##VIDEO ID:MdKBIpMbGfo## e theorum okay good evening call to notice meeting notice statement adequate notice of this meeting of the Berkeley Heights Board of Education was given as required by the open public meetings act as follows on January 4th 2024 notice of the Board of Education meeting schedule was sent to the Star Ledger and The Courier News and was also provided to all schools PTO presidents the bhea president and posted at the administration building a copy was also provided to the public library and filed with the municipal clerk please rise for the flag salute I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible withy and justice for all thank you Mr secretary may we have a roll call vote roll call sorry roll call here okay adjourn to Executive session whereas the Berkeley Heights Board of Education seeks to adjourn to Executive session in full compliance with the open public meetings Act njsa 10 Co and 4-6 and whereas the open public meeting act provides that a public body May exclude the public from that portion of the meeting at which it discusses matters related to those identified below matters rendered confidential by federal law state law or Court rule individual privacy collective bargaining agreements purchase or lease of real property if public interest could be adversely affected investment of public funds if public interest could be adversely affected tactics or techniques utilized in protecting Public Safety and property pending or anticipated litigation attorney client privilege Personnel employment matters affecting specific perspective or current employees be it resolved that the Berkeley Heights Board of Education adjourns to Executive session to discuss matters related to students personnel and legal issues and be it further resolve at the minutes of the discussion if any of these items will be disclosed to the public when matters have been determined and confidentiality is no longer applicable may I have a motion to enter into executive session thank you Mrs huffnagle second thank you Mrs Stanley Voice vote it is 6:32 okay we'll move to Executive session e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e good evening may I have a motion to return to public session please thank you Mrs Stanley second second thank you Mr hman uh Voice vote hi I I all I it is 7:35 p.m. okay uh shall we stand for the flag salute I pledge alance to the flag of the unit States of America and to the for it stands one nation God indivisible with liy and for all okay first will be the report of our student Representatives Olivia it looks like you're doing double duty tonight thank you okay we do have a lot of illness going around but thank you good evening G students have been busy with clubs and extracurricular activities throughout the months of September and October in September GL students celebrated de awareness month with activities hosted by the ASL club like drawing different signs and messages with sidewalk chalk on the brick walls outside of the school the Spanish club also honored Hispanic Heritage Month with games as well as dance lessons in salsa mer and bachata following the tragic hurricanes in the South the interact Club organized bake sales in order to raise money for the victims this past weekend the Highlander marching band held another successful band pageant at Governor Livingston for all three competitions of the season so far the Highlander band has been the top scoring school on October 16th challenge day returned to the high school for the third year in a row members of the sophomore class had the opportunity to connect with one another and form new friendships with classmates on October 16th The Saga Club held a poster making meeting in order to celebrate lgbtq plus History Month as well as National Coming Out day looking ahead GL students have the opportunity to participate in many school events in the coming days on October 18th the student council is hosting its second annual homecoming dance from 7 to 9 in the blue gym this Sunday October 20th the glhs club Council will be holding a Fall fundraiser at Lower Columbia from 12:00 to 400 p.m. all members of the community are invited to check out different student organizations from the high school there will be big sales trivia games handmade souvenirs so make sure to stop by thank you and have a great evening Leia could you just repeat the last one please at Lower Columbia and what time and the date on that so um the GLA J Club Council will be holding a Fall fundraiser from 12:00 to 400m so there's going to be different bake sales trivia games and handmade souers and that's this Saturday it's Sunday Sunday thank you I didn't get the date thank you at Lower Columbia yes thank you very much thank you okay all right a report of the Acting Superintendent and Mr Phillips you're going to be taking over that and Livia thank you you can leave whenever you like okay thank you uh we actually have three presentations tonight uh the first one I'll be doing is the njsla test report so just give me a second here was I saw you I saw the yeah are still right we're ready to get started here um Every Spring the students in grades three through nine have to get tested in English language arts and Mathematics and then the students in grades five eight and 11 have to get tested in science those results actually uh were received a couple weeks ago and individual student um reports were mailed home and we encourage parents if you have questions please please just reach out to your child's uh teachers or principls and and they can answer those whatever concerns or questions you may have um part of having those State uh results done is districts are required to present on the District results within 60 days of receiving um the results from the state so throughout the state in the last couple uh weeks and probably in the next couple weeks districts like Berkeley Heights are presenting on the state results of and jsla um tonight's presentation is going to have some contain significant amount of information um including results from the past three years so you have some comparison data um the previous uh two years uh we typically would like to go out five years but the previous two years uh were Co years at the spring of 2020 and 2021 so there was no testing those years um the presentation will be up on the website so if you want to look at the data more intensely you'll be able to do so so uh the first bit of information we have is about Dynamic learning maps and and probably most of you are not familiar uh with Dynamic learning maps and um they are for students who have more significant needs where the njsla tests are not appropriate assessment for these students um and so they take the dlms we only have a hand handful of students in our districts less than 10 students who take these exams so we do not report out on their results I'm just making you aware that some of our students do take a different assessment and uh later uh in the special education presentation I know they're going to talk a little bit about on The dlms Tonight our focus is really on the NJ uh SLA exams so overall the district has performed well on the the test in the past and this past spring they continue to perform well um districts who want uh parents who want additional informations about this assessment can visit the New Jersey Department of Education website and there's a a parent section there that contains a lot of good good information and you can look up the results of this district and other districts throughout the state the most current results are not up on the web uh the State website yet um I'm not sure when they'll post that but eventually that will be posted um but you you can see information and see sample questions for each grade level um if you're would like a little bit more information and see the standards that related to each grade level when we look at the njsla um there are five levels of it um and I'm going to pull up the math numbers right now and again I I know this is difficult to read um then this is one of the reasons why we're posting it um but with the njsla there are five levels that student can score in um the first level is level one it's not meeting expectations level two is partially meeting expectations level three you're approaching those expectations level four you're meeting the expectations and level five you're exceeding the expectations ideally we want our students um in that level four and level five of meeting an exceeding expectations that is considered passing under um the state standards uh and we so when we look at these uh this chart and our results we want to see a lower percentage of our students at level one and two and a higher percentage of our students at level three and four and when you look at our number typically that what that's what you're going to see you're going to see um at not meeting um expectations our level one we're usually under 5% um year in year out uh at all grade levels sometimes we have little blimps of where we might see a higher percentage and then um same thing with uh at level two we're consistently under 10% of our students are in that level and then when we start looking at level four and level five we're seeing a much higher percent of our students in that meeting and exceeding um levels that are considered passing uh so most of our students are are doing well and we start when we start looking at that compared to our state averages our students are vastly uh performing over the state average and I'll talk about that a little bit um as we go through the slides um another thing as as we look through the slides is I'll talk about is we want to see our students Ascend up through those levels if a students at level one uh we want to see as they go through the grade levels them climbing up to the different levels to hopefully to get to that passing um level four and five and you're going to see there's a tendency that that of that happening in this district and that that's a positive sign that our students are uh growing and and achieving year in and year out so um again if um looking at this chart you're going to have a a higher percentage of our students um if we're looking at our math numbers our math numbers were typically seeing our our students at that passing level um 60 to 80% of our students are are hitting p uh passing um that level four level five when we're looking at the state level only 30 to 40% of the state students are hitting the passing level so that uh significantly above what's happening at the state level for those who are a little bit more visual we have the graph here um the level four and five are your your green bars and that's what you want to see happen and as I mentioned as you look over the those years you want to see those green bars get a little uh longer and you want to see the the blue orange and yellow bars get a little smaller and then that typically happens until you start getting into the eighth grade year where you start differentiating who's taking what tests in the high level students and the lowlevel students um when you separate them obviously then the scores are going to um change a little bit but from grade three up to that algebra one you you you start noticing those bars start shifting where you're having smaller red and and orange bars and and the yellow's growing a little bit more and then that light green and is growing uh more significantly so worse that that's a sign of growth happening that our students are achieving uh they might not be there that third and fourth grade year but they're getting there by the time they're heading seventh and eighth grade um which is a positive sign uh then we started looking at some of our subgroups and this is a a subgroup um Broken Out by race from last spring and again look if we start looking and this is District results not by grade level um you're seeing most of our our subgroups are scoring in that level three and level four range is which is what we I'm sorry the level four and level five range which is what we want and we want to make sure that we're we're continue to see uh success across all of our students when we start looking at uh at our agenda Gap with um in mathematics you really are not seeing a significant difference between achievement with the male and female when it comes to this test throughout the district and then we have our specialized programs um free reduced lunch uh Section 504 elll and uh special education students where you're Pro you're not going to see the same amount of achievement as you would in the General Ed which are our bars to the far right but you're still seeing a a lot of um significant amount of achievement especially with our 504 students um and those are numbers uh even with our our special Edge population we're seeing some growth there and and that's a good telling sign that were that those students are achieving um even uh despite some of the their um disabilities and you going to see the same type of trends when we look at our our English results so um again when we look at our level one you're going to see those numbers below 5% when we look at our are level two percentages uh for the most part they're um below 5% also then uh our level four and level five perents are are um significantly much higher um when we compare are we we seem to do as a district better in our elll than in our math scores um our ell math scores from grade levels range from 70 to 80% of students p on the state level they're they're in the 50% so um we're doing extremely well with the El Ela scores um and that's a positive sign again visually you can see this a little bit more clearer where we're seeing those bars get smaller um as they're going from third grade up to ninth grade we're seeing more students um reaching that level five that dark green bars as they're going through through the grade levels um and that's a a trend that happens every year when we start looking at our scores subgroup um a lot of achievement again the the light green and dark green bars at level three oh excuse me level four and level five we're seeing a lot of success happening in each of our subgroups in our Ela scores um our genders performing roughly at the S same uh level of achievement our specialized programs we're seeing little bit more of achievement than we did with our math scores and that's a a typical result that happens um in ela compared to math with specialized groups the one group that not surprisingly that that's not as cheaping as high as the El L uh e are English language Learners um make sense there um those students are are um working on obtaining a second language as which is English so their English scores will not be as as high as the uh as our other uh students and Science and science has uh always been one one of concerns um I think for every District in the state um so we have students who are taking in uh Fifth eth and 11th grade and the science scores um are significantly lower uh throughout this District every District in the state at the state level state level passing ranges from 19% to 28% in the state which is extremely low um in burgle Heights we're looking at a range from 45 to 55% of our students passing the state test um so well that's something that we're focusing on and I'll talk about that a little bit uh more in depth but um when you have those types of results and that's happening throughout the state that there has to be more work done at the state level to push the standards that they want standards and to get teachers more familiar with the way that the test is assessing students um those results aren't happening with math and English so to me there's a little bit of what's happening with the assessment uh and not so much with uh the students effort and and their knowledge um that's um but as we start looking at our subgroups here um we we're getting a lot of uh ma uh scien is a little bit different they only have four levels um we're getting a lot of our students scoring at a level two ideally we can move them across the board through the years to a level three um and those are things that we're going to be working on uh our subgroups are mirroring what we're doing with our general population our genders again uh as achievement wise they are pretty equal um we're not seeing a difference in Achi achievement um in any of the three uh content areas as far as testing is concerned and our specialized program where you're seeing our elll students again struggling a little bit more and that's part of this is the science test does require a lot of English language arts on it it's more so than the math um that's part of the next Generations writing and readings more intense it's a lot of reading uh summarizing and and taking that information and making conclusions um and with the Sciences a lot of it the vocabulary is more difficult so um what overall when we start looking at at our njsla scores you know we're we're looking at right now I'm presenting more of that at a macro level we're performing very well much uh significantly above state level um you know what you would see in a higher achieving School District um the science scores are are are though not where we want it to be um they they are significantly above state level um you know what our next steps are are start to take a look at more at the micro level where I'm going to be sitting down with the directors the supervisors the building principles look at what's happening in some of these subgroups start looking at the subcategories in mathematics the language arts and science to see what groups that we showing weaknesses in um are they not being addressed in the curriculum are they being address in the curriculum later in the year and that's so we're missing that um based on where we're giving the test or were they addressed at the beginning of the year and the students are forgetting that information by the time they take the test um and it's something then that is that we're going to have to spiral back with with that content um start looking at achievement at different grade levels are we're seeing that some teachers are stronger than other teachers with certain topics so we can start identifying our strengths and utilizing those strengths to use strategies that are more effective throughout the uh our entire program um we saw a lot of positive you look at math scores we saw a lot of positive improvement with our math scores they went up pretty much across grade levels um from last year to this year um but we but they're still not scoring at the level as our language art scores are uh we know that this is a district Focus um as far as um Dr Curtis who was our director of our steam proog program she's been working on um revising that program and and and the courses are being being offered and strengthening the instruction um and same thing with science where she uh has um moved up some of our um curriculum um reviews and rewrites so we can start into uh implementing more of this uh Next Generation science standards make sure that we're preparing our students to do uh better on the test that I have part of that is just develop the the student expectations with those next gen standards where in in the past it might have been more about the knowledge when it came to the science now it's more about um Gathering that science that information that data analyzing it and and then making a summary of what that means as opposed to simple uh memorizing it and throwing it out on on a test um so and that's a different learning expectation and you have to develop that in a student um we're seeing Poss results um and this is kind of reflected of what we're doing with the uh advanced placement test which we we're going to be uh giving um uh a presentation next month that um we're seeing positive results on the njsla and that that reflects positive results we're seeing with advanced placement so good things are happening but we're also seeing areas that we can improve on and those things are being addressed also so those are our results for the njsla and I'm happy to take questions if there are any you first thank you so um thank you for the presentation I umum you know uh when we've looked at this in the past right I think we've uh focused um on the transition from uh from middle school to high school and we know that um we you know the issues are being addressed in terms of sequencing for Algebra 1 and geometry and all that but I was taking a look at the um at some of the lower grades um like for math so like between like sixth and seventh grade you know looking at slide number looking at slide number seven um there are it's either kind of year-over-year maybe a slightly negative Trend um where you have like so for example you know you see an increase if you look at grade six you see an increase in the level twos right um but a decrease in level three level four is flat and then a slight decrease again in level five so net net like the it's the the proficiency numbers look lower because um while I appreciate that we're doing better than the state as we you know should be um you know just like even looking at grade six um it is over 30% or close to 40% um that's not proficient right in um in math at that grade like if you add up all the percentages going for you know um one two and three so I appreciate while we're focused on Middle School transition to high school um just wondering what uh is being thought out you know based on kind of these results and for the lower grades so correct me if I'm wrong and then this is part of being here for a short time I believe in sixth grade some of the higher level students are starting to be pulled out in advanced classes correct the elite students so what are they taking algebra one in sixth grade I believe threee algebra in six is that right because we have yeah they take so um the I think the those kids wind up taking Algebra 1 in um eth grade right so well you have a handful of geometry in 10th well you have a handful of of eighth graders taking geometry so I'm yes um so so so then seventh grade in seventh grade they're taking algebra one and they're getting tested in seventh grade so so in sixth grade you have your total sixth grade class taking sixth grade math so just to correct you I think the bulk of the students taking geometry um happens in ninth grade if you is yes yes so what what I what I'm getting at here is if if you have um and let's say you have a class of just one mediumsized class of of eighth graders taking geometry you're now taking your best kids out of that group out of that Core group of eighth graders that are being tested have always been tested with that grade level you're taking your best kids out of that Core group and now you're looking at their their group testing without the your Elite kids some of your Elite kids in it so normally your kids would normally those scores would go down that's not happening in sixth grade though so um so those are some of the things that I need to start looking at the micro level of why why sixth grade is this is this a norm in the district that sixth grade is always dropping is this a norm for this class last year's class of sixth graders when I look at the state results sixth grade test is the lowest average out of all the tests so it could be a reflection of the state exam also so there's a combination that that happens there um and that's why we have to look at a little bit more at a micro level than the mro level my question we um we did the Mountainside version of this on Tuesday in our meeting I'm going to botch what we called it but um there's like a a grouping by by District cohort grouping or something if we were District I or something like that do we have that for Berkeley Heights to look at similar districts by state for for that number um I would have to check W with um the data that was provided us um years ago the states used to have the the social economic groupings um that they used to release it data that way um if we have it it's through the company that we use that that's Now using uh that will break it up that way um I'm unsure of that I I'll check and let you know yes Mrs Stanley so I have two questions so one of my questions is is um at the beginning of your third year as a board member you have to take training by the New Jersey school boards Association and it's focused on student achievement and during this training this year the guy was talking about how most school districts when they look at their numbers right like today it has to be presented as is but when schools look at them they tend to take out any student is that is new to the school district because obviously their background was not with our district right and it's how that can skew some of the numbers sometimes when they look at it is that something that we do in Berkeley Heights I mean I know you're pretty new but do you know if overall that's something that we do when we look at the the numbers separately right for our students so add the like when we look at these levels no because this is the scores I'm sharing with you is anyone who took the test at per height so when we start looking um like I'll give you an example recently um at the elementary level they have been having their data meetings and they're typically get more in depth when they start looking at that so they might look at that and say all right we have the you know in this small group setting or the classroom setting we have maybe one or two kids are not achieving as well and look at those situations of why that may be and then might be because of a student you know moved in or what whatever reason it yeah I think something we could should consider because we do have a large amount of new students coming in the district especially as the district changes and we have uh new housing coming in and I think that does change how we look at these numbers right because some of these kids have been here since kindergarten but some of them haven't um and how that affects our district Mr moris so do you have anything that to add to this just come to a mic because otherwise the people online will yell at us when principales prepar for the nsla there's a huge document that we work closely with Mr Marks on and there is a a column that's TI time and school tid time and district and if it's less than one those students don't count for or against against us right so so that's my understanding that what Mr Phillips is reporting on does not include students less than a year less than a year okay less than year so so even if if a child moved in a year before in June and now they're Tak a full year of instruction with us that does not count good to know okay so my second question is then when we break it out right so we break it out into race um and then down into uh what's the title specialized programs um we do have a small percentage of this how does that affect the scores because for me right when I see free and reduced lunch their numbers right it's a little bit scary for me because you why are we not doing better for these students right um maybe the other students can get tutors but these students maybe can't afford tutors right so those are where what I would want to focus my attention on but how does that percent like because they are a very small percentage in our district yeah that that's the problem when you have small numbers and the same thing that when you start looking at at um the breakdown and races if if you have um and same thing when you start looking at your ninth grade math scores um when you have students who are taking a certain course and you might only have 30 kids in that that course in in ninth grade you know two or three students can and you know SK numbers yeah number num and and so you and that's when you start looking at the micro and understand that um so when we have that we we start looking at the individuals then and saying hey what's happening here um especially you know the numbers I'm giving you for those subgroups are district numbers so uh there there's a lot more to that story of you know is it happening the elementary level if is it happening at Middle School level um is it happening in ninth grade so it's it's it's difficult to tell a story without going in depth with it um but if if we're seeing a trend though that districtwide those students are not achieving then how can we start addressing it um beyond what we normally do um which is you know when we're we're having students who are who who are struggling on on these State exams and typically then we are struggling in the classroom we're offering enrichment requiring enrichment um but if that's not making a significant an impact what are we doing beyond that um so what I'd like to do is and look at the students who were in that um category last year and and see where they they scored uh last year know I'm talking 2022 uh to 2023 what did they do in 2024 they took the test have we significantly addressed some of their needs and if not what are we going to do differently for that individual child yes yeah Mrs Hing staying on the same slide is it possible that there's a student maybe represented in a couple different categories free and reduced lunch and an English language learner yes right or and yes 504 right so definely is there potentially a skewing there as well correct a student can fall under multiple categories thank you and why is science a one through four and everything else one through five I don't expect you to answer that you're you're asking me why the Department of Education made that decision I I can't answer that different any other questions from board members and and the NJ GPA is a yes or no graduation ready level one or level two so yeah okay I don't believe there are any more questions from board members thank you Mr Phillips all right well at this time then I'd like to bring up uh our director of special education and our supervisor of special education Kevin and Alysa to present on their Department good evening so our Focus tonight is to provide you with an overview of the Department of special services to talk through our philosophy and our vision our programming and some of our future planning we're going to start tonight with a discussion or or a look at um some of the immediate focus and priorities of the New Jersey Department of Education um then we're going to go into our department vision and philosophy um talk about programming talk about some of the initiatives we have going on at both the elementary preschool Elementary and secondary level um and really talk about how that aligns to some of the state priorities um and then finally we're going to review some of our data and and some of the feedback that we've received over the last several years with some of the work that we've been doing primarily at the secondary level um and how we're using that to develop action plans moving forward um our hope is that by the end of this you'll have a clear picture um of what is offered in the department of student services and how we're supporting our students but also then the work that needs to continue to be done in our department so over the last uh almost two years now the New Jersey the New Jersey Department of Education um has really focused on several different priorities um the first of which is inclusive education and the least restrictive environment um and also a focus on early literacy and equity and the reason we're looking and the reason the state is looking at inclusive education is that you know what's been true over the last several years um New Jersey ranks last in the country with regards to the rate of inclusion for students with IEPs being educated in general education class settings and why that's important is the research has and continues to support um and demonstrate that inclusion of students with diverse learning needs in gened classes results in better results in better outcomes and post-secondary outcomes for all students not just students with IEPs um essentially the emphasis is from the state and and always has been that inclusive educ ation is a civil right for all students we're not going to dive too deeply into the law at this point in time um but we are you know what we do want to say is that the federal and state law really dictates that we have a legal obligation to start by educating students in that least restrictive environment and for that we have to start by looking at general education classrooms with the appropriate supports and services it's a student right it's also the law a lot of this stems from a court decision oberti versus the Board of Education we won't go too deep into that um but pulling out some of the key pieces from that um and just to go through the quotes inclusion is a right not a privilege for a select few and also in in that decision the fact that a child with disabilities will learn differently from his or her per from his or her education within a regular classroom does not justify exclusion from that environment again just with the law and kind of summarizing what the law dictates with regards to least restrictive environment it's that districts must make every effort to educate students with IEPs with their peers in the Gen Ed setting and we have to exhaust all our resources and adjust what we are doing in the classroom to provide opportunity to make for students to make meaningful progress in the general education class setting and we have to do all of that before we're looking into alternate placements that are more restrictive more segregated um and that could be within the school building or it can also out of District therapeutic settings um and the reality is sometimes that is appropriate based on the intensity of the students needs but the focus is still on where do we start and that's in the general education classroom settings all right as Mr MOA mentioned um New Jersey Department of Education Office of special education um highlights inclusive education as an initiative um this is a direct slide from the NJ dooe where they highlight a number of um different aspects of research and in a in this presentation they highlighted both the social and academic benefit of including students with disabilities including significant cognitive disabilities in gened settings with the gened curriculum and in the frequently asked questions there um are a number of additional research studies attached if you'd like to look at that as well and so the theory behind inclusive education it's a set of evidence-based practices that when implemented with Fidelity supports all learners ERS and really the goal is to ensure that all the students with and without disabilities receive the supports the individual supports and services to enjoy Equitable access to and participation in the gened setting as well as those reciprocal social relationships um we like to just kind of parse out what it is and what it isn't and when we're looking at inclusive education it really is a paradigm shift it's a belief system and general education is for all students and a natural state of being and a civil right all right Dr Shelley Moore uses this visual to she's a researcher as well as um an inclusive education Advocate and uh she uses this visual to kind of parse out the history and evolution of inclus inclusion and as Mr Mo mentioned historically students with disabilities were um they were excluded from educational settings and taught and segregated or they were just denied access to education at first um and we look at with the development of idea as well as the Disability Rights Movement we see that um you know with the progression of this movement students started to receive Education First in specialized settings or uh separate schools and then we see the movement into classrooms in public school settings um in as efforts around the inclusive education continued General ed students with IEPs continued to receive instruction in gened spaces so that's where we see in that that fourth um Circle where they're receiving the specialized supports the accommodations modifications in the General Ed setting with with peers and the final Circle shifts our thinking from how do we include students with disabilities in gened spaces to how do we begin and continue um you know the great work that our teachers are doing to teach to diversity teach to the um range of learner needs that we have in the classroom and really continue to celebrate the student strengths all right so what does all this mean you know for our department and where are we in our journey um in inclusion right now so um we're going to start with our vision and this is a vision that's been developed over several years um really keeping in mind the obligation that we have to provide students with IEPs every opportunity to be included in those least restrictive environment in the least restrictive environment so with our vision our goal is to ensure that we are developing individualized programs that maximize opportunity opportunities for all students to reach adult Independence and success and when we're doing that we're talking not just a focus on the academics and the academic skills and success we want to develop the whole student we want to talk about the social emotional piece we want our and again we're thinking about life after Governor Livingston we want our students graduating and moving on into their adult life um being happy and having every potential to be successful in their relationships in with their social skills with their Interest really developing the whole person and not just the academics um we want to create a district-wide environment where disability is just one of many differences that our teachers have to work to provide instruction for and to and to teach um we have a diverse population and for us neurodiversity neurodiversity is just a part of that and an obligation that we have to educate um all our students who are sitting in our classroom and provide them with every opportunity to make meaningful progress um essentially we want recognize that our students with disabilities are really just general education students with IEPs and those IEPs provide specialized supports that are Del delivered by our Professionals in order to help our students grow and then finally and ultimately um it's our hope that we can develop a community of Future Leaders adults employers friends that individuals with disabilities can count on for understanding accommodation and advocacy so the work that we're doing here in our vision is to really help influence you know the greater community and Beyond so that we're developing students who uh students who may have disabilities students with IEPs who can now depend and count on peers who have been with them all the way through as work colleagues a as friends who are going to Advocate and support them as they move on um in their independent life to know where we are and to know where we're going we have to take a brief minute just to review where we've been um this journey on inclusive education in Berkeley Heights uh started well over 10 years ago before my time here um and really with a focus at the elementary level um where a lot of intensive work was done um to really create supportive co- teing settings um in the gened classroom settings which then decreased the need to be educating students in those segregated small group settings um so from there with the co- teaching model you have a special education teacher and a general education teacher working together planning together delivering lessons designing lessons together in order to meet all the needs of the varying students in their classroom settings um if you look at the state well if you look at what the expectations are at the different tiers you know obviously a goal and I think where the state is emphasizing is to move up those tiers and to have students with IEPs being educated ultimately in 80% or more of their day in the general education classroom um you look at New Jersey at the bottom and when we talk about the inclusion rate this is where New Jersey is and this is where we're last um 45 .5% um of students with IEPs being educated um 80% or more of the day in gen Ed um Berkeley Heights way back when when we started this endeavor of of inclusion um started at 68% we are currently at 85% um so that's over 16% growth and I think it's a good moment to take a step back um we're very critical we're very intent on looking at we what we do and seeing how we can improve it and that's what you have to be in special education the work's never done um but we're also at the Forefront of of of this movement towards inclusive education here in Berkeley Heights um and I think while that's a very good place to be it's also a very challenging place to be we're running into barriers and obstacles that other districts aren't there yet um but it's also important to note that in the last several years the last three years um we've had over 30 to 40 districts come to Berkley Heights uh to observe programs to talk to our teachers um to talk to our child study team in our Administration um with regards to our programming and what we're doing because again the movement is the move across the lines to be including more students in Jen Ed um and we're out again at the Forefront of this um and kind of leading the way in that and again it's a good thing but it's a very challenging piece for us um but we want to continue to do that work because going back to the research the research supports the positive outcome for students and and all students with regards to this so our district District strategic plan um started again really with the focus at the elementary level but more recently as we progressed through you know The Five-Year Plan that we had from 2015 to 2020 um the focus became the secondary level now because we had established co- teing classrooms um a majority of our students were being educated in those in those gen Ed settings and then as you moved up in the secondary level we were still working through and navigating you know having those segregated settings where students would go into those smaller groups um and we really had to focus the same level of attention there and so a lot of our work has shifted Focus really at the end of 2019 2020 and then Beyond at the secondary level so how do we do it and what the special education look like here in Berkeley Heights well we want to start with the professional staff that are working in supporting students um if you look we have our child study team that's our learning consultant our school psychologists and our school social workers um these are the people that do our evaluations that assess whether students are eligible for special education um they are our case managers um they work with the staff the related service staff the teaching staff to develop IEPs and develop individualized programs for students they monitor and oversee those programs and look at monitoring progress um and they are really a Lea on in communication and the first line of communication for parents um a related service Personnel our speech and language therapists our occupational therapists and our physical therapists all provides individual supports for students if that's what a student needs um they can provide direct therapy in an individual session they may do group sem small small group sessions um but they also serve as consultants and consult with teaching staff to provide resources and strategies in the classroom um that will support an individual student's needs in any one of those areas the fine motor the gross motor or speech and language of course we have our teaching staff our general education teachers and our special education teachers who in inclusive settings are working together again to plan to collaborate to design lessons to try and meet the needs of all diverse Learners in that classroom um as well as our PA professionals um and our par professionals can be integral parts of our students programming and success um they work extremely hard sometimes as you know one toone individual pars for a student sometimes we support providing support for multiple students within a classroom under the direction of the teacher and the special education teacher uh we do have a school psychologist who's a certified behaviorist who will also go into the classroom to consult with teachers we'll work directly with students who may have more intensive behavioral needs and we'll develop programs um or supports for those students and for those teachers to implement and then continue to guide that process and again I'm going to take a quick moment um we are doing a lot of work and I said before it's very hard work it's very challenging work and we're out ahead of some things we would not be able to do the work that we're doing and we would not be able to be in the place that we were at and I truly mean this if we didn't have a dedicated and caring staff and the people who are working there our child study team our related Services um our teaching staff our gened teachers and special ed teachers our Paras um all working together all willing to take a step out out of the comfort zone to do some of the things that we're asking them to do um and all very all very caring and dedicated staff for students so um I say that genuinely I've been in other places and I do believe we're fortunate to have the staff that we do who are willing to take these hard steps moving forward all right and so Berkeley Heights Public Schools provides a Continuum of special education services and currently implements support through a range of Service delivery models all of those Service delivery models are listed here with a short explanation of what each one entails um and that will be available for viewing and in an effort to provide access to instruction in the least restrictive environment we're always looking at how we can deliver services in a way that enhances access and participation in the general education setting so this just highlights some of what Mr Moore was talking about and the different Avenues staff is using to um provide access for students in general education um the New Jersey Administrative Code also highlights the range of student supports um that can be implemented in general education and um that can support student access all right again so to look at you know an overview of the programming and some of the initiatives that uh we are working on this is a focus on the prek through grade five um Mary K McMillan currently hosts our integrated preschool class settings wherein we have students with IEPs who are educated in a general education preschool classroom with their peers again with the support of some of our related service Personnel our child study teams who will push in supports provide strategies and support we have par professionals who are working within those classrooms um to assist in that gen Ed setting uh the vast majority of our students at the elementary level are supported in those co- teing settings a gen ed class rooms with a with a special education teacher and a gened teacher again working together throughout the day to provide lesson designs and instructional supports um for all students um sitting in their classrooms we do have students who require more specialized approaches to instruction and those are students who we do have in our self-contained class settings um both at Mary Kay and at Mountain Park um is important to note that even our students who are in those self self-contained settings who have more need a more intensive approach to the type of instruction that they're getting um do spend a portion of their day in gen Ed settings so we look at where they can be successful we try and build on those skills because again you might be you might have a student in a self-contained setting who has more intensive needs but our goal and and which aligns with the research which aligns with the initiative is how do we build that bridge to get the students more opportunities in gened with their peers because at the end of the day that's what real life is and that's what the real world is as far as initiatives go um we have two initiatives that we are continuing with um at this level uh the New Jersey preschool inclusive education project for systemic change and the New Jersey inclusive project for systemic change um we have had those programs in place through a grant for the last couple years um that is going to continue moving forward this year um and we have another renewed focus on literacy at this level as well with regards to the preschool inclusive inclusive project um that focuses on our efforts to further develop and adapt our preschool class settings to become even more inclusive for students with significant learning needs we are working under the guidance of Dr Ava Kovac who is the lead infant and early childhood consultation specialist from Montclair State University um our efforts to date over the last several years um include creating and holding multi-disciplinary preschool meetings in which all team members and some of those staff members that we talked about the teachers the child study team members the related service Personnel get together monthly to talk about individual students within the program and it's a great opportunity um to brainstorm to talk about the barriers to talk about strategies things that have changed um and then to develop ideas moving forward to really make those those classrooms um acceptable or open for all Learners regardless of what their needs may be at that level um and it's a nice piece we have you know you might have a situation where you have an occupational therapist who isn't working directly with the student um that they're discussing but is sitting in on those meetings because sometimes you know they're hearing what's happening happening and taking place and from their own lens and their own experience can offer strategy so it's not even a situation where you're there because you're working directly with that student you're there from your professional lens to provide input and support for the other staff members working with the students um the nji goal is to develop a systemic process to to evaluate the needs of individual students with more significant learning needs to identify potential barriers for inclusion into gened classrooms and to develop a plan for students to tr transition um here we're working with the New Jersey Coalition of uh for inclusive education and a representative from that organization um we are piloting with two students now um students who were in those traditional self-contained settings who had more intensive needs who needed a specialized approach to instruction and we're working with breaking down those barriers and building that bridge to have students being educated in that gened class and coming away from the self-contained setting so again we're trying to prepare and do more to intensify the supports we can in the Gen Ed settings um to work with our students who have more intensive needs to move them away from the self-contained settings and and diminish the need for self-contained settings and to do more in the gened setting and then finally uh this past September we were able to take steps to train a cohort of special education teachers all our special education teachers at the elementary level um as well as a cohort of special education teachers from the secondary level um in a multi-sensory literacy program um with the idea of being able to provide more focused and more intensive literacy instruction um for identified students who may need that level of support um again primarily at at the Early Childhood centers in the elementary building um but also arming teachers at the at the secondary level with the ability to to kind of build that capacity moving forward all right and then for the programs and initiatives at the secondary level um so a lot of these are in alignment with um the existing programs at the elementary level so I don't want to belabor too much of the details of the programming on the left side um but again our focus is on general education and co- teing in the gened environment um we do have a re resource room we have academic IES which serves as a um class to focus on Executive function development for students with disabilities we do have self-contained ABA um as well as a self-contained defa and heart appearing program um students also um access classes in the gened spaces as part of that program as well so that that does have a a varied setup to that um we have departmentalized lld uh program self-contained setting as well as our newly established Highlander Elite 18 to 21 transition program um which includes as part of that uh training and teaching around life and Vocational strategies as well as Community work-based instruction so at the secondary level um on the in an upcoming slide we're going to highlight a little more around the focus of the inclusive education initiative and the action plan that we've you know focused on this past spring and this coming fall um this year we were accepted as a cohort for the pcast person centered approaches to secondary transition with the Ruckers bog Center um so we're very excited about that our transition coordinator is leading that project with the goal of expanding person- centered planning practices um for students at the high school level um we also last year we implemented effective School Solutions which is programming to support students with mental health needs and we're continuing to expand that 18 to 21 programming with the establishment of the Highlander Elite program um and and expanding additional Community Partnerships and as you know we're collaborating with the math department in the development of the and implementation of the mathematics initiative so we're very excited as I mentioned we are establishing the 18 to 21 transition program uh with a new name as the Highlander elite elite standing for employment life skills Independence transition education the name was selected by staff and students in the program so it's especially near and dear to my heart um and so in the morning the the students receive instruction and community- based um instruction functional math and life and Vocational skills um in the afternoon students participate in internships job placements with the support of a job coach par professional um with the goal of really fading adult support and enhancing student Independence and interdependence in the community um as part of this we have expanded the partnership this year with the Berkeley Heights YMCA um to include community- based instruction twice a week with the structured use of uh gym equipment and the focus on Recreation and Leisure um and expanded Connection in the community so we're very excited to there's is just some photos of um on the left we see students engaged in a person- centered planning lesson that's Michael steinbrook from Rucker bog Center um as part of pcast modeling for our staff and students how to engage in person- centered um a person- centered activity to explore different um you know individual aspects about student identity and interests around uh job exploration and then then on the right we see Community Based instruction at the brookley Heights YMCA I also added a we added a student sample of a reflection activity that they did um reflecting on their role at Burger King and um just seeing this is is great to see the the takeaways that the students having um and the and the planning that they're doing going into their role each day all right valuating our impact of programming and before we move um to this I just wanted to kind of reiterate when you looked at the initiatives and you heard the initiatives that we're at um you go back to what the state's goals or State's priorities right now a lot of what we're doing obviously most of what we're doing is centered around inclusive education which is a priority for the state um the focus is also on literacy and and early literacy and we're taking steps with regards to that um you know and as well as equity which which threads through everything that we do with regards to special education so a lot of Mo all of what you're going to see now as far as feedback is really centered around what's been taking place at the secondary level which has been the most recent Focus for us um and so the survey information that you're going to see and and some of the data really is coming from that secondary level um and when you look at this in 2022 this was about a year and a half after we initiated some changes at the secondary level um to really promote more inclusive settings and and incl of supports um we went and took a survey and did survey got feedback from parents from of students with IEPs from the students themselves um and from the staff and so what we did when we got that information back was say let's look at some of the common themes let's look at some of the common feedback that we were getting um from those those surveys to determine where we need to go next so at that time um this is from the parent feedback uh you know as we made this move to more inclusive settings at the secondary level you know parents wanted us to make sure that we were focusing on or really paying attention to focused instruction in the classroom for students students who had more intensive needs going into that gened setting um you know certainly there was um a goal for parents to make sure that there was enhanced collaboration between the special education teacher and the general education teacher because you can't be successful unless there's an opportunity for those those two professionals um to be able to plan and plan effectively um you know certainly in consultative sections where special education teacher might be out in different directions supporting other students um parents wanted to make sure that we were maintaining the level of support that we needed for students who were still in those classrooms at that point in time um and then some of the feedback from parents that they were sharing was that um their students some of their children um at that level or having difficulty asking for help or or maybe uncomfortable asking for help um in those gen Ed settings you know and exposing what they don't know um some of the benefits um that you see there U from the parent perspective at least early on in this process um some reported that students are starting to demonstrate and take more ownership and responsibility for their learning at home um that's that independent piece that starts to grow when you move into this kind of a model um students were interacting more with peers which was a positive and was impacting you know self-esteem at that point in time um and that you know there seemed to be a deeper understanding of modifications accommodations really support needs for students um with IEPs in those gen Ed settings that same survey from 2022 as far as staff feedback goes um you know again one of the challenges that staff was reporting at that point in time um was being able to maintain that rigor maintain that intensity of the classroom while balancing and making sure that we're supporting what we need um for our students who have maybe some more intensive um learning needs within the classroom setting um you know the concern again similar is you know can we maintain that and balance that when the special education teacher is providing consultative support to other students in a different setting during that period um you know as as part of that U as part of the class lesson um and then you know again um you know just the Reliance for for the for what had been lectured textbooks and workbooks for instruction you know making the class Les less accessible and so having to kind of diversify what we're doing to support students in those settings um some of the early benefits um the academic learning lounge or the all room um that we had set up for which is a location for students to get additional support was seen as an asset um maintaining those higher expectations for all students and certainly students with disabilities um and IEPs in the classroom um is always a and that's the goal is to maintain those high expectations for students and to help them rise to that occasion um you know more collaborative relationships were fostered between students staff reported that they were seeing more of that some increase in self- advocacy skills and some of the reporting back at that time was that the students who were able to make that transition and advocate for themselves in the gened class set were meeting with some success it was the students who were having difficulty advocating and you heard the parent piece of that um kids who were having a hard time asking questions or letting people know that they what they don't know um was a challenge some of the student feedback um and again some of this will be consistent um you know students saying that the pacing and the rigor and the challenge of that in those settings you know was an adjustment coming in and and making those moves into more in uh into more gened settings um and being able to get that help to discreetly right and being comfortable asking for help when they needed to was a barrier for some of our students with IEPs um some of the benefits that they talked about um the the ability and the potential to be more independent in the classroom um and to not feel like that they had a teacher hovering over them at every moment and trying to guide that and that can sometimes happen as I said we have a very dedicated staff and they want to help the kids um and what we're hearing from the kids at that point in time was it's nice to have a little bit of that Independence and to engage with our peers um in that classroom setting and again the students themselves also talked about the benefits of the all room and having that access to get additional support when needed so we took that survey and from 2022 we did a little bit of work and then we turned around this past winter and said okay we're going to put this survey back out but we're putting out you know specifically to the staff at this point in time because now we wanted to get feedback we're a little further away from the co years and the challenges with that we're a little further and deeper into this at the secondary level let's get some feedback now because we want to use this feedback to then Target what we're going to do and build our action plan so this past winter we sent this back out to staff um we're still seeing that common theme and that concern of being able to maintain the rigor in the classroom settings so that's going to be a consistent piece and I think that's going to be a consistent piece and an adjustment that we have to continue to work through for a while um staff was looking for more targeted professional development surrounding inclusivity um scheduling for more planning time um and and that was a common theme and I think we've worked to try and do that but particularly at the high school level that is a challenge um teachers want that collaborative planning time and it's hard to build into the master at the middle school we're able to do it at the high school master schedule it's a lot more challenging for a hundred different reasons um so that continues to be an ongoing piece for staff um and an ongoing piece for us to try and work through um and then something new that kind of came up as a common theme from the feedback from staff um not so much that we're moving away from the self advocacy need because that's still there but executive functioning um now we've been a couple years into this some of the feedback is the students who struggle with executive functioning AR artist students who are going to struggle within that gened setting and the intensity and the rigor and everything that needs to happen in that setting um so that was something new that's come out of this um that you know is is a good piece for us to focus on moving forward benefits the all room continues to be an area of benefit um for students or seen as an area of benefit for students um the idea that um there's increased collaboration we want more of it and we definitely need more time to be able to do that for our teachers um but there is increased collaboration that's taking place between the General Ed and special ed teachers um particularly when they're looking at that increased awareness of how to support students and support student needs and develop lessons and have greater cons consideration of the lesson designs moving forward um this past year two we we decided it was time to dive into um looking at some post-secondary outcomes or at least get getting some postsecondary feedback um from parents so we put together another survey um this survey targeted parents of students with IEPs who had a child who graduated in either June of 23 um or this past June of 2024 and we're trying to get a sense of you know we're students feeling prepared students with IEPs feeling prepared for their post-secondary goals how independent were they in the process um were we seeing an increase in Independence and this is information that we want to gather now moving forward now that we've been in this for a few years we've got to try and get as much post-secondary data as we possibly can because that's going to help us determine where we are in terms of the process um and how successful are we being for our students as they move on into adulthood um no matter what their goals are whether it's College whether it's the workforce um the military we want to make sure that we're preparing students for whatever their post-secondary goals are so um some of the positive feedback we got and we got from parents um there was a lot of consistent Praise of the staff the child study team the counseling department um all the way through um as well as the teachers Jan Ed and special ed teachers in terms of of all that they had done and the work that they had done to support the students all the way through um it was a small sample size and so we want to take steps next year to try and get more data back from from and we have some ideas on how we can do that um but you did look at 47% of parents agreed or strongly agreed that their child was fully prepared as opposed to 25% who disagreed and strongly disagreed that means you've got a high number of parents who were in that middle range of you know that neutral place of hard to maybe hard to tell at this point in time maybe not sure you know how to answer that piece yet um you know it really is you know right out of of the gate so it's hard to really determine where their child is with regards to that um and likewise 42% of parents you know were confident in their child's ability to self- Advocate against 6% who disagreed or strongly disagreed but then again you have a high percentage of parents who saying or probably with saying I'm not sure yet if my child or my adult student now um is able to self Advocate to the degree that we want to and it's still a work in progress to see that um areas of focus and feedback from the parents that are helpful for us um a greater need to focus on Executive functioning skills which is funny because it align not funny but it aligns with exactly what the teachers were reporting our students with executive functioning challenges um we're having the most challenge our parents are looking at and saying you know it's important that we focus more attention more time on Executive functioning um again from a parent perspective greater need to focus on self- advocacy skills again something we've heard consistently um from our teaching staff from our trial study team and our related service Personnel um and then we had a cohort of parents who rep who responded um who had students in our 18 to 21 program adult students um who talked about wanting to expand some of the opportunities for adult students in terms of the vocational opportunities and vocational training that we're doing um out there currently um as well as you know expanding what we do to offer um more e to offer more opportunities to pursue other things outside of vocational are there other programs are there college like programs that we can explore and get all right in addition to feedback from students staff and family surveys we are also looking at njsla results um similar to what Mr Phillips mentioned this is a smaller population that we um are looking at by comparison of the earlier District results um so this is one measure um in our looking at the progress of students the effectiveness of our special ed programming and so the English slide highlights the percentage of students who scored in the different categories which highlights the growth and the percentage of students who are at or above level four meeting or exceeding expectations in ela and we chose to also compare it to 2018 2019 because as Mr Moore mentioned this was prior to the implementation of some of um the more recent inclusive practices and programming in Algebra 1 we have identified math as being a focus area in collaboration with Dr Curtis and the mathematics Department um this is our starting point looking at Algebra 1 and you can you do see the um increase over the last two years and that's something we're looking at you know a little more closely on a that micro level with uh the math department at how to provide continued support and growth in in both um in the different uh math subjects in addition this is our starting point for geometry while there was was a decrease in the percent of students meet meeting or exceeding expectations from 2019 to 2023 we are looking at how we can continue that um upward Trend over the last two years of the percentage of students at level four um or above meeting or exceeding expectations all right additionally science we have the four levels um and so this is our starting point looking at science the percentage of students who are proficient or Advanced proficient is continuing to increase however we are still looking at ways to support that um ongoing growth and um that downward Trend at level four with students who are achieving Advanced proficiency additionally um ngpa as as Mr Phillips mentioned there are two categories and this is another assessment we're continuing to look at um and this graph identifies the number of students not percentage but number of students um with disabilities whose scores identify them as graduation ready as per the njpa in English language arts and then these are our scores for math so in addition to looking at njsla We are continuing to look at NJ GPA as another indicator and working in collaboration with subject area um supervisors and directors at how we can continue to address um the range of learner needs in relation to those subjects in addition to parent surveys we're also looking to measure post-secondary outcomes for students with disabilities as per the annual performance report and indicator uh 14 highlights post School outcomes including enrollment in higher education competitive employment or additional engagements post-graduation and um that is the comparison with the state and Mr Moore and I came into the role um I I'm reaching about my my year anniversary here um and when we came in we we really took a moment to pause um review previous data and set up action steps for the spring um and how we were going to begin and continue to gather information and so here you see an outline of the steps we took this past spring um and the goals and and really why we we did this and so walkthroughs were conducted an effort to gather data around existing classroom practices in um in class resource and consultative sections we also um that's where Mr uh we put out the staff survey with the goal of obtaining specific and concrete feedback to use and inform our planning practices we implemented a secondary inclusive education Google Classroom that is separate to middle school and high school looking at developing a collaborative platform for staff to share resources and strategies we also utilize that feedback to Target specific teacher and Pa professional development in the spring in addition while uh Mr Mora did mention some of the barriers that we have to planning we do um have macr planning sessions where teachers are provided um the opportunity and coverage to meet for half day full planning where they can design um units lessons activities assessments take the time to really um you know look at student data and use that information to plan an upcoming upcoming unit in addition um We are continuing to you know we're looking at this information all the time but we really are taking this um every few months and ensuring that we're um taking a a breath to also ensure that we're including all the necessary stakeholders in this process and so this brings us to our fall plan so uh moving forward and then again based on some of the data in the feedback we've received um you know through the surveys and you know certainly through our our efforts to meet with staff and and through department meetings um you know and just in general looking through those walkthroughs um we developed over the summer into the fall plan for this fall uh of 20 and 20 2024 and as M Miss Rush said we want to plan longterm but not too far ahead so what we're doing is we're taking steps now we're going to re-evaluate where we are in December and develop the second half of this action plan for the spring and that's going to be based on some of the work we're doing now some of the work that will continue through then and some of the feedback will continue to get you know from staff um as we move forward so um this year there was an emphasis um based on our philosophy and our vision we felt like it was important to make sure that we were reiterating that with our staff with our new staff coming in um we want everybody to have a clear understanding of what our vision is for our students in our department or for the students um with IEPs and for the Department of special services so that is something that is on every agenda at the top of every agenda of every meeting that we run it's something that we will refer to um when we're making decisions and we want to make sure that we're thinking longterm for students based on what we've developed as part of that Vision um it's something that we want to work with and relay to our fellow administrators when they're making decisions um as part of their Department ideas and Concepts moving forward that they're considering this vision and and what it is and we want it to thread through everything because special education in our department does thread through all aspects of Education in the district um we did the postsecondary parent survey we're taking that feedback then from there and and determining how we want to turn that into action and support um but also then to determine how we want to maintain that data going forward and how we want to get more data from parents moving forward so this was our first crack at doing that um we got you know again a smaller population of responses but we have some ideas on how we can increase that um moving forward at the end of this year um our new teacher orientation training we shifted a little bit of what we do again with the premise of really wanting all new um new staff who are joining the district to really fully understand what it is to be in an inclusive District like Berkeley Heights and what our expectations are for all staff um you know to certainly support all of our students in the classroom um Miss Rush has worked on the development of a secondary inclusive education committee um that is a committee that we are going to work with and those are Educators from the gened side and from the special education side um to review initiatives we're going to drive initiatives forward through the feedback that we get from the staff and from the committee meetings um really centered around inclusive education and practices and how we can improve at the secondary level upon what we're doing right now um and and what trainings may we need to do um as we move towards the second half of the school year um so those committees are being have been formed um and we're going to continue those for the year but we're going to take a look at December at the initial feedback and say okay how do we want to move forward um for the staff um we are developing we have Miss Rush has initiated a focus group for the academic strategies and the all room academic learning Lounge um the feedback has been positive with regards to the all room but it's been in place now for a number of years and we felt like it was time to kind of dive back in and see if there's more we can do particularly when we're talking about you know a need to focus on Executive functioning which we're hearing from most staff we're hearing that from parents um academic strategies and the all room might be places that lend themselves very well to trying to to support students and beef their skills up with regards to Executive functioning um with regards to self- advocacy but then also get feedback from the staff and the focus groups um are there other things we can be doing and doing better that will support students within those settings sorry just to jump in um this focus group is also um six to 12 so another aspect of this is supporting the articulation of services and supports from middle school to high school and then some of the things we are going to continue with because again they're important and you heard Miss Rush talk about the macro planning sessions um we are going to continue and we are continuing with those this year that'll provide teaching Pairs and co-teachers um at that secondary level to come work together get a half day of coverage so that they can plan units really talk about student needs and lesson design at that point in time um and the feedback of teachers who have taken advantage of that has been very positive and I think it has made a difference for them going forward so we're trying to get around that barrier of the master schedule being a challenge to offer staff opportunities this way um we'll continue with those classroom walkthroughs to inform what we need to do as far as training and support but also a big piece of that was to highlight good practice that we're seeing and make sure we're relaying that out because there are good things going and I said we're very critical of what we're doing but there are good things that are happening in the classroom and I think we want to make sure that teachers understand that and feel that and get that highlight for what they're doing to support kids um and again you know this is the first part of this year so we'll be working in December to then develop that second half of the year um action plan for you know as we continue to move forward um so we did put a link U well before we get to that we did want to it's always nice to acknowledge at at the njcie summer inclusion leadership conference um we did get recognized Berkeley height School District did get recognized for um the efforts that they're making with regards to inclusion and and it's always nice to hear that piece again we have lots of work to do and we don't hide from that piece um but it always good to acknowledge and again this is this is less us this is all the staff that we pointed out before and the work that they do and they're willing to to jump in and do this kind of work um click this on we did attach a document we can frequently ask questions that have come up in relation to um questions around programming and support so that is available as well with a link with some uh Links at the bottom um including research so that concludes I know a very long presentation but there was a lot of information to cover so we appreciate everybody staying with us on that and then certainly you know questions Mr MOA and Miss Rush this was a really truly comprehensive overview and thank you so much thank you for the direction that Berkeley Heights is going into as a former special education teacher you know I could see it happening and now it's still going forward I really like your data and your surveys I encourage you to work on those areas of focus there seems to be some commonality along there and now we have a full-time transition coordinator and looking at that it's on our agenda tonight to approve that name change I think that name change is just great very very descriptive of what's happening in our in our district and where we want to go in the future and I would just encourage you to um celebrate more of your successes so that we see more in in our community uh somehow getting it out and uh if we can because there's so many good things going on to be able to celebrate what you are doing as a as a staff so thank you thank you and we we appreciate that feedback like I said you always feel like in special education your work is never done and so I think we get caught up in you know the work that we still have to do and we know there's work to be done but you have to take a a minute to celebrate what the staff is doing and what they're accomplishing for sure we would love to see that are there any other comments or questions yes questions so thank you for this um you started off saying that New Jersey was dead last and that made me want to cry but it seemed that like ours district is doing maybe better than the state average are we looking at some of the best-in-class states to see what they're doing to improve our services and or you know what what they're doing that might be different or yeah it's difficult because it is I I think it is very different from state to state and and right now we're taking a lot of there there are organizations within the state of New Jersey who are really focused on on making this a reality and moving the state of New Jersey forward in this including you know the New Jersey Department of Education um but there are a number of organ organizations and that's really where I think a lot of us were involved in a number of committees you know within the state um with directors of special services um everywhere from looking at um how kid how students are being prepared in college to support students with IEPs and and what can be done differently there um what's happening you know in other districts and what steps are other districts taking and it's really become a thing where districts are collaborating right now based on some of the information that we're getting and really some of the guidance we're getting from these organizations um they're starting to collaborate you know District to district and share information because I think it is a shared feeling that this is something that we need we all need to be moving forward on yeah that's great I have one second question the the the elite program do love the name roughly how many um students are in it year on year I know it's it changes every year but yeah it changes every year right now we have I believe it's seven students um two which are also part of our ABA programming um so right now the combined support is with um young adults who also receive ABA uh support so and that really was stemming from some of the feedback we had gotten from parents and we talked about wanting to expand what we were doing and that and so miss Rush worked very close with the teachers and the and um Miss Sheridan as a transition coordinator to really try and evolve what we're doing there so um again everything's a work in progress and that program is involved multiple times in the last couple years um but I really see like a real positive piece of where it's going right now and again I have to give all the credit to the staff around there bringing their ideas to the table looking at how to Branch out Community Partnerships um as well as uh you know taking the feedback from the students and the famili and the the ideas that's great thank you Mrs Stan just a followup on the elite this is separate from our culinary program or the culinary program is under this as well it's a piece of it so again things have evolved from from a couple coup years ago when we evolved the culinary program out of a necessity really at that point in time um so now this has now spawned and kind of grown into something even more um but something where and again you can correct me if I'm wrong but we're looking at our 1821 to 21 year old population it's really our adult Learners um and we're trying to move away from you know we we have to function within a school setting um but we don't necessarily have to function maybe moving on a bell maybe we can mimic more of what's happening in in The Real World um you know and have those those students have more flexibility within their schedule form that partnership with the why get engaged in in in typical activities that we hope the students will continue to do as part of their Independent Living remember we want to develop the whole student um and that can be an important part of one their health but also socials and having social contacts with adults within the community um on Gail's point right like I think so many people don't understand that we have these types of programs and I know some of of them are newer and we've talked about the culinary program um but it it really shows the heart of Berkeley Heights I think right that we want to make sure that every student has a place in Berkeley Heights like you don't have to send your kids somewhere else to get an education um you can stay right here on Brickley Heights do you know if the doe is doing anything to change how this affects our graduation rate because I know that this does affect our graduation rate but obvious viously we want to keep doing it because it's the right thing to do um but that does change how rankings are looked at rankings often look at that graduation rate um do you know if the doe is doing anything I know they know about it yeah and I I don't and I I don't know if the doe is taking and I know a lot of recent changes that happened have really now or recently impacted graduation rates for you know a number of districts and certainly you know for here in Berkeley Heights um I don't know if they're going to take that piece up in the immediate but it certainly something that I can talk with and we can talk with in our administrative and we're talking about um issues with other districts and with other directors um it's certainly a topic that we can put on the agenda I feel like we got to keep pushing them I do they know it's an issue but you know like we're almost getting bashed for doing the right thing you know and that's that's the hard part right um my second question is do we know how many students would be considered in our special education program and I think this is actually hard to answer so even if you have to get back to me because we have so many students that use our special education department that might not be considered a special ed student right like we have that academic strategies I'm pretty sure we have kids in there who are not necessarily special ed but use that program well certain with the academic strategies that is a classroom only for students with ie um if you're asking for the total number of students with IEPs just districtwide right now we're at from preschool to 12 we're at three or well preschool to post postgrad we're at 3 91 students with IEPs 391 with IEPs that would be not 504s that's not 504s um I can get the 504 numbers and our ABA that's included within the within the students of the IEPs but again I can look at breakdowns of programming for sure okay because I know right we even have reading Specialists that deal with kids that are wouldn't necessarily necessarily be on our special ed but they still right so our students are gaining so much from these programs um even right last year we um met the girl young lady who got um awarded by the njsba because she was doing the Buddy uh group and she has moved on to go to college for a special education so these programs are really really important um my second thing is you said there was training for um the staff when they come in on what it's like to be in an inclusion classroom or an inclusion District I would love to see this for parents I feel like so many parents don't understand the Berkeley High School District and our focus on inclusion um and I do think that as years go on parents start to realize that but they don't necessarily in the beginning is there anything that we can do to for parent nights or something to really help them focus on the idea that you are going to have kids with special needs in the classroom and that you need to be aware with that yeah I think I think that's a fair point and I think there's some some that we might want to be able to organize um from our end for you know whether it's a parent information session or a parent night um with regards to that we've done some of that with transition in the past um preparent of eighth graders coming up at the high school um but really for districtwide I think that is something we can look into doing um and there are little thing like I know our child study team members at the middle school um back to school night set up an area um that provided a lot of information with regards to special education and supports and services um you know we can do more of those kinds of things as well to get information out at all levels but certainly we can look into organizing something of a parent and get information out and then my last comment is on um I see that there's a lot of parents at least that talk to me about issues during transition times between five and 6 and between 8 and 9 UM that they feel like it almost takes like half a year in sixth grade to really get their kid not just the supports but like in the right things and in the right mode and the same thing with ninth grade it's like they start off and they're struggling and then you know the supports are there and they get them but they feel like it's like so much time goes by by and I know right as our Educators they're busy they have so many students that they have to work on is there anything that we can do to kind of help that transition so it doesn't feel like so much time is passing before they get settled right is there like a program we can have in August I know it will cost money um and we'll have to work on that and the budget where we can have the fifth grade teachers meet with the sixth grade you know and get make sure that everyone understands what this kid supports look like and so we do have and have had things in place um for that transition and exactly what you're talking about where the fifth grade staff um has the opportunity to talk with the sixth grade teachers that is something that takes place every spring um and again we started in recent years doing that for 8th to nth grade or really having the ninth grade special education teachers come down um and see kids in programs and see what it looks like at the middle school level um and then meet with the teachers and the child study team at that point in time to get information with regards to that we were actually talking about expanding that um we got feedback from par professionals with the opt with the opportunity of having Paris because they work so intensely with the kids yeah get some time those first couple days of school to meet with the par who's going to be inheriting you know maybe supports for a student in ninth grade because they really get to know the ins and out so we do want to expand that piece because it is an area of focus um with regards to some of the things that we've done um and just so you you know the child study team transition for fifth to sixth grade and and eth to nth grade starts really in um the first meeting in December that we have a child study team meeting where they'll go through the list of students with the receiving CST and talk about some of the needs talk about you know what it looks like some of the student profiles and then we do that again in spring so we kind of solidify where we are with that however um there's a lot that we could still get forward with um it's a matter of balancing the time in those first couple days and those opening days of school to free up time because there's a lot that goes on um there's a lot of trainings that take place and then you know we know with teachers um those first two days of school as much as they want to be involved in the trainings and hearing those supports they want time in their classrooms and so you want to be able to balance that piece so they can get up and running so I'm certainly open to looking at options and do more that than what we're doing and we have some ideas to expand that um but yet a transition years are can be critical because I feel like December like that feels so long right when you're a parent and your child's in October now and they're struggling right um and you're trying to find who to get who connects with and how to get your kid to connect with them and feel comfortable with them um so what would you say to a parent who right now is struggling and feels like they just want it done now well and I think you know if you're a parent of a of a student um with an IEP always take the time to reach out to your case manager um they'll jump in they'll try and set up strategies and supports and they'll work with the teachers on that and particularly you know fifth to sixth grade is a big jump and you have students who have gone from you know the the elementary model now they're going into that secondary model with a rotate and drop and it may take a couple weeks just to figure that part out and and the teachers and the staff are always there to help but I think you know if the parents who are feeling that kind of stress and pressure with regards to where their child is right now and knowing oh my gosh it's October and and you know sometimes it doesn't register right away um you know and it's hard to navigate for students have those conversations with the case managers um now and feel comfortable reaching out and saying this is wher my child is that's what they're there for I say just to jump in I have a meeting tomorrow that a case manager organized based on teacher requests and looking at how to provide support in transition and connecting with a fifth grade case manager to learn a little more around what strategies and supports worked in fifth grade look at how we can continue to replicate those in organized by the yeah no and thank you so much I I met a parent the other day who is only here a week and um he said that he moved here because of our special ed because he has a child with special needs and he has a parah and he he said that the first week was over and the teacher was like oh I want to schedule like a phone call and they were like it's the first week and they're already scheduling phone calls and they said that the the teacher called and was like we just wanted to make sure that everything's okay that he's been doing well and they were like you're calling to make sure we're okay and so we really do have amazing professionals who really care about these kids and they really at our last District we would have to call them and beg them to get on a phone call and here they are initiating that so I really do appreciate this program yeah no and again the people in the front lines who are working the teachers and the par professionals they really are a dedicated group Mr Heyman you had a question just real quick yeah it's actually it's relevant it's a piggyback just so in terms of transitions uh as as the mountain side question uh obviously there's been a lot of conversation and work over the years at at all sorts of subject levels to try to make sure we're on the same wavelength is there is there work happening between the districts now obviously Mountainside kids come in eth grade with a different special ed background perhaps different supports anything that is happening now or could be happening to to ensure that eth graders especially I guess are prepared when they get here yeah for sure and so over recent year Well really dating back um our child study team at the high school level typically always gets invited to IEP meetings for eth grade students coming up um we've also organized opportunities for the child study team to meet with the case manager from Mountainside um to kind of transition students um this year we've we've kind of Sher and I have been in conversation multiple times um and so to kind of solidify some things and make sure that that communication's ongoing um we' both set up a spreadsheet now um of information with the students so we can in time know if there's a change in program we update that likewise for the students who are in eth grade mountainsides doing the same kind of thing um so that gives us an opportunity then to get out ahead and if we're seeing you know okay there's a need for a power professional we can communicate and say okay what is the needs coming up like how do we better you know support the student um as they're transitioning up so we're trying to take steps with regards to that um as we go forward so Sher and I are we're both feeling our way I mean she's been at it a little bit longer but now you know we're settling into that communication and trying to build some of those supports um and a lot of those supports existed I know the child study team um has always been a part of IEP meetings um at least one member of our team will get down uh and there's been ongoing communication and the mountain side staff um their case manager their counselors are always invited up um to our program of studies meetings to talk to learn about what's new and special education as a piece of that where we talk about our programming and we talk about you know what it looks like um at GL Mrs Jolly so want to say thank you to both it was a very thorough presentation um no on a subject matter that I'm not very familiar with so I appreciate that so thank you to you and the staff um just because I am a numbers person there was a metric um that was put up and to show how well we are doing you know 84% inclusion versus the state of 45% so with respect to the law are there actual any um targets that they want you to hit like I think like for njsla exams for example I think they need they want you to hit 80% proficiency by a certain year or something like that is there anything similar that's uh related to this law in terms of you know where the districts need to be by a certain point in time no I don't think they have anything specifically targeted I do think it's really that measure of students with IEPs being educated in gened classroom for 80% of the time that's the I think that's the long-term piece that they really want to drive districts to and there's that tiered level um so at the moment you know we're obviously there but we're always looking at where do we go from there um but I think that's the goal for the state is for all districts to be thinking about how do we move up to the next year how do we go from 45% to 60% and then you know beyond and get to that 80% mark thank you our new athletic director also has some background in inclusivity with sports so uh yes we're very excited about that also so thank you very much um Mr Phillips looking forward to next yes so we got our third presentation the Hib uh student safety data system report and that's being done by our two anti-bullying District coordinators John uh Moro and Casey nebus good evening everyone I'm John morriso I'm the principal at Mountain Park School and together with Miss nias um we supervise coach oversee the HIV process within the district I primarily focus on the elementary schools K5 and Miss nibis focuses on 62 but we do pretty much everything together to make sure that we are doing what's most appropriate and most effective effective for the safety of children this event tonight will cover basically three things we're going to cover the particulars of the Hib law we're going to cover um our numbers just like Mr Phillips did we're reporting to you our our numbers from the second half of last year but also providing some data regarding comparison from you year-over-year um information and we'll also talk about some specific activities that are taking place within the district currently and going forward through the course of the Year again to provide an environment where children interact appropriately and they feel safe and supported at the end of every year the school counselors get together with their saf School sa school safety teams and they do a self- evaluation that's also information that will be shared in this um in this presentation you'll see what was accumulated last year but also a comparison from year to year what's most important in this slide to understand I think is that um HIV can take place in many different ways what we're seeing now mainly um more and more is taking place electronically used to be students with if they were going to face each other um in person there was a little more accountability um you had to see the person that you might be targeting now you know children may not even be in the same room in the same school in the same town um even in the same state and they can have the opportunity to negative negatively impact another student what's also important to understand is HIV does not have to be a a series of events doesn't have to be repeated it can happen once and if it fits the criteria it can be found as a positive HIV some of the the characteristics um that we're looking for when we investigate an Hib is to see if it a protected category has been targeted and as you can see there we have nine protected categories but it's not limited to that but that gives you a good idea of of topics that are pretty much off limits when you're discussing um someone's background someone's identity um someone's characteristics um I was in a lesson today that Mr cogin was running for some fifth graders and and he used the term if you comment on something about someone that they can't change or is very difficult to change you're probably heading towards potentially being in a bully situation and I thought that was a very good way to say it other distinguishing characteristic something that has happened in the last couple of years as Berkeley Heights becomes much and more more much and more diverse we have children in the cafeteria especially in the early early ages we're eating a wide variety of lunches and sometimes students will say hey you know I've never had that before what is that and there's a conversation sometimes students aren't so sensitive about what other students are eating and that again could end up in a situation where we potentially could have a conflict or maybe even an HIV that is a I don't know that that's a patented phrase that's something that Mrs Marley has has used at um Willam William Woodruff and I know she's helped Mr Finley adopted as well it's something that helps the children understand just different better ways to treat each other and maybe keep your comments to yourself um we focus on making sure people understand that an a situation between two students can become an HIV if even if it doesn't take place on school property if something takes place off school property outside of school hours but yet has a negative impact on someone's school day maybe makes them anxious makes them change their routine or is part of a targeted category that can ultimately end up being found as a positive HIV the last three slides go into a i bullet points go into a little bit more detail about how a a student's educational process can be negatively impact impacted by comments and how that can ultimately result in an hip situation the slide has changed somewhat from last year we've added some new staff members we've had a few staff members who are on leave but you'll see each elementary school has a anti-bullying specialist the middle school and the high school have more more students therefore more people that can do investigations but this doesn't mean that for example Mr cogin is only allowed to investigate situations at Mountain Park if there's a need for him to go to Hugh school to do an investigation or if there's a need from someone one from the high school to come down to to the middle school to do an investigation we will miss neas and I will organize that just to make sure that every student is getting their opportunity to be heard understood and protected something that's also important to notice is we have some people on this list that are members of the child study team so if there's a chance that a child it's involved in investigation could be on that child study team members case management list we try to keep them separated when it comes to an HIV investigation this is a pretty significant list of consequences and remedial actions what I really want to focus on though are the remedial actions because we we know that sometimes we have to use old-fashioned punishment but we know that in the long run what's most effective is a remedial action just like we provide Remediation in the classroom if a child is having difficulty with a concept we take a different approach use a small group environment in an effort to help them understand the concept better we take the same approach when we're dealing it with our students who have made bad decisions actually um had gotten themselves in a situation where they're saying or doing something that's hurtful we try to help them understand because at a certain age if you take a punishing approach there's a good chance that the behavior that caused that punishment will just become more more covert and also more hurtful okay now we're looking a little bit at of our not a little bit but at our our data from last spring you'll see the comparison from the previous three years and this is the same slide what we did is we just took off 1920 added 2324 and up updated it um you'll see that things are trending positively um we know 2021 2022 were lead years in Hib over since we started this process um that was when we were dealing with students who were missing out on a lot of opportunities for appropriate social interaction in the cafeteria lunchtime sometimes even with sports locker rooms kids just missed out on those opportunities and that led to some gaps in their judgment gaps in their experiences and therefore more HIV investigations and more positive HIV findings we broke down here by school by investigation and by confirmed cases something that should not be news to anyone the Middle School leads every District in investigations just based on students at that age um we do like to see that the numbers indicate that as they get into the high school age they understand how to have appropriate interactions and there's fewer investigations and few fewer confirmed findings we all we also know that oftentimes we'll have children who are involved in numerous investigations and that can skew the numbers a little bit as well this slide is similar to the previous one except it just covers the whole year rather than the half year reporting period we find that students who are involved in Hib investigations are making comments and getting into conflict with other students I shouldn't say conflict or potentially targeting other students based on race gender academic learning differences sexual orientation and I think you'll notice when we get to our programs part portion that a lot of what we do is targeting and in helping students understand differences in regards to those categories like I alluded to earlier social media has really had a negative impact on the way students treat each other um it's not news to anyone that um social and emotional well-being and self-image self-esteem anxiety all are contributed to negatively by excessive use of social media as I alluded to early on WE school safety teams under the guidance of the school counselors within those buildings do a self assessment every year so now we're going to see some of the result the results of those self assessments just like we did with the investigations and the positive findings nothing that takes place throughout the course of the year starting during in late August with the with the brand new teachers to Berkeley Heights and continues through faculty meetings grade level meetings administrative meetings we're always working to make sure everyone is up to date on current trends in in HIV and also what's happening around the state M neas and I go to um anti-bullying coordinator meetings several times a year where we meet with other ABCs from the distri from from the county and we collaborate with them and help help us understand what's going on in the state in order to make sure our our programs are as productive as possible okay this is not the easiest chart to read because there's a lot of information on there but it gives you the the points that can be earned regarding different categories within the self assessment and this is represents our overall scores um that the the school safety teams provided each building based on their assessment of Their Own process and progress a lot of what we see up here are things that are ongoing over the course of the past several years the last bullet point is a really current initiative the zones of Regulation where we it's districtwide where we're helping children understand how their current state of of emotional anxiety for lack of a better term affects how they interact with their environment and with people within that environment and that's something that every every teachers had the opportunity to S to participate in training and students have been oriented to the process each each Zone has a color and we've we've I've even I've seen students and teachers reference what color are you in what can you do to get to a more productive color so you can more positively interact with your environment and students and your peers within your environment something that we're really working towards I've already had a conversation with Mr Nixon this week about up having inviting a a our board attorney to our next um anti-bullying specialist meeting we haven't done that in about two or three years just to make sure we're up to date and um practices are as current as possible and as appropriate as possible Miss neas and I are going to a a workshop mon this coming Monday at the Mars Union jointure commission where we're going to be meeting with other anti-bulling coordinators and a representative from the state and we will get bring that back to the anti bullying Specialists and the administrators in the district to make sure everybody is is up to date so to highlight some programs that are going on within our district um we have a really wide range of things that are going on whether it's now or lasting throughout the year so to begin we have Feelgood Fridays and wellness Wednesdays so I started Feelgood Fridays here at the high school level and then I decided how can I mirror that as best as possible at the middle schools just because I'm only there once a week so I thought bringing Wellness Wednesdays would be a good way to incorporate activities with the younger ones um to get everyone kind of working together and just doing something feel good wellness-based um I did connection change so I had everyone write positive messages and then we stapled them all together and then we hung them up in the hallways in the middle school and I did that here at the high school too it was really successful um I work with the Union County Consortium so I meet with Sachs from the surrounding towns and we discuss programming that we can bring in for parents and students so we're doing um uh evening Wellness series for parents and the next one that we have coming up Berkeley Heights will be hosting and I believe that will be November 25th um drug and alcohol awareness programs I Tred to partner with the bhpd as much as possible and have their presence here as well and just try to teach whatever the topic may be whether it's vaping um I did drunk goggles in the hallway and had students try that on on and also um working with prevention links also trying to educate on The Vaping because that is so prevalent in our schools Community celebrations at the elementary level they throw these amazing celebrations depending on what the theme and the topic is and boy do they know how to throw a party down there so if you guys can see one it really is amazing and it really does uplift everyone um what else we have self-care strategies growth mindset lessons that are taking place at all levels and week of respect activities so as I go forward you will see what week of respect has been at each of the levels here so just so you can get a visual of what our district precepts are um in November and December we are focusing on advocacy and confidence if you want to read all of the motos for each School per each month you can go ahead and read them yourself I won't read all of them but um for January and February we have growth mindset and kindness March and April is problem solving and diversity May and June is self-care reflection and gratitude um and then recently most recently we've been doing connection and empathy so the schools have been incorporating connection and empathy into their lessons their classroom lessons their advisory lessons and all the other activities that they've been putting on in their schools so here is where you get to see some of the things that are going on everyone has sent some really amazing pictures so at the Early Childhood levels we have the school celebrations that I mentioned um um they really are a lot of fun everyone is up and moving and having fun and dancing so it really does lift your spirits um they are doing zones of Regulation so Mr morriso touched on that and really what zones of Regulation is aiming to do is to help the students kind of regulate their own emotions and also help them learn how to problem solve and to push through those uncomfortable feelings and say okay what do we do with them and how do we move forward through them and they do them in a cool way with colors and identifying your emotions and finding ways to connect those pieces together and then they also have an interactive bit Emoji classroom so for parents who would like to have some resources or see what's going on within the school all of those are linked in their Emoji classroom so visit their school website similarly to uh the Early Childhood Elementary is also focusing on zones of Regulation so they've included that in every single classroom and all of the teachers have also received the curriculum as well they've been doing week of respect daily challenges so if you look at the photo in the bottom right you could see what the week looks like so they really have it mapped out different theme days suggestions on how you can show your respect so they really lay it out for the students the teachers and it makes the week really fun and engaging at the middle school they run student of the month and they vote on student of the month uh the students are sorry the students are selected based on how they are representing the monthly precept so if they're demonstrating something that a teacher finds falls falls within connection or empathy or kindness or just reaching out to someone and including them then they are recommended to student of the month they also have worked really hard on coming up with a new advisory curriculum so they've really worked hard to um incorporate the precepts into the curriculum and they've really mapped it out for the whole year so it's already pre-planned um so shout out to them they worked super hard on that and then they also sent over an image of the week of respect spirit days and activities that came came along with that so that just passed um and then like I mentioned Wellness Wednesdays once a month every Wednesday and then here at the high school um we've been doing Feelgood Fridays so I kind of planned them a little bit different and I Incorporated the Feelgood Fridays to kind of reflect what the precepts are so I was doing the connection chains for the September mber monthly precept of connection and the kids really took to it it was something so simple we did it right out in the hallway and really quick and passing but it got people to stop and just chat with each other which was nice um week of respect we did schoolwide Bingo cards so it was just we have a little graphic there of what they looked like so it gave you suggestions of things that were either kind to do or something really easy just to go out of your way and show respect for someone and then if you got Bingo you got some prizes we had Hispanic heritage celebration yesterday we had challenge day I must say it was our best turnout yet so I'm very proud of that and then for Red Ribbon Week we have education planned for that um we are hosting the fall Wellness Fair again and then we also had a senior shout out to Anthony migliori for pitching me a student produced and directed Red Ribbon Week film so it has an anti-drug message and he has written the script and shot it himself and I've just been overseeing it but it's going great so far and then focuses going forward um just really trying to to find new creative innovative ways to get into the classrooms focus on social emotional learning delivering those lesson plans um also any upto-date anti-bullying programming we really want to bring in things that are engaging and fun and will reach every age group so we don't want to bring in something that's not going to work for high school students and they won't really take to so trying to be open and be on the lookout for programs that are going to work for our students here that's one of our main focuses going forward and educating the community at large okay any questions from the Board of Education just just a quick one uh and thank you for the presentation uh both of you um you said challenge day was the largest participation how many how many it's for sophomores right how many students did we have uh we filled it to the brim which was the limit was 100 students and we had 100 students show up and more so I was writing a wait list um unfortunately people on the wait list didn't get in because everyone showed up which was so great um because last year our turnout was not not at capacity so I kind of tried a different way and we filled it 100 students we had a weight list and had a lot of teachers participating too we had a bhpd officer um we had Tiffany escot from the YMCA so it was really great and I've heard a lot of positive feedback so it was well worth it any other questions Mrs Stanley so one question that has come up um within the board is how much are the students trained on what hip is and um kind of how they can stay away from it I know we talked about Mr Conlin you know using that good example of like anything that you cannot change is not something you can uh do in class but is there any training where we specifically say the word Hib because I think like some of our trainings are more General about how to use social media how to right we had the spark love or something gentlemen come a but maybe not actually say the word hi do we have any trainings that are specifically HIV absolutely I mean it it it happens at all four levels at at at an age grade appropriate in a age grade appropriate manner um the word the word bullying is used and we spent a lot of time helping the children understand the difference between comp conflict and bullying you we've had a lot of conversations about targeting behavior um where there also where there's an imbalance of power between two parties and also where it's a um it has a negative impact on the school day those are all terms that that are being used we talk about you race and ethnicity we talk about body type we talk about learning differences um and it's it's a gradual process you can't just make a presentation and have the the idea that oh now oh now students understand they're not they're not going to say these certain things because you know they they're human organic developing changing anxious hyper students so you know and sometimes they want they want that Zinger they want they want to put someone down whether it's the way they feel about themselves or the way organically they see somebody else so it's it's an ongoing process we can't I'd be lying to you to tell you that every child understands not to bully now we're we're not going to have any more problems but we we give them the opportunity to absorb this information just like all other information that we present and give them the opportunity to learn from it and then when they transgress we provide remediation to help them not make the same decision again I would say also that at the beginning of the year there are at the beginning of the year there are class meetings so what whatever admin is giving the presentation they're going over a whole laundry list of things at the beginning of the year and um Hib is part of it so they don't spend an entire presentation on it but they do go over like Mr Moro said the difference of um like bullying vers conflict and where it can happen which is pretty much anywhere so they do go through it at the beginning of the year and then as the year goes on there are those conversations of what is HIV and what is not and I think at this age we all are aware of how we should be treating each other so students are aware to the technical scales we are not sure but they do get thee presentation of HIV and then can you just describe the process of an Hib before it becomes a comes on the board agenda so parents understand like the process so what what happens is um an event can be reported an observation can be made by a a perceived victim by a witness who could be an adult could be a child could be a parent could be a teacher could be a bus driver driver be a lunch Aid could be anyone within the community and that's presented to someone within the building could be an email to a teacher could be passing comment to a school counselor or or an administrator and then what happens is there's a conversation with the perceived victim or the perceived witness within 24 hours of finding out of having that report take place doesn't mean it's a 24 hours within 24 hours of the event you sometimes you know you don't get that information right away and that then the counselor and the administrator are having a conversation about that initial investigation are we elevating this to to an HIV and then and then it goes into hipster and hipster asks us dictates many processes asks us questions and we answer those questions and and then once everything's done Witnesses perceived offender perceived victim are interviewed a decision is made if it hits hits the criteria that warrants um elevating it to an A A positive HIV finding and then what happens is hipster warehouses all those investigations all that information and then um just prior to the board agenda being created Miss neas and I get together and we um do a superintendent HIV report you know we put in dates of reporting and like this week there were I think four or five cases there's still other cases in hipster but they're not at that level where we can report on them and then you get you see those and then obviously you know the refs you get a chance to see them and then you vote whether you confirm or deny at the next meeting any other questions thank you for a very thorough presentation and we just encourage you to get this information out to the public to our parents and to our students so thank you again okay at this point we're going to move on in our agenda to committee and liaison reports uh I will start with the update on board goals board goal number one was the Board of Education will improve planning committee structure the board will be reviewing our committee structure and committee meeting scheduling at the reorganization meeting beginning on January 7th the Board of Education will work to improve communication internally and externally the board is continuing to discuss remote participation the equipment for improved Visual and audio participation is currently being installed here in the GL cafeteria the Board of Education will evaluate the superintendent the board is near completion of hiring the next superintendent the Board of Education will promote all district goals the district goals were presented and the board will support the goals the Board of Education will develop and Implement a plan for continuous board professional development with ongoing training several Berkeley Heights Board of Education members will be attending the New Jersey school board association annual Workshop conference beginning next week next Monday in terms of liaison reports and committee reports I'm going to report first on the veterans committee the veterans committee is asking local veterans about reading books in the schools like we did for Memorial Day the school princip will be contacted about teachers inviting local veterans to come into the classroom to read for Veterans Day on Monday November 11th the town leaz on the Berkeley Heights Town Council met on September 24th and on Tuesday October 8th Berkeley Heights has been designated as a purle heart city Berkeley Heights has a large veteran population including Purple Heart recipients Berkeley Heights has been designated as a b City USA affiliate and there may be educational material that could be shared with the school district on that um discussions on the shared lease agreements with the burgle ads Board of Med for board of education for fuel and vehicle maintenance continue upgrades and maintenance continue on the wastewater treatment plant the complete and green Street's task force is meeting including a workshop on routes to school looking at student safety there was a walk bike and roll to school event on October 9th a survey was sent to see how students travel to and from school more information will be shared with the Boe from this survey this coming Saturday October 19th is the annual latel Lord Farm said Fall Festival from 12:00 to 4:00 there'll be Artisans Craftsman pumpkin painting a beer garden and more join the event with fun for all ages and join the mayor's Wellness committee and friends for a harvest moon hike on Sunday October 20th beginning at 2m meeting at the pic River parking lot on Springfield Avenue um we do not have a report from the Mountainside committee Mrs Airi is chairperson and she is she has not yet scheduled the next meeting with the Mountainside representatives and the board is also awaiting the minutes from the Mountainside committee report from June update on the negotiations committee Dr forger is the chairperson he has canceled the last two meetings has not yet shared uh the board's Proposal with committee members I believe the next meeting is scheduled tomorrow at 1:00 um but we have not seen the proposal yet so we're looking forward to hearing from Dr forer as chair on that are there any other committee or liaison reports yes Mrs Stanley I'll start with the bhef we met on 9:24 and 10:15 so um they are preparing for their 30th anniversary party um this will be on November 15th at the Vintage Tavern from 7: to 10: p.m. um it's called back to the 90s so they expect you to dress up for the 90s um there's going to be costume prizes a silent auction a 50-50 raffle and an open bar um they are looking for admin and staff um to join as well they thought it would be a good time for everybody to get together and celebrate and they feel like they've done so many grants with some of these teachers to get to spend time with them they're offering a discount so please reach out to them if you would like to join as an admin or staff um they are supporting the high school speaker breakout sessions this year um they have possible Gramps uh going through the system they're trying to get approval they already filled one for the high school I believe for cell phone um Pockets um they're getting ready for the lit lunch um they're just trying to finalize the book and they have the student wish list that will be coming soon so look for those emails uh the next one is policy was on 102 um we have multiple policies on today's agenda um the first policy that we are looking at but is not on the agenda is policy 2430 um this is a revision we first need to look at the regulation 2430 um we're waiting for the district to get back to us on what they uh feel because this um is co-curricular activities and we want to make sure that the district is already has these things in place before we put the the regulation in um and then we would update the policy the next policy would be 5516 use of electronic communication and recording devices this is a revision we have a stress SME version and we just need it to be um combined with the Berkeley Heights version so we can see the changes and then we'll look at that um we have policy 0551 um we could not come um to an agreement on this policy it's board member participation at board meetings using electronic device um so we do have this on new business tonight if we have time um and then we have policy 2200 which is curriculum content um this is just adding uh the the sending District language to the the policy to update um then we have policy 3160 and the regulation 3160 this is physical examination this is a revision um we did not use any of the optional language um but this is something um that just needed updates um from stra SMA then we had policy 4160 and regulation 4160 again we just didn't use their optional language then we had regulation 5200 attendance um we did add some of the additional language there and added the number of days so that way it's consistent with what we are currently doing in the district um um policy 5337 was just a revision for service animals in the district um we had policy 5350 which was student suicide prevention there were just updates with laws and then there was policy 8420 which was emergency and crisis situations and again it was just revisions for laws and regulations U La I'm sorry statutes then we had three more policies on the agenda that we did not have time for um and that's it for policy we do have three that are on second read tonight um then we had the finance and Facilities committee on October 7th um so we started with maintenance withdrawal for work if you see attachment G um we have trees coming down um there was a is it the ash population I believe we said there's like a disease yeah yeah so we want to take down some of the dead strees before we have issues that yeah your yeah on the agenda for that maintenance withraw I know there's 70,000 on there I wanted to make it 8633 because at Mountain Park I have several sink holes and Inlet repairs that need to be done so I'm adding to that 15,850 to make it 86303 okay so I wanted to you know make sure adding that number on there I'm going to update that that hatchment which I did while we were everybody was having the presentation I'm on estimate I so the GL gyms are being painted we added both the ceiling amount for that um and then at CMS there was some valves that needed to be replaced we're getting volleyball sleeves in the blue gym W wo um and then we have the replacement mats um are coming soon in the blue gym hopefully they've been shipped out today shipped out today awesome then we have architect updates um there are two re uh Roofing resolutions that need approval um then we have a bid for a project going out in December a January this project would come from Capital reserves and that will be in the budget and will not be reflected in the budget we have updates from electrical PL panels that need to be done um we need sub panels um see then we have the SDA emergent Grant um we are submitting the paperwork and we're hopefully using this for a Press Box it could be approximately 60,000 which is great then we have approval of the electron electric School Bus Grant um so we did receive the approval for the grant now we have to decide if we want to use that Grant or not so the committee is going to continue to look and see if um how these buses run and how we want to use them I know njsba right just said come look at them and they'll have a table at the workshop next week um then we have the class three SLO shared service agreement and the maintenance agreement with the township um so these items were discussed um again the Leo um sick pay is on tonight's um agenda to get approved then we have the transportation update um we needed to add new software to the program that we already have so we bought a new program last year we just needed some updates um this gives us better mapping um for especially for mandated mileage um and then we had the budget budget survey planning last year we did put out a budget survey but it was closer to when the budget was actually being already done we're trying to get it done earlier this year hopefully by the end of this month if not early next month so that way as we go through the budget process we actually know where where people want us to be putting our funds and um just make sure that you are a part of the process and then we have the Woodruff toilet project um so Mary K McMillan is at capacity with um preschool and we need more rooms so Woodruff needs to add um some pre rooms and that requires us to have more bathrooms um so again any child that turns three during the year and is eligible for special services would need to be enrolled so we're hoping to get get this done sooner than later um and that's it for facilities and um I'm not going to do we me and Gail attended the njsba Union County meeting on 109 um I can give that update maybe next time uh but we we did it remotely and then the curriculum PTO meeting on uh 1010 um they had a lot of questions um about um Steam and stuff like that and I thought that um their questions were uh really good and I thought that the meeting went really really well Kelly Curtis gave a really great um overview of what we're doing in our math and our math sequencing and they had a lot of questions but they really came out with like a lot of um good stuff on how how we're going to be adding a math 8 program um class to our CMS and how it will change the sequence but we'll still give kids an opportunity to get where they need to be in high school with a stronger foundation in math so that's it I think thank you anyone else no okay moving on to board Communications Mr secretary I have received let's see one two three four five six correspondents uh one happens to be trained ABA Paris from Elizabeth dcker um she's psychologist and bcba in the district the rest are donation letters are for the CMS PTO for uh promethium board another from the uh 's elementary school PTO for another uh prometheum board the other was for the CMS PTO 2324 yearend donations uh another is for the 's es PTO 2324 year donations lastly is the William Woodruff ESP PTO 232 24 yearend donations and you'll see those under business um for accepting those and that concludes correspondence and report of the business administrator all right uh I'm going to give you the Architects report first we had the William Woodruff toilet project Architects have completed the paperwork for this project we're going to be submitting that to the state we just uh we just have this uh we just uh received the signatures from everybody that we needed in District so that's being submitted to the state the SDA projects for the roofs will be sent to the state after the final resolutions are approved after tonight's meeting Architects will be preparing the bid specs for the roofs so that the board can go to bid for these projects in December or January and hopefully those uh projects can be completed in a summer of 25 architect have reviewed the electrical panel projects and have updated the specs for the project for uh GL and the u schools since these are small projects these are probably going to be used by Co-op contractors as suggested by the architect um the GL field lighting the wiring that was stated in place for the field lighting is not in place as was discovered the field lighting if put in place would need to have an upgrade in the service going from the school to sustain the power and this portion would need to be uh put out to bid musco has a presentation that speaks how their lighting does not affect surrounding homes and musco is is in a few co-ops and would be providing a price to us in about two weeks um I was uh given a presentation uh late this afternoon and I disseminated to the board disseminated that to the board in an email a little a little while ago uh the district has been waiting for prices for the Press Box and Locker space from uh a few contractors uh since late July uh hopefully uh I have gotten that from three contractors already the Prices range from about 360 to about $68,000 um the funds that um Mrs Stanley spoke about before for the 6,249 I've applied for it and received it uh already this actually took two weeks so that's that we have um there's also a fourth vendor that um has sent me an email um they're actually coming out tomorrow to probably provide a fourth price that is going to be given to the Architects at some point so we have four companies to give a comparison comparison to so uh that should be forthcoming and the other thing the the last thing we have here is uh we've spoken to The Architects about the soil erosion that's been occurring at the uh CMS Courtyard uh and some and some of the things that can be done there uh it could be regraded turfed or some playground surface can be put in it uh the drain lines have been um had a camera put in them and Mr Romano had B borrowed a camera from um Westfield at this point seeing what has happening in one of the drains there seems to be some for some un known reason there's stones that are in one of the drain lines so um there's going to be somewhat of a conference call going on with that to see what what can be done and what can be resolved with this matter so stay tuned for more information um I have kind of a facilities update as as with Miss Stanley said the blue gym at the high school has been completed uh the next thing is going on is that the lines for the volleyball are being paint or or being put down uh Friday into Satur uh into Saturday so that will be completed I uh the sleeves and the plates for the blue gym have been ordered and hopefully those will be installed by the end of this month the next phase of what's going to be done is the Red Gym should be painted or starting to be painted from November 2nd to November 9th then after um our approval of the maintenance reserve for the ceiling being painted in the Red Gym um I believe that we have in there the floor to be done in the reg gym I believe I'm moving forward with getting that scheduled and hopefully that'll take place from December 21st till January 8th and that hopefully will have those things completed there the padding as we've were stated earlier that was ordered and that was shipped at uh actually today so once all that stuff is done our custodial staff will put that up so that will take care of that being upgraded at this point uh at CMS there was a 6 in water shut off valve that was uh uh replaced there we had a sun pump line that was in The Boiler Room that was repaired and for some reason we've had some water intrusion going on at the Gold Gym and I don't know where it's coming from Mr um Romano had again we had that camera that we bought from Westfield we've been looking at the drain lines and where the that water might have been coming in uh We've alerted the insurance company uh about it so we may have an insurance claim to put in and we've already gotten a price of somewhere about $22,000 to have it repaired and the whole gym floor uh redone so we're still investigating it and again reported it to the insurance company so hopefully they'll we'll be able to put in a claim and have it done so we don't have to put out the full bill from uh any of our budget uh Mountain Park we've had the tree work started uh over there over at Woodward School tree work and peir peir tree pruning in the front of the school has started replacement of both low water cutof switches uh for the boilers and the sensors have been uh finished and uh completed Mountain Park treat work has been begun around the entire property starting with the playground area uh back path repair to begin uh uh was be has begun last week used there was a repair with a hallway fan we had a replace of a broken flood light by the outside kitchen area and JC jcpnl had come back out to replace street light that had burned out again and and the new photo cells were replaced there uh let's see LED lighting installed and upgraded and is going on in the main hallway um new circuits for a laminator and copio were ran replaced installed new hand dryer in the main floor bathroom repl repaired and secured uh some lights in the um stairwells uh replaced new sum pump in the band room closet and ran new data data line for kitchen CA uh cash register districtwide we had boiler inspections have been completed kitchen hoods have been cleaned and inspected kitchen grease traps have been in the process of being cleaned out all fire extinguishers have been inspected and Camera inspections of all roof trins and underground pipes uh have been have been started to assure all pipes are free of obstructions and cracks and functioning properly and that concludes my report thank you sure yes this is sure uh Mr Jess for the um bids between 300 and 600k that was for the girls locker rooms no no that was for the Press Box the Press Box did I say girls lock oh okay I'm sorry that's that was just for the Press Box okay so um okay because it is like such a wide range are there is it are the bids different be um in terms of what they will deliver or is it you know exactly the same thing it's just they're priced so far apart I think it's just that they priced so far apart and a different Co-op so um I was given those and I have to take a look at them and the architect looked at looked at them as well and I'm going to disseminate them out to the board and they can take a look as well I actually just got them like uh late last week okay great thank you um and then with the girls locker rooms are we because I know we were debating different you know I guess scenarios right whether there's like ones that are outside the building some maybe some work inside the thing that we were looking at and it was kind of similar to what Cranford has I think I disseminated pictures out like that not actually a pod they were almost like classroom trailers where um there would be lockers that would be installed it would be lockers that would be installed inside those areas if I'm not mistaken a bathroom would have to be 75 ft from them otherwise bathrooms would have to be installed now in looking at that the proposal when when I spoke with the architect this morning that would probably run in the range of seven I'm going to say8 to $900,000 is what they're telling me now I've asked him if there is any type of other options that would be available and not as expensive so that's where we left it off this morning to look at other options anything else okay moving on to comments from the public on agenda items during this portion of the meeting District residents and staff are invited to address the board of education on agenda action items only the board requests that individuals State their name and town of residence or School of attendance for the record all comments should be directed to the board president and depending upon the nature and complexity of the question it may or may not be answered during the meeting by the administration if so the response would occur after this public portion of the meeting has concluded although the board may not respond to all items raised during the public form all public comments will be considered the board asks that members of the public be courteous and mindful of the rights of other individuals when speaking specifically comments regarding Personnel matters are discouraged and cannot be responded to by the board students and employees have specific legal rights afforded by the laws of New Jersey the board Bears no responsibility nor will it be liable for any comments made by members of the public please note that if any member of the public becomes disruptive during the meeting the board president May terminate the participants statements continued disruptions may result in removal from or adjournment of the meeting each speaker statement will be limited to 3 minutes in duration we'll take statements from the public in first and then go to online okay is there anyone from the public okay uh I do not see anyone online is that correct two okay yes please uh hi John MCU um so I was in and out of the meeting and I unfortunately I had stuff to do but I was trying to catch as much as the of the presentation as I could I think Jordan brought up comparison I think he brought up the issue of comparing ourselves to other schools on proficiencies I think that's a good idea um I think there should be some sort of dashboard you know that we consistently uh compare ourselves to I don't like the idea of us consistently comparing ourselves to states to State numbers um I mean there's such a variance in that and there's so many districts in there that um you know we just don't relate to um you know so so I think that would be a good idea the second question I had is the around you know security for the hockey uh I'm just curious you know I don't not saying we don't need it I just like to know like what do do we have security at every sporting event what makes hockey different and is the price that we're paying for that um the going market rate it seemed kind of expensive uh that's it thank you thanks is there anyone else okay thank you hello I'm not sure if I'm I'm on this can you hear me yes Miss Bernstein please go ahead thank you um I think that uh somebody alluded to um there being a transition uh CH challenges during transition periods and um as as such I feel like I had been a bit out of it as far as um the process of superintendence um being uh looked at um and reviewed I know that that was an agenda item that you're nearing the end of that process um I'm just curious as I think some others in the community are um about the vote to not include um principal Nixon in that uh decision at this time and I was curious there are some Rumors in the community as to why that might be I was hoping that perhaps the board can illuminate um what exactly would be the the reason um it seems to me one thing that would be very valuable would be to not only retain professionals but to promote professionals within the within our district who know our district um some feel that that's something that may have been a mistake in in the last choice that we had made um to me you know a a proven record is important um and also somebody who knows our district so I'm just curious if the board could please Luminate um further on on how that decision was made and perhaps also different board members position on that decision thank you is there is there anyone else okay uh going back to the question of Mr mcz the comparison to the DF District Factor groups I think we're going to get that information uh security for ice hockey I think Mr jessco wit you had sent an email on that yes I did and that's the requirement for um what's the word I'm looking for um njisa requires or the or the hockey requires at each of those those rinks that's their requirement and we have to we have to abide by their requirements when we go there and I guess there must have been something that happened at some point in time in the past that they require that that to go on Mr Phillips you have something to add typically when you're renting out a a a a venue they're going to require you to have security at their venue and um require their security whatever they're using in their venue um so you're paying their rates and we're using two different venues so we it's two different security firms it's yeah um this is not new this is something we uh Bly Heights have done in the past um every District who has a hockey program goes through this I don't think it's one incident by the way I think it's just stuff happens and I I want to address the other question about security at other sporting events I mean anecdotally it's yes but I can't speak to whether it's every every event that's home that we host here yes thank you uh we are not going to comment on the CSA uh process it is still ongoing Mr dler do you have anything to add to that no I just think no I think as the board knows and it's important for the public to obviously understand that as any search process is ongoing the board has to respect the confidentiality of all the candidates involved in anything part of that process of course will remain confidential okay thank you doesn't look like we have any other participants so we'll close the public comments section we're going on to minutes uh resolution a all board members may I have a motion to promote resolution a approval of minutes so moved thank you Mr Heyman second thank you Mrs Stanley second discussion M oh yes Mrs Jolly so I I appreciate there's a lot of in information lot of minutes that were being asked to approve um and I did have some um back and forth with Mr jusco so thank you for making those um adjustments um I I do still feel um you know there are sometimes like key discussion points you know that take a lot of our board time that are not um sometimes documented so I think for me I think we're still missing something from the September minutes um I think more so um in within the uh last commentator of the public during that meeting in September I think those um that comment needs to be uh more clearly articulated and I think then from August meeting I think we were um there was a lot of discussion about the new resolutions that were added M andn um that I think requires some bullets and we also spent a lot of time talking about the UN the unpaid bills um that also I think should be noted in the in the minutes thank you any other comments discussion okay roll call vote Mr secretary Mr Hyman yes Miss Stanley yes Miss huffnagel yes to all except regular meeting minutes on August 15th and September 12th so that's 8:15 and 912 that's a nay correct and yes to everything else 8:15 and 9912 uh Miss Jolly yes to all accept uh regular meeting minutes for August 15th and regular meeting minutes for September 12th uh Miss Bradford yes to all uh motion passes moving on to Administration resolutions a through e all board members may I have a motion to remote resolution a through e all board members so moved thank you Mrs Stanley second second thank you Mrs huffnagel discussion yes Mrs Jolly so I think there was one outstanding question um for the policies in first read for 5200 I don't know Miss Stanley if uh I think you forwarded maybe to the attorney Mr Dr farger raised the concern that well though it was a state law that was past right that allowing us for um to add that additional day for civic right um I think his concern was like when is it actually go into effect like are we maybe putting the cart before the horse so this policy came from struss smme to add this um because it was passed um the legislation was passed that if you attend a Civic event um that you can get you know the absence excused thank you um um and so it was added by stress Esme I would follow them they are you know the legal um experts in policy um I I took Dr forger's um question and I forwarded it to Mr Nixon to ask Jess Esme about when he you know if there was any knowledge of if this not state law already I know um you had brought that um it's not on the state statute yet but again I think that's the state just takes time with some of this stuff but it was done I believe in January the legislation right um from um if you look online so I do think that stress asme probably knows um that you know this is already in place um I do think it's a good thing as long as it's a legitimate thing and you are able to give documentation for that um so again I think if if we approve it tonight and we find out oh the legislation might not come out to next year where it's official then we can you know take it off for a second read um but as of now I I think that it's fine and that we would follow the legal advice anyways Mrs is hle thank you I have two one is on the uh service animals P 5337 I know it's just a first read bit clarification for me it talked about if there's a need for a Handler for said service animal presumably separate from the student itself um what is our policy about that person kind of having access to the are they are they like a parent coming in for the day are they a staff member who's maybe had some uh background check or I don't really know what that looks like any I don't even know if but yeah any individual who's in school a regular attendance um and then even a short-term attendance such as a construction worker would have to go through a background check all right so that was question number one and question number two is on the second read bylaw 167 we talked a little bit about it at the last meeting about the um or with regards to the address I I do think the way it's read reads now with the or struck out that implies that the address is needed to be stated by um a Community member and I think we spoke last time about the intention being that it would be an or that you just that the the thought was that you just have to identify how you're connected to our community whether you you just just live here or you maybe work here or whatever um and so I think we need to not strike out the or so I have no problem with someone making a motion to add the or as long as Mrs Mr dler agrees that it will not be um in conflict with uh approving at a second read because this policy has been on the agenda for quite some time um I do want this to go into effect um but I I think we're getting into to like the weeds a little bit because I mean I don't know I don't think anyone tonight went on to read our policy to see what they had to do tonight to get into the meeting this is really for the board president to be able to say Hey listen and when they're concerned that this person isn't a part of our community that she has a a a way to say please identify yourself and how you are associated with our district really that's the point right so for the word for me or doesn't really make a difference because it's just a way for you to say this is my name this is how I'm Affiliated if you want to add the word or I think it's fine the policy committee has had a lot of issues with last minute stuff no matter how many times I asked the district um we've been getting things very late like even these last policies it came the day before our meeting um I I've been trying to work um with the district on this but again it you know you need some stability and uh hopefully that will come pretty soon um but again I I just think I just think it's more important to have this policy in place than have the word or personally so I think and when we met in committee the version that we agreed to had the word or and that's why when we were having the discussion here I it didn't occur to me that it was different because I think you even yourself said oh the word or is included and somehow you know some happened and it was not the same version that um we had approved in committee so I think I sent it to everybody in the committee um we had after that meeting we said let's just have stress asme look at this they added a few words as you saw if acable and they changed uh town to municipality and they Shu out the word or so they are suggesting to get rid of the word or that wasn't me it wasn't Mr Nixon um so again I I just don't think it's a major if if if you look at the policy and you read it I think anybody that reads it and could find it um would be smart enough to know that we're just asking you to identify right one your name and how you're associated with the district so I guess maybe the the ball is now Mr distler's court if we um you know is removing the strikeout and essentially for the word or does that constitute um a significant change or just an editorial change a second read though in a second read and are you keeping if applicable yes one second I I assume what you're trying to say is that the you have to announce your first and last name and then you can either do your Municipal res Municipal municipality residents School attendance or street address or group affiliation is that correct one of those um it should say first last name and one of the following but again like we didn't ask anybody tonight to do this that's what I'm saying I don't know if it's a substantive changed because this was pretty detailed discussed last time I think it's just the intent here is to make sure the language matches what was discussed both in policy at the last board meeting so I think if a motion is made to indicate that intent I don't think it's a substantive change I think it's just to reiterate what I think it was previously so if someone made a motion to add the word or back into the policy in this second read could we pass it or it have to go back to another second you can pass I don't think so it's comes down to material changes right or grammatical type like this to me is again I think it was discussed in detail at the last meeting it sounds like it was discuss in policy this is just to indicate that what the board intended I don't think there's really a substantive change if that's what you're asking so I think the board if it so desires a motion can be made to make that change and I think it can pass on second reading okay thank you I'd like to pass a motion to add the word or back into the statement sorry for per per bylaw 0167 public participation in board meetings add the word or back into the list of uh ways of rep identifying yourself is there a second a second Mr jitz do you have that language won't remember that till tomorrow but if you take screen take a screen I totally done that yeah that'll work we've had a motion and a second is there any discussion I think we've had the discussion Mr juskowitz vote on the motion to add excuse me to yeah add the word or to policy uh 0157 167 167 byw six7 sorry that's policy or bylaw by law Sorry Miss huffnagel yes Miss Jolly yes Mr Hyman yes Miss Stanley yes Miss Bradford yes motion passes now we're going to go on to the roll call vote for the excuse me the section Administration which we already had a through e all board members we had a motion by Mrs Stanley and seconded by Mrs hup Nagle we've had a discussion we've had a motion within the motion and now we're ready for the roll call vote Miss Stanley yes to all Miss huffel yes to all Mr Heyman yes Miss Charlie yes and M Bradford yes motion passes moving on to education res resolutions a through F all board members may I have a motion to put this forward education resolutions a through F so moved thank you Mrs Stanley second second thank you Mrs jolly discussion just to um nothing uh significant here it's just an item Z it reads kind of odd um so I think what we're looking to do is um establish an eighth grade student advisor it's not an extracurricular club right it's a student um the eighth grade student advisor with certain responsibilities so I think it's just read because it based on the based on the attachment it's just the yeah yes we're on did I skip I'm so sorry any discussion on education Mrs Jolly no okay um Mr secretary roll call vote Mrs Stanley yes to all Miss Charlie yes to all Miss H Nagel yes to all Mr Heyman yes and Miss Bradford yes motion passes moving on to Personnel resolutions a through L all board members resolutions M through AC Berkeley Heights only may I have a motion to move this forward some thank you Mr Heyman a second thank you Mrs Stanley now discussion Mrs Jolly sorry I I was just saying that the um item Z just read a little odd I but you know the advisor um it's student advisor extracurricular Club activity is it a student advisor for extrac like I think it's just a student advisor to help coordinate um you know uh certain activities um at the school related to the eighth graders it just read a little awkward to me I can speak to that that um it is just a student advisor but student advisors are listed under the extracurricular Club cpin under the contract that's probably what it's listed that way okay any other oh yes Mrs huffle so who did this before it says that you know that there it's part of the getting to the transition and and we didn't have really somebody doing was it just across a bunch of different people or not happening at all or which one are you talking about I'm talking about Z as well Z yeah I'm happy with it I'm just curious who did it before like how or how it happened before it wasn't done before as I understand oh I no uh I'm assuming that it was done but probably by multiple people named Jeremy got it okay thank you it was done ad hoc by counselors and yes any other discussion he roll call vote Mr Hyman uh yes on items a through l m Stanley yes to all Miss huffnagel yes to all Miss Jolly yes to all M Bradford yes motion passes moving on to business resolutions a through double A all board members resolution AB through AI Berkeley Heights only may I have a motion to put forward business so moved thank you Mrs huffnagel a second second thank you Mrs Stanley a discussion just just to reiterate that o we're changing from 7453 to 86303 based upon that discussion and that um uh in the Committees that was the 15,850 for the work that's needed at Mountain Park for the sink holes and the in the uh inlets that was needed do we need a motion to update that amount I'd like to pass a motion for 86,000 303 303 to be updated for item o second second oh sorry thank you Mrs John all right we have a motion within a motion to add a change of numbers for resolution o resolution to approve transfer from maintenance Reserve Mr secretary vote uh Miss huffnagel so moved uh yes something Miss charie yes uh Mr Heyman yes Miss Stanley yes Miss Bradford yes motion passes going back to the motion just real quick I want to thank our pto's oh yes yeah they they do so much for our schools so thank you for all the contributions you made last year um I know how hard you guys work not only for our students but for our teachers and buildings as well it is always amazing to see how how much uh the PTO has added to the students and to our staff and to our building so we again thank them very much and gratefully accept the donations okay Mr secretary roll call Miss huffnagel yes uh Miss Stanley yes Mr Heyman yes on yes on a through AA double A Miss Jolly yes to all uh Miss Bradford yes motion passes moving on to finance resolutions a through D all board members may I have a motion to put resolution a through D forward under Finance so boo thank you Mrs Stanley second second thank you Mrs huffnagel discussion so I just want to to say I did the Bills um this this month so um I do have uh so everything checked out uh I do have the concern of uh obviously about the one bill that I was did not want to see on there which was the um Consultants bill it's a check number 21073 and I just also want to point out that um you know I we a number of us have questioned the you know the meeting and the right to have the meeting I think some BO board members comment that it is the right of the administration and you know that they in the course of business they are allowed to do this so I I feel like you know so on policy Sor your glasses on 175 policy 175 which is um titled contracts with independent Consultants right so I don't it appears to me and you know this is for discussion but it appears to me that that you know that dictates our engagement with um independent contractors and I'll read a highlight um the board will Engage The Services of an independent consultant only by written contract which must specify the work to be accomplished by the consultant the time within which the work is to be completed and the fee that will be paid the consultant so given that this was an independent consultant we did it correctly when we hired them to do the you know the assessment the report we paid the fee the contract was fine we paid the fee contract was closed out so this meeting you know again the this engagement for this additional cost feels like it should have been done in the same way so you need to keep reading in z175 contracts with independent Consultants because um a little bit lower it says except as expressedly permitted by the contract any communication between the consultant and a district employee or Community member regarding the work of the contract must be conducted through the board or a designated School official so there is nothing in this policy that says that a school official who has permission to work with this contract consultant doesn't can right there's nothing in here that says that they can't so again I think you're trying to use policies to control the district instead of guide the district um this policy does not say that any employee cannot ever contact a consultant that they had hired to do a project because that would really limit our our ability of our district to get things done right we have other Consultants like technology Consultants who we do reach out to and the board has never had a problem with those uh bills because they go through right that employee who has permission and then they go through that budgeted item so again I don't think you're using this policy correctly well sorry just to to re uh respond the statement that precedes that statement says an independent consultant may have access to school uh to such school facilities and School District employees as May reasonably required in the performance of the consultant's contract with the board the S so again contract with the board and then the sentence that follows it says that in performance of such duties you know with the contract with the board um that the any communication must be between a district employee um you know must be as Pamela read um permit any communication between the consultant and the district employee or Community member regarding the work of the contract must be conducted through a board member or designated School official again in the context of Performing the work that's been contracted again so maybe we we could ask Mr dler for an opinion I think you're reading into it right you're saying that after the contract has been expired right no one's ever allowed to contact these people again and unless you create another contract to do the work again I don't believe this policy says anything about sorry is there any other discussion so may I ask Mr distler's opinion um on this policy maybe he's not prepared to give it today but um I think that you know I'm worried that you know we we did something that was not per policy and now we are being asked to pay a fee that I don't believe we are contractually obligated to pay no it's not policy I'm obviously more than happy to discuss related to this specific issue just because there we potential of litigation one way or the other I don't think if the board wants to go in executive session I'm certainly happy to discuss it but I think just because of the nature of this potential bill I don't think giving a public opinion at this time makes sense but of course I'm Happ to look into it discuss this in executive session for a decision but I think at this time it just because of that reason I wouldn't feel comfortable doing so so may may I suggest that um I I don't know how we can table certain bills right because obviously I'd want to hear Mr distler's opinion um but you know uh that would be my goal my you know I guess uh desire can we table uh a vote on a particular check well can't the can't the board member just vote no on that check either's fine right someone could theoretically make a motion to table a specific check right I don't think that's a problem inside the bill list um or same thing board member just also vote no against it right that would have the same practical effect okay so let's do a roll call vote Mrs Stanley yeah yes Miss huffnagle yes to all accept check number 2110 927 I'm abstaining from that because that's my company so conflict of interest um and two one no to 21073 and what was that again uh two 21073 the consultant one as just discussed and that was 973 you said I'm sorry 21109 which one sorry the one that you're said nay to Nay 211 073 211 0973 73 73 okay and the abstain was 2 21927 correct okay uh Mr Hyman yes Miss jie yes to all with the exception of check number 21173 uh Mrs Bradford I mford yes yes to all uh motion passes he moving on to comments from the public on any topic during this portion of the meeting District residents and staff are invited to address the board of education on any item the board requests that individuals State their name in town of residence or School of attendance for the record all comments should be directed to the board president and depending upon the nature and response would occur after this public portion of the meeting has concluded although the board May not respond to all items raised during the public form all public comments will be considered the board asks that the members of the public be courteous and mindful of the rights of other individuals when speaking specifically comments regarding Personnel matters are discouraged and cannot be responded to by the board students and employees have specific legal rights afforded by the laws of New Jersey the board Bears no responsibility nor will it be liable for any comments made by members of the public please note that if any member of the public becomes disruptive during the meeting the board president May terminate the participant statement continued disruptions may result in removal from or adjournment of the meeting each speaker statement will be limited to three minutes in duration we will take inperson comments first followed by online is there anyone in person yes please here this is ass John in B Heights excuse me your last name John z h a n thank you in bery height res in Berkley Heights thank you so uh for over a year the boys coming to our house knocking the do that run away they're looking like a high school or middle school students I'm wondering whether the school district can do something that the school educating the students not uh say uh disturbing allish in the neighbors so to be clear you have there are students you think from the high school or from our district coming to your house yes and ringing your doorbell yes not talk about banging may we have your address please okay okay no okay no public um are you near a public park for school we are living in that area link Avenue know Su Avenue all linoln street that area the area of Snider Avenue L Lincoln lincol yeah Lincoln Street Su Avenue L area Okay so lincol and Summit so that's north of Springfield Avenue yes okay yeah and you're asking the Board of Education to do something about this yeah Bo of Education whether can instruct those schools in educating the students the disturbing the neighbors are I I'm thinking that's not good to our our the as a community our Township okay thank you thank you all um is there anyone online Tim no one's online Okay um about the knocking of the doors I think maybe we refer that to the police department yeah I think y Mr D so obviously it depends on if you can identify students or not um but certainly anything that's unlawful conduct refer to the police um if you don't want to do that because you have concerns certainly you can reach out also to the building principal if you're able to identify any students to see if there's anything the building SCH can do maybe Mrs Bartley could have like a discussion with the counselors on how to maybe uh remind our students that being a good neighbor and being a good resident uh is part of being a good high schooler okay thank you we'll reach out to the counselors okay I see no other public comments um new business okay um number first bullet who brought that up and what would you like to discuss um so the policy committee has this policy um given to us by St Esme it's policy 15501 um board member participation at board meetings using electronic device um so basically the policy um hopefully you guys had a chance to read it but the policy says that if you miss a board meeting because you are medically unable to attend physically or you are going to be out of the state um you could attend remotely with prior permission and board approval so that would mean like let's say I'm going to me the December meeting at the November meeting it would have to be approved that I could attend and vote remotely right I would have full participation at the December meeting because I know that at the December meeting I'm going to be out of the state or I'm going to have a surgery that it would not be in the best interest for me to physically attend the board meeting but we had discussion on whether or not this is what we think is a good idea um and whether or not we would allow um this to happen in a shorter time span right where you wouldn't have to give so much prior notice um so there was some back and forth on what we should do um we all had different opinions on what we should do with this um if you read stress smme sent out a a lot of memos on their concerns about um voting remotely I think and Quorum I think that was their two big things is that when you miss a meeting right like you cannot vote but if you now allowed to just come in and say oh I couldn't make it today but then right like we barely have a quorum tonight um that it makes it difficult right um and it there are some questions on whether or not a quorum can be um you from remote participation as well now we just had a situation where we had to use remote um Quorum and I know that Mr distler's um firm confirmed that we could do that stress smme did give us memos kind of stating the opposite though um so I did I did have Mr Nixon reach out they kind of were confused I think so we're gonna have to reach out to them again and and show them their memos and your uh interpretation of the the uh open public meeting act um so I do think that we need to discuss this in a second thing though is that um at our last special meeting Natasha brought up that the board last year had second reads at the December meeting I was planning on having second reads at the December meeting because we do have policies we have not got on the agenda that would require November meeting to have first reads and December meeting to have second reads if that something if that's not then this might discussion might be mute because we would wait for the new board in January so I think there's one discussion on whether or not how we want to move forward with this particular policy because the committee could not come to a consensus and then the second question is do we want to move forward with new policies for November meeting or do we want to just wait for the new board in January you not to well you could also if we wanted to sneak the first reads into the special meeting coming up and then and then do the second read in November if we wanted to personally I I don't have an issue with the December second read but you've got you've got an option there I don't I don't I mean seems like having read some of those memos there's there's like a lot of there's a lot of concern here that is pretty pretty blatant um you know Sunshine Law violation questions I I don't know you missed the meeting you missed the meeting I don't know why why we change policy or that that's pretty black and white on it I just I I I know we've made some exceptions because of trying to get through the process of a superintendent search but I mean I you know if you're not at the meeting you can't attend the meeting that's that's sort of how it's always been and I think if you're elsewhere and you want to you want to watch you have that ability now we've created that but to participate wherever you may be with whomever you may be with to me that opens up some concerns yeah I I think that's why they had such a like that was my thing is I think that's why they were like well we'll allow you to do it but the it's for these specific reasons and you have to have prior knowledge and you have to get board approval because of the concerns that they have but it doesn't make it super convenient when you're like oops I'm sick or I'm traveling for work right right but I think they from their memos it kind of seems like they don't want you to do that anyways right like from their memos they're like then you just miss the meeting I don't know I mean the concerns about like who you're with I mean we had and I know it's a completely different situation but we had covid right everything was remote who knew who you were with at the time this is a you know a public meeting so it it's not like you're in a confidential like you're voting your vote is public your discussion's public so whoever you're with and is also going to get Maybe part of the public and I think that it's you know we want to there are times where you just can't make it but you can make it remotely right and to have to encourage participation and you know you have your voice heard right when you're doing a volunteer thing um you know it's I I think it's beneficial right and and it's not out of the norm in this day and age to have remote participation could a com romis to to get around that potential conflict of you know confidentiality not exec session because that would be something that's not allowed normally in public but like this is normally allowed in public and then how if you can't attend EXA how can you make educated decisions that you're supposed to vote on in public in some of those cases right so it's like then you abstain from those tostain you abstain from those specific items but the rest you can vote for on what's public knowledge I I me to me Slippery Slope why show up at all if it's always going to be more convenient for us to be at home no it still stays as those very specific things of there's a medical reason or you are out of town and you know maybe like I I do travel for work I don't always know a month six weeks in advance in time right and I'm sure others may have the same and look you don't always know when you're sick or having surgery or whatever so that timeline is a little awkward but um maybe the vote happens I don't know you know maybe it's an agenda item that gets added at the beginning of that specific meeting or something I'm not sure how to handle that maybe Mr dler can add some knowledge there but um and maybe it could also be that you know we've discussed in the past the option of do having a quum of people present phic yeah physically present and um and then you know others participating remotely if they if they must right so that kind of speaks to your question of you know why I show up at all like if we don't have quorum like I mean everybody's intention is to show up so we have forums so we have a meeting so we can you know move things along and so I I think that could be something that is uh you know added and and and I think when people aren't able to make it I think they give you a heads up right or no no okay so so then maybe that is something additional you let the board president know so that we know coming in are we have are we going to have a quorum right yeah two members did not let me know tonight um I agree with Mr Heyman uh if you can't make it you can't make it and leave it at that I know we had some special circumstances but that was truly special circumstances for special meeting and that is our only job that we had those special circumstances with so what would have happened tonight if one more person couldn't have made it have not had this meeting right correct I think um I think there's one of our policies said something like you have to we have to have another meeting within like 48 we'd have to have another meeting within 48 hours tomorrow night or the next night um it would it would really stink which is why it's really important one to show up and to let Gail know as soon as humanly possible that you can attend um listen we've had people over I've been on the board for three years I've had people over the three years question who who are you getting text messages from during the meeting I can't imagine voting from home like I can't imagine right like this idea that like it might not be me just voting right like I I don't know I I I we are volunteers and we do a lot but we're also elected State officials you know so I really do think when it comes to voting it really is more important to to be in person I think this gives like that option of like because you can only you can't miss three meetings right then we are allowed to say you're not doing your job so this allows for that right like I had a major surgery I'm not going to be able to drive for the next two months like these are my legit concerns and that gives you that freedom but it's not supposed to be used as like a backup of like hey because these meetings come out in January every year um to put in your calendar so I I don't know I I go back and forth so but again I think we need to decide are we going to put this on a November agenda anyways or we gonna say let's wait for January when we rework whether it's this policy or any other policies um I don't see why because given what happened last year and the years before that we need to wait and do something differently other than business as usual because you criticized it you said that they shouldn't have done that right but since okay so it's okay when you know but then you got to treat everything equally then right so right but you didn't stop it then so why are you stopping it now I'm not I'm asking right you you made the comment that it shouldn't had second reads in December so you got to stick with what so I'm asking you what do you want to do because now you're right you're saying that that St like they were bad for doing it but you're good you're okay for doing it because they did it I you got to pick one so either they were okay with doing it so then you're also okay with doing it I think that we can proceed um business as usual if this is a particularly controversial um policy right for for people right because a lot some of the policies are not controversial in nature if this is a potentially controversial one you know we can decide or vote it down or you know maybe we could talk about this one specifically but in terms of other policies right I don't see why we need to we need to Halt I agree I think we should move ahead with first readings in November and second readings in December C can I mean realistically can we have Language by the next meeting for this one yeah I don't know we only have five that's my PO that's my question like are we realistically gonna even have language before the next meeting right so in sorry in in general right I think we just need to make a decision on how we want to move forward with the December meeting because second reads have always been right it's not something new you you saw it in November right December meeting is kind of a Fluff meeting but you still got to get stuff done for the district but you try not to do anything that would be majorly a big change for the board right so again I I was planning on putting first reads on November agenda and having second reads in December but if that's not where the board wants to go I'm okay with that too and then the reor will happen in in January but that's that's a board decision I'm a I'm fine either way I would support November and December working months as usual and is there any scenario where there's first read in December and second in January yeah no okay going on to the second bullet discussion on policy 6421 who brought that up um I had I had brought that up but I think um Mr jessco and I chatted earlier today and so I think this is the uh purchases budgeted policy that um we had discussed previously but again couldn't agree on the wording and so but now I think Mr jusco is going to have some data um available within the next month or so that might help at least for me further um you know uh guide my you know I guess uh uh wording or preferred wording for this policy so I think we can put it to put it aside for now okay third bullet who brought that up for discussion oh um right so this was policy 175 but I think we already discussed it um you know again and I think Mr dler will give us an opinion and I guess executive session maybe regarding this policy so we can move on and the the last one yeah so the last one is mine as well um and I I and I there's there's two parts to this right so first I think is also a question from Mr D um so regarding regulations and policies right so do all regulations need to be approved by the board and if not which regulations need to be approved by the board so I'm understand continuously I forgot to do that if I understanding your policy correctly and these policies date back a decent long way the traditional method of policies right is board passes policies uh superint uh superintendent makes recommendations regarding with your policies and regulations and then the regulations are really a little more discretion with your superintendent but for the most part they usually oh at this point at least in my experience with boards over the last decade is both go through the policy committee policy committee makes recommendations it but they come before the board and then the board votes on it um it's just different now to be honest with you just because most actually say almost every board uses either school boards or in most cases St ese which provides both the recommended language for both typically don't have administrators as much as involved they as they used to be um but if you're asking me like I reading your policies I think both come before the board and if they come before the board they typically come before policy committee that does talk about some nonrequired regulations that the superintendent has the right to implement um I'm not sure what those are I don't know if those are considered inside your specific board regulations or if those are more related to just the general rules of the school it's not it's unclear to me in your regs and policies well if we see a regulation that is like like a policy that's a mandatory right that has the m and the yeah that's clear in your in yours that those have to go through the board that I mean that that language is crystal clear the non-mandatory is less clear to me uh in your in your policy again if you're asking me what I think takes place throughout the state I think most typically are before the board and approved okay so um so then the follow-up question to that is um I guess more for the administration in terms of um the Control process around publishing um you know so we know that now these have to be voted on right by the board and then um and documented in the minutes Etc so I think we've within the last two years there might have been one that kind of fell through the cracks um but what are the controls in place um again more so I think to the administration which you know Mr Nixon's on here may not be able to answer that in terms of uh publishing what has been approved by the board the version that's been approved by the board to the policy book that's online for everyone to see and maintaining um the archive versions of previous documents so the let me take that one step at a time so maintaining archiv versions so by law you have something called a document destruction act um that sets forth basically procedures on when a government entity can destroy documents am I going to tell you here that every Board of Education follows that strictly and all every document is maintained correctly I would I would not be saying that candidly so but technically speaking yes any documents such as your old policies are to be archived and maintained for usually a lengthy period of time and again technically speaking you're supposed to go to the state before you do destroy such documents that is the legal requirement I can't tell you with a straight face that that is universally required uh universally followed that is the process so there should all of those old policies should be properly archived um and we do see them in the policy book but if I see something that doesn't have um an archive version I think my assumption then it's the new it's the first of its kind correct so each of your policies should have on it the date created and the date edited and it shouldn't just be one date edit it's usually a running one right but if I only see one date so if I only see one date edited that means it is the first of its kind I I would hope so I mean I can't you know mistakes happen um but that is how it is supposed to be thank you okay doesn't look like there's any more new business so motion to adjourn no mov thank you Mrs Stanley second second thank you Mrs snagle uh Voice vote I I thank you very much we are adjourned