##VIDEO ID:wcR3n6_RGXI## all right good evening everyone welcome to the Board of Education meeting uh we met an executive session and saluted the flag I'm going to read the uh statement of public notice now this is a regular meeting of the Board of Education of Bernard's Township notice the time and place of the 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 that notice was posted on the bullettin 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 form to address any matter of public concern related to the schools when you approach the microphone please State your name and address each statement made by the participant shall be limited to three minutes duration no participant may speak more than one 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 a maximum for members of the public to speak the board reserves the right to set a different time limit for individual comments and the overall time limit for the public comment portions of the agenda all statements shall be directed to the residing officer no participant May address or question board members individually please understand that public comment portions of our agenda are not structured as question and answer sessions but are offered as opportunities 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 and employees have 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 members of the public members of the public are cing that they are speaking at their own risk and are personally any personally directed statements that they make May subject them to Legal liability to the affected individual if is necessary for the board to go into executive session at the end of the meeting will we will provide a length of estimated time for the session and whether any action is anticipated to be taken Upon returning to the public session uh Jim can you please call the role Mr salmon here miss white here miss L here miss Cado here M mun here Mr Molinari here Mr am M chip here and Mr Shaw okay we're up to superintendent report oh no board president comments uh everybody we're all excited to get ready for the school year in the fall it's coming up quick summer was too short obviously um we know we're making some changes this year new start times there's going to be some bumps in the road please give us some Grace and uh the bus drivers some new bus driver companies some Grace and the uh staff some Grace and the kids some Grace about getting out of the house at different times um this year so um hopefully we'll have everything you know manageable and smooth out any rough edges uh as we move through the first few weeks of school but I just wanted to say that uh we are excited to get started with our new start times and our new Transportation companies Nick take it away uh there are five items under super report have a motion for those Robin and Keith okay so just by uh way of quick explanation uh the first item is authorizing a data sharing agreement with Hessa uh there's a new law requiring that uh families either opt out of uh completing the FAFSA uh or not uh in order to graduate basically basally uh so anybody that doesn't want to have completing the FAFSA a graduation requirement for their graduating senior simply has to tell us that they would like a waiver to that requirement anybody that does not submit a waiver uh we have to have the ability to receive data from Hessa to verify that the Fafa has been completed so that we can comply with the law and allow the kids to graduate so that's what that data share agreement is about uh the second item is the Moa we've been doing this annually since we uh started employing the special law enforcement officers at all of the schools uh we did double check uh the agreement with Council everything is good to go there was a small uh 3% increase in compensation on the hourly rate and a provision was noted that in certain circumstances with the superintendent's approval there could be overtime provided for uh where it's appropriate uh not as a security measure security still has to be handled by regular police officers uh but in the event that it made sense as a community policing type event for a special law enforcement to be there like for example on a back to school night where the community is trying to get to know who its Soo is um over time could be authorized in that situation uh and then we have uh three overnight field trips it any questions about any of that for Nick NOP okay Jim can call the roll please Mr salmon yes M white yes Miss light abstain M Cado yes Miss M yes Mr Mard yes and M chipon yes okay we are up to public comment on agenda items if you have a comment on agenda item please come up give your name and address sign the sheet and three minutes to speak okay no public comment we'll close that out we're up to the approval of minutes can I have a motion for that please Jen and Keith um Jimmy you want to call the rooll Please Mr salmon yes M white yes Miss light obain M Cado yes m m yes Mr molari yes and M CH yes yes okay we are on the finance committee report there are uh 30 items including the addendum can I have a motion for that please Kirsten and Robin um this report is from the July finance committee meeting uh the first item for discussion was highlights from the New Jersey uh Association of school business officers school funding working group Mr R reported from the meeting um that's Statewide Transportation budgets had increased 21% from 2122 to 2223 while State Transportation Aid had only increased 2% so that was obviously a big concern uh Mr R uh talked about uh prescription claims rebates uh Mr R consulted with the district's Insurance bro broker which is Arthur J Gallagher who inquired with the pharmacy benefits manager about rebates the district has received on prescription drugs uh he provided a summary of those rebates uh quarterly from 2022 to 202 23 which averaged about $200,000 per quarter um representatives from Arthur J Gallagher were scheduled to attend the August finance committee meeting to explain options for the district including for example shopping for a different PBM and how any change could affect the current formulary Mr R has also been contact with remedy analytics a firm that analyzes drug rebates and pricing to determine whether additional savings can be achieved um we talked about the esy transportation issues that had been going on so esy transportation is 11 routes extended school year is esy um there are 11 routes they were all awarded to Barker bus company on the first day of esy six out of the 11 drivers uh that Barker agreed to provide did not show up for work and Barker said that they did not have any plan to remedy the situation so the first week of esy was very difficult for um students and families buses were running late sometimes 90 minutes late some buses did not have air conditioning and some buses did not have the required AIDs that were contracted for Mr R Miss loasa and Dr Connell worked last week uh at that time to remedy the issues and as of July 15th service was much better uh we had contracted with delal and STA bus companies to cover the six buses that Barker failed to provide um there was uh discussion about aramar Cafe performance Aron Mar provides Food Service in the district um there was a drop in profit for 22 23 24 but Aron Mark is contractually obligated to pay the difference between the profit guarantee in the operations profit which is built into the contract um Mr R wanted the board to be aware of the fact that arar or any other vendor may want to reduce the profit guarantees in future contract based on our um projections for that year uh we talked about the school budget calendar Mr R provided a forecast timeline of the District budget calendar for the 2526 year August and September facilities and operations committee is going to review the facilities condition assessment that was ordered and propose a list of capital projects and Associated timeline in October oober facilities and operations would finalize that capital projects list and the budget for the 2526 school year and provide recommendations to the finance committee at which time finance committee would recommend capital projects budget to the board uh Mr R would like to get the 25 26 capital projects out to bid in the winter um a board member asked about Mr the last item was about District Investments a board member asked Mr R's plans for indust uh for district interest earning funds given the likelihood of an upcoming interest rate cut Mr R looked at CD lading but banks have already cut long-term rates uh a 2-year CD rate is now uh around 2.4 to 3% there is the possibility of putting some funds into a 9month or oneyear CD and Mr R will provide an update at an upcoming meeting um as far as the finance items most our standing items are self-explanatory um the only item uh which is number 12 which has to do with the esy busing do you want to give us like a little color on that Jim yeah so uh in the in the minutes you just read we had talked about um the you know Calamity that was zsy transportation and removing um five of the routes to alternate providers we we thought we were um completely done but after that point uh it got even worse and there was one more bus um that they that could not deliver on time so we took that uh bus away and gave that to another Transportation provider um so we had to go back and uh since that happened after the July board meeting that that's what this motion is to to take that um uh that route again that was unable to be fulfilled to uh our level of satisfaction and give it to another provider thank you any questions for or about Finance yep 30 items no okay Jim can you hold roll please Mr salmon yes Miss White yes is light this this includes the the agenda yeah 30 items so there's 29 and 30 are on the agenda um okay so I'm a yes except for item number 29 that I'm a no Miss C yes m m yes Mr monari no on item 29 yes on arrest and M chipo 29 abstain yes and the rest okay we are up to the Personnel committee report there are 41 items can I have a motion for that Jen and Keith report Robin um I two yeah two reports although a lot of it's old news and some of it was already reported out on so um in the July meeting um the the committee met on July 19th we had a discussion about elementary sectioning which always happens at that time of year as um they're monitoring the class sizes at all of the buildings and figuring out Staffing um we reviewed like the way that that works each summer um the board staying trying to stay within the the class siiz guidelines and anticipate movein and move outs it's always a little bit tricky um we talked about some of the nuances between the different buildings um and grades um depending on the programs how many students are perhaps not in the classroom all the time because they're in a self-contained class for part of the day or resource room different ways of delivering instruction if class sies are a little bit larger um having more instructional support teachers in the classroom so it's handled a little bit differently depending on the building and the grade but of course people always like to compare across the district and so it's always an issue every summer um the update at the next meeting was that we've still um monitored it all summer and everybody's under the um guideline the board um got line for class sizes across the buildings um we talked about the sleo um 3 um pay rate which Nick already reported out on in the superintendence report that we've raised that um by 3% um we talked in the July meeting about the shortage of crossing guards and I think everyone who's getting their Friday fold or and on social media has seen advertisements for that all summer trying to hire crossing guards um so do you know the status now nicker Jim they're still looking for more right we pointed somewhere but yes yes yeah yep we're still looking for more crossing guards so okay if you know anyone who be a crossing guard they don't have to do it both shifts you can do just morning or just afternoon if that works out better for your schedule um so definitely spread that word um okay and then at the August meeting we had a followup about that we talked about some title um Title One money that the district got that we were not expecting um a large it's 164,00 but a large portion of that goes to Bonnie BR School for students that are there so our portion is $85,000 um we're planning on using it for professional development or at least some of it for professional development for our new math program the new Envision elementary math program um so more to come on that and we talked oh I guess that's that's the only stuff I can report out on aside from the fact that at the time that we met um Mr reviewed the different um unfilled positions many of which have been filled in the meantime and are on the agenda for um tonight you can see a lot of people have been hired and that was it thanks Robin any questions for about Personnel no okay Jim can call the rooll Please Mr salmon yes M white yes Miss light yes Miss gado yes Miss mun yes Mr Molinari yes and Miss chip yes great thank you we're up to the policy committee report there's one item can I have a motion for that please Jen and Robin um Dave is not here we do not have a report right there's nothing on the agenda no report so Sor yes sorry got distracted on power issues for laptops um so with respect to policy the reason that uh policy did not meet in August is because there were no proposed changes for second reading on all of the policies that we did first reading on so there was no policy committee meeting in August and no report thank you any questions nope Jim call the rooll Please Mr salmon yes Miss White yes Miss light yes yes M curado yes M mun yes Mr mulinari yes and M CH yes thank you we up to curriculum committee there are two items can I have a motion for that please Janice and Jen um report yes it away all right we began with the new course approvals um first Spanish uh first all K through five schools are moving to a six- day cycle of specials uh the specials are art music PE request um which makes having Spanish more easily delivered so that students are at a novice level by fifth grade fourth and fifth grade students will be able to have Spanish one time every six days for 50 minutes in addition to this through an added scheduling change K through third grade students will have an exploratory time slot as a part of their schedule and Spanish will be one of the three added slots one time a month Spanish will be the exploratory period and in order to prepare for this change beginning in the fall curriculum writing is needed to create 10 lessons this summer and next summer curriculum writing will occur the goal is to excite K through3 students about learning Spanish and topics will be about holidays songs cultural events no added materials are needed and by implementing Spanish instruction uh for K through five were in compliance with the njq saac requirements the next course um that we're approving is for at Ridge academic intervention at rid with the added change of students being required to pass a marking period each semester in order to receive a passing grade at the conclusion of the school year it was important to find ways to support students so they're able to achieve this requirement the addition of an added elective is in addition to after school and with the change to start times before school help that will still be offered through the CIS Grant students can be referred by teachers and counselors to receive help through the academic intervention course to special education te teachers will cover three periods of offered added instruction one period will be devoted to working with struggling Learners in Reading one working with students within the map course and one working with students who struggle overall academically after completing the Gap class if the students no longer need the support elective at the end of the semester they can choose a different elective for the following semester and then we had a number of discussion items the first was we talked about Thrive this is our our new in-house program that replaces ESS tremendous changes are not being made um to the program some adjustments have been made based on discussions and feedback on what was liked or disliked or worked well with those involved in the ESS program there will be more group counseling offered for students and home visits will be added for students experiencing School refusal parents of children in the program received a communication about the new program this summer and Thrive purpose is to provide students with the skills to ensure regular School attendance reintegrate into the classroom and create Connections in the school next we talked about um oops hold on it just disappeared from my screen hang on one second there we go um Greg Lucas um who we have met with and we've reported out on um previously Greg Lucas was received well by the wellness committee and an opportunity for Other Board of Ed members to meet and ask questions was provided as been shared previously staff have been asking to receive training and support in order to have additional tools to utilize when conflicts arise among students in and outside of the classroom as well as when tackling challenging conversations there's been a rise of hibs as well as student Conflict at whams and moving forward with Mr Lucas's staff training this fall is a step towards bringing about needed change if the district moves forward with Mr Lucas he will address all District staff as a keynote speaker at their opening day meeting and then we'll work with with about 30 Wham staff members at the October and February in service days during these trainings staff would work with scenarios that could occur and work on strategies options to utilize if they should occur as well as explore conflict resolution and restorative practices that could be used in the classroom the trained staff members would be able to train other staff members in the future future questions arose out to how data could be tracked and measured and how to measure the effectiveness of the program Panorama would be able to be used to help in this area a board member asked to review training materials as well Mr Lucas explained it's important to be clear with what and how shifts are wanted he recommended picking a purposeful strategic goal as a starting point Mr Lucas works with a number of other schools including Montclair Miss followed Miss Fox followed up with Montclair to learn details of their experience and they shared that Mr Lucas has been an outstanding support for the district in this initiative the majority of the committee supported and recommended moving forward with Mr Lucas and we've met with a number of Consultants since last year and the work Mr Lucas does is aligned with what we've been looking to bring to our staff and it was just approved um when we voted for the finance items uh then we had an update on the elementary scheduling project um the administrators have worked closely with Alice deles are software scheduling consultant and are close to completing the elementary master schedule as of the date of the board meeting and the schedule will be complete so Genesis is limited for the Elementary schedule and the added software adario was piloted to determine if it could support and development of the elementary master schedule annually and provide us with opportunities to schedule our students and staff more efficiently as an example of its feature this software is able to determine the best time in the schedule to pull students out for support Miss B's reworked our specials so that existing staff can cover all sections at each school um I mentioned earlier something called um ex the exploratory um per period That's being added so um as mentioned the as a result of change in the master schedule it's created these extra blocks of time to to have two extra ones in addition to Spanish the curriculum writing project involves representation from specialty Area Teachers so one exploratory period will be Spanish and ideas are under discussion about how to use the other exploratory period ideas being discussed are adding in technology instructions such as keyboarding which has been lost since Quest was implemented additional recess which would provide provide more free play to develop social skills and infusing more lessons in understanding disabilities and then lastly um we were presented with part one of the postsecondary report it's linked um in my minutes and Miss Fox has asked that any questions that any board member has regarding the report please be sent uh to her by September 6th when we will be having our next curriculum meeting part two of the postsecondary report will be presented through the wellness committee Thanks Jen any questions for about curriculum um I think all the elementary kids that are listening just heard exploratory is additional recess so that toothpaste is out of the tube uh I don't know um but just um the question about the Spanish curriculum at the elementary school that's that's going to be implemented in the fall now okay great um J could you call the rooll Please Mr salmon yes Miss White yes Miss light yes Miss Cado yes Miss mcum yes Mr Molinari yes and Miss chipu yes thank you uh Wellness committee report Janice have one no not this time okay great we'll catch you on the next one facilities and Co operations committee Keith yeah I was uh away during that meeting so I'm going to kick that over to Jeff okay great okay so uh the commit uh committee met August 1 we discussed uh work order status review both HVAC and maintenance uh we have a new metric to keep track of how many work orders are open per week and closed per week in addition to tracking the average close time of War quarters which was 27 days um and we dissected uh the esy Transportation uh debacle and um walk through um things to consider from that and takeaways of that experience with that Transportation uh company we looked at options for uh procuring our own School Bus vehicles um while there's a a long lead time to get uh school buses there was the opportunity to bid on a couple of school buses that hunon County and Services Commission was putting up for sale um we tentatively uh agreed to put a bid in however it's buer beware and our uh contact that we had arranged to do an inspection of the bus before we bid got stuck out of state his flight got cancelled so he couldn't get back in time to um that's not part of the minutes but just putting the concl ill usion to the event working it in there so we didn't actually get the inspection but at the meeting we talked about the feasibility that if we can buy one of these buses that are um relatively newish um that you could get a 54 passenger bus that a much much reasonable uh rate uh rate and that there are periodically about every two months 100ed Services Commission does auction uh school buses up for sale so it's something we'll we'll keep our eyes out for if there's an opportunity um we think the most likely use would be to help with our Athletics busing um to do two from internally really requires three drivers per route because when a driver calls out sick you still have to obviously get the kids to school so having just one driver and one bus isn't good enough but with Athletics um it it you can actually do one driver one bus and still um achieve our transportation needs so um we'll be monitoring that in the future um we did have a transportation meeting with our with our four new bus companies that are going to be providing to from just so everyone's on the the same page and they know our our expectations and uh miss lashka explained to them what the expectations here were and um requiring them on uh our safety training protocols and the dry runs that have to happen on the days before school so all the drivers are familiar with the routes that they'll be running um no issues in that meeting and then we had um presented a draft of our five-year Capital project plan this was a big agenda item and uh it's something that the facilities and operations committee will be looking at in the next couple of meetings and also at the finance committee but it was the kind of first pass first draft try and wrap your head around what we're going to tackle capital projects wise in the next five years um and then there were updates on the construction projects uh we still no new update on the Varsity Field Complex although the D was on site their um team that determines the existence of endangered species in the wetlands is the last piece that needs to evaluate that uh to see if they will uh Greenlight that but they are comfortable with the setbacks that the engineer provided in terms of the the distance from the wetlands it now has to a determination has to be made on the um endangered Critters um in that area we talked about the whams paving Loop schedule which is complete uh we talked about the Ada walkway which is nearing completion it should happen at the end of this week um we talked about awaiting a change order for the ridge HVAC project which we recently received um and the direct Liberty Corner direct install which is also almost complete just a couple of final uh programming on the rooftop units but everything's been installed and the lighting's all in and the we reported that the Liberty Corner canopy was underway and we would be getting a small credit that project has been complete and we did get that uh credit for that project thanks Jim any questions for about facilities and or operations no uh any potential timeline on the endangered species investigation we were told September I would take that this September I would take that with a grain of salt I would not bet a mortgage payment on it but that's that's what the environmental engineer who has a relationship with the D evaluator said that we would hear back um by September however I would not be entirely shocked if September became October November okay great um liaison committee reports Janice you have Somerset County right okay I do have one from Somerset County Educational Services um there was a meeting on August 7th Harold dunsavage shared the following in his superintendent report during this Summer's extended school year program scce served 70 students in 2023 they served 30 students staff has been extremely busy registering new students for September averaging three or four intakes per week this summer special education transportation services has also grown um they're anticipating $30 million in revenue for the 24 25 school year they've hired two new staff members and will be relocating to a large office in September the superintendent recommended approving an agreement with Symphony USA for electronic bidding software for the 2425 school year this will enable the commission to expedite the process of approving bids for necessary expansion projects the board approved this agreement at the August 7th meeting the board approved the uh memorandum of agreement for contracts for certificated staff secretaries teacher aids and supplemental staff their three-year contract provides salary increases of 3.25% 6.25% and 3.25% allowing the commission to be competitive with other hiring school districts the new contract includes an extra 15minute period at the end of the school day for staff meetings IEP monitoring Etc there continues to be a need for Math and Science special educ teachers the commission is looking into funding for project Adventure which will help students develop physical social emotional and teamwork skills thanks Janice any questions about Somerset County Ed Services report no any other leison committee reports no okay uh we are up to public comment uh if you have a public comment about any item related to the schools please come up state your name and address sign in and you have three minutes all right I'm going to close public comment uh we are up to board Forum does anybody have anything they would like to discuss now Kei just briefly um because a bit unusual for somebody to vote no on one item within the any committee report so I voted no on the 29 for the finance committee report was it's regarding the uh consultant we bring into training teachers um I have concerns uh but uh and that's why I voted no but I just want to you know make it clear that you know I do wish him well I hope it's successful and uh I hope my vote is proved wrong in the long run anyone else support Forum no Nick super quick just wanted to uh put a shout out there to the uh staff the admin team obviously we are getting ready for our opening we are in the last crunch um I just wanted to thank everybody for their support not only board members in in their approvals for the work that we're trying to do to get the school uh school year off and running with a a great start but also in particular to Kristen and all the work with the summer curriculum writing Sean uh with a ton of work in trying to get all the staff hired and still trying to get the last couple pieces filled and honestly uh Jim did a tremendous job this summer and we we have some hiccups in in getting some of this project work done but overall uh just a ton of work uh throughout the school a lot of new flooring um some some really nice visible things that I I think people will all appreciate so I I just want to give them a shout out because you know people kind of think oh Summer and the being an administrator in the summer must be great it's very very busy it's crazy busy so I just want to thank everybody for their support and uh tomor schedules are going live tomorrow at noon not that anyone's paying attention I'm sure everybody is is aware of that uh and we're just really excited for the St School so thanks for everybody's support all right great thank you we are ready to adjourn motion to adjourn Kirsten and Jen all in favor I thank you very much everybody see you in two weeks for