Miss Munos will you please introduce yourself okay now good evening everyone I'm Rosa munes The Interpreter for tonight's meeting thank you thank you and welcome to everyone here and those of you joining us virtually to this January 23rd Dober Board of Education meeting for those who wish to provide public comment remotely a Google form was posted on a district website at 6:30 p.m. and those remote comments will be addressed in the second public comment section this meeting which is hereby called to order at what time is it 6:36 at 6:36 p.m is in compliance with the notice requirements of the law public notice was posted in the office of the Board of Education and communicated to the municipal clerk and the daily record on January 9th 2024 can we please please rise for the flag salute I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and the rep for it stands one nation under God indivisible liy and justice for all Mr sabahu may we have a roll call M ESO present M DS present Mr Miller here miss nothing here miss Phillips here Miss peles present Dr sen present Miss SES here miss mandes here miss ASO will you please read our mission statement certainly working together as a community our mission is to Welcome All and provide opportunities for our students in a safe and accepting learning environment to become creative empathetic resilient and who choose to make an impact thank you um as some of us may be aware the governor of our state declared January of 2024 as school board recognition month so with that we are going to go a little bit out of order on our agenda before we get into our presentations um item four under new business declaring January 2024 as school board recognition month I move that the board approve this item second we have a motion in a second um Miss Phillips will you please read the uh resolution into the record whereas the New Jersey school boards Association has declared January 2024 to be Schoolboard recognition month a time when all residents can acknowledge the contributions made by our local school board members and whereas the do board of education is one of 581 local school boards in New Jersey which sets policies and overseas operations for public school districts and whereas the do Board of Education Embraces the goal of high quality education for all New Jersey public school students and whereas New Jersey's local school boards help determine the educational goals for approximately 1.4 million children in Pre kindergarten through 12th grade and whereas New Jersey's 5,000 local school board members who received no remuneration for their services act as advocates for public school students as they worked with administrators teachers and parents for the betterment of public education and whereas School Board strive to provide the resources necessary to meet the needs of all students including those with special needs and whereas Boards of Education provide accountability to the public they communicate the needs of the school district to the public and they convey to school administrators The public's expectations for the schools and whereas New Jersey can take pride in its schools which rank among the nation's best in key achievement indicators such as the national assessment of educational progress scores and the preparation for college through advanced placement offerings and sat assessments now therefore be it resolved that the do board of education does hereby recognize the services of local school board members throughout New Jersey As We join communities Statewide in observing January 2024 as school board recognition month and be it further resolved that the do Board of Education urges all New Jersey citizens to work with their local Boards of education and public school staffs towards the advancement of our children's education thank thank you Miss Phillips is there any other discussion seeing none we have a motion and a second Mr sabahu may we have a roll call vote please miss ESO yes Miss DS yes Mr Miller yes Miss nothing yes Miss Phillips yes Miss finales yes Dr sener yes Miss SES yes Miss mandz yes so we will now move into our presentations so our first presentation this evening is dedicated to our communities former school board members we are honored to be joined this evening I believe there's some Town Council Members here I there's so many faces I don't know if I missed anyone um and our mayor DOD um assembly woman dun I don't know if she's here yet I know she's coming um and Senator Buco um history has proven effective School boards directly impact the education of our children the folks we are recognizing this evening have devoted countless hours to the over oversight and advancement of our children's education and between them have Decades of service to our community this evening we recognize the hard work and dedication of these former school board members and while I am sure we are missing some folks um these honores were nominated by our current board members we know the past provides a wealth of knowledge recognizing and reflecting on Boards of the past is crucial as we continue to move our district forward a wise person once said leadership is about making others better as a result of your presence and making sure that impact lasts in your absence each of our honores have left a lasting impact on our board and school Community please accept the certificates you are presented with tonight as a token of of our sincerest gratitude with that I will invite uh mayor Dodd um and Senator Buco uh to the podium to share a few words and then join me at this table as we honor the folks listed on the agenda to our honores this evening um as your name is called please stay with us up here um so that we can take a photo at the end uh Mayor Don good evening everyone good evening board members members of the public I just want to congratulate the honores tonight that are receiving these Awards and I want to commend this board uh for all your hard work in and what you're doing for our community when people run for public office whether it's Board of Education or municipal office it's not easy it's not easy the amount of time that you have to dedicate and put in and I want to recognize and commend president Mendes for her efforts this year this is the first time I think in the history of Dober that Council meetings and Board of Ed meetings do not conflict with one another we're able to work out a schedule for the town of over we move some of our meetings Board of Education moves some of their meetings to be able to work together so people could attend sorry about that can you hear it so people could attend uh both meetings if they so choose but when you run for a board of education or you run for a public office it's a commitment it's a serious commitment to our community and I want to recognize and thank all of you for the hard work and the time that you put in and dedicate back to our community most of you don't even have school children anymore or you know or even did have school children in our school district so that just shows your dedication to our community I want to thank you and commend you and and thank all the members of the public for coming out tonight to support this thank you thank you mayor thank you madam president it is certainly an honor for me to be here tonight uh the governor um was was well uh thought out um to name this day uh after uh Board of Education members around the state I can tell you that uh serving on the board of education is a thankless position I can say that because over 30 years ago I sat in the seat uh that you sit now uh on the town of botin serving on the board of education and having to try to balance the wants of the parents uh with the needs of the teachers uh and the educational process and the budget that's allocated is a difficult difficult task and you are constantly being torn in different directions um trying to provide a thorough and efficient education for the students because that's what's most important and today more than ever after battling through Co and the learning loss that many of our students have suffered it lands squarely on your laps uh the job to get our children back on track back to grade level and back to where they need to be to be successful in life and it all starts here at the local level it all starts here at the local level you set the example for many to follow and the board m members that came before you laid the foundation for you to do that so uh I'm honored to be here tonight I see assemblywoman done is just getting here we have citations for your honores tonight to recognize their service to the community and what they have done for the school district for the town of Dover and especially for the students that have all succeeded uh in their path in life after after leaving the do school system so um it is our honor to be here on our honor to help celebrate uh the board members and we wish you all the best and um we spoke before part of the reason um that I fought so hard to get an additional funding um uh funding appropriation for the over school system was because of the work you do and the struggles that you face and um that appropriation was made in last year's budget um $250,000 I believe or 200,000 superintendent correct me I the number was it two two or 300 I actually think it was 300 300 300,000 $300,000 um although we haven't been able to find that $300,000 mayor I hate to tell you this but it may have went to the town of do so you may have to write a check to the board but um but but that additional appropriation was done as a result of the struggles that you face and um and I'll continue to fight for that additional appropriation for Dover um every year I can't promise it every year but uh but I'll continue to fight to make sure you have the resources necessary uh to provide a topnotch education to your students thank you and God bless you thank you Senator assembly woman done if you can um share a few words and then we're going to meet up here to give out the wonder wonder I'd love to and um okay that's one Tor two away from detention uh but I'd be I'd be happy to join you for detention I just want to say thank you for having me tonight and be a part of this uh recognition it's an honor to be here and like this all that the senator shared you know I'm happy to to to to pursue everything on the the other side of the state house we call it the lower chamber uh but we're a little louder over there so I promise you that I'll make sure I keep the voice loud for on behalf of Dover so uh look I I'm there this is no easy job I know it's a thankless job um but that's why I wanted to be here tonight and make sure that I was here to thank you so uh without further Ado we do have our uh joint legislative commendation that I see there's we can add to the other uh celebratory items and thank you again for all that you do in shaping our future Generations thank you assembly [Applause] woman okay some of the folks that we are going to be honoring tonight were not able to be here so if I call their name um and they're not here let's just give them a round of applause and then we'll move on to the next one um the first one is Alan bino oh yeah yes Halen B you want to give that the next one is for udz [Applause] katano Maria [Applause] Rosario Daryl [Applause] Hooper Irene Hansen I know he's here I saw him Benjamin bres Joanne DOD Melissa Heraldo Carol [Applause] Ruiz Michael [Applause] Scaro Richard [Applause] Riley Lynn Lori [Applause] mayor Monica pesus sorry Linda Mullen Jacqueline [Applause] veros conat Susan [Applause] shower to our honores this evening um one last time and one last round of applause thank you all for all that you did and then if we can squeeze maybe back here for a picture do want to be in front of the table perhaps you think it's best yeah we we'll go in front of the table yes we are didn't was all Dr mclin do you want to introduce our next presenters yes thank you so tonight we uh we have the honor of our Mars County BFW leadership with us here tonight uh who's going to be presenting a very special award to our own Dr Kathleen Kina so I'd ask uh Mr John Riley uh senior Vice commander of Dover Mr Ken Hansel District Commander Mars County and Mr Richard Olen senior Vice Commander Mars County to come to the podium I want to thank the board for I want to thank the board for giving us the opportunity to present this award here the venue is just great um I'm Ken Hansel I'm commander of Veterans of Foreign Wars district 10 that's commander of Morris County I have 10 posts in the county and uh I'm here with John Riley Vice commander of Rand post 7333 VFW members are veterans who have served In Harm's Way district 10 Morris County is a very accomplished VFW District in 2023 we were we were awarded number one among New Jersey's 18 districts and number 11 out of over 700 districts in the country the criteria that that the judgment is done on is the goals of the VFW which means helping veterans the military the community local veteran hospitals nursing homes membership youth Scouts and school programs and teacher recognitions the teacher program is what we are here tonight for each year the Veterans of Foreign Wars selects School teachers to participate in the smart mayor VFW national citizenship education teacher program this award is named after former BFW National Commander John smart and a retired General enal quartermaster Larry mayor candidates for this award are teachers who promote Americans history civic responsibility flag etiquette and patriotism the VFW teacher of the a year contest recognizes three exceptional teachers one from each of the elementary middle and high school for their outstanding commitment to teaching americanism and patriotism to their students teachers are recognized at the post District State and even the national level each candidate has supplied their resumés and they were submitted along with nomination letters Randol post footprint includes the surrounding communities which includes Dover John Riley from the Randall post will make his post award presentation now John good evening everyone can you hear me all right MH good yeah I'm John Riley senior Vice commander of Randol Memorial post 7333 and I'm so pleased to be here thank you Dr mclaughin and the board for inviting the VFW here to attend this meeting for this important presentation uh by way of background when we look at the um submissions for the teachers award you look at a resume you look at the background you look at the activities that the teachers do and my reaction when I saw Dr Kathleen kalina's resume the activities the things she does was wow what an amazing teacher she does a fabulous job for her students they're lucky to have a teacher Like That You Don't See many teachers like that these teachers make a an impact throughout your lives and uh like I said Dober is very lucky to have a teacher like that we're very lucky to have her enter our contest and uh to um to do the things that she does I'm going to briefly share one little story here I don't want to be up here tooo long but Ken Hansel myself and another Vietnam veteran were at a Veterans Day ceremony at the East over schools in um early November and Dr Ken had invited us we made some comments about what it is to be a veteran we talked about flag etiquette we talked about our experiences in in the military Ken brought some of his props which went over very well with the students about the you know SE rations and all other sorts of good things that we did when we were in Vietnam but um what moved us the most the students came up after this assembly and this um session with us and they brought 80 or so what we call keepsake boxes and these keepsake boxes were brought by me over to Lions uh Veterans Hospital in basan Ridge New Jersey and distributed to many veterans over there and the veterans reaction was thank you so much students thank you so much do school system for thinking of us veterans a lot of people don't think about them but you do and we appreciate it Dr Kina does in her in her various activities throughout the year you can see she cares about this country deeply patriotism americanism and civic responsibility so in recognition of these activities the VFW presents Dr Kathleen Kina for promoting citizenship education in your class School the special award from Randolph VFW Post 7333 so Dr Kina congratulations for a fabulous job you're doing for the school [Applause] district um we're not quite finished okay I will now cover the next level of the teacher award competition this is at the district level the county level 10 posts are in my district it is my pleasure to present the VFW district 10 Elementary School teacher of the year award to Rand off post submission and over's own Dr Kathleen Kina in recognition to her exceptionable commitment to teaching americanism patriotism to the students of Dober by inspiring civic responsibility and promoting patriotic acts in her school and her community thank you well deserved we got our professional Smiles we're good thank you thank you I'd like to thank you for this very special award because it's an honor to have been selected for this very prestigious recognition to give you an idea about how this all came about on September 13th I attended an event at the VFW in Mars Plains it was their annual clam bake if you've ever been there shout out to that clam veterans know how to have a good time the food was amazing I was standing in line behind a woman who had on her t-shirt said US Navy so I said to her oh are you in the Navy and she said no but my father was and he's standing right behind you and I turned around and I said thank you for your service to our country and happy Commodore John Barry day and he looked kind of startled and he said you know that today's Commodore John Barry day and I said yes of course I'm a school teacher in Dover and we recognize that every year and he said well how do you recognize it he was interested in what things that I did so I told him I said well this year I said I gave us a background of information about the father of our Navy and the history of our Navy to my classes and then I followed up with related activities for example I put a swimming pool in the courtyard at East over school and for the kindergarten students we I taught them and we we reviewed the properties of objects that sink and float and we took them out there and they were able to put some of them and see what sank and what floated for the first graders we learned about the um water displacement and why large ships will float even though they're made out of metal and they engineered their own boats and we took them out to the swimming pool and they put them in the pool to see whether they would sink or float and then he asked if I um recognize any other patriotic qualities and I said well for Memorial Day last year at East over school we had this large display to honor all our fallen fallen soldiers in the school foyer and once again at each grade level I gave background information on Memorial Day and our armed forces and at each grade level they completed an engineering activity for example the fourth graders were given red white and blue construction paper and they had to design the longest paper chain possible the fifth graders were given stacks of newspapers and they had to create the tallest possible freestanding flag pole and the sixth grades were given stacks of newspapers and their with other items and their task was to create a working flag pole where the flag was able to be lowered and raised and then I continued to tell him other things and he said listen he said can you please join us at our table he said I I have something very special I would like to talk to you about hence the beginning of my nomination for this prestigious award for the past 42 years I've had the privilege of educating youth to learn valuable academic skills and become productive citizens in society I am proud to be an American and I seek to model and instill pride in young scholars in our schools while educating them in the history of America for my entire career I have taught children about the principles our country was founded on our national traditions and holidays what patriotism means and how to be a good citizen while giving them Innovative Advanced related learning experiences the good Lord blessed me with an amazing sense of creativity and a passion for making learning fun novel and meaningful I continually look for and create new ways to make learning exciting and challenging for our students I always say I have the best job in the world to be able to get up in the morning and to go to work with children the youth are our posterity as noted in the Constitution they are our future and it is a true joy to be able to impart knowledge and instill good citizenship to these precious individuals who will make a difference in our world thank thank you again for this distinguished Commendation and I also want to thank you for caring about the education of the youth in our community and to all veterans thank you for your service to our [Applause] country and we'll be around in September looking for next year's nominations also and if anybody is a veteran and served overseas see us we could look for membership and we like to share and do things for our veterans and benefits and things like that so see John he's our representative for the area that's my that's my commercial thank you thank you to the VFW for being with us here tonight and for again to Echo Dr cleen's uh words your interest in the education of our young children I'd like this time to ask Miss Maryann Gibbs uh the Director of Human Resources here in Dober uh to speak to the governor's educators of the year and the educational services Professionals of the Year good evening to all I'd like to begin by thanking each of our current board members our pass board members for their dedication of volunteering their time and service to the Dober Public Schools your commitment to education uh to our students and support of our staff is commendable thank you for all that you have done for all that you do thank you I can't think of a better seg segue than hearing from one of our esteemed teachers tonight Dr Kina um and I'd like to to just give her a shout out what a well-deserved um accolades that you received this evening it is my distinct pleasure to begin tonight's celebration of our exceptional Educators and exceptional Educational Service professionals you may be wondering what exactly is the governor's educator of the year and Educational Service professional of the year it is a program that in the words of the New Jersey Department of Education promotes a culture that recognizes Excellence creates a sense of Pride and brings public educa attention to the work of outstanding Educators and we know we have a lot of those right here in Dover this program starts with a rigorous selection process that begins of September and adheres to specific eligibility criteria you might be wondering what kind of criteria there's a list of seven but I'm not going to read them all but you do have to be an exceptionally skilled and dedicated licensed classroom teacher prek to 12 in a public school or Charter School where teaching is the primary responsibility you must have the latest summi of rating of at least effective you must be an expert in your field you must actively collaborate with your colleagues demonstrate leadership Innovation and educational activities and you can't have earned this distinction in the last five years now you may be wondering well what are the educational professionals Educational Services professional of the year they can be any of the following people not necessarily our classroom teachers but our anti-bullying special IST our athletic trainer a child study team member a school counselor a an ldtc our library media specialist a psychologist an instructional par professional a speech language specialist just to name a few you may be wondering how do these honores get selected each of our honores this evening were um each was nominated and elected by a committee of their peers administrators and parents Dr mlin Mr levit our commun uh Communications coordinator and I had a delightful day on Friday December 8th where we visited each of the schools to recognize these uh Educators we were greeted with surprise smiles and classrooms above with whispered wonders and as an HR Director I have to tell you it was was a Friday in December and do you know every single one of them was present in school so shout out A+ gold star for attendance you may be wondering who are these exceptional Educators and educational service providers without further Ado I'd like to introduce our esteemed building leaders you know who you are to come on up and introduce our honores I'm going to ask that our honor when you are called forward to please remain standing with your building leader so that we can have a group photo at the end um at this time I'd like to invite Dr Elaine Mendes from our do Early Learning Center [Applause] one I told you to wear your heels good evening everyone can you hear me yes I am the director of preschool education and before I introduced our teacher of the year I have to say preschool is hard work it takes a lot of patience a lot of love kindness and a lot of dedication and I am so proud to say that our um Del do ear larning Center's teacher of the year embodies all of that and more so without further Ado I introduce you to miss Patricia [Applause] Edgard thank you for everything you do for and now I call them the dynamic duo because they're in the same classroom and everything I said from Miss Edgar goes from Miss Ginger Kanto saalo our par professional of the year she is amazing amazing thank you may I please have Mr Nicholas Edwards our principal from Academy Street Elementary [Applause] School good evening everyone Dover Community I first want to present uh this award for Academy Street School congratulations Miss Erin [Applause] Meer and for Educational Service award our speech therapists congratulations Mr Matthew [Applause] tally I'd like to introduce the principal of East over Elementary School Mr Josh [Applause] chewy good evening everybody uh it's with great honor and pleasure to introduce Ed's uh teacher of the year to Dr Kathy [Applause] Kina and it's also with great honor I always mess this name up uh the name of the award Educational Services professional of the year and that's going to go to Mrs Deborah saen thank [Applause] you it is my pleasure to uh introduce the principal of North D Elementary School Miss Heather [Applause] Carlton good evening it is with great pleas pleasure that we introduce North dover's Governor education educational leader of the Year Mrs Michelle Wright see I didn't even mess up educational professional she is absolutely amazing and equally so is our par professional of the year jadwiga sua [Applause] it is my pleasure to introduce the principal of Dober Middle School Mr Lewis [Applause] haime good evening everyone I'm l Middle School principal and at this time I I would like to introduce uh the teacher of the year award to miss Renaldi come on up I want to make sure you get your [Applause] time don't drop it and our educational Professional Service person of the year Miss Diamond Del ruso who's been with us a very short time but her impact has been [Applause] great it gives me great pleasure to introduce our the high the Dober High School principal Mr Freddy Nunes good evening everyone it is indeed an honor and a privilege to present to you do high schools educator of the Year Mr Jack Kane our educational Educational Services professional of the Year Mr Matt Walter unfortunately could not be here with us tonight but fortunately for us he is working with our student athletes providing the care and need that they um H that they um so warrant at our wrestling match that's happening in the gym so congratulations to him to [Applause] so you may be wondering what is next tonight is just one part of a much larger process that will continue on for our educators of the year as we encourage them to compete at the county level and if selected the state level We wish all of our Educators the best of luck in the next phase of this program and you may be wondering when is she going to wrap this up thus I will leave you with these inspiring words from Theodore Rosevelt as I believe they captured the essence of what it means to be in education it is not the critic who counts not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of Deeds could have done better the credit belongs to the person who is actually in the arena whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood who strives valant who HS who comes short again and again because there is no effort without error and shortcoming but who does actually strive to do the Deeds who knows great enthusiasms the great devotions who SP defends himself in a worthy cause who at the best knows in the end the Triumph of high achievement and who at the worst if he fails at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid Souls who neither know Victory nor defeat to all of our Educators honored here this evening and watching from home thank thank you for your great enthusiasm your great devotions a worthier cause than education there is not thank you for daring greatly and getting into the arena of Education where the triumphs are high and sometimes yes we fail but we get back up and we dare to do it all over again and thus may you always dare greatly congratulations Miss Miss Gibbs you summed that up so well um so I don't have anything further to add but I know that the board would like to just Echo everything that has been said and say thank you and congratulations and as a part of our um presentations uh we're going to have some the cake is somewhere over there so we're going to have some cake and be back shortly everyone is invited by the way board members back to your seats please board members back to your seats oh thank you okay we're all here we're going to get started um we are moving right into public comment on agenda items only the board recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to express themselves on school matters to ensure fair and orderly expression of such comment each statement shall be held to a time period of 3 minutes public comments limited to items on this agenda shall be entertained for approximately 30 minutes upon the discretion of the presiding officer please understand that public comment portions of our agenda are not structured as question and answer sessions but rather they are all offered as opportunities to share your thoughts with the board the board may or may not respond to public comments however all comments are considered and will be investigated and addressed as appropriate please be courteous and mindful of the rights of others when providing comments comments may not be abusive obscene threatening or irrelevant please understand that students and employees have specific legal and privacy protections the board is not per committed to respond in public to comments about students or employees please be advised that you are commenting at your own risk any public comments that are directed at a particular individual or individuals could subject you to Legal liability for defamation with that public comment on agenda items only is now open is there any member of the public wishing to speak good evening Carol Ruiz I had the privilege of serving um with president susha president Monica pestes president Diana Gales and president uh Dr Christa serer and in honor of the um uh month honoring Board of Education members I I just want to highlight some wonderful things that I witnessed from those uh leaders of this body and thank them for their service um I'll start with um uh president suer who um she might be able to tell it better than I um had to deal with my numerous and annoying questions um and always responded always responded and responded quickly um and that's important responsiveness sometimes um when you are busy we can not respond not because you're ignoring uh just because you have other priorities and and in her response uh president susha showed me that our community was her priority despite our many differences her responsiveness was something that I hope um all board members that follow her um emulate that that always respond to your colleagues to your fellow board members to your uh District members and to the community um with Monica pesus I I probably have to thank her most for bringing Dr mclin to our district um again I was stubborn and disagreed and um Monica pesus was so right and I wish she was here to hear me say that she was so right um I I really deeply appreciate the special education expertise that Dr McLaughlin has brought to this District that was so needed and I see the difference and I hear the difference from our community members um expressing the changes and there's more to come and more is needed uh but but such an opportunity to welcome all our students and make us into an inclusive community because it's not just about the students that need special education it's all of us our students who are in what I guess is called regular education or or um honors education they are better students when they can share their education with someone who has special needs so it it is a two-way street so I I'm deeply grateful that U Monica pus LED this board to Bringing Dr Jim McLaughlin here um Diana galez is exemplary in her diligence and directness and follow through um and because I had a pre-existing relationship with her that was easier for me um to to work with and um that's another lesson it's not always easy to work with the fellow members of a board but it's not about it being easy it's about making sure we do what's best for our students and Diana always always reminded us all that whatever we do it's it's for the best of our students and I appreciate her leadership and Dr Christa S and I literally cried many times because we both share that passion and love for our students and um no one is more organized and committed um and fierce fiercely committed to not just our students but our Educators and I was so excited to see so many Educators honor tonight um and not surprised whatsoever I was happy to see so many new faces that's that's something um that really Thrills my heart to see our community grow both in educ Board of Education members I hate to interrupt your no please you know I'll go on forever you got to interrupt me so please try to finish up yes and then finally the first award was for the preschool um that didn't exist we didn't have Universal preschool this board made that happen we made that happen so I was so excited to to see preschool Educators be the first to be awarded because that's where it starts so thank you all and please continue doing good work and even better work thank you Miss Ruiz is there any other member of the public wishing to speak good evening Sue shower 346 West Clinton Street in Dover uh first of all congratulations to this board of education in uh Board of Education recognition month you do a hard job you don't get enough recognition at all you never will but I for one totally appreciate every single one of you so thank you for being here um number two this evening has just blown me away um I was so thrilled to walk into this room and see so many Educators uh that I had the privilege of knowing from their very early years that are now being recognized and um contined to be recognized and to do so well for our students and to uh the VFW that was here to honor Dr Kina uh as many of you know the veterans hold a very special place in my heart I am the daughter of a veteran the granddaughter of a veteran and the mother of a disabled veteran so I appreciate them taking their time to come here and to honor Dr Kina I would be totally remiss if I did not try to squeeze in a few more names that I had the honor of serving with when I was on the board of education that um were not on the agenda tonight but are still very near and dear to my heart because these are the people that gave me the the momentum to to stay with the board of education for so many years and they gave me the honor of leading them also many of them over and over again um maybe when I I really did not want to be the leader but they wanted me to be the leader and they needed me to be the leader so I did um first of all starting off with my vice president of 12 years that um I dragged along the way ly Lori thank you for that Lynn and congratulations to you for tonight um and then starting with Dr Barbara Jane luthe the do Board of Education president when I was appointed to the board she was also uh recently retired as president of Centenary College so we have um we have a lot to be proud of here in over Elizabeth corsetto was her vice president and my president um before I became President William Schuler the second longest running board member consecutive board member 54 years in the state of New Jersey taught us all so much and held us responsible every single minute of every single meeting that we were at he never let us forget what we were there for Donald bril over 34 years dedicated to the students of do former police officer retired police officer in the town of Dover Abby hanzel um who is now retired and back in education in Florida um she was on the for over 18 years and did significant work with negotiations to help change the face of the teacher step guide she did that work all on her own um and brought it back to the board to help in negotiations and that was something that no other board member has ever done Sergio Ferrari my friend Sergio Ferraro who was the co-owner of barries his brother still owns jav Javier Marin former mayor of the town of do Albert galoa our good good friend Albert who was on the board and did some of our initial steps with our work with nardis Julia papovich who I guess could not be here tonight John stefen who just I think got back from Hawaii so congratulations John Frank seini um and Daryl Hooper who could not be here and I wish that Joanne Dodd and Linda Mullen could have also been here because I know they do still care about our students and our school but again thank you every I didn't want to interrupt the list but please your time is up so please finish up gotcha um I thank you very much again for this evening it really was a very nice surprise and I appreciate it thank you thank you Miss shower um for reminding us of that history uh is there any other member of the public wishing to speak uh good evening Mike mcau um I'd like to start by uh informing the board that our administrative unit has officially changed our name from the long and not entirely accurate building administrators of the do public schools to the much shorter do administrators Association uh daa for short this is what most people call us anyway and and now it's official uh that being said the daa the daa would like to express uh its gratitude to all the board members for all the hard work and dedication you put in on behalf of all the stakeholders of the do public schools and we certainly extend that gratitude to all former board members as well uh we have some certificates to hand out as well um finally the daa would like to thank the board for working with us on our new contract and we are certainly all very glad to be in the final stage of board approval uh so once again thank you for all you do and we look forward to a continued working relationship between the board and the daa thank you thank you thank you um for this uh recognition thank you so so much Benjamin roles 65 Randolf Avenue it's great to be here uh thank you for the invite and to be a part of this great moment to recognize uh past board members I have to admit that I am humbled and I don't think I'm that deserving of such an award and such a recognition I know there's board members who are still serving who have served for much longer than I have and many of the ones that will recognize today served for a lot longer than I did so in that regard I I really don't um don't see that I brought that much in the short time that I was here but I'm grateful for that opportunity to have served and to have served with so many of you that are still on the board now so thank you thank you for taking this opportunity to do that um I know that hopefully when the time comes for some of you to say it's enough that you can be recognized as well I think you definitely deserve it for your time here so thank you for the work that you're doing and I want to recognize the new board members who are here today I appreciate you joining believe me when I took it on when I first came on I didn't didn't know what I was getting into and I know you're going to be finding that out shortly but it's worthwhile and I I'm sure you're going to enjoy the experience so thank you for for taking this Challenge on and I also want to recognize all the staff that were recognized today here I know some of them I know personally from my experience at Academy Street School my daughter and I want to recognize them for their hard work um my daughter is now finishing eighth grade so I can't believe that she's going into High School in September I'm not ready for it but I'm grateful that um you know the experience that that she had at Academy Street and now at middle school is preparing her for for that new challenge and that new part of her life and the other thing I want to sort of just bring up which I'm pleasantly surprised in addition to Dr Kina being so long here at the district um is Mr kones who's uh got recognized for 20 years at the district as well I know him as a friend and uh we went to high school together and it's great to see somebody who's invested such a great part of his life here at the district as many other staff has have as well but um congratulations to Mr konas and I thank you all to the staff who uh are investing all their time and efforts to do the work that you guys do uh for our students and uh lastly I just want to thank uh Dr mclin and the administration for the work that you guys are doing to try to manage the resources that we have to try to provide the best that we can to our students I know it's not easy but I'm looking forward to the town being engaged with our district at a different level than in the past to see better things come for our district and for our students and I'm glad that those conversations are happening and it's great to see the the connection points that weren't there before as they should have been so thank you again and it's great to see you all again thank you Mr robas is there any other member of the public wishing to speak all right good evening John Coniglio 24 tailor Town Road and uh just had about two cups of coffee so I'm all fire it up now so here we go um first of all Mr robless whether you were on the board for 5 minutes or 5 years or 50 years you're still a member of this board and we thank you for your service on this board and you are absolutely um deserving of the recognition tonight 100% okay um secondly what an amazing night uh bringing back the former board members was an excellent touch please continue to do that that was fantastic seeing everybody here and honoring them uh super super great job Whoever thought of that and put that all together thank you that was very nice and I hope we continue to do that um and then going on to our um Governor's teachers of the year and esps of the year just top rate super job so thank you thank you thank you to the board Dr McLaughlin and um anybody else that was involved in putting that together on behalf of our Paris our teachers our security guards thank you so much for everything that you guys do we really appreciate it and as many have said before me it's a thankless job but we thank you so much and we appreciate you so much and it takes a lot to run for a board of ed takes a lot of Courage takes a lot of time takes a lot of effort and it's not always easy but you put the time in and you put the effort in and we greatly appreciate your time and your efforts and everything that you do for us and for do so thank you so much thank you is there any other member of the public wishing to speak seeing none public comment is now closed and we will move on to approval of minutes is there a motion to approve the minutes from December nober 19th 2023 and January 2nd 2024 so moved second we have a motion by Mr Miller a second by Miss nutting is there any discussion seeing no discussion Mr sabahu May me have a roll call vote please miss ESO yes Miss DS yes Mr Miller yes Miss nothing yes Miss Phillips yes Miss pinelis yes Dr sener yes Miss SES see Miss mandes yes we are moving along to Communications um the whole board Communications I am aware of are from Miss shower on January 8th in reference to non-resident Transportation um is there anything that I missed Miss nuty I had an individual um message me about uh our calendar for release for next year for next year's school calendar they were just wondering when it was going to be approved that's all thing I'm sorry so someone messaged about a calendar next year's calendar when it's going to be released yes okay okay thank you um we are moving along to the student representative to the board report Miss Calderone Alvarez good evening I am going to start off my report with an ongoing topic that the senior students have been advocating for I have pre previously mentioned the privilege that seniors have been wanting which is to have the ability to leave the school campus during their lunch period we understand that this brings great responsibility and that many factors are put into consideration but we assure you that we are willing to contribute in order to make this happen if we are not given the opportunity to leave our respective lunch periods then we would like to propose the opportunity of leaving campus for the time equivalent to those of the three lunch periods I spoke to Mr Nunes about this in which he responded by stating that he was going to meet with her superintendent Dr mclin this is a work in progress and we hope to hear more information regarding this in the spring moving on recently at do high school in addition to the Turn Style systems detectors were installed in the bathrooms a new implementation that came with this is the Locking of the bathrooms during the minutes that students Chang periods there have been many complaints about this that I may sure to bring to Mr nunes's attention to which he gave me a very comprehensible response our principal declared that this was implemented in order to keep students from from entering the bathroom to do things they were not supposed to do that ever since the bathroom doors prohibited entrance during this time period that Vape detections have been less of a problem The Vape detections tended to be higher in numbers during passing time and lunch periods which is why the locked doors have been successful in controlling this issue when the detectors go off students are immediately searched and if found with a vape or any substance they are forced to face the consequences although this may be tedious for students who strictly visit the bathroom for its appropriate use it is greatly allowing the control of the vaping issues which aims for the students well-being another concern that was presented to me were the cold temperatures in some classes and in the auditorium during am chorus an observation that the students that are part of the am cor is made was that the heaters mostly turned on when there was going to be an event later in the day such as assemblies or meetings when brought to Mr nunes's attention he stated that he was not aware of this issue but that it had occurred a couple of times where he was compelled to call in order to turn the heaters on at times when rooms in the buildings are in the building are cold our principal make sure to move the students into another room or to call the adequate department to get the heaters repaired the times of these repairments fluctuate since sometimes alternative parts are required I want to end off by saying congratulations to the board of education for being recognized this month and thank you for everything you do for our community thank you thank you Miss Calderone Alvarez for that report um Dr mclin can you speak to heating issues is that something um um that requires some more investment attention or is that like oneoff events uh well we definitely uh need attention to our our HVAC throughout the district we um I think DOA stood out because it was probably one of the first districts to have uh air conditioning uh among uh districts uh in the area uh but our HVAC systems are aging uh tonight is part of my um superintendent report I'm discussing the rod grants that we were recently awarded both of those are going towards agac um upgrades uh our agac uh generally is about 25 years old so it needs a lot of continuous attention and adjustments uh we had a problem for example in the back of the media center here in uh in our library at the higho School uh it is now fixed those uh members of the board who might have visited the back of the library this evening know that it's really fixed because it's it's pretty warm back there so uh keeping keeping those temperatures regulated is uh sometimes an issue you know we had a um problem uh not so much in regard to temperature but uh with our pipes this week uh again I'll reference that in our in my uh superintendent report but yes it's a continuous whether it's in the cold weather like this and making sure that the heat is maintained or whether it's in the hot weather making sure that our air conditioning is maintained and it's something that we are providing continuous attention to but it's a I I believe there's some we in the area of 400 units that control temperature in the district that we are trying to um upgrade uh and do that in a priority type of basis thank you are there any other comments or questions based off of Miss Kone Alvarez's report seeing none uh we are moving along to the board president's report um bear with me at our December meeting representatives of the M Hill Board of Education spoke about the breakdown of negotiations between our boards for a new send receive agreement their comments f fused on a few discreet issues and did not address the overall scope of negotiations over the past 3 years our board worked sincerely and diligently to negotiate a new written send receive agreement with Mine Hill it is important to understand that the parties are not required to have a written agreement the last one was for seven years and was signed back in 1993 in the absence of a new written agreement the relationship will continue in accordance with the law nevertheless we negotiated in good faith and were able to reach agreement on a number of issues including a seven-year term for the new agreement detailed Provisions regarding articulation between the districts the sharing of information between the districts the creation of a liaison committee to meet annually and discuss the goals and objectives of each board regard regarding the relationship a timeline for reconciling annual tuition adjustments detailed Provisions regarding special education and the placement process sharing the cost of transporting M Hill fifth and sixth graders to attend the high school musical events or other events and a dispute resolution process for any issues that arise in implementing or interpreting the agreement at the December meeting one issue raised by mind Hill was the timing of when they would be provided with our board agendas this was difficult to understand because in our last proposal we agreed to provide mine Hill's business administrator with the final public agenda for each do board meeting at the same time it is provided to the members of the Dober Board of Education one issue that was very important to Dover and was not mentioned by Mine Hill was our request that they agree to not seek to sever or modify our send Reed relationship during the seven-year term of the agreement this was a reasonable request if the parties are truly committed to working together on behalf of their children and in light of mine Hill's history of seeking to sever or modify the relationship in the past Mine Hill would not agree to this request two of the reasons they gave for not agreeing were that they didn't want to give up a statutory right and they wanted the same seat at the table as the students who have a representative on the board this is ironic considering there is a clear statutory language defining when sending districts are entitled to representation on the receiving Board of Education and there is also a law requiring a student repres representation on the boards of districts with high schools in both cases We are following the law as it exists they also claim that they don't want to bind their future boards but they would only be doing so in the same manner as any other multi-year contract and only for the term of the agreement itself nevertheless in the interest of reaching a compromise we agreed to drop our demand that they not seek to sever or modify the relationship during the term of the agreement we were willing to enter an agreement without that that Assurance yet we still found ourselves at an impass we have negotiated in good faith and feel that significant progress was made toward a new written agreement we are willing to resume negotiations if mine Hill reconsiders its position in the meantime we again invite Mine Hill to consider Do's offer to partner in revisiting the regional regionalization effort regionalization has the potential to be more cost effective for the taxpayers of both districts and to provide a way for M Hill residents to have elected members on a regional board and that concludes my report are there any comments or questions based off of my report seeing none we are moving along to administrative reports Dr mlin thank you uh as I just mentioned uh we just completed a rough weather week uh we have one remaining emergency closing day left should we require more than one additional emergency closing we will need to utilize the scheduled day off or add days to the end of the school year some many districts are already in this situation uh the preference is not to add days to the end of the year and uh as I uh communicated to the staff on Friday uh we would most likely Begin by using the Friday of Memorial Day weekend and depending on the timing then look to Spring recess uh hopefully none of this is necessary but it's important to discuss this so that people know what's under consideration this coming Saturday the Latino Institute will provide workshops for our District's families this will occur at uh East over uh school and uh and Middle School our school principles have collaborated on using their title one parent engagement funds for this event there's a series of workshops that have been publicized and we hope to have a strong turnout we have received the equipment for simultaneous interpretation at our Board of Education meetings and I'm currently in correspondence with several companies to provide the interpretation itself we hope to be ready to implement this very soon on Friday we Reed received the offer Grant letters from the school uh development SDA regarding our Rod Grant Awards as uh you may already know these awards are as follows do Middle School was awarded 1,245 348 North do elementary was awarded 1, 59127 both of these awards are offer HVAC UPG grades uh this continues as I just mentioned to be a significant need in our district based on the advanced age of our equipment upon verification that all the documentation required by the agreement has been provided uh the njsda will execute the agreement and the district's funding will commence Cynthia bass gensinger our social studies supervisor is in the process of completing a competitive Grant application for approximately $10,000 to provide AP African-American history at do High School uh our district is in a good position for the funding and we're optimistic that we will receive this award we're also pleased to announce a significant update update to do high school's high impact tutoring program on tonight's agenda we are seeking approval for an additional 27 Dober teachers to join as high impact tutors this will bring the total number of District tutors to 78 all of whom are dedicated to do public school students and I think I I made a mistake when I said that this is for the uh do Elementary and high school uh high impact tutoring programs so it's not just limited uh to the high school with this noteworthy increase in Staffing for a high impact tutoring program we are excited about the expanded capacity to provide tutoring Services the anticipated outcome is the ability to support 900 students in do Public Schools across grades K to2 this reflects a substantial commitment to enhancing educational support and fostering the academic growth of our students uh this grant uh as uh Senator Buco mentioned earlier in his remarks uh was uh put in place by the the state of New Jersey to address academic gaps which are attributed to co and to addressing those gaps and so we are eager uh to move forward with this program we extend our heartfelt appreciation to the teachers who have applied for the positions as their dedication underscores a shared commitment to the success and well-being of our students this initiative reflects the collaborative efforts of our DOA Community to ensure that every student receives the necessary support for their educational Journey I'd also like to tonight to provide a an update and SEI training uh SEI training stands for sheltered English instruction this training provides teachers with specific strategies that focus on students Assets in other words what they already bring to the table to help create an inclusive learning environment where multilingual Learners can access and participate in academic content content while simultaneous ously advancing their English language proficiency while we have a commendable number of bilingual and ESL teachers our multilingual population grows weekly we need to equip all of our teachers with research-based strategies that can help them convey lessons in a way that can be better understood by our multilingual Learners while also also making them feel valued and included we PRI uh we prioritize training teachers in grades K to 12 who have multilingual Learners in their current classes and need to provide shelter and English instruction uh per the statutes and the bilingual code for the state of New Jersey and just as a a a quick update um beginning in June 2023 uh just a little while back 8% of our teachers uh throughout the district were trained in sheltered English instruction uh over the past month with a dedicated effort towards this we've moved in December to 15% March 23% and by April 30% so uh we are uh and we obviously will not stop there but uh that is our um approach uh to working with those teachers who are not certified as bilingual or ESL teachers but work with with our students and we really feel that that's a critical uh area that that is being addressed this year and that completes my report thank you ex Dr mclin are there any comments or questions based off of his report seeing none Mr sabahu thank you good evening everyone uh we are in the final process of the electric School Bus bate program uh from EPA Environmental Protection Agency we are planning to replace three of our AG diesel buses with the electric buses if they approve our application the reimbursement will be up to 300 $45,000 per bus so if you get the award it's going to be over a million dollar uh worth of bus we're going to have three electric buses brand new it's going to be great uh we are almost done with 2022 2023 School audit we'll be re receiving the draft audit report soon and hopefully it's going to be approved uh the report is going to be approved in the agenda next month we're in the process to change District software for accounting HR and payroll in order to reive time and increase the efficiency in the district uh you you will be seeing in the agenda uh there are two firms CSI and Genesis uh everyone picked Genesis so we would like to move forward with Genesis if it's approved tonight uh currently we're using system 3000 uh we are having some issues so we're going to be saving a lot of time with that and finally the budget process for district started for next year's budget in couple months you're going to be seeing the tentative budget and also after that the budget hearing is going to be coming up thank you thank you Mr sabahu are there any questions or comments based off of his report Dr Ser um Mr sabahu just out of curiosity how much does one electric school bus cost approximately uh they are over $400,000 so but that's a big discount then if we get almost like they're paying everything okay thank you any other comments or questions I do want to add uh one piece because I know there were board members uh present last time we considered some electric bus upgrades one big difference is that this particular program does also fund the infrastructure the the electrical work and capacity that has to be built in when you have the electric buses yeah I miss that part we are asking for six charging units and anything comes with that that's also in application perfect thank you um we are going to move along to to Boe reports uh Mr Miller any updates from the Morris County Education Services Commission uh yes they they had a meeting I was unable to attend but I did read all the documentation there really wasn't anything new that I'd have to report U but I did have a conversation with Dr mlin about proposing some other services uh to see if they would be interested that would help our district and maybe others so I'll um report back the next time if if there's anything that they agree to in that proposal perfect thank you uh Miss Phillips our legislative report please um okay the governor sorry the governor has recently signed the following bills into law grief instruction which requires the State Board of Education to adopt and districts to implement New Jersey student learning standards pertaining to grief in the Comprehensive Health and physical education content area at its next required update of the standards these standards will be included in grades 8 through 12 and would address the physical emotional and behavioral symptoms of grief coping mechanisms and resources available to students vet teach pilot program establishes the vet teach pilot program in the New Jersey Department of Education designed to help address the educator shortage by helping facilitate teacher certification for State's veterans providing School Meal information to parents revises the type of information that must be sent to parents or Guardians at the beginning of the school year regarding the district school meal programs security drills and students with disabilities require certain documentation of the needs of students with disabilities during school security drills and emergency situations as well as in school security plans this bill also requires staff training on the needs of students with disabilities in emergency planning School Safety and Security task force establishes a School Safety and Security task force to study and develop recommendations to improve School Safety and Security and to ensure a safe learning environment for for students and employees and also FAFSA graduation requirement which requires students to complete financial aid applications as part of their High School graduation requirements a number of the bills that I have reported on in the past are still under consideration in various points of review and approval so once and if they are signed into law they will be reported on at that time however I did want to bring up one bill that is currently under consideration because I don't recall having reported on it in the past and I wanted to bring it up and I actually have a question um so School Bus cameras permits the use of video cameras to crack down on motorists illegally passing school buses more specifically the bill authorizes the use of a school bus monitoring system to assist in the enforcement of existing law that prohibits motor vehicles from passing a school bus while it is stopped to pick up or drop off students the reason I'm asking about it is because literally in the last week I have seen three different times where a car drove around a school bus when it was stopped and students were getting on getting off so my question am I to interpret this that right now you're not allowed to use the cameras like you know like a stoplight C stoplight a red light camera or you know when you go through a easy pass you get a ticket in the mail with a picture of your car that says this you so you can't we we are permitted to equip our the arms of our buses with cameras which would take a photo of a passing vehicle and actually we've had recent discussions about equipping do buses with that okay the the issue is we can equip over buses with that but we do contract a lot of our buses and uh we can certainly put it in the the specs that we want them but uh the availability of bus companies that actually could fulfill that may be limited uh but certainly equipping our own do buses is something I think we all agree we should do um when I was superintendent in Rockaway we had a fairly big Fleet and we did equip we had that problem at the time and did equip our buses we can't issue a summons but we can send that right away to the police department right and ask them to issue a summon yeah I would definitely advocate for that because like I said it was three separate occasions one actually was a Rockway bus but either way it doesn't matter they were stopped clearly the arms are out and the car just literally drove around I was mortified um so yeah I mean obviously you can't force the buses that you contract but if that's something that our buses could have and then send it to the police and then they can issue the summons I think that' be significant because like I said in a week's time I've seen it three times and that's why it caught my eye because yeah we were just talking about it at my house so and that concludes my report thank you Miss Phillip for that report uh Miss nutting um any updates from the Morris County New Jersey school boards Association um they do have a upcoming meeting that is virtual on February 8th and I know I will be signing up to attend to that but I encourage the rest of the board members to check it out also thank you uh Miss nutting we are moving along to administrative approval is there a motion excuse me Madam president before you ask before you call for uh a resolution uh resolution or a motion on that item uh I just want to say that we should amend the agenda to remove item C for tonight is there a motion to approve items 8 through F excluding item C and the hand carry amendment to item a so move second we have a motion by Miss ASO and a second by Mr Miller is there any discussion Miss Mendes Dr Ser um just to clarify the item e is the memorandum agreement with the building administrators also known as the newly Christen daa correct correct thank you any other discussion seeing none we have a motion by Miss ASO a second by Mr Miller Mr sabahu may we have a roll call vote please miss ESO yes Miss DS yes Mr Miller yes Miss nothing yes Miss Phillips yes Miss penales yes Dr sener yes Miss solnes yes Miss Mes yes uh we are moving along to uh Personnel Miss nutty I would like to make a motion upon the recommendation of the superintendent and the board approv the following Personnel resolutions A1 through 11 with hand Carri changes to A1 2 3 and five is there a second second we have a motion by Miss nutting a second by Miss Phillips is there any discussion Dr s um I just wanted to thank our Administration um for choosing to use our own staff for the high impact tutoring there was an article in I think it was nj.com within the last couple days talking about how many districts have uh sort of subcontracted that out to online tutoring Services um I think our students in particular but I think students in general learn best from their teachers the people that they already have um a relationship and trust with so I wanted to thank the administration for pursuing that option which is certainly the more labor intensive option and I also wanted to thank um the many many many teachers who have stepped up to um perform uh this after school role as uh tutors for our students so I I think that's um deserving of Kudos on both parts thank you thank you Dr sander is there any other discussion no uh we have a motion by Miss nutting a second by Miss Phillips Mr sabahu may we have a roll call vote Please Mr ESO yes Miss DS yes Mr Miller yes Miss nothing yes Miss Phillips yes Miss pinelis yes Dr cner yes Miss soles yes Miss mandz yes uh we are moving along to negotiations Miss nutting as we just approve the mo MOA for the daa um tonight um we also are in the process of finalizing the contract with our DEA and we are beginning our negotiations with the dssa soon so that's everything thank you Miss nutting we are moving along to governance um the committee is um newly formed tonight um unless Mr Miller is there anything that you'd like to report out I I know that we have a number of items that a list that we have to work on so as soon as the committee sets a date we'll get to work on them perfect please add to your list um to review our board goals um and perhaps if you can report out at our next meeting um we are moving along to student achievement and curriculum uh Dr s I know you were the chair um in our last session is there anything you need to report no so is there a motion to approve items 1 through 10 under student achievement and curriculum so move second second uh who moved that Miss ASO we have a motion by Miss ASO a second by Miss nutting I heard both of you so miss nutting is there any discussion Dr Ser yes I would like to thank the teachers and supervisors who have taken the time to organize and plan field trips for our students to attend they're going to the theater to learn about healthy relationships and uh become acclimated to do high school this takes a tremendous amount of work in addition to all the other stuff that you're doing so I wanted to say thank you for that I wanted to acknowledge and thank Miss gensinger for uh the application for AP uh a um African-American history but also for getting 50 tickets for our students to attend Hamilton um that is amazing Miss meta for applying for and winning the empowered light program Grant and M Kina uh for applying for and winning the blueo wind Grant thank you Dr s Miss nutty um just with mentioning that we are you know the educational system we're trying to get our students to come back and you know give back to our communities and also become teachers themselves and go up the chain and give back as much as they can and I just like to point out Justin Hartman for being on here as an approval tonight too for educator leadership Masters program being that he is a Dober high school graduate thank you Miss nuty for highlighting that is there any other discussion seeing none we have a motion by Miss nutting a second no I'm sorry I'm in the wrong place we have a motion by Miss ASO a second by Miss nutting Mr sabahu may we have a roll call vote please miss ESO yes Miss STS yes Mr Miller yes Miss nothing yes Miss Phillips yes Miss penales yes Dr Center yes Miss SES yes Miss mandz yes uh we are moving along to community relations um Miss Phillips is is there anything new to report uh no once the new committee is announced tonight then they'll have to schedule a meeting and also a meeting with the citizens advisory committee because that's been on hold until the new members are appointed perfect thank you uh we will move along to policy uh Miss DS I know you were the chair in our last session is there anything to report no thank you so is there a motion to approve items one and two under policy so moved second Miss Phillips moved yes H second by Mr Miller is there any discussion we have a motion by Miss Phillips a second by Mr Miller Mr sabahu may we have a roll call vote please miss esto yes Miss DS yes Mr Miller yes Miss nothing yes Miss Phillips yes Miss penales yes Dr sener yes Miss SES yes Miss mandz yes uh we are moving along to finance and Facilities uh Mr Miller you were our chair in the last session is there anything you'd like to report out no we'll just uh try to find a date to to meet as soon as possible thank you um so is there a motion to approve items 1 through 13 and the hand carry items 14 and 15 so move second second uh was that Miss ASO yes and I don't know who second Mr Miller okay so we we have a motion by Miss ASO a second by Mr Miller okay is there any discussion I have a question Miss Phillips um for number seven the approval of the donation of Vis Visa gift cards from Mr sper um Dr mlin can you just give like a brief explanation of where those gift cards were distributed only because someone asked me about it sure absolutely and uh let me just uh Begin by saying that we are deeply grateful uh we have a number of organizations who during the course of the year do provide gift cards that they ask the district uh to use its judgment in distributing uh part of the function of our community Liaisons is to identify needs and distribute those gift cards accordingly and they they do that fairly promptly once those gift cards are uh donated thank you Mr Miller uh I just want I know that usually every meeting we have uh people who contribute to scholarship funds and we have two here Mr M and Mr Mrs jacobe generous donations from the DHS 1970s scholarship fund uh but this time of year the the guidance department is reaching out to all of the the donors and the different scholarship funds uh uh because our students um towards the end of the year the the seniors have the opportunity to apply for a lot of these scholar scholarships and tens of thousands of dollars which goes a really long way uh to help uh students uh survive the uh scare of the bills going to college so it it's great when so many uh Dober high school graduates from different decades are donating and other members of the community and the Greater Community Helping to provide support for our students so I just want to thank them thank you Mr Miller Miss ASO just to piggyback on that um so if a Community member wishes to donate like to make uh like to donate money for a scholarship who do they have to reach out to Dr mlin can you speak to that yeah the the most direct uh path would be right to the business department um Vicky Pico um who answers the phone uh in the business department she generally handles that thank you thank you any other discussion seeing none we have a motion by Miss aavo a second by Mr Miller Mr sabahu may we have a roll call vote please miss ESO yes Miss DS yes Mr Miller yes Miss nothing yes Miss Phillips uh yes with an exstension to any payments to vendor 1 1950 Miss paneles yes Dr Center yes with an exstension to 143 any payments to 14366 can I get it again sorry 14 14366 Miss SES yes Miss mandz yes we are moving along to some informational items um some upcoming Board of Education meetings February 20th um tentatively February 27th if approved tonight a special meeting um March 19th and April 23rd uh Dr serer do you want to highlight the trainings sure um hopefully our new members were able to attend the new board member orientation weekend that just happened if you didn't please attend the 3-day one in February I think that was probably uh the most critical training that I attended in the last six years um mandated Training Day for any of us who need a uh year 2 year three or returning year four training um that is happening on February 3rd that is both in person in Trenton but also virtual um Miss nutting already mentioned the Morris County Schoolboard association meeting and um looking forward I hope the district is once again working on nominating a do student for the Morris County Schoolboard Association unsung hero award um and that many of us can attend that that is a really wonderful evening um apparently at at CCM this year so that's exciting thank thank you Dr Ser um some use of facilities I I mean I'm excited whenever we have um some use of facilities requests but I'm particularly excited about the spaghetti dinner fundraiser by the Dover band boosters um and uh so we're going to move along to Old business um is there a motion to approve appointments by the president committee assignments by the president and repres representation at schools as listed on the hand carry agenda so move second uh motion by Miss asabo second by Miss nutting is there any discussion seeing no discussion we have a motion miss asav a second by Miss nutting Mr sabahu may we have a roll call vote please M ESO yes M DS yes Mr Miller yes Miss nothing yes Miss Phillips yes Miss penales yes Dr sener yes Miss soles yes Miss mandes yes we are moving along to new business um the currently scheduled October meeting um on the 22nd conflicts with our school board's convention uh October 15th does not conflict with the convention and we checked and it does not conflict with the Town Council meetings um is there a motion to change our October 22nd meeting to October 15th so moved second who was that second Miss nutting so we have a motion by Mr Miller a second by Miss nutting is there any discussion seeing none uh Mr sabahu may we have a roll call vote please miss ESO yes Miss DS yes Mr Miller yes Miss nothing yes Miss Phillips yes Miss penales yes Dr sener yes Miss SES yes Miss mandes yes moving along our 2324 board goals include two whole board trainings um is there a motion to approve a February 27th special meeting for the purpose of whole board training so move second Miss ACO and Miss nutty is there any discussion see no discussion Mr sabahu maybe have a roll call vote please miss ESO yes Miss DS yes Mr Miller yes Miss nothing yes Miss Phillips yes Miss penales yes Dr sener yes Miss soles yes Miss mandes yes uh moving along our 2324 board goals include a school-based forum at each school is there a motion to approve the dates for these school-based forms to be attended by members assigned to said School so moved I heard Miss Phillips moved it is there a second second who was that misso is there any discussion seeing none Mr Sabu may we have a roll call vote please miss ESO yes Miss DS yes Mr Miller yes Miss nothing yes Miss Phillips yes Miss penales yes Dr sener yes Miss SES yes m this yes um our next uh item under new business is not on the agenda uh is there a motion one second Dr mlin I'll give you the floor okay thank you so much uh previously this evening uh in executive session I provided the members of the board of educ ation uh with my notice uh of resignation for the purpose of retirement effective June 30th 2024 um there's a lot of time left before June 30th but I think it's appropriate at this point to uh Express that it has been and continues to be a true privilege uh for me to work with the students the families and the staff of the Dober community and it's a gift to work alongside the truly dedicated Educators and education support staff in our schools I am conscious each day of the positive differences that these individuals make to the lives of our students and I've consistently been humbled by the sacrifices our families make so their children could be successful and have been so impressed by the achievements of our students I will say that um this is my 38th year in education um I didn't I didn't didn't hit Dr cleaner's numbers but uh I think after that significant amount of time I can truly say that um I'm really happy that I was able to um conclude that time here in Dover it's a a very special community and and one that I've been truly gifted to be a part of so again I look forward to the next five months I dedicate myself 100% to uh to the work uh that is done in that time and whatever I can do to the board board to help the board in its transition to new leadership certainly I'm committed to Dr mclin thank you for all you have done um for our district over the past uh five years um are there any other comments that board members would like to make no uh so is there a motion that the Board of Education accept the resignation for purpose of retirement of Dr James McLaughlin the superintendent ATT of schools effective June 30th 2024 so moved second we have a motion by Miss nutting a second by Miss ASO I don't believe we can have much discussion because this is a Personnel item so we will take a roll call vote Please Mr sabahu Mr ESO yes Miss towns yes Mr Miller yes Miss nothing yes Miss Phillips yes Miss pinales yes Dr senner yes Miss solines yes Miss mandes yes um I make a mo uh is there a motion that the Board of Education authorized the business administrator to solicit proposals from superintendent search firms so moved second we have a motion by Mr Miller a second by Miss nutty MH is there any discussion seeing none Mr sabahu may we have a roll call vote please miss ESO yes Miss DS yes Mr Miller yes Miss nothing yes Miss Phillips yes Miss panales yes Dr CER yes Miss SZ yes Miss mandz yes uh is there any other new business seeing no other new business we are moving along to public comment um okay the board recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to express themselves on school matters to ensure fair and orderly expression of such comment each statement shall be held to a time period of 3 minutes public comments not restricted to items on this agenda shall be entertained for a approximately 30 minutes upon the discretion of the presiding officer for those who wish to provide public comment remotely a Google form was posted on the district website at 6:30 p.m. remote comments will be read by a member of the Board of Education the Board of Education will alternate between in-person and online comments please understand that public comment portions of our agenda are not structured as question and answer sessions but rather they are offered as opportunities to share your thoughts with the board the board may or may not respond to public comments however all comments are considered and will be investigated and addressed as appropriate please be courteous and mindful of the rights of others when providing comments comments may not be abusive obscene threatening or irrelevant please understand that students and employees have specific legal and privacy protections the board is not permitted to respond in public to comments about students or employees please be advised that you are commenting at your own risk any public public comment any public comments that are directed at a particular individual or individuals could subject you to Legal liability for defamation with that public comment is now open is there any member of the public in person wishing to speak good evening Lyn Lori 10 Hillside Avenue um thank you for the recognition this evening it's very much appreciated and I wish all of you well as you do this very important work on this board it's a lot of work but it is very fulfilling um one of the things that I heard this student discussing is how there's many cold areas in the building and I've heard this on previous occasions and I really realize yes the system is old um and I'm just wondering about the buildings and grounds person if there like if there have been repairs it's was going through my mind when Margaret fiser which is so long ago came in as superintendent and the minute she came in the state was going to do a takeover because of the way the buildings are in this District so I've just keep hearing this and I just think it's something maybe bring the buildings and Grand person in and find out what basically the recommendation is because it's a big deal then also hearing I I wasn't sure I heard the whole thing but about the restrooms that are closed while the students are between periods at the high school is did I hear that correctly okay it doesn't seem like a great idea that's that's that's just my comment but um that's my opinion so I'm just surprised parents are not having something to say about that but um thank you and once again I appreciate it and I do wish you all well so thank you Miss laor um do we have any virtual comments there's one this is from Angela Ramos 326 Washington Avenue thank you to all of you for your efforts and your volunteer time to make education a priority indeed it is not an easy role to do but it is life-changing for so many students and our community I have a special mention for those who did make change possible and had an impact in our district for new opportunities for our diverse Community thank you Mrs pesus Mrs Ruiz Mrs katano Mrs Vos Mrs Gales Miss Sue Ellen and Mrs Mendes for being the voice voice of those who were not being heard loud and clear before and thank you to all of you today all students are being recognized with a new Administration and open to welcome everyone in our district all of you sitting in the chair should never forget the impact you are doing on someone's life your time is appreciated thank you thank you is there any member of the public in person wishing to speak good evening everyone Mary SA 217 Baker Street um I'm going to jump some points over here uh thank you for um scheduling those Community forums uh we can only say so much as community members during the three minutes um and those are great um points you know a discussion it's it's more of an open discussion um I do have to say though that my particular school that my my children attend it's at the end of the school year um which you know it wouldn't be a problem I mean I just hope you reconsider those dates um and also uh invite parents from current schools that perhaps are moving to the other schools like going on from sixth grade to Middle School um so they can attend the other forums as well to see what goes on kind of like an invitation of what they can expect um seeing as some of the meetings the forums are going on towards the end of the school year um I just have to um um point out how um we're using up all of our snow days and I don't know if it's an it's it's an option I know during um the pandemic we got through virtual learning um I don't know if that's something that can be um an opportunity to not lose out on those you know already scheduled vacation days um I know not all the Gres take their iPads home but that's something that um I've heard from other districts that might be doing already instead of losing out a whole um school day uh considering the virtual learning option um and um we had a Community member mention how it's um a little bit surprised how parents are not bringing up the point of you know the issue with the the high school bathrooms um it is not surprising to me as a parent um due to the poor communication still um today is the end of the second marking period um there have been many changes that as parents we are presented with but not given a headtop of what changes are being made um the Dual language program there hasn't been any update to that um the Dual language program was came up during um board meetings last school year um as part of being one of the reasons that they were planning to stop the uh gifted and talented program uh the Dual language program I hear from parents that um right now it's either they're continuing in some classrooms and some not um my child I have another child in preschool that we moving on to elementary school as a parent I don't know what to expect um I feel like we're being presented upon this changes when the time has come to an end uh with no input from parents um I'm not sure about the teacher side um but also um the second graders also this year had a change in the grading system them they were not part part of the honoral ceremonies and that's something that also as parents having children in different grades um we know about the other schools what goes on we know about the other grades that goes on and we just stumbled upon all these changes without being given a head up as to what to expect for the school year um so I ask again for um timely communication to the community um consistency from administrations I know all the different schools have the different principles that you know like like we were asking for a more condensed calendar for the district we know things are happening in all the scho your time's up so so please try to finish up so I ask for better communication um and I just want to uh say thank you for the grab and go option that the students had for the early dismissal which was something that um I hope we could get some feedback from our student uh member here and also thank you Dr mlen for uh your leadership good night do we have any other virtual comments no is there any other member of the public wishing to speak good evening again Susan shower 346 West Clinton Street in do um I wanted to piggyback on what Miss Lauri had mentioned because I mentioned it at several other board meetings that we again are talking about projects in the building we are talking about grants for improvements in the building and we are talking about issues frozen pipes over the weekend um where is a report from our buildings and grounds department head um the committee does not seem to have a report I I would hope that if the department head is not coming to a meeting here to report to talk about these are these are items that are expertise I can understand that the superintendent is relaying information from the certified buildings and grounds department head but these are technical terms Plumbing construction these all involve um technical degrees and I would hope that the buildings and grounds person who I again have not seen since the the day that he started working here at any meeting we have many administrators that keep coming to our meetings thankfully and we have not seen him at all so that's number one number two it's January and it's uh approaching late January and I know last year and I mentioned this last meeting last year the annual comprehensive financial report was submitted to the state late um they got it February 23rd and it's due December 3 1 and I did not see that it's on the agenda to be reported and approved by the board tonight um also the annual audit and the committee did not report having that information either so leading up to the last elephant in the corner of this room that I have never been afraid to mention the retirement announcement um we have a chair that is sitting empty and has been for quite a while at the de of the assistant superintend intendent you're going to be initiating a search soon for a new superintendent that's a difficult and expensive process and this board has much on its plate and has now been left in a precarious situation after an unprecedented 5-year contract with an extension of three years again unprecedented not in the last 30 years in do had this ever happened um with also salary adjustments because of the extended amount of work the workload was much larger than anticipated for both the superintendent and assistant superintendent so there's all of that obviously that didn't secure our Administration so the board now has been left with this problem and it seems that there will be voids in the information that the board has currently about the buildings information about problems that we have pipes that burst would was the board aware of this over the weekend that we had pipes that burst or did they just find out um come Monday morning um these are the board has to pay more attention to what's going on in the building but you also have to demand that you are given the information when all of the board members that were here tonight and all of the board members that I mentioned they knew every hallway in this District they knew what was going on they knew that ah in two years three years down the line we might have to work on the heating system they were in the bo your time's up so please finish up thank you they were in the boiler rooms I was in the boiler rooms in all of the buildings in our district um I don't know if the board is still allowed to do those things if you take tours of the buildings I don't know I know that Mr Miller had mentioned that he had toured some of the buildings and I know some of the board members but I'm talking toward the buildings look at the problem areas the board is in a precarious situation right now and finding superintendent is difficult as you know from the last search those of you that were involved in it um I wish you well I wish you well you have your hands full thank you Miss shower any other virtual comments no any other member of the public in person wishing to speak uh hello Mike mcau again uh the daa would uh just like to thank Dr McLaughlin for his service to the do Public Schools uh and we look forward to working with him over his final months and certainly wish him the best in the future thank you thank you is there any other member of the public wishing to speak good evening again again John kleo 24 Tail toown Road monville uh Dr mclaughin we might need a um we might need a fire extinguisher over there for my phone because you got a lot of upset people over there and um when people are upset that you're leaving you know you did something good here and I mean that and we all we all mean that and we thank you um because it is the hardest job in education as far as I'm concerned and I don't think superintendents get paid enough for the work that you do and um when you first started here you reached out to me and I remember we we met and we talked about a couple things and you said here's my number text me call me whenever you need something and that meant a lot coming from you from the first day that we met and it hasn't changed because every time that I text you every time that I call you or vice versa we have great communication with each other you um seamlessly fix any problems that we have you get to the bottom of things even today when I called you this morning right um there's it always happens very quickly and I cannot tell you how much we appreciate that as a staff how much I appreciate that as a union leader um because that's so important and that's so hard to find and we are just um we're crushed but we understand and um I don't think there's anything that I can say right now that can express how much we appreciate you and the work that you've done for us um when we meet together as as a as a unit as a DEA and as a superintendent we have very good conversations it's not one-sided it's it's a back and forth and that's very hard to find and this is all off the cuff I didn't write anything down it's just from me talking to you and and I I know I know I can speak for our staff for our Paris for our guards for the secretaries for the custodians for the bus drivers for everybody Food Services and um just saying thank you for everything that you've done for us and the programs that you've brought in here and the efforts that you have provided to our do schools because we would not be here today and have the things that we have if you were not our superintended and I mean that thank you very [Applause] much Benjamin RIS 65 Randol hav I was trying to think of how many great things I could say about Dr mman thank you um I'm not going to go through the long list but I really appreciate the time that you've invested here in this community uh the things that have been shared already I Echo every sentiment of that um I was actually going to ask some questions about it's kind of funny it's about this kind of stuff but about tenure people who have spent a long time here in the district and uh curious about if there's anything in the district that we do to recognize people who have been serving in our district for a long time I'm thinking uh of my experience in the corporate world where people who serve 10 years 15 20 years where they get recognized I don't know I apologies if that's something that we already do as a regular thing but seeing what happened here today and um even for the board members and the tenure that some of the board members have I think it'd be something great to implement at a district level to recognize those who spend uh I don't know maybe three terms as a board member uh or staff or Administration 10 years or and above and things like that that's a special moment to recognize that I think it's worthwhile and I think it it will raise the morale of all our district to see that as well um and that being said by Dr MCL I wish you nothing but the best in your retirement I can definitely say that in the short time you've been here I know it feels like forever but it's because of all the things that you've been able to accomplish with your teams um it's been very impactful and I'm glad to have been a witness in my short time on the board to see how you've been able to accomplish that with your team and I'm grateful for that for the opportunity and board members time to buckle up um I know it's not going to be easy the next thing that's on your plate now with this change but um I'm sure you're capable so I uh encourage you to do whatever it takes to find the next best talent that you can find I have no doubt you can do that and uh please consider as you did in the past you know the input and the things that have that have value for our community when it comes to having somebody who's the caliber and the the value that Dr mclen has brought in the last few years so thank you for that and all the best thank you thank you do we have any other virtual comments is there any other member of the public in person wishing to speak seeing none public comment is now closed um a couple of things um dual language was brought up in the public comment portion I know that uh we've already talked about agendas for our committee meetings and we are um expecting an update on the Dual language um program in our student achievement curriculum um committee meeting coming up in February so uh we will report out on that at our February public session um Dr mcclin can you talk a little bit about and it's funny because you and I and Miss Phillips had this conversation not too long ago about um why virtual learning um is not an option for us yes thank you the state of New Jersey does not allow School District without specific and unique approval and it I I'm really only aware of one recent situation where a school district was allowed to substitute virtual instruction so uh as a rule we are not permitted to do that we we'd really have to be in a real case of hardship over an extended period to to even expect I think the state to consider that type of request uh from us so right now now although many districts have asked for that over many years uh that is not something that's available to us and I do just want to Circle back to the Dual language we've had uh two meetings well attended so far and more to come where our parents from grades one through three uh K to three are in being invited to sit down forums with our bilingual elll and uh World Language leadership uh to discuss dual language uh how the program works how it's moving forward and to have that type of dialogue with the parents who are particularly involved and uh and I know that Angelica Rodriguez has been very positive about the showing so far and is optimistic that we'll continue to have a good showing at those meetings thank you Dr M Lin um can you um speak to so our student bre brought up the closures of the bathroom and it was brought up a few times during public comment can you speak to the um thought process behind that and uh the legalities and all that good sure the the the bathrooms I want to emphasize that the bathrooms are open throughout the day here at the high school but they are closed during the 3 four minute passing time between classes that decision was made because with the uh installation of The Vape detectors basically uh there was a very high volume of vaping that was going on at that period of time uh we are we're not we're not looking to discipline students but we are looking to eradicate that particular uh uh behavior in the school um having students report to class and receive a bathroom pass provides us with control over access to the bath bathroom uh and knowing how long students are in there and when they return versus a student who may go into a bathroom and then report to class late uh where they may be uh engaging in that kind of behavior so uh that is uh the reason behind uh that particular procedure that was recently put in place at the high school and again I I don't want in any way there to be an image that students are being kept from going to the bathroom it's just that the bathrooms are not available until they arrive in class they know they're there and they are then permitted uh by the teacher to leave and use the restaur um thank you um can you talk a little bit about the uh recognition of staff that was brought up during public comment yeah I think it's a great idea uh to recognize staff for Milestone years um I've been uh in districts that uh that do that uh for example 10 years 15 years 20 years 25 years uh and then other increments we do recognize teachers at retirement we recognize teachers of the year but instituting that um and and all staff um you know who have that type of uh tenure in the district I think would be a great uh a great piece to Institute here I'm sure Mrs Gibbs if she's still here would be all over it she loves uh celebrating our teachers and uh would help uh put that together with us thank you um Dr mlin I know that uh in our finance and Facilities committee meetings um we get updates from our business administrator who oversees many of the projects going on within our um district is there anything um let me get straight to it um are what are your thoughts on that committee receiving um periodic updates from our director of buildings and grounds anytime that committee um or that Mr uh sa Holo feels is necessary to have our director of facilities attend uh he is he's willing he'll be here anyway because he's here from uh you know just about uh the time that the the uh sun comes up until the sun comes up the next day uh so uh it it it's not a matter of access uh certainly uh the board has access at any time uh in in those committee meetings perfect thank you um are there any other comments before we before I entertain a motion to adjourn um Miss I have a question um instead of locking the bathroom doors why don't we have monitors um during that period like a sign in sign out sheet maybe I mean I I think that when a student has an emergency they should be able to go to the bathroom whether it's you know between classes or so I I don't know I think I think we're I don't want to say use the word punish but I think they should be able to use the bathroom if they really need to go well the the monitors if they're outside the doors are not monitoring what's happening inside the bathroom and having inside bathroom monitors I think would be problematic the reason this was put in place was because I I'm going to say it's a very 's a very significant vaping issue at the high school and that's what we're trying to to Really deal with um it is a matter of minutes that's passing that that we're talking about once the student arrives in the classroom teacher knows they're there it provides some control over this uh so uh you know it's it is a balance we but we are certainly again uh not looking for and if a student had a true emergency and needed to go into the nurse's office and use that bathroom that certainly uh would be available to them students know that that's there um these are for the the bathrooms that are in the um you know in in the hallways as we pass okay thank you I have a question aren't there monitors outside those bathrooms anyway there are we do have monitors the the teachers though need to get to their next classes so do teachers on duty periods are often on their way to you know so a logistical piece with that too cuz I knew there was monitors at the bathroom doors Faith told me that um but it's teachers sometimes sure yeah yeah yeah we don't have security guards at all okay Miss towns um who is responsible for locking the bathrooms like I I'd have to ask the high school administration whether they do that or share that with with the security uh I'm I'm not sure but I can I can get you that answer any other comments ments no seeing none um is there a motion to adjourn the meeting so moved second Miss Phillips moved Miss nutting seconded all in favor say I I I any oppos have a good night please stay and help clean up