##VIDEO ID:e6BuCLlMFBs## Hi, good evening. This meeting of the Board of Education is now called to order. Will everybody please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. Into the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Mrs. Sugars, will you please call the roll? Dr. Braddock. Present here. Mrs. Surefain. Here. Dr. Dreisen. Here. Mrs. Gallagher? Here. Mr. Greenbaum. Mr. Mayor, Ms. Palmer? Here. Ms. Stern? Here. Mrs. Winters. Here. Thank you very much. So looking at our agenda tonight, we have no board recognition, sadly, because that's one of my favorite things. But we do have a presentation. We're going to start with our communication plan update. All right. I'm very excited this evening to introduce our new public information officer Miss Nina Barati, who will deliver our communications plan updates. Hi, everybody. Thank you, Dr. Morton. Okay. All right. Good evening, everybody. So, um. You all know we had the communications audit that was done quite a few months ago. And in that audit, it was a in-depth analysis of all communications throughout the school district. Different people were being poll different stakeholder groups. Sigs recommendations were suggested and then under those six recommendations, each of them had suggested action steps. So we are using, or me rather, again, I've been in this role for eight weeks now. So part of me coming in is now I'm using these recommendations and some of these suggestions action steps to help improve communications all throughout the district. Some of them have already been rolled out. Some of them were from my predecessor. Some of them just happened, as you'll see in my presentation. And again, there's more to come and we are always looking to improve communication. So it is always an ongoing process. So again, I've been in this role for eight weeks now. And since that time, I've been meeting one-on-one with our school principals just to get some feedback and talk to them about what's working for them, what's going on in their schools. Some of the feedback they've been getting from families regarding communications, especially with some of the action steps that have already been taken and also to establish one-on-one with me and open the door to communications with me when needed. So thanks to those meetings, one of the things that we have been doing is similar to what Barbara Wilson did was have different letters to the community ready. I'm building a bank of those. So in the event of an emergency, we can get the correct information out fast, whether that's reminding parents what happens during a lockdown. If there's some sort of health emergency in the building or for if students need access to something like Kerasolis, we have the information ready to go so it can get sent out to parents and families as quick as we can. Accurately and correctly. Principals and other staff also now know as I've been going around to the different schools. Getting my face out there. They know how to get in contact with me to help keep me informed with some events that are going on inside our schools. We have so many great positive things happening and it's easier sometimes for them to give me a heads up. And so far it's been working and the communication has been Pretty well. I have a couple more visits to go, but we're doing good so far. So another big thing with communication is the inclement weather. We had a little practice of it last week. That was fun. So with the help of Ms. Roskopf, we're working together to implement how the district rolls out about communication with the inclement weather. She handles the phone recording, the text message that goes out while I handle entering Cherry Hill's information. Some of the local news outlets as well as updating and monitoring the district social media accounts to make sure that we can, again, splitting up this information helps us get everything out faster. Another thing that has been rolled out has been superintendent spotlight. If you check out the Sharehold Public Schools Facebook and Instagram pages on Fridays. It's a weekly video that we do. We highlight some of the great work and some of the great people around the district. We go around surprising them with a small gift, some of our staff members and everything. The videos are published on Fridays over the district's Facebook and Instagram pages. And they've actually been received pretty well over social media. If you want to look at the screen, here's a couple of examples. I actually pulled these numbers over winter break. So they've gotten a little bit bigger. But these are two examples. These are two examples from recent superintendent spotlights. So the interactions are how many, like when you see on the bottom left, the interactions are how many likes or those little emojis that people put on these videos, how many of the posts get. Reach is how many followers or Facebook profiles these videos may have appeared on their profile as people are scrolling. And impressions are how many times a video has popped up on somebody's feed. So these positive, you know. Staff shout outs have been getting around on social media. People are able to see them. And I'm showing you this because as I've noted, you know, these positive videos are really celebrated within our community, separate from what's going on on the website. As the new website has rolled out. So we like to kind of share some of that positive news. So when people are scrolling on social media. They get to see some of this cool stuff. Here are two other examples for some social media posts just to show you the reach and the interactions that we've gotten. The top post is when CBS3 did a segment. We talked about it a couple Board meetings ago, they came and did a segment to showcase the miracle on 34th Street show. The other one is when we had some band and choir members from Beck Middle School that came here to this building and they performed. And again, those are things that parents love to see. Kind of different from what they might get from their newsletters from their principals, something different from the website. So they're not feeling bombarded. They're seeing kind of different types of content as we use different platforms. So some things that have already been implemented and a big one was the website. So the website has been redeveloped and launched. We're still working through that. Marcus and Mark have to give them a shout out because they're still doing a lot of the work behind the scenes. It was a big job. It's still ongoing. We're still fixing things. As we're exploring the links and everything. So that was a huge area of the communication audit that had to be implemented. As now that it's been revamped, the calendar has also been updated. It's a little bit easier to locate on the page. Staff around the district have been training for their individual school pages and that's still ongoing as well. Another big initiative that kind of stemmed from the communication audit was the newsletters. Dr. Morin sends his out on Sundays, as do most of the principals. Every school has their own. And from my one-on-one meetings with the principals. The feedback's been great. It sounds like families are really enjoying hearing some of the updates from the individual schools. Getting a lot of getting a lot of it's turning into a resource for parents also to log on to find certain specific information about their school as that's been ongoing. So some of also what is seen on those district social media pages, they're also in the newsletters. But sometimes if you're, you know, you may have had, you may be an alumni to a certain school or you might not see certain posts on one newsletter because you're in a different school. For example, we had a very successful toy drive out of night. We put something out on social media about it. It was in the night newsletter. Other schools didn't see it. But that way the whole district gets to kind of see, again, another positive what's going on in the school district to see more about him. There are also ongoing listening opportunities that Ms. Roskop and Dr. Morton have already been part of with more on the way. It's opening the door for more communication with the community to have a direct conversation about different topics. Now, Barbara Wilson, she did a great job with her job. Big shoes to fill over here, but with a social media account, she definitely paved a path of success for us. So I've tried to continue to keep the post fresh and accurate. And now that the new website has been rolled out, we have a place for the really important information parents can easily find, as well as those positive other stories on social media so people aren't bombarded. They get to kind of pick and choose what content they're seeing. So then some of also what is continuously being worked on. Now, my next project that I'm looking at is kind of updating the communication around the construction referendum projects. To now shift the focus to what's being done, what's being updated. So now that a lot of the work has been going on and implemented, there is still a lot to be done. But updating this page, as you may be familiar with the Cherry Hole Tomorrow page. Can help the community see step-by-step visuals about where certain projects are. Similar to the updates that the board receives from Ms. Sugars, there's the, you know, before and after Photos, for example, the locker rooms you saw at cruci we eventually would like to do some video walkthroughs of some of the schools as the construction continues on. And then it can all live on the same page on the website to give an update on the progression of those different Construction projects. And you know. Enhancing staff communications is always something that is going to be worked on as I'm here longer and starting to, you know. Get the feel for things. We're going to continue to try and focus on that as well. So more things that are continuously being worked on is identifying and building community and digital ambassadors. These are staff members, PTA, local community members, people who really have a knowledge of what's happening around the district and they know where to access information for questions and also help address misinformation that may be in the community or maybe on social media. As we have some of these listening tours and just, you know, getting some of these conversations out there, we're able to identify who can be almost not a spokesperson, but help us get the correct information out there for certain things. Also being worked on is just continue to work to highlight employee and student successes. We're also in the process of developing a media catalog for district use. There's a lot of roles as parents, you know, you have to sign the media consent form. There are certain photos we can and can't post on our district social media. So on my end, developing kind of a media catalog so that way. People have an easy access to inside of a building, outside of a building. If a principal needs a further newsletter, if we need something for the website, safe pictures that we are able to you know, we're protecting people's identities and we're able to still use them Another thing that is always being worked on is establishing relationships with local media and reporters. If you take a look on the screen here. Here's a couple of news articles that have been coming out in the past couple of weeks. The substitute teacher, the success with the ESS and parents That's kind of made the rounds last week. A lot of people were really excited about that. Those posts also did very well on social media. And now with the cell phone policy that Cherry Hill has already rolled out. That's kind of revving up again now. And if you look on the right hand side, some of our athletics have also been getting pretty popular on social media, which is cool to see. So as for what's still ahead. Another ongoing project for me is to create a communication professional development program for staff, reminding people what we can and can't post on social media, on the website, opening the line of communication, knowing Who to ask for what. District branding, just discussions on how we can improve and continue to use it so we can develop a continued district guide with standardized logos, colors, fonts. Now that we have the new website, we want to keep it looking. Nice and accurate, especially as all the schools get used to theirs as well. Share and train everybody who utilizes these district branding. For developing the guide on privacy rules and laws, I'm hoping to come up with some sort of document Just so everybody knows things that the school district can and can't share legally and helps explain the balance of transparency, our limitations as a district, keeping students and staff privacy safe and kind of, you know, further explain a little bit of media consent. All, again, ongoing work to enhance district communications is always going to be ahead. Also enhancing engagement with non-English speaking families. Updating the YouTube and Twitter or X pages. Collecting feedback on the new website to make improvements and or provide additional training for anybody who needs it. And for myself as PIO of the district professional development with some of the organizations so I can talk to other people in the state and across the country to bring great ideas here to Cherry Hill as well. So if anybody has any questions, I'd be happy to answer some. Yeah, board member questions? Mr. Fain. I have a few. The letters that you are speaking about that you're collecting the bank of letters, is the idea behind those letters to be standard letters that all schools will use under circumstances and then obviously tweak The language as needed. Yeah, so every principal, you know, they address things differently with every school. It's mainly to have to make sure we have all the, I have on my end really all the information correct. So if you need CareSolas for a student. I have the correct link on the website. That's already done. It's preventing me from having to go find everything kind of I don't say panic, but able to get the information out quicker, able to have, you know. A lot of the procedures that sometimes gets explained in those letters for parents and students when things happen in or outside of a school, just so we have kind of the information ready to go in the event that we do need to pull it. So that way, as quick as if we can get information out there quicker and everything that's 100% right and accurate, that's my goal. Perfect. I was also curious how the staff are chosen for your highlight for Dr. Morton's weekly videos and stuff. So we actually started that in the interim between Barb Wilson and before Ms. Barati came on. I created a form and I sent it out to all the staff and all the schools and asked staff for their recommendations. I got over 130 recommendations. At that point, we wanted to make sure that before we started duplicating staff at schools that we had covered all the schools by the end of February, 1st of March, we should have covered all of the schools. I did ask Mr. Redfern to Take a look just to make sure he may be aware of things that I would not be aware of. And so I ask him to flag anything that he thought could be a problem. And then once we identify a staff member from the school, I reach out to the principal. And just ask the principal, this is what we would like to do. I have had no principal tell me, no, don't do it. So the recommendations don't come from us. They're coming from colleagues of other the teachers in the building and the ed assistants. And, you know, we've recognized ed assistants secretaries Teachers. There's a principle that's going to be recognized. So we try to be as you know all-encompassing as we can. That's awesome. Do you think that there'd be any opportunity for parents and students to nominate staff members? That's something we could certainly talk about, sure. Yeah, I did have one more question. I was wondering if there's any mechanism in the website itself for people to report any potential issues, whether a broken link Or something like that? Or would you have to email the district. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Any other board member questions? Ms. Stern. Um so First of all, I just want to congratulate and thank you for the website update. Long overdue. To the technology department. And I think, you know, it's nice to see things coming along. You know, I think I went through it the other day when we got the presentation But I'll you know i'll go through it again and probably just as trying to look at it at a lens in terms of the as a you know a board member who kind of Like seeing what we know we hear in terms of priorities As well as thinking about being a parent in the district, you know. Probably send a little, you know, just a few thoughts about tweaks and stuff, but it's really nice to see So I don't think you mentioned, but timeline for then now the updating of the individual schools websites which definitely are ready for that as well. So that's ongoing. We've had a couple of trainings with staff As well, kind of leading up to the rollout of the website, there will be more each. While we do have access to some of the individual schools, as you can imagine, every single you know the three of us doing every single page Is a lot. So we're having some, a lot of the staff at the school level, they are still going through training and everything. Like even today, I was at a meeting and I got alerted to three problems that we didn't know existed because as now the staff's getting used to their websites, we're starting to find these and also help train, you know, give resources to the staff. There is resources built into kind of the back end of things so staff can have access to it, but also showing, you know, it's ongoing training, you know, it's gonna Hopefully we can have a completely 100% soon. As we continue to talk to SAF about it and also identify problems that they may not feel comfortable after training, that sort of thing too. So we are working with staff continuously though for the individual school pages. And just along those lines, is it just you know thinking about the ease of it is it like a plug and play type like a template type or I mean, I'm just thinking about like you know, in my office, how we deal with a website and you know having If that's not, I mean, these are educators, right? I mean, they're experts in technology Naturally, but I guess just trying to think about hopefully Not too much. You're talking about the training stuff like you know Right. It's a level of, you know, you want it to be kind of as easy as possible. Right. And so they're not, you know, like the actual, the district, like the homepage when you click on, that's something that we do. That's not something that the individual schools really have to worry about, you know, the calendar, we can kind of connect stuff. So, so far, I think, again, it's only been rolled out for a couple of weeks. So we're still collecting the feedback. You might have asked me again in a couple of weeks, but I never, I wasn't trained on the former website. I kind of came in right at the, when we stopped updating it, that might mark or marcus might have more insight on that with the ease of it. I've used websites similar to this in the past for me, so I can't speak just to every staff though. I don't know if they needed to add anything. So just to answer that, it is template-based and we continue to work with the schools to have their content updated so they have preset forms and pages and then Every school in our district is unique and has unique needs and pages. So within that framework, they get to add Their content and we work with them and with Ms. Barati to continue to update pictures and make sure that the image of the school is consistent. On the website and within the website framework that we create. Thank you. Other board member questions. All right, seeing no questions. Thank you so much, Ms. Barati. We appreciate the update. Next on our agenda, we are moving on to administrative reports. So we have a report tonight from Ms. Sugars on bond projects. We're going to do a project update tonight. This is… We're going to do this on the first meeting of the month. We have our monthly project update meetings on the first Monday of every month. And so following that, we will be updating the board and the public on where we stand with the projects. So our biggest project going on right now is the all-purpose room additions. We started this project some time ago. For the most part, we are moving indoors into the buildings and starting some of the work. These projects, these APR projects are in order of of their completeness. So right now we're taking a look at Sharp. Sharp is the least complete. Apr that we have. We started that. That was the last one that we started. You can see here that we are working towards getting the roof on that building. And then finishing up the brick and the waterproofing there. Next up, we have Barton. And so Barton's a little further along. They have their roof. We're working on… completing the wall panels, completing the roof. Putting the call wall windows in. We will continue wiring. We'll paint the inside and we'll start installing the bathroom tile at that one. Next, we have man. We're still working on the outside there with some of the underground storm drainage and fencing that has been done. We're going to continue the wiring there and we'll start moving into the interior and working on the painting of the walls there. Next up, we have Johnson. Our yellow brick building. We are coming along there. You can see up in the corner there what the bathroom tile looks like. So we're in the process of installing that and doing some painting there. We'll continue with wiring, ceiling grids, and putting in bathroom accessories there. Next, we have Knight Elementary School. You can see there that we're moving right along there. We're going to continue wiring, drop ceilings, put the HVAC equipment in the gym equipment in bathroom accessories and interior doors. And then finally, we have Kingston. Kingston is our building that is furthest along. You can see just by looking at it. Where we stand with that. We have turned the playground area over to the school. Just in time for the bitter cold weather. They don't care. You're right. We are continuing with putting bathroom tiles finishing up electric, drop ceilings, HVAC, bathroom accessories, interior doors, and then This is the first billing that we are starting with the theatrical equipment that's being installed, stage lighting. Curtains, all that good stuff so So we are moving right along with those projects. Next up, Carusi. So you will recall that this is a four phase process. We are in the process of completing phase one. We are in the punch list phase there. Finishing up a few items. On Monday when the district is closed and on the 29th where we have an in-service day. Will be days where we are there trying to finish up some of those punch list items. And then now we're preparing for phase two, which will start in June. Part of that will be the installation of the temporary classroom units we have arranged purchasing or renting those and then arranging for installation of those. And we are also working on the schedule there because We will be doing abatement over the summer when nobody's in the building and then rebuilding that area Through the course of the school year, hence why we need the TCUs. So we're working on that right now, talking about what that looks like, what the summer schedule looks like. Summer will be here before we know it. So these are some of the completed areas in phase one. This is the main office area. We have our new transaction window here, which is right as you come in the front door. So we're very excited. They were very excited to be moved back into their main office out of the media center. And we did that over winter break. And then the locker rooms are finished and have been turned over. You can see the boys and girls locker rooms and bathrooms. Also, both locker rooms have some substantial storage areas for both phys ed equipment and athletics. So we were happy to turn those areas over as well. Moving along to our preschool editions, these are not bond projects. These are being done through Rod grants that we were given from the state and capital reserve dollars. The addition of the eight classrooms are similar or pretty much the same between Malburg and Kilmer. But also at Malburg, there is adding toilet rooms into the Malberg facilities. There. So we have 13 classrooms that are getting toilet rooms there. So there's not a whole lot to see. There's a lot of work going on, but nothing substantial that you would see in pictures at this point, but a lot of behind the scenes kind of stuff, conduits being installed, plumbing being installed. Footings, foundations, those kinds of things. This is here at Maorg. And then also at Kilmer. So we hope to see things coming out of the ground soon. And have some more interesting pictures to look at soon. So upcoming projects, as you know, we awarded the bid for the Rosa Middle School. We talked about that at the December 17th meeting due to the overage between the what the contract came in at, the bid came in at, and what money has been set aside. We talked about how we're going to address that moving forward. We held our initial construction meeting on the 8th. Just talking about permits and timing and logistics. The Lewis vestible renovations are in progress, as you can see tonight if you're here in person. You had to use the side door tonight. We expect that to be done by the end of the week. And at Carusi, as I mentioned, we are in the process of installing our temporary classroom units. That installation will begin in April and they will be up and ready to go when students return in September. Right now in design, we have Beck Middle School. That will include the front entrance area there. West Stadium, which will be lighting and ADA accessibility. That work will start after the fireworks on Independence Day. And then next on the list, some of the things we're taking a look at is the Cooper Front parking lot. We've already done the side parking lot. We're looking at the front lot and the playground. And at Beck, the West parking lot, we've already done the front parking lot there, but we're looking at the west parking lot. And then starting to prepare for auditorium work at both of the high schools. And F wing at East over the next two years. So we are moving right along. Trying to take advantage of indoor work and planning for the summer right now. And… getting these projects completed. This is the financial information that we provide to the board each month. We typically provide this at the end, the second meeting of the month. You can see there. As I mentioned, right now we're running at a deficit, the $1.5 million we talked about. At the December meeting, how we will address that. At this point, we have encumbered just about 34% of the funds So we're moving right along with our projects. Are there any questions? This is your pain. I don't know if you would necessarily have the answer to this and I don't know if this is even within your jurisdiction. However, I remember us talking about the APRs and that we were planning on having a big unveiling once they were all complete. And maybe it's not so much of a question as it is a thought to keep in everyone's minds that if some of the ones of the students that are going to Karusi are completed ahead of time or on time, maybe a consideration could be put in To allow them to enjoy a big new beautiful space, especially since some of their playgrounds were not available in the creation of this. And considering they're moving into Karusi, the rising sixth graders, where they will have three years of construction. So I'm just putting it out there that maybe we can consider that when and if these APRs are done. Mr. Fan, which school could you possibly be talking about? I'm just throwing it out there. Maybe Kingston would be one of those. Maybe. So just planting the seed. To consider down the line if it looks like it's very well ahead, if not on schedule, but looks great. Our plan right now is to sort of have that grand opening for all of the schools in September. But we'll see what we can do. Just throwing it out there. Thank you. Manifesting your reality. I like it. Any other board members have questions for Mrs. Sugars? Ms. Stern. The specific question, because I really don't remember. Can I keep track of them all? Is the vestibule in Karusi going to be changing to then have the the transaction window within the vestibule. I just don't recall. Okay, thank you i when we were there the other night, I was like, I don't understand. But then I looked and realized that the work hadn't been done in that area yet. So, okay, that makes sense. Thank you. Mrs. Gallagher. I feel like we've talked about this before, so excuse me, but for the TCUs at Karusi, how much lead time will the teachers have if they if they're going to be affected by if like, well, if their classrooms are affected They will have a lot of lead time. We're going to meet with them in February. And start talking about what that looks like. They will be on site in April. They will be completely refurbished. New siding, new everything, new carpet. And so if we have them here in April and we start the setup at that point before they leave in June, they should know what's going on, where they're going. And what that's going to look like. Great. Thank you. Any other board member questions? Well, I am thrilled. Thank you so much for the update. And just so board members know, I I feel like administrative reports is an underutilized part of our agenda that we hadn't really used to bring information to the full board. And to the public. So we're going to try to use one of my New Year's resolutions, I suppose, is to use administrative reports more. So you will be receiving an update like this from Mr. Sugars once a month on the first meeting of the month. So that we can all have some pictures and know what's going on with the progress of the bomb projects, which was the desire of the board from last year. So I hope that's helpful to all of you moving forward. Okay, now we move on to correspondence. So correspondence is the segment of the meeting where board members who have attended events in the district on behalf of the board or have attended workshops or trainings as a board member can report out to the other members of the board to share what they've learned. And seen. So board members, if you have attended anything I guess since December now. Let me know and we can all share out to see what's going on around the district. The stern. So on January 9th. Which was Jenna Taylor's birthday, 18th birthday happy birthday I attended the course of study night along with Mrs. Trefane at Karusi. And it was actually It was exciting because I think it was really the first big event where family members and could come to the new gym. And so there were a lot of um a lot of staff and administrators there to help the process. Dr. Burns really led the effort. Addressing the families and the students on the high school course of study. For these students, really for the rising ninth graders So it was great. It was Dr. Morton was also there and just lots of members of the team is a staff and So many members from the administrative team. What was also really great was, I thought, was most of the vice principals were there from both East and West and also the case manager, not the case, the guidance counselors. As well as special education supervisor and staff. So there was a really nice representation of people available to You know, provide information Denna, as well as one of the other students from west also spoke about their experience and about why they love West. And it was very enthusiastic, which is great. So it was really um you know. You know a very interesting and engaging night uh for you know I think for families who were you know getting their eighth graders finishing middle school and moving on to high school so I think that was the only thing that I attended. Thank you. Any other board members attend? Ms. Palmer. And I don't want to take anybody else's thunder, but I had the pleasure of attending two different events in the last week. Last week, Mrs. Winters, Dr. Dreisen and I went to a preschool information session. At West, which I thought was Really well done. So kudos to Dr. Mahan and her team, Ms. Katsikas for providing the information for their presentation. But what I think was most heartening to me was just the showing. It was really a packed house of perspective future preschool parents. So I think just knowing the demand that exists for the program in the district is great to see. A lot of strong, thoughtful, good questions good answers, just a lot of really great back and forth between The parents and school staff. So really, really well done. And then last night, Mrs. Gallagher and I went to the course of study night at Beck. So same thing, great resources available to the eighth grade parents and eighth grade students You know, some, it was their first eighth grader, rising eighth grader. Some it was the last kid that they're sending to high school. So they kind of knew. But I appreciated, you know, Mr. Finkel and the information that he shared. About both East and West. It was great to see. Again, a good turnout. Mrs. Gallagher, Dr. Dryes, and Ms. Winters, if you have anything to add. But it was nice to see and kind of get my foot in the door at some of the schools that I hadn't seen before. Excellent. Thank you. Other members. Ms. Gallagher. Yes. Last Thursday, I attended the sustainability committee where we are reviewing strategic plan. I won't go into much detail. Hopefully, Dr. Morales will be able to get that on the calendar for the board to see shortly. As I said, like nothing like a deadline. So let's, you know, I said, we got a lot coming up. So let's get it going. And then there's I think it was last Thursday as well. I attended the NJSBA Atlantic County meeting, which was a really, really good meeting. They discussed Lord, bless you. Board and district goal setting and CSA evaluations. So, um. If you guys have… you should like you should always get like a weekly email from NJSBA, which discusses like legislation legislative updates And other information, but then each county has a list of meetings and um You don't have to go to Camden County. You can go to any county's meetings And they have varied topics. So if you're If you're looking for some training or just some interesting conversations. I highly recommend them. Thanks. Thank you, Ms. Gallagher, and thank you for hitting the ground running as the NJSBA rep. We appreciate it. I signed up for a couple more today. That's amazing. I love it. And just we clarified, Ms. Gallagher and I with NJSBA, as she said any board member can attend. So it's not just that because Ms. Gallagher is the rep from this board. That she's the only one who can go. I encourage all board members to attend any class or training that they find interesting and bring that information back to us. Anybody else? So I attended the LMC meeting this week and it was the steering committee. And one of the neatest things about that was that I'm beginning to watch as the LNC members are really empowered to solve problems among themselves in the groups and bring that forward. So it was neat to see the team. We had a meeting of the whole group in the beginning and the second hour, they broke out into high school, middle school, elementary school and worked on solutions to problems that they had identified in a previous meeting. And then bringing that forward. So that was just a really neat process to see the evolution of LMC as it's going forward. Continues to be just a really great place for collaboration within the district among all different people, ed assistants, teachers, administrators and board all coming together to work on things that are emergent. And find solutions. So that was really productive. Any other board members have correspondence? All right, we've all corresponded. That's wonderful. I'm going to move on now to first public comment. So there will be two opportunities for public comment this evening. The first public comment section is for board action items only. Those are items 17 through 20 this evening. There will be another public comment section for any topic at the end of the meeting. If you are a student in the district. You may comment on any agenda item during this first public comment period. Please identify yourself as a student. If you would like to speak, please identify the agenda item and clearly state your name and municipality. We alternate between speakers here in the room and those that are online. Each speaker will be given a maximum of three minutes to speak. The timer on the screen will indicate the amount of time you have remaining. Public comment is an opportunity for members of the community to comment on matters relevant to the operations of the Cherry Hill Public School District or within the authority of the Cherry Hill Board of Education. The board welcomes diverse opinions on relevant matters. Under established federal law governing reasonable restrictions on speech in public forums. Statements which demean individual community members or groups, or which are irrelevant to the operations of the school district or repetitious will not be permitted. Community members who would like to present information not relevant to the school district are always welcome to communicate directly to the district superintendent, board president, and all board members via email or other alternative means. Okay, so for first public comment by custom, we start in the room. So is there anybody in the room who would like to comment during first public comment? Please state your name and your municipality. Thank you. And I know in Cherry Hill, 20.2. The approval of changes to committees. My biggest concern with this is, is there going to be any access to the four special committees by the public? This is like the third reiteration of an elementary district committee I've seen in the last year. When it comes to the community engagement and communications committee, while I appreciate your report, Ms. Feretti. I didn't really hear anything about the people who don't have people in the school system. And though sometimes I know that my comments are not welcome. I'm still a vital part of the community and I don't know how you're going to get that information to someone like myself. So something to keep in mind as you move forward. Yeah, and you have special ed and preschool committees And the elementary, and those are the most three vital committees that the public's been speaking to you about for many months. And I would hope you would have some public community members as part of that, whether you think it drags you down or not, you need a different perspective than just administrators or board members because most of you really are not in the throes of some of these situations. I was very distressed when I had to Oprah the strategic planning committee to find out who was on that committee. And if those are my key communicators. I don't know how those people are going to be in touch with me. I don't know how those people represent the schools that will be most affected. By redistricting. I would like to stay and be your champion. Okay. But don't rule us out. We're a vital part of this community. We helped you pass the bomb with our yes votes, okay? A lot of us have grandchildren here and friends with children in the system. We know that some things are not right. And I'm fine with that because it's a very big school system. But don't let people like myself out of the loop, it's just not fair. And I hope that as you move forward as the board president. That you bring back the integrity about a full board will work. I'm counting on you to do that. Thank you. Thank you very much for your comments. We are going to go to the line. Give me one second to get myself set up as I am learning. And growing as we all do. I apologize. Dr. Morton is here to save me. Our first commenter, the phone number that ends with 788. It is your turn. Please state your name and municipality. I'm sorry, my name is Jeff Potowitz and I live in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. First, 18.4 resolution to accept order report 18.4. It's an order report. It's really, really good. And if anyone is listening to me, please go to AT.4, download it. The report will be interesting. And could be referred to later. I just looked at the capital projects, which was about $261 million, $261.7 million. We sold… $300 worth, $300 million worth of bonds. So that means what's about $39 million or something we've spent already out of the 300 million. We have another $63 million to… To… to bond. How did that work? I believe that there's probably no districts in the state that have 261 million plus in the bank. Did it work? In other words, are we collecting more interest than bond payments on that money? That's a question, but that's a lot of money in the bank. And like I said, no one else probably has that. 20.2 is mentioned already. We have the elementary… redistricting committee community engagement committee, preschool expansion committee and special education committee, who's making up for that committee? Will I be open to the public? Will people be able to ask questions? A lot of things about that. And please tell us Just tell us about that. What's going on? Is it an open committee? Will we be done in a day where people can go to it in the evening? What's going on? Are they closed committees? Who are the members Kind of tell us before you vote on it, just do me a favor, do everyone a favor. Just do that. You're also going to the League of Innovative Schools. We have three people going this year. It's in Pittsburgh. Three members and again, questions about that. What are the questions? I kind of read on that website that what it said was it's really dependent on the superintendent. And in fact, when your superintendent leaves. Then you actually have to reapply for that. So it's not dependent as us as much as a school district, but on that superintendent. So what exactly is that about? Why do you have to reapply when you're superintendent leaves? That doesn't make any sense because it shouldn't, I would assume it would be dependent on the school district, but it doesn't appear to be. So that's a question. Some questions that would be nice to answer. I don't know how many of you will. But… Hopefully about… course with a bar, you know, of course with the investments and also about those committees, who's going to be on it, how are they chosen, what's going on? Why do we even need those committees? Because really it's a, it's the… Thank you, Dr. Patowitz. Thank you for your comments. Going back to the room, is there anybody else in the room who would like to comment in our first public comment section, please approach the microphone. Seeing no takers, I'm going to go back to the line. The next speaker is Alana Yaris. Alana Yaris, Cherry Hill. I am speaking on agenda item 18.4. As the member of my organization that I work for having done an audit report for the past three years. To have no findings or recommendations from An audit is commendable and I just want to commend the um business office among sugars and her staff for another year of a successful audit without any findings. That's it. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else would like to do first public comment in the room? Seeing nobody in the room and nobody online, I'm going to close first public comment. Thank you. We are rolling along, board members. Give me one second. I will get better at this. All right, we're moving on to our board work session. So our board work session, the first part of it is report outs from each committee. The purpose of this is so that board members and the public know what's going on in committees that you did not attend. So right now, what we had last week was three committees with three board members each, but we all need to know what's going on in all the committees. So this is the part where committee chairs are going to report out on what happened and committee members are welcome to chime in and add additional detail. And board members who are not members of those committees, this is the part where you can ask questions and get further detail. There's also reports from the administrative liaison. Those are embedded in your agenda for your review as well. Yes. And fortunately for me, I get to go first. So the CNI committee met last tuesday There were two items on our agenda. The first one was very quick. It's the approval of a production at Cherry Hill High School West. It's the lavender lights of Loberg. And what was interesting about this is that I believe it was Dr. Dreisen tried to Google it or Mr. Try to Google it and you can't Google it because it's actually a play that was written for the children at West to perform. Biowest alum. And I believe Ms. Staffin, correct me if I'm wrong, but that the students actually get to make up the ending to this play as part of their project. I do believe that they have a say in how it's going to end, yes. That is amazing. And I just thought it was a super cool connection between an alumni and the West Theater and a great experience for the West students so that was approved. The second piece of it is the high school course of study updates for 2526. And I'm actually going to turn that over to Ms. Staffin to report out so that board members can see the information the committee received and ask questions. Good evening. Thank you so much. Very excited. As we know. One of those big opportunities for us as we've started our course of study transition nights at the middle schools. Our final one will be tomorrow evening at Rosa. This is the information that goes into the booklet that will be published after tomorrow evening's presentation to our website that will assist students parents in choosing the appropriate schedule for their children as they move through high school. So with that, this presentation will just provide the updates to this year's course of study, any of the changes that we've made. The comprehensive course of study, which is 92 pages long, will be posted for your purview on Thursday. So here we go. So first of all, the process of the course of study. So courses don't just appear in the course of study guide. They are actually proposed and we begin the process, strangely enough, in October. We start surveying students and staff about what courses they would like to see as part of the course of study. And the requirement is that it has to be a part of our board district and school goals that they just can't randomly Recommend something and it also needs to be sustainable, which is why we send information out to the students and ask for their input to be able to determine, is this a course that will sustain over time Or is it, of course, that there's just very little interest in it? It would probably only run for one or two years and then it would kind of drop off. So with that said, we have identified through the course of study about 12 pathways. So what I did was I took the course of study and I said, if I was a student just coming in trying to find my purpose and passion and make connections How would I do that on a 92 page booklet? So what I did when I was an assistant principal at High School West was I kind of categorized Groupings, of course, is that work together that almost become a scope and sequence over your four years of high school in order for students to have an opportunity to really kind of map out what they're most interested in, really dig in and find those purpose and passion opportunities for themselves. So with that, you'll see that there's these pathways. It's a second booklet that gets published alongside of the course of study booklet to help students really map out what is my four years going to look like. And it's great conversation pieces. For home and with the counselors. And we have pathways in art, business, communications, and media production, computer science, cultural studies, culinary education. Education, math, music, science, technology, and or theater. And like I said, both will be posted online for parents and students to be able to access. With that, again, we're talking math pathways and there has been an explosion of math pathways. So this year was the first year that we introduced those two alternate pathways So that we're not just looking at the traditional STEM pathway that takes a child through a traditional math programming, but for students who want to experience math in a different way, because we all know that we experience math daily. There are opportunities where math impacts us and it's not necessarily through that traditional scope and sequence. So this year we know that we had We have rolled out both quantitative reasoning and data science, and they're thriving in both high schools. I did have an opportunity to go in and visit Some of those classes to see what's happening. And for next school year, we will be adding AP pre-calculus and AP Calculus AB. So for the very first time in our course of study. There is a pathway to move from our A level math classes into an AP honors curriculum, which has not always been the case for us. Opening access to these AP courses to a broader array of students. Additionally, we'll be adding applied calculus for business and science Again, another one of those combined full year courses that will have A level and honors level students in the same classroom. I was in, like I said, I did visit those classrooms At the high school recently, you can't tell. Which students are there as a level and which are there as honors level. They're working together, they're collaborating, they're solving math problems So it's an amazing thing to see. But again, opening access to our course catalog and providing students Who typically may not have tried to experience an honors level class, giving them multiple opportunities to do that. In addition to that, we've added math electives, which we don't typically see in our math programming. But we've offered some half-year electives. So we'll be adding business statistics as a half year course that could be taken simultaneously with one of the math required courses. Or in that fourth year, because math is a three-year required sequence with 15 credits. So in that senior year, we always encourage kids to stay with math so you don't lose that skill set. So business statistics is one of those elective courses. And additionally, we'll be adding cybersecurity as another elective in our computer science pathways. And there is the very very thorough math. Scope and sequence chart so you can see what starts in eighth grade where a student could be in geometry. There are students that will more than likely take your traditional STEM pathway and head toward multivariable calculus in their senior year. You have students in eighth grade that are taking algebra one Freshman year would take that geometry and then really try could potentially access any of these new pathway courses after that geometry course, or you have students taking the traditional pathway eighth grade math They'll go into algebra one because that is a graduation requirement for all students in New Jersey. To take Algebra one and geometry on there and have that on their high school transcript. And then in their 11th grade, they could enter any of the math pathways They can go into the traditional route. So there's lots of different opportunities. And on the right hand side, you'll see the many core math courses that count toward those 15 required graduation requirements for their requirements for their credits, I apologize for their credits. And then you see the math electives. So the semesterized courses and the entire Bank of Computer Science courses that can be taken at any time, grades 9 through 12. And there's a more simplified version of what the three pathways will look like. And you can see on the right hand side that there's still additional math pathway courses to be added to the course of study, we did make the decision not to add everything all at once to give them an opportunity to really take root and have kids really explore them before they started to Kind of fan out and then we had teachers teaching multiple classes, trying to make sure that everything was covered for them. So in the 26, 27 school year, we'll be adding the last bang of math pathway courses. In addition to the math courses that are being added to the course of study, I'm excited to announce that we will be finishing our media and production broadcasting curriculum and adding a fourth full year course. So we have broadcasting one through four as an opportunity and students can take a Combination of the broadcasting one through four. And there's also a full year filmmaking that would fit in there after the broadcasting one. And then Family Consumer Science, our consumer family consumer science teachers are really, really excited to be adding bakery and pastry arts through the course of study, this would provide a third course in the sequence at High School East, and it provides another pathway. So as I was explaining Cooking is not baking and baking is not cooking. They're two very different things. And although the students have an opportunity to experience baking in their regular culinary one and culinary two program. Some of them just really thrive in that baking piece of it and doing all that sweet, the sweet part. So as a result of that, our culinary teachers are really excited to be able to broaden that catalog and really speak to both Interests of their students in doing the cooking piece the baking part of it. In addition to that, we're adding an elective series an interdisciplinary, so it can happen in any of our course, in any of our departments But in career exploration one, two, and then eventually a career exploration three. So it's a series of semesterized courses. So in a freshman year, and our students will remember this, you took an interest inventory that helped guide you in the things that you would thrive in and potentially could become a career pathway for you. So by adding career exploration, we're able to actually take that interest inventory into the classroom and give students an opportunity to really start digging in and researching what are these careers all about and what could they potentially lead me to? So by the time they had Their senior year, there's an opportunity to actually participate in an internship opportunity with the potential of a half day schedule. So with that, they will have experienced all the things that they were interested in and understanding and knowing about these potential careers in addition to the soft skills that they would need to write that resume and to potentially contact potential internship community partners and do the interview process. With that, there's some changes in our labeling in the course of study. So for mathematics. Discrete math was always coupled with statistics and probability. That will now become a semesterized course in the elective bank and any of the math pathway courses that are also semesterized. Are a good pairing for that. So the probability and statistics wasn't necessarily the need to complete that coursework so they are able to pick one of the other semester courses to experience some additional math opportunities. And then algebraic concepts in our special education catalog historically has been a combination of precalculus in the first part of algebra 1 And then the rest of Algebra one was completed in algebraic concepts 2. With the introduction of Eureka Math Squared, we've found that we've been able to complete the full year of Algebra 1 with our concept students As well as our Algebra 1 students, allowing them to stay on that pathway as their like peers and actually take the NJSLA assessment at the end of that first course rather than having to wait until the second one. So algebraic concepts one will now be called algebra one concepts And it will be that full year of algebra one. And then they'll go into geometry concepts as the second math in that sequence of concepts classes. In addition, we're changing some course titles. So our pre-calculus honors class will now be called AP Calculus BC Part 1. And it has always been AP, calculus BC Part 1, but we had called it pre-calculus honors. It will help with the course sequencing, that scope and sequence for students. In addition, the course that was formerly known as Functions Honors will be renamed Algebra 2 Trigonometry honors And as we've talked to the math supervisors and math teachers. There's no math that's called functions honors. It's an actual skill in mathematics. So they felt the true description of that course is really an algebra two trigonometry honors. Geometric concepts, as I mentioned earlier, will be called geometry concepts and AP Calculus BC, as we've always known it, will remain as that curriculum But that will be the part two. So the big changes we've added part two there. The precalculus honors curriculum is not changing just the name. Remoals from the course of study, these are courses that have not run in five plus years, but historically one or two students in either building may choose it. This eliminates them from choosing that and then makes us you know that more authentic rather than having to find that second elective They're actually going to choose the first elective So we're going to remove advanced composition, great books, and research in humanities. And then our course of study nights, which we've already started, we had Kerosi January 9th, back January 13th. Tomorrow evening we will be at Rosa. The counselors from both East and West do go down into the middle schools and meet with the eighth graders immediately following. So our counselors were at Beck today. They were at Cruci on the 10th, and they'll be at Rosa on Thursday. And then there will be open houses for students and parents to meet teachers, advisors, coaches at High School West on January 23rd and at High School East on January 30th. The timeline for teacher recommendation they are currently getting ready to start recommending students into the appropriate levels and courses for next school year. Start with the eighth graders as well as our rising high school students. Starting January 7th to January 27th. Eighth graders for their open enrollment portal is all done through Genesis. That will occur between February 7th and March 7th. And at that point in time, they are locking in. And as per board policy, they have until January, July 15th if they decide that they want to change that homeschool back or forth, whichever direction they want to go. The Genesis Parent Portal will close March 7th. High school counselors will start inputting those courses by March 28th and we will begin sectioning the high school schedule on April 8th. Any requests for drop and add can happen up until June 30th without your students can just go in to see their counselors and do that by June 30th. After that, the drop and add period requires parent permission, counselor permission, administrative position or permission and they have the permission first three days of school, the counselors won't see anybody for those drop ads but they have the first 10 days after that. So in essence. The first 13 days of school is an opportunity for students to be able to drop a course and we do recommend if they want to rise a level that they do that sooner than later in that 13-day period. After that, they have to wait until interim. To make sure that they've given that course a fair chance before they decide that they, you know. For whatever reason, they would like to move out of it. Requests for level changes, again, have to be approved by parent guardian, counselor, administrator. So it's not just something that a student can walk into guidance and do. Level changes can be made. Up until that 13th day of school And that concludes all of my information. On our course of study updates at this time, are there any questions? Any questions from board members for Ms. Staffan? Dr. Braddock. Well, first, thank you for all the information. It was a lot, but it was very useful. Just a real quick question. How are you identifying internship opportunities for students? And are they getting some kind of input on where they're going for internships or is it mostly connections from the teachers and such. So I'm going to pass that one over to Ms. Roskoff, who that is her baby. Students will usually self-select their internships or where they want to go Right now, Sandra Castellani, who is the she is a science teacher at Cherry Hill West, but she does the intern coordination for both schools. She keeps a like small database of people who have said, yes, we will take interns. I am constantly out every time I'm somewhere and somebody starts talking about anything, I will say, oh, would you like to take an intern And surprisingly, generally, they'll say, well, let's talk about it. Students can also pick their, they can self-select if they know play a place. We've had several students who have done that. So we are constantly looking as more and more students, we've had this conversation recently And it's ongoing as more and more students are taking advantage of that internship opportunity. It's going to become more and more crucial that we are constantly out and looking. I've been to the South Jersey Chamber of Commerce. We have a meeting with them in the middle of February where they're going to start working with us to help us locate businesses and partners. We recently had a meeting with Cooper who is interested in having a partnership with us. We're trying to figure out the best way to house all of the alumni that we have. We have, you know, just living and working in the town, we have lots of alumni, right? Who we just don't utilize well enough in many ways so just corralling that information is sort of overwhelming every time I start to think about it, to be honest with you. But we are always looking. I am constantly looking. I think sometimes people see me coming and they're like, oh, let me get out of here before she starts. But any suggestions, we've taken suggestions from board members um you know people call me and say. We are interested in this. I had a meeting last week with American Training Center. They're looking so we it's just Dr. Braddock, it's just ongoing all the time. It never stops. I apologize for contributing to your being overwhelmed. No, no, no, it's fine. I love it. Mustafin's right. I do love it. It's great work. As someone who did an internship in high school and again in college, there's nothing Like actually getting your hands on the profession you want to go into and Learning if you're into it or not. The students might think they want to do something until they actually do it. And that's the most important part. And the biggest reward is seeing the growth of the students from the beginning of the internship To the end of the internship, right? And I'm going to put a little plug in. In April, the students do a presentation And I would encourage all of you to come and hear them talk about their own experience because it's truly What we see happen is that these students go from being high school kids to being on that road to becoming a grown-up. You said April? April. Do you happen to know the exact date? Okay. Let us know when you do. We'll have it added to the board engagement calendar so that you can all sign up. I tried to open a row and put it in there, but we don't know the exact date. I like that. I like the enthusiasm, Dr. Robert. Other board members have questions. Ms. Stern. I have one question and one comment. And a course of study, although the internship thing is Super exciting to me as well and i think I mean, it's absolutely when you, any of us who have children who are college age that is the absolute that is the thing right now in college right is it is the big thing Internships and co-ops. So course of study, first of all just comment first. You know, we've been talking about the math pathways for several years. We had a little stumbling to get them started but seeing them in action and developing further. A comment I made when I got to sit in on CNI committee is Having this math pathways now the way it is Previously. Students were basically set by seventh grade for what math they were going to take. For their entirety of their K through 12 career. Which could either help them or potentially hinder them Depending on where they might decide that they where they grew to be in 10th, 11th, and 12th grade so It's really fantastic to see So much more fluidity and opportunity. The ah combination classes. Is especially helpful for our special populations, our students who might not easily access these courses without support or resources so For me, you know, this is special education. This is supporting our multilingual learners. And our other special populations. These steps are all towards that so i'm Just thrilled to see them. A very specific question that may or may not have been raised in my own household. The pastry class, pastry and baking arts. Is that do students have the opportunity to take that as a standalone or must they take culinary one, culinary two? Know the prerequisite for that is just culinary one, and then they are eligible for the baking and pastry arts. That makes a lot of sense. And thank you for answering that. You're welcome. That's it. Other board members, Dr. Dreisen. Thank you. Thank you again for the presentation, for the work that went into this. More of just a comment for the group. I made the comment in the CNI committee, so I just wanted to share. As someone who Participating in the STEM pathway, not in this district I was just really impressed to see APBC being completed in junior year. That was a culminating experience in senior year in my STEM pathway. And so to have the opportunity to do multivariable I think is really terrific. I also, I think we as a committee also welcomed the new pastry class to present to the CNI committee Yes, the CNI committee takes donations of pastries. I will let them know. Excellent. Mr. Fain. So I guess I'll start out with the comment I was going to make. I actually graduated West with a current well-known pastry chef. And also a writer for Cobra Kai. So both the broadcasting And the pastry class, the fruits of the labors have already existed. So I'm excited to see what else could come out of that. I did have a question. I really enjoyed all of the work that you put into creating the career path. I don't know if you have a word for a term for it, the career pathways for Students trying to organize their brains on how do I take this huge document, make it make sense for me. And I know with the math pathways, or correct me if I'm wrong, if a student chooses what they think is going to make sense for their future and then decides junior, senior year that actually maybe not. And we're going to do something else. It's still they're still set up for success for graduation and Regardless of what pathway, if they swerve into a different one. Would the same apply if they choose to take classes from the bulk of classes that you've outlined as let's say music is there they think music will be their pathway later on in life and they set themselves up for that. And then junior realized maybe I actually want to do something different. Will they still be okay if they like as far as courses go, that they're not behind or anything like that. Yes. Excellent question. So the packet is set up. So the very first page is my map of what I have to complete in order to make my 120 credits. So you're mandatory, you have to take an English, you have To take a math, a social studies, and that. And so it outlines it and then it tells you where your elective holes are. So you will never be out of balance. If you decide, hey, I thought I wanted to do music. But I really decided I really like the theater part of it and I want to shift over. There's possibilities for that because the map, the first page is their map and then they just have to start making those shifts. Gotcha. I think that's a really important thing for the students because I know in conversations that I've been in recently. You don't know until you know. And I think that's a big part of this internship opportunity that we're discussing too. And we've I've been part of discussions about the importance of starting those discussions in middle school. So I think that it's It's such a phenomenal thing that we're starting those discussions with the eighth graders have seen through course this going to the course of study that we're already trying to get their wheels turning. On what does the future look like? And so I commend all of you and all of the work that you're doing. To try to inspire our younger students into getting excited about what the future has and thinking about careers. And I hope to see the internship opportunities really blow up because I think that that's going to be the best way for them to make the most informed decisions about their future. And especially when we talk about portrait of a graduate. Because that's our big hot topic of discussion nowadays. I think that starts way before anywhere they're even thinking about graduation. And eighth grade being probably the most pivotal point of their you know of their careers before they graduate. So thank you that you have already started thinking about all of those things. And I really look forward to where where we're going with that and through all of these discussions that you're having. Thank you. And then, and just to let you know, when we survey students, we survey them all the way down to sixth grade. Because we want to look to see, will these sustain? Is this something that you're interested in when you get to high school? And we also survey the seniors So that they can give us input of what we might have missed while they were there that we might be able to add. Do you also ask them If they've changed their mind or if something has different, like what part of their high school career was the most impactful for them to make decisions about their future? We haven't, guidance kind of does those exit interviews with them, but I haven't formally for a course of study done anything like that. Awesome. That's a good suggestion. Thank you. Other board members. I'm just going to chime in that I think the focus on internships and career paths is transformational. I really do. I feel like just looking at it from a few years back. I don't feel like there was this organization intentionality. I remember the first time that we saw the courses collected together in those career pathways. And that was a big step forward. I think the next big piece that you're putting into place is the internships because the thing that I think we're all realizing is that we have no idea what the future is going to look like. My youngest will graduate high school in 2035. I have no idea what the world is going to look like in 2035. So as we talk about Portrait of a Graduate, as we talk about going forward, I, like Dr. Braddock, was somebody who took internships And that really put me on the trajectory that I ended up going on because I realized what I liked and what I didn't and what I was passionate about. So it's really important to get that experience. So thank you so much. To everybody, to all of your staff for your staff Thinking about that and for thinking about our students as varied as they are, because some of them will go to college for certain things and some of them will not. They have different plans for after high school and we need to support all students. And graduating with the tools they need to go forward, whatever that next step looks like. Because it's varied and it's changing. And we don't really know. So as we move forward, just thank you very much for your focus on that. And if there's any way the board continue to support your work, please let us know. Thank you. Thank you. All right, moving on in our board work session, we have the BNF report out and that is going to be stepping in for Mr. Greenbaum, who couldn't be here tonight, Ms. Gallagher. So thank you for taking that on. Yeah, and it will be pretty short. So the BNF met last tuesday Our new time is Tuesdays at six. It's different from last year. No, seven, sorry, 7 p.m, not six. So BNF, uh. Dave McNally from Holt McNally and Associates presented the 2324 audit As stated prior. We received the highest rating of an unmodified opinion, no findings, no recommendation. The audit is, it says it says will be posted. I don't know when it, is it up already after tonight okay once we vote on it tonight, it will be up on the website. And if you would like to find it, you can go to chclc.org, departments, business finance comprehensive annual financial support reports. And then we had a closed session regarding a transportation update, which Linda king was able to come and discuss with the BNF committee. That's it. Any questions? Great, thank you. That means you did an excellent job. No questions. Thank you. Thank you so much for stepping in. There is no HR report this month. I'm going to move to P&L, which Ms. Stern is going to be pinch hitting for Mr. Mayer, who also could not be here tonight. Okay, thank you. So we also met last tuesday God, I can't believe it. I don't remember how many meetings we've had in such a short time, it's only the 14th. And we met at It's five o'clock. Just getting used to that as well. So that's our new time. Thank you, Mrs. Gallagher. For sharing that information. It's a good point to make. So I found out this afternoon I was going to be doing this, so I'm hoping I do it justice. So please bear with me. We discussed As we usually do. Policy updates. So policy 5530, which is our substance abuse policy for first reading. We reviewed it. There are no revisions to be made at this time. And then we, for first reading, looked at policy 8110, which is attendance areas. We did make some, had some discussion about making some changes. So everyone has access to that, but I'm just going to go through them really quickly. We remove some of the language that is no longer relevant because it only applied to previous school years when we made the changes to our redistricting with middle schools so We've removed some language about You know, 23, 24 school year, obviously that's passed And um We also… removed language. About the uh just uh the grade level split Which was, let's see, sorry, bear with me, an elementary 3C that was removed Because let me go back to my notes. We wanted to We just wanted to update it to be relevant to our current districting situation with elementary and middle. We also discussed Incorporating language that would address some of our special populations And that they may be districted to schools that are due to their specific situation. For instance, their individual education plan may district them to a certain a program that's in a certain school. So we just maybe wanted to be more intentional about being inclusive For all of our populations. So that because currently that some of that language even though an individual education plan, for example, will supersede a policy because it is manned that placement might be mandated by law. Nonetheless, we thought it would just make sense to have inclusive language as we move in that direction. So that was that. And we had second reading of policy 5111. And um We review the policy and we agreed with the changes. This policy actually will appear on the February P&L meeting agenda again. Because there's a new policy there's a policy alert that we need to just consider. So it's just it's coming up. Then we discussed our new policy. I'm sorry, and updated updating our policy 0155, which is board committees and um We actually will be, in order to be efficient we wanted to uh the changes are pretty simple with that one. Let me pull it up. Give me one second. Previously, the policy hasn't been revised, looks like since 2016. So it's time to really take a look at it. That came out of the work that Mrs. Gallagher and This is winter stood together. And did a lot of work on it. So thank you both so much. And from that, the recommendations are First of all, update the language. To reflect our reorganization timeline because the previous policy reflected reorganization in I guess it was in april for june you know, we remove the language about dissolving committees in June. And instead change the language that that following the committees will exist through the new year following reorganization up until the time that the new board members have a chance to be ready to move to the new committees when they'll be formed. So that's going to give us tilting. We decided it made sense not to have language immediately at reorg because that's just people are just getting sworn in that day. But to in fact give us that little bit of leeway for the first month. For the new president to have conversations with board members and then determine which the new committees, either committees that would continue or change and also who would lead them. So that's basically that language we also discuss the special committees. Which um will also apply the rules will apply, the same rules will apply as to standing committees that Except that special committees will be more specifically task oriented and those will dissolve when their task is completed, their assignments completed. And that is that further on our agenda later on tonight, we are going to be voting on that one. And let me see. We also talked about a board cell phone policy. And just today, apparently the governor talked about a statewide student cell phone ban or policy or electronic device, mobile device So the discussion that we had really centered around the importance of A, first and foremost, that we as the adults we're Elected officials who are here to serve the community to serve the students We're asking students to abide by a policy to have their mobile devices away, electronic devices, so that they can be fully attentive in class. It certainly makes sense for us as the adults who are setting an example to do the same when we are seated at the board table doing our board work. So that was really the crux of the crux the idea behind the policy. Avoid distractions and really be attentive and you know I mean, you know, I think So we have the policy it was the policy Mr. Mayor actually put it together. And he based it upon the policy we have for students. So it's 0164.1. It's a bylaw and all of you have had a copy of a chance to read it. So this is the moment where I wanted to open that up to really to discussion, any input that board members have, any questions. So that we can move this through and this and the others obviously that are on our agenda to discuss. So, um, so Yeah, so I'll stop here. And ask that we have board member questions and comments about any of the policies, but also just any input So we can move them along. Really not used to this role. So forgive me for stumbling a little bit. Mrs. Surefain. As far as the special committees go, will they have the same report out structure that we do with the current committees? I guess I would ask Mrs. Gallagher and Mrs. Winters who just who really kind of came up with this idea what your thinking was. I mean, my thinking is yes. When? I don't know, right? From my perspective, purely my perspective, it would be a lot to then go into A second round of committee readouts at one meeting. So I don't know if it's like the action, I don't like how that works. I don't know, but yes. Absolutely. There needs to be a readout so that There's some transparency as to what goes on in the meetings How that looks, I don't know. And when, I mean, do you have an opinion, Mrs. Winters? I think that if the board in its wisdom establishes a governance committee this evening, that is a perfect question for the governance committee to answer. Okay. I don't want to pre-decide the question is what I'm saying. I think that, you know, this is something new that we're trying. There obviously needs to be a mechanism for board members to know, but what that is, I'm not, I don't want to hold forth with my personal opinion. I think if the board establishes governance, that is why you have a governance committee is to Interrogate and decide those questions. When Ms. Gallagher and I went to the workshop at NJSBA, there were different mechanisms that committees used to report out. So I think there's a lot of variety among boards. So I think governance, whoever's on that committee and other members will have input into how that looks. We will decide together, I guess is what I'm saying. This is Savannah. I was going to say, I did have a thought that just became a thought. Maybe if they had a parent committee So if like preschool was CNI or whatever, so that you could report out through there, because I think you're right, that could be I don't want to extend our agendas any more than we have to. So maybe that just as like another piece to that is like, I don't know, just thought that I was thinking. I mean, I think that's I think that's makes sense. And I mean, part of the genesis of, for instance, the special ed special education committee is an example or as an example. Part of the rationale was it is very hard to address the business and do kind of the more meaningful work that really needs to be done. To really move those topics forward within the committee structure that exists. So it was, you know, I think that makes sense to report out to the chair you know, I like that idea. I know we had discussed this Mrs. Winters will be the one who officially decides who's on committees. Assuming it works. But yeah, it was kind of, it was a discussion that like they kind of are a branch of the larger committees. And that someone from those committees will sit on the subcommittee so that that so there was like a flow And so they're not in isolation so that if something is discussed, it can be addressed in like the main committee And vice versa. Dr. Dreyson, you had your hand up as well. I don't know if you wanted to make a comment or a question. Thank you. I think it's actually just a clarifying question then again. So tonight, you explain the rationale that I, as I understand it for these subcommittees too. And so tonight we're voting to approve the formation of these subcommittees And then it will be delegated to the governance committee to provide more guidance on how we're, because I think we're all committed to transparency and active communication. So how we'll go about doing that. Am I understanding that right? Mrs. Winters, that's my understanding. But if you want to add to that. So tonight we are voting on the establishment. The establishment of the committees. Following that. So under the policy, they're called special committees because they're task oriented. We've been calling them lots of things. We've called them ad hocs, working groups, subcommittees. But under the policy, which we are permitted to establish special committees of the board. Special committees are task oriented. So the idea is that the committees, once the committees are established by action of the board this evening, then I will appoint committee members and I'm going to take your preferences from the committee survey work that we all did Into account and try to allocate people based on their desires, their expertise, their availability. Also experience on the board, more experienced members with new members who may have a different perspective. So all of those things, I'll do the best I can to balance that. Following that, the committees will get started and each will have a committee chair. Governance is special because governance will actually be a standing committee of the board. Similar to CNI, P&L, BNF. Sp, which existed last year, is being retired. In favor of the governance committee. The governance committee is going it's function is going to be the work of the governance of the board. So all these questions, how do the committees work together? What's the best way for us to report out? How do we make sure that board members know what's going on in the other committees? How does the workflow? For example, let's say the special education special committee has something needs to be voted on does that How does that look on the agenda? Does that come through CNI? Likely I would say so, but I think the governance committee would be deciding all those things. And we do that together, the work of the nine of us. Governance will also take on issues like board training, which I think is something that I would like to see renewed focus on This year, I think, you know, the most senior board member right now is miss stern Followed by Mr. Mayor, followed by me. And I still feel like a relative. Maybe I've been here for two and a half years. I could definitely use to level up my skills. And to know best practices. So all those things will fall under governance, which is something that We didn't have a ton of intentionality. And this is not a criticism i think Just, ooh, I'm sorry. I think just looking at all the work that we do, there was no intentionality in the past of I know I'm talking with my hands. You bumping the microphone. I know, I know. Very excited. I think there needs to be more intentionality about our training resources that we have and how we move forward together as a team of nine. So that's the goal if the board in its wisdom establishes a governance committee tonight, all that would fall to governance, which I think is going to have a more full plate than we ever imagined. But I think it's really good because I think it's work that was being done possibly a little scattershot and as needed. And this will provide focus. And maybe a calendar so that things move through the process. Things like goals, things like superintendent evaluation, board self-evaluation, all those functions of the board. Need to run through something and so that we can decide together how they work best. If that makes any sense. That was my commercial for governance. So does that make sense? So this discussion is This discussion also is previewing, I guess, what's going to go on under the board action item. Yeah, so tonight we will be voting on the governance, the establishment of the governance committee and the four special committees, which are elementary redistricting. Community engagement and communications committee, preschool committee and special education committee. So those will be the four. And I think as i think As Dr. Braddock calls the president emeritus, or immediate past president i can definitely say I would have loved to have had a governance committee and for this idea to have been established previously because All of those responsibilities you just talked about all fall under the purview, have previously fallen under the purview of the president, which in addition to all the other duties, it's a lot. I'm excited for that. I'm hoping that we are in agreement, but we're not there yet. We haven't voted on that yet but um So yeah, so those are some of the, you know, the pieces. Traditionally, and I realized since I'm not used to running this piece of the agenda. Usually we do ask first any committee members have any comments or questions. And Dr. Braddock, you were the only other committee member standing, a full committee member on Mrs. Winters was also there. I didn't want to make sure, you know, typically we ask you and then we open up to the full board so Whether you or at this point anybody else has any other comments or questions, I do want to make sure we just Kind of check in about the other policies as well that we touched on so Other comments, questions? About the… Let me go back. Sorry. Attendance areas Or about, we did committees I just want to also talk about the we casually call it the cell phone policy but It's the wireless communications devices policy. That everyone had a chance to review. I mean, it's early days but We do want to be able to move this one through as well. So any input, Dr. Dreisen? I guess just to hold ourselves accountable because i i mean our role on the board is to hold is to, you know. Focus on accountability. I didn't really see any description of the policy about what happens if you break the policy. So that's a great question and comment. And actually, it's one that i was also thinking about and asking about because you know in the board of education you know there isn't a kind of specific remedy typically for board members who violate Policies or even the accountability is really whether or not we're supposed to hold ourselves to this, right? And to all of our policies. And when we break ethics or policies. I mean, yeah, typically the president will address that If it's significant or, you know, fellow board members can call one another out, I guess. Privately usually obviously you know that that's the you know we hold our, we work with one another. I don't really know. I mean, I don't know, and I probably would, you know. Pitch this to, I don't know if it goes to governance, Mr. Green, smiling and Mr. Green wants to weigh in. I mean, this is the challenge with The president is not, you know, the chair of the committee of the board is not is not like, you know, doesn't have supervisory responsibilities in terms of that. It's really… I would say a working contract with the board right that we're we agree to one another to do this. So I don't know if I'm Mr. Green agrees with that concept. So Dr. Braddy, you have a comment. Just very quickly, I would assume that goes to governance. If governance is supposed to overlook how we do things on the board yeah so Whoever's on the governance committee, enjoy. I mean, that's what I would assume. I don't mean to be overly simplistic as to a solution, but it I mean, it sounds like a fallen governance plate. I agree. I think, you know, my understanding, and Mr. And you can correct me if I'm wrong since this is night number one of me doing this in a full meeting is that the board president Tries to have decorum in the meeting but to the point everybody's making, I think this is really us holding each other accountable. The only time any of us have any authority is when we're gathered in a quorum. This is our only chance to be together and do the work of the board and we do it in public. And so my intention in bringing this forward as a P&L member in December was simply that. So I think there's consensus. I would hope it wouldn't get to the point of enforcement, but if it did, I guess… I mean, it does fall under board governance Congratulations, Ms. Gallagher. My list is on my cell phone. I guess that's going to have to change, right? I know I usually put my events, my correspondence events. I just have to plan accordingly, right? We'll all have to do that a little differently, I think. But I also think that, you know. My understanding is other other bodies of government. One of the reasons they do this as well is because of OPMA. You know the open public meetings act you know you don't want to violate The Open Public Meetings Act. You know communicating you know, on phones during a meeting, it puts that at risk, really. So, you know, this is about protecting one another, protecting the sanctity of our meetings and the decorum of our meetings and it's also about You know protecting the district from protecting from legal action. So, you know, it's just a whole other other level of it i mean i just To me, it's the most basic thing, honestly. If we're asking our you know 12 year olds are you know 10 year olds or 15 year olds to do this, we should hold ourselves to at the minimum, the standard in that regard. And I do want to mention, as Dr. Morton has to step out for a moment, there is an exception to Dr. Morton's position Because he has business to attend to throughout the meeting. So he will have access to his phone. One suggestion I also just want to mention as being the longest standing board member, you're going into year five, I guess it is. And that is that in previous boards, there was a, you know, following kind of a respective chain of command, which would probably be in any institution that if you know you have to miss a meeting or you're late. You let the board president know and i i Would… I… thought it might make sense to be able to say that we're present. Listen, I know there's an emergency going on that I'm aware of that I might need to step out and use my phone I just think it's a courtesy and I think it's a level of respect for the chair and i just Whether or not that's in the policy may not be necessary, but I would just I know I will practice that and I think that's that's something that we I would recommend, I guess, that we as a board you know have Show that decorum to your leadership. So that's just a small thing. Just for clarity, Mr. Green, for the new members and maybe those of us who are not so new this policy is on first reading right now. Can you explain what happens between first reading and second reading for clarity for the members? Well, under your bylaws would follow Robert's rules. You need two readings of a policy so that Tonight, if you do the first reading, that's the first approval essentially to put the policy into effect. You have to have two readings, two actions at two separate meetings. So you can't change the policy meaningfully. You can make minor editorial adjustments, but any any significant change to policy requires it to go back for a first reading. So that tonight will be a first reading and at the next meeting, presumably there will be a second reading at which time the bylaw will get adopted. So is that clear we're not actually adopting or voting on this policy tonight. This is first reading. At the other January meeting, a little goes second reading. And if the policy is substantially similar and passes the board, then it will go into effect. Yes, because that was the first reading, second reading thing was something that i remember As a new member, it took me a while to figure that out, how that works. Any other questions or additions or comments to this This is Ms. Palmer. Yeah, the only thing I would say, and Mrs. Stern, I appreciate you touching on it. I mean, for me, even beyond setting the example, you know. Doing, as we say, with our students, is that ensuring that adherence to the open public meetings act i think as somebody that's just kind of spent my professional life adjacent to public meetings It does. Raises my eyebrows at least when i see elected officials on the dais with their cell phone in their hand. So I think anything that we can do to protect ourselves against any appearance of impropriety is really important i think It's really important that we hold ourselves to a higher standard and leave no room for that kind of question. So I appreciate the thought behind this. Thank you. Anybody else? Dr. Braddock. Last point for any students that might be watching. I haven't been on my phone for two and a half hours. It's the best I felt in years. So if it helps keep people off their phones a bit more, I'm all for it. I'll be in support. Great. Thank you. Okay, that's it for policy and legislation. Thank you. Excellent. Thank you so much, board members. Good discussion. So there is, oh, by the way, just as a public service announcement, I got logged out of board docs while we were having that conversation. So board members log out, log back in. Because we have nothing for strategic planning. So we are about to move to the action part of our meeting as former President Ben Avadia would say, this is where all the action is, the special action agenda. So this is the part of the meeting in which board members will actually vote on action items. Beginning with 17. So take a minute, make sure you're logged out, you're logged in, take a breath. And I will move the CNI agenda. Superintendent recommends and I move the following 17.1 approval of attendance at conference and workshops for the 24-25 school year. Do I have a second? Ms. Scherfeen, are there any questions? Take your time. That's why I queued it. It's something that happens. If we have a long discussion in the meeting, you get logged out and logged back in. So there is a motion and a second on the floor to approve the CNI agenda. Board members while you're logging in, are there any other questions? Seeing no questions, Ms. Sugars, please open the vote. I locked out and logged back in, but you can take a vocal yes or no too, correct? You can announce your vote to miss sugar so you can vote Shall I know? You may. Ms. I approve, yes. Okay, we have a unanimous yes vote. Mrs. Gallagher, will you move the BNF agenda for tonight? Superintendent recommends, and I'm the following 18.1, the approval of bill lists 18.2 resolution for the award of bids. 18.3 resolution to approve solicitor school construction projects. 18.4 resolution to accept audit report. Do I have a second? I actually have to. I was like just looking at people um Ms. Palmer. And then any questions? Ms. Chickers, will you open the vote, please. Board members, you may cast your votes. Ms. Sugar, so go ahead. No, you first. I just need to abstain from any item on a bill list related to Bayada Home Health Care. And so I believe that's in the bill list. Number eight. Otherwise, I vote yes. And Mrs. Sugars, I am a yes on all except bill list eight. I need to abstain from payments to Bancroft. You're all stressing me out. I looked at it. I think I'm fine. But if there's anything related to Cooper Health Systems, I abstain from that. Sure. September 17 or March. Stating a 9.11. Motions maybe push that to the next to next meeting's agenda We have a motion to table the motion. To postpone it. To postpone it was the words that I meant to speak. We have a motion to postpone it. Is there a second? Ms. Stern? Agenda item 20.1 is postponed until the next meeting so that we have a quorum of board members. You can take a voice vote. Can I take a voice vote? All those in favor of postponing it? Yes, I'll post. No one opposed. Excellent. Thank you for the extra added sauce on my first meeting. Agenda item 20.1 is postponed to the following meeting where we have more board members in attendance. Just moving 20. So at this point under P&L, we are only voting on, for clarity, we're only voting on agenda item 20.2. Yes, everybody is clear. All right, Mrs. Sugars. I've opened the voting again just on item 20.2. Thank you. Thank you. I'd like to thank the members for the extra challenge this evening. We have unanimous yes vote. I'm sorry, Ms. Sugar's unanimous yes vote. Thank you so much. Excellent. There are no agenda items under strategic planning this evening. We are rolling right along. I'd like to point out to the members, it's 8.26 p.m. I'm very proud of us tonight. We are now on new business. Is there any new business that board members would like to raise this evening? Seeing none, old business. Is there any old business that members would like to raise this evening? Mrs. Surefain. I promise it's quick. It's only old business because I thought of another comment back to our discussion from earlier. About the nomination of staff members for your highlights in the week. And I would like to just throw it out there that maybe the ones because you've received so many, maybe the ones that you can't get to, just sending them a little note that they were nominated. With maybe what the words were about them would be nice. Well, that was lovely. Thank you. Any other old business for board members? All right. I'm very excited. We've arrived. The second public comment. This is the second public comment section, during which you may comment on any topic. Anyone who would like to speak, please clearly state your name and municipality. We will alternate between speakers here in the room and those that are online. Each speaker will be given a maximum of three minutes to speak. The timer on the screen will indicate the amount of time you have remaining. Public comment is an opportunity for members of the community to comment on matters relevant to the operations of Cherry Hill Public School District or within the authority of the Cherry Hill Board of Education. The board welcomes diverse opinions on relevant matters. Under established federal law governing reasonable restrictions on speech in public forums. Statements which demean individual community members or groups or which are irrelevant to the operations of the school district or repetitious will not be permitted. Community members who would like to present information not relevant to the school district are always welcome to communicate directly to the district superintendent board president and all board members via email or other alternative means. By custom we start in the room. Is there anyone in the room who would like to approach the mic and give public comment? Please state your name and municipality. Good evening. My name is Brandy DeVoe, constituent of Cherry Hill. Phd candidate with a PhD in biomedicine, private practice owner and professor in Philadelphia. I have my son here tonight. So you can see him as I have corresponded with Many of you regarding him. I'm here to express my concerns about several ongoing issues I've encountered as a parent. In the Cherry Hill Public School District. First, there has been a consistent lack of communication from the district I have had emails left unanswered for over a year. And on multiple occasions, district representatives have told me they don't have time to address important matters regarding my child's academic progress. This response is not only dismissive. But also undermines the essential partnership between parents and the school system. Second, I have been excluded from important classroom matters. As a parent, I believe I should have access to details about my child's classroom experience. Yet I have been left out of these discussions. Which has created a sense of frustration and disconnect. Third, when I've made reasonable requests regarding my son's education. These have often been met with resistance. And at times, what I perceive as retaliatory actions. Parents should be able to advocate for their children without fear of exclusion or negative consequences. But unfortunately, that has not been my experience. Additionally, I have encountered exclusion and exhaustion tactics when attempting to engage with school officials. These tactics seem designated to frustrate me as a parent and discourage involvement. Despite my genuine desire to work together for the betterment of my child's education. Given these issues, I respectfully request the district consider taking the following actions in the board as well. Implement consistent and transparent communication channels between parents and the district. Two, ensure that parent input is valued and acted upon without fear of retaliation or exclusion. Three, review current practices to ensure they do not unintentionally discourage parent involvement or make it harder for parents to access necessary information. I'm confident that with proactive steps, the district and the board can foster a more supportive and inclusive environment for both parents and students. Thank you for your attention to these matters, and I look forward to outcomes that improve the experience for all children. Not just mine. And the Cherry Hill Public School District. Thank you so much. Have a good evening. Thank you for your comment. We're now going to move to the line. The first person, it just says iPhone next to your name. When you are unmuted, please state your full name and municipality. Yes. Hi, Laurie Neary, Cherry Hill. Just a couple of quick comments. One on the policy for attendance areas. I'd just like to understand what the actual changes to the policy are as someone who works in contracts all day, I know very easily one word can have an incredibly meaningful impact in an unintended consequence. So when we're talking about our special education population as it pertains to that policy, I'd like to understand just what the actual language changes are. Also regarding the AP and honor changes, I think that's fantastic. We've been long fighting for that change. And I just wanted to understand for the students, the special education students. That may be in that A level class, if they will get honors credits if they so desire for those classes. I know it was mentioned by Ms. Stern, but I just wanted to understand for sure because that's a great, fantastic change. An opportunity for those students that can partake in those opportunities. And also the Special Education Committee. We'd just like to understand better what that's going to look like, what that's going to entail. I know it's new and involving for the board. But given the broad reaching impacts and the importance of our special education students, right? 25% of the student population is a huge number. So I would like to understand, you know, is that just for the board members, what it'll look like? You know, Ms. Winters was talking governance is music to my ears I would just love some information on that. These are great things. I'm really pleased. So just to get some more information on that and the internship opportunities Ms. Ms. Roskopf, that's fantastic. I love it. And I think there's even more opportunities we could discuss. So thank you. Thank you. Going back to the room. Alana Yaris, Cherry Hill, representing the chair of the Fair Funding Committee as a part of Zone PTA. I'm doing this week early because of when the meeting schedule falls but There is a fair funding meeting next Thursday, January 23rd at 7 p.m. On Zoom. Like Zoom virtual meetings. The meeting ID is 806-549-2973. The passcode is FFCHPS. That's fair funding, Cherry Hill Public Schools. It'll be on Zoom starting at 7 p.m. We're going to talk about a Tuesday tweet campaign. Strategy for budget season and there has been a listening session across the state from the assembly and senate about the funding formula. And there's one on Thursday in Blackwood, our neck of the woods. I won't be there, but I hear there are some board members who might be there and members of the public in Cherry Hill in general. And all that information will be posted on The Fair Funding Facebook page, Instagram, and if you want more information, feel free to email fairfundingchps at gmail.com. And I'll get back to you. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Yaris. Back to the line. Phone number ending in 788. Please state your full name and municipality. My name is Jeff Potowitz and I live in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. During a school board meeting in December, it was discussed and voted on to allow Ms. Cyan Ann's group from Kennesaw State University to do research in our school district and community and to provide our school and community with resources and additional resources. Enhancements for our AAPI programming in Cherry Hill. I did a simple Google search and I mentioned at school board meeting recently. Professor Anne makes comparisons between Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany and the US, calling us comparable. The problem is that the fact is that Imperial Japan killed over 20 million Chinese citizens and the Nazis killed approximately 24 million citizens of the Soviet Union. We didn't do anything like that. And in a model that she provided to, you know, how to teach elementary school students, she did that. And this is going to give this information to elementary school I mean, or the way she feels. In addition, I did a Google Sheet more recently in an article called Asian Crit perspective on social studies, the Journal of Social Studies Research, Volume 41, issue 2, April 2017, Asian Crit, A-S-I-A-N-C-R-I-T. In the article, the professor Talking about Asian critical race theory. So Asian crit is Asian critical race theory, race theory. This article introduces critical race theory as relevant to to curricular studies and Asian crit is a branch extending from critical race theory that that places race at the center of analysis And demonstrate how the legal system sustains the dominance of white race in US society. She believes that adequate will transform curriculum by reconstruction, his history with counter stories. She's going to reconstruct history with counter stories, example of which would be to provide elementary students about US your Eurocentrism in World War II. That just wasn't true. Her articles seem to be biased against the United States during World War II. Thank you so much, Dr. Potowitz. I'm sorry that's your time is up. I wish I had time for further explanation, but we were not Eurocentric. We were unprepared for World War II, to be honest with you. My father was in a unit… Is there anybody else in the room who would like to participate in second public comment? Good evening. I'm Sarah Jocelyn from Cherry Hill. I'd like to welcome our newer board members. I had a couple of comments to share with you. First. I noticed that the Camden County MLK recognitions included at least one young person And his recognition was for a unique service project that he did that was called Crayons at Court. And he had observed a child at family court who was upset with the situation that was going on. And so he built a service project to provide crayons and coloring books and things for children to do at court. And so I just wanted to share that because I thought it was an excellent example of a service oriented project. I don't know where this young person is from. But that kind of recognition is really important. In our areas of communications, I had the question about the protocol that happens now I understand there was a lockdown at a non-district school. And while our schools, of course, we didn't have cell phones with our students. There was not a propagation of rumors and other things going on. But of course, we now know, of course, with our new situation, there would protocol applied, which may or may not involve notification of non-district school events. But I did want to raise that issue. Because this did happen, I understand with the Lenape district today. We have a virtual, we had a snow day And I have grandchildren in other districts and it was quite interesting that in one case. They went right to virtual learning. And in the other case, they had what I would call a snow day. Although you needed to have your homework done for the next day if there was something due. So I just wanted to mention that. I really appreciate the 2025 course of study. I did not see that accounting has made it yet. And I will say that my daughter changed from wanting to be a math teacher because of the inspiration of great math teachers at Cherry Hill. To become an accounting major The first semester she was in college. So I mention it because it's very important and it may be in part related to our financial literacy. The second thing I'd like to say is how wonderful it is to have these students working with self-direction. As they're exploring career pathways. And the importance of emphasizing that most people will have multiple jobs, careers during their work life. And that work-life balance is an important criteria to consider. Thank you. Thank you very much. I don't see anyone else on the line. Is there anyone else in the room who would like to make a public comment? Please approach the microphone, state your name and municipality. Rich. Rick Short, Cherry Hill. Sort of safety alert for man. Elementary school, there are some holes. These holes are a danger. They should be fenced off or something or taped off. A child could get hurt. Also, the planting of trees while I'm all for it. I hope these trees are smaller trees and they don't block the line of sight for bus safety and other reasons. The other thing is… Again, you continue to forget the… If you continue to forget the interior security of the schools. You continue to forget bus safety. Around schools, especially with bullets nowadays. I start my real speech with my speech a statement. This statement is pretty… I don't know if you realize it. Cherry Hill School Board and cherry hill management, but you are the most radical school board In New Jersey. By far the most radical. Today, I sent you an email. In one of the videos when you get a chance. At one minute and 37 seconds in the video. The consultant, which we're using says right out loud. That she radicalizes teachers. So we're working with a… radical that wants to radicalize teachers. So what is radical? What does it lead to? Well, it leads to a student Maybe someone like that. Luigi, who has a lot of hate. And this has been going on for four years now. So I will reach out to the board members. This has to stop. Because that's all we're based about. We're the greatest race baiting school, I've said that before. And the sad part about it is. Is that I finally realized something. I realize it's not the issues around it. It's our… administration that just continually race baits. And then I have to go and ask say like, you know, Dr. Dr. Braddock, he mentioned one time in a school board meeting that he's an expert at you know extremism and extremism and You know, stopping rumors but You know, like Dr. Braddock, I got to ask you the other way. I mean, this is your short, please address the chair. Okay. I got to ask… Dr. Braddock. You know, if somebody says that They want to radicalize. Your teachers. Why is this person associated with our school. I mean, it's amazing. Bizarre. This has to end. Thank you. Your time is up. Any other public comments from the room? Please approach the microphone. Thank you. And I'm in Cherry Hill. So I'm a little disappointed in the school district because There was a golden opportunity for more community members to participate. In their ideas for school funding. I knew about it a couple of weeks ago because of a group that I belong to. I said in my written testimony. But when you really needed us last year to speak at the budget hearings, we came out in full force to help the school district But this time around where we could have had some input perhaps into helping put forth ideas for better school funding, particularly for a district like ours, it wasn't taken. So that's really disappointing to me. Because we're out here. We have time. We could do it. If you didn't participate today or Thursday. Then you could certainly have written a letter so I don't know if that's part of the communication plan. I know Alana's tried very hard with the fair funding organization But, you know, she is kind of in a predicament right now. So perhaps we could have taken a lead to help her out in this community to make sure everybody else had a chance to participate. Thank you. Thank you. I see no one else on the line. I think everyone in the room has given public comment. So I'm going to close second public comment and turn it over to Dr. Morton for superintendent's comments. Thank you very much, Ms. Winters. First and foremost, I'd just like to wish everyone a happy new year. This is actually our first board meeting of the new year. Hopefully everyone had a great winter recess and um The new year was uh joyous and you've made resolutions to do great things in this new year. There's great energy in the district since our return to the new year. Very positive morale and I think definite momentum that I'm sensing and that I'm feeling. We had an outstanding in-service day. I'd just like to publicly commend all of our teachers for the quick pivot and commend our CNI team as well for the quick pivot and switching switching from an in-service day to a virtual day. Truly outstanding. So January is Muslim Heritage Month. We did post information on our district website. And posted information on our social media as well. It's an opportunity for us to celebrate the rich cultural and historic contributions of Muslims in our community In our district, in our state. And in our nation. Strategic planning process. There's been a bit tonight of conflation between strategic planning and elementary redistricting. These are two very different processes. Strategic planning is associated with our portrait of a graduate work. And our strategic planning process is the process by which we are looking to reestablish our goals for the next five years, indicators of success, our areas that we'll focus on. As a district and our portrait of a graduate process allows us to identify the attributes, the aspirations that community has for our children. And the characteristics ultimately that we hope the students to be able to embody Possess and learn as they progress throughout Cherry Hill Public Schools. And more importantly, there was conversation about a future reality that We do not fully understand just yet. We want to prepare our students for that future reality. That is the portrait of a gradual process and that's the strategic planning process. Both of these are running concurrently. We have Portrait of a graduate meetings that we are conducting throughout the community. Community meetings at all of the schools, and we're seeking to gain as much input from the community as possible. These meetings are the same meeting. Rather, it doesn't matter if we're at Russell Knight or if we're at Beck middle We're going to be at High School West on the 21st. And I have a host of our Westside schools attend that. On the 27th, we'll be at Rosa. We'll have heart rosa, Woodcrest, and Nan participate in that I believe we have a meeting at East scheduled meeting scheduled next month as well. But either of those meetings, they're all the same. We want to hear the voices of our community members. And we've had many community members participate in meetings that we've already had thus far, who do not have children in the school. All right. That is the intention of the process. With strategic planning as well, we also have a community engagement survey that we've sent out to the community to get input from our community. We've had several thousand people participate in the survey already. And I want to apologize to our community members who, when they went on to the survey link were unable to complete the survey. That was an error in the survey itself that we didn't pick up on until We were notified of that so Mistakes happen. And it was a mistake that was quickly rectified. That has been fixed and the survey is open for another week, I believe until the end of this week. So there's still opportunity for community members to go in and to provide Feedback and that feedback for us in that process as well. Elementary redistricting is a separate process. Right now, the elementary redistricting has not gone anywhere just yet. As we had mentioned when we last spoke about this, our demographer, Dr. Grip. Is doing some work for us, some background work. That work has been delayed and pushed back just a bit. By about four to six weeks or so. Once we receive projections from Dr. Gripp. Our steering committee will be able to come back together and to be able to formulate recommendations that will then be presented to the board. I will be sharing with the board and the community an updated timeline based upon Dr. Grips delays and the delays in the information. Again. The projections that we were basing the work on are projections that are expected to come to fruition in the 28th 29 school year. We've begun this process early so that we have time, but we have a runway as we lead up to 2829. So I'm comfortable. I feel good. I think, you know, we're well within timeline and I think we'll be fine even with the delays. Again, Ms. Barati, thank you very much for your presentation this evening. Purpose of our website. Is to provide more streamlined information easy to access information for the community. Kudos to Mark Plavinski. Marcus Holman and the team for your work around getting the new website up and running. We're also looking for greater transparency. This is something that we echo when we say Each and every time that we come forward. Part of that We had conversation last year. We put it into our district goals as well. This idea of a data dashboard Data Dashboard provides a level of transparency that we haven't had in this district, certainly during the time that I've been here. Which is 17 years now. But the data dashboard itself provides opportunities for community members to go in to access information. To filter information, to analyze information. And it's all there, easy to access, easy to see. You don't have to go to 20 different different websites. To get a good sense and understanding as to what is happening in this district. So something that's very important for us. Thank you very much, Ms. Stafford, for the course of study presentation. Thank you for those who have come out. For the two meetings that have been held thus far, Rosa. We'll have a ROSA meeting just tomorrow. Something else I also want to mention, I'm not sure if Ms. Stafford mentioned that. But the course of study booklet itself will be available Thursday. All right. So after the meeting tomorrow That booklet will be released. January 17th. And just to answer a few questions that we received. From comments this evening. There's a comment about a disappointment about the district not participating in the school funding conversations. So myself, Ms. Winters, Mr. Redfern as well. Are scheduled to go on Thursday. To the school, the sf sf RA school outreach community meeting where we will give testimony. We've signed up and we registered for that. And we will provide testimony there. League of Innovative Schools. So the League of Innovative Schools It is correct. This evening was mentioned that when a superintendent leaves a district. That school district then needs to reapply for admittance into the League of Innovative Schools. That is correct, because there's an ideology, there's a philosophy that follows those who participate in the League of Innovative Schools. You have to be one who's dedicated To innovative ideas dedicated to participation protocols. And it is unfair for Digital Promise to expect a superintendent to walk into that if that's not something That is part of their philosophy on their philosophy on visioning for the district. The last piece I'll just say There was a comment about strategic planning committee selection. You know, we were very deliberate and selecting individuals who dedicate a tremendous amount of time energy effort to this community. Each of the people that we selected are excellent ambassadors. For this community. There are individuals who love the community, who love the district. There are individuals who don't necessarily aligned totally, totally and fully with everything that we believe as a district or things that we want to do and they're individuals who challenged the district. So I'm actually very happy with the individuals who have participated. And that workshop process and have been community stakeholders for us. We continue to move forward in working with Our civic associations, we continue to identify ambassadors for the district, individuals where we can disseminate information and share critical information. With critical role of Karo Raskov. And her position as a supervisor of special projects is to engage with the community. You see it happening right before your eyes. That's exactly what we're doing. As we said we do, and we'll continue to do that. With that said, I wish everyone a great night. Thank you. Thank you. We have reached the end of the agenda. I am thrilled. Thank you so much to my fellow board members for supporting me. I think it was a pretty successful run for my first try at it. Thank you to the community members who came and participated online. And now I will ask for a motion to adjourn before 9 p.m. They're a second. Mrs. Surefain. All in favor? Board meetings adjour