##VIDEO ID:Eo_dkl5sswE## and we're going to call the meeting to order Welcome to our November meeting Mr Smith on Wednesday January 3rd 20124 notice of this meeting was emailed to the press and Mainland Journal notice was also delivered that day today car Township Clerk and posted on bulleon board in township hall roll call please Mrs bonjourno here Mr delarka here Mrs Gilbert Floyd here M Hyman here Mr Ireland here Mr Price here Mr sepy here Mr solivan here and Mrs slog here we stand for the flag salute please Al to the flag of the United States America and to the rep stand One Nation God indivisible andice for all okay we need the motion for the minutes second Sullivan okay any discussion on 4.1 to and 4. two can I roll call please Mrs bonjourno yes Mr Del Barka yes Mrs Gilbert Floyd yes M hman yes Mr Ireland yes Mr Price yes Mr sepy yes Mrs suvan yes and Mrs SL yes Dr bro all right here we go got me good all right good evening and Welcome to our November meeting uh November is our month of gratitude for character Edward explained back in September that each month we would have a word that our schools would uh educate students on and celebrate through the character so things have been going great in terms of um Ed educating about gratitude but this week is American Education week and throughout our schools we are celebrating and recog izing the great things that American Educators do this is sponsored by the um National Education Association and on Monday in our schools was our kickoff day we had pepper Alle and announcements each school's done a little bit something different but overall celebrating recognizing American Education week with family day gratitude sharing they're tying in our gratitude character Edward in hats off to your favorite team educat tomorrow is Educator support Professional Day there'll be letters that the kids write uh the schools will have donuts and food for our Educators um educator for day is on Thursday thank a teacher and on Friday is our substitute educator day where there's donuts and lunch and planed for for those folks as well because they're here um to be Educators for the day so great celebrations fun times also this week is National apprenticeship week it's our 10th year anniversary and we are recognizing our apprenticeship program tomorrow we have a ribbon cutting ceremony our Career Tech and educ ation Innovation lab opens up tomorrow officially at 10:00 and then the Esports gaming and Design Center follows uh with a ribbon cutting ceremony and the board of education is invited to that but it's very very exciting because when it comes to the CT Innovation lab um a couple years ago going to one of the technical technology conferences I'll never forget riding home on the train um with Dr Graham and saying you know what we learned a lot this week and there schools that have ideas in the nation we could do that we could do that here in EG harbard Township and that's why you have to give Dr Graham an idea and she goes off she's researching and she brings it back and we uh found a room in the high school that wasn't uh being used uh to be relevant if you will with with the coursework there so we turn that into an innovation lab where there's construction education going on welding electricity uh and our Pace students use that room so we're excited to show it off tomorrow and then following the Esports same thing being at that conference and learning about technology and seeing what Esports can do it's just not playing video games there's a character piece behind that there social emotional piece behind that there's education behind that and preparing kids for a career as well so I said you know what I want one of them too so um up in upstairs in the library um it with a space that we weren't using too much we turned into an area where kids can gather um and this arena is um from learned from example we went to Stockton to see their Arena we went to ACCC to see their Arena it's at the college level and here we are tomorrow we get to cut the ribbon for um Esports gaming center for our students our middle school students um have been here years with uh sharing their Championship status and our high school is now participating in Esports games um at the championship level we're waiting to see the results there all good stuff also great stuff is that our athletes we have our first four athletes who have signed and made their early decision decision commitments to NCAA uh schools we have Fairley Dickinson University of Central Florida K C us I've never heard of that University um and University of New Hampshire all right so congratulations to these students in softball crew baseball and basketball and there'll be more to come but this was early decision our sore homework uh this year when we had our fall break I said you know what I think it's a great time for our students students to share uh what sore means with to their parents with their parents and just create some family Conversation Over the week that we were away from school around safety ownership accountability and respect and the students in the elementary level were given you know not mandatory homework but they were sent home um Mighty and they were able to you know draw color create and that's the best thing that's we want our kids to do because that creates ownership um for our students and here's some of our brightest work from our elementary pre preschool level that the principes um have shared with us and wanted me to share with you so it went over went over well continuing with the Gratitude just so you know our gratitude messages are going out there's a scavenger hunt related to grav gratitude recognition leaves uh for tree of thanks at the high school gratitude tables at Fernwood thank you to colleagues activities going on and Thanksgiving feasts are coming up for next week The Culinary Academy at the high school Mak gobler sandwiches and they for sale for $10 a piece and gratitude videos made so good stuff going on in the schools every week it's something every weekend when I reach out to the principals I'm like get ready heads up we got this coming up we got that going on and you know they respond real well and the creativity just flourishes and it comes from them Veterans Day that was um recognized last Monday our first day back from fall break great things going on in all the schools particularly the wall of honor at the high school and we had a great turnout for that and every school had a Veterans Day celebration and we educated about the importance and respect of Veterans Day honoring all those who served bracelets um that you'll see our students and staff wearing all right um is our that we stand together against the fight against bullying and that was our initiative this year students are having fun making those bracelets um as you can see students at the high school in the gymnasium uh students in classrooms and just um being proud and the piece is they're homemade they're made by a student that gives ownership ownership of their bracelet because they're proud of it they made it and the the discussions that they had with their teachers and with their with their colleagues I mean with their classmates was amazing um we got together this summer with the administration and with the um with the let me see what do I do we agree and proceed yeah with the administration and the Student Assistance counselors and we we did we did some research on on bullying and some of the initiatives that we could do here in the school district and there are powerful ideas um that were given to us and one of was making we the blue bracelet because the the color blue was to show Unity um against the fight of bullying particularly at in schools all right so that's where that came from just so you all know um and thank you to the a haror Township Education Foundation who uh funded the thread all right so um it was a Comm a school district effort and everybody was all in and I'm very proud of everyone that's participating thank you to Our Community Partners um Lots going on in October thank you to the fire departments for coming out for the many many um displays that they they shared with the students our Ed Foundation again Project Graduation tickets are on sale each and every year and we you know I give a little push for that because that's for kids and Project Graduation is a great event uh a great celebration after graduation night so um if you know someone who's selling tickets um we appreciate your support Coalition for safe communities in the Teen Summit um that's beginning to develop and the meetings are held um every other month and um I'm proud to say that a grber Township High school is a host for the Teen Summit I work closely with Mr Perry ma um throughout the county and it's about student voice so we students come to the room from all the high schools in the area and we listen we listen to them what their concerns are what would they like to see in high school what could we do better and when I spoke to them I said if it wasn't for you we wouldn't know what to do I said you make us smile every day sometimes you make us cry every day I said but if it wasn't for you the student we really wouldn't know know to what to do so we want you to feel comfortable sharing your voice so that happens every other month the students get together and they speak and then in the springtime there's a summit that that's held at ACCC and last year we went to ACCC and to Stockton University became a Statewide Summit so it was really cool um and then a special thank you to the special education um Department who held the transition fair in the parent advisory meeting all right some school history in the makings here so I have um Mr rets M krno coaches come on up so Board of Education I don't know I don't know if you know it or not but the 24 2024 njsia a group for South sectional champions in the sport of girls tennis those folks are in this room right now ladies come on up with a 17-1 record wow [Applause] all right so tremendous feat these young ladies um 17 And1 that's incredible that means they they beat everyone on their way to what the very very final state championship game um and we're very very proud of the efforts that they put in um the modest girls that they are but these young ladies are truly amazing and I want to honor them tonight and I'll start off with our athletic director to explain a little bit about what goes on and uh in the SE tennis season it starts early is pretty quick and ends pretty quick right and um Miss Creo and coaches will sh okay all right uh again um what Dr guio just mentioned just a humble group of kids um you wouldn't know the smile of course would be a little bit bigger if they won but you wouldn't know it if they won or they lost when they come off the court U they're just their first class all the way and obviously in the classroom as well um as druch also mentioned the tennis is a sport where we get going right away because obviously daylight hours get get shorter and shorter um so once they get to us in August they're they're rolling and that season doesn't stop um and you know there's there's so many times where they have to play match after match after match and they are there every single day and they're and go through the whole entire regular season undefeated is pretty impressive uh we did as we were going through it and things started to become more and more real myself and uh coach Harman were going through trying to go through the record books as best we could and we did find out that you know this is the first time that our schools want a section Championship that's [Applause] pretty something that you guys will always forever be there in that record book and that side of it that's something uh you know you can always hold on to um one of the things that I think is most impressive from the program standard is that it's such an equal contribution from every grade you know some teams will have a lot of lot of seniors some teams have a lot of freshmen but you guys are really pushing together with the whole team uh commitment and that's that's pretty awesome uh I want to say one thing about Miss Harman real quickly uh so a lot of times I know a lot of people may not know this is that some of the tennis matches are not uh officiated they're just it's just the kind of the way it is just like golf they're not all officiated so when you get into the playoffs that changes right you have to have officials um so we have an official come in and and that official immediately looked at one of the kids on the opposing team said they were not wearing matching pants to their uniform they can't play and Coach Hartman said no that's not going to happen she sprinted inside um she grabbed some some clothing for that girl so she could match with her uniforms and and that's just the type of person that she is um she would never say yep we'll take that win you know that she ran inside she grabbed what she need to get she got that kid playing um and of course it helps from with these girls behind her we we know of course we W anyway but but that's just you know that's one of the things that I could tell and there's obviously more about how just the type of person she is and it and it trickles down onto all your coaches and your kids and I appreciate everything you guys do well thank you very much um I would like to just um thank all of our supporters thank the board for the the upgrades that we had to the tennis courts this year um the um the wind screens are beautiful and I I think they won a few matches for us too um and also for the community support that we had um thank you to the the fire department and the police department for the escort that they gave us after um our sectional win and um also to the our building administrators who um you know put the word out there for um for did some publicity for us all season and also to the um to the athletic department for um all the help with scheduling and um took all that off of my hands and and just made it very easy for us so thank you and thank you to you guys too I think you guys had a little bit to do with this so um it's just it's an amazing group of girls and um I just could not be more proud of them hey um we have certificates for um Varsity player Julie Denning freshman Julie Denning and Senior one of our captains Lily theola and our first singles player Saina Jerka Saina also won the cape Atlantic singles Championship this year as a [Applause] freshman double dip in here and one of our our doubles players Michaela Henderson um also um Demi Lou one of our senior captains and also um Demi and her partner won the cape Atlantic doubles Championship um Camille Moore is a sophomore and she also won the um selected by the um South Jersey coaches she won the um um um the group group for um sportsmanship award [Applause] and we have another freshman tana panala and the other half of the championship doubles team Bina Zang and our managers are not here but they were um Vincent um Zang and Jaden Tran were important part of our team this year [Applause] and then like we we would like to recognize our coaches for all of their hard work and um I know for the last game of the year last match of the Year getting up super early um the team I think thought we were a little crazy uh we had the administration there um maybe with a megaphone and pom poms and mighty uh wishing them all the best of luck I think they were still asleep but we were ready to go so uh we want to thank the coaches for all of their hard work um coach har course coach Hartman okay so congratulations everyone and I just want to take your moment and just take it all in appreciate it and I you know like Kelly and know is a former Allstar tennis player at oakrest high school hall of fame um and then she looks back probably in the moment back then I'm not going to use an example but I know when you were a kid you're probably like ah yeah this is great but now you know looking back to that that that's pretty pretty darn good accomplishment and there'll be years from now when you'll look back and say wow you know what we were pretty darn good and you are you are and I want to thank you uh for representing the a Harbor Township High School and this school district as Champions and South jgy Champions and that that's pretty impressive and never forget that and uh thank you for all you do thank you for your efforts and good luck to you cuz some of you will be back next year so all right so congratulations lastly here just want to let the public know and the board know that the budgeting process has started young ladies if you have homework to do I suggest you get on that right away um we have um we have budgeting uh process that has begun a calendar has been shared uh with the board and with the administration and it is a process so there's meetings from content area supervisors um and directors have started in central office and we will be sharing information with the Board of Education and the public in the New Year Mr Smith do you have anything to add to that this is your gig uh no that pretty much sums it up so the calendar is attached under Communications uh we have been having our meetings they've been very productive so far uh and we'll report out more in January okay and that concludes my portion of the superintendent report um I'd like to wish everyone a very very Happy Thanksgiving and um I am grateful for all of you I am grateful for this wonderful school district and I wish you all warm blessings for um uh to have family dinner and fun with friends with that said I the report's not totally done because Miss Moss has a report right okay and I'll show the video while she's getting ready to do that getting old folks I'm forgetful okay don't worry Alan I got you here we go [Music] feel it growing day by day get ready for the new Happy somebody said we got to music play M what the people need is a way to make them smile it ain't so hard to do with you know how got to get a message get it all [Music] through you after while W the music w w to the music W to theic all the [Music] time well I know you know better everything I say meet me in the country for we'll be happy and we'll dance we're going to [Music] dance if I feeling good to you and feeling good to me there ain't nothing we can do say feeling good feeling fine oh baby let the music play W music W to the music W to the [Music] [Applause] music like a la falling River surrounding cast in so there you go that gives you overview Lots going on lots lots to be proud thank you all right I just wanted to take a few minutes tonight to talk about um a change that we had this year with our Universal screening process because we are going to have reports going home to families for the first time and I do want to make sure that um everybody's aware of what's coming home and you know you know what this changes and why so the universal screening and diagnostic assessment process has been around for for lots of time we've been doing it in District for um the past eight or nine years and we have always used multiple measures um at each beginning middle and end of the year um it's a lot of work to do that but it's really important because we need to look at where students are in their grade level um and then also have assessments that help us determine where each student is individually so that we know what skills that they need support on or enrichment on but help us with that identifying process so over the course of the years we have had these windows of time where we were giving students two to three assessments sometimes even more because we were also looking at reading and math at that time so it was a lot of Assessments that were happening throughout the district um and so we did find an assessment that was able to that has been around for many years um and that gives both forms of information so it tracks where students are in regards to their grade level peers but it also identifies it's an Adaptive assessment so it will identify areas where students show strength and where students need support um and then from there we're able to look at that comparison across the national Norms of where our students are in comparison to other grade level peers and still get that projection on how students will perform on state assessments and as our students get older it will even do projections for the SAT and ACT as well I'm just going to show this very short video just explains a little bit more about what map growth is and how it works map growth is an assessment measuring achievement and growth in k to2 math reading language usage and science administered two or three times each school year its results help Educators understand how their students are performing academically and how they're growing over time map growth was created by nwaa a mission-driven organization founded by teachers and researchers committed to Student Learning today more than 12 million children around the globe use map growth the test is available in English and Spanish and includes numerous accessibility features to help every student demonstrate their progress here's how map growth Works prior to the test students do not need to do any studying their score is based on what they know now the test is adaptive which means a student's test adjusts based on their responses if a student gets a question right the next question is harder if a student gets a question wrong the next question is easier this means each student gets a personalized test experience designed to identify their achievement level independent of their grade or age this this helps Educators understand where their students are on their Learning Journey while the tests are untimed each one typically takes about 45 to 55 minutes to complete immediately following the test map growth produces a RIT score this is not a formal grade RIT scores help Educators measure and track performance from season to season and year to year identify students who may need additional support and create personalized learning paths on dozens of popular supplemental curriculum tools M growth also provides achievement and growth Norms Norms give Educators the context they need to understand how their students performance compares to other students across the US with this information teachers can help students better understand their strengths and opportunity areas and motivate students to pursue ambitious goals to learn more about map growth visit nwea.org to find resources for educators and Families okay so oh I'm um so with our first um implementation of it at the end of September those times that they said in there were not accurate for our students and and the classrooms it did take longer um and and we know that we were getting a baseline for our students so if as you saw it's it purposely gets hard they tell us that the the students should only get about 50% of the questions right so that they're pinpointing in each different area where students are at their highest level of learning and where students have those gaps so that is sometimes really hard because you know many of our students are are great students and want to know all the answers and and it's hard to understand that we're going to get to answers that are hard and that we're not going to know also since it's finding a baseline for the first time for our older students it did take a little bit longer because it had to go through a lot of the different grade levels now that we have that Baseline established the test should be smoother and not take as long because it knows where to start with each student as they move along um again this is the purpose of it went over this in the in the video but it really is about being able to focus on growth and as you know that is part of our strategic plan and our view of student achievement being where are students today and how do we help them keep growing towards their individual goals it's important for us to continue to look at that in accordance obviously with grade level standards and with their peers but this assessment really focuses on that individual growth um and that is what will come home in the family reports so this is what's going to go home at Thanksgiving it's a onepage report and at the very top is a very simple explanation of what the assessment was and then at the on the left side you're going to see scores of the student we have only given the assessment once so there's only going to be one score there and then a projection of where students typically who um performed that way on the first assessment then would perform on the second so once that happens after the second assessment you'll start to see that growth on the right so after our second Administration we'll be able to look at growth um but for this one it's just the Baseline so parents will just be receiving the initial math and reading scores also on the parent report is a list of questions and this is really just meant to open conversations between families and teachers um to really focus in on you know what we're what we're seeing with with their particular student Are there specific areas in math where they seem to be struggling or are there certain skills that can be worked on at home if the student scored really high in literary text but seems to be struggling in informational text what are some things that maybe we can do to help support that um it really is just to be a little more transparent about skills um and to really look at how we can best support our students and their academic growth there's also um a family toolkit website on there and they do have sample tests so that so parents can look and see what those tests do look like so they can have a better understanding of what the assessment is there's also a little video that will go over all of those points that we just talked about um and the families will be receiving a link to that as well and a family guide so the family guide is a is a onepage document that goes over basically all of the jargon and information that can be gleaned from this assessment um and really just to best understand that this is focused on growth this is not focused on grade level it's really looking at where students are in comparison to grade level peers and then where they're growing from where they are to from assessment to assessment so the uh the reports will be coming home um over Thanksgiving um we're going to be administering the second um round of universal screening the week before winter break in K to8 and at the high school we're going to be doing it in January during um the week of conferences so a lot of schools are going to be having testing schedules so more information will come out about that and then once we have those results we'll send home the second informational sheet that will not only have that score but then also that growth that's it I just wanted to share that with all of you um and if you have any questions please feel free to reach out thank you Miss Moss I thought it was important that um you know the Board of Education and the public have an understanding of um what the map testing is and U what's going to be going home and that we are assessing students so we can meet them um where we need to meet them and meet their needs overall so thank you and Mr President that concludes the superintendent report okay we're going to go to oosa and Marcus all right good evening everyone I hope everyone's having a good November so far um we starting off with the slay ball Swift complex first so a very fun aspect of our EHC Community is when schools Foster collaboration amongst them and students between grades or buildings are able to interact with each other in different ways on November 15th the EHD high school students taking the Child Development classes went to the Swift slay ball schools to use the skill they the skills they've learned they taught the elementary students lessons around Community economics Finance and more by utilizing various activities that they um kind of like organize with their child development classes good evening everyone I hope you're doing well so moving on to Davenport so as pre previously mentioned all schools are celebrating American Education week so specifically at Davenport each day has a theme that teachers and students are being encourag to participate in to show their appreciation and support so on Monday was dress is your favorite um profession Tuesday was wear your favorite hat Wednesday was wear sunglasses Thursday was swap dress today so teachers dressed as students and students dressed as teachers and then on Friday was um where your dport here so it's exciting for this week now moving on to Miller so at Miller the fifth grade students are chosen by their fourth grade teachers to be safety patrols these are students that have shown leadership reliability and maturity by consisting consist consistantly following directions and being respectful um last month the safety patrols for the 2024 to 2025 school year were selected and these students will be safety patrols leading by example to keep Miller safe and welcoming and another event that recently happened at Miller was during the week of the 21st in October um Miller celebrated red ribbing week which essentially promotes a drug-free life and teaches students how to cope with those stressful situations and find positive coping mechanisms so on Monday was wear red Tuesday was Jersey day Wednesday was crazy hat and sock day Thursday was pajama day and Friday was red white and blue day to show their pride and also on that Friday was their holiday parties to essentially celebrate Halloween and the fall holidays and the following week they had their annual book fair which students were happy to participate in next moving on to Alder last week at Alder students from Mrs ww social studies class participated ated in various activities to show appreciation for veterans and one of the activities was a compare contrast between Veterans Day and Memorial Day which students can often confuse and then on the 14th of November there was a schoolwide Veterans Day celebration at this event several past and present military Heroes attended and they shared the experiences with the students and they also got the opportunity to interact with students one-on-one and at this celebration some of Mrs Don's band students also performed and then moving on to Fernwood as previously stated our theme for this month throughout the district is gratitude so F really took this opportunity and to influence it into their school environment and culture so essentially the school student council board they decided to have a food drive throughout the month for all classes and grades to participate in and as a way to incentivize and gain more support from all the grades they created a fun little competition so whichever grade receives the or raises the most food for the local food bank they would receive a movie fund day so that's a great incentive to get everybody involved and additionally students are being encouraged to write thank you cards to their teachers to be entered into a raffle to receive a free book from the book fair that's happening at their school and lastly now we're at the high school so as pre previously mentioned by Dr guio um to spread positivity around the school and like you unify against bullying the staff and students celebrated World kindness day and also they created um bracelets against bullying the high school staff all match by wearing shirts with a positive message be kind on it and then the wingman n9th grade study hall teachers and PE PE staff assisted the students in creating the bracelets against bullying and I myself got to participate I made one dur class also at the high school we really take seriously especially in our classes learning in the classroom but taking those lessons and applying it to the outside world so in our environmental and oceanography classes recently they went to Johnson's farm where they were able to pick corn and um sweet potatoes as well and they spoke to Farmers to learn um their agriculture techniques and their processes and like the business aspect of that industry and they're applying these learnings from the in-classroom to the outside and eventually they're going to plant Doom grasses in the greenhouse coming up um I believe in February so that's really fun for us and then on Thursday we have Powderpuff coming up so you guys are welcome to come at 4:00 they're selling tickets and then also this upcoming weekend we have our Harry Potter play which is very great um students have been working on that for months so it's going to be a fun time and that's from the 22nd to the 24th and tickets are on sale online so we hope to see you guys there thank you thank you thank you okay now we have public comment on agenda items only anybody would like to speak okay we're moving on to finance and operations Mr Smith you have any updates no I'm not uh no the couple updates that we had uh we already discussed okay right Mrs solivan our meeting was on November the 12th at 6 o' 6:20 actually lasted about 55 minutes Miss Hyman Mrs salagi were present Mr Beck and Mr Smith the subjects that we discussed were Transportation Mr Smith provided another update on the potential partnership with a vendor that can help recruit bus drivers and bus AIDS the committee discussed possibly exp exploring a single use contract to see how the process would benefit the District Food Service Mr Beck gave us a thorough overview of the department including the free and reduced lunch rate the director position recent recent investments in equipment preschool breakfast and lunch services and an overall summary of the Staffing across the district which he noted noted is the best in the county facilities Police Department Mr Smith discussed the annual comprehensive maintenance program uh and M1 that are on the agenda for approval business office uh Mr Smith noted that missa and the business office staff are working to wrap up the annual audit and the Assa report Mr Smith also reviewed several items on the agenda for approval including the monthly report various tuition and transportation contracts asset disposal Grant applications Professional Service agreements and the solicitation of Professional Service proposals uh the committee discussed the 2526 budget calendar and the proposed presentation template for the upcoming board meeting do you have anything to add Mr no uh no I believe Mr Price has a question on one of the items though did you want to motion and then take we'll wait for discussion we'll wait for discussion thank you okay all right we're going to make a motion for 8.2 I'll make that motion Mr Price I'll second any discussion uh yeah Madam president I have discussion under um 8.20 authorizations to prepare and solicit requests for proposals for services for referendum development M Mr Price this is we're not there yet oh I'm sorry go ahead okay we need a motion for 8.2 I'll make that motion okay any second second it okay any discussion okay roll call please Mrs bonjourno yes Mr delarka yes Mrs Gilbert void yes Miss hman yes Mr Ireland yes Mr Price what is the motion that I'm voting on right now item 8.2 8.2 transfers that's it she's the transfers for okay yes Mr seppy yes Mrs suvan yes and Mrs slog yes okay now we need a motion for 8.3 to um 8.28 I'll make that motion second okay any discussion Mr pce yes discussion please I'll pick up where I left off yes 8.20 I think you heard what my question was can you maybe elaborate that a little bit uh as far as services for referendum development are we developing a referendum or what where are we going with this could you maybe explain a little better so the public has a better idea of what's happening with this right we are exploring our options uh for a potential referendum uh you know this if you kind of think of steps like 1 through 10 to develop the referendum and and get a process this would be Step Zero so this is just to solicit some proposals from professionals who can come in and help us uh form the project list help us uh get the word out to the community uh do presentations create say a pamphlet help us to kind of get certain things on our website give us some some tips and pointers uh so the whole process will take about a year uh so if we were going to move forward with a re referendum the public vote wouldn't be until December of 25 uh so from now until July is when we would work on it develop it uh everything would be board approved as we go through those steps uh there's different facets to the whole referendum I previously we spoke about enrollment that's one of the items we have to do a whole enrollment analysis submit that to the state everything's reviewed by the state um you know we're looking at debt coming off so we're paying off our debt with the next two years a potential referendum would come in and replace that debt uh but our goal no matter what the amount of the referendum is is to reduce taxes uh so that's our goal so we've already worked with some of our internal professionals such our our financial adviser and our engineer uh and our goal is to look at our uh Debt Service tax levy or tax rate and reduce that as we go forward and we try to complete new projects so it's a it's a very long process uh I said the board will be involved uh every step of the way so this is kind of the first step is to just bring someone in and just see what our options are we may not go with a professional we may we may use someone in-house or or different type of firm just just kind of see what our options are okay so what we're voting on tonight is the authorization to prepare and solicit the request at this point and then we'll see who responds and what the cost would be at that time right so so architectural firms and engineering firms would be the ones to respond to the RFP and basically uh if they respond and we like their application then they're going to come in and give us a presentation to say this is how we could help you this is how we would help you develop your project list this is what we would do this is what we wouldn't do and then we can decide to use their services or we could decide not to use those services but who whatever direction we go in would come back to the board for Action whether to approve a contract with a firm or to reject all the proposals and move on in a different direction okay very good I appreciate the U the response and um thank you any other discussion yes I'd like to say something uh I want the public to know and of course we all know that uh Mr Smith has been very conscious about keeping the tax rate flap or even reducing it where he's committed to it as much as we are so this is just basically fact finding and nothing's going to be done until the end of next year anybody else okay roll call please Mrs bonjourno yes Mr bar yes Mrs Gilbert Floyd yes Miss Heyman yes Mr Ireland yes to everything except for I'm going to abstain from 823 Mr Price yes Mr sappy yes Mr solvan yes and Mrs SL I'm going to abstain from 502 274 yes to the rest okay Miss moss do you have any updates for curriculum no miss bonj our meeting was held on November 12th at 6:20 p.m. length of time was 35 minutes in attendance was myself Mr Dela Bara sorry um and uh administrators attending was Miss Moss the committee reviewed agenda items field trips professional development Sunday system materials professional development uh course materials for American history and business and ethics an application for AI grants uh and reward of Pathways to Career Grant the committee was also updated on the science of reading in the ELA curriculum and and practice uh map growth family reports being issued at Thanksgiving our Title One family night and the district cell Comm committee and the next meeting will be held on December 10th at 7 p.m. thank you okay we need a motion for 9.2 to 9.4 I'll make that motion any discussion yes I would like to make a note sorry um Miss Gilbert Floyd did attend later but she was we moved our meeting up and we couldn't get a hold of her due to the system um our cell phones don't work in this building so when we were trying to call her it was going to our voicemail and there was a but she did show up but we were done meeting so just clarification there okay can we have roll call please Mrs bonjourno yes Mr delar yes Mrs Gilbert Floyd yes M hman yes Mr Ireland yes Mr Price yes Mr sepy yes Mrs suvan yes and Mrs SL yes okay policy Mr West do you have any updates I do not Madam president thank you okay Mr Ireland good evening I'm going to give out the policy committee report so we it was held Tuesday at uh November 12th at 6:15 uh board members I attended were myself Mr Price M Mr sepy administrators that attended were Dr rusio and Mr West others was Miss Amy Al ELO subjects that were discussed were policy 8210 school year revised final reading pending board approval tonight uh policy 8220 school day abolishment final reading pending board approval tonight policy 5512 harassment intimidation and bullying conclusions reached policy 5512 harassment intimidation and bullying was reviewed and discussed by the committee the committee would like Mr West to gather more Hib data from the principal's assistant principals and anti-bullying Specialists to present to the next policy committee at the upcoming meeting the data discussed at the next meeting will be about uh reporting procedures and Hib Trends um um it's all that was discussed during that meeting and then our next meeting is December 10th at 5:00 p.m and possible topics that will be discussed as our hip but that's all I have um Mr West did I mess anything up on that one no thank you Mr irel thank you Mrs Loi that's all we have for policy committee okay we need a mo motion for 10.2 through 10.3 motion any discussion okay roll call please Mrs bonjourno yes Mr delarka yes Mrs Gober Floyd yes M hman yes Mr Ireland yes Mr Price yes Mr sepy yes Mrs Sullivan yes and Mrs SL yes okay Dr Charlton do you have anything for personnel I do not Madame President thank you okay we need motion for 11.2 to 11.9 motion second Sullivan any discussion roll call please Mrs bonjourno yes Mr delar yes Mrs Gilbert Floyd yes M hman yes Mr Ireland yes Mr Price yes Mr seppy yes Mrs Sullivan yes and Mrs logi yes Dr guio okay it's my pleasure to introduce to you and welcome three new employees to the Cara Township School District and we'll begin with Miss jacqulyn Gardner Masters who is the new psychologist at our Miller school please stand hello welcome M Muma sutana power professional at the high school and Mr George shik our armed guard for our bargain toown preschool okay congratulations and you may go celebrate okay welcome to you all all right we need a motion for 12 point1 to 12.4 so made Mr Price second okay any discussion roll call please Mrs bonjourno yes Mr Barka yes Mrs Gilbert Floyd yes M hman yes Mr Ireland yes Mr Price yes Mr Mr sey yes Mrs Sullivan yes and mrsi yes okay you have all your reports going down to Communications the new board calendar the budget calendar and at is it Atlanta County Mr Ireland sure School boards I'll give a quick uh meeting update so the Atlanta County meeting was held at penville high school and that was held on the 14th um Miss salagi attended Miss Heyman attended Mr Price Mr Del Barka and myself attended the meeting was about best practices and how the different districts apply them you were Miss Tama Floyd Gilbert Floyd was there as well um we're we're going to go back to 13.1 okay sorry for HIV need a motion I'll make that motion I'll second it h any discussion okay more call please Mrs bonjourno yes Mr Del Barka yes Mrs Gilbert Floyd yes Miss Heyman yes Mr Ireland yes Mr Price yes Mr sepy yes Mrs suvin yes and Mrs logy yes okay is there any report for for uh njsba yes there is madam president okay all right oh pck right should I finish up yeah okay okay so Miss T Gilbert Floyd was there uh the meeting was about best practices and how different districts applied them uh penville and weth superintendents both uh both presented their best practices um it was a wonderful meeting it was very well attended it was very nice that we got back into there um and that's all I have other than people that were there I attended virtually so if there's any other comments go ahead um I'd like comment Madam pres yes I was there and it was an excellent presentation I think we learned a lot especially the fenville school district as County Boards of associations I think that's one of our responsibilities is to learn a little bit about all different districts and we learned something they learned something I think it was a great night overall and um I appreciate everybody that was able to make it out in person and virtually and it was a really great event looking forward to the next one thank you okay Mr delor yes thank you madam president I had the opportunity to attend the New Jersey school boards association meeting as a member of the board of directors last Friday evening uh I have quite a report here so let me get into it the uh State finances the independent audit for the last year reflects positively on the association's business and financial operations and was unanimously approved by the board of directors uh many many of us attended Workshop 2024 it was a resounding success they had more than 8,700 registrants 415 vendors on the exhibit floor and more than 250 training sessions feedback received from Member surveys has been overwhelmingly positive and Dr Pernell who's executive director for school boards has received emails directly from many members the survey indicated that 97% of the attendees would recommend Workshop to to new board members and more than 75% of attendees plan to return in 2025 The Unsung superheroes Awards program was in its second year this year 12 individuals who work tirelessly behind the scenes and are often overlooked but make a lasting impact on our schools and communities were celebrated The Star Ledger ran a nice article on the program and noted not all heroes wear capes some Heroes Dawn orange safety vests hair nets or practical cover like the Dozen School District staff honored late last month at the New Jersey school boards association's unsung superheroes and education Awards uh we have a new school boards association website uh since the last meeting of the board of directors njsba officially introduced its new website on October 1st some new features include more intuitive navigation and hand search functionality and a new topic section curated to include a range of school board board information resources on 21 topics from school budget and finance AI Career and Technical education and school facilities training and board resources on October 1st school board's legal and Labor Relations team held the full labor uh Summit the association continues to provide regular mandated training opportunities for members just to note that some of our members are now gaining status as uh members uh what's the topic Mike that you're now going to be Master member oh yeah yeah so some of our board members because of the professional development at the state level I think uh Patrick is also are attending Master Level so there's different levels of certification for board members also um they're also working on a board of board self- evaluation tool this is the first Revision in 15 years and I don't believe we've done it too often because we don't really didn't like the the way it was laid out and prepared for us uh two changes in the new version include having boards look closely at their board goals and assess whether they have achieved the goals and having boards assess the contributions that individual board members may have made to the whole team testing of the new self self- evaluation tool will take place in December with the roll out schedule for January we have a new D deputy director for the New Jersey school boards Association on October 1st they formly welcome Dr Nicholas d Diaz as the new deputy director Dr Diaz was previously the shared superintendent of Franklin Township School District and Union Township Schools in huntera County nominating Comm committee the election of the new officers is scheduled to take take place on May 10th at the delegate assembly a 13 member nominating committee will recommend one C candidate for each of the offices a president vice president for finance vice president for legislation and resolutions vice president for County activities pursuing to the bylaws the board of directors which we did this on Friday night appointed four members to serve on the nominating committee the members are and they did they broke us down into four different regions of the state so representing the Northwest is Diane Mars from mors County from the Northeast is Michael spring from Bergen County from Central is Victoria pakala from Ocean County and from the southern area is Marsha hman from Camden County the county Association leadership ass group will meet will also elect four representatives to the nominating committee when they meet this Saturday which is November 23rd and in January the njsba president will make four at large appointees and that makes up to 13 members and then she appoints the vice president as the chairperson of the nominating committee or the I'm sorry the immediate past president will chair the committee and the association's current president will also serve as a non- voting member so they're all prepping for election for the new officers for next year thank you for accepting me and having giving me the time to make that long report you're welcome Madame President yes I just have a quick comment in regards to school boards if I may I'll keep it brief but Lou it was great seeing you Friday night virtually I did attend that director's meeting it was quite informative until you end in the breakout sessions and that's when I kind of cut off for whatever reason but um I just want to comment on a few things uh that I learned I attended a few meetings this week virtually different School Board Association meetings and um a couple things that were discussed was the um absentee rate um soon um there'll be a 10% absentee rate which will require a state report from all the school districts in New Jersey that's coming um under the public law um 201823 schools are required to have a device corrective action plan for improving attendance rates at 10 10% or more of students are identified as chronically absent So the plan is rather elaborate But it includes uh feedback from parents caregivers enrolled students uh Etc this serves as a checkpoint to ensure targeted uh supports are provided to all groups uh of students affected by chronic absenteeism and it enhances parent engagement and strategies to improve attendance and the other thing that was mentioned and was kicked around a few of the meetings was the 16-year-old voting age um there is a a a proposal out there to allow 16 yearolds to vote in School Board elections and evidently it received a cool reception as I heard mentioned on one of the um meetings that I attended so I it's something we need to follow I think it's interesting what that was Mike is that the workshop they had a legislative panel for legislators from all around the state and when they presented this idea of 16y olds that panel of legislators were very cool and not receptive to the idea at all so we don't think it's going to move forward too rapidly too soon yeah I well um Mrs T Floyd had a good point what are you do to rep think we have to get you at another time to make think think about that yeah that's that's Food For Thought think about it maybe survey some people at the high school see what they think so this is something it's still um you know up in the open and it's something we're following I'm interested in it and we'll we'll see how it pans out but I just want to mention that and I'll I'll leave it there I appreciate the um the time to speak on these few items thank than you okay thank you all right now we're going to move to public comment do you okay I'll make it super quick so Mr Del Barker already brought it up but this Saturday uh him and I will represent Atlanta County for Atlanta County Association leadership meeting in Trenton from 8:30 to 11: a.m. uh this meeting will will have all County leadership will select four members from the county leadership County presidents and vice presidents to serve on the njsba nominating committee this committee will will select the Slate of residents to serve on the njsba uh state officers that Mr D Barker talked about and then we will also meet with um Dr Diaz the deputy executive director because we haven't met him yet from our standpoint um that's all I have anybody else okay we're moving on to public comment the board values and welcomes comments and opinions from the residents this meeting will now be open to the public uh if you have questions pertaining to litigation student or personal items please see the superintendent after the meeting as the board does not discuss these matters in public depending on the nature and complexity of your questions the board secretary may ask for your contact information so that someone can get back to you with a response as a reminder this is a public meeting and all comments should be made appropriate for a public setting and made in a respectful manner so if you wish to speak please come to the podium and state your name and address yes does anybody wish to speak nobody's moving so we're moving on we need a motion for a ger I make that motion all in favor I okay Happy Thanksgiving everyone yep thank you for spending the evening with us and