all right I'm going to call this meeting to order this meeting of the Denville Township Board of Education is being held in accordance with the open public meetings act notice of this meeting was provided to the Daily Record Andor The Star Ledger of Morris County has been delivered to the Township Clerk and has been posted on the bulletin board of the board of education office and at each of the school buildings in the district roll call please Dr Moore here Mrs Adelis here Dr Aruna tasson here Mr Cass here Mr Anderson here Mr Capello here Mr Kem here all right uh there is no need for an executive session so if we can all rise for the Pledge of Allegiance all right thank you very much for all that's here today uh we do have a special special presentation uh it looks like we are um we have a bunch of energetic and eager students from the Riverview uh school so with the presentation I'd like to welcome up the students from Riverview I just like to say thank you for joining us today and for having us and we're very excited to show who we are at Riverview not only is the rocket acronym used to teach the students about the character trait but we also want to sh Show that in our actions on a daily basis and how it improves our school our community and the world so thank you for letting us show you what we are as rview Rockets all right well when first thinking of what to share with the board presentation we W really want to look at this with you know a very positive light pun intended um about our students they're are leaders of our school and our rocket acronym is what every single day we talk about so when thinking about what to present upon we thought let's look at what the students have been doing all year long especially with service learning through the lens of our rocket acronym so with that we have students representing kindergarten third grade fourth grade and fifth graders and they are here to share with you all the wonderful things they've been up to this year through the lens of the rocket acronym of first is Andy hi my name is Andy and I'm a part of the fifth grade K Kids the K kids are a group of students who think of ways to help others using the words of our rocket acronym as our guide we worked on several projects along with rockets and other grades to spread compassion and kindness in our school community and the world the RNR acronym stands for respect in November we helped organize a special program for veterans and collected candy for treats for troops hi my name is Wy I'm also a fifth grade Kate kid the O in our AC acronym stands for optimism in December we learned that children in our community might need some holiday cheer we collected hundreds of new toys for Denville Social Services during our toy drive to spread hope and optimism to the less fortunate we spoke in each of the home rooms about the importance of giving other gifts that we ourselves would want to receive generous families donated many wonderful gifts we walked to the gifts to Denville social services and met the director the toy drive was a huge success and we donated many toys hi my name is McKenna and my name is Emily and we are a part of the fourth grade kid kids the SE in the rocket acon stands for compassion we read an article in scholastic news about a little girl who collected supplies like shampoo toothpaste and made bags for the homeless we wanted to do something like that but also include a message of caring and compassion we decided to col our bags hming bags and they had toes inside and hand warmers and foot warmers we even designed a card that was placed in each bag Mrs Jamon and Mrs Freeze found an organization called project kind that helps the homeless the K kids visited all the classrooms during morning meeting to talk about the project and explain more about the items we were collecting we spoke to peaceful dismissal and handed out flies about the [Applause] collection hi my name is Colette and my name is Arya and we are in third grade all the third grade classes came together to make heartwarming bags we learned about more about project kind and how they help the homeless then we took turns making the bags in each bag we put toothbrushes toothpaste hand sanitizer chapstick tissues hand wipes and hand warmers and foot warmers we also put a note from us that says that we care we put exactly 283 Dental Care kits amazing the bags were brought to project K closet which is in Monclair Community Church the heartwarming bag project is a project that demonstrates our compassion for those in need our rocket acronym is a reminder of how demonstrate strong care and Leadership every month we focus on a part of our rocket acronym the students from each grade level teach us through assembly or activities in the of the letter and um in the rocket action since 2021 Mrs Jameson has run a bookmark contest for each grade level to make a bookmark that illustrates the word we are focusing on the winning bookmark is printed for the whole school this month's winner of The Bookmark contest was Amy peor she was one of the many third grade students who created a compassion bookmark um for the contest Amy's bookmark even cuded a picture of the heartwarming [Applause] bags hi my name is Mimi hi my name is luuka and we're in kindergarten K stands for kindness and you can't spell the word kindergarten without the word kind kindergart collected snacks for Denville Social Service serves we collected 52 boxes so that means 812 [Applause] snacks hi my name is zeger and I am in third grade East stands for empathy and now as we move into the spring our entire school is participating in a compassion campaign we're learning about the world Water Crisis and showing empathy for those who do not have access to clean water we read the water princess which is based on the life of super M Georgie badel and her goal of helping her community get access to clean water each day we're doing extra learning activities and asking for pledges we're partnering up with Georgie B L foundation and team to raise money and the money we raise through pledges well build wells in Burkina F over West Africa hi my name is Molly the te stands for team player over the next few months students in grades kindergarten through fifth grade will be learning lessons through team about the Water Crisis we have have already started by challenging ourselves to do one week of extra reading and math every time we reach out goals that we set for ourselves we ask our friends or family to donate to the foundation our goal is to raise 5,000 dollars by the end of April team will be matching all of our donations that we service so we can help even more people in bino F Africa by being team players we are working together as a learning community to learn about people in need and then talk taking actions to help as you can see riverv viiew Rockets are creating positive changes in their school community and the world thank you for [Applause] listening um we have some tree planting ceremonies coming up the first one is at The Oaks on April 26th Riverview will have one April 22nd we're not sure um that's that's tentative and Lake View is also going to have one and that's that date has not been decided yet just wanted to give you guys the heads up we're going to have these three different um tree planting ceremonies and just to give you an idea the lake view one is a special one for uh a deceased former um staff member and the Oaks one is something to totally new and different the Riverview one is our normal one that we've been doing over the years with the green committee it's like rotates through the different ones so I just want to let you know that's there's no reason why we're not doing one at valy view there's the three that the The Oaks crew is the valy view crew actually the PTA tour was finalized last week I went through and saw and met with each PTA and talked a little bit about the district gave him a heads up on all different things that are going on in the district and where we've where we've been and where we're headed and um I think it's probably a good practice I think we should probably do it every year um typically I do meet with the heads of the PTA the the presidents co- presidents twice per year I have had some of the board members follow in on that I uh plan to continue doing that and I just want to let you know that that's been completed um our persons of the year has been posted we're getting nominations please think about a nomination and um it has been sent to the citizen to the tap it's been on social media it's been a Friday folder it's been sent out so um we'll still continue to publicize that we do expect to announce the winners at the first meeting in May and um that's always been a pretty a pretty popular program we started and this is the sixth year I believe and that means we need a new plaque after this year so that's pretty cool um the community the community resource fair for CPAC is coming up in May May 28th at Riverview 6:30 to 8:00 pm um just to give you a heads up on attendance today that we did have a large group out Valley View had eight students out and 40 leaving early link viw had 29 out and 160 leaving early and Riverview had four out and 134 leaving early and this is due to the um the eclipse and Dr Cullis is going to talk a little bit about the eclipse next so I'm G to turn it over to her that's it for my report uh I think that I want to thank the staff for really facilitating all of the students who had a chance to go outside at least for a few moments even if they were early buses the middle school went out early I have some pictures they're all out on the grass sitting and watching with their friends it was it was a great to see we also have one of our Valley View science teachers who is in Vermont during the total eclipse and is filming for us so she's going to be bringing that footage back uh for our students stud experience to that uh both the elementary schools participated all of the students received their glasses and you know wore them correctly I think they were uh very well behaved and very interested in what was going on our teachers had really prepped them with videos of what and explaining what was happening and uh even our smallest students really enjoyed going outside so I think it was a big success as far as kindergarten registration it is open in fact tomorrow starts our in-person evening days and evenings where the parents come in and bring their packets in uh so if you have not registered you want to go ahead and do so there's pre-registration as on our website at denville.org our total right now is 175 uh Lake View has 81 Riverview 61 our Flex Zone 11 and our prechool who have not been placed uh yet 22 this concludes assistant superintendent report thank you very much Dr CIS and business administrator comments no comments all right thank you Miss Kowski okay at 7:49 we are opening up a public discussion any uh questions regarding the agenda could be directed to the board uh particularly to myself do we have any presents online okay there are no participants online and no one in the chamber so I'm going to close public comments at 7:49 and we'll go straight into the agenda Mrs zelis if you can take us through old business no action to be taken surely uh at the next meeting myself or someone else will go through the following uh reports reports for March 2024 Treasure of school monies and board secretary reports as well as education reports and well as the minutes for March 11th and March 25th thank you questions or comments all right moving on to new business action to be taken Dr tossin if you can take us through Personnel y if there's no objection I'd like to move the following items uh in for a personal um A1 uh there are couple of uh hires uh one is for uh replacement teacher the other is to also but to provide additional instructions there is item two and three or for Family Leave Act and uh yeah the the fourth item is again reiterating the rates for uh the subs teachers I'll second thank you any questions or comments roll call please Dr Moore yes Mrs selis yes Dr Aruna datass yes Mr Cass yes Mr Anderson yes Mr Capello yes Mr Kim yes all right uh instruction and program I don't see anything that we need to vote on is that correct Mr kosi okay so we'll move on to finance Mr Anderson please sure if there are no objections I'd like to move under C Finance uh item number one only as uh as a block I guess it's just item number one so it's the board to approve award PG chamers schools theater nlls uh the highest responsible bidder in accordance with the district's bid documentation requirements and the public school purchasing laws for the sale of rifton mobile stand as follows uh for $900 I'll second thank you very much questions or comments I'm we did vote on a mobile standard in the past right uh in the previous session so this is something new or no we vote to adverti to bid on this uh equipment thank you for the clarification roll call please Dr Moore yes Mrs Adelis yes Dr Aruna datass yes Mr Cass yes Mr Anderson yes Mr Capello yes Mr Kim yes all right under operations I don't see anything for us to move tonight so let's go into new business no action to be taken Dr orasin can you get us uh get us through Personnel please of course uh if there's no objection I'd like to move the following items um in a one uh i' move uh for uh the following blocks um block of teachers for uh new hires and uh retirements resignations and uh item number two for um the uh salary increments and uh item number three for uh three items there for family Le leave acts and item number four for high of new substitutes yeah just to be clear we're not motioning that tonight right we're just uh discussing that so any questions or comments all right Dr Moore if you could take us through in please uh sure so either uh myself or or someone else will uh will move the following resolutions under instruction and program uh workshops uh under number one A and B um teaching college reading and writing connections Institute and an annual technology conference for uh number two it's for Dr Forte to attend the spring Leadership Conference uh item number three is the staff resilience coaching and keynote speech for the annual staff convocation and that's it there's nothing under item number four thank you very much any questions or comments okay Mr Capello can you take us through policy revisions for our next meeting uh absolutely uh I or someone else at the next meeting we'll be moving uh policy revisions listed um we have a total of 15 policies and seven uh regulations uh for first reading these include abolishing equity and education programs and services sportsmanship Equitable education we have a couple for bilingual education that are being revised curriculum content uh equity in School classrooms uh revised equity in School classrooms Pro practices complaint procedures uh procedures for guidance counseling uh for reporting of student progress educational Equity policies uh equal employment opportunities code of ethics um one which I had never seen seen before secret societies uh prevention and treatment of sports related concussions and finally vandalism thank you is it safe to assume uh that a lot of these are because of uh updated regulations and statutes with the state yeah most of them have to do with uh some changes to the equity laws so they're and they've changed the wording from equality to equity and then also the the uh the code the code like the state codee has been updated so that they remove some of the language said per code you'll see it in there thank you the one policy to take a look at would be um 5420 uh that is unique to our district I mean everyone has a policy on this but the change is just for Denville and it specifically is the Elementary report cards that we discussed um in our committee of only issuing two formal report cards for elementary school the end of first semester and at the end of the year and then having an a progress report during the conferences for the first and the third quarters so instead of two conferences and four report cards they would get two formal report cards and two progress reports thank you okay if there are no further questions or comments Mr Anderson can you take us to finance please sure I'd be happy to um and just to get started is it okay if I give a quick report we had a committee meeting Absolutely I'll just hit a few of the highlights the the minutes are are uh already in the uh folder I can send them out also um a few things we had on I think that are that are pertinent number one was at the um at our last uh meeting there was some discussion on some additional uh health insurance premium costs for several employees um the uh Mrs galski as well as Dr Forte have kind of tooken a look at it um we can add that into the budget no additional tax levy increase um that tax the uh budget has already been approved by the county so makes it much easier that we don't have the additional tax levy um that will be paid through some uh some additional savings uh one in uh unemployment account uh uh plan deposit as well as a reduced amount in our IDE or idea funding so that's in the report if any additional questions you can certainly let me or Mrs gski know um we have been verbally notified of the approval of uh the federal school lunch program we have not received the official letter um and there's a significant amount of work from the business administrator's office on uh kind of how where we go from here so um hold off in any questions on on how the execution is going to be done but uh please be notified that the application and we've uh received verbal uh notification that it was approved um a few uh upgrades on Pro updates on projects uh you may have seen I've seen uh riverv viiew roof had some work done on it recently that was something we've been talking about um that you can see the the detailed update here but that is progressing uh and moving along got a lot of progress done on it uh over spring break um and then the lake view HVAC project that we've been talking about for several years now um the uh units are lifted into place last week um so they're just a matter of kind of decommissioning the old units connecting up the new units um that'll be done in the near future here um and we received NJ deoe approval on the uh new bathroom at Riverview uh for kindergarten um and we're expecting NJ doe approval on the new sidewalk that we've discussed a few times at rur viiew uh we should have that as early as potentially tomorrow um the feasibility study for the Drive property that we've discussed um we discussed it as a committee and I think we're leaning towards supporting that study um Dr Forte was going to ask them for some sample um feasibility studies so we could take a look at them and see what they look like so we get an idea uh appreciate Dr Forte's work with our architect to add some additional detail to exactly what we're going to be getting out of it um so that is linked on the minute so you can take a look at the uh updated uh EI uh architect um proposal uh but we're leaning towards that and if we do we'll uh we expect to put it on for next uh month's meeting um to be able to add that if uh if the committee continues to support it so that's the big highlights I would say as far as uh as far as the uh finance and and B&G committee if there's any additional questions you can take a look through the minutes and then I'll move on to the agenda myself or someone else at the next meeting we'll move our checks list as well as a donation of labor to install the donated maple tree that uh Dr Forte had mentioned at Lake View by Cashman Landscaping um the uh the budget you can read in detail I will note one thing on the budget just as we uh take a look through it um you'll you'll note um under the withdraw from capital reserve uh cameras upgrade at $710,000 um the plan is to budget for that but then have some more additional discussion on exactly what that would look like before we actually execute it uh we had some additional discussion on it in our uh committee meeting but uh the plan is to kind of dig a little bit deeper into that but at least get the approval uh for at least up to that amount if uh if so needed and and uh directed by the board and that is it thank you Mr Anderson that was a great uh update so really appreciate that uh any other questions or comments from the rest of the board okay moving on then uh Mr Cass can you take us through operations please sure the first item here is the resolution which we've have discussed a couple of times um in transportation and this is really just a great move by the legislature and James for uh fronting it up here on behalf of the school board and and our town to uh make it a little easier for people to get certified to drive a school bus the small buses and um I'm not going to go through the whole thing but I going to mention a couple of key areas here is recognizing Bill 8 2180 to permit a school bus driver to operate a Type S school bus to transport trolling to and from school without obtaining a commercial driver license passenger indorsement or School Bus endorsement and um the denille School Board of Education hereby expresses full support for Bill 82180 and urges all relevant legislative bodies to promptly pass enact this bill into law and um down at the end here we have the NG njsba believes that all dists should be permitted to hire school bus drivers that can operate typ s school buses without the need of a commercial driver's license but still obtain a Type S School Bus certificate so U we're going to have this resolution placed on the agenda for consideration May 18th 2024 at the delegate assembly so that's really good news and uh it's great to see uh everybody's kind of unanimous throughout the state on getting that piece of legislation passed item 1.2 is to utilize the district school buses to transport students from learner limited llc at an hourly rate of $70 an hour on the following dates they're all June 18th and bus is going from uh Denville Morristown and Jefferson locations to the land of m m in Hope New Jersey under buildings and grounds I'm going to ask the board to approve the attach memorandum agreement with CCM County College of Morris for the reunification 20242 and we've been doing this for a couple of years uh hopefully we'll never need to do it other than the drills but this is really important uh to keep our kids safe thank you Mr Cass I really appreciate that um I just wanted to provide the board with an update with regards to the school board's resolution uh I have talked to school boards to discuss the feasibility of this uh resolution and whether or not they'll uh present it to the delegate assembly uh one of the arguments that they made um they were hoping to or they were wondering if I would be able to uh withdraw this resolution because um while they're in full support of it um they currently feel that if there's a small chance that the delegate assembly decides not to um uh support this uh bill or this resolution then all the work that they are doing behind the scenes as a Lobby group to support and try to push this bill uh they would have to stop and it would put them in an awkward situation plus they're faced with uh 14 other resolutions and if anyone's attended a delegate assembly that would probably last a very long time uh to uh get through the day so um I have officially withdrawn this from school boards um because I do feel that um school boards will still um Lobby to support this with the um legislative body and um I do still think that we as a board can still look to um uh vote on this and hopefully approve it as well so uh any thoughts or comments from the other board members I I just mentioned our our Representatives our Senator and two assembly men are behind it so they'll vote Yes which is a good thing I don't know can't see why anybody would vote against it since this is a major problem for throughout the country the shortage of school bus drivers thank you yeah I I mean I was only going to add that since there's already a bill in place it sounded like it would be a little bit of of of kind of duplication of effort and again to Don's Point everybody thinks this is a great idea so I think we should be fine uh thank you thank you Dino excellent uh if there's no other questions or comments then it looks like we're going into the good of the cause committee other committee reports correspondence discussion items board meeting highlights I uh was able to attend the blues and Beyond at Valley View on March 27th uh just quickly two weeks ago they were wonderful incredibly talented um musicians that came to the school and performed the students own work um so I know James you had seen it last year and you're right it was amazing um I want to thank um the the foundation who is uh able to fund that program and hopefully they keep coming back so thank you to the foundation thank you to the teachers and the musicians and the eighth graders who thoroughly enjoyed the program I these are what I have for highlights R riew rocket presentation the budget 2425 final presentation hearing for April 29th and Lake View and valy view students will and staff will present on at the May 13th meeting sounds good I just said one quick thing to add I uh recently was invited by uh lak View School to participate in a um conference call with character.org um to discuss uh some of the things that they have instituted um to build that school of character uh nomin or nomination um and I just have to say it's amazing we had a class three officer there we had a bunch of parents there we had actually a parent who's a uh principal at another uh school um and and it just reminded me and reinvigorated me on just the amount of work we've done with uh with the school of character and just the mental health of our students um we're never done with it um but the amount of work that's been put in um I think we I almost forget about it sometimes because now just like second nature to what we do at the schools and in all the schools not just at Lake View but um appreciate the opportunity to to be involved in that and it certainly got me pretty excited and reminded me about a lot of the great things we do thank you Mike there was a birdie in my ear that told me that 9:00 is when we want to try to leave by so we have about another 50 minutes I'm kidding of course I'm kidding uh I moved okay all right at 8 wait let's open up uh for public comments um there's still no one in the chambers and no it's okay and um seeing there's no one online let's close open public comments to 808 and it looks like there is need for an executive session uh Mr Capello can you uh take us through executive please I would be happy to uh if there are no objections I move to convene an executive session in accordance with Section 8 of the open public meetings act the purpose of this closed session will be to discuss negotiations legal security and Personnel issues minutes of the session will be made available to the public when the need for confidentiality no longer exists all in favor I second I'll second thank you sorry all in favor I I all opposed extensions okay we are an executive at 8:09 p.m.