okay we'll move the stand between us hi good evening everyone and welcome to the calwell West cwell Board of Education meeting tonight Wednesday April 24th 2024 tonight the board met an executive session actually at 5:30 p.m. um the purpose of that meeting was to discuss Personnel litigation miscellaneous and business matters as well as we did our um annual ethics training with the board attorney this meeting has been advertised and is in compliance with the open public meeting act and njsa 10 call 4-6 also known as the Sunshine Law the matters discussed will be made public when confidentiality is no longer required and formal action pursuant to said discussion shall take place only at a meeting to which the public has been invited tonight the public conference meeting is taking place here at 7:01 p.m. at Washington School well thank you for having us Mr Ado we're so happy to be here um Washington 2011 Central LA West quo New Jersey the Board of Education meeting is also being streamed live but all Community questions and comments are welcomed here in person the calwell West calwell Board of Education public conference meeting is also in compliance with the open public meeting act and njsa 10 col 4-6 also known as the Sunshine Law notices have been sent to the progress in cwell New Jersey The Star Ledger in Newark New Jersey and tap into West Essex notices have also been posted at the Board of Education business office in the Harrison School building grece Street West Caldwell and have been delivered to the clerks in the burrow of Caldwell and Township of West Caldwell for posting that's a mouthful every week Maddie would you like to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance can we all rise I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all and Brian a little out of order tonight but can you please take the role yes yes I will uh student representative mine Alberta here Miss D Martini here M Lind Jefferson here Miss Mack here Mr dimola here M Gro here we have five of voting members present six total we have a quum great Brian are there any communic ations for the board there were none okay great um so for everyone who knows tonight's not a voting meeting we're just going to preview the agenda and welcome anyone up with any questions or concerns I'm going to pass it over now for the superintendent report uh thank you very much president uh Gro Gro um I just wanted to give the community a a brief update about the wait room at the high school um we look always at the uh health and safety of all of our students and several of the students uh were using the wait room and we wanted to make sure that they were healthy and safe to use the weit room so we are updating our policies and procedures so you will be getting a message from uh Mr develin the principal at James calwell high school by the end of this week or early next week to kind of explain to you what the new process will be in terms of signing a waiver and then getting a medical um form completed so that way we know that you're healthy and it's safe for you to participate in in weight training so we're going to be using the njsa medical fors that we use for all of our students to participate in the sports so all of that will be linked in Genesis so you'd have to do is click on the link download that link click on the the waiver click on the letter form to find that send that in then what will happen is the uh school's physician will review that and approve it and then you'll be allowed to start using the weight room again again so we're just suspending it temporarily to make sure that all the students that we're allowing to use our W room are are healthy and and safe to use that wave room so that concludes my report Dr questions yeah I do will that be going out to eighth graders at the middle school as well I'm sorry it's the eighth graders all the eighth graders at the middle school will have the access to participate we don't want to just limited to anyone who's in sports but any student who's interested in participating and using the weight room at the high school it'll be made available to them so any student could have their parents uh print out that form fill out the form and then go get their uh uh medical uh clearance and they'll be permitted to participate in the wait room any other questions followup questions okay and I just want to thank everyone for their patience as we update this procedure okay so um I'm just going to Breeze very quickly through the agenda um you know what can I thank you half of I'm like missing three pages so that's not good um all right so I just want to briefly Breeze through it and then I'm going to just save all of our comments since we're not voting tonight just for the end this way it's just an open form we don't have to stop and start so you can see we have curriculum and Technology um HIV some new curriculum revisions to the elementary Ela curriculum kindergarten through 5th we have field trips on here um um which is a great thing um Community Based instruction we're going to have a nomination for Legends park at James cwell high school um we have some out of District placements um some Personnel things appointments um updating of uh approval of job descriptions resignations Finance we have certification of funds some transfers um and then we have uh facilities usages as as well I'm just trying to see you'll also see the Essex Regional Educational Services Commission contract is also on here to be approved um and policy we have some updated policy readings with regard to equal employment um guidance counseling therapy dogs and service animals also the use of electronic and recording devices a first reading of that policy as well okay um I know it's a lot to kind of go through but just know you have from now until Monday to also continue to look at the agenda it will be posted online and then if you have any questions um so after that i' just like to say that I'd like to welcome anyone to the microphone for public comment public participation shall be governed by the following the participant must be recognized by the presiding officer and must preface comments by an announcement of their name and address statements are to be limited to 3 minutes duration participant may speak no more than once on the same topic until all others who wish to speak on that topic have been heard all statements shall be directed to the presiding officer boards use the public comment period of the meeting as an opportunity to listen to Citizen concerns but not to debate issues or enter into a question and answer session or a cross-examination between the public and individual members be aware that not all issues brought before the board will be resolved this evening boards May respond to public comment by seeking additional information or by delegating the authority to investigate the issue to the superintendent or his Des designate the presiding officer May interrupt Warn and or terminate a participant's comments if they exceed the allotted time or are objectively obscene participants may be civil liable for any obscene defamatory or slanderous statements made during public comment so with that being said would anyone like to get up this evening and have something to say or any questions that they want to address with the board pleas hi Liz har 149 Ravine um I know the budget hearing is um in the first week of May so I know there's like a 5-day period or whatever that is that for when it's posted so I just want to know when that actually is going to be posted so actually the the budget is going to be um advertised tomorrow night so it should be uh in the progress I believe and uh we'll have it posted we can put it out tomorrow on the website yeah we could we can do that okay perfect and then I have one other question if that's okay go ahead so then under um is this Finance I think it is um there's the change order for the Harrison School renovation project change order number two in the amount of 40,000 something dollars so is there any information as to why that change order is so high we want it okay so our our want me answer you can answer sure so it's a it's a summation of of several different change orders so it's it's a it's a a Consolidated change order so we're the project is about $2.4 million um one of the things that we had to do and and more than half of it is for structural steel on top of the roof to support our new rooftop unit um when they drw up the plans uh they they found a place where they'd like to have that but we have solar panels can't be removed so we had to have an alternative place to put the steel there um to support the new rooftop unit so that's more than half of the of the of the of the um the change order the other parts are things that when you're drawing up the plans it's imperfect so for instance we had things like electrical out outlets um places to put technology that once we actually were in the new offices we had to pay to of these things done so it's those are the most the two largest parts of the change orders okay and does the budget like account for wiggle room or variances in the original estimation for the Harrison renovation yes yes so we you know we we we try to have some contingencies okay for overes okay thanks that was it anyone else and Liz I just want to say too like it was just explained to us Danielle and I just saw that change order in finance and Facilities this week and the way Brian explained and it makes sense is that in Harrison School we're trying to make the rooms viable classrooms right like state-of-the-art classroom so we need to run the wires for fiber optics and all that so like we're doing it now and doing the change order now and spending the money now so that they're equipped so that they're ready to go rather than like oops we need to use them and they're not equipped now we have to take ceilings down you know what I'm saying so we're doing it now we're spending the extra money right now and we have it to do it rather than you know not having it for later do it right first right so you don't have to redo it um anybody else we're good any questions or comments from the board such a quick one so just to let everybody know Monday is a big night so we hope our Washington Wildcat families are going to come join us Mr Ado's got a great presentation and we love Mr Ado so excited to be here um we're also going to have a preview of the gcms musical you're a good man Charlie Brown so we're super excited about that I know they've been practicing and we're excited um we're also going to give a brief update about the referendum so we have another finance and Facilities meeting after the board meeting but we did discuss it a little bit but I hate to talk about I know there'll be a big crowd on Monday so I'd rather update the the everybody at one so that the word can get out there a little bit more um and I think that's it right am I missing anything else for Monday I think that's it we've got a pack test we'll have our gcms students on Monday which we love to hear from them and that's it so Mr D let's get our wild cats out it'll be a lot of fun we're excited to be back okay so with that being said the board does have other things to discuss so um I'd like to make a mo I'd like to have a motion right now 7:13 p.m. to exit public session and enter into executive session I'll make a motion and can I have a second I will second it great uh Brian can you take the role your all in favor I I all against uh no extensions motion carried great thank you so much everybody we'll see you Monday night that's her fault she should have