##VIDEO ID:Drr98ZRh094## good evening everyone thank you for coming out to the last board meeting of 2024 uh we appreciate it we the board met in executive session and did the salute to the flag I am going to um read the statement of public notice now this is a regular meeting of the B of Education of burnard's Township notice of the time in place of this meeting was provided and copies of that resolution were forwarded to the official newspapers as designated by the Board of Education and to the Township Clerk and a copy of the notice was posted on the bulletin board of the Board of Education offices for those members of the public who cannot attend our meeting in person a live stream link to the meeting is posted on the district website we very much welcome input from the public there are two times during regular meetings that the public is invited to speak one time is early in the meeting before the board votes when you may speak about any item that is listed on tonight's agenda towards the end of the meeting there is another public forum to address any matter of public concern related to the schools when you approach the microphone please stay your name and address please also write your name and address on the signin sheet each statement may be made by a participant shall be limited to 3 minutes duration no participant may speak more than once during a given public comment session the first public comment session will be limited to 30 minutes and the second will be Unlimited in order to run efficient meetings and to allow maximum opportunity for members of the public to speak the board deserves the right to set a different time limit for individual comments and the overall time limit for the public Comon portion of the agenda all statements shall be directed to the presiding officer no participant May address or question board members individually please understand the public common portions of our agenda are not struct structured as question and answer sessions but are offered as opportunities to share your thoughts with the board the board and administration will respond to public comments to the extent possible any board responses to public comments will generally be addressed during board form or committee reports however all comments are considered and will be investigated and addressed as appropriate please be courteous and mindful of the rights of others when speaking comments may not be abusive obscene threatening or irrelevant please understand that students employees have spec specific legal and privacy protections the board is not permitted to respond in public to comments about students and employees please also understand that the board will not be responsible for the content of comments made by by members of the public members of the public caution that they are speaking at their own risk and any personally directed statements they may make May subject them to Legal liability to the effected individual if it is necessary for the board to go into the executive session at the end of the meeting we will provide an estimated length of time for the session and whether any accident is anticipated to be taken Upon returning to public session Jim can you call the role Please Mr salmon here miss white here miss light here miss curado here M mun here Mr Rari here Mr am here m chiar and Mr Shaw here thanks Jim all right Jared rashio you're up for the student report from Ridge thank you Mr sammon good evening everyone my name is Jared rashio and I'm the vice president of the schoolwide student government here at Ridge unfortunately Joseph couldn not be here tonight so I will be filling in I'm excited to share some updates happening at our school to begin I'd like to highlight two exceptional members of our faculty who've been awarded as our St teachers Professionals of the Year our Educational Services professional of the year is Miss wartenberg our incredible school psychologist and Thrive leader with over 10 years of service in the district our teacher of the year is Mrs Ward an outstanding social studies teacher with over 13 years of experience in our school on December 3rd Ridge celebrated its World Language Excellence with the induction of students into the National Honor societies for American Sign Language French Italian Latin and Spanish each Society held their own performances to make their night special I'd like to extend my congratulations to all of those inducted on the Arts Front Ridge has been a with music during our Winter concert season both the orchestra and band delivered moving performances drawing impressive turnouts from the community these concerts are a celebration of our students hard work and the incredible support of our music educators the season will conclude this Wednesday December 18th with the choir Winter concert at 7 p.m. right here in the pack I encourage everyone to come out and enjoy an evening of beautiful music our athletic teams to No Surprise are also off to a great start wrestling is 2 and0 winning winning both of their first matches by a margin of over 40 points hockey has been equally impressive starting the season 31- one including an exciting 4 to2 victory over Robinsville last week on the track Three Ridge athletes made the top 10 performances list during just the first meet of the season last Monday additionally Ridge football had eight players named to the first team all Division and three to the second team our Unified sports team also made us proud earning the bronze medal in the Special Olympics at NJ unified cup finally both the girls and boys fencing team have started out with with a one and0 record looking ahead our student government has been hard at work preparing for the second half of the year at a recent marking Period 2 meeting we had the opportunity to meet with our principal Dr lazic to discuss important changes coming to the district and resources that students and families can access through the restoring Focus website so they can be further part of the conversation about the environments that promote focus and engagement during the school day thank you as always for your time and support of the rich Community it is a privilege to represent our incredible school and I look forward to seeing any of you at upcoming events have a good rest of your evening thanks Jared any questions for Jared no great job um all right we're going to be going down to the um seating area for uh to have a concert by the AC capella group uh under the direction of Miss beetle e thank you so much for having us um my name is Carol Beetle and I have the honor of being the Ridge High School choir director um we appreciate you taking a little bit of time for your meeting for you to hear some of the music that we've been working on the first piece you're going to hear is called D it is a um a piece that is supposed to sound like cartic classical Indian music and it's based off of araga which is a type of scale in cartic music and all of the notes that you hear in it come from that scale um there is no direct translation it's basically just sound effects that would be improvised using that scale in the beginning it's beautiful and slow and it's in a really interesting 7 eight time signature which was a fun challenge for them and then it speeds up into a fastpac um more percussive sound so this is d e la [Music] spe [Music] la la [Music] spe [Music] [Music] [Music] de [Music] [Music] [Music] d da [Music] [Music] d [Music] [Applause] um now for something a little bit more traditional we are going to mix and we are going to sing I'll Be Home for Christmas next we've had the uh pleasure of being all around town and all throughout the community singing and fr places of worship and the library and R senior housing um we went to City last Saturday two Saturdays ago and got to open for um the Rockets Christmas Spectacular which was so much fun um we were in Bal on Saturday we are the Somerville caroling Festival it's been so much fun just traveling and taking this great group of um people from our community out into uh into our community so it's been really lovely this is I'll Be Home for Christmas for I'll be for christas [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] chist for [Music] for [Music] [Music] and for [Music] [Applause] [Music] I'll be home for christas [Music] you [Music] all right before we sing Our Last Song um I just want to get a chance to say thank you to all of you uh this doesn't just happen in one season this doesn't just happen in one year even though they did get their music in June and have been working for very long and hard time but um it happens over many years of support and music education and I had the pleasure of seeing it at many levels being at Liberty Corner and now Ridge and um this is a very very special district oh I'm getting I'm getting all TI just thinking about it um I try to instill in them a sense of gratitude and like look where we are this amazing facility and if you ever go into the choir room it's got big windows and so much light and it is such a safe place for so many of them and thank you for supporting it and uh being here and uh doing what you do for this District this is Dance of the Sugar Plum which they're going to sing on Wednesday I should say that our concert's Wednesday and you should all come 7 o'clock here and uh they're going to try singing it for the first time without me leading it we're going to see how that goes because this is a pop Arrangement made famous by The Pentatonics with Menan who is going to be beatboxing and showing off a little bit of his range on this one so this is dance the sugar plum e the oh [Music] la [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] B e e uh that was fantastic thank you so much to uh Miss beedle and all the kids um that was amazing I think probably next year is a good time to go full Griswald and get Nick in the ugly sweater and Jim passing out eggnog while we celebrate right um okay we are up to um superintendent report there are five items can I have a motion for those please Keith and Janice thank you Nick okay uh thank you Mr salmon so um the Cod of conduct report U and school safety data report being submitted to the board uh if there's any questions I'll be happy to take those or if there's any followup after you've had more time to take a look at it but this will be posted for um the community as well uh when we do the minutes this will be hyperlink uh for everyone's look see um in terms of overall I know a couple people ask some questions related to uh HIV uh and the number of Investigations from last year to this year um overall it was about the same number of confirmed last year we were at 44 this year 40 so I know that question came up um the second item is uh this month's uh HIV report um the third item is an educational research project um we have a professor that's been doing some work with one of our Middle School teachers uh and this is kind of an extension to some of the project work that she's been doing uh at Anon uh there's an overnight trip for Rich High School to do a model un activity in New York City they've done this in the past uh but since it's an overnight trip it requires board approval uh and finally uh we have a new High School uh competition team for a Varsity Sport I just wanted to draw everyone's attention to that particular item because we add added uh a little bit to the end of the statement so I will read the Revis statement in full the burners Township Board of Education does hereby approved the addition of the girls flag football team as a Ridge High School varsity competition team for the 20125 26 school year so spring of 26 but they would begin participating in non-varsity game schedules this spring 2025 so I just want to clarify that one item that's it thanks Nick any questions no okay Jim can call the roll please Mr salmon yes Miss White yes Miss light yes M curado yes Miss mun yes Mr Molinari yes Mr Amin yes and Mr Shaw yes thanks Jim we're up to public comment on agenda items uh if you'd like to make a public comment on something on the agenda please come on up um say your name and address please sign in with your name and address and then you have three minutes thank you I save your time is on on um sign afterwards anyway I also just want Debbie Marcus um 16 Lafia Lane want to um append to the compliments to the at least for the record um for the chorus group um I miss beo was at Liberty Corner and I still holds a place in our heart for um shepherding my own kids through a lot of artistic Endeavors and it's really a great feature of our school system um and happy holidays to everyone and I hope everyone enjoys their break and we get out early tonight um I was just looking over the committee reports uh it's great that we have that transparency I just I first wanted to commend the facilities um reporting the way they do it of putting the work order status and the matrices of how much they've accomplished each week and closed per week um really helps us get a a handle on what's going on in our district since these are some of the major expenses and I um applaud the committee members molinary in um CAC and the um staff members um R Maran and Mick Lee for their efforts on this and and encourage you to excuse me continue it um glancing at the curriculum report I uh did see a nice uh change to the math requirements abilities to take statistics I thought that was great um that you're able to take the um the AP level without having taken pre-calculus which any mathematician will tell you are you know they're both important but are different tracks of um the way it's taught so thank you for doing that I did have a question um again I'm I'm sure there was reasoning I just wasn't clear from the charts that were provided uh where it makes it harder to change tracks from CP or honors to na AP in the English tracks um you have to have a higher grade in the other classes um which is fine if teachers were finding that students were struggling if they were approved when they had a a minus or B minus instead of the solid A and B but the charts that were included were really just the list of the attempts that appeals and whether they were approved or denied so um if there was an educational reason to make it harder to get into the AP English classes that's great um but if it was really just to keep the classes smaller um you know I would request that maybe that would be reconsidered and then finally with the uh what's it called The Wellness report um I had a nice discussion with superintendent Mar Caren about hiring Joy Roots I appreciated his time to go through that and it you know I was you know um okay with you know trying it out um I do just want to say that you know because some people thought it was helpful doesn't necessarily mean it is and I do continue to encourage you to figure out a way to evaluate whether spending you know $10,000 almost for about currently 15 teachers for one of the training sessions is effective and cost effective like even if a little bit effective could we get more out of a different program or it seems like a lot of it is about having empathy for people which is great but it could also be a little bit of the placebo effect like in medicine if you're treating it and focusing on it that it gets better no matter whether you spent a little or a lot on it so just as you go forward with you know it looks like you know we want to keep using this group um please have a way to evaluate so we can ensure that especially if this becomes a multi-year project um that the funds are being used efficiently thank you thanks M Marcus anybody else for public comment on agenda items tonight okay great we'll close public comment on agenda items anything sure I can speak to the change in criteria for the ELA courses that I think you referenced um the first one is really about students who want to make a double jump so they're in a CP course and they want to go to an AP course and so they feedback from the staff that that's a big jump to take when you're going to levels and so students who are earning the higher grade you know typically do perform better when they make a double jump so it's a lot to make a double jump and the second um change really is applying to um distinguishing the criteria for placing or staying in an honors course versus moving into an AP course So currently the criteria is the same for both honors and AP coming from a CP course or staying in an honors course and so this is really to distinguish between students and the criteria for entering into an honors course versus entering into an AP course and it is based on you know extensive study analysis of data that the English Department teachers in the supervisor did this summer so they based the recommendation on looking on several years of performance of students kind of moving through the levels and I would just add that the add drop analysis charts that you saw are separate from this recommendation that was just an analysis of of the different scheduling movements we've had really since June 1st to November 13th and kind of looking at the windows of time we have where students can make requests to change courses or uh move up or down in courses during the different scheduling Windows thanks Grayson any else on that okay um we are up to the finance committee report there are 15 items got have a motion for that please oh a minutes I'm sorry approval of minutes yes uh there is one item there can I have a motion for that please Jen and Robin J can you R the rooll Please Mr salmon yes M white yes Miss light abstain Miss Cado yes Miss mun yes Mr Molinari yes Mr am yes and Mr sha yes don't worry I'm not trying to get out of here early okay um the finance committee report we have 15 items there can I have a motion for that please Dave and Kiren um facilities met on uh November 14th uh the first item for discussion was about maintenance Staffing uh Mr R and Mr mickley who the director of facilities would like to accelerate the plan to move all maintenance work to our in-house team we currently have two HVAC techs and a plumber in-house and a painter candidate that we approved last time I believe right Sean um so we are have an electrician a carpenter and two general maintenance workers positions outstanding uh Mr R would like to post for the electrician and Carpenter positions immediately so they can start by July 1st uh when Staffing uh of an in-house maintenance team is complete we would have eight specialized staff members to replace the current 11 person team which includes eight general maintenance workers and projected savings are about $100,000 a year uh Mr Rolo has projected that the current inhouse HVAC Tech and plumber will reduce the cost of outside contractors by about $200,000 for this school year to the extent the board supports this initiative Mr R explained that our board for custodial grounds and maintenance in the spring would not include a maintenance component it will not include a maintenance component Mr R said that uh Bill gter who's um the president of advocate which is the district's consultant on um basically everything that arar does believe that removing maintenance from the bid would get better competition because custodial and grounds are easier positions to staff than maintenance uh the next item for discussion was audit results update Scott cland from The District's audit audit firm uh will be coming in December to go over the audit for the 23 24 School Year Mr R expects one finding related to the timing of depositing of Student Activities monies Mr R may consider obtaining a remote deposit machine for the main office at Ridge High School so checks can be deposited without going to the bank uh the next item was an acers audit cap um acers was a CO acers is an acronym was a CO related Grant of about 1.2 million for costs related to special education students that stayed in District beyond their 21 years of age Mr R explained that the state audited the district's use of grand funds and found a clerical era where a $15,000 cost was counted twice the state will provide an action plan to ensure the correction um the next item was about uh electricity rate increases uh Pennsylvania New Jersey Maryland is a um altogether pjm is a neutral independent party that coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity which essentially sells electricity to local providers like jcpnl is a wholesaler P pjm said that the cost of electricity will increase from 28 megawatt a day to 280 megawatts a day as of June 1st 25 Mr R explained that this increase will likely result in about a 20% increase in electricity cost for the district the district's cost of electricity for 2324 school year was uh a little over $788,000 the committee discussed options for renewable energy sources currently the district has two solar arrays one on the roof at Ridge High School and one on the roof at whams the solar arrays are owned by the county because they paid to have them installed and serviced the district has our school district has a 15-year agreement with the county to purchase the electricity that is generated by the two solar arrays Mr Rolo has looked into possible construction of a solar array over the Ridge High School D lot unfortunately the cost of Steel uh which would support the solar rays is incredibly high right now he will do more research into more options for renewable en Energy Solutions uh there was an update on the direct install projects the direct install program from jcpnl was used to replace Liberty Corner rooftop units and upgrade lighting fixtures and will come back the program will come back online uh January 1st 20125 currently Cedar Hill qualifies for about $1.5 Million worth of HVAC boiler and Lighting Replacements and upgrades at a cost of a little over $750,000 to the district which is a 54% savings on the work uh Oak Street School qualifies for about $925,000 worth of boiler and lighting Replacements and upgrades uh which would cost the district $332,000 which is a 66% savings the committee supports moving ahead with these projects and ask that Mr Ro will look into financing since the Liberty Court project offered 0% financing uh currently Miss Mount Prospect school does not yet qualify for the direct install program the qualification is based on average utility usage over a 12-month look back the good news is that the threshold was increased for the direct install program and we've had a warm fall Mr R is looking into that right now and we think that um Mount Prospect might qualify at some point uh the last item was a budget calendar update Mr Vol reviewed the list of capital projects planned for 2526 school year uh which includes a summer of 2025 um those projects are the Mount Prospect roof replacement Mount Prospect play area fence districtwide flooring Liberty Corner artwork art room casework the ridge sidewalk and brick repair Cedar Hill direct install and Oak Street direct install um as far as the items on the agenda most of them are kind of normal items I would say uh the Mount Prospect roof is on as item number eight and um remaining items uh 10 through 15 are student services um any questions for our about Finance nope okay Jim could you call the rooll Please Mr salmon yes Miss White yes Miss light yes Miss curado yes Miss mcum yes Mr mulinari yes Mr am yes and Mr Shaw yes thanks Jim there's uh the next is person Personnel committee report there are 15 items can I have a motion for that please uh Kirsten and Robin and then Robin you have a report um no we just met on Friday so I'll report out next time oh okay got it um any questions about the items we are voting on tonight for personnel nope okay Jim call the rooll Please Mr salmon yes Miss White yes Miss light yes Miss curado yes M mun yes Mr Molinari yes Mr Amin and Mr Shaw yes thank you we're up to the policy committee report there are two items can I have a motion for those please Keith and Janice um Dave no report right no no meeting okay um any questions about the items we are voting on School District calendar and second reading of su calendar no okay uh Jim could you call the rooll Please Mr salmon yes M white yes Miss light yes Miss curado yes M mun yes Mr Molinari yes Mr Amin yes and Mr Shaw yes thanks Jim we're up to the curriculum committee report there are three items kind have a motion for that please Jen and Kirsten um and Jen you have the report from December 6th yes um we started by talking about uh three new Ela electives uh the following course recommendations come from an Ela evaluation which found that Ridge offers fewer electives in ela than other subjects and in comparison to other districts these are all CP level courses and will be options for students in grades 10 through 12 who have a B minus or better in a ninth grade ELA course each course will be a semester in length additional staff is not needed and only courses that are fully enrolled will run summer work will need to be completed so that these courses can run in the fall 2025 first is women in literature this course offers students the opportunity to explore female authors poets filmmakers S as historical figures and activists students will examine novels Memoirs television episodes films poetry and Pros written by and about women dealing with the following topics women as Trailblazers women as partners women as Rebels and women as survivors the next is Science Fiction and Fantasy students will explore and analyze both classic and modern works of Science Fiction dystopian fiction magical realism and fantasy including selections from popular media through these fictional World students will examine how social structures and identities shape characters and narratives considering speculative fixture as a lens for social commentary and the third one is mystery thriller and suspense this semester course offers students the opportunity to explore a foundational and contemporary Mysteries Thrillers and horror suspense titles students will learn how to differentiate between genres and sub genres with a focus on how authors build suspense create atmosphere and subvert the expectations of their readers in addition the course will focus on all types of suspenseful storytelling with film and television Clips audiobooks and podcasting uh next we just went over a change in uh curriculum course titles and the shift will help um students and parents better understand the progression within the band program motivate students to strive for higher levels of performance and promote the program structure and Excellence within the school Community concert band n is designed primarily for ninth grade students as an introductory level Ensemble concert band which serves as a mixed level is an intermediate Ensemble and Wind Ensemble is the most advanced of the group so symphonic band was formerly called concert band and the proposed change from concert band to syphonic band enhances the band's programs core structure by addressing the need for clear level differentiation the adjustment is particularly important given the current Ensemble offerings and formerly concert band nine will now be concert band and this change is a result of the name change to symphonic band the new name provides a clear delineation between Ensemble levels as follows concert band designed primarily for ninth grade students as introductory level Ensemble uh next we talked about this at uh previously um about the psychology elective textbook a set of this text current textbook is available for use and we received the the set at no cost the version is 12 years newer than we're currently using the textbook has been fully vetted and teachers are requesting to begin using it and the committee supports use of this textbook um we had a number of discussion items um we discussed extended is and high impact tutoring analysis um grant money due to covid was used to provide this added instructional support the grant has concluded extended is was offered the previous few Summers the goal of the summer support was to help students maintain skill levels high impact tutoring ran before and after school both map and njsla scores were analyzed for students participating in the program neither program will run again unless they are included as part of the budget and continued discussion will take place before any recommendation for summer intervention will take place um there was a marking period one grade analysis each marking period grades are analyzed and specifically examined is the number of students receiving D's or E and typically these students have been previously identified but the report shows which courses students are struggling with the most team of Supervisors follow up yearly with teachers if any Trends are discovered uh then there was an analysis of the ad drops each scheduling season includes lengthy discussions as to how many sections of each course to run it's difficult to be exact though because the number of students who request a course changes so much from April after students make initial requests to O October when students can add or drop a course therefore seat availability must be a factor when students want to add or drop a course and can impact the appeals process five years ago teachers began making recommendations including recommendations with reservations of courses and levels for students to help guide them When selecting courses for the following year but these recommendations are not binding last year for the first time an academic fair was held to provide an opportunity for students to learn specifics about courses and the fair will be offered again communication with students about course expectations and workload is really important in being provided providing opportunities for students but also support for success is a continual balance upon analysis it appears this year students Dro multiple classes in their schedule in some classes there's a correlation between students enrolling at a level that they were not recommended to take and a high level of drops this was the case for both enrich chemistry and honor Spanish 3 enrich Algebra 2 was another course that saw high percentage of drops in this course three4 of the drops were by 11th grade students this is a newer course and therefore it's recommended to track it for another year before making any changes to the requirement committee held a lengthy discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of allowing students the opportunity to try higher level courses as well as discussed how successes considered to students can vary one student may be very pleased receiving a b in an honors or AP course where another student may view a b as unacceptable then we talked about the scheduling season um the program of studies the Amendments at a glance um before the uh December break parents and students will receive a letter outlining the launch of the planning season academic planning night for Rising freshman will be on January 29th at Ridge and details for the academics planning are still being finalized and then there were a couple of course prerequisite changes as far as other course changes and updates have provided on all other courses except these following two for math CP statistics has been added as an alternate prerequisite course for AP Statistics and removal of CP pre-calculus as a viable level change to CP statistics and for ELA raising the criteria from advancing from CP to AP courses from an A minus or better to an A or better is applicable to students in CP English 10 and CP English 11 and to raise the criteria for advancing from honors to AP course is from a B minus or better to a b or better applicable to students in honors American literature and honors British literature and our next meeting will be January 3rd Thanks Jen any questions for about curriculum or the items we're voting on tonight no okay Jim can go roll please Mr salmon yes M white yes M light yes M Cado yes M mun yes Mr Molinari yes Mr Amin yes and Mr Shaw yes thanks Jim we're up to the wellness committee report um Janice you have a report for us great thanks um this was a meeting that was held on November 21st uh the first item we discussed was the joy Roots whams professional development uh proposals Miss Fox shared three proposals for staff professional development the first is a virtual coaching sessions for already trained Wham staff this would be four sessions through the 2024 2025 school year it's an opportunity for the 22 staff members who've already undergone two-day training um to ask and and get advice on specific issues from Joy Roots experts the cost of that um those sessions is $2,000 February 26 there will be a professional development day Joy Roots Pro proposed providing two sessions a first session at William Anon for the entire Wham staff and a second session at Ridge for the entire District staff that cost would be $22,000 per session the third option is a two-day restorative practices training for a second cohort of wham's teachers as of November 20th 15 whams teachers have expressed interest in this training all district content area supervisors would attend as well this session would allow for 30 attendees and this would be scheduled before June 2025 the cost of that training would be $99,500 in light of the feedback provided by Miss hudok and the proposal shared by Miss Fox the committee recommends proceeding with the following for the remainder of the 2024 2025 school year four virtual coaching sessions for already trained Wham staff one additional Joy Roots professional develop s session for all Wham staff on February 26th a two-day restrictive practices training for the second cohort of Wham staff and District supervisors the total cost for these three proposals is $13,500 this will be covered by title two and title four funds the committee also discussed potential plans for the next school year in which Wham staff that has and trained can train additional staff and the district could purchase coaching sessions to assist the train and newly trained staff members the second item the committee discussed was uh Panorama survey update Miss Fox shared that for fall 2024 survey responses from 861 Wham students and 876 Ridge students regarding School culture and climate Panorama will be providing the committee an executive summary by the end of the year in addition to the Panorama survey questions about school culture and climate students were asked how they feel about the new school start times at whams 45% of the students responded favorably at Ridge 85% responded favorably students also were surveyed regarding their thoughts about the use of cell phones and social media throughout the school day these student responses will be among the factors the district considers in updating policy regarding cell phone and Technology use later this year Miss Fox explained that counselors can use the Panorama survey results on an individual and small group level and addresses issues such as academic performance attendance Behavior Etc this is because Panorama integrates with Genesis the district purch a one-year license for Panorama the administration will bring specific examples of the use of Panorama back to the committee so the Boe can evaluate whether to continue with Panorama in the future um the third item we discussed was a restoring Focus update uh Dr lazic shared information about two recent initiatives one was a book talk on the anxious generation held November 19th and then he provided an update on the family screen time challenge at Ren whams uh during the month of October results from the restoring Focus screen time challenge are being compiled these will be reviewed by a team of Administrators and Technology Specialists the goal is to develop and Implement a pilot program for cell phone use in school for the second semester of the school year the results of this will help determine District policy for September 2025 and uh we also discuss HIV update which Mr markarian has already reported on the next Wellness committee meeting is scheduled for Thursday November I'm sorry December 19th thanks Janice any questions about Wellness no oh yeah Keith yeah thoughts um I was at the book club talk which was which was very good um the anxious generation there's a lot of data in there I think it supports our efforts toward what we're trying to curtail cell onus one thing to kind of pivot and use that as a segue though I that as far as the joy Roots program um I tended a couple of trainings and it was good it was it was as M Marcus referred to was empathy based trending put yourself in somebody else's shoes and my understanding is that the feedback is that some staff members like that and that's pretty much what we're going on to expand the program I've been through a lot of empathy training in Corporate America it's good stuff and people tend to like it um without any other data though I have concerns about going in deeper in this direction financially we're already 20 grand in for the initial Buy in now we're going 13 more now we're discussing expanding next year and this is exactly what we've talked about for a couple years the endless Consultants without any doubt now I understand we're trying to get hibs under control I would say we definitely should have a plan B here and that should probably be another look at Progressive discipline with a with a harder starting point a more strict starting point because the fact of the matter is and this maybe a little bit of a Divergence of philosophies nothing we do here is going to help unless the parents are on board on board nothing we do here is going to help unless parents enforce discipline at home we can have all the Talking sessions we want but unless the is hitting his kids so hard they're feeling at home it's not going to work I mean I think most of us on stas or out in that audience know what would happen if back in our day we got what picking on somebody smaller or weaker than us wouldn't be good parents have to enforce at home so I have big reservations about continuing going on this road I hope again I like I said a couple when we first Blood try roots on I hope it works we better really be considering our backup plans we want to get this under control I do have some um additional information that we discussed during the the meeting um there is data being collected now there's only been really two trainings so far so we are still in the process of collecting data and the teachers are still in the process of implementing what they're learning um but wham's teachers are keeping logs regarding the implementation of the restorative practices in their classrooms this anecdotal data along with data provided through the Panorama survey results will guide the next steps in the staff training um school counselors are using the practice technique regularly with their individual students and in small groups so the feedback from the counselors has been very positive um the whams administrative team has also been using circles regularly for their grade level and Council meetings um for for example during Viking voices character education lessons uh 22 staff members who participated in the two-day training were paired with 22 teachers who had not yet been trained and this provides an opportunity for teachers to observe the circles in action and to discuss them with trained staff afterwards so part of that key turn key operation is really sort of underway already um teachers have uh who participated in the training um been have been using them primarily so far for academics um they report that students who previously had been hesitant to share their thoughts are more comfortable speaking out in the circle setting which is a positive um teachers said that they would like more individualized training and coaching before implementing um the restorative practices in response to behavioral incidents so that was why I think the recommend was made to have those four coaching sessions um before the end of the year and a small group of trained whams teachers counselors and administrators will be visiting other schools already using restrictive practices to observe and to consider next steps for Atty implementation um correct me if I'm wrong because I've had a lot going on in my memory might not serve but I thought that we were going to do a train the trainer type things so that we wouldn't have to have continuous Consultants coming through with this and I thought that that was the understanding of why we agreed to it because we did not get from the consultant the data that we were actually looking for and that was our significant hesitation so now we're becoming the data test case for this consultant and he's provided us with no success measures from previous programs that they've implemented so my concern is we're spending more money on something that we said we were going to do more of a train to trainer approach on and we agreed to move forward I don't want to become the data test case for the data that we had promised to show us in the first place Dave go ahead yeah I just want to say I agree with what they're saying I think we need to get more data to see that it is working so I am not against spending more money to continue this but I do want to see the data behind it initially I don't agree with doing Progressive discipline um I think we've talked about that and it seems like correct me if I'm wrong but I thought we said that usually when we've had a case of someone getting in trouble it's been one case and they've stopped so I don't think we necessarily have to go to that Progressive discipline now if this doesn't work and we continue along the path maybe we rethink that in the future but I don't think we're at that point today Jen go ahead I just want to clarify because we are join the Train the train um that's the goal and um what was reported a number of times following um uh meetings is that um the teachers who were initially trained with the the first session didn't feel that they're ready yet to train and that's why we have the four coaching sessions between now and the end of the school year and the goal is so that we can train another 30 staff members so that next year we will will be moving to the train to train so that is the exact plan um as far as data um I I don't think we're providing data for other districts um because what other districts necessarily are looking into and using this for doesn't necessarily align um all districts are different based on their demographics based on um their economics based on what the issues are within their school so um in terms of having data yes we will get more data and that's one of the things that we have have asked but they Joy R has been here two different sessions you got to give them a little bit more time to do what we've asked them to do and the first um thing that we paid for was three three different times for them to come and the third time that they're coming is the next uh in service day and that's what we had um contracted them for so we've got to at least get through that and and then they can get us some data I I do have to say I think your outlook is a little bit darker than mine I do 100% agree that parents have to be on board um and I do 100% agree that when parents in the school can partner and work together you can see improvements faster but I don't think that you can one can say that if a school does something it can't make any change I think that we we have amazing teachers who with or without teach the parents buying into something have the ability to to make great change and offer great supports to our students so train oop sorry yeah go ahead yeah um just a couple things to your point earlier Dave yes the majority and please correct me I'm wrong of these incidents are first time in onetime offenders um my thought would be if the beginning of that Progressive discipline was stricter right off the bat that might deter some some um to your point J I I don't think it's a dark Outlook to put the primary responsibility for children's behavior on the parents I I I think that's I think that's a realistic Outlook um we uh parents are responsible for the CH children's education they delegate that responsibility to Public Schools they delegate that so we're we are we are stewards of that so I I just see us being I see us being six figures in still chasing data and still buying classes and not knowing what the results are and one another thing to consider yeah we're using title two or what is it title two and title four funds for this but they can be used for other things and Beyond the money which in a big and I get it in a big $110 million budget is not in of itself significant or a big chunk of it but I've said this multiple times and I'm going say it as long as I'm up here big numbers are made up of little numbers and besides time that we spend on this that our staff spends on this also comes with opportunity cost they training spent on this if it turns out not to be effectual is wasted opportunity time they that time could have been something spent on something else so like I said I I just had major concerns about it and again I hope it works and I but I think we should be developing plan BS for it that's Janice go ahead yeah I I do want to uh point out that we were discussing that one time was is related to HIV reporting but there's also code of conduct and discipline issues that aren't necessarily resolved in one you know with one particular issue and one particular discipline approach so um I think that it's something that's you know we are focusing and we should be on HIV but there's also other um disciplinary situations that Joy Roots can help us resolve so so my one L to kind of rep pivot this Focus back though the the whole Genesis of a a train the trainer program is to get a certain number of teachers really well versed in this so that they can train the trainer so now what's being proposed is we're we're expanding this to 30 more teachers so now there's 30 more teachers that have this you know initial Level Training rather than investing those funds with the original people that we had to train the trainer if we were even to move forward with the training I would prefer to see the teachers that were originally chosen for this program to get more indepth training rather than training somebody new because that defeats the whole that's like well why don't we just have all the TR the I I think the the way it was outlined might have been a little confusing so the folks that were initially trained those trainers were paying $2,000 for those folks to have essentially office hours with joy Roots so what we heard was they really like the training they're starting to implement it but situations are arising or situations could arise where they want additional training on top of that so those trainers are just getting these office hours in kind of like the fall then we're bringing in 15 additional people who were very excited about the program and also wanted to become trainers learn more about it um so that's the $9,500 so just just to finish up so the people that went first they did not feel comfortable acting as trainers yet so they needed kind of like what Keith was saying like we're not seeing any data like they don't feel comfortable implementing the The Joy Roots restorative practices yet in the circles so they wanted to have another semester where they can implement this and have office hours and have access to more back and forth with the the people that um from Joy Roots so by the time next spring rolls around those folks those initial folks that went should be fully trained then we have a second group that is will also be fully trained because they're coming in in the fall and then we'll have a full group of trainers right because you'll have the first group that was trained had the office hours went through the full training you'll have the second group that went through the initial training and they can follow up with the first group so then you will have a full set a full complement of trainers in our district and we talked about this at the wellness committee like what happens after that and there could be some ongoing component of office hours related to Joy Roots but there did not seem to be any other big training seminars as far as I can tell at whams if this works and people like it then it could be expanded to other schools in the district but for right now the focus was whams so does that do you understand how the training working I understand that but you're still introducing new trainers rather than focusing on the original ones that can train others because they're not ready yet so like what if three people leave the district or two people decide they don't want to be trainers so so they're not ready yet because they're not able to train but we need to get them ready so that they can train the rest of the staff in the district rather than introducing 15 new people that will have the first training but then won't have the office hours and whatnot they will $99,500 no that that that will happen then right so like the like I said the office hours could be like an ongoing component that anybody that's been trained can access so I can I can I just clarify the first 15 people they are going to continue to be given training this in from January till June they have have he's calling an office hours there going to be four more sessions The Joy Roots will be available so a teacher I'm kind of making this scenario a teacher can have tried something in their classroom and and want some feedback can go to one of these sessions and say this is what happened this is how I handled it can you give me some feedback on what would you do differently this is what I think worked how could I tweak it so those initi teachers we're going to have four more sessions of training in addition to that another batch are going to get chained they will also be able to utilize those four sessions because then we're being able to have twice the number next fall that will all be available to train the trainer and is that is that session for the 15 additional trainer trainers part of the initial investment or is that additional no that's additional $500 additional yes that's different and that's kind of my point well I mean that's what we heard from the staff was that when staff that were not involved in the first training heard about the initial training they were excited and they wanted to hear more about it and they themselves wanted to be trained so that's kind of what I heard at the training session that I went to where some of the staff said you know is this going to be another thing where we just try it we there's no followup or it kind of Peters out and we kept saying kind of at the committee like if we're going to really invest in this like we already have we should capitalize on the momentum and keep things periodically happening in this program so that we get to the full training point and then we can see did does trainer train the trainer implementation work right so like to kind of Keith's point about we did it we did the training and then where's the data I guess that was one thing that I understood from Joy Roots was what do you want how do you want to measure this and like if we want like when we initially started this project it was we are seeing a large portion of our hibs or a predominant portion of our hibs related to racial and biased language right so we have to see whether those that category of hibs is affected by this training if that's the metric we want to use so if that's so because we're using this is a pro active approach right the the progressive discipline is a reactive approach so and like you said we don't have repeat offenders so like that that isn't this isn't going to cater to that population that's already kind of taken care of itself so if we're trying to use this program in a proactive way to reduce the number of hibs that are related to racial language or biased language this is the next step to get to more staff members in whams using restorative practices to spread this message amongst the kids so that hopefully they think twice about using that language and we see the number of racially or religious or ethnically motivated hibs come down as a proportion of the overall hip count so um that that's that's way that came out but I know it was a little confusing in terms of the the um proposal um any other questions or comments about that I just wanted to jump into with one thing I mean we did have discussions about this concept of a um Zero Tolerance hammer on particular types of misbehavior um in those conversations I never got a sense that the board's majority was in favor of that kind of approach if that's something that there is a majority of interest in I would need to know that because we would have to revisit our policy the change that we made to our code of conduct did not not conceive of that it conceived of a very specific uh Progressive discipline of first second and third offense for this specific category of misbehavior at Anon and that was something that we worked on together and took board action on to approve so if you want to go in a different direction than that I would need to know go ahead well just to be clear by uh advocating for potentially as an option ster discipline standards I'm not advocating for zero tolerance I because I don't personally think that's the way to go um I think each one of these cases is different as we have heard as a board in Clos sessions and I think taking a look at them requires requires Nuance applicable to the situation so just to put it out there what I'm advocating for would not be a zero tolerance policy okay um we are up to facilities operations report Keith yes so the facilities and operation committee met on uh Thursday December 21st um all our work order statuses are posted online in the minutes I'm not going to go through everyone because um there's a lot and it's just numbers and they change by now uh however the trend lines are all going in the right direction I do keep a month-to-month tally and I think you can see the number of open work orders the ones that are aging over 90 days Contin go to go down and that's a testament to uh Mr mickley and Mr R they're doing a great job there um item number two was uh the Sustainable New Jersey update so for those who AR aware this was in response to a student inquiry into the program uh the board would have to pass a resolution for that um then the ridge Green Team would submit documentation on what it's doing as far as green initiatives recycling solar energy Etc uh committee kind came to a landing Zone that this would have to be a green team project and the direction is for interested students to work for through the existing green team club for that uh construction project updates um a lot of stuff getting finished the uh Ridge HVAC is on the punch list so is the uh Americans with disability walkway uh sear Hill water main is fixed the wham's paving loop we're getting some credit back because the excavation was uh less than needed so maybe $60,000 coming back to us that's good news uh Varsity Field there is an update on the D and uh Mr R will fill us in a little bit on that well yeah I mean we we heard that a one section of the um very cumbersome and 15mth plus evaluation process the application has been cleared um we still are awaiting the the final arrival of the LOI the letter of interpretation which would be what we need to uh develop the fields but we the application has moved to the next stage and we're waiting to hear on how long that final stage will take so we've cleared the uh Endangered Species Act hurdle yes the threaten threatened and endangered species unit has completed their Val ation great Rich spotted toad is safe okay um number four was the recap of the 25 to 26 budgets or projects including the budget there's a link in the minutes uh potential equipment uh purchases for 2526 bus and athletic field trip bus for athletic and field trips uh the committee discussed $120,000 for a new bus versus a $27,000 a year lease the committee is recommending budgeting for the bus uh pending a cost benefit analysis and exploration of having District employed drivers for that uh district is looking for new new uh maintenance vehicles uh new maintenance van for 40,000 replace one maintenance van from 2009 another 40,000 uh replace the dump truck with a blown engine and that's about 70,000 uh need all this stuff the committee recommends these vehicle proposals uh the phone system in the district is over 20 years old and it's beyond technical support for instance right now replacement parts can only be found on eBay so we're looking to it's sounds funny but it's probably a big pain they you wear uh looking to replace phones where they're existing not and not add new lines uh the recommendation is to price out some District options uh we may not need as many phones as we currently have so cutting down that number could potentially save on Project costs uh we're talking about potential uh weight room equipment replacement and that's being explored and then uh we were had a pretty lengthy discussion about uh storage options for cell phones that took place in the context of the district restoring Focus effort so more to that to come as we move along I'm sure and uh next committee date meeting will be January 16th what what was the choice on the bus new bus or lease bus uh a new bus for purchase for approximately $120,000 versus leasing one for 27,000 per year so within five years the the new bus would pay for itself and it's pening an exploration also on the viability of getting more District employed drivers talk Ed bus yeah right yeah all right uh any questions yeah Dave so the only one I want to talk about maybe this is for um the committee but is the telephones I know most companies don't even use telephones anymore it's all through the computer so I think there's a lot of ways I'm sure we can't get rid of them completely because we're a public school but I'm sure there's a lot of ways we can save from there so I just want to jump in on that a little bit um you know because I know that um Our IT director is is kind of looking at this project from a couple different angles and it's true that there there is you know we're obviously in a different different Paradigm with phones um but you know we do have some some laws as they relate to emergency communication and staff being able to essentially hit a button in their classroom to call 911 um and given how dated are entire phone system is the way they uh integrate with the intercom system and be able to you know quickly communicate from classroom to main office classroom to nurse's office classroom to another classroom that has a student that's finishing a test there's a lot that goes on there and our current system to call it dated uh would be extremely euphemistic it it it's beyond that um so in order to get compliant with laws and kind of get up into you know the mod era of phones we are looking at um a situation of phones um being installed in every single classroom um we had taken a look at um a concept of just trying to place in kind wherever we have a phone with another phone um when Our IT director got into some of the nitty-gritty of what's currently in the classrooms the project took on a little bit of a different scope uh I don't know if Jim wants to jump in at all um but but we are you know we'll certainly bring all of this to the board as we continue to talk about it but I just wanted to let you know um that that was an accurate depiction of what happened in the committee that's very accurate and there's nothing wrong with the minutes but I I while it was kind of on the table I just kind of want to let you guys know as we're thinking about this it might take a a different look in the final recommendation but um I don't know if you want to add anything else to that Jim yeah yeah just the idea that the phone system as the phone system as we as the IT director was looking at it the idea of the phone system kind of merging with the PA system and emergency response it it kind of took a little bit of a of a different dimension um because the newer systems now all all integrate rather nicely and offer a significant set set of safety features so that's kind of what caused them to Pivot a little bit and look at options that would include those to see what the cost would be with with those additional safety enhancements that would allow people to easily respond to emergencies happening in their classroom notify the building go into you know different security uh codes and that kind of thing any other questions for about facilities nope okay great uh leison committee Janice you have Somerset County at Services I do thanks um Somerset County Educational Services committee met on December 4th um to approve various Finance Transportation personnel policy and programming items um a representative from the commission's auditor uh Supple Cooney and Company presented the highlights of the 2024 audit there were no recommendations and he expressed his thanks to board secretary School business administrator Jeff sapola and staff for an exceptionally smooth process this year um in his superintendent report Harold dunsavage acknowledged that comments from board members regarding ing proposed tuition increase prompted the commission to consider alternative funding options the sale of a portion of the commission's buses will allow for a freeze on tuition for the coming year uh Mr dunsavage noted that 30 commission students are scheduled to graduate this coming June that's an unusually high number uh he's in the process of meeting with district superintendent to determine the number of potential students for the coming school year if if the current number of intakes remains steady at two and three new students per week Mr dunsavage feels that the commission will be able to maintain their current levels of programming and staff commission staff is scheduled to attend a January 17th professional development day on the topic of restorative justice staff is focusing this year on positive reinforcement beginning in January counselors will recognize 10 students each month who will be invited to have breakfast or lunch with Mr dun Savage as an incentive for positive behavior and the next commission meeting is scheduled for Wednesday February 5th thanks Janice I guess somebody has some buses for sale there so um any other leis on committee reports or questions for Janice about suet County at Services Keith um not a question for Somerset County but uh just uh a little bit of interest in doings in the town Council that had could have potentially had some effect on the schools um we be very neutral in these comments here and just tell you what's going on and encourage you to pay attention so there is a proposal to put um movie studios as well as uh a community center and some housing for uh adults with special needs in over by Verizon some of you are may be aware of this um there's pros and cons um some of the potential Pros could be beond the special needs housing for adults who use those services and a community center would be movie studios that could possibly maybe be open to Rich students uh could benefit our theater Department could benefit our Pathways Department with internships and things of that nature um cons well I mean we just saw it with the other Road Project it could be traffic it could be that's not a movie studio owned by a movie studio it's owned by a company so who they rent to and the type of projects they approved I'm not sure about that either so you know there's potential ups and down signs I would just encourage you to pay pay attention and if you're so interested in Township Affairs go to the planning board meeting tomorrow night and there's also a Township committee meeting will'll be voting on this on December 23rd so you don't have enough to do on the day before Christmas Eve uh get out for a town council meeting and uh just want to let everybody know what's going on because it can potentially affect schools and potentially affect all of us as Town's people that's it any questions for Keith or any other liais on committee reports no okay we are up to public comment on anything that's relevant to the schools if you have a public comment come on up to the mic say your name and address sign in with your name and address and then you have three minutes for public comment hi still Debbie Marcus still 16 lafay Lane um nice to hear some discussion about um a lot of the items um just this came to mind it wasn't planning to come up again but when you were talking about the um the joy rides Joy Roots sorry they should not be taking Joy rides um efforts and the training are we including the school psychologists in the training because a lot of what I'm hearing spoken about you know the empathy is what I presume the school psychologists have background in and they're already working with the kids with kids on empathy so maybe they would be some of the people we could train to train the trainers um more so than um some of the teachers and a lot of our psych psychologists have been in the district for extended amount of time and are familiar with the students so that's something to maybe try to emphasize and encourage more um and secondly although you know you are it's nice to hear there is some discussion about data um it's it's still a little odd to me that the company itself has not provided data from the multiple schools they've already worked with and if they are going to use our school to collect it then we should take advantage of that and and get significant discounts um because we'll be providing them a method ways to for them to get more business in the future if the results are positive but finally I do still emphasize and I try not to like sound like a broken record but you need to like present some outcomes that would define success before everything's implemented so that when you get results I mean obviously there will likely be some improvement because just attention is being put on it but you need to say like spending this amount of money we expect to see at least this I'll give it a range doesn't have to be a specific number because it is you know these fuzzy areas um you what kind of Effectiveness you want for the amount of time and money and resources that we're putting into this because there are always other approaches that can be taken um and also our once our psychologists are trained you know we can maybe run with that and not having to keep investing more of money that can be spent on other things that can help too thanks thanks M Mar Mrs Marcus any other people for public comment okay we'll close public comment anything on that uh no we're we are working on the data aspect I understand the idea of like setting a a benchmark and trying to you know uh hit a certain Target on an improvement level with um student Behavior outcomes for example um the the only caution I have there is you you don't want to create an artificial um influence if you will I'd like to see the data improve granularly as a result of um all of the collective efforts rather than to to make people feel like well you know we can't we can't have too many hibs because we spent money on training you know um let it be what it'll be and if there's Improvement then we can point to what we think is improving it um to really say you know for sure given all the variables we've talked about this and and you know not going to make it up not going to say oh well yeah we did that so 100% sure that's that's that's the fix that's Magic Bullet you know I think there's a lot of variables and Keith has advocated for some of them and we all have views on on how this goes but um you know I I feel like this is this is our house when the kids are here and we have to do the best that we can um even though it's not home home it's home for six hours and we're the parents while while they're here so we're doing the best we can and um you know we want to try to make a positive difference and um that's what we're trying to do here so appreciate your patience and we we are collecting data in all sorts of ways okay great we're up to um board Forum anything anybody want to say in board forum no Keith oh Dave yeah so I don't know if this is the right time but I want to uh say thank you to Kiren and Tim for their time and dedication to the board uh serving on the board is no small feat it's a very demanding and often thankless job so Kiren well we didn't always see eye to eye I appreciate the times we work together to find Common Ground one of the unique perks of this job is the candy stash that we get at the meetings we may have disagreed on the best candy but we always found a way to trade and make it work much like the budget decisions we tackled this year despite challenges like inflation we navigated tough choices including compromises on tax increases triple tier busing and Personnel in addition Nick and Jim along with the finance committee are continuing to find additional savings in areas like Health Care additional bus routes and maintenance Staffing even after the budget was finalized these efforts underscore the continued Financial scrutiny we will continue to bring to the board Tim what can I say about you you probably don't know this but you're actually the reason I decided to run for the board uh watching you in meetings I admired your ability to to clearly explain your votes and bring a levelheaded to heated discussions when I joined you made sure I understood the history of issues and took the time to simplify legal complexities for us non- lawyers more than that you made this experience enjoyable whether it was lightening the mood with chokes using our first names to make discussions feel more personal or owning up to the wham's naming idea and humor with humor and Grace and of course I cannot forget your record-breaking speed with reading the public notice statement your efficiency will be missed thank you both for your cont contributions to the board I'm sure I will be calling you for advice in the future thanks dude anyone else for uh Keith yeah uh that was exactly the time for that um and I'm just gonna I'm gonna Echo it a bit uh Tim thank you for your service to the board um I think I mean we haven't always seen ey to eye but I respect your service absolutely I respect your perspective I think anybody puts themselves up here week after week year after year is to be commended and I think having a variety of views on the board is leads to a better product all around so thank you Robin congratulations on your re-election I look forward to working with you again next year and uh collaborating where we can And discussing where uh where we disagree and that's fine too and Kiren you're going to be missed up here um you know I found you a super Steady Hand at Finance I think you came in and offered a valuable New Perspective when you first came on the board and I think uh you know the town uh Town what you think you and I thank you I'm going to miss you uh and to uh the people join the board Next Year look forward to working with you um you know I would just say keep an open mind listen to everybody's perspective and vote your conscience because at the end of the day that's uh that's what we're all up here to do and uh Merry Christmas everybody happy Hanukkah they almost coign Co aside this year and you know whatever your faith you have a very happy and prosperous 2025 that's it thanks Keith um anybody else Robin yeah I just want to sorry I just want to say a special thank you to Tim um your years on the board were challenging to say the least we lived through a pandemic and a lot of other challenges and You' always stayed um you always had a sense of humor during it which is amazing but you stayed steady and you focused on what was important which is the kids so I just really want to thank you for that and I know you're still going to be contributing um for the kids in our town I hear you've been hit up already by at least one Sports organization to take on more of a leadership role and I know you're coaching and we'll see you on the fields cheering the kids on um so I'm sure I'll be seeing you on the soccer field I wanted to thank you thanks Robin Nish I'll just uh keep it short by echoing U the comments already made thank you to both uh Kiren and Tim for uh leading this year and um good luck and whatever else you guys do but uh happy holidays everyone and see you next year anybody Jen you know I don't keep things short Tim so um so and I wrote it down because I don't want to forget anything so I want to thank you for your years of service and most of all for your outstanding leadership this year you came on the board as just a dad who cared about kids yours and all of ours and you had no Personal Agenda other than a commitment to the community you put in the work to learn all the different facets and the responsibilities of a board member you asked questions boy did you ask questions which sometimes led to some very lengthy committee meetings but we knew it was because you wanted to be able to make decisions based on fact you were always willing to fill in any open spot on a committee meeting even stepping up to handle writing someone else's minutes your voice of reason and calm your unwavering ethics and your self-deprecating humor are just a few reasons your presence on this board has been so vital thank you for your unwavering commitment to burner's Township you'll be met and I hope to see you sitting out there in the audience in the coming months and I look forward to the questions that I know you will continue to ask thank you I'll probably be sitting in the bleachers watching basketball games or something like that but I'll be close anybody else for board Forum Janice um Tim I just want to thank you for your leadership and as a new board member um I really appreciated uh your Outreach and your willingness to answer questions whenever they came up and I felt like I was pretty well trained um and I I just appreciate your openness and your willingness to work with us so thank you for that best of luck to you Kristen and to you Tim we will miss you thanks Janice thank you everyone I really appreciate it um so um since it's my final board meeting uh my my my wife made me say that um I had this awesome idea where I was going to go out like the final episode of The Sopranos where like I would give a speech and Don't Stop Believing would be playing in the background and then the YouTube feed would like cut to Black and like no one knows what happened and it would like uh there would be an article in the Burnsville news and all the suspense would be created but um Nick said no because um we can't use emergency funds to license the rights from Journey for Don't Stop Believing so that didn't go anywhere unfortunately but um I do appreciate all the sentiments um just kind of some notes I wrote here uh you know most people say that being a board member is a thankless job and comes with zero perks besides the candy um and they're right about that it is thankless and there are zero perks but I do feel very lucky to have had this opportunity um like almost everybody else in town when somebody asks why we moved to Basking Ridge I say because of the schools um but now having been up here and and worked with all these folks um and the staff and parents um I think what I really mean is to say we moved here because of the school Community um the teachers the AIDS the counselors supervisors administrators uh coaches uh Club advisors and and then the parents and the pto's and the booster clubs and all the other volunteers including the board members that are up here with me and that I've uh worked with in the past um that everything is the school Community all those people are the school community that support kids in Basking Ridge and give them all these amazing opportunities things that I've never you know seen in other districts I never had growing up and it's just it's it's amazing that it has it's all here for these kids and I think that's why most people moved to Basking Ridge and that's certainly why we did uh I will miss committee meetings despite uh Jen's admonishment that I Was a Serial interruptor in a questioner um it was great because you have the chance to hear directly from teachers and administrators who are all exceptionally talented uh and even when I disagreed with them and challenged them or during the heat of negotiations sometimes s um they were all intellectually honest uh respectful and professional and I hope I reciprocated that behavior um I'll also really miss hearing directly from the kids um it takes a tremendous amount of confidence for those kids to come up here at a board meeting or with the student government and voice their concerns to a group of adults that looks imposing and say something in front of their peers where they don't know what the reaction is going to be so I'm just very glad that this school community supports kids and gives them the confidence to do that um just a few quick thank yous um obviously thank you to my family for allowing me to dominate my time to the school district uh I know my wife is is thrilled to have me back in the Monday night car pools um thank you to my fellow board members past and present uh my best wishes for the new board in the New Year and thank you to everyone in the school community and then um Jim and Sean and Nick and Kristen uh I know there's going to be huge fight tomorrow the board office about who's going to miss me most um but I really I really enjoyed working with each and every one of you and I and I will miss it so um thank you very much to everyone I hope everyone has a wonderful and relaxing holiday break and New Year and uh go ridge motion to adjourn Jen and karston all in favor I have a good break everybody