e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e Miss Munos will you please introduce yourself good evening everyone I'm Rosa munz I'll be The Interpreter for tonight's meeting thank you thank you and welcome to everyone here and um those of you joining us virtually to this March 19 19 Dober Board of Education meeting for those who wish to provide public comment remotely a Google form was posted on the district website at 6:30 p.m. and those remote comments will be read during our public our second public comment section com this meeting which is hereby called to order at 6:39 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 daily record on January 9th 2024 can we please rise for the flag salute I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all Mr sabahu may we have a roll call Miss ESO present Miss STS present Mr Miller Miss nothing Miss Phillips here miss penales here Dr senner present Miss SES here miss mandes here um Miss Phillips will you please read our mission statement 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 welcome we are moving along to presentations uh Dr mclin uh I'm going to ask Mr sabaho if he would introduce our auditor yeah uh U Miss K Manel is here for for the 2022 23 audit presentation oh good evening everyone thanks so much for having me to uh talk about the financial highlights of the district's June 30th 23 audit apologize for my can you give me one second I am having a hard time hearing you um maybe we pull the mic closer thank you so last night I went to a meeting and I walked right in front of the cameras and I said oh my goodness I hope you didn't get me on tape so that's why I skirted the cameras coming in anyway um so the public should have the summary that the department of Ed requires the board to have it available to the public and I just present a few highlights to the board because it's a very comprehensive audit 275 pages so my comments may not sync with what you're looking at so for the board um we normally look at the balances the fund balances at the end of June of 22 compared to June of 23 and a lot of people don't like to have them totaled but you need to understand the components of the fund balance so these are the numbers that you would typically see in your monthly board um board secretaries reports and then of course these have a few audit adjustments included in them so the restricted funds are the capital reserve account the maintenance Reserve account if you have any excess Surplus at the end of the year and unemployment was added a few years ago by one of the Accounting Standards then the assigned fund balance is for open purchase orders they're called incumbrances and anything that you budgeted in the next subsequent year so at the end of all that the flexibility that you have is the unassigned fund balance and so you'll see at the end of 22 it was 3204 million at the end of 23 it's 1.56 s and that was because the state has a an excess Surplus calculation that tells every District in New Jersey how high that unassigned fund balance can be so last year or the last two years it was 4% because of the pandemic and then it was reduced to 2% in 2023 so that's why you're seeing that decrease when you take the um overall fund balances they were up by 169,000 overall then I show you a little bit about how that was generated so in the local revenues you had an increase in interest earnings because interest rates were up during the year every District that I've seen has had an increase in interest earnings and then you had a child study team shared service agreement that came through and that was in the neighborhood of 230,000 for state aid if you're looking at the comprehensive um annual comprehensive report you'll see that it's going to show in excess of 12.4 million but the state requires every District in New Jersey to De to add to their realized revenues the amounts they pay on behalf of every district for tpaf pension contributory insurance insurance and other items so that is shown as a revenue without a budgeted figure and it's also shown as as an offsetting expense without an appropriation so just want to make sure when you see that on exhibit C1 in the report that's the numbers that the state releases I think they came out um September 19th last year the unexpended oh Federal is comprised of FEMA grant that you had and also the semi Medicare [Music] program the unexpended budget Appropriations if you look at the revised numbers you're going to see 3,262 of that you had open incumbrances at the end of the year of 987 th000 so at the end of the year you really had 2.2 million unexpended and then you budgeted 2.7 million of fund balance during the year you had prior year incumbrances of 1.3 million they were liquidated during the year and then you budgeted interest on the capital and maintenance account of 1,500 that constitutes the overall change and then something that I like to show to all the board members is in 2223 you utilize 2.7 million of fund balance in 23 24 we're required to see what you budgeted in the next subsequent year so it's depicted properly in the June 30th balances that was 1,835 and then the district did not have any excess Surplus at the end of 23 to be utilized in 25 I've seen that a lot because the budget software requires the district when you're preparing a budget as you are right now that if there was anything that wasn't appropriated they would force you to appropriate it so that could be the reason why um the district had nothing to appropriate to the 2425 um budget so again with that is another component is during the year the capital reserve and maintenance Reserve accounts there were deposits made in June and so a million was placed in the maintenance Reserve account because again the district had plans for utilizing those funds so you'll see at June 30th of 23 there was 1.5 mil million and in the 23 24 budget half a million was withdrawn and um added for expenditure in 2324 capital reserve account you deposited 1,67 and you ended with 7.7 million and I just want to take a moment to talk about that number so districts are generally limited to a 2% increase increase in expenditures and this is the UMP theum board presentation that I've made and everyone has felt the pain of um increased expenditures I know that Dover has experienced some cap base adjustments meaning you can go above the 2% for increased enrollment and another one was for health benefit costs and so it really puts the board in a position they don't want to be in to um try to offset that with revenue or to keep a mindful eye on those expenditures some of those things are outside your control such as the health benefit costs to some degree in the Food Service fund we just show that as one of your Enterprise funds and you'll know that for the past three years you were receiving more federal funds last year June 30th of 22 the summer seamless option program ended so you'll see that the operating Revenue was up 330,000 the state and federal subsidy Revenue was down by almost 400,000 and then your operating expenses were up It's Not Unusual I've seen that by and large and so um your food service management company you meet with them each year to discuss how you're going to move forward to the next year there was a restatement in June of 22 because one of our audit comments our only audit comment last year was about the fixed asset inventory when we were reviewing that compared to the prior year um the numbers were different we had the communication with the um Administration and they felt that the inventory was done thoroughly and that the assets that were identified were correct so we made a almost a $555,000 adjustment on the food service end of things and then if you look at the last footnote in the annual comprehensive report you'll see what the other adjustments were um so at the end of the year the district had 497 239 in capital Assets in its food service operation and the unrestricted funds were 650,000 and what I explain in a note to the board underneath that on page two is that the net cash resources every time you're a participant in the federal program they want to know if you're if you have more than three months average expenditures so the district was in excess of that by 286,000 over the last three years all the districts who were part of the program had money that they were accumulating and month after month at County meetings people were asking what can we use it for what can we use it for and I do believe that um in October of 23 the New Jersey Department of Agriculture said if you have a plan in place reduce it you don't have to have an audit comment but you there are certain things you can use it on so the money was given for children who were eligible for free and reduced lunch and it can't be used for something outside of that so I believe um if ailla doesn't have those I'd be happy to share them with him I sent them to almost every District that I have and then beyond that I'd just like to remind the board there are long-term liabilities reported in the um annual comprehensive report as you know you have serial bonds outstanding um they're re required to be retired annually so it looks like you have three years left on that Finance purchases payable are items that you Leasing and intend to keep and then leases payable was a new requirement in June of 22 they had to be reported differently and you'll see that the ending balance is 1.57 s and again if you look at the footnotes on these you'll see the absolute details on them and then the net pension liability um is the PS portion because the state pays the tpaf portion for the district and so that number is those reports are given to us by the state's actuary and they're audited by KPMG and they can vary significantly year toe based upon age Health rate trends and interest rates and so again you'll see that in the long footnotes in the Acer compensated absences or the accumulated sick and vacation time that the employees have as of June 30th do anybody have any questions on the financial end of that thank you for that presentation um board members are there any questions or comments um I have a question um um given the items um you put forth for reconciliation in your professional opinion when is a when is it necessary for a forensic audit when is that triggered I would say when you sus suspect that there's fraud you think that something's missing would you say that anything that you found would trigger that no so we are required to um seconde audit and I know in different over my career the topic of rotation of Auditors has come up and people think it's good to have a separate set of eyes but what they don't realize is that Getting to Know A District and its operations and its people probably takes three years and when you meet with circumstances that you can't control such as turnover of Staff it makes it a little bit more difficult so one of the things that we do is that we uh send out questionnaires to board president superintendent VA and we tried to do that before the um staff who were in place in June 30th could answer those questions because we knew the new people coming in wouldn't be as familiar so we did uh receive those and um no one suspects that there's fraud we didn't see anything that was missing in our audit and um that doesn't preclude that procedures are not being followed or the best practices are not being employed okay are there any other comments or questions do you have something else Miss Manel yes when I paused I said that was the financial end so thank you board president um I wanted to mentioned the management suggestion so each year and we're very active in the audit Community we're probably the only ones who make presentations we're the only ones that attend the county meetings because we're very vested in what we do and we want to do that very well so the three topics that we thought were important to put in every District's report so I want the board to understand that when we talk about reconciling the Food Service management reports to the district's records there was a lot lot of confusion this year the the Department of Agriculture was requiring that um the nonprogram revenue tool was implemented and they had a formula for that and we work with the major I we work with every food service management company and we found that they were handling them differently so there was a lot of confusion and then when we reviewed them we probably upset some of them by saying we think it should be this or that so the numbers that you're seeing in your Acer are um what we believe they should be and we discussed them with your food service management company if we modified them in any way federal grants receivable just in general goes handin hand with the covid grants that um with the Esser funds the AR funds the covid-19 funds however you refer to them they were very um straightforward about the first district that we saw that was monitored for the Esser grants was a district that was this big and received that many dollars and we wanted to know why a small District like that would be selected so one of the criteria was if you're not submitting reimbursements on a monthly basis that some of the expenditures that you charge to those programs would not be a monthly expense some people were using the initial funds for hbac so that might be a one two or three time payment but the point is that you want to submit for reimbursement as often as possible and then with the covid funding again we put the comments in there of other items they were looking for they wanted specific account numbers they wanted lots of details on time sheets and when we came to discuss our audit findings with Dr mclocklin and Atilla we found that that's exactly what they're asking for and um I know that you've been subject to Title One monitoring and the day we came we said you might be um subjected to a desk review and I think it's pretty intense it's much more rigorous than what we are asked to do on a single audit level so let me just talk about that very briefly so there's a matrix that we have to fill out with all the programs that you expend funds on anything that you spend over $750,000 in one program becomes a type a program or a major program and from there we have to select different criteria it will tell us what compliance requirements are required for that particular funding and then the S the compliance procedures that we have to to um perform and they are a lot less rigorous than the ones of the program people who come out and want to see every single time sheet and time entry so with the comments we did have um the numbered eight seven didn't end up as a recommendation so I just want to go over those quickly the required eert one is required to be filed on March 15 15 each year it was filed the year before don't know why so that was just situational it wasn't a problem last year it just wasn't filed on the supporting calculations for retray we couldn't locate those and again we reached out to ailla a number of times saying you know if you want to go back to the prior employees and find out if there was something in detail you could do that but they couldn't locate the notations um with the deposits payments analysis balance in the payroll agency account we know now that um there were we knew there were balances in there but when we were here in June of 22 there was turnover and people were learning and there were people here who were assisting and we felt that the it was being cleaned up and I will tell you that at June of 23 it was much better and so with that um when those accounts are reconciled and I did include net payroll but net payroll really didn't have many reconciling items not so much as the agency and so um it became a recommendation this year and again if the employees know what needs to be done and that's being done I don't think you will have a recommendation next year the accounts payable were from June of 22 and I think they were primarily salary accounts that were um acred and so when we had that conversation with the Tilla we said he said I'd rather look at them than just cancel them because you don't want to do that without knowing so um um again the reconciling items I looked at those again today and they are somewhat limited they're primarily outstanding checks and I know in a school district um you can just develop a policy that if there's something on the bank reconciliation that's over six months old or a year you want to have that s flagged and the treasurer should be in communication with the ba to make sure that that's being done um what's the other one details of the tpaf pensionable wages that were reported for the federal reimbursement back to the state that is when the state is paying the tpaf vaa Social Security pension and if that's being charged to a federal program then the district is essentially being paid twice for it so they request the funds back um when there was the turnover in the business office there were exchanges when Mrs salivan and Louisa were leaving that I was included in that AA was included in that and it just led me to believe that there could have been supporting documentation or should have been or would have been and so again it's another um case where it couldn't be located so there were two things that um I'm not sure if the people who were here at the time could provide those to us so then 2000 finding 2023 D7 um in every report the Department of Agriculture wanted to know what the students accounts receivable were at the end of the year they were a little over 100,000 and we did have conversations with the administration and it's a very difficult um area but I've I've had this in a couple of districts and we felt that I don't have that that the district had a plan in place and that they would be able to manage that and then so there was no recommendation and then the Student Activity accounts they did a pretty good job but at the end of the day they are required to reconcile the accounts so again Caitlyn was the lead on the audit and she couldn't be here tonight because she bought a house and she was moving into it for the last 3 days so um it wasn't difficult to do there were very few transactions but still the procedure should be in place and that's what I have so if there are any further questions I'd be happy to answer those two thank you are there any comments or questions from the board Dr s thank you very much for your presentation and um I apologize I did not look up the answer to this but are any of the seven um recommendations um they don't I don't remember them being carryovers from last year so any issues we had last year were resolved we may have a few issues again this year they will be resolved by next year is is that your understanding as well that we don't have any long-term issues that are when you're making recommendations they are being corrected by our business office they are so I know last year when I was here there were recommendations in 2021 and again they were situational where refunds hadn't been posted or something didn't tie out and all of those were resolved so one of the last comments we make on that recommendation page is were the prior year recommendations resolved and tonight um you know the the ba has to prepare and the superintendent I think it's really the ba a corrective action plan and how you're going to implement that so again we will work hand inand um a lot of districts reached out to me on the student accounts receivable and I said I think you should um handle that as um delicately as you can so with this um last year we said all those other recommendations were resolved but the fixed assets weren't and so the district did inventory assets with the claim and we have worked with them before and found their reports to be accurate and this year um a lot of them did center around payroll as we know um but hopefully with the people that you have in place and the procedures that you'll implement we hope that there will be good place any other comments or questions from the board Mr um sabahu and Dr mlin considering these comments and recommendations um is there anything um that you can add or speak to in reference to addressing some of these items actually we have the cor action plan it's going to be approved uh tonight we have all the implementation over there we make sure we don't have get get this repeating findings for next year thank you and again we always say if you have questions and you're not really sure how to number one if anything happens in the district that's unusual or doesn't even have to be unusual you can always pick up the phone and talk to us we have so many years of experience obviously I have quite a few um and uh we have eight partners that work in this area so we have lots of experience to bring to the table so it would be pretty shocking if we couldn't give you suggestions give you options tell you what other districts did but I feel very confident um thank you Miss Manel um thank you for that presentation thank you for your time this evening um and all your work on this um audit thank Youk I didn't turn it off thanks so much we are moving along to our second presentation Dr M thank you so I'm going to ask Miss hardenberg if she could come to the podium Miss hardenberg uh at the request of the board did uh produce a video which the board has already received uh responding to a number of the questions that came up in regards to transitional planning and work-based learning um so what we're going to do is watch the same video so that uh uh we can see that again tonight uh there are policies the policies and the uh job description that were tabled at the last meeting are on tonight's agenda uh this uh video was meant to uh inform the questions that were raised uh both during the meeting and subsequent to the meeting and uh so we've asked Miss hardenberg to play that video again and to be here uh to answer any questions that may come up up afterwards so if we could um put that into play it'd be great I don't want to hello and thank you for the opportunity to provide you with more information about the need for a transitional skills work-based learning program here in Dober we would like to begin by clarifying some ter technology you may hear used throughout this presentation first individual education plan or IEP is a legal document that all staff working with special education students must adhere to this document is created by the child study team which includes case managers teachers School personnel and of course the family once a student turns 14 the student begins to attend the IEP meeting and provid input into the components of their individual education plan especially the planning for postsecondary transitions Special Education Code refers to the law that must be followed when servicing special education students it includes laws relating to referrals evaluations eligibility criteria as well as many aspects relating to services and educational needs after the student is found to be eligible for special education and related Services life skills is a course that was written and approved by the board last year the course started this current school year and includes all aspects of Independent Living including Personal Care budgeting career awareness and self- advocacy work-based learning is used to describe employment within a students community that offers job experience and coaching while on the job site the work-based learning coordinator which for us will be the role of the transition coordinator will provide training to the employer and the student job coach they will also meet with the classroom teacher to review skills that must be taught in the life skills class our transition coordinator will oversee all aspects of community- based instruction and work-based learning we will review in more detail the vast role this individual will play in the success of each student within this program later in the presentation please note this individual will have a New Jersey teaching certification and special education as well as the required work-based learning coursework lastly our job coaches will be a select group of par professionals who already work with our students and know their needs these individuals will be trained by the transition coordinator and be on the job site with the student the job coach will also take data on student goals and note any additional skills the student will need to practice in order to to be successful at the job site as previously mentioned the individual education plan or IEP has many sections that are required by special education law the IEP includes at a minimum the students special education program which describes the type of classroom the type of instruction and the amount of minutes for each service each teacher and service provider have to create specific goals that will be addressed and monitored throughout the year the families receive quarterly reports on the progress of each goal listed in the IEP the IEP also provides the required modifications to curriculum and instruction as well as any accommodations needed to be successful in the classroom once the student turns 14 the trans additional planning section must be completed this section will be reviewed in detail shortly before delving into the transitional planning section of the IEP I would like to describe further what a multiple disabilities or MD classroom is and why this program is needed for a smaller group of students multiple disabilities refers to students that have more than one disability for example a vision impairment and cognitive impairment or Autism and cognitive impairment in March of 2021 the board approved the opening of a high school level MD program which began at do high school in September of 2021 today we currently have 10 students in grades 9 to 12 in this program at do high school this program is taught by a special education teacher who provides specialized instruction and all core subjects English Math Science Social Studies and life skills which helps the students meet the New Jersey graduation requirements these students in accordance with special education law will need specific instruction in everyday living and job skills training through age 21 even if they meet the New Jersey graduation requirements before age 21 the students in the MD classroom as well as all special education students are required by LA to a free and appropriate Public public school education that we will meet their unique needs and prepare them for future education and employment this planning is called transitional planning when the student turns 14 the transitional planning process must begin here the student the family and all other members of the student child study team discuss and plan for a success successful transition to adult life the outcome of the planning must be noted in the transitional planning section of the students iup this planning may include High School courses assistance for learning learning work-based skills and career awareness parents may also begin filing for guardianship before the student turns 18 students need to complete an assessment of interest to assist the team in guiding the student and family through the transitional planning process as you can see we are required to determine as a team the needs of a student in all areas of preemployment transition Services if a student needs assistance in work based learning we must provide that assistance here at do high school or in another placement beginning at age 16 detail plans relating to all aspects of post secondary living are discussed and planned for this team has annual meetings with the student the Family School staff and if needed outside agencies such agencies may include the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation Services the division of Developmental Disabilities and the commission of the blind their transition plan is revised each year as the students interests and needs may change who will help coordinate all this planning and coordination of resources this is where our transition coordinator steps in the transition coordinator has many roles and to help identify them all we have broken them down into four categories transitional planning and goals job exploration and placement job coach training and other duties the transition coordinator will assist with administering the transition assessment to help determine student interests and areas of job exploration and course electives in school they will also use this information to collaborate with the team on creating and implementing their transition planning section of the IEP the transition coordinator will help connect families with outside agencies that can provide additional family support both after school and after graduation this individual will be available to assist the child study team as they complete their required section for all our special education students who are age 14 and older the transition coordinator in addition to a certification and special education will have all required New Jersey work based learning course certifications and will be the district liaison with our Community Partners to help plan communitybased instruction as well as work-based learning the transition coordinator will conduct information sessions and training with Community businesses inspect businesses for proper placement of students and oversee student progress ress once job placements have taken place the transition coordinator will conduct ongoing visits to the student job site and Coach the job coach on how to assist the student in completing his or her job the transition coordinator will develop student training plans to help the teacher and other school staff prepare the student for work-based Success each student participating in work-based learning will have this type of plan created and it will be monitored and adjusted as needed the transition coordinator will also plan training for job coaches and teachers relating to data collected on Student Success in the worksite if a student requires a paraprofessional or job coach to attend a work site then the transition coordinator will provide the ongoing coaching and training to this important staff member if a job site does not meet the students needs the transition coordinator will locate a new job site and develop a pre-employment training plan for the students in addition ongoing collaboration and partnership with families will also be an important focus of our coordinator you may be asking yourself why now the planning of Community Based instruction and work-based learning has been a multi-year approach as it requires much thought and planning when I arrived in do in 202 21 parents in our special education parent advisory group or cpeg a required component of a District's special education program met with me to share what they saw as District needs at that time the family shared information about our current programs and the lack of postsecondary offerings for students with significant special education needs planning for this program began then in March 2021 the board approved the opening of an MD high school classroom which opened in September of 2021 with four students the following school year 2223 school year there were six students in the MD program at the high school the need for a specific life skills course that addressed self- advocacy personal finance independent living and career awareness was written and approved by the board in April of 2023 the department of special services applied for a grant with the office of special education and the Boog Center at Ruckers University this grant would provide the needed professional development as well as technical assistance for the planning of community- based instruction and work-based learning experiences in June 2023 we are notified that we rewarded the Grant and the team of nine was created this team which includes my myself High School administration special education teachers a guidance counselor a speech therapist and child study team case managers would meet to plan and implement this program at Rucker trainer has commented several times that Dober staff level of enthusiasm and commitment to the successful planning and implementation of these programs is very impressive this year the MD program at the high school in includes the instruction of a life skills class the classroom teacher and speech therapist have created a coffee cart work experience program within the school to help our students gain some planning and job related experience under the supervision of a teacher the next step is real work experience within their Community the multiple disabilities program now has 10 students with five students of age to begin this work-based learning experience as we have shared The work-based Learning Experience is for those students in our MD class that require work-based learning as part of their transitional plan which is listed in their IEP the student can begin the job exploration and job placement experiences beginning at age 16 through age 21 the intent of this program as as it has been with all our expanded Services is to meet our students needs in their home Community while also reducing the need to place a student in an outof District school approving this program will accomplish this goal we will be able to begin meeting the needs of the current students in our MD program and reduce the need to incur the cost of sending any of them to an outof District school I know you may be asking if this program is a one-time need it is not a one-time need and currently one that will be needed for our students for many years to come we currently have an MD classroom at the elementary and middle school levels and together with the high school includes 20 students we have several students in our preschool program that will be coming into Elementary School in the next few years there will be a continuous need to find Future business Partnerships and build community awareness being fiscally responsible to the community is also an important factor in our request for approval of this program as stated earlier if a work-based experience is needed and included in the students individual education plan we are required to provide it we currently have placed several of our students at other schools both public and private the tuition cost for some of these programs is about 50 to $90,000 per year per student in addition each student will require transportation to that school location these Transportation costs must go out for bid and vary by route and distance last year the cost of driving students to locations listed were 20,000 to $40,000 or more per student per route per year in addition to the tuition besides the high costs the students are learning how to navigate and work in a community that is not theirs and will have to develop a way to navigate to that job after age 21 which can be costly for the family at the previous board meeting Dr mclin mentioned the use of an outside agency to assist these agencies are difficult to find as many school districts are opening programs within their own community in Mars County there are about 12 districts offering such offering such programs these districts include botin Jefferson Mount Olive and Hanover Park to name a few last year we tried to work with Arc of Mars County to help a student and we were told we had to apply over one year in advance what is the cost for Dober to keep our students in Dober a program would require the hiring of a transitional work-based learning coordinator the salary for this position comes from the district's DEA salary guide with salary ranges based on experience and education as you may notice the salary and benefits for this position is about the cost of one to two students going to an out of District program we currently have five students in the 2425 school year that need this work-based experience even if all five went to the least expensive public school program it would far exceed the cost of Hiring Our Own Dover transition coordinator who will know our students and will help them navigate and work within their own Community if approved what would be our next steps both the supervisor of special services Miss burbar myself and the high school administration will continue to be actively involved with the planning implementation and oversight of this program the planning and development of this program has been and will continue to be a collaborative effort between the high school the department of special services and in addition when needed we will reach out to the business office the nursing department the guidance Department as well as others the nine-person committee will continue to meet with our Ruckers trainer to plan for upcoming events such as meeting with students and families and our MD program with the focus on introducing them to community-based instruction and work-based learning at the same time a committee will be created to interview all potential candidates for the transition coordinator position the committee will complete the planning portion and begin communicating with local businesses about our program and our students meetings will take place between the department of special services and key stakeholders to make sure all aspects of this program are underway in addition the teacher case managers and transition coordinator will work to complete the work plans for each student is this program needed now in order to meet IEP transitional planning requirements we need to provide a program for our students over the last few years and in the upcoming year the board continues to approve programs to meet the needs of other students in order to provide better postsecondary outcomes this program is needed now in order to provide a better post secondary outcome for our special population of students what might a typical day be like for a student in the tiger program the students who are ready for work-based learning will begin their day at do high school and attend needed courses related to graduation requirements or pre-employment training the middle of the day the students ready for work-based learning experiences will transition to their job site and spend several hours participating in their work experience the student will return to DOA high school at the end of the day and complete a life skills course or other coursework with their peers it has been asked if there is an alternative or a plan B if Dober cannot provide the work-based learning experience for our students then the students Tau study team must look for a way to provide this required service how may you ask there are typically two choices one to look for a placement in another school district or an outof District placement which was presented earlier this choice is more expensive for the district as well as not offering the student an opportunity to learn within their own Community second we could search for an agency or private company to provide the transition coordinator and job coach this option was also mentioned earlier this option does not have as many choices and the agency coordinator will not know our students and may not be available at the time that works for the employer or the student there may be a waiting list to even obtain such assistance as you can see Plan B is certainly not the ideal for our students and their families I would like to thank you for allowing me to present more information about the Repose tiger program and the unique needs of the students and families we are looking to serve Miss hardenberg thank you so much for that for putting that thorough and informative presentation together oh there you are Mr crew I was looking for you um uh board members do we have any questions or comments Dr serer Miss hardenberg thank you so much for your Relentless um advocacy for our special needs children I I appreciate it I appreciate that presentation I felt like you you summarized four years of work and I was in every one of those meetings with you so thank you for that um and thank you for the grant that offset some of the uh costs of the training so that's a wonderful thing as well um one of your last slides you discussed Plan B is there a guarantee uh that we would be able to find an outof District place and or an agency to help there there never is a guarantee um when we if we have to send a student for any reason to an out of District placement there is a process obviously um we look for the best fit we um have to gain parent approval um we then have to send the students records and then the school will look at the records and determine if that student is a fit um the one of the other first questions we ask is do you have room and so they could say no we don't have any openings at this time and then we begin to look for another school that might fit so there is never a guarantee and if that were to happen we would be out of compliance with the law for any student where we were not able to find a home for them out of District we we are yes we are obligated to provide it so we would continue to look until we found it but yes it would become more difficult but and we would have to go maybe further away and then we don't really want our students on a bus for a long period of time thank you are there any other comments or questions from the board seeing none um if the board does not object I would like to go out of order on this evening's agenda are there any objections I would say why I'm going to move that the board approve the tiger collaborative program policy and the job description of transition coordinator is there a second second we have a motion in a second is there any discussion Mr sabahu may we have a roll call vote please misso yes Miss DS yes Miss Phillips yes Miss penales yes Dr sener yes Miss soles yes Miss Mendes yes thank you thank you Miss [Applause] hardenberg okay I believe we're now moving along to public comment um and I'm going to read off my laptop cuz there's actually we have to the public comment um section on this agenda is a little bit off so give me a second so 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 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 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 Mary SRA 217 Baker Street before I jump in I just wanted to um address the board um and I hope you don't feel chastised you know by this but when I I I was here a couple meetings ago when there was the whole Newberry exploration and and you didn't ask us many questions when it came to a traffic report to be done and then the traffic traffic study the traffic study to be done and yet for this educational position it was it took two meetings for it to go through when we're talking about our children students and whatnot I mean not that the other one wasn't but as far as the priorities when you know the money being spent it it just doesn't show on our side as as a community member or me personally I mean and I and I thank you everyone for asking all the questions needed I know behind the scenes you ask many questions as well and that are we don't see that but you know there are times when you you're kind of not not weighing it in and thank you for voting on this position and I already went through but just for future whenever things are being addressed and worked like this I mean it was a one meeting took 10 minutes for you guys to vote Yes on a traffic study that I'm going to go with cost over 15,000 20,000 correct correct me if I'm wrong I'm sorry if I got the wrong information now as far as agenda items I know you haven't gotten to the communications report which is item e or item o which is community relations um there was a recent um uh uh visit to one of our local schools uh where we saw posts from other agencies the town of do's Facebook page posting pictures regarding incident that are happening in our community and the board has a community relations committee and uh they also each school also has a community leason as well as a head District community leason and just as the auditor mentioned you can come up with policies about outstanding checks and so on can we please work on some kind of policy who we're inviting to our school is there some kind of checks going on I specifically stated two meetings ago how it was a conflict of dates with that supposedly it was going to be just a training meeting where you know the public didn't need to come however during that same week there was a lot going on at the do high school which it affects the entire Community I got to tell you as you guys know I'm a nor DOA parent I'm not waiting until my child ends up at do Middle School with a lockdown and things are not being addressed in a timely manner I mean some of you might be around till then some of you you know roll over it becomes your responsibility when you're here come up with POS policies of communications we have uh Facebook pages that are not the actual Board of education's Facebook page nothing was posted formally on the dber public schools Facebook page either and I know at times many of you are you're just community members as we are and many times when you give comments you do mention you know this is not me speaking on behalf of the board but then when you are sign your name sign are you talking right now as you know Community Relations Committee Member you can sign it with your official title as being part of the Board of Education because how many times we don't know that communication excuse meage your time is up that comment was a picture it cannot be translated excuse me ma'am your your time your time is up so doing this whole Bardo because it can be set to Spanish on the browser it's not very user friendly on a mobile device you know we can download it to PDF but we can actually kind of make out in Spanish when you set the browser to Spanish so it's you know it's a lot to go through and we all got to get used to it but thank you so much thank you good night is there any other member of the public wishing to speak on agenda items only good evening my name is Nicole relli repres can everyone hear me can everyone hear me good evening my name is Nicole lelli hold on I can't I'm representing not only my children who attend northover but all the children attending the schools here in do one of my biggest concerns amongst the many is the fact that you guys want to say you're being transparent with information when in hindsight what what's happening is lying I'll start with my biggest question why on the evening of 22624 a statement was posted on the high school website on an email was shared only to the parents of do high school about a lockdown that was done that morning quite frankly I'm not sure what's more baffling the fact that n over wasn't advised to lock down for safety measures wasn't a first thought or the statement released by the high school which by the way parents are still waiting for a followup and not the only followup may I remind you in this statement regarding the lockdown parents were told it was nothing of concern upon investigation yet what I think you did what I don't think you realized when lying to a very small community is that the truth will always come out the parents know for a fact a weapon was found in school that day for their own children and you know it too may I also remind you that it's public knowledge I called the police department the next day as a concerned parent as to what happened just to be told to call the high school in which I did and the secretary forwarded me to Mr nun's voicemail here we are 14 days in counting and still no response at all upon waiting for his response I took it upon myself to reach out to the Board of Ed and then to be forwarded to the superintendent's voicemail now seven days in counting in no response at all funny how things work out actually thankfully a few parents came out to the already planned board ofed meeting on 227 unfortunately what they said was shut down by stating reports that only one fight a month was happening in the high school the woman literally had just stated that there was five plus fights that week and that's what was stated as a educational response it's baffling and not for nothing these students deserve better and so do the parents and it starts at the board of ed thank you is there any other member of the public wishing to speak on agenda items only hi um Maria chakon I uh just wanted to speak on I think is still on the agenda about moving the uh for Board of Education elections um to be moved to the old way it was done before I think it was April um I believe as a parent and a community person that is very involved in what's happening in town and all the elections and the political things that occur um and also sadly that our community doesn't vote right we have a large amount of people living here but only a small amount of people vote and a lot of people work two jobs um so they take time out for that one day to go vote if they can and to bring up another date for them to do an extra thing would be hurtful to the community and it will not be helpful to us so I would appreciate if you just consider not moving that date consider the the families involved which are voters and constituents thank you so much is there any other member of the public wishing to speak Angela Ramos 326 Washington Avenue I just want to say to you to all the board members congratulations because you passed the transition collaboration uh tiger uh tiger collaboration transition program thank you Mrs Mary for all the hard work you have been doing and just um just want to be sure you understand from my perspective or point of view when I when I speak here and I speak all to all of you I speak to all of you as a as a one not as an individual so all my comments as a taxpayer as a parent as a community member I'm in my right to make any kind of public comments and completely just not complaining or not saying anything positive I think so many times when we are find the hard work where you're doing because we know you are taking time for yourself for your families and everything to be here and I really appreciate it and we all do it so despite any kind of comments just please don't forget why you're sitting here uh in the beginning of the my journey in this District 11 years ago I was asking to the whole board board members just keep politics outside from the school district because besides even if the word is politics you are here to serice all the childrens despite their abilities or disabilities and being in General Ed or no General Ed so just I want to address one thing about the collaboration uh transition program besides it's just for 10 children or five children or six childrens whatever children they need in the IP that program should be for the most appropriate um childrens that means uh it's not just because they are going to be graduated or not because they are having uh the year so the transition plan means they had to fit in the program there's no fitting is every program for special education needs to be BAS B in the needs of the childrens it needs to be based in their in their goals in their future so one program won't be know for everybody and we be all different not because a child gets uh 14 16 18 years old means has to be in the same program no the program has to be tailored to their need to the students needs just I want to say thank you so much for thinking about a special education and hopefully in this table I mean as you see as you see how much money special education C so maybe you will be considering taking more more time to spend and and creating more more opportunities for the special education thank you is there any other member of the public wishing to speak hello Franco lelli 15 Barry Street um this is regarding the lockdown that we had here at the high school now if you look out the window can actually see North over so we can't sit here and act like when we have a lock down in this building that building should not be locked down regardless of it's a test drill we don't know the situation especially since there was a knife found now I don't understand also cuz I'm a custodian a head custodian at a different district and I know the procedure cuz I'm the one running the drill so the fact that I also heard that there's a teacher in this district and this building most likely during that drill that did not lock down properly is a humongous issue and she continued to do a teaching lesson when there is a security issue in the building and nobody has an issue about it nobody said a word about it I don't understand how this is not a big deal to nobody my children go to that school I have two boys I went to this school this room alone brings a lot of Pride to me but you guys are shameful to do that children's lives are in your hands and one more thing I understand there's a timer a little respect goes a long way sir you don't have to shut people up if you need a timer on the wall put it on the wall you don't need to shut people up we pay your salary buddy is there any other member of the public wishing to speak seeing none public comment is now Clos uh Dr mlin I'll toss it over to you sure thank you very much I appreciate uh all the comments that were made tonight uh we did have a number of parents who reached out to us following the lockdown at the high school that's been referenced uh Mr Nunes and I met with uh parents we had an extended meeting with about 10 parents on March the 11th uh at 5:00 P PM went for about an hour and a half uh it was a good discussion both in terms of us providing information but also hearing concerns from parents uh we are always uh open to similar meetings uh for parents who would like to have that uh I I do want to reference uh the voicemail uh and very sincerely I don't have any voicemails that are on mine uh my my phone it may have been misdirected to another voicemail but I do I do also have uh voicemails that come through my email so uh I just want uh parents to know that I am committed to returning uh whatever concerns they have so I apologize if uh anyone feels that they were not responded to in a timely way uh the uh safety message in regard to the safety message uh a lockdown uh can occur for many different reasons and a lockdown even when it's geographically proximate may not cause a lockdown in another area I I don't want to get into the specifics of this particular lockdown but there was a clear uh there was no clear need to lock down any other facilities other than the high school however uh one of the pieces that did come out of the feedback was providing information districtwide uh because you know individuals hear about that and so last week uh and it's still up on the website when there was an issue at East Stover Elementary School we did send that out to the entire district and put it on the website so that that was in direct response to feedback we received that although it may happen an incident may happen at one site uh then we certainly uh can share information across the district uh because we are a small community and um many of our children do uh attend schools in in proximate areas or um may have friends or uh extended family in other schools so that's certainly something that we will continue to do moving forward uh there was uh also a um a concern in regard to how visitors are invited to school I do want to let you know that reading Across America week is uh typically done by committees it's carefully done invites are sent uh for um for mystery readers uh one day out of the out of the week in most schools and typically those are with uh well-known individuals people who fill important roles uh within our community I know the concerns that came up uh in regard to a specific individual who was not invited but did come with an invited guest um and uh we are revisiting uh our procedures to make sure that in the future uh the invites that are sent out indicate that they are only for the individuals they are sent to not not to to bring others along with them because uh certainly that was not anticipated but uh we have been asked to look policy we are looking at our procedures in regard to those events so that we continue to have those special moments for our kids but also make sure that there are no concerns about uh who is coming to to be in our schools with them thank you Dr mclin um thank you um everyone who spoke during public comment um on agenda items thank you for sharing your perspective and your feedback uh we truly appreciate that um um and even when you're um sharing comments that uh is telling us we're doing something wrong um it's appreciated so thank you we are going to move along to approval of minutes is there a motion to approve the minutes from February 20th and 27th so moved is there a second second Miss penales so we have a motion by Miss Phillips a second by Miss pinales uh is there any discussion seeing none Mr saahu may we have a roll call vote please miss ESO yes Miss DS yes Miss Phillips yes Miss penales yes Dr sen yes Miss soles yes Miss mandes yes we are moving along to Communications the whole board Communications I am aware of are from Miss Ramirez on March 4th in reference to Transportation Miss shakon on March 6th in reference to guest readers criteria um Mr Ruiz on March 18th in reference to um an election date change uh did I miss anything seeing none we are moving along to the student representative to the board report Miss Calderone Alvarez good evening the first topic that I would like to discuss tonight is is the implementation of hallway passes each class was designated a hallway pass that is unique to the classroom the passes have the room number on it and are colorcoded by hallway the goal of this is to reduce the number of people loitering in the hallway in order to keep students in the respective classrooms learning the hallway passes have helped Reach This goal as it keeps students focused in their learning environment and it keeps the hallway safer the only downside to this is that a students would complain an idea to better the students perception of the newly implemented rule would be to have two passes per classroom one for boys and one for girls another concern that students shared was the miscommunication or lack of information the students possessed this is in regards to events such as assemblies including the dates periods and times that they were going to occur students believe that certain information should not only be sent to teachers but to students as well such as stated before information regarding assemblies and presentations as well as important dates such as AP practice tests that we that will be occurring next week this is this information is crucial to students as they need to know when and where they will be testing after communicating this to Mr Nunes he assured me that he will send the weekly bulletin that is normally sent to parents directly to the students on a weekly basis he sent out an email that I quote it has come to my attention that you have not been receiving your weekly DHS bulletins the school messenger system should normally send you the bulletin but apparently that has not been the case I apologize I apologize for that inconvenience and I will send you a weekly email with a link to DHS weekly bulletin with this Mr Nunes recognized the error with the school messenger system and assured that he will send the bulletin to the students as well on another note March is known as the month of empathy tiger rap took this opportunity to visit Academy Elementary to discuss compassion and empathy with the students on March 9th the do high school peer mentors visited primary classrooms from grades 1 through six to present and practice empathy various exercises were undertaken with the students to reinforce the definition of empathy that they were taught prior cutting and coloring were activities that were conducted with the younger grades as the older students activities were more discussion based this chance was really enjoyable for both the elementary students as well as the high school peer mentors these months leading up to the end of the year have been of great importance for the senior class of do high school on February 7th the prom committee took a trip to the Meadowwood in Randol which is the venue where the 2024 prom will take place they took a tour of the place and took time to meet with the respective committees in order to plan the decorations Food tickets advertising and other important details on Saturday March 2nd from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and Thursday March 7th from 2:45 to 4:00 p.m. a prom popup shop was organized by the National Honor Society for seniors who attend who plan to attend prom this event was held in the cafeteria at do high school where a variety of dresses shoes jewelry as well as ties and shoes for men were available for students to take to end off I would like to mention a couple of important events that occurred at DHS heartwarming Black History Month assembly wrapped up the month of February where students came together to perform different dances sing and present facts about important figures in history another assembly was held to convey information and raise awareness regarding teen dating abuse in addition a couple of college fairs were hosted in the DHS cafeteria which allowed students to gain information about the care the career they want to pursue from different colleges and universities a career fair also took place precisely today to provide Juniors and seniors with information in regards to volunteer opportunities summer and part-time jobs and internships I would also like to congratulate Dober High School's drama club all the teachers and students who were involved for the incredible performances that they delivered the past week thank you thank you Miss Calon ales are there any comments or questions based off of her report no um I'm wondering Miss Kon Alvarez um I don't know how we do this but I'm wondering if you can survey your peers right and on the topic of um safety I'm wondering if you [Music] can survey them to find out if they feel safe number one and two if there's anything that would that we can do to make them feel safer do you think that's possible yeah I think I will I will make a survey and send it out to student body and I'll try to get as many responses back perfect thank you Dr s Miss Mendes the district has a pretty strict policy on Sur surveys and I don't know if it applies to students but perhaps we should uh check in with Dr mlin because I believe there are parameters for what surveys can be sent out talk glin yeah the uh I think the the parameters the strict parameters uh typically center around drug and alcohol surveys um so that we are not identifying students uh through surveys I think this survey would be okay um I do want to mention that part of our Panorama survey though does um at Le it it doesn't ask all the questions that were just mentioned but our students do participate in the Panorama survey and it does have a whole section on safety in there no I think that's great I just think that this would be this information being led by the students and coming and being presented to us by the students um it would be extremely valuable to our board so thank you Miss Calon AZ I look forward to hearing back um we are moving along to the board president's report um my report this evening will highlight the superintendent search process on March 7th Dr mclaughin Mr saah holu Mr Miller Miss Phillips Dr seror and I conducted first round interviews of superintendent search firms on March 12th we conducted a follow-up interview this evening we have made a recommendation to the full board for approval if approved we will meet as a full board with the firm to establish a timeline and process additionally we have reviewed interim and Acting Superintendent applications and will begin first round interviews in April we will continue to keep the community informed on the process and timeline as we Forge ahead and that concludes my report um are there any comments or questions based off of my report seeing none we are moving along to administrative reports Dr ml thank you oh is there a video it's just slides okay thank you good evening uh twice a year the district is required to report on student safety data as it applies to all schools this evening my report is devoted to sharing this data from reporting period one which spanned from September the 1st to December the 31st 2023 a second report will be made at the June Board of Education meeting for Period 2 all the data reflected in this report has been submitted to the New Jersey Department of Ed education through its online ssds system student safety data system uh so what I have uh here are a few slides uh six slides exactly which uh provide information in regard to student safety uh what I have done is taking the uh reporting period that I just referenced and comparing it to the same reporting period from last year you'll see that for 200 23 2024 in this period we had a total of 162 instances as compared to 144 from 2022 23 categories that increased uh included violence HIV that were alleged other incidents that led to removal and HIV confirmed cases I do want to just mention uh because the other incidents might be an area that uh provokes questions other incidents are incidents that are not specifically named here but would have resulted in a student removal that could include for example a vaping violation or a uh significant Act of uh disrespect or insubordination that uh resulted in removal there were categories that also decreased uh for the reporting period this year they would be vandalism weapons and substance use moving ahead to specific uh school-based uh comparisons you'll see in the Orange Line the uh incidents from 2000 report uh reporting period 1 in 20022 23 and then the black line represents 2023 24 I won't uh read all of the lines to you but uh I the the two big lines at the front of this graph show the amount of incidents you can see that uh the total incidents at the high school alone uh in the preceding year was 29 and in the and this year was 24 so there was a decrease in uh total incidents the uh the other area uh of note uh would be the alleged HIV which significantly increased this year uh from 9 incidents to 23 uh and other incidents which increased from 9 to 22 uh moving to the Middle School uh the total incident total increased from 2223 to reporting period one of this year uh it moved from 12 to 13 so it had one more incident uh of significant note the the violations were uh in violence where we saw an increase of one incident from last year uh in terms of uh Hib alleged we see that that went down uh by two from 6 to 4 and then the other big area would be uh in hivs that were confirmed which were exactly the same at the Middle School East over Elementary uh comparison you can see that last year and this year for reporting period one there were exactly five incidents so that was the same uh the biggest area uh in this particular school year is in uh confirmed hivs and in hivs that were alleged at northover uh Elementary School for reporting period one uh last year there were a total of four incidents this year in reporting period one there were two incidents so that went down by two the largest a area of increase um were uh nine uh alleged hivs uh as opposed to uh the previous year where there were five uh alleged IBS do not result in removal so that's why you'll see a larger number than you will see in incidents uh the um incident total for Academy Street uh was two last year and zero for this year uh of note there were exactly the same amount of alleged hibs and that is the this data will be stored on our uh website uh following the meeting uh so that uh individuals can reference it uh later and as I mentioned before we I will report on reporting period two for the full year and the full year comparison to last year at our June Board of Ed meeting uh before concluding my report I do I I have to add my own uh congratulations to the cast and all who are involved in our spring musical The Wizard of Oz uh it really was a wonderful show everyone I've talked to has said the same uh we say seemed like we say that every year that each show is better and better but this year I think in particular uh since it involved uh students from throughout the district uh our elementary schools as well as the high school it was a really special show and uh I really I really felt that the talents of our our students were really on display so just adding my congratulations to everyone else's thank you Dr mlin are there any comments or questions based off of his report Dr s um I just wanted to thank you for using the awesome big board and also showing the data graphically I think that was much more impactful so um I love that presentation not all parts of it but the presentation quality of it thank you any other comments or questions from the board seeing none we are moving along to Mr sabahu good evening everyone uh 2024 25 tentative budget is in this agenda for approval and up approval it be ready to be sent to the can office for County approval in this budget we used 2% tax Lev increase although we are eligible with uh we didn't use our bank cap uh which is little o uh over $1.1 million and Health adjustment for over half million budget hearing for the final budget will be held on April 24th board meeting at 6:30 the hearing will provide more detailed information about the budget the modular units for norto are on site and uh the ones for EO will be delivered tomorrow there are three projects for approv in this agenda uh first one is academic Street Elementary School roof hatch we're almost done with academic Street uh Elementary School's basement uh project and this project is an additional to their project to increase the safety of the building the second one is high school walking freezer we were trying to get this project started uh since last year the reason that it took long was the construction part of it because we need to build a platform and also electrical capacity finally we are okay with everything to move forward with this and hopefully our wel free will be up and running in couple months uh upon uh approval of the uh resolution uh third project is the East over Elementary School and balment building management system uh this is H management system uh with the new boiler controls and building management system we'll be saving money on utilities and finally uh as uh as you seen we receed some audit findings uh most of them are already fixed there are a couple we are working on so everything is going to be fixed so we're not going to have repeat finding and also we have the codes for board agenda hopefully you all like board docks um any comments will be appreciate thank you thank you Mr sabahu are there any questions or comments based off of his report see n we are moving along to Boe reports so Mr Miller who usually provides our um Morris County Education Services Commission report um is not here um because he's actually out of the country moving his son and his wife who by the way are both um Dober high school graduates to Canada so congratulations to them on their move and Mr Miller we look forward to your return um but I have his report here so let me see okay so he attended the meeting on March 13 2024 some items of note um they passed the 2425 budget um ESC programs and services by percentage of operation include Regional Transportation 83% special education services 10.7% Central Park School 4.8% and miscellaneous Business Services 1.6% Dr McLaughlin met with the Morris County ESC superintendent Dr valard Dr vardi mentioned Dr mclin's idea of an alternative school for high school students that have issues with fitting in Dr bardi said it's an opportunity for a student to take advantage of a different venue to provide alternative schedules Andor programs Dr bardi Who has an alternate School background presented various ideas and Concepts to the ESC board the board agreed this is a great idea Dr bardi is going to research other esc's that have this type of program Dr valard believes that there needs to be Consortium in order order to make this work Irene LEF leafre oh Lord I butchered that I apologize Irene the former njsba president says that almost every district will have this same need she said this is a wonderful idea on another note um one of the board members mentioned that their school district recently invited special education students from across Morris County to preview their school district's play Mama Mia during the it was highly attended ESC no ESC Representatives said they would bring this idea back to their districts and that concludes uh Mr Miller's report um please don't ask me any questions because I will not have an answer for you I don't even know half of the stuff that I just read what any of that means so um we will move along to Dr ster legislative report thank you um there were a number of items um introduced in the assembly or the Senate uh in the last month um but they have all they're all in committee so I'm just going to highlight a couple that I thought were really relevant um to us um a 3938 establishes a task force to examine School discipline practices incl including racial disparities and Effectiveness a 3944 which establishes a male teachers of color mentorship pilot program and appropriates $95,000 for that program a a 3957 provides supplemental Transportation growth aid for school districts in the 2324 school year and that also comes with a 32 about about million appropriation um Senate Bill 2901 allows certain public high school student athletes to substitute study hall for physical education during their athletic Seasons s293 establish a safe remote learning program in the Department of Education to support the provision of remote inst construction facilities by public schools sjr 93 designates the first full week of May each year as teacher appreciation week I thought that was just established but apparently it's not um a4010 um directs the doe to establish advertising campaigns to attract candidates to teaching and education support professions and appropriates a million for that and then um a437 requires the state of Education to establish a pathway for Interstate Reciprocity for Certificate of Eligibility and Certificate of Eligibility for advanced standing so a lot of those bills are trying to recruit um teachers of color and teachers in general to our um to our New Jersey Public Schools um if anyone is interested in these these are all on the um I think it's nj.gov nj.gov and uh then you could reach out to the appropriate committee to express your support or um your lack your opposition to these measures thank you thank you Dr serer that was extremely informative um Miss DS the Morris County njsba report good evening um the unsung heroes event is at CCM tomorrow um check-in is at 6: pm. the program starts at 6:30 um for those who are going you may Park in lot six or seven um the nominee for do high school is Jenner Gonzalez and we will have a combination of administration and board members attending um I'm looking forward to going to that event um next month's mcba meeting will be a hybrid for those who would like to attend in person and virtually you must register through the uh njsba site there um it will be at Roxbury high school on Thursday May 2nd at 6 PM it will also be the second annual Nancy hellberg Memorial recognition ceremony Board of Ed members from Morris County will receive recognition for their achievements since the spring of 2023 that concludes my report thank you Miss TOS um Dr mokan I think am I listed I'm I'm supposed to be at that event tomorrow yeah I don't remember um I I don't know that you are supposed to be but I'm sure you can be uh we I can confirm tomorrow that you're on the list okay good I just wanted to mention that before I forget um okay we are moving along to administrative approval is there a motion to approve items one and two I need a motion so move second we have a motion by Miss Phillips we have a second by Dr Ser is there any discussion seeing none we have a motion by Miss Phillips a second by Dr Ser Mr sabahu may we have a roll call vote please miss ESO yes Miss DS yes Miss Phillips yes Miss peles yes Dr sener yes Miss SES yes Miss mandes yes we are moving along to Personnel Miss nighing has a family emergency and is not here this evening so uh Miss Phillips has so graciously agreed to take this item um okay so I make a motion that the board approve personal items it's going to be 1 through 18 um 18 is a hand carry for the record I will read it uh resolved that the do Board of Education approves the unpaid leave for employee number 359 32946 through April 16th of 2024 is there a second second that was Miss ASO so we have a motion by Miss Phillips a second by Miss ACO is there any 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 Miss Phillips yes Miss penales yes Dr senner yes Miss SES yes Miss mandes yes BL you bless you um we are moving along to negotiations Miss alenas do you have something for us um good evening at this time the negotiation committee is preparing for negotiations with the do support staff Association and we expect to meet with them in the near future thank you we are moving along to governance uh Mr ESO will be filling in for Mr Miller yeah good evening the governance committee met on March 12th with M uh Mr Miller myself Mrs DS Mrs Phillips and Dr mclin we discussed working with Strauss asme um to develop a new policy regarding remote meetings we also discuss including interpret interpreter documentation and inclusion to the existing bylaws policy and regulation 01 67.4 which outlines interpreter service services at board meetings policy 01 67.4 provides guidelines to be followed during the uh Board of Education meetings with the general public present and in need of interpreting Services um there was also a discussion on the state uh of New Jersey Bill to allow Boards of Education to move their election to April we discuss we discuss the pros and cons as well as as well with some of the cons being um election being less political more focused on education new board members would be able to help develop board goals instead of having to work on the board goals created by another board member it also provides opportunities for the community to focus on education in schools with the district promoting promoting uh the district um some of the cons that we discussed where that new election cost would approximately cost $38,000 um every year board work is constrained when new board members come in in the middle of the school year and voter turnout tends to be lower and the school board will have to promote the vote um we discussed adding a yearly board training on special education on an annual basis and within the F the first 90 days of reorganization of the Board of Education this includes but it's not limited to introductions to IEPs care and programs within our district and laws uh this will be added to policy 0144 um which is the board member orientation and training and last we continue to discuss discuss board goal discussions for the second quarter and we will keep updating as items meet the goal intent this includes the governance report I'd like to make a motion to move item items one to two which is policy and regulation 0 point 0.16 7.4 is there a second second Miss Selenas so we have a motion and a second is there any discussion Dr serer um could I ask for a clarification please the special education training um I understand it's being added and I'm sorry I don't remember the policy number but the one that governs new board member training will the special ed presentation be done within the first 90 days for all board members or just for new to the board members um someone who was at the governance committee what was the discussion do you recall I believe was whole like whole board it yes it was for the whole board thank Youk you uh is there any other discussion seeing none we have a motion by Miss ASO a second by Miss solinus uh Mr sabahu maybe have a roll call vote please miss ESO yes Miss DS yes Miss Phillips yes Miss penales yes Dr senner yes Miss SES yes Miss mandes yes we are moving along to student achievement and curriculum Dr serer thank you our committee met on March 5th in addition to the committee and Dr mlin we had Mr Carl Dr Mendes miss gensinger and miss gor Matan in in attendance we were presented with another long and varied list of professional development for our staff and we reviewed three new curricula grade 8 art grade 6 through 8 dance and grade 6-8 theater Dr Mendes walked us through the eers and gold assessment data which are two different sets of Standards used to evaluate our prek program and Facilities March 22nd will be a districtwide PD day where staff will follow an ed Camp Model where many of the offerings will be presented by our staff to our staff however we will also have apple help with mindfulness and Garden State equality presenting as well we are starting an orts program at do high school next year which will allow students interested in gaming to participate in competitions uh you will see on the agenda that we are being asked to approve the extending the computer science pipeline partnership with rers University um um Mr kazinsky our science supervisor um received I believe wrote and received that Grant which is using to connect ruter um the the DMS computer science program with ruer staff with the goal of kind of as the title says creating a pipeline of eighth graders who will then go on to participate in Dober high school computer classes um we learned about the expanding access to climate change education and the New Jersey learning standards through interdisciplinary learning and Community resilience Grant um this uh will provide a lot of professional development for teachers to incorporate standards into courses there will be communic um Outreach into the community for engagement and collaboration family and community outreach and expansion of Project based learning um we learned about the novaris girls in science and business mentorship program which was presented to um students at DHS in this program 9th through 11th grade girls can be connected with a mentor and with other Morris County students in a cohort it will start this spring and go through next year um with the possibility of starting another Co report in the fall this will all be paid for by novaris and so far we have 40 do high school students who have applied there was some discussion about whether this could lead to internships and I wanted to give a shout out to former board member udz katano who uh brought this program um or information about this program and started the ball rolling uh for our district uh we also saw an update on the midyear data from I as you know we use I to assess student uh growth um we saw lots of fabulous graphs uh last year at the midyear diagnostic students were at the 54% which you would expect at the midyear portion students would have achieved 50% so last year they were at 54 this year the average was 62% so that's showing that our students are moving a little more quickly um and making a little more progress than they were last year with that I would like to um I'm sorry the the I'm getting used to board dos I would like to make a motion that we uh approve items 1 through 11 second yeah one through 10 one I make a motion that we approve items one through 10 second so we have a motion by Dr serer and second by Miss pinales yeah I think the CL so on after each one that last one is just saying the yeah yeah I questioned that too but uh it has to be like an item so no it's fine it'll just take some time for us to get used to but it's fine um is there any discussion Dr s could I just do some shoutouts from uh additional information that we received um in our board packet um shout out to all the art teachers we saw um items from northover Miss faka had herart art students to celebrate Black History Month study the Tuskegee Airmen um the East over art teacher had students studying various black artists and their Styles various music teachers across the district focused on Jazz and famous black musicians and our history classes including our mlls and special education classes um did an amazing job um integrating the AR Amistad standards in our curriculum so just a shout out to all of our teachers who are doing amazing things especially as they celebrated um Black History Month um thank you to Mr kazinski who submitted the climate change Grant um we are approving or we just we will are about to approve a grant from uh Visions for wind energy kits for our K to3 enrichment classes that I believe was um applied for by Miss Kina who teaches those classes and uh we also are approving the um DHS course of study and there are so many um awesome and amazing and interesting classes in there such an increase over the last few years and uh I feel pretty confident that every student can find um a course that they enjoy and appreciate so I appreciate the staff's creativity and dedication to meeting the needs and interests of every student thank you Dr serer um is there any other discussion seeing none we have a motion by Dr serer and a second by Miss Bal to approve items 1 through 10 under student achievement and curriculum Mr sabaho may we have a roll call vote please M ESO yes Miss DS yes Miss Phillips yes Miss peles yes Dr sener yes Miss solnes yes Miss mandes yes we are moving along to community relations Miss ASO the community relations committee will meet with with the citizens advisory committee on Thursday March 21st at the administrative building located at 21 belman Avenue we haven't met since last month perfect thank youo you're welcome um we are moving along to policy miss pinales the policy committee met on March 5th we um it was attended by um our chair Diel Mendes Tiana and Victor myself and Maria solinus and Dr James Ming for first readings we discussed and revised our policy 932 3 notification of juvenile offender case disposition policy 5842 equal access of student organizations policy 5841 secret societies policy 7610 vandalism policy 5750 Equitable education opportunity policy 5570 sportsmanship policy 24314 prevention and treatment of sports related conclusions and head injuries for regulations we discuss regulation 7610 vandalism in efforts to hold Guardians responsible for injuries to school property the district has the right to ask for restitution regulation 24314 prevention and treatment of sports related concussions and head injuries allows for protocol for sports related concussions and awareness for concussions after injuries and time has passed we also discussed that it is the time is coming for us to purchase new helmets for our students the second for second reading we discuss policy 7510 the use of school prop facilities regulations 751 use of school facilities and for abolishment policy 5755 equity in educational programs and services this policy is no longer necessary our next policy committee meeting will be on April 99th at 6: p.m. and with that I would like to make a motion to approve items 1 through 7 then on their policy second no it would be one six I believe it'll be one to six because other still second okay so we have a motion by Miss penales a second by Dr s right that was Dr s um is there any discussion Dr s I had a question about regulation 7610 um it removes the line and this is a quote from the Pol the regulation that this is what we're removing the principal will recommend to the superintendent and the superintendent will recommend to the board a student whose vandalism of school property is so serious or chronic as to Warrant reporting the student to the police I see other parts of this policy address referring to the police for things like hate crimes fire and graffiti but is there no provision to refer a student to the police for ex you know an an egregious Act of vandalism yeah the uh what they did is they moved it down uh to I think it's B1 or B4 uh in the regulation that basically says it's referred to the principle uh the uh stra sesme felt that gives the district the discretion to report it to the police when they see fit rather rather than automatically reporting it to the police thank you and I apologize for missing that is there any other discussion seeing none we have a motion by Miss pinales and a second by Dr s uh Mr sabahu may we have a roll call vote please misso yes Miss STS yes Miss Phillips yes Miss peles yes Dr senner yes Miss SES yes Miss Mes yes yes we are moving along to finance and facilities and Dr serer has so graciously agreed to provide the report instead of Mr Miller I'm so happy that Mr sabahu talked about almost everything that happened at that meeting so we met on March 12th um uh we were present uh all members of the committee were present in addition to Mr Sabah holu Dr McLaughlin and our um oh I'm having a blank um our head of buildings and Mr O'Brien thank you I can only remember his first name thank you Mr O'Brien um in addition to things that Mr sabahu mentioned in his report I think the only thing um that in addition that we discussed was uh the high school generator project which was in which we are um will be projected as a next year project other than that our discussion revolved around our 2024 25 budget and when that I would move that we approve items 1 through 21 second was that misso yes so we have a motion by Dr serer a second by Miss asedo is there any discussion Dr s we are approving the 20 2425 budget um and the 2% tax increase and we are and I'm I'm I have too many windows open I apologize and we are not um taking any of our banked cap and I just wanted and I apologize for not sending this item but Dr mclaughin you sent us an email um delineating this just so that the community has transparency right just like our household budgets um we have to choose how to spend our money and the choice um to take the 2 % but not any of the bank cap means that some of the items that uh are on our wish list on our needs list will not be [Music] um uh we will not be doing so um I can read them Dr mlin if you okay so uh some of the uh things that we will not be able to do will be able to we will not be able to purchase a truck for maintenance and snow plowing we will not be able to purchase some of the supplies uh that were uh wanted for summer school um we are lowering the health insurance expenditure line um by taking a small risk um this has to do with new employees coming into the district um and if there are more turn turnovers than expected that would increase that line less turn turnovers that would decrease that line and we would that would be safe um we moved supplies and repairs to the prek budget and lowered our maintenance budget for the general fund and we have taken we had um discussed previously to modular adding two additional modular classrooms right we have an ongoing space issue um those two modular classrooms are off um our list for the 2425 school year um I also wanted to mention that uh we will and uh at the end of 20425 uh we will have $ 53,6 43 in the maintenance reserve and our capital reserve will um end with $3,134 264 in that account so again choices have to be made and I'm I'm not saying these so that um I don't want anyone to con who that I'm up here advocating for higher taxes but there are consequences to the choice to take um only the 2% and the not the banked cap that we could thank you for highlighting that Dr s um I think this is a deeper discussion that we will have at our when is the hearing next month yeah next month yeah it's yeah it's a deeper discussion that we will have at our meeting next month but um you know we were faced with an option do we raise a tax levy by you you know $26 a month or um go with the Lesser option of $12 a month um and because doing nothing was not an option if not that would have put us in the rad and in a hole um so we thought that um a compromise would be the roughly $12 a month that we will dive deeper into um next month but thank you for highlighting that Dr s yes thank you one more thing I wanted to thank two more things I wanted to thank Linda and James Mullen for their generous donation to the DHS scholarship fund and then a thank you to Mrs derso uh former Academy Street principal for her um giant donation of books from the mendum public library thank you so we is there any other discussion I'm sorry seeing none we have a motion by Dr Ser a second by Miss aavo Mr sabolo may we have a roll call vote please M ESO yes Miss DS yes Miss Phillips uh yes with an exstension two payments to vendor 1 1950 1 1950 yes Miss pinelis yes Dr CER yes Miss SES yes Miss mandz yes we are moving along to informational items and uh they're not attached so I oh wait no informational I can read the dates at least um upcoming Board of Education meetings April 24th 2024 May 14th 2024 and then June 25th 2024 uh facility requests I I'm clicking but nothing's popping up so I won't be able to share um and then we're going to move along to oh there we go um we have the Dober Little League we have the of do fire department um Dober football club and the Girl Scouts of Northern New Jersey so thank you for letting me see that um we're moving along to Old business is there any old business seeing none we're moving along to new business um Miss Mendes point of order we do have an item for old business discussion of the board election change no that's on new business new business sorry it's listed for me under new business it's okay I'm they're kind of matched together on the paper when I'm looking at Old business oh I yeah so there's it's old business new business sorry it's Bor business it's our business okay so um discussion of Board election change I think this item was requested by the governance committee um you know we received information um we received an update from the governance committee about the pros and cons we have already received public comment um regarding um the election change um you know one of the things that sticks out to me we were just talking about budget and being in the deficit and really over the coming years we're going to have to make some tough decisions depending on our funding um so I do not currently think that it is financially um in our best interest to make this election change um among the other various cons but what are other board members thoughts none Miss downs and then Dr Ser I just um I just know voter turnout in our town is very low and it's just going to be more difficult to get people to come out and vote at two different elections I agree and then the burnout right like after going through an election season who wants to come out again in April um so um Dr s did you want to add something I I don't want to add I want to agree with both of you that the cost and the impact on on our voter engagement um is I think both of those are prohibitive although there are some I think Pros that are very significant also wanted to um bring up it's it's somewhat related that in the email that M Ruiz sent to the entire board she um highlighted the decision of the nework Board of Education to allow their 16 and 17-year-olds to vote in Schoolboard elections which I thought was very interesting um quite a lesson in Civics for our students and a way to get them engaged in their own um in in the running of their schools and prepare you know I think it's an interesting idea especially to get them in the habit of voting so that then we then when they turn 18 um they are in the habit of going to the polls which would increase engagement in our community so um maybe that's something that the governance committee could look into um moving forward yeah I actually I'm glad you highlighted that um maybe I don't know Miss Phillips or Miss asedo can you um add that to the governance committee the agenda or or forward that to Mr Miller so he can um look into that with the committee Mr crew can you speak to the um legalities of surrounding that um yeah actually it's the I didn't realize that they had done that so I I'm not sure what it is but I one thing that occurs to me I'm pretty confident that the New York public schools have April elections I think it would be extremely difficult to if even if that's permitted I don't think it could be done in November because the um the board wouldn't be running its own election it would be part of the uh November election with other offices other things and I I don't just assuming it's permitted I'm not sure how it could work practically in a November election with all of the other races and things like that you you'd have someone going into a voting booth um you know where you would have other items I'm just not sure about that so it's interesting question Dr s Mr crew would it be possible to have the one voting machine up here at the high school because all of the people who were 16 and 17 maybe not all but the majority of them would be here um and so the school if this is how it happens the school or the elections officials could verify age of just people going to this one voting machine in one building I I again I keep in mind what ha one of the the cost savings that we talked about earlier were the fact that by having the election in November the board doesn't have to pay for the election it's run by you know through the County Board of Elections it's run as a as a state thing not a state thing but you know at at the county level I believe uh so that you know that's a change in process and procedure that's changing the way they handle things I I'm just honestly I don't know I it's just a practical it's a practical concern that I think would be um difficult to implement in November I think it's something worth it exploring I think that that would absolutely add value to our um Community our um voter um pool it would add value to the youth in our community um you know we talk a lot about Civics this has come up recently at our board meetings I think that um what greater way what greater lesson in Civics than practicing um you know your right to vote so I think this is worth exploring so I think that one of the things um the governance committee should do is perhaps reach out to the um Board of Elections and see what their um thoughts are on this um also confirming whether or not um Newark actually has their elections in April or if they do it in November and if they do do it in November how do they do it so perhaps we reach out to the Newark Board of Education as well um if the governance committee is not comfortable doing that I am more than happy to facilitate um those conversations with Miss Phillips um and then maybe Mr crew if you can just dig into the legality surrounding it a little bit further um sure yeah like I said it's the tonight was the first time I'd heard about it so it's it's very interesting um and it certainly sounds like a cool idea but I'm I'm I'm not sure whether it's permitted or not permitted great thank you and then on the topic of the um election change um from the discussion or conversation that we just had I'm going to assume that um this is not viable for us at this time and we will not move forward any further with an election change if if I might add something to that the way the law I didn't realize this was going to be on for formal discussion tonight so I'm just going off my memory but I I think that um I think it would be too late to do it this year anyway the I'm pretty sure the law provides that if you're going to change from November to April the action has to be taken I think it's 85 days before the April election day of the year where you would be moving the November so I I think that we the board would have had to take action actually before the new law even went into effect probably it would have had to been in January sometime well also if we wanted to um move towards this path we could pass a policy that says next election this is how no no I'm just I'm just letting you know this election cycle a practical matter yeah for now it's probably it's too late to do it for this year anyway I think yeah well I think that this um this um item is Dead on Arrival for our board anyway so on misso did you want to add something I just wanted to um I think that we need to explain to the public how this change came about because it election School Board um elections were in April if we can explain to like with the reforms with uh in 2012 Dr mlan I don't know if you can explain the reason why this was done because it's it's pretty clear I I could also if you why don't I start and you a tag team so uh if I I recall correctly uh 2011 um schools were permitted to move to a November election uh and no longer have to put their if they move to the November election they would no longer have to put the school budget which we've discussed tonight up for public vote prior to that time every school district had to have a public vote at least in uh most operating school districts in New Jersey uh so because of that uh and subject to a 2% tax limit uh school districts moved to November elections one of the things that occurred over time uh is that in in some instances uh indiv individuals felt that November elections uh were being politicized at the board of education level so there was um feedback uh to the legislature to allow uh districts to move back to an April election and still not have to put their uh budget up for a vote and that's that's the way this was passed it was you can move back to an April election you still get the 2% leeway uh without a without a public vote on your on your budget and uh that's it's it's brand new as it's been discussed uh there's no way it could have happened for any District this year but uh it would be interesting to see if districts take advantage of it next year so if Newark has had it they probably had it because they they kept the vote on their budget yeah a handful of districts I literally in the State uh maybe a dozen uh can some districts continue to have April elections all along just a handful because of that option of not having to have the vote on the budget because it be so many times the voters would vote down the budget and then there was a whole lengthy process it was very complicated it was very you know it was really difficult once they were given that option um more than 90% of the districts in the state moved to the November elections but there have been a few that have held out and kept them in April all along and then there's a couple that move move to November and moved back there was a process after four years I think it was of having it in November you what if you changed it to November you had to do it for at least four years but after that you could bring it back to April if you wanted to a few Bo districts did that the big change this year is that if you do that if you have the April election you you now have the option of not having the vote on the on the budget and so that will I would think it's going to encourage some districts to move back to April now that they have that option thank you um Miss ASO for making sure that we highlighted that I think that was important as well and thank you Dr mclin and Mr crew for that thorough explanation um Miss Phillips you have some new business items for us I have um one resolution with respect to the approval of superintendent search services so I make a motion that the board approve the following resolution be it resolved that the Board of Education hereby approves the receipt of certain rfps for the superintendent for superintendent search services and further hereby Awards Kathleen helaa educational Consulting for that contract I need a second second oh was that miss pinales it was so we have a motion by Miss Phillips a second by miss pinales any discussion Miss Mendes I am so I am abstaining from this book because I'm conflicted right yeah I I would recommend that you abstain Yes sounds good thank you thank you misso excellent question uh any other discussion seeing none we have a motion by Miss Phillips a second by Miss pinales U Mr sabahu maybe we have a roll call vote please uh Mr abstain Miss STS yes Miss Phillips yes Miss peles yes Dr senner yes Miss SES yes Miss Mendes yes Miss Phillips you have something else for us or was that it that was it that was it oh um are there is there any other new business Miss downs I'm sorry um but I just wanted to mention a couple events that are happening at East over Middle School of course yeah um we have this Thursday uh the 21st at 2:45 the students versus staff basketball game um then on the 25th they have career day for spring this is when alumnist come back and speak to the student body about their experiences at the school and share stories of their career paths um it is listed that April 1st they have the PTA meeting um but that is during spring break so I that is not happening okay um and then the school play is on April 19th and 20th um it's the Catman and kid Sparrow the Fantastic crime fighting Duo um um I just wanted to make sure that got in there we just got off the heels of our wonderful High School play um and then uh they will be having seventh grade orientation on the 24th thir the 23rd of April and the 24th um where the different schools in our community can become familiar with seventh grade and then on May 1st they have the orientation for the parents um I also want to mention that um Mrs an corpa our Music Teacher our past music teacher for from Academy Street uh passed away last week um I was very thankful that I had her as my music teacher growing up thank you thank you for sharing and our condolences to um her family um can she be added to that um the I don't know what it's called the remembrance yeah is there any other new business seeing none uh we are moving along to public comment uh 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 perod of 3 minutes public comments not restricted to items on this agenda shall be entertained for 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 inperson and online comments please understand that public comment portions of our agenda are not structured as question 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 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 you can approach the podium and state your name please hi Karen 19 Street did we did we can you pick up the microphone it should be on Karen vaugh 19 Center Street thank you I I just have a few questions I understand they won't be addressed right now but Karen can you speak into the mic it's we can't hear you okay as a I just have a few questions and two comments as a parent I know the questions will not be answered or address but I would like you to know the kinds of questions that we have on our minds in these are in reference to the altercations and the fights recently all right I'm just curious what kind of repercussions there were for the people involved in the fights I'd like to know as I'm also a teacher where the adults were who should have been in the hallway where classes changing were there too many people giving bathroom passes do they allow bathroom passes do teachers utilize a sign in and sign out sheet so we know where everyone is at all times um are there enough cameras in the hallway what are the district's plans to avoid these types of situations fights melees from occurring in the future and then two quick private comments I worked for many years and an Inner City New Jersey public school and I'm too familiar with situations like this and it's not the kind of reputation we'd like to have for our community and besides being concerned as a parent of course for the security one last thing many of the parents in the district that I worked for did not send their students to the public schools for these types of reasons these exact same types of reasons and that weakened further weaken the public school system they were often students who were successful and supported and I've heard these kinds of comments coming recently in our community and I just would like our thoughts to be heard thank you for your time thank you um Miss Phillips do we have any virtual comments no no is there any other member of the public in person wishing to speak can you hear me yeah yes um Nicole relli I spoke earlier um I just want to reiterate on what you just said and also the reports that were told that we have one fight a month it seems like something's off there by a lot like maybe things aren't being reported properly and that may be part of our issue um Mr well and thank you for bringing up that communication is a real problem in our district um because the phone call went out and maybe ask your secretary where the phone call went it wasn't to you personally but it was it's out it's there someone has it thank you thank you are there any other remote comments no is there any other member of the P public in person wishing to speak um Mary S 27 Baker Street um I have to picky back on all those public comments from this meeting and like I said last meeting that unfortunately I wasn't able to attend um I know Miss ASO mentioned some policy about interpretation at Board of Education meetings which I I know we do have and you got to understand when parents take their time to come first of all English is not their first language sit through the meeting give you a comment and at time s you are addressing it I know I understand not all the time you address it and the translation is given to you if I speak Spanish and you in English I I I found it very disrespectful that those parents that were here at last meeting didn't get the immediate translation knowing that Dr mlin did address some of those concerns um and and I I thank the board for working on adding that Spanish public you know uh section so we know when we need to speak and um now this agenda like I said is kind of messy and it's hard to get used to but on a desktop version you could set the language and you can kind of get an idea what's going to be discussed at the meetings as well so I think you it takes time I understand but uh we're getting there um and thank you Dr MLF for that uh hip report um I don't think a hip situation should be something that we can compare to whatever year uh this should be zero throughout uh per se um I know right here we have a stop sign that has been vandalized and has graffiti on it for the longest time so I'm hoping that was addressed um I know thank you again for that message that now is districtwide um it it's really upsetting to hear the news about our school district about fights about broken noses on public for on Facebook social media pages and not directly for one we need to hear it from it it is upsetting that is Word of Mouth situation we need to hear it from the right Source otherwise it's just a messenger situation um there was never an update to that message that went out for the East over Elementary and and I know when I think about oh you know it's down there at East do I'm first reading this message thinking oh you know it's the middle school and you know it's understandable all the schools get together but when you mention in East do elementary I'm concerned sixth grade I mean I have parents mentioned like it could have been fourth grade it is upsetting to think that these are the kind of things our students are and and when we talked about repercussions I mean I know in the past public comments have we've been told that the students are getting VIP treatment by eating in the in the office with the secretaries that are getting a VIP treatment table in the middle of the lunch table and besides the fact that now everybody knows you know these these kids by first name because I don't know what kind of treatment when they're getting um so as far as updates I'm I'm not sure what the the outcome was for the next morning how many kids didn't send their kids to school I I like I said I'm not an Eastover Elementary parent but was there any kind of message that went to the community saying you know we we looked up the information we investigated and it's safe to come back to school how many absences did you have the next day I'm sure more parents in our community will be willing to and and able to keep their kids home knowing what's going on in our schools day by day we cannot average something and say it's once a month when something be happening during the same week and this is something we hear again from social media from from parents in the district not from the general messages that you guys said about safety hey man please finish up okay thank you Miss Phillips we have nothing no is there any other member of the public in person wishing to speak seeing none public oh do we have someone yep hello again could you hear me yes um my name is Maria chakon and I just wanted to um touch again on the um the play the play was amazing I have a kid who is in uh um they do uh stage crew and I had to come three times but I I got away from coming to one of them um but anyway they do such great work they were there from the morning at 7:30 a.m. to go to school and then they stood every day until 8:00 p.m. um I thought it was beautiful supporting my kid their enthusiasm and everything and I appreciate everybody's work I have a small suggestion for the play Bill to I see that the cast pictures are there but not the uh stage crew is not there or the musicians are not there and I saw how hard the musicians worked they were amazing they sounded professionals I heard I think one or two were adults but they I I think that everybody should be included in the play bill because it is high school and we don't have to follow the outside rules um so thank you for that and I also wanted to uh touch again on the email that I sent out I know Mr uh superintendent um you already touched on it that you're going to change policy but just be mindful because Dover is very small and uh politics are dirty and they will come and touch the school or anything else other events so just be mindful of maybe somebody checking in the news or checking with alazon if anything's going on because they would have avoided all of this um you know there's um Awards happening you know reading books all of a sudden Happening by this person then getting awards at the Town level it is all linked together and it's really a mess so um thank you for considering to change the policy I I appreciate you thank you thank you nothing any other member of the public in person I'm sorry I didn't mean laugh but Angelo Ramos you know just I want to make this comment like to all this um is you don't have no idea how happy I feel seeing the parents uh having this communication with you War because you know this was impossible years ago so it's really good all the work you're been doing I mean even if you're a new board member or just uh you have few years how the chair I just really want to congratulate you because this W be no possible years ago and just I want to say thank you and congratulate to the whole board about the policies you passed about having um most um education for yourself I mean for the public you are serving for the students you are serving and uh the superintendent already uh speak about who will be invited or how we be addressing the Poli say who's coming to the school just I want to make a comment like uh you know I have few case uh few case managers from the state so one of them they come to the high school and she was not allowed to go in when she had a meeting to come in so I just qu want to be sure like um when you write or when you address the policy who's going to be invited in the school or who's not going to be invited in the school just to be sure we be fair for all of them if it's in the list goes in if it's not in the list not go in because my case manager from the estate was in the list I mean we have a meeting to come in and she was not allowed to get in the school after few calls so I just I want to say thank you and thank you so much for passing the policies about having more more education thank you thank you nothing any other member of the public in person wishing to speak seeing none public comment is now closed um I I'm not even going to go there okay um I will entertain a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn is there a second second we have a motion by Dr Ser a second by Miss solinus uh all in favor say I I any oppose meeting adjourn good night um stay and help clean up if you can now