##VIDEO ID:UFji2wlMMbM## call the meeting to order please stand for the flag salute i al to the flag of the United States of America the it stands na godible andice the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meeting of public bodies at which any business affecting their interests is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the Cedar Grove board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be advertised by having the date time and place thereof posted on bulletin boards in the district published Andor transmitted to the Verona Cedar Grove times and the Star Ledger newspapers tap into online news filed with the Township Clerk and posted on the district website can I have a roll call please here here here here here good evening everybody um at this time I'd like to open the meeting to public comment agenda items only seeing that nobody is here I move to close that portion and move on um we're going to go before we do some board presentations we're going to go into committee reports and for our student represent representative good evening how are you Hi how are you very good thank you okay so I just want to talk briefly about a few things we did the all school council did during the month of October and so the first thing was as a club we decided on a t-shirt design for all the members to wear to future events which was a big fundraiser for us we all participated in it and we did this to give us more money to fund the future activities and also to give us something to kind of bring us together for the future events and also one really big thing that we did with this month was our members attended both the North End and South End Elementary School tricker trunks this past Saturday and so we had members at both the North End and Southend school to help we each did a car we decorated a trunk for each one we had our members walking around volunteering helping with the kids handing out candy this was the first time we've ever done this and it was definitely will be happening next year it was a big hit for that and we're currently holding a Halloween spirit week this week which we have black and gold day class color day wear your Halloween costume day and one thing we found that was very engaging and kind of a way to get everyone to participate is we've had 50 Donuts in the morning and if you come and dress in the spirit wear you get a donut and this was definitely very engaging for everyone and it was a big hit they were very excited about the wait to everybody's F right through their belly so that was just a few things we did during October that um brought the all school council together that we accomplished that's just one tricker CHS looked amazing yeah that was definitely very fun thank you for doing that I'm sure the little kids appreciated that okay great um as always you're welcome to stay or you're free to go I'm with them so I'll be here um okay so we are going to go right into our presentations uh we have two presentations tonight I can see this little tiny agenda uh the first is the high school music overnight trip to Vermont in New York or charity okay thank you so press this it's on I don't press it okay yeah okay so uh we're planning an exchange concert again with not Anthony Union High School Bennington Vermont where my best friend teaches uh we would like to rehearse with a common theme which is Any Dream Will Do and perform an evening concert New Friends uh we are planning for Friday May 16th here an all day rehearsal and then the next day going to uh Broadway work workshop and the performance of The Great Gatsby and performance of uh Joseph the amazing technol dream coat that Friday night and then Sunday May 18th getting on a bus early in the morning to go to Vermont and rehearse all day with them and then perform and the following day uh go on the steamboat lunch Cruise in Lake George the lockdo St sront uh we have done that before with another group of students a few years ago and it's a big hit and this is going to go fast all the package um things that are included maybe I can pause um so the package if the students choose you'll see the options later uh if they choose to do the whole four days we're only going to need one night uh at in Vermont for the hotel accommodations and then the motor coach the lunch Cruise the Broadway ticket the Broadway Workshop breakfast daily lunch on the cruise um we do a lot of pictures and then we send them to this group travel company and they make us the post trip video um we get a tour manager with us and we'll also have our chapons uh depending on how many students uh it's myself and Mr Savino and uh we have other teachers that are willing to go if we have enough students uh all the gratuities and uh the registration and payments that's great is all done on WE travel.com so we don't have to have anybody collecting any money and also the group travel insurance any questions that one has a little bit of a longer slide transition the other ones are going too fast uh we'll see in a few seconds the other options because some students like to just do the New York part or just the Vermont these are the group t-shirts we wear for the costume for the performances the our tour consultant is George Nimo he's a musician the student groups that are eligible to go orchestra band choir students theater students and crew students because it's a musical in concert Joseph an Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat and here are the options they can do all four days they could do just going to Vermont they could do just the concert in Cedar grve and this is for the four days and the participants and so um and I can go back uh where you also have the packet in front of you with the prices and the full itinerary no times yet because we have to get board approval first before we make our first uh deposit of course and I was going to have a few of my students perform tonight uh but one of them is not feeling so well uh with his throat so this is just a a little excerpt of a song from The Great Gatsby a show that we're going to hopefully go see and um they're also doing it for a competition coming up uh January 11th it's um my green light from The Great Gatsby this is Eddie dearin and K lizy and I'll just listen to a little bit of it prettyy song [Music] no come [Music] [Music] [Music] you see [Music] [Music] [Music] retreat [Music] you sa to my [Music] so I just played that because most likely uh students that are going to Major musical theater and be a part of this concert um of Joseph an amazing techn dream coat and any questions okay thank you thank you thank you move on to our our next pres tonight senior c g will be presenting our High School National proposal for this upcoming okay so just a brief overie overview to start with so our goal for tonight is seeking the approval to attend UCA High School Nationals in Orlando Florida for the second year we went last year as our first year and the dates of this trip would be Thursday February 6th to Tuesday February 11th with a total of 17 athletes along with two for approve coaches so if you're asking why UCA High School Nationals why do we attend this Nationals there's just some video here [Music] that [Applause] woo [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] so that's pretty much what it's like it's a great way to show off all of our hard work that we put in throughout the season and get to compete at this big cheer competition okay so for the itinerary for the first day Thursday we would meet at the Newark Airport and fly from Newark to Orlando and then from the Orlando Airport we would go right to Disney's Allstar resorts in Walt Disney World we would check in at the hotel and do all the competition registration then we would have a team lunch together then for some study hours we would get a chance to catch up on all of our homework that we were missing then for the team dinner at night and after that is room check and lights out for Friday the next day we would have a team breakfast and right after that we would get into practice then lunch and team bonding at the Disney World parks we would have a disner dinner at Disney Springs after that and room check and lights out so for Saturday the first day of competing we would have a team breakfast and right from breakfast we would take the shuttle to ESPN worldwide of sports and compete in the preliminary competition After we receive our scores we would go back to the hotel for dinner and have room check and lights out then for Sunday the next day we would again have a breakfast and take the shuttle to the arena we would compete in semi-finals and receive our scores again go back for dinner there's a team celebration that night for all the schools attending High School Nationals at Disney Hollywood Studios and after that we would go back to the hotel and then for Monday again we would have Team breakfast take a shuttle to the arena and compete in the final round of the competition we would receive our scores and rankings and then we would again have team bonding at the Disney parks with a team dinner following and then the next our travel day home we would have breakfast check out of our hotel travel to the Orlando Airport and fly from Orlando back to nework where we would travel home to so as for the cost and fundraising of this trip the total cost of the trip comes out to around $1,500 per athlete and this would be narrowed down with fundraising efforts we've already done a lot of fundraising to help um lower the cost and we also have a lot of fundraisers planned to help again Lower the cost of the trip for each a so just an overall summary the goal is to seek approval to attend UCA High School Nationals in Orlando Florida this would be our second year attending this competition the dates are Thursday February 6th to Tuesday February 11th and everyone coming would be 17 of our athletes and two board bed approved coaches thank you for listening thank you thank you I could just also uh just want to say thank you before everyone starts to leave we just want to appreciate all of our staff for such great presentations and all the students who came out two very exciting exper exciting experiences and it wouldn't be possible without the support of our staff so we really appreciate all you're doing for our students so thank you all for coming out tonight thank you of course of course okay that the fun stuff is over move on um are you going through action plan tonight okay yeah yeah all right I have a few things that I would like to um on my report so I'd like to say good evening to everyone uh just a few updates before we get into um superintendent report and our business tonight um the school board the several of us attended School school boards this past week and um it's really was a great opportunity for us those of us who attended to meet with our colleagues and explore different vendors and bring back some ideas and things to add to our our district so thank you to those who took time off of their work schedules to attend I felt that was really beneficial um so a couple things that I want to address before we move on to our business tonight um on October 4th the Board of Ed held a retreat um at the high school and the agenda focused primarily on discuss discussions regarding an upcoming referendum and the plan to reopen lrp um the board's been discussing and planning this process um for a while it's definitely been going on for a while and we believe that now we finally have the right people in the right positions to move forward and we're excited to say that we are at that position to move forward um The Retreat involved a lot of contract discussions and legal briefings that required both confidential and open meeting discussions um we are excited to announce that we are very close to sharing with the community a plan that we think will adequately address our district needs while taking into account the need for School responsibility we look forward to continuing working together to improve our district and I just want to thank the board members who took uh time off of their own personal work schedules to attend this meeting so thank you uh very much it was uh very productive um the second thing I want to bring to attention is tonight you're going to hear a resolution regard regarding a settlement agreement uh we believe it's important to put some context around this resolution um normally only the board does not speak about litigation matters but given um the situation we thought it was necessary to just kind of communicate some aspects of it um this board inherited this litigation 12 years ago it's a 12-year-old litigation that we inherited and this particular litigation should have and could have been resolved many years earlier at no cost to the district the decision to settle now was in our opinion the best path for path forward as we had to weigh the cost of set the settlement with continued legal fees and the potential cost of an outcome if this was to go to trial and ultimately we uh we potentially could have lost which was more likely the result that was going to happen we considered the advice of council and throughout throughout the whole process and explored all possible uh strategies we have mitigated as much as of the loss as possible and as a result the district's insurance coverage and as in addition to the district's insurance coverage we have reduced our total out-of-pocket expense we anticipate that this settlement will not be taking away from any money that is budgeted to program or other key aspects that are necessary to operate our school district this year may I add one thing yes please do uh when uh the President says this could have been settled a long time ago at no course to the district uh that's because uh give or take 10 years ago uh the insurance company the board Bo's insurance company had a proposed settlement uh which the then board rejected even though it would have CED nothing the board rejected it uh the language of the insurance policy was such that that rejection triggered a provision in the policy which made the board responsible for half of the ongoing legal fees for the last 10 years not Board General Counsel legal fees neither mine nor my predecessor but rather having to pay half the insurance company's lawyers legal fees and half of the settlement all of that could have been avoided but unfortunately wasn't thank you for clarifying that okay so at this point we're going to move into moving some resolutions can I have a motion for G1 through G7 oh superintendent nothing I'm sorry say he's standing over there waiting so close I know the Yankee game's on tonight sorry yes yes please do I apologize okay perfect can you tell if the sound's coming through Angel yes perfect okay uh thank you and good evening Cedar Grove School District I apologize to have my back to the board I want to address the community okay thank you very much before I begin my presentation this evening I did want to offer my sincere gratitude and appreciation to all the teachers who took time out of their busy schedules these past couple of weeks to meet with me over the last two three weeks I spent a full day in each of our schools today was my last day here in the middle school and it was just a very inspiring experience to get to hear and learn so much about your personal professional stor so thank you all for taking the time to visit with me and I look forward to working with all of you through this school year and Beyond uh at last month's board meeting I presented District goals which were adopted and at that point I made a commitment to the community to come forward at this board meeting with a draft action plan I do want to stress the term draft this is meant to allow us another month to still gather feedback from various stakeholders in the community uh as of tomorrow morning this draft action plan will be on our webs it and I'll look forward to hearing feedback from people throughout the month of November with the goal of having this action plan strategic plan adopted at our November board meeting let me run through the presentation here and again this will be on our website tomorrow District goal number one has the theme of student growth and achievement there are several things we talk about in here related to intervention systems um new math curricula all those things are underway as we speak and are being fully imple implemented in class classrooms kindergarten through algebra across our district we also have invested and will'll continue to invest in a job embedded professional development I got a lot of great feedback from our teachers these past couple weeks about that professional development and I think it's off to a very very strong start a couple things to highlight in the action plan that weren't part of the goals but explicitly calling out on the metric side the intent of these new curricular resources is improved student outcomes student achievement improved njsla scores specific to math is an area we think there's a great opportunity for our district and we think this these are some of the key drivers to getting us there scrolling down to page two uh we highlight and I heard a lot of feedback about this especially on our elementary schools the need for new Ela resources uh and we're going look we're looking to launch a committee in the next month to investigate what we may be able to do come next September so I did hear that feedback and I think that feedback aligns to that driver here about getting new resources we got a lot of questions about AI I know it's on a lot of people's minds so we are committed to developing developing some policies to support our teachers with how we use AI effectively and appropriately in our classrooms and when um and then lastly uh making a very public commitment to a new pathway at our high school a science and Healthcare pathway that you're going to hear more about uh from our high school administration in the next month to six weeks so previewing that with the community this evening goal two again the theme is communication public relations well the one driver I want to highlight here is at the very top we are committed to launching a new website before the end of this school year um while our current website is beautiful and has a great look to it there's some functionality that we think we can improve On by Building it from a mobile app uh which we think will provide our parents and families with a lot more information that's a lot more accessible in an easier format um we also have ideas of launching a SE your Grove alumni engagement strategy and a spotlight strategy um and I do want to highlight uh because we also have started to hear feedback from some of our families about the new math curricular resources being challenging which is was our intent we want to support you with that and we plan to host some Community forums throughout the winter into the spring to talk more about the math program and why certain things are in the place and why they're designed a certain way so that you can better support your child in your home and then lastly goal three the focus Here theme ities finance and security the big I the big one I want to highlight here is driver number two um and uh Madame President alluded to in her remarks the idea that we are making progress towards preparing for a referendum um the essentially what we're trying to Sol for with a referendum is the congestion at our end schools by reopening lrp um and I'll be talking to the community much more about that over the next several months to a year as we prepare for the details and being very transpar parent with the community about what the details of the referendum are when we get our approvals from the state we will also come back to the community and be very transparent about tax impact um why the referendum is being structured the way it is um and what are all of the potential advantages to the community so please be on the lookout for that uh you'll be hearing a lot more from me in the coming months about the referendum initiative and I think those are the main pieces I wanted to highlight this evening in the presentation again this is a draft form for the month of November I welcome feedback from anyone in the community feel free to send an email make a phone call I'm happy to also schedule a meeting so with that I'm going to end my report for this evening and turn it back to you all right thank you okay come back it disappears in the abyss nothing you're good and again I apologize for that's okay so now moving on to uh the business administrator's report can I please have a motion for G1 through g17 so move second any discussions roll call please yes yes yes yes yes under the superintendent's report General Administration can I have a motion for H1 through H7 so move second any discussion just one item for me typically at this point in the agenda I just would add uh if we have any open Hib investigations then we have currently have one open Hib investigation okay thank you roll call please David Grande yes Mar yes yes yes abstain from h3f H3 yes under Human Resources a motion for i1 to i12 please Soo second second any discussion there roll call please yes yes yes present but not voting on baseball assistant coach which is 12 I2 could find the letter thank you yes yes under special services a motion for J1 and J2 please so move second second any discussion roll call please yes yes yes yes yes this time I open the meeting to public comment on any school related any any school related yep come up St your name your address J Janine Patel 87 Stevens Avenue um I noticed that you were approving um coaches for the spring so I was wondering if there can be an assisant coach for the golf team because the first year we had one or I don't know whether they were paid or not but when we have the golf when the when they have the golf Tings only six kids are allowed to go compete each time we have a tournament and the rest of the kids don't get to compete if they're not good enough they take the top six every single time so at least if we had an assisant coach that could stay back and continue to teach our players then they would get better during the season and we'd have you know what I'm saying we'd have better players for the next season because they're kind of on their own the the beginners they go to the range themselves they they just kind of are just on their own it's not like there's like a practice every day after school or something where they could be practicing so I was just wondering if that's something that could be added okay appreciate the comment thank you may I respond sure so uh thank you very much for coming out tonight and posing that question uh I will enthusiastically explore that um might be something I want to put in for but I'm not sure the players would get better if I'm a coach so um I would be happy sport sure it's a short season valid point than I'll investigate it sure thank you okay at this uh point I'll close that portion of this uh meeting announcement of future meetings our next meeting will be on November 26th uh it will be at the high school auditorium 7:30 uh regular meeting time and then the following meeting would be December 17th at Northend media uh Center motion to adjourn all in favor meeting adjourned thank you