor and Miss Carrie first items first discussion items uh were the district calendar for the 2324 year uh the board requested more advanced notice to be given to the members of the calendar committee regarding the meeting dat dates and times policies and regulations from Mr Hibbs uh policy reg regulation 7510 use of school facilities uh the use of school facilities policy and regulation will be cleaned up by our legal team and sent back to the committee for review we also discuss uh Student Activities and Communications the field trip Deca State Career Development conference and and the board requested from Mrs Cary uh Mrs car's report to be added to our website and hard copies for members of the public at our meetings policies and regulations uh we are bringing up for a first read tonight policy 5200 attendance and the regulation first read policy 5600 student discipline first read policy 5610 suspension first read regulation 5610 suspension procedures first read regulation 6152 Child Care Program first read policy 0167 public participation in board meetings first read that is all for me Mr President any questions yeah I just want to mention Steve I'm not sure I heard I missed it uh one of the concerns that I brought up was that um it came to my attention when we had the when we had the calendar committee we have invited uh community members and one of the members that was invited wasn't able to make it because the communication came to that person on a Friday and the meeting was the following Thursday and the meetings are done during people's workday so I just brought up and I think it was acknowledged that in the future at least they'll get maybe 10 days to two weeks that to know that that's the date I think out of the three Community people that were invited one was able to make it so it's just just a a simple thing especially when it deals with the community people and it's during the work day that they get a little bit more time than a couple days yeah and I I think we can also push back that time frame too um 3:00 is is too early I think it's you have to legitimately leave work ear I think that would be that would be great yes so we'll push that back to like a 53 6ish start the same time same type of thing we do for Equity okay thank you yeah of course anyone else um I have a I guess I'd like to have a discussion about it either now or we can wait till we vote but um the item that's up for a first read tonight public participation uh 0167 you should have the discussion before you vote do you want to have it before go yeah that's it no because you're just doing the uh reports right now right you got to finish that okay business Scott all right um help me out if I miss anything here because I'm working off the notes and I left on vacation for a week right after the meeting so here we go um energy audit update the walkthroughs are still in progress we're making some good progress there hope to to uh have some additional news there soon um regarding the rod grants those are the grants we get a 40% match from the state that we can use for um capital projects and things of that nature we had received the packages back as of that day of the 14th uh reviewing and submitting all the paperwork and trying to get some bids out so we can get some of the projects like Windows and roofs and things like that started so that we can get them going over the summer while the kids are out of school so great to see that moving along we talked through the budget calendar uh added an additional meeting that we'll meet on March 4th as a business committee to uh review the budget further um we went through and started to review some budget highlights um uh some things with the budget I mean just the salary increases contractual salary increases for the teachers exceed the 2% tax revenue increase that that we get so we're going to we're looking to have to get creative and the administration and Dr hibs have been looking at many different ways to try and save money with things like Google and the energy audit and all that kind of stuff but we are going to have to look at um how we can come up with a a balanced budget and still meet some of the obligations that we have with uh contractual salary increases Etc so the administration is still working through that and we'll discuss that in the upcoming meetings um a couple things we talked through with uh an additional emerging Capital Grant uh got an additional 173,000 and change for some health and safety related projects so great to see additional grant money coming in there um which we're going to use to uh we talk about uses for that like you improving painting updating bathrooms things like that that need to get done uh couple of purchasing items renewal for the fiber optic Network lease uh no increase in that so we're renewing that and then a renewal for the internet service also no increase in that renewal as well and we talked about um looking at doing a longer 3 to 10e plan especially with some of the additional increases in costs that we're seeing and things like that because we are going to have to come up with uh a good plan so that we can continue to provide a quality education to the kids in a fiscally responsible manner anything I missed there's nothing you missed but I want to I have good news and I want to give a massive shout out here to our incredible ba Janine weter so she applied uh we had the ability of applying for more stabilization Aid uh just because last year we were cut approximately $1.5 million so Janine did the rigorous application and they awarded us I think it was late in the day on Friday uh an extra $513,000 which is just awesome so good stuff so there's there's there's definitely allowable uses but the way that we structured this was really to um was first and foremost Transportation because right now we have outsourced we have outsourced routes uh you know for gcit we're having to use coach buses for um for for our Sports trips so more buses will help us and that in ever so that'll buses aren't what they used to be I mean buses used to hover around $100,000 and now are hovering somewhere around 140 I think so but either way it's a fabulous addition which we'll tie in and we can match this now with our needs uh for the 2425 budget and see how we can combine them to really make a dent in our transportation needs so just want to give Janina nice little shout out good job awesome any questions I have any questions thank you structural Affairs Mrs blue yeah we met on the 13th of the month and there are name changes taking place in three of our science classes at the high school Integrated Science one will now be called Energy in the environment Integrated Science 2 will be biology and Integrated Science 3 will be chemistry all these classes are now listed as a lab based science class which may help some of our students in the classes seek eligibility in NCA division one sports programs we are adding a ninth grade math class called Essentials of for algebra this class has meant to strengthen the math skills of some students so that the student can successfully complete Algebra 1 in 10th Grade we have another thing going on with Rowan College of South Jersey students in Washington Township High School can sign up for courses at Rowan College in South Jersey this agreement expands the program for some students to take classes on campus a representative from Rowan will be visiting our high school throughout the year to help students choose classes register for classes and find out about financial aid for the classes Rowan will have an site office at our high school to facilitate this there's a teacher at our in our district who will be conducting a school-based research project for five weeks at Chestnut Ridge in 8th grade and Orchard Valley in seventh and eth grade this will be in art during art class the students will be creating a collaborative quilt which will be displayed at the district art show and then displayed at each school on a rotating basis each student participating will Design and make a patch for the quilt there's a new physical education option called PE option two application to the program were shared with parents the program allows students who can document physical activity outside of the school day to log their hours in L of fed classes this will be available at first to 11th and 12th grade students these students will take an additional class during this time period the district is reviewing Marano and the Danielson evaluation tools used to evaluate School staff members the cost of which system would we would use is also being evaluated and the most exciting thing I think that came out of ours was our preschool program was chosen to receive a grant to enhance our Inclusive Preschool program the grant includes monthly meetings classroom observations and specific classrooms um and a lot of Staff training the Great will have our preschool St staff working close with with Department of Education and Montclair University the goal is to adapt class lessons as needed to meet the needs of each student in the classroom okay thank you any questions very good thank you that okay report of the super it's just the hi right just the hi just call motion for the hi motion for the hi so moved second second any questions all those in favor Mrs Baker yes Mrs Bloom yes Mrs Chilla yes Mr Deo yes Mr Li Liberty yes Mr Lindsay yes Mr Serano yes Mr Tomac yes and Mr Ross Yes motion carries okay I need a uh a motion on instructional Affairs items number one to four so moved second questions yes Mrs Bloom yes Mrs Chilla yes M de Mayo yes Mr Li Liberty yes Mr Lindsay yes Mr Sano yes Mr Tomac yes Mrs Baker yes Mr Ross Yes okay policy a motion to approve policy items number 1 to 14 so move second question I have question so um this is with regards to the public participation in board meetings policy 0167 that's up for a first read tonight um I reached out to Mr Serrano he um we had a really good discussion about it as the chair I'm you know I I don't want to come to a board meeting and have a surprise party I think you guys have heard me say that before if I have an issue with a policy or really anything I'd like to go to the chair and let them know um my concerns with it Mr Ross I also spoke with you um at length before the last meeting about it so overall I guess I just want to understand a little bit more of a deeper on a deeper level uh why we need to change the policy um it was changed in 2022 to reflect the way it is now so I just need to understand why we want to go back and limit the public to speaking about agenda items only in the first public partic ation and then the second they can speak about whatever they like um often times community members come up and they'll speak about a topic and then it because we don't have it back and forth uh the community members will want to come back and maybe clarify because maybe there was a misunderstanding in passing this policy the community members will not be able to come back a second time if they're only participating in the second public comment um I'm not in favor of the policy I've voiced to this to again to Mr Serrano and Mr Ross and I'm just unclear as to now why we're doing this policy when we have a lot of other policies that we have to go through and this just doesn't make sense to me yeah I guess for me you know we over the past couple years we've been talking about transparency transparency you know and I don't understand how that could correlate into this type of policy change like at this point yeah most districts do do it you know in the amended version the way it was originally um but after what we've been through over the past couple years um I don't think it aligns with talking about transparency all the time and then in turn you know limiting I don't think it's going to make the means any more efficient I think if we stick to the agenda um talk about things when they should be and pay mind to everybody what's been said I think that's how we're more efficient not by limiting a couple extra minutes talk anyone else yeah I think I agree I think uh I was the one that I think motioned the first time to change the policy to what's in there now uh for that exact reason because we were having a lot of public transparency concerns and people had a lot to say and I think it was good to have the public be able you know we have to remind ourselves we work for the public right you all elected us but we're just serving out what you've elected us to do uh I think we've only had one or two meetings that went really late where there was a ton of public comment and um you know typically is not a problem but I think to your point Carol if somebody asked a question having that ability to ask clarification that's important I I'm going to uh Roger coils on that one as well as far as the you know it it's not the it's not the board's public section it's the people's public time so in my regard I think you can speak about whatever you want when you want and on top of that there could be situations where you know there might be parent here that can only stay till the first public section because they might have to get home and feed the kids or do something with you know do something else that is more important than sitting here listening to a meeting that's perfectly understandable and I think by restricting it just to the official agenda you're not giving the public and also the people who elected us the opportunity to speak freely about whatever they want not just what is on the agenda that's where I'm else I want I want to make sure everyone who disagrees has a voice first was that question I just want to make sure everyone who disagrees is good to go so the reason that this was brought up is because uh I'm a very very officient person and as a new chair what I wanted to do was make these meetings a lot more focused and a lot more efficient so by bringing the first public first public participation to agenda items only it it limits the conversation to what is on the agenda versus whatever whatever the public wants to say which they have the second session to do so as far as hindering or suppressing anyone's speech we're not limiting the time frame that the public can come up and talk we're not we're not hindering any sort of uh I'm not really sure why that would be an argument if there they can say whatever they want they just have to wait until the second public session to you know take care of business so with that being said um counselor I want to turn this over to you I just have a few questions for you is it fair to say that the majority of the school districts within the state of New Jersey have public participations for three minutes and not five I yeah without giving you a specific number yes mostly the districts that I represent have a three minute limit on the public comment okay all right and is it fair to say that most school districts in the state of New Jersey have the first public participation be agenda items only that is very common correct okay so in in the history it in the history of the state or as long as these policies have been enacted and in place has there been any Supreme Court has there been any case one uh First Amendment case uh from the members of the public in any school district in New Jersey regarding the hindrance or suppression uh of their First Amendment right to speak based off of the policy chair making the first public participation agenda items only no there's nothing there's certainly nothing to Legal about this policy if that's what you're asking okay all right have comment okay so one more hold on sure so if members of the public vote Us in to do the business of the board they are here to watch us do the business of the board so I would it would behoove the public to let us do the business business of the board and save the comments for when we're finished with the agenda now some members of the public may not agree 100% that's that's your prerogative that's your right to do so some members of the board do not agree I agree with this policy I think it makes our meetings more focused I'm not going to limit the duration that the public can speak I'm not going to do that neither is the policy committee for as long as I'm the chair I can't speak to what happened previously because I was not here so that is that is my take and um Mr President I'm finished I have a question for the solicitor um I understand probably about 10 years ago the legislature had indicated anytime a board has a public meeting that's advertised you must have a a time for public speaking um does does does the law say we have to have two or one you only have to have one I believe okay so we have two you have two public okay uh also when you look at the agenda you have an open public participation on the agenda items because we're going to vote on them I want to know what the people feel about the agenda items and that's where the second one any kind of comment that anybody wants to make about their concerns that would be the second one so it it absolutely seems to follow logic that's all thank you anyone else I mean sorry public can still speak to the agenda during the first public session it doesn't it's not holding anybody back to that I just um I I just don't I mean I understand that the argument of efficiency but I don't feel that the public speaking is going to change the efficiency of the meeting at all I just don't we're not limiting they G an opportunity speak we keep saying we're not limiting but we are we are because if you have somebody that comes up to the podium that does not have an agenda item and I can recall a meeting in August where even though that technically was an agenda item we had a lot of people here expressing their views and their concerns whether or not we agree with them or not it doesn't matter we offer that opportunity and in fact Mrs Baker you want to to suspend the public participation policy at that meeting so there was an infinite amount of time granted to everyone so what I don't understand is in August you loved that we had a lot of we had plenty of time for anyone to come up to the podium and speak now we want to peel it back a little bit and make sure that the first part is agenda items only I think this is 100% not infringing on freedom of speech I don't think that but what we are are doing is limiting the public from coming up and speaking for a total of 10 minutes if they wish on anything that they care to speak about and often times we don't have a lot of the public coming out I don't think this leads to an inefficiency I think the inefficiencies are when we talk about things that are surprises I think when we belabor things on and on and on those lead to inefficiencies public participation to me is not an inefficiency and I'm never going to vote for this and I've made it clear because I think that we're stifling the public from their ability to come up and speak to us for 10 minutes and we talked about this in years past we still have not had a town hall meeting which would have afforded the opportunity for the public to be able to have a back and forth we still haven't had it and the absence of that we're taking away an opportunity especially if our students want to come up and speak now we're going to have them sit through a potentially really long meeting and and they have to wait until the second part if what they want to talk about is not on the agenda I just think it's a really bad look for us it's the second meeting that we're having this year and we're already ready to shut down the public and I believe it's over maybe a few people that we don't agree or we don't like when they come up this isn't about one or two people this is about the vast community so I'm just really disappointed that we're even talking about this but that's all I have to say I have a question real quick the meeting you were president when we initiated that so I don't know why we out well we can carry it out because in the interest of time we never got a chance to with Dr hibs he was dealing with a lot of other issues that I think you can agree we couldn't so it was never carried out as president Ralph and quite frankly when I came in it was a pretty short amount of time for me to be able to achieve anything there were a lot of other things on the board that I was trying to get together that I never had agreement to be able to do that so I'm glad it seems as though now there's a little bit more of an ability schedule things because I couldn't even get an Ethics training schedule go ahead so um I just had a question real quick um so like in Mrs Klein's case for this evening would she not have been able to ask that question and would it not have been able to be put back into the policy meeting um at the point if it was just in the second session because then that delays that process either a whole meeting or if it's the public session a whole month of that process being looked at again um just because I feel like it if anything it logically if it was flopped it would make more sense where it's public comes up and speaks about anything so that it can be added to that meeting's agenda if needed in like a section that it belongs in as opposed to at the end where at that point the Open session is over so like there's nothing that the board can really do about it at that point I I just think the point is I don't want to believe the point but the point is that the board who's in favor of this or the board members who are in favor of this want the public to have an opportunity to talk about the agenda items before they actually vote on them or make their comments on the agenda that's the reason that's done first but but they still can they still they still can it's not I mean trust me I mean this is my fourth year on the board and you know let's let's be honest like you know I sat here when they could when we open we changed it because there's a lot to be said a lot of lies about me a lot of mean stuff coming rolling at me it was not fun it wasn't true but it's their right to say so and I believe actually Connie you were in favor of changing the policy into the way it is now um but you know like I said I do not you know I mean this is you know some of your second meeting I this is not going to make our meetings any more efficient there's a lot of other reasons why they they go on and on and on and last a long time has nothing to do with this any other comments yeah I got one more too and I'm just going back to what I said before time you know again you have people up here that might have to get home to their kids do they really want to drag themselves out for another hour waiting for the second public session to speak their mind on what their issues are I think that's to me I think that's an infringement on their ability to say what they want when they want how they want by you trying to push this amendment oh and one more thing I know I'm sorry that we said you know in all the other districts we're not like other districts we've been through a lot over the past couple years so I don't really think we can compare to anybody else was trying to you know build trust build transparency so I think that's what we have to that's we have to concentrate on absolutely all right can I have a motion motion um you we got more discussion yeah a roll call poliy yeah um I still I just have one more question um about policy 5600 discipline excuse uh notice in the policy it stated that uh parents in the community uh were invited to uh be a part of that policy were parents in community brought in to discuss this policy before being brought forth uh 5600 for student discipline so I I don't think on this one it was it's an it's an existing policy right Sean correct so yeah at some point they would have been this was just I think a small change made to this policy oh okay all right my mistake all right no it's my mistake it says it in there yeah it does that's why I wanted to make sure it was okay right can I have a roll call yes Mrs chillo yes to 1 through 13 no to number 14 Mr Mayo yes 1 through 13 no to 14 Mr L Liberty yes to 1 through 13 no to 14 Mr Lindsay yes to 1 through 13 no to 14 Mr Sano yes to 1 through 14 Mr Tomac yes Mrs Baker yes Mrs bloom yes Mr Ross yes so motion carries okay on Student Activities Communications no Human Resources a motion to approve items number one through 60 we under Human Resources sove second second second sorry second okay questions I have I have several questions I ask the attorney uh am I able to ask questions on the different items on the on the different items that we weren't able to do it we we didn't have enough time in uh no we're talking about specific employees that can't ask questions I mean can I can I ask questions about the nature of what is on there not the not the employees names as long as you're not identifying a specific employee but you can be treading a very thin line if you're doing that well let me ask you a question specific questions you're asking either when when at home uh can the public actually see what the names are like when I when I click on that page I can see the names I can't see the names on mine but I I would prefer I'm I'm going to ask you know Janine or how about this what number are you talking about I'm talking about a few numbers and I was going to go over them individually yeah this this is efficiency right like for instance you want me to start off with one and and you could just shut me up if I'm I'm going over the line I mean just generally speaking we should have talked about all of these in executive session when we were talking about we didn't we ran out of time and we didn't talk about it in Personnel so why did you talk about it Personnel we didn't know about it what's the number okay um number seven my question is uh generally six period classes are the beginning of the year when you're doing scheduling I just wondered what the rationale is why we have we're doing it now this time of year want take that you know me I want to clarify something for everybody too there are it is impossible for us to run everything that we do here through an agenda and the the awesome $513,000 is great example of that happened on Friday so there's certain things on an agenda so if you take a look at the at the Personnel agenda right you're going to see things like additional time emergency coverage additional time lunch coverage planning coverage that's all stuff that just comes up that we have to problem solve so I I just don't want the impression to be that we're not communicating this through the Personnel committee because in my experience as superintendent which is about 15 years it's not something we ever would have drilled down to that small of a thing on it's just the stuff that we do um so I so want you have the wrong the wrong impression K what else do you have other questions okay um what it you have number 13 13 okay I I think I think we did address part of this in executive um Sean can you um give the 10,000 foot view again once again we don't have a longterm sub filling the position fors daily subs there's a reason that we need to have certified staff members going in planning grading things of that nature that's situation okay so Bas basically we're saying that in order to uh finalize grades for semester one would take about 16 hours that that's all I'm you know questioning um number 15 um additional time uh um Gretch is that you for title one yeah so 10,000 feet correct so I talked about this an i this is about a sorry this is about a A Gifted student who's in a title one school we're allowed to use the um the monies towards enrichment for the student uh so this is about creating a problem based learning activity that comes from a glant money comes from a grant 100% yep oh okay okay and and and I just was wondering then this is very specific spefic not not all of our title School schools are doing this no this is specific to this particular case okay all right thank you um number 16 number 16 um Sean I that falls under the same blanket does it not the emergency coverage training additional time is emergency coverage training done at all element schools or just purches thank you uh number that was number 15 was it this is girl that was number 15 right you just answered okay that was 16 that was the title one number number 16 we just okay same thing okay um number 17 do we have people absent or something that you can't get people in or so when you when you look at the recommended actions Sean correct me if I'm wrong um 17 right approve the following Health assistance to work additional 2 hours as needed to cover absences so when we have absences that that's when we would do this these are Health assistance that would help with kids corre okay so we don't get substitutes in other words we just cover it that way um number 18 um the training for Google I just have a question that money 10,000 and change is that coming from the budget that was done last year because I don't think we talked about Google until you were you you came on board or am I incorrect where did how did we get that $110,000 I'd have to that that's part of our professional development budget just looking at the account number so each year we budget for professional development that we can use throughout the year for training that's needed for staff okay so that 11000000 223 that's professional development okay so that's a that's a line item Budd y I guess we probably budget pretty pretty decent amount right well just to clarify it's not just for that one person it's the full nut of what could be used towards that day okay and it's actually a cost savings for the district correct like a huge cost savings for the district humongous right massive shout out to all of our all of our Google trainers that we Google day on Friday so we had you know the district was Al with Google and we had so many people running sessions too many to name to name okay the last one 19 um just wondering those sessions for uh Resto restorative practice tutoring at hille is that 35 hours not to exceed 35 hours is that done in all our elementary schools yes it is it is okay is there any reason that that was on separate or I think they had trouble finding someone to commit I think somebody res sended and then this person stepped up okay thank you everybody for your explanation no I just had a couple yeah had some acknowledgements for some retirements here so uh we got some people with a lot of years of service here so we got Elizabeth bolt 25 years of service in special education uh Christine gentiy 35 years uh Walt do gski sorry if I butchered that name dski dski thank you 35 years uh Jennifer SEL uh 13 years Patricia Conroy 23 years of service Carol Hazel 23 years of service Maria Ru 20 years of service de Deborah Rigby 17 years cafeteria playground assistant uh Bob or Robert shenfeld uh 25 years of service and operations manager it's a total of 216 years of service [Applause] AES anyone else like you have a roll call Miss too yes Mr Liberty yes Mr Lindsay yes Mr Tomac yes Mr Serrano yes to 1 through S I'm going to abstain from number eight and yes to the rest 9 through 60 Mrs Baker uh yes uh to 1 through 7 uh number eight I'm going to abstain I I should give the name is that right there's there's several names I'm going to only abstain from one name yes sing name okay the name that I'm going to be abstaining from is Daniel B power um abstain number 46 and abstain number 47 yes to the rest Mrs Bloom um no to number 44 46 and 47 and my reason for that is the salary discreption discrepancy is is impacting the morale of some of our most valuable employees yes to everything else Mrs Chilla yes Mr Ross Yes carries financing facilities nothing at this time uh special education items one to five have a motion move second discussion Mr Li Liberty yes Mr Lindsay yes Mr Tomac yes Mr Serano yes Mrs Baker yes Mrs Bloom yes Mrs Chilla yes Mr Mayo yes Mr Ross Yes negotiations no items new business new business um yeah I just had a question about new business uh I believe it was Mr Gerson that talked to me uh is that Gaga C up and running yet or was that oh can't I'm sorry I can't ask you oh sorry Dr the is the Gaga CT up and running we are gaging away all right my man pots and pants I like to hear thank you I I have three things for new business the first one is you did your goals for the board in July or August I'm a new member and I know that they couldn't probably be done in the winter because you had so much else going on but I think since we have a new group we should have a new group of goals and when I looked at the goals on our website they're for 9th of 2020 so that needs to be updated but I also think that I've been looking at goals from other districts for example um when Carol mentioned the town meeting that could be a goal with the board I think that the ones that we have are very worthy but they're not anything that you can really be held accountable for and I think there are other things when I was looking through other districts like for example some of them talk about hiring a new superintendent that could be a goal we don't have to do that're not no no um some of the other ones had to do with know that that doesn't have to do with some of them have to do with school climate some of them have to do with like for me it might be vocational program that we haven't instituted yet maybe we should have a deadline that by the fall of 2025 or something that really means something to The District in my opinion the four that we have doesn't impact our district um I think we could go into the community involvement which again we go along with that town hall uh what else do I have also you made assignments this summer for people to go to different schools well that's invalid now because you have members who AR there anymore I'm not looking at you can't do anything I um and I'm just looking over there actually to Mr L for Liberty if you want to know who I'm looking at because we were making eye contact but I think that needs to be overdone and my last one is I think we need to redefine what is a work session we've talked about that before people aren't happy when people were asking questions but to me the work session is for questions and I don't understand still why we are voting for everything at a work session for example the one that we just some of us vot know and some of vote no yes on I wish I had had another week to really think about that and talk to people and get other opinions I don't know why when we're having a work session we're voting on things like that that do not have to be voted on tonight you need two readings on something policy so if we didn't do it tonight and next week we would have to do it the one this month and the one next month that would be fine that would be F if they're important things take your time do them the right way but if you delay it too like we had appointments and things like that that need I think you know the good thing with the two readings is you still you got a whole week now before we vote on the second reading next week you know but we didn't just vote on that tonight we voted on just about everything if not everything what is the first perfect for a work session V policy stuff we voted on personel matters that I think are like people need to get appointed so they can start working and things so people can get paid um so we can have the conversations and mean we did before for the whole um you know public sessions like we had conversation like I you can do that in public um I think it's good to have some of these people here who know answers to things that we could ask questions to get answers at the work session but the problem is that we can't technically ask any of the administrators directly we have to go through Dr Hibbs who then can ask them he can ask them right but we can't have them but I think your comment about the website I think I've probably talked about that now at nauseum we have things on there that are so outdated um and Dr hibs I don't know if you can answer it or not but even for the next meeting I regardless of where we are with the website we still have a website that needs to be updated so I think it was a great Point things on there even if you click on something I'm like I don't even know it goes to nowhere so a lot of things on our website so I think we probably if we could have that for next meeting my comment in general because I appreciate your comments Pat um questions that are asked here you probably maybe even potentially felt my frustration a lot of it is already talked in committee and when we get the board packet that's an opportunity to ask questions even when the committee meeting minutes are posted we get like an extra week to look at it then to ask questions so I feel like as board members we have a lot of opportunity prior to sitting here and not being overwhelmed to vote because we have the the committee meetings happened last week so those are posted and then we have a whole week to kind of review and resonate which gave me the opportunity to call uh Mr Serrano and talk to him and say Here's my concerns I know you're the chair it just kind of gives that opportunity to do that I mean that's at least the way I manage it because if not it could be overwhelming to come here and feel like you have to vote on everything but I mean that's when we get the minutes and that's an opportunity to reach out to the chair and ask specifics I mean I don't know just a suggestion I think your comment on goals is good I mean it'd be good you know now we got a new board here to look at those again and get new input and see about refining them there's also other goals like Dr Hibbs has Merit goals that aren't necessarily public be available but they reflect some of those things that you did talk about those are things that you know were wanting him to get done if he wants to get the bonus money that but even communication with the board I mean that's a big thing I don't know why we don't have something for example when people stand up and ask questions sometimes the answer is if if it's specific to a child I get it but when it's a general question for example about our preschool program there might be one person that stands up and asks that question and Dr hibs is very good at getting back at them and giving them the answers but some of the answers are answers that the public in general would make maybe not be as distrustful of us if we simply gave the answers like a a quick little blurb or something that we do for example with a preschool what happens if we don't get the grant money and I'm not going to say what does or does happen but we kind of know what's going to happen but we haven't publicly said that because unless you were the person to ask the question when you went in you may have gotten answers but everything's left on the The Edge there I think Dr hips does do that there specific questions asked he's he's answered the questions I don't think it's a good idea that board members answer the questions hi I didn't say board members I just a or something after that I just think that done that and we could always bring something up at Old business the next meeting like if we think of something that wasn't answer that that the public might like you know to know then you would say oh oh business can we talk about the question that was asked about preschool last week or whatever then we yeah we need to work on that then presol was a good one too because I think I know we've talked about a lot that a lot in business committee meetings and I've read out I've included that in the report that hey we're going with the lease because if we had to terminate we had termination Clause things like that so we try to bring some of that out through our committee reports that I think what I hear is what P saying is maybe we should have a special meeting where we look at the go and uh maybe revamp them or at least add some or or uh talk about them anyway is that right I just think that they could be more useful to what we're doing as a board okay so we can do that and I think the town meeting was it that you we talked about um I'll talk to Dr hibs and our attorney about that I think it's a good idea I think it's a it's an opportunity for you people to come in and kind of ask the questions they might think of or might not want to ask in the board meeting so I I'll I'll look at the possibility you know going that the last time we did goals Carol that was a work session we did it we do the normal goals in public and the Miracles we had to do in exact correct yeah yeah yeah I wasn't speaking of Miracles yeah yeah I was just trying to remember yeah we did it in public it has to be public it has to be public but we also kind of gave everybody homework assignments right was like go out corre do things like you did look at other districts look at our goals come with ideas and we tried to do some of that like so we just didn't come and have a blank piece of paper right I think we sent them all to the president and then you Consolidated them and we had a and we had a flip chart flipart all right I'll get something down on that this week how we're going to handle that that have a question new business I have new business okay uh yeah one of the things that want two things I want to bring up the first one is you know obviously our purpose is the achievement our our students achievement and I know Dr hibs has been working very tirelessly to try to address our achievement there have been people that brought up about our test scores and I'm just wondering if um at the at the at the board level can we have student achievement and progress regularly um at the board meetings can we have an update on where we are with that process in terms of achievement there's other questions I have that I could refer to the IIA but with data should refer to to IIA yeah yeah yeah instru you know I mean I I think that should be front and center I know you you're working hard at it and let's let the people know what we're doing and what's being done that would be one thing the other thing is and I think mentioned this before you know um Mrs Gerber worked tirelessly to get a grant okay the a lot how much money did we get in that Grant uh 68,000 how much 68,000 talking about no I'm I'm talking about the the uh the high impact toring yeah 68,000 oh 8,000 okay 68 at first I thought you said 600 okay so U Can we have a little update um in terms of at not you may not have it now but Dr hibs maybe next board meeting um that is such a wonderful thing for kids to have and we know that kids have been impacted no matter where they are on the educational Spectrum from the pandemic um I just know from my own experience uh my granddaughter said she there's only 10 kids in the program and I know her school with third and fourth grade probably I don't know no there's probably 10 kids in her room we have about 13 rooms running okay so so is is there some is you probably have this I don't want you to do any work but can we get a sense dror hibs can we get a sense of um of the percentage of kids that and parents that are taking advantage of these programs sure yeah thank you very much for and that's just at Wedgewood when I said the 13 rooms okay all right okay thank you for the clarification that's all any other new business okay I have a motion to open the meeting to the public so move second all those in favor oppos um I just wanted to talk about oh I'm sorry I shouldn't start okay um the young man Edward you made a um great comment because I have another question so we should be open um to non agenda items to discuss in the beginning and then in case you want to follow up in the second so I do want to do a followup um many schools as I had mentioned many districts at least 20 have done away with the 5756 and there hasn't been any money withheld so I know you have mentioned that Scott and I just wanted you to let you know so um on policy 14 um what you voted on I would ask that you reconsider on the second reading that it would be open to whatever you wanted your question to be asked the first time the first um public session um and not hold it to agenda items only because we do have some follow-up for um for instance suppose I wanted to say something in reference to 5756 I would have to wait um next session to make a comment on that because I could only discuss it the second portion of the public agenda I mean public opening so I think that you should really consider and have it so that we could ask whatever question we choose to ask I would also ask you to reconsider I think you said five minutes to three minutes no okay okay CU I was going to say that's not enough time we want our 10 minutes so um please reconsider when you vote on the second reading thank you any other yellow cards see to Clos to the public so moveed second all those in favor motion to adjourn so move second all those in favor thank you for coming