##VIDEO ID:9gqFRObDqCc## notice has um been advertised roll call please Mr Chu here Mr Craig here Mrs Maya she's not here Mrs molski here Mrs Seltzer here Mrs Sharon selia here Mrs Sherman here Mr tab here Mr doas here Mrs Kaden here thank you please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance Al to flag of United States we had no executive session this evening so we're going to move to section three before we go into our presentations uh motion to enter Committee of the whole so move and second second all in favor so we're going we're going into Committee of the whole so that um during the presentations um folks can ask questions after each of them and then uh we'll talk a little bit at the end well I guess that's one of the presentations it's just not on the agenda about um how to utilize the website to find information on the referendum so those of us that are facing the projector are going to move to the side so that we are not blinded and so that everyone can see what's being projected and then we'll have uh both presentations are from Miss Hal Turner correct so we will have uh the mentoring plan presentation and the OnCourse curriculum platform presentation all right good evening um my name is Meredith Howell Turner if I haven't had the pleasure of meeting you yet I am the assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction pleasure to be here thank you for coming out tonight I'm going to present on two topics today um the first is just a brief um overview of our mentoring plan which is how we welcome and support the newest members of our Collingswood and Oakland uh family schools and then the second is I'm going to give a a brief electronic tour of our new curriculum platform on course so that families see how um they'll be able to access um um and review the information that your kids are kids are learning about every day so two two quick topics sorry for the weird angle that I'm standing and trying to speak to you um so just last week we had the pleasure of uh welcoming 28 new staff members uh to collinswood and Oakland I'm going to be sharing some of the slides with you that we shared with those staff members um in the last few days so you get a sense of how they were greeted and and what they were um what they were provided as part part of their initial onboarding into our district um as well as some pictures so you can get a sense of uh what the what the vibe was like in the room uh so there was a bit of a Ted lasso theme and full disclosure this was before we knew that season 4 was about to come out so this was just good timing um and so this is how our staff were greeted warmly in the morning by um uh our three uh fantastic mentoring leads uh I'll shout them out now and you'll see their names again in a few moments but Lauren Katz Katie Balaban and Chris Taylor just did a fantastic job as I understand they have done for several years now um with this effort we were um partnered with and supported by our our colleagues and friends at CA provided a breakfast and meals over the days and helped to uh welcome and Orient our new staff members and I don't know if you can see that well enough so I'll just also kind of narrate as I steep out of the way and talk really loud there we go you can see some of the topics that we covered um to ensure that our newest staff um got a warm a warm welcome with both um meeting their colleagues meeting their building administrators and District administrators but also getting some of the kind of technical logistical stuff out of the way that we know are always the questions when you start a new job that kind of hold things up and slow you down and so we wanted to um frontload all of that um as we were greeting folks the summer and here are just a few quick photos so you can see what the atmosphere is like uh the photo on the left are um I think nearly all of our building administrators as well as our district supervisors and many of our central office staff who came out to welcome our new team members in the center is a picture that we had like a photo booth situations so um some of them gathered there and then on the right it's a bit hard to see but that's Dr McDow at the front of the room a welcoming and addressing uh addressing the new staff members and so again uh many thanks to Lauren Katie and Christine who did a terrific job with um putting this together uh this is just the beginning of a year-long mentorship program that's uh required uh by the state anytime you welcome new staff into your into your District dist um and so um they will be paired with a mentor teacher and supported throughout the year along the way in many of um many different uh facets but we wanted to First of course warmly welcome them get them used to the um the climate and the culture of our districts and give them some of the information they need to have a strong start um we used uh lots of survey feedback at the end of the orientation days and got lots of um positive feedback about their experience as well as additional questions that they had that we could answer even before they start with us next week so um I will do the listen I'll do the second piece of the um on course and then we can come back together for questions if that works all right give me one second okay the second thing I'm going to touch on tonight is if you are here with us um at a board meeting back in I believe uh May of last school year we shared that um our districts were going to be moving to a new curriculum platform called encourse that's what you see here um for staff and families who are here with us you may know that if you have tried to access our district curriculum currently it's stored in a lot of different places um and isn't the most userfriendly way to easily access the information that you want or need um and so we have been over the course of from miday all the way through now moving all of our curricular materials from the different places into one centrally organized curriculum platform called encourse um it has a family facing component that will be live and accessible on our district website and I'm going to give a very quick tour of how the information is organized so that staff and families can have a have a sense of how easy it is to navigate um and provide you with easy quick access to the information that you might might need if you are a parent or a guardian a family member supporting your child at home and want to have a sense of what they're up to um each day during the year so once families are logged in and we'll provide you with the access code for how to do that on the left hand side it might be small but you see the information is organized by um building grade level it says Elementary Middle School High School there's some other information beneath and below that for our purposes tonight if you are an elementary parent who wanted to know what your child was up to in third grade math perhaps I'm using this as one example you would be able just simply click into those files and have access to um all of the units and modules and lessons and Link standards I know I'm going through this quickly but I'm just giving giving a sense of How It's organ organized if you were a secondary uh parent or guardian or family member who wanted to understand what was happening in let's say a high school social studies class similar very it's all the same sort of organization um you can again click into those simple drop-down um hyperlinks and have access to all of the information um that your child is learning at a given moment uh in time and so um this will be live and excess our staff already have their access to um to this site and for families you soon will have access as well so that you can look to your to your heart's content um and reach out to your child's teachers District administrators or myself if you have further questions about what you're reading or how you can best support your child or family member at home so I want to give a a thank you and shout out to many summer curriculum writers who have been working to do the very painstaking slow laborious task of moving all the stuff from one place to another um and a thanks to uh Windsor Yamamoto who's been overseeing this process at the district level for us so that is all from me for tonight and I'll take any questions from anyone once we are are you going to do your piece as well right now or do questions first why don't we break it up just a little bit and so if there are questions for m how Turner regarding either the mentoring plan or the OnCourse um curriculum platform why don't we talk through any of those now and then we'll move to the second piece just so we're not piling up questions thank you uh for those presentations just a quick question about with this platform um I know one of the issues with where this was hous on the website before made it there was a lot of times that it was either outdated or old information will this make it easier for folks to know when things need to be updated turn on R end so that parents can go on there and make sure they have up toate curriculum for implementation this coming year um and so this is as current as it gets um if I understood your question correctly uh what would the what will the process be in the future for making sure that it is always that up to date oh in of ongoing maintenance uh sure we will continue with our rolling ongoing work that we do on an annual basis to make sure that curriculum updates occur on the cyclical schedule that they that we follow um not everyone is touched every single year it's usually a multi-year exercise um but this year through this conversion process every piece is being reviewed and so it will be as current as it gets this year and then going forward it will be that sort of Rhythm and cycle that I was mentioning um I have a question will parents have access through Genesis is there special log on for this um how are how going to be accessed I will be working with the tech team to make sure it is as seamless and easy as we can make it I believe it will be linked straight to the district homepage landing page but I will work out those Logistics with the tech team um I have a question about some of the crosswalks that we've talked about in the past um could you give us a sense of how parents can take a look at how the grade level subject level curriculum intersect with some of the crosswalks that we've talked about regarding like culturally responsive pedagogi sure um great question and I'll show you in a second um when we did this conversion process from the other platforms here we had the opportunity to update and kind of redesign the template that you're looking at right here and so one of the things that we did in that process was just explicitly pull out the crosswalk as its own standal excuse me Standalone component um and so I'll I'll scroll through in a second and you'll and you'll see um but we were able to just kind of um although it's infused throughout the curriculum we wanted it to also be very obvious about how we were going about um that piece and so we made it its own Standalone section so one second pardon me if anyone has any other questions while I'm bouncing around here you can chime in so if you I know it might be it's like the bottom the interdisciplinary connections is the piece that Miss Seltzer was just referring to here I hi I I wanted to wait till you were uh so you were you were done um so going back to your your presentation on the mentoring programs um you know welcome to those 28 new staff members absolutely um how do you feel uh you know very encouraging 20 new people uh but just in the face of a lot of the staff that we've lost over the past few months um how are things looking in terms of the new school year just in terms of uh teacher course loads and uh coverage of programming and things like that please thank you um we are in great shape in terms of teacher schedules if you're I don't know if you're asking like K12 or secondary explicitly um but all staff were informed of their daily teacher schedule per their contract on August 15th so staff have access to that currently and and did as of a week ago um we continue as we have in Prior years to operate within our contractual obligations um there are a small number of secondary staff who were asked if they were interested in teaching higher than their contractual low that was an optional ask and if you opted into doing so um and and so overall yes we are um able to roll out a strong student schedule with the new bell schedule at the secondary level and feel um excited to start the year in that in that spirit thank you any other questions about these two presentations before we move on thank you very much Miss H Turner sure thing thank you and then Dr mcdal I think you're you're going to take us through how we will F how can we find um information about the referendum on the website yes um it's good evening everybody um please bear with me so if you go to our District home page right on the homepage we have a bond referendum 2024 link which takes you directly to our district uh information everything from the presentations the videos information around regarding information sessions fast facts feedback from our referendum roundtables uh and so forth in addition to having information um in terms of frequently asked questions in addition to the seniors tax freeze reimbursement information as well as the a tax impact calculator and so the way that this works is uh a resident or a homeowner is able to input their current assessed value and then calculate uh what the impact of the referendum would be uh on their local uh taxes and local fair share um before we turn this off and just sit back down did anyone want to um have say anything more specifically about uh the website or where in information can be found about the referendum yeah I was going to mention that depending on the size of your browser window the bond referendum 2024 link might not show up directly up there it might be under like a it might say more and then you have to click on the more menu and underneath it it'll say Bond referendum 2024 so it just depends on the size of the window it might not be so if you don't see it just click on the more more link Roger do you mean when you're on the columnswood homepage you might have to scoll to find yeah so it depends on if the yeah so it depends on if uh the resolution of your of your browser screen so you know and sometimes when that happens too like the about our district section will be under the more section again so if you don't see it just click on more and you'll see the link okay I'm so my suggestion is why don't we turn this off and then we can all come back can sit down and have and finish the conversation uh in a less kind of all over the place way so just give us one second here all right there we go um so we had a few more things regarding um some some things uh around the referendum that have come up that we just wanted to be sure to clarify in this meeting before moving on uh the first is that and and Dr mcdal can probably speak a bit more um to this because I know you were the one dealing with the um the Facebook account on Friday but there was a we did notice so first of all we have this is a fairly standard thing when um a school district goes out for a bond referendum that the uh the Architecture Firm that has put the the plans together then also part of their the the package deal is that they put out um uh information for us about the referendum they took the videos they did the the Drone footage that sort of thing and that is built into the cost once the referendum were to pass so that is not coming out of our current um school budget um so anyway with that being said a mistake was made uh with the media company would that be the right way to refer to them can you can you kind of take that part from there thanks yes um so the architectural firm is working with uh a Media Group that not only collects the video footage uh puts the videos together but they also focus on um uh uh Regional communication and so uh they uh mistakenly um connected some of the ads to one of the political action committees um that are uh in town and so there's multiple political action committees so college with Public Schools is not connected to any of the political action committees these are concerned citizens on all sides of the issue that are expressing their voice um in a very formal way and so uh Friday uh it was brought to my attention I immediately reached out to the Media Group uh uh requested that they remove um anything that they had done in terms of uh advertising uh and then connect the uh future advertising to the school district website which is what we just previewed um and they did that effective on Saturday uh but it was brought to my attention that Thursday evening and Friday uh they had connected it to the wrong landing pages thank you so um right we wanted to acknowledge that that was a mistake that was made we recognized the mistake and um moved to correct it um as soon as we could because yes there is a separation between any political action committee and the school district um moving on from that though did want to talk a little bit about process from the school district perspective um so that we are clear clear about how we got to where we are and then what we're doing moving forward so just to kind of clarify once again how the the referendum process worked was that you always have um an ad hoc committee or usually the process for for these sorts of things with school boards is there is an ad hoc committee meaning a committee that is separate from the full board that comes together to discuss whatever topic um is needed whether it be for in this case it was a long range facility ad hoc committee that was discussing facilities needs sometimes we've had Communications um ad hoc committees to discuss the communication needs that that arose through um in time uh there we've had an equity uh committee that was kind of an ad hoc situation as well anyway there was a long range facilities ad hoc committee that has been looking into what we can do uh in terms of upgrading facilities for a few years now once um a more clear plan was put into place the uh the plan moved out of the committee itself to the full board um they were made aware of it that's just the general nature of the way um the structure of committees and the the board works so when uh issues are brought to the full or to the board whether it be through letters that are sent emails that are sent they come through um either a board email or through the business administrator they're sent to the appropriate committee chair or head of that particular topic and then the particular committee discusses um what to do with that information uh and then it gets forwarded to the full board once decisions or actions have been made and that's exactly how all of this worked um one of the things that the ad hoc committee had asked of um asked was what is our ability as a school board once we have have voted in the affirmative to go out for a referendum does the board then have an ability to advocate in favor of said referendum and so we consulted our attorneys to make sure that we were all within um our our ethical duties and the big issue is that we cannot spend School resources so School funds to advocate for or against a referendum but as individual members of the community ourselves we can certainly um speak to what we think is positive about this or why we think it is um something that folks should vote for because we are speaking on behalf of an affirmative action that the board took so what that means is we voted yes to move forward with the referendum so now we can speak uh for what we voted for and I know that there's been a lot of um talk about not if not everyone agrees with something is it okay for folks to talk about how they feel whether they agree with it or don't agree with it and the issue is once the board votes in the affirmative or in the negative that's the end of the discussion for those that don't agree either way so another great example of that would be the SLO discussion it was a pretty um heated discussion went back and forth a lot once the vote passed it would have been inappropriate for any board members to publicly be speaking against the um hiring of an SLO because that board voted in the affirmative to do it so it's kind of the same idea here um you'll see on the agenda tonight there's a resolution that just makes it clear what the board what board members excuse me can do when it comes to advocating for um a yes Vote for This referendum and I just wanted to be sure that we were kind of pointing all of that out um during Committee of the whole and if anybody has anything to add from the board perspective or uh Dr McDow or Miss Coleman they can certainly feel free all right then cool wait sorry um I had a clarification about going back to what you said in the beginning with um funding uh so you specified that when it's when so when an advertisement for the referendum says paid for by con with school district that is money that is I think the term was soft costs that was quoted and then that is rolled into the cost of the bond referendum so that's what that means when it says paid for by the cons School District so referring to when I've only seen a screenshot because I'm not on Facebook myself but I think what it says because of the way Facebook um works when when a somebody has a page it says paid for by and it says callings with schools right Roger I know you've been kind of looking into this can you explain what how that all works and that we had to give access to the media company to utilize our Facebook page or it wouldn't be coming through our Facebook page and in order for them to do that they had to use their funds to but through our account to pay for it does that make sense okay so I think that is why unfortunately it comes up saying paid for by callings with schools because it's paid for through because it's being posted on the collinswood public schools account Facebook account or Instagram account I would assume um but the costs are coming from the Media Group that is hired by the architectural firm yeah yeah to um to date the only thing that has come across my desk that I I've authorized is the um just the ads in the retrospect where we just reminding people that there's a vote coming on September 17th that's the only thing that's come through through me for that one the ad sorry that was too loud for that one the ad does not specify vote Yes or no it's just reminding folks that a vote is happening on September 17th and that's why it's okay to use School funds for it right okay yeah and I think um it probably would be good if we can look into whether or not Facebook lets us change that wording because again it's it's not paid for by the school district um it is one of those interesting things because I remember last year at the New Jersey School Board association's conference they had uh there was a really informative session on bond referendums uh that that I got to attend and um this is I mean this is the the common practice I think Harry Hill School District was presenting then and they had passed like the I think the most the biggest um yeah B refer in State history I can't remember how much like 300 something million I think I don't know how much but huge um and I think Garrison Architects were were were all the The Architects then um and so it's pretty SAR practice that basically they as the the company have decided to use the some of their fees to pay for marketing for their plan and so uh again I think it' probably be nice if we can see if there's a way in Facebook to to change it so it says paid for by you know them or whatever but that that's where the fundings coming from I just had to clarifying whoops um so I'm reading this resolution that we're going to vote on tonight so if we have any questions about what we going to talk to the public about we have authority to to the solic and may copy I just want affs what usually resolution so if you want to check to see if what whatever action it is that you would like to take is within the bounds of what the resolution says I would send that email to myself and Dr mcdal and Miss Coleman and we will pass it on to the the board attorney to check in with that so he's not being inated with too many emails okay thank thank you any other questions or comments before we move on all right I do have sorry okay I want to make sure to hit my microphone um so just a question about the timeline so so what you're saying is that once the board voted any the affirmative to send the question to the county then the board so at that point did the board have a right to speak affirmatively like board members in public or is it only with the passage of this referendum that that I because I obviously with stipulations because I was I was reading all the literature from this cour Association and from the solicitor um so New Jersey state you know ethics laws and um you know Court precedent things like that have stipulated that board members have to say that they're private citizens which many board members have have done um so that that's that's all covered within that but then when it comes to but then passing this resolution will will then supersede those those Court rulings or because and you know what I mean so I was reading all of the all the literature and I just want to make sure I understand so so court rulings have said that board members cannot speak as board members is ITT court rulings or School ethics commission rulings because that's two different things both um in the in the information from the solicitor there were a number of cases that were cited uh new Supreme Court cases things like that and then also the the ethics laws so so with the passage of this resolution at our local level that that then supersedes those case rulings it's clarifying that because we know um folks have had questions about whether this um what board members are allowed or not allowed to do um when it comes to advocating for um a referendum that they've put out and said you know we think this could be good for schools so um it was suggested by our attorney that to kind of clarify things and make it um clear that we were not doing anything that was outside of the the bounds of what the school ethics law says this resolution shows that we are um working within those bounds thank you because normally we're not allowed to speak on behalf of the board in anything other than our private capacity right so this is just giving us that right for this particular circumstance right motion to exit Committee of the whole so moved and a second second all in favor I thank you uh moving we already had presentation so moving to section five future dates and miscellaneous information um please take note of all of the back to school night uh dates and times also two things that weren't on there where we do have two more referendum Round Table discussions uh one is tomorrow the 27th from 7 to 8:30 uh held at Perkins um and the other is next Tuesday September 3rd same time 7 to 8:30 but at the community center so just wanted to make sure that folks knew about that as well um and obviously take note that Tuesday September 17th is when we would be voting on the bond referendum and the 23rd is our next board meeting uh moving on to section six routine business can I get a motion to approve the minutes of the June 24th 2024 regular board meeting and the July 17th 2024 Bond referendum meeting so move and a second second questions or comments from board members roll call please just say um yeah well bethan it doesn't say that there sorry all in favor okay um we are at our first opportunity for public comment I'm gonna say this first before I forget because the tech folks have been working on making sure that um everyone can hear everything that's being said so that's why we're talking into our mics a little more closely but one of the um the things that folks have said listening at home was that when people come up to talk into the mic just talk with your regular voice you don't need to use a teacher Voice or a really loud voice because I guess that creates some kind of feedback and makes it hard for folks to hear at home so just you've got a microphone so you can just talk regularly and everybody will hear you now I will read my my statement the purpose for this public comment section is to discuss items listed on the agenda additional more General comments may be made later in the meeting the public is reminded that attempts to resolve concerns and complaints should first go through appropriate staff members and administrators the intent of public comment is to give the community the opportunity to give feedback to the board we will be actively listening and taking notes so that we can take all that is being said into consideration if appropriate clarifying comments may be made at the end of the public comment section for more detailed responses to concerns communication may go out later in the week by the appropriate staff members or administrators or be discussed by the board during future committee meetings members of the public are welcomed to speak and expected to do so with the utmost sensitivity for everyone in attendance In fairness to all who wish to speak there's a strict three minute time limit and M Coleman will um be have have her phone timer on so you'll hear it start to ring um please come to the microphone state your name and address for the record and there we go Kim do you want to move the mic down a little bit my name is I live aten NHS the F hockey and basketball teams Sports I have talk to get to this point this sem I applied the full you col program since working platform be a good time to to a of are more I first Mar the told they have been cancell put case said they were appropriate for students with IP other students with IP have never been sucess them there are the few things with but what for is being follow it assumtions are being made that cannot suceed be S high for me dis there only a handful of activ I begin with studies show that handsome is for everyone King hard to LLY two weeks before my senor year I have no idea what the differ I have at which we have the past few years have taken most of the C classes that so then my senior classes that will help know what to what to do what I want to do in college or TR try something new unfortunately I few opportunities be aable to meet them PE just ask offing theit from Lear together lastly I want to add that I want you to work hard an inclusion Inus inclusion is classroom it's a mass that comes from the top give us all opportuni thank you [Applause] hi everyone Rebecca finle 916 Park Miss finle I'm sorry I think you actually do need to speak a little bit louder into the microphone now I've made everyone overcorrect I apologize no it's fine does this work excellent thank you um I have recently been made aware through reporting in NJ pen and campaign Finance disclosures that the mayor of Collingswood has become an active oppon of the referendum ethical concerns have been raised and I hope that they are thoroughly investigated by those more qualified tonight I want to talk about it from the perspective of a Collingswood School District parent I have lived here for 10 years that may be short in Collingswood time but for many new residents 10 years without seeing meaningful investment in our schools is like a lifetime in our case it's been 20 years and what irks me about this recent activity by the burrow by their attempt to Rob us of a chance to even vote to improve our schools is the increasing obvious need just this year we have been in The Inquirer multiple times due to racist incidents by students and staff board member Roger Chu published a letter to the editor in the retrospect detailing the academic iniquities that hurt economically disadvantaged students year after year regardless of Title One funding and how that data clearly indicated the need for structural change cpeg gave a presentation to the board showing how far we are from being an inclusive District the referendum addresses all three of these urg needs and to read that our town is blocking it is deeply troubling I'll add one more need that is not as high of a priority as the ones I listed but it represents a broken promise from our mayor and I think illustrates why he should stay far away from this issue until his own house is in order this summer we were supposed to be presented with a plan for the wreck program they and you know we paid a consultant in 2022 the community was surveyed and we've heard nothing since it's current fall 2024 and many of us parent volunteers are gearing up for the upcoming year and once again it's kind of an Open Secret that the rec program has no indoor Space Program activities are often hosted in people's homes this is deeply problematic for the obvious reasons but this here when we are all finally facing so many of collingwood's disparities it's important to point out that hosting wrecked activities in homes excludes people who just don't have the space this is yet another problem that the referendum solves and many of us would appreciate if the burrow would either offer their own plan or get out of the way thank you hi my name is Andrea H and I'm a resent at 248 East night I have two children in the district a rising seventh grader and a rising nth grader and I'm also a member of the CMS PTA while tonight's agenda is ly there were a few things that stood out that I'm so sorry Miss hes I really feel like I screwed everyone up it's it's Miss Coleman's fault as well so everybody just talk regularly okay whatever whatever you did before was clearly working better so I'm so sorry just go ahead is that better okay um while tonight's agenda is lengthy there were a few things that stood out that I felt needed additional clarification first the resolution authorizing the board to advocate for the ref board members have already been actively advocating including letters to the editor in the retrospect does this resolution imply that until approval tonight all advocating has been done in poor Faith or out of compliance second at the end of last school year there was a significant amount of staff produced due to Major deficits in the budget while looking at the list of new hires most of these individuals seem to be starting pretty high on the salary the teacher salary guide uh like step P which is currently on top while the value of new teachers entering our district I'm just wondering how we are able to afford such salaries especially when we couldn't afford teachers at the bottom of the scale at the end of last school year there are many concerns across the entire agenda when it comes to spending money especially when there is still an unsettled teacher contract to start this school year how much money is being spent on funding the referendum passing as well as the special election being held for the referendum vote I urge you to take a closer look at how money is being spent across the district that isn't directly benefiting our students and staff thank [Applause] you let me give this a shot is it good we're good okay uh Lucho Palazo 407 Sloan Avenue um I didn't really prepare comments so I'm just gonna go ad hoc here um I believe that one one of the being topics of tonight's evening is transparency and trust with the board and with the community so it seems like we've gotten ourselves into a position where there is a lot of back and forth and just a general lack of trust coming from both ends so I know that just this morning uh my wife and I were discussing we were a little bit upset because we found out that uh our um Rising third graders teacher Mr Raider was being transferred to another school so we found this out 10 days before the start of the school year now he's being replaced by a very good teacher uh in their own right so that is great however I believe that this sort of kind of underlines this lack of trust that some of the community currently has with the board and District so I'm also somewhat concerned about the resolution tonight um that is being passed or that is being voted on um you mentioned earlier that it was going to be uh acceptable for uh school board members to come out in the affirmative in favor of the referendum however unless I misinterpreted that uh it seemed as if those who were maybe that objected to elements of it wouldn't be able to speak out um I also believe that there's uh and I'm not at all student in these things at this point in fact before this referendum was on my radar I never came to a board meeting I'm very glad to be here so I'm finding that I really like the Grassroots democracy thing but um I am very very concerned that there could be ethical issues that are raised um within the uh within the board itself so what I'm asking is that uh those who are in favor and opposed uh are able to speak their mind as private citizens as well as other members of the community such as the mayor um you know in short what I would like to see is I would like to see a lot more transparency a lot more trust I do believe that that this referendum is going to have a hard time passing September 17th and hopefully that we can bridge the gap and start to come up with real solutions for our kids as soon as September 18th thank you for your time good evening everyone uh Dave ralton 903 Park Avenue um few people already discussed the resolution um I'm curious for the board I know you said you spoke to the board attorney um you know the the resolution seems to very specifically uh ignore advisory opinion 03-07 which specifically says that board members are not allowed to advocate in public for anything including Bond re referendums um they cannot speak on behalf of the board Etc um so I'm curious where this guidance came from if you if there is updated guidance I'm sure the public would be very interested in in hearing it or seeing it um be you know the beyond that uh there's some some additional language certainly there's no problem in a board member advocating it for it as an individual not on behalf of the board the uh board member is allowed to say they're a board member but they must also then follow up and say that they are not speaking on behalf of the board so that's where we are if there is uh some additional guidance that you received from either Council or the school of Ethics Committee I'm sure we be all be interested thank [Applause] you hi Rebecca SE 10:30 Grant AV and this will be brief because I also did not prepare remarks tonight but would just encourage the board for a little bit more transparency around the resolution after this evening the last we'd heard on this and had heard for months was we cannot Advocate we are just giving information that is the role of the board we heard that at the initial presentation at the FAQ sessions thereafter without any caveat saying except when this goes to the county that was never said so the last several weeks we've had board members with signs in their yard we had a promotional video out there without that additional context that it's allowable to do based on what I've heard tonight after the wording of the referendum goes to the county after that vote so what I would encourage is that well I like to believe many people are sitting at home listening to this and will listen to it tomorrow to be very transparent publicly about that because I do believe the last several weeks have further eroded trust in the process for this referendum and this is something that if allowable could easily be gotten in front of at this point my other question is that heard loud and clear that the me media that's happening and the advertisements are being paid for by the board architecture group what I would be curious about is in the event that the referendum does not pass who then foots the bill for all of that work that's happened is that something that's happened with The Architects as a Goodwill measure to try to get this passed or is that something that we will be on the hook for out of our budget if this happens to not pass thank you [Applause] uh hi good evening um my name is Tom Howard I live at 16 Fraser Avenue uh I am uh obviously resident of Collingswood also a public school teacher not in Collingswood um and I happen to notice again uh unfortunately there are a number of resignations uh on tonight's agenda um and going into the school year that's that's you know concerning considering number of losses we've had in recent years and recent year or so um and I can tell you that that again as and I've said this before as a teacher um usually teachers don't leave um because they have some golden opportunity somewhere else and it's just like this once in a lifetime chance to depart for greener pastures financially it's usually something that they're reluctant to do um because of the connections and because of the relationships they've built with their students with their fellow staff members so to me it seems with all of the departures we've had that there needs to be a real serious look again about why this is happening um and I can also tell you as a teacher uh something that certainly doesn't help is the fact that you're going into the school year without a settled contract with the with the the union um because the longer that persists um the more demoralized people are going to feel I mean I I've been through it myself going through a year plus working without a contract um and it was just I mean it was eroding I can't think of the best word corrosive uh horrible to morale and everything and and this is not something that is good for a district that has struggled to retain teachers in recent years years so I I I really encourage you guys to make a serious effort to settle the contract and also do so without putting articles in the newspaper essentially not so subtly blaming the union for the issues um there there you know and I know um a lot of people on the board like to tout their Progressive P credentials and I applaud the board for a lot of measures that do line up with with so-called progressivism such as the focus on uh diversity equity and inclusion which is a super important work but you know what also is Progressive is supporting labor it's supporting unions supporting workers and by doing things like that you're you're you're sending the opposite mess message and you're saying you're not really that Progressive that way so try to find it in your way to make some road inroads with with the staff so that we don't have this continual um list of resignations um every single board meeting uh thank [Applause] you hi uh Trey ramsburg 32 East Colter Avenue Collingswood members of the board Dr McDow I'm not speaking today as a representative of Collingswood District students but as one I've met each of you and I know you to care about our future and if any kind of and if I have any kind of reputation it's not as somebody who doesn't care about the school district as a student I am troubled to say the least by what I see as a misalignment of priorities on the part of the board I don't believe I'm alone in being less than entirely enthusiastic about the proposed renovations to the stadium space and updates to the elementary school system I for one would love to see the kinds of reforms proposed to the elementary schools but it appears underdeveloped and it's disquieting to see this reform tied inexorably to the less necessary project of building the best and biggest Sports Complex in Miles I'm well aware that the laws which allow us to raise taxes for new Renovations don't allow ow us to to do the same for pre-existing costs without extensive appeals but somehow that doesn't make me feel any less uneasy about supporting massive spending on this project while our ever smaller population of Veteran teachers is set to operate without a Union contract at the heart of this I think is that many of us see all the issues especially with staff relations the board seems to be ineffectual in the face of solving and wonder why this proposal has been the grand project of this Administration the purpose of taxes in a representative government is to fairly pay your share for the good of the community and I think most taxpayers would instead of having the best football stadium rather make sure the football coaches are paid fairly our interests with a school are with its teachers and I would I would have preferred the board spent all its efforts on squaring out a deal with them than working out plans for a state-of-the-art outdoor pickle ball court I'm just I am just young enough to not be able to vote in the referendum but it would not come as a shock to me if it proved unpopular [Applause] hey good evening everyone my name is Conor mcdna I'm at 7-Eleven Collings Avenue first off relatively new to Collingswood uh as you guys all know Collingswood does have a great reputation I moved here a little over a year ago uh really excited to be part of this Progressive town this you know exciting there's a lot of Youth here there's a lot of compassion so recently only recently got involved since then uh with some of the board activities uh but in the past I've had the uh fortunate opportunity to sit in on a lot of the uh Board of Education State Board of Education trainings that you all have and really the biggest thing I've kind of taken away from uh tonight's measure where you're looking to reassure that you are working within what the board solicitor has recommended and I believe that I do believe that you are doing what is legally permissible but I'm really concerned about is that those are kind of going against those ethical concerns that the State Board is is really always hammered home of be sure that as a private citizen you're not compromising that trust and integrity in the board so I understand that the board's decision tonight will be looking towards what is legally permissible for you all speaking as private citizens uh but as others have talked about that trust is really seemed to be roing eroding away over the past especially six months with the board referendum and I think this kind of uh movement is going to only hurt that whether it's after this referendum and for other things to come thank [Applause] you hi my name's John dwire I live at uh corner of mcgillan Virginia and uh my three kill children they went to newbie they went and some of them went to middle school and one daughter went to high school and I've lived in collinswood for 40 some odd years and to tell you the truth I'm ashamed that this board is representing me I'm totally totally shamed and I think that you're continuing marginalization of the sharp neighborhood the whole neighborhood you've picked out sharp and I don't know you all say Dei or diie is the way to go and you're not anywhere near close to taking that vow okay all right and I guess I could just blame the three of you that uh wrote in the in the newspaper in the retrospect okay okay but I guess I'm going to blame the whole board okay that it's disgusting it's irritating it's racist it's marginalizing it's it's just it's crazy just absolutely crazy and you have absolutely no answers to any of the questions that have been asked in the retrospect you didn't have the uh you didn't have the forethought to even have an appraisal of the Garfield school so you know how much you're going to give into into that okay after you close it the sharp school you know you you you I can't speak okay you're just terrible people hi not using my teacher voice I am Alexandra Guido Smith 311 use my teacher voice okay I'm Alexandra Guido Smith 311 Lake View Drive um as a majority of you here our volunteer officials I would like to thank you for the effort that you put in every day for our children for the referendum that you have put forth for the time and energy that it takes to sit there and listen to people who do not listen to the things that you are saying who do not acknowledge the things that you have said repeatedly I go to Every meeting I'm here I've I've come to a number of the the roundtables I've heard you say that the architect pays for the promotional stuff I knew that because you said it and I heard you say it you don't have to tell me 12 times I'm also working without a contract as I have before in my district every single one of our non- 10-year teachers was let go my intervention partner that was with me for 18 years got put back in a kindergarten classroom because the state is cutting funding everywhere my district has pay to play for all the sports there is no money my husband and I have budgeted without me getting a raised because I don't expect that my contract is going to get settled because I don't know where they're going to get the money from you all are in an unthinkable spot that I honestly I am very glad that it is not you that it is you and not me because there's no way that I could but I thank you for what you are doing for putting forth and getting for putting forth a referendum that will put our children together that will provide opportunities for inclusive practices in inclusive situations that does not exist now for a four and five building that every single one of these kids and those teachers deserve to work in thank you Lee Troutman 104 East Madison Avenue um in reference to several items that you've presented already uh the board's tax impact calculator will actually not give you what you're going to be paying as an increase because when the town comes up with the new assessments that is actually what you will be paying your taxes on so like I calculated mine using yours and my taxes are going to go up $868 a year every year for as long as I live here because I'll be dead before the bond actually gets paid off that's one thing second thing in terms of uh what board members can and cannot do you can put signs on the mayor can Advocate or not advocate for the board as long as he identifies himself as speaking as a private citizen in the same way that you can where you can advocate for the bond or you can Advocate against it um actually was Mr Chu's letter which made me get more interested in this because as a board member years ago we faced the same thing and then had to live within specific guidelines for what the board members could or couldn't do and then I found on your on your agenda the idea that you are going to try to pass a resolution where board members can as board members speak on behalf so today I sent a message to the county superintendent uh Miss adill from the superintendent's office was kind enough to get back to me uh provided me with several cases statutes Etc where these types of things had taken place already but the link she connected me to for a New Jersey school board's uh advisory uh ends with the key takeaway for board and their members when pursuing a bond referendum the most important guideline for board members to remember is that providing objective information about the potential benefits and disadvantages of a propos proposed Bond referendum is almost always legal however board members must be careful not to use their official positions to convince School District residents to vote Yes or no if you go on and pass this and I would actually advise you to table the issue go back to the board attorney have him send it to the state and find out that way but if you do this legal action will follow because specifically New Jersey school board says you can't do it so I would please take that under advisement and finally getting to transparency um I attended one of the political action meetings uh last week was interested to hear from people who who had actually spoken individually to the superintendent about some of their concerns from the sharp area and it just surprised me to hear things like well we're going to propose keeping the board offices at St John's but once the state has approved it we're going to move them to Sharp uh classroom size not going to be Capp three teachers in a classroom thank you Mr dman and students will teach other students h [Applause] so I have oh it I am speaking it is I think it's this thing oh I'm sorry I'm Adrianne Earl 409 cley I have a totally different topic I think is a pretty simple question um about the back to school dates um so they're organized differently this year than they have been in the P previous two school years prior to when it was virtual after covid um at the previous two school years um and that's like since I've had kids in the district really and gone to these um it was every single school had a different night and prek had its own night for back to school night as well and I see that they're kind of doubled up this year and at different times um so like if you happen to have a kid at Garfield andan which could happen I guess um they're at different times so that you could make both presumably I I was wondering if um in the previous years um like last year at sharp um it was on the sharp back to school night was its own date but there were like two times so there was like a 6:30 session and a 7 o'clock session I assume so that you could go right when you have siblings um at at least if you had two kids if you have more you got to figure it out right but like so you can make it to two different ones I was wondering if that's going to happen this year because so and it's not not to say it's about me but just for example so this year I have a prek and a second grader at sharp and it looks like um sharp is prek through five one night so um like on that Thursday September 12th at 7 is it going to be like a 7 o'clock can I go to prek and then :30 can I go to the second grade session or do we just have to try to like split up um that oh sorry so that that was my question I thought maybe it was pretty simple but I wasn't sure um and I apologized that I didn't reach out directly to the teacher because it looked like it kind of just came to mind here and now um it looks like it's across the board it would be maybe a helpful question for like people from all different schools to know the answer to that's it thank you everyone I want to um clarify a few things or take the time to clarify a few things first I wanted to thank Miss Sullivan for um Coming Up and sharing her perspective and reminding us all to do better that was a great way to start public comment so thank you for that um Mi just because it's the last thing that was said and it's on my mind um Miss Hal Turner could you clarify for folks for back to school nights would there be the the I seem to remember in the past because I've had the same issue with two kids in in school that it's like a 600 to 6:30 and then a 6:30 to 7 session so you can switch and go to is that what we should expect thank you for the question yes and we worked with um all of our building administrators to craft a schedule that um staggers the times and the way you were describing with as little double booking as possible and so um further uh further guidance will come out from your school level about how you'll be able to get into all of your classrooms to visit multip classrooms in addition to whole group sessions at the kickoff as I believe is usually the case where the building principal administrators will share out building wide updates and then um families will move into individual classrooms in a rotational manner so that all you know that families who have multiple children can visit multiple classrooms and so we worked um on this schedule in in conjunction with the building administrators to um to to allow for that to happen so I hope that answers your question and I'll be happy to follow up with you separately if you have other questions as well thank you Miss Hal Turner um and then just to clarify a few things that came up regarding um the the resolution that's on the agenda advocating as um community members and um and just some referendum issues in general I'm going to see if I can remember all of them and maybe check in with Dr McDow or Miss Coleman if there's there's anything that I have missed um the first part about the resolution is we had our board attorneys go through and do what it sounds like some some folks in town did as well and check through case law and school ethics rules um so we believe that we are not doing anything that's outside of the bounds with that and just to to be very crystal clear about what's happened thus far um unless something has happened on Facebook that all of us are unaware of no board member has done anything without the caveat that they are speaking as an individual citizen um making sure folks know that they are board members but they are speaking as individual citizens as as is are right um and that also to clarify and and as I said this was this came up in actually the uh the last referendum as well as just in in various issues when it's going to happen that not all board members are going to agree on various decisions that are made once something is voted on however the board people as board members whether it is um at the board table or speaking publicly in some form so that might be publicly on social media or might be publicly in a public session that's not a specific board meeting the um it's not appropriate for board members to speak against something that the board has agreed to they could personally disagree with it and that's fine but if they're speaking um in a public forum they need to just not be speaking then um that's not uh a silencing thing and I mean they can choose to anyway but they are they are risking a school ethics violation if they're doing it I don't think anybody's doing that um but just to clarify kind of what some of the the folks were were I think getting at um it's when a board goes out for a referendum and they they have voted the majority of us have voted that we think it's a good idea to give it a try and let the community decide um it is a allowable for us to be clear that these are the the things we think are good about the plan um that's just kind of Mak sense that if we didn't think it was a good plan we probably wouldn't have all a majority of us wouldn't have voted for it um so I'm not quite sure that I I fully understand why that would be something that would be surprising to folks we're not using public resources um to to send out mailers as individual citizens saying that um but but folks can can speak um on what they believe so long as they're doing it within the realm of the school ethics laws uh I don't know if there's anything more you want to add to that particular point and then what was my other one that I wanted to have you speak to which was I don't know so say that one first and if I remember it I'll let you know so um thank you so just a few things I'm actually going to I'm I'm just going to go into what based on what we heard um and so I want to be very clear um Bond referendums are really about the future and the future requires two things it requires uh flexibility um and it requires um a level of planning and preparation based on the rules the laws in which you are governed and the resources that are available and so uh is what is being proposed sunshine and rainbows no it is not is what is being proposed a solid cohesive plan as promised on September 12th of 2022 when we came out publicly to the community specifically referencing many of the challenges that have been communicated uh both small and large by our community loud and clear it was further reiterated during the uh Vision 2026 plan which even individuals that have that are within their legal right to communicate that they are against have come out and said very clearly they fully support the goals and the objectives of the vision they don't like the process so the process is the process and so I what I believe that's extremely important is is that the school district are governed by rules and laws from the state um that are very specific and so as a district our task was to come back to the community as promised with a cohesive proposal based on the resources that were available based on the options that were presented to us and our capacity to be able to fund and to deliver what the community has asked for and so this is a a solid First Step moving in that general direction and so I would encourage um the uh information that is housed on our district website uh to be the information that we uh refer to the conversations that we have learned in our small group sessions in our Roundtable meetings have really helped us to think uh more cohesively about some of the things that were not considered in the development of The Proposal hence the reason why we came out six months in advance when the state says you go out 60 days and so we knew that this was going to be a transformational conversation over many many months but based based on the tremendous amount of participation feedback energy among our community members on all sides of every issue uh it was important for us to come out with this information and so I will continue to uh uh to share uh my responsibility as superintendent is to uh serve the children and families within this community those who are for what we're proposing those who are not for it is not for me to decide it is for the community to decide how we best support our young people and finally what I would say is that the continued misunderstanding misinterpretation or conflation of the issues as they relate to equity as it relates to access as it relates to longstanding disparities as it relates to lack of inclusive opportunities that we heard from Miss Sullivan this evening all of those core things that we as community members and I say we because I live here too I have two children who go to school in Collingswood I pay the same taxes as everybody else I have the same fears as everyone else for my children and whom I love but I also love and care for the 2500 other children that I'm also responsible for without casting value judgments on who they are what they think who they love or what they believe who they pray to or who they do not our responsibility is to put the best possible option forward for the children and the families that we serve with the resources that we have available and I will be very clear it is not easy these are very challenging discussions and I strongly encourage every member within our community no matter where you sit with this issue look at the information make the best informed decision for your family thank you thank you Dr mcdal um moving on to section eight the superintendent report Dr Mel speak and so a few uh items that we just wanted to to share uh while we're here and so just to further reiterate uh the bond referendum website houses all of the uh District information uh as it relates to the referendum as it relates with specifications as it relates with the finance uh we do have an upcoming event uh tomorrow at the Perkins Center for the Arts uh from 7 to 8:30 um information was sent out last week and reminders were also sent first thing this morning uh please sign up and register so that we can plan these are smaller more intimate conversations with 25 to 30 community members and residents so that we can have real engaging conversations uh about the future I'd also like to send out a reminder that the special election is on September 17th polls open at 6:00 a.m and Clos at 8:00 pm voters can mail their ballots but they must be postmarked on or before September 17th another option for voters is to drop off their ballots in the election boxes either at Collingswood burough hall or Gloucester Township voters can also hand deliver their ballot to the Board of Elections office located at 100 University Court in Blackwood New Jersey please be advised that the Camden County Clerk's Office does not receive or count mailin ballots I'd also like to uh continue to reiterate because a lot of things happen at the end of the year uh on June 17th uh this this year we were excited to wrap up the 2324 school year with our 185 graduates from the class of 2024 and so this special group of young people were awarded over $5.1 million in academic scholarships one of them being the first and only Gates uh Foundation scholarship awarded to a collinswood high school graduate out of 53,000 applicants across the country a Inwood high school graduate received an all expenses college education based on the tremendous efforts of the faculty staff and Community here in this school I'd also like to recognize the outstanding performance of our valedictorian Micah anger who is attending Dartmouth in the fall and Salud atarian Wesley Wilcox who will attend the University of Vermont we'd also like to honor and recognize the 35 of the 185 National Honor Society graduates and their classmates who were accepted into some of the most prestigious colleges and universities in the country [Applause] our our marching band was a top 10 finalist in the Atlantic coach championship and the indoor percussion Ensemble placed third at the Atlantic coach championships we also had our pause TV leaders receive Emy awards for outstanding Talent outstanding news anchor and outstanding holiday shows student leaders and PA TV also received Emmy nominations for producing good morning Collingswood news magazine and the documentaries Panthers ignite Panther football culture and odyssey of the Mind in addition to our high school students winning first place at the camyon county teen Arts Festival and they were honored at the 10day film festival this is who our students are our student athletes despite the good the bad the challenges associated with our athletic and recreational facilities no matter where you fall within that Spectrum or Continuum our student athletes were honored this year including boys uh uh Baseball Conference champions girls lacrosse Conference champions and our girls soccer team won the gimm Black sportsmanship award we had student athletes break school records and earn individual state championships both in football as well as track and field our students were also recognized as all stars in the colonial conference the South Jersey interstate swim league the South Jersey Interstate lacrosse league and the Burlington County Sports League this is who our high school students [Applause] are last week we sent out back to school information um we are excited to welcome our students and staff back on Thursday September 5th as uh was previously stated we will continue to send out information both at the district level but specifically at your child's School level as we prepare for a successful uh welcoming of students and a start a strong start to the 2425 school year last week we also welcomed the next generation of 28 talented Educators during our new staff orientation 18 new staff and 10 psychology and social work interns we're extremely excited to add these professionals to our team and we look forward to another great school year special thanks again to our phenomenal induction coordinators Miss Balaban Miss Katz and Miss Taylor wanted to give you a quick update on preschool and kind Garden enrollment and so as of uh today prek enrollment uh for both general education and preschool disabled students is 196 of the 300 students who qualify in Collingswood with our stated goal uh which will continue to be uh to ensure that we continue to grow each and every year so that Collingswood families have access to free highquality early childhood education our preschool program currently has a weight list of 49 students the registration team is continuing to work with the child study team to place students in the process of Eligibility and will continue to invite students from the weight list once seats become available kindergarten uh enrollment currently has 120 general education students and I uh students with IEPs in general education settings this does not include students currently in self-contained classrooms we currently have uh uh seats uh still available at newbie sharp and Tatum um we currently have students on the wait list at Zayn through our New Jersey preschool expansion program Collingswood was approved to increase its preschool capacity uh during the the June 24th public meeting the Board of Education approved the district to move forward with a fiveyear lease at the Parkview property and so the cause at Parkview uh preschool program will be a new partnership which will allow the district to expand up to 60 additional highquality preschool seats for Collingswood families additional details around site launch date and registration will be released in the near future once construction is underway and project completion um is the project completion date is established uh in May the Board of Education revised its policy allowing students grades three through 12 to bike to school uh bike racks have been purchased for our elementary schools and and are currently in the process of being installed policy 5514 um is the policy I'm I'm referring where it talks about student use uh of vehicles on campus since then Mr Jefferson our director of culture and climate has been working with the New Jersey chapter of safe rids to schools and are working to develop a plan to integrate safety protocols suggested for our new writers Additionally the district is in the initial uh planning phases of bicycle safety assemblies to be conducted uh within all of our schools uh please stay tuned I would also be remissed in not giving a uh they call giving them their flowers uh we need to give them more than their flowers our technology Services team uh last year one of our district priorities was to support the enhancement of our infrastructure specifically by updating technology Services we sought to improve our Chromebook deployment and address workflow and customer service concerns to schools and we wanted to reinforce our cyber security and data protection protocols and so when we go back and we look at 23 uh 24 year in review in the area of customer service our technology Services team resolved 7,39 tickets between July of 2023 and July of 2024 with an average resolution time of within 24 hours in terms of technical assistance in preparation for this year this summer our technology Services team constructed 40 Chromebook carts for the high school that's a thousand plus digital devices they inventoried all of the Chromebooks in both districts which accounts for about 2500 devices they installed new projectors in 30 Elementary classrooms across the district they replaced necessary security cameras across the district they replaced Network wiring and infrastructure in our Middle School they prepped and imaged 26 brand new computers for new staff members not including repairs or new devices for existing staff they rebuilt the print server damaged during some of those electrical storms this summer they installed 24 smartboards at the Oakland campus they developed new technology handbook they made progress on a comprehensive 100 page incident response plan they updated and improved electronic conduct reporting across the district which we'll begin to see in our student information system in Genesis they also started a knowledge base in the ticket system so that staff are able to access helpful articles in terms of basic troubleshooting process updates and how-tos they built Auto rosters to export staff to various systems in order to make sure that staff have access to their students as well as their own personal information in preparation for the new curriculum platform that we are launching this year they organized a tech office and removed equipment taking up precious educational space across our schools and they ran open summer hours for any available staff and did staff trainings weekly and had some productive conversations used in order to provide better customer service and so when we think about the tremendous efforts uh there are a few additional items that are also coming down the pipeline they will finalize their incident response plan this is in the event that there is a uh a data breach um theft of uh of protections for both students and staff um individuals attempting to hack our systems and lock out our systems which uh school districts across the country have been subject to malware and Ransom wear to the tune of tens of millions of dollars every month we will also be phasing in multiactor authentication in order to make sure that our staff members personal private information is protected we will upgrade our firewall to enhance protections for both students and staff and then based on feedback directly from families over the last year we are building staff directories in Genesis with pertinent school-based contact information uh to be um uh more responsive to the growing needs of our community and so uh I wanted to publicly thank um our technology team um they are always here they're behind the scenes and I don't believe that we give them enough credit and so uh publicly uh I wanted to thank you for the work that you do um I thank them privately but thanking them privately is not good enough and finally we'd like to acknowledge a few back to school donations and so one of the UH responsibilities of the district office is to leverage relationships throughout the region in order to bring in resources uh for the school community and so over the last two years we've leveraged Partnerships and relationships in order to generate a little over $7 million in competitive grants in order to offset some of the challenging budget issues that we have in addition to districts across the state given uh the flaws in the current state level funding formula we'd also like to recognize and acknowledge Jefferson Health prior to the summer uh they generously donated 250 backpacks stuffed with headphones and much needed school supplies and so we'd like to publicly thank their leadership team for their continued partnership for in Collingswood and Oakland and those backpacks will be uh distributed to needy students across every school uh we'd also like to thank CMI Media Group they are a global um uh Health uh management Media Group uh and through relationships with their Cherry Hill office they graciously donated did a swath of of office supplies and over 30 flat screen monitors adapters and cables to support the workflow of our business office Personnel payroll accounts payable operations technology facilities and finance half of the monitors have already been installed and so special thanks to our Tech team again as well as our buildings and grounds crew for picking up and distributing the materials um and thank you again to the leadership team at CMI media and finally we received an extremely generous offer courtesy of one of our colinwood high school parents and that that relationship earlier this summer after the news of the high school's decision to switch to Chromebook carts and so uh Collingswood High School administration worked alongside our technology team to secure over 900 slightly used Chromebooks um from the uh local Red Cross these tremendous donation will help mitigate homework and access issue for students without the burden of repairs the plan will have our students um uh to be able to take uh much needed digital devices home for the entire year and return in June this incredible donation was facilitated by assistant principal Dan whan to help students at the high school who were uh going through this transition um from take-home to to carts and so tonight the Board of Education will approve the agreement between Kingwood public schools and the local organization uh with the Red Cross to accept a generous donation including ancillary equipment such as Chargers to Collingswood High School school and so we would like to publicly thank the Red Cross the Collegewood High School parent who helped uh facilitate this and Mr whan uh for this tremendous donation and that concludes my report thank you Dr McDow um there is not a student report tonight because they will um be elected when they get back to school so moving on to section 10 business administrator board secretary report Miss Coleman will present all righty um before I jump into uh the items I have for your approval tonight just wanted to let you know that um the audit has been complete um it is all done so it will be um submitted to the board hopefully the state doesn't move the deadline uh it's usually due December 5th but as you know in the last few years the state for their own reasons keeps pushing the deadline because they can't get their own paperwork done but the audit is done uh it is complete so tonight you actually have two months worth of financials um for you've got your final June um financials and then you got the month of July so you'll be up to date um after tonight's board meeting and I just wanted to thank uh John Longo and the buildings and grounds crew for all their hard work this summer we had a couple snafus in some of our buildings like Garfield but um I think we're ready to go I think we're ready to rock and roll next week um and open our and have our children come back it's a very busy summer uh people think you know you work in a school district you don't you don't work in the summer but boy do we get we get very busy the day after graduation um straight through to about the middle middle of next week and I think we can breathe um but I just wanted to thank them for all their hard work so in item 10.01 is a listing of the monthly transfers um for June and July item 10.02 is your board secretary Treasures reports all your financial statements for those two months 10.03 your Student Activities reports for those two months um 10.04 is your food service financial statement 10.05 is a listing of the purchase orders for the months of July and August August and then 10.06 is a listing of the warrants to be paid um again that's for the months of um July and August thank you Miss Coleman moving on to section 11 the buildings grounds and finance committee Mr Craig will present the uh Finance buildings and grounds committee reviews all financial statements purchase orders and warrants on a monthly basis committee also reviews and approves all contracts with outside service providers and oversees all maintenance and capital Improvement projects districtwide uh tonight we're seeking approval on the following items uh 112 to 119 is the board secretary's report as was just presented uh 1110 is the resolution that was mentioned earlier today around authorizing board members to advocate for the referendum um we'll just not read out the entire resolution but the therefore be it resolved um the board hereby authorized and permits all individual members of the board to advocate in favor of the September 11th 2024 board proposal on behalf of the board and their private Communications colleagues would resents on their private social media accounts and or in any public or private Forum uh board members are reminded that they must identify themselves as members of the board their Communications in favor of the September 17 2024 board referendum must be accurate and they cannot compromise the board in its efforts to seek approval of the bond referendum for from the voters uh and free board members are authorized to seek guidance from the board solicitor and any communication pursuant to this resolution 1111 is a renewal for one year of the lease with Good Shepard uh 1112 or and through 1114 are updates to standard operating procedures budget calendars and process purchasing manuals uh 11:15 is the submission to the Department of Education for the idea Grant uh 1116 annual toilet waiver annual toilet waivers and temporary facility requests temporary facility requests for uh Oakland and the Early Childhood Center um 1117 is a dual use of Education space request crest for Tatum 1118 is the esa Consolidated Grant budget submission to the state 1119 through 22 are child study study team Support Services on an as-needed basis uh 1122 is approval of first children services to provide Mental Health Services to the distri to the district uh 1123 is a contract agreement for athletic busting services for the she 1124 through 26 are translation services as needed uh 1127 through 28 or ldtc Services as needed uh 1129 is uh enrollment in the Burlington County Scholastic uh athletically um 11:30 is the rate for as needed evaluations for students that attend out of District um attend this out of District program uh 11:31 uh approving National National Employment 360 to provide free to the district employment transition support for students uh 11:32 Commission of the Blind and Visually Impaired services for the the 24 25 school year 1133 through 34 bilingual Services as needed uh 1135 is approving the contract to source and approving a contract for sourcing and supervising RBT uh Aid Services uh which will be at newbie uh 1136 uh RFP for high impact tutoring um providing this support for the high school uh 1137 is the Chromebook or accepting of the Chromebook donation that Dr mcdal um in his report uh 1138 is accepting the $9,000 grant for the Special Olympics unified Champion School Grant um a special thanks from the board to Angelina Williams uh for her work organizing this incredible event um thank her for all of our efforts uh 1139 is disposal of equipment approval 1140 through 41 are to Shared service agreements uh 1142 all I see is gold use of facility request uh so seeking approval for items 112 to 1142 thank you motion to approve that items so moved and a second second questions or comments from board members um I'd like to uh speak about uh resolution 11.10 which is the resolution authorizing uh board members to advocate for uh the referendum um just uh listening to some comments today I think it it something i' I've struggled with uh on on the board has been that uh since I've had the privilege of being on this board I I've uh been able to see how I think sincere and dedicated uh all my you know neighbors here on the board are in terms of uh the work that they've been uh doing for the school board and um I said because I think when I hear about hey that the the there's no trust trust is eroding between uh folks and the school board uh to me I I don't really know how to address that because for example I know for many of us one of the first questions when we heard about the referendum uh plan that that came out of our mouths was is there a way to avoid closing school buildings right and the answer what we go through it is no and I think we've we've said that multiple times because of all the regulations because of what the architect has uh said the answer is no and we have said that multiple times uh and I still hear outside that uh folks are saying well there there's there's there's another plan there has to be another plan there's got to be another plan and from my perspective it's it's one of those things where I I struggle to to figure out how to handle that because I'm not really sure how to build trust in the board when we we've been consistent in our answers and again and again people say no that that just can't be the answer so I say this to kind of also go into this resolution which is um the sense that that you know I want to confirm to the public that uh the work has been done to make sure this resolution uh uh is appropriate uh the work has been done by uh the board's lawyer and and they have done an analysis of the uh cases and of the uh advisor opinions and of the decisions by the school ethics commission and the administrative judge judges I looked into a lot also because as some members of the public have stated uh I did write a letter to the editor uh uh I think last week that was published last week um or uh and or two weeks ago sorry and the reason why I looked into it was understand what my what I could do as as a board member right and one of the important things to understand is that board members are not just uh uh residents in town we have a special obligation right so to speak as a private citizen we have to to put our on board matters we have to put the disclaimer that we're speaking as private citizens uh not as representatives of the board because uh only the board can speak for the board and the board is uh whatever the majority of the board votes for or the president can also speak for the board in certain cases so when we uh when we talk as private citizens we have to put that disclosure and we're also still Bound by school ethics laws which say that we cannot compromise the board Even in our private actions right so so these are the rules that we have to follow because we are board members there's a special obligation because we get the privilege to sit up here at the the board table what this resolution says is that because the board agrees if it gets passed uh that uh we can advocate for the uh uh passage of the bond referendum as board members that we can that's that's the that's the basic gist of it it says the board has had uh made an action and as a collective whole which is what the board is they voted and they've said hey board members you can Advocate as board members for the passage of a resolution and and that's the gist of it there doesn't say anything about spending money because the the big Crux of what a what a school board can and can't do in terms of advocating for a a refer is they cannot spend public money to do so one way or the other right this is not about spending public money this is about saying as a board we've made a decision and if it's voted and passed then we're perfectly within the board's right because the board has authorize the individual members to go out and speak speak for it um one of I think the really important pieces that uh in kind of the crafting of this resolution is is this this paragraph uh uh that our lawyer told us which was you know however school officials are not completely precluded from promoting the adoption of a proposal or referendum C uh parip Troy Hills uh in 181 in parsipany Troy Hills the Supreme Court noted that quote when the program represents the body's Judgment of what is required in the effective discharge of its responsibility it is not only the right but perhaps the duty of the body to Endeavor to secure the ascent of Voters theto right so so essentially what it's saying is that if we pass this action we are uh uh then uh we are allowed to uh uh and we think that it's right then we are allowed to Advocate uh for uh the passage of the referendum what this resolution essentially does is say you don't as board members anymore have to go out and say uh that you're not speaking for the board because you've been authorized then to speak for the board on this matter but again as uh individuals we're still held to the school ethics uh act which means we cannot compromise the board and none of us are the board the majority of us are the board right and so that's why specifically uh we can go out an advocate if this is passed but we cannot go out and say uh vote no because that would be compromising the board because again none of us are the board the majority of us are the board uh does that does it does that help kind of answer some of those questions I think so yeah so I I say this I gave my first story also because I think for me I'm in support of this resolution because I think one of the concerns that board members have had in terms of speaking uh uh out and and just trying to build that trust and and putting the facts out there has been having to continually put that disclaimer out there and worry about uh uh uh whether or not we are speaking with the authority of the board or not on these matters you know I I used to be a teacher and I'm I'm still now a sports team coach and something you know as frustrating as it is sometimes you know sometimes you have to say something 12 times 24 times 30 times right in a row uh because you know people it it takes a while you have to repeat things over and over again for folks to uh hear and process and understand and come to terms with the answer and that's just natural human behavior and so that's why I'm in favor of this resolution because it will make it easier for us board members to go out and build that trust and answer these questions uh even if it has to be 30 times 40 times 50 times uh to make sure that we're uh clear to the public about uh what our proposed referendum is and is not any other questions or comments from board members um I have a question on item 11. uh 13 the budget calendar um is it possible when the board is being asked to vote on um the budget and I appreciate there's a lot lot that goes into you know specifically at the end of February the state aid you know I do know all about that but um since there will be steps to kind of get the minds around um the the the needs of the district going forward even before that state aid comes out is it possible for um board members to be given maybe a little bit more information at the time they're being asked to vote to approve that number of what the impact will be on Staffing and programming thank you roll call please sorry taking notes at the same time Mr chill yes Mr Craig yes Miss Mrs M isn't here Mrs molski uh yes except for 11.10 where I vote no Mrs seltzer yes Mr Sheridan Celia yes Mr Sherman yes Mr tab yes for all appal items Mr dolas yes Mrs Kaden yes moving on to section 12 the curriculum committee Mr Chu will present the curriculum committee oversees and approves the district curriculum and assessment programs as well as field trips home instruction co-curricular programs and the school calendar uh so up for approval today is our items 12.02 uh and 12.03 which are uh both uh out of District placements uh uh and home instruction placements um item 12.04 is the uh 2024 25 uh District curriculum for the high school uh 12 let's see 12.05 is a district curriculum for the Middle School uh 12.06 is District curriculum for the preschool and Elementary School uh the 12.07 is a a reup of our comprehensive Equity plan which is a an annual submission 12.08 is the annual required submission of emergency virtual or uh remote instruction plan knock on wood um 12.09 is uh the 2427 es leip uh uh program uh submission uh 12.10 is a tuition free uh students which is a uh part of um uh our staff contracts uh 12.11 is uh is the approval so I'm seeking approval for agenda items 12.02 through 12.10 uh motion to approve set items so moved and second questions or comments comments from board members roll call please Mr Chu yes Mr Craig yes Mrs molski yes Mrs Seltzer she's absent at the moment okay Mrs Sheridan Celia yes Mrs Sherman yes Mr tab yes on all applicable items Mr dulus yes accept we required to abstain Mrs Kaden yes section 13 is the Personnel committee m Shar and Celia will present the Personnel committee reviews all recommendations for teaching and staff employment considers co-curricular employment and considers all professional development opportunities for staff members this evening I'm seeking approval for agenda items 13.02 through 1370 um 13.02 is a retirement now 13.03 through 13.16 are staff resignations 13 uh 17 are lateral movements on the guide issuing revised contracts 13.18 is a secretary transfer 13.19 through agenda item 13.23 are various leaves 13 24 through 13.45 are issuing contracts to staff and faculty for the upcoming school year um I'm sorry 1344 13.45 are the appointment of Elementary lunch AIDS 1346 Social Work interns for this year 1347 um approving student teacher placement observations for speech language practicums 1348 is the Appo appointment of a Sharp family liaison 13.49 interpreting Ser interpreting Services um 1350 contract for or sorry the appointment of CST stiens 1351 culture and climate Grant stiens 13.52 High School non-athletic extra duty pay stiens 13.53 is the 2425 High School athletic head coaching EDP stiens uh 1354 High School athletic assistant and volunteer coaching stiens 13.55 Middle School athletic assistant and volunteer coaching stiens 13.56 assistant athletic director stiens 13357 athletic event Personnel appointments there's a couple pages of those 13.58 uh Saturday school detention uh Duty 13.59 uh intad District staff transfers 1360 are administrative transfers 1362 um the student voice training student voice training for students that I think it already happened correct yes oh not yet oh it's tomorrow I'm sorry 13.63 uh curriculum development projects uh 13264 additional curriculum development uh projects for gifted and talented 1365 are for course overload appointments 1466 um move on the reading Horizons training happened earlier in the summer 1367 summer nurses 1368 um several volunteers for AED training 13.63 I'm sorry 69 a list of substitutes and tutors and 1370 is the approval of a travel expense form so agenda item 137 13371 I'm a seeking approval for items 13.02 through 13.7 soov thank you Miss Celia uh second questions or comments from board members I was going to mention that looking through the um the hiring of of the you know I'm happy to be able to approve all these uh new new hires for the for the district um and also you know sad to to see the departures of of the um staff who have decided to move elsewhere something I want to note I mean it's it's pretty actually amazing we're able to hire teachers coming in with two teachers coming in with 11 years of experience one coming with 10 uh one coming with 18 uh looks like there are three coming with 20 plus years of experience one coming with 17 years of experience um one coming with 16 years of experience a few with five years experience it it is pretty amazing and and I'm pretty uh grateful that we're we've been able to uh hire such experience teachers and and and that those teachers uh decide to leave their districts uh to join our our district um at that level experience um I also you know I think also just to to be clear I think there it was mentioned that you know it in last spring we unfortunately because of uh uh uh budgetary issues had to um part ways with uh about 20 staff including three administrators and um one of the pieces there I think the the we have reiterate is that um the the board doesn't really have uh the choice about who uh we have to part ways with because of tenure rules for both um staff and and administrators and so just kind of reiterating something we rated back then was that um that was in no way you know a judgment on those professionals um abilities uh or what work and what amazing work they they they had uh provided uh for the district uh I know we heard uh at length during that time that that there are some amazing amazing teachers and staff that uh we were having the part ways with who were new to the district and and younger in their uh tenure with the district um and I think just again acknowledging that that you know both that that they you know the the parting ways with nothing to do with their what they've given to the district but uh that in many ways our hands are tied because of of 10e rules when it comes to that work uh but again really quite grateful that we're able to find such experienced teachers to come join our staff here so really quick just in response to that and so in 2021 um we made a pretty significant change in terms of Staffing um for the 10 10 to some OD years prior to 2021 um we made a decision as a district we did not honor uh years of experience Beyond a certain capacity and so if you had a 20 25 year veteran that wanted to come they would have to come without being honored for their 20 to 25 years of experience and so we made a decision both as a board and as a district uh to honor the lived uh and documented experience of professionals when they came in and what that has translated into um just in the last two years uh kindergarten for those who are are kindergarten teachers that is truly God's work um I could not do it um we were uh very fortunate to bring in over the last two years three extremely uh masterful Master Level teachers one with 17 years experience one with 23 and one with 29 um they replaced first and second year um uh teachers who were really task and challenged in that environment and so so uh bringing in experienced professionals um is truly a benefit to our district and what you are seeing is that uh folks uh are coming to our district because they they believe in the vision that has been projected within our district and so uh my hats off to all of our administrators our administrators have been working around the clock in order to fill vacancies they make phone calls into the we hours of the evening they have been um tracking down candidates that they've talked to both past and present in order to make sure that every classroom has a has a certified teacher in September so I've just wanted to give my administrators just uh their flowers as well thank you and roll call please real quick before roll call sorry uh yeah I just wanted to pigy back off of everyone uh as a former music teacher myself wanted to give a shout out to Mr Woodward who will be joining us or has joined us uh as the Director of the marching band um on a personal level I uh know his family well uh back in 2001 when I started in lynen Walt as a music teacher was charged with uh building up the music program for the district there as Elementary uh music teacher and and uh assistant band director at the high school and worked very closely with his wife Leslie uh who hired me for the position and so the the whole family is just incredibly dedicated to uh music and and marching uh marching bands and uh so I'm real excited that that he's joining us here here and just speaking to what Dr McDow and and Roger had said uh in terms of the experience I know a lot of the community was concerned uh about um having someone come in green um and and their ability to hit the ground running this late in the summer so uh Kudos again to everybody for uh bringing him into our district I was very excited to see that thank you um sorry about that any other questions or comments from board members roll call please Mr Chu yes Mr Craig yes Mrs molski yes Mrs Seltzer yes Mrs Sheridan selia yes Mrs Sherman yes Mr tab yes Mr dois Yes except a required to abstain Mrs Kaden yes section 14 is the culture climate and policy committee Miss Seltzer will present the policy and regulations committee reviews all up and up and updates and changes of District policies and regulations um we have several um items that are up for a uh first read regulations they only require one read um and they're outlined here most of them are fairly boilerplate updates to these existing regulations uh a couple I just wanted to note um uh 2423 which is about bilingual education uh that is the overall plan for what schools have to do for multilingual Learners and it just so happens that tonight um 12.09 is the actual plan the L the language instruction and education program so that was approved tonight so uh if you are interested like I am in reading about those things it is there for your for your reading um and also to note that uh 5600 student code of conduct restorative practices that is the regulation um to the policy that we updated and approved last spring um so these are items that have been uh part of the conversation others are are more General updates um but I put uh 14.03 approval of items 14.02 thank you Miss szer motion to approve that item and a second second questions or comments from board members I just wanted to say um that I know with the uh student code of conduct we talked about in the committee that um the the regulation um is only one piece of it right that there needs to be a student facing uh portion to it and that that will be rolled out throughout um the beginning of the school year in many different ways to make it very um digestible for both um students and staff because some of the the changes are um are pretty different and making sure that everybody understands where we're coming from with it and um what it looks like in practice so um just wanted to mention that any other questions or comments from board members roll call please Mr chill somebody to turn theirs off okay there go only two at a time yes okay Mr Craig yes Mrs mulski yes Mrs Selzer yes Mrs sherid and Celia yes Mrs Sherman yes Mr tab Yes except required toate Mr dulus yes m Kaden yes section 15 is miscellaneous uh 15.01 is uh the adoption of or the approval of the um Hib report for from the June 2024 board meeting and 15.02% L section uh but we needed to to write a job description that would match that so that's what that um 15.2 is so we need a motion to approve 15.01 to 15.2 this evening and a second second questions or comments from board members roll call please Mr Chu yes Mr Craig yes Mrs molski yes Mrs Seltzer yes Mrs Sharon Celia yes Mrs Sherman yes Mr tab yes Mr dolas yes Mrs Kaden yes this brings us to section 16 which is our second opportunity for public participation um the public is reminded that all attempts to that excuse me attempts to resolve all concerns and complaints should first go through appropriate staff members and administrators uh the intent of public comment is to give the community the opportunity to provide feedback to the board if appropriate clarifying comments will be made after public comment uh for more detailed responses uh communication may go out later in the week or we may discuss during uh future committee meetings members of the public are welcome to speak and expected to do so with the utmost sensitivity for everyone in attendance uh there is a three minute time limit Ms Coleman has her timer out please come to the microphone and state your name and address for the record hi my name is Maggie jvy 258 woodon Avenue um I wanted to give the Boe a few examples of why there is some distrust distrust towards some of the people sitting before me multiple private meetings were held with community members in their houses with details of their referendum a Tatum mom had an entire infoo session at her house before school let out before the plans of this particular referendum were shared outside the ad hoc committee Boe members had conversation with Shar parents and were told to keep the details between that certain group of people the Allin for Collingswood branding is the same as the Boe referendum branding and as Miss said when asked why that these have no copyright so it's acceptable please do not give us your sa story of why you don't understand why we just trust all of you hi uh Cara Boer uh 90 Summerfield Avenue um I uh totally unrelated to anything on the agenda I hope this is okay for this portion okay um so at the one of the q&as um I mentioned to Dr McDow that we had received a donation I could not find the email so is it okay if I share the descriptor of the donation for the ptas uh it was from the one of the preschools in town I don't know if you remember it okay so I had mentioned that um we uh Kaleidoscope preschool that was in town had closed down um they actually uh in closing out their budget for the end of the school year uh they made a very generous donation to each of the elementary school ptas um I believe that the the number was $5,000 per Elementary School and the number was to be used for uh teacher supplies specif specifically so I just wanted to acknowledge kidis sco preschool and thank them for their donation and hopefully we'll be able to F I can find some official documentation to let you guys know that it occurred thank you [Applause] hi I'm uh Tom Howard again 16 Fraser Avenue uh I just want to bring up something um I don't know if probably nobody remembers I I brought up a couple months ago at a meeting uh and it's just a request that um if possible the board agenda can be published earlier than the morning of the day of the meeting um um there are many people who work you know all day um and get home five six o'clock who might like to come to the meeting whose lives are definitely affected by what you guys discuss and who would like to I'm sure have some information available ahead of time so if they would want to come and give you feedback and speak um having that in a few days and Advance again if possible would be really helpful uh for example the district I work in um there is a meeting board meeting tomorrow night Tuesday and the agenda has already been out for four days since before the weekend um and that's a regular practice uh in my district um and that helps community members and everybody just really know what's going on and so you can come to the meeting and you know share your thoughts and especially if something is very you know directly impactful for that particular family that particular Community it's really nice to have that information ahead of time and again like I said uh you know it's really hard to be come to this meeting one uh well informed if you know you're at work all day and you can't have access to you know a computer to or just have the time to read through the agenda you know when you're working and then to expect to come home um when you might be picking up kids or trying to get food ready for your family to actually you know come here with some semblance of an idea of what is happening so if it there's any way you could publish the agenda earlier I think it would be helpful to many in the community and it would help also again address that issue of transparency and Trust which uh I know you guys try your best to do you know due diligence to to to inform people um and I don't think there's any kind of Nefarious um you know reason why you publish the is published uh you know only the day of but it it would help uh address those concerns as well thanks [Applause] hi there uh Alexander guidos Smith again 311 Lake View Drive I just want to um address the uh the previous comment about putting things out and how some things uh may be mistaken for looking like it came from the board because um people who've come up to speak have actually shared things that looked like it came from the board um when in reality I'm talking um on Facebook Maybe uh people set things out actually I think it is pretty nefarious to to set up something on the same heading same font same picture same color same everything as what you put out on the board to say to highlight something that you aren't actually advertising um and then when people are brought when that's brought to their attention they say oh sorry I don't know where I got this from just passing it on just good information so um I can see how that happens and I don't necessarily think that it is a um a totally nefarious thing unless you know the the motivation of the person that is either making it or sharing it thank you hi Robin Bonfield um 714 Mill I wanted to thank you for the marching band means everything to me that my kid is able to do that so so thank you very much um also just wanted to say I hope that there is a plan to bring this community back together especially the people that really do actually care about diversity equity and inclusion and all of our kids and all of our Community Voices being heard because right now it's being ripped apart and some of that is under your heading whether y'all are saying it or not it's disgusting and I really hope that you will address the community and how to speak to each other because it's enough our kids aren't getting anything out of this and we need to be putting our attention onto bigger things I want to be talking to people about November not September right but anybody I've talked to in the sharp neighborhood like the whole Crestwood Apartments one person heard about it including people who have kids in our schools one many people have grandkids I think people who've heard something about it don't realize that it would close sharp and that in and of itself and the fact that so many people in the sharp neighborhood didn't know anything about this how could their voice be heard how is there good Community organizing if the community doesn't know about it so I just wanted to put that out there and just really hope that no matter what happens we can move forward and listen to the voices of people impacted because they don't have a choice many of us don't have a choice to send our kids someplace [Applause] else it's a long the back um hello again Dave Ron 903 Park Avenue um a couple of questions I noticed both on the tennis courts here and outside of Garfield there are banners uh with regard to the referendum there's no identification on the banners I is it safe to assume that the board and where the district did not pay for those banners okay um did the board give permission for those banners to be hung up is that not in violation of of either board policy or a Prohibition against political advertising on public property we did it last time too yeah I mean I I'm sorry we think we did this in the last referendum also but yeah fine well nonetheless I mean c certainly anybody who is not against the referendum or who is not in favor of the referendum pays taxes for these things um so that's fine and as you just mentioned uh and for anybody who doesn't know I think some of you do know uh was my pleasure to spend six years on the board so I truly truly understand how difficult your job is how oftentimes it's thankless I I certainly certainly get it I understand that um with that said and it's been mentioned a few times tonight about our our staff and and our faculty how wonderful they are how much they contribute to our children ET Etc it's just it's beyond me how there's it's there's no contract yet I I just I I cannot understand it I I think I I you know we went through two at least two contract Cycles I think of my time it took three meetings with with the ca to get it done and I'm not going to pretend I know the issues because I I don't you know they as they should be they should be between you and the cea this should not be litigated in public Etc um but please get the get these people I mean I I it's unbelievable to me that the school you know the school year is starting and and there's no contract yet um and somebody mentioned before how demoralizing it must be Dr mcdal and it's great that we're getting experienced teachers in um but my understanding is we've also lost a lot uh and they're leaving because of morale issues and things along those those lines so please to the rest of your ability get our teachers under a contract that works for everybody thank [Applause] you uh so I'm gonna ask Miss Coleman if she would speak to the um the issue of when we can when it's most appropriate to post the agenda with the most accurate information that we can give the public okay so there is no requirement that we post our agenda um just that we have to let the public know when our meetings are going to be now we post our agendas midnight the night before um I would absolutely love the idea to get our agendas out earlier but when I tell you the flurry of agenda items that come flying into the board off office um because again like we've been hiring like crazy as you can see on the agenda was like 70 Personnel items these things are coming in Fast and Furious and when can I tell you we were still adding items to this agenda on Friday trying like if we have a teacher you like a math teacher want to hire them you know we got to get the paperwork in we were adding stuff as until Friday um so I love the idea doing it earlier but that would have to administratively we'd have to figure that out because right now like I had to turn away some agenda items today that I got from some administrators and I said the agenda's live folks like can't do it right because we can't add because that would also deal with trust and lack of faith in the community if I'm adding something to the agenda at the last minute like if you looked at the agenda on Friday and then came to the board meeting and I added 10 things you're going to be like what is this lady up to so we got to kind of figure out that balance um but we do post at midnight the night before I make all all of the attachments you know a lot of school districts don't they may have a generic agenda item but not like all the attachments aren't able to be read once we go live you can read everything that the board has up here all the public documents um so we can talk about it um in committee um but yeah we would have to figure that out administratively because that would we'd really have to get all of us on board that now the uh the administrators because we meet in committees the week before the board meeting so the board meeting obviously is Monday so last week we're meeting on Monday and Wednesday in committees to discuss all these items as we're continuing to add them so we have to factor all that in so yeah could we put something like a comment or something on there that the agenda is still subject to change until the start of the meeting just knowing that there will be things that have to be taken off or added um so that after committee meetings or something even if we had it out before the weekend before or that I'd want to check with the attorney sure just because like when like when I say live like as board members you can log in at any time and see the agenda as it's being crafted and read the documents and you know see when I'm adding and pulling things but I don't know if I don't know like once I hit public I want to say that that's it which is kind of what I did today to some at least two administrators that I know of told them you know too bad you're have to wait till September so right so it's going to have to be a discussion about balancing getting information out to the public sooner without doing things like not being able like having to wait a whole other month to hire teachers that we'd like to hire now or things like things like that right so that's that's something that we can discuss um I just wanted to reiterate one more time um any of the um the the banners that that you're seeing outside of schools or the um the the uh videos that that have been taken all of those things have been have come from uh the The Firm that our architectural firm um who we have worked with uh be many uh for many years now uh all of those things are coming from them um sure we're giving permission to let them um post on our website post on our Facebook page uh hang things on our schools but that's not coming from our our annual budget um and that's that's built into a referendum as it is for every referendum that I've known of we went to the the njsba workshop that talked about this as a as a best practice it's what got Cherry Hills largest um Bond referendum ever passed um to go through so that's that piece of it um and I'm just going to end tonight uh reminding folks that um your your as cliche as it is your vote is your voice um so everyone gets a chance to let us know um what you think on September 17th and there is a lot of information out there on our website um to give you all uh the information that you need there are frequently asked questions that um you can look through that we try to update there are more Roundtable sessions you can email the board contact information and ask more questions and we will get back to you with answers um so we hope that you will take advantage of all of those things to uh educate yourself more on what we believe is a project that will benefit the community and will be the first real investment in our school facilities in many many years and um I think that's a a worthwhile cause um with that being said let's sure can I add just one thing as someone I'm a public school teacher and I've been a part of a referendum in my district as well and if anything I think we have given in this District a wealth more of information earlier than most school districts do this was rolled out in March to the public um and every banner and everything that has been paid for that has been paid for by the architectural firm it's the same firm that was used in Cherry Hill it's the same firm that my district used we had t-shirts handed out to teachers this is a very common practice there's nothing nefarious about it this is just how school referendums work and I think it's important to note that um I don't I think that we had more than enough information out there and you do get to have a say in it you get to have a say in it on September 17th this is how school referendums work section 17 motion to adjourn this evening so moved and a second second all in favor I thank you everyone have a good evening for