##VIDEO ID:mthVLZNqOd8## e e e e e e e e e e every ready adequate notice of this regularly scheduled meeting of the Frenchtown board of education has been provided in accordance with the open public meeting act by notification to the Hun County Democrat on October 24th 2024 a copy of this notice has also been posted at the public school at the municipal building and filed with the bough Clerk and we'll stand for the pledge of allegion 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 Blackburn Mr dery here Miss Howard here here miss Klein here miss nahara miss Pell Mrs here okay um at this time we have a moment for public comment if there's any public comment okay um then we'll move on to our presentation of the annual audit um Laura thank you for coming again of course of course thanks for having me I have Kelsey Oaks here with me to work hard on your audit each year um we're back for another year so every year we get to come into the business office um p a lot of the documents um go through a lot of the financials but we also check through all the internal controls make sure that we're in compliance with a bunch of State rules because everything is governed by the state and everything you can think of um so when we're done with the audit we compile that information and then uh we determine if we have any suggestions or recommendations proud to say for multiple years in a row that we have donea or the business office so that speaks highly of them uh Teresa is one of my clients that I actually do like bringing my interns to because they're great to learn from so um they get to see all different areas here uh even though noal handles the cafeteria now they still get to see that there's a cafeteria and all the different functions that it could have so interesting place to be and love you back uh so again this year we have the financial highlights that we're providing which includes a comparison of the current year versus the prior year along with 10 years ago on the right hand side we have some little Tippets um but I'll say pretty much all of them out loud and then we have graphs in order to kind of tie those numbers into the visual aspect give us a better pictures of what's going on with our revenues we had $3,130 th000 this was an increase of 14,000 since the prior year our tuition decrease from the prior year as a result of our um preschool expansion Grant though so all the money that the parents had that previously paid now was covered by the state uh we had miscellaneous revenues increase from the prior year for our interest rates hopefully that continues with the banks as long as possible we received about $35,000 in Grants 150,000 roughly was related to the co funds so next year year we do expect that number to significantly drop if there's any at all 168,000 was related to the preschool Grant on receipt from the state when compared to 10 years ago our biggest increases were obviously our tax levy and our grants received um in 1415 it was also the year that we had um Rod grants going on I think it was even the B room renovations if I recall correctly so you'll see those funds listed there also going to our first set of graphs for our revenues along the top you'll see there is a breakdown of the revenues um obviously in turn County and Warren County you'll notice the Green Piece is going to make up the biggest portion of the pie if we go other parts in the state we're going to have the blue portion um switched with that green portion the unique thing here this year is actually on your tax rate on the top right hand corner we had a reevaluation or a reassessment which kind of just shifted your tax rate around it doesn't necessarily mean that anybody is paying more or less than before um but it does align say like the market value along with um what's on the books a little better for the county and the local at the bottom uh you'll see the tax levy it's just steadily going up uh there's no large spikes which is a great sign our state sources again 10 years ago we had the raw Grant come in so you do see that one Spike otherwise uh it's pretty steud there also for federal sources the last few years we've had the co grants now they'll be coming to an end so next year I expect that red to significantly drop down our miscellaneous income with our interest and then we also have the work family connection um process going on too and then our tuition as expected with the tuition money coming from the state now our tuition has gone down in that category on the so explain just because I now it's the tuition component what goes into that is that so that would be if your parents um are sending students as the choice in students no it would be the parents that are sending uh student for Like Preschool okay and because the preschool is now free and for French time residents okay so we no longer have that Revenue coming in basically just move from one category to another though and would the choic in students be recognized in the state sources they would they would be part of that blue piece and last question for miscellaneous income to increase in 2024 that was related primarily to the um interest rates being a lot better this year and then we also have the work family connection um running their program you say that okay understood thank you you're welcome so for the expenditure side of things we've had approximately $3,710 a 190,000 increase over the prior year our largest increase in expenditures were student and instruction related services for about 76,000 um instruction had had also increased from the prior year Transportation expenses actually decreased from the prior year and expenditures have increased a total of 146,000 compared to 10 years ago which is pretty nominal uh student and instruction related services and employee benefits have been the biggest increase compared to 10 years ago for our next set of graphs uh for the expenditures this is one area that as Auditors we love to see patterns so we either want them to be really steady or we should be able to easily explain them and that happens a lot here so one of the F things that I notice is when I'm looking at the tuition so that dark blue piece and then when I'm also looking at the people Transportation one of the things I noted was the transportation had gone down this past year but you also noticed that your tuition went down a lot of times those kind of go hand inand so for sending a student um to another District now it's going to cost us more in different areas that we're not realizing the same can be true when you see um tuition versus student instruction related services or tuition versus special education if your tuition on going out goes up a lot a lot of times those other categories are going to go down a bit because no longer being inhouse um un served the one area that's pretty commendable compared to other districts is definitely our employee benefits so the last few years I have really stayed study um and it's definitely an area that's difficult to keep down especially when uh every year there's an increase especially when you're particip participating with the state um one year they had 28% increase and then the next they have 8% and never seems to go down it's always going up question um is um students who are placed out of district for special ed is that included in special P that would be um so the ones that are going out are going to be part of the tuition piece we're going we're going out we're going out and then the special education instruction will be the students that are actually in the building Serv here and when you think about kind of the the increase on student instruction related Services being at 88% decade over like over the decade is that mostly inflationary do you usually see these increases because of like an increase in the student population at the school sorry which category was that the biggest one the student instruction related services this is actually a pretty common theme across the school districts is for that particular Cate of the last 10 years has gone up across the boorder and being the most significant increase besides employee benefits a lot of that has to do with the different areas that the state started kind of putting um implications on so at one point they started telling us that we now had to have a librarian um at all times or uh we might have to have another type of specialist at all times um and in those cases we might not have had them on staff before because we're such a small District but now that we have to comply now we're either having to bring somebody in or we're doing a shared service in order to meet that compliance P so the 80% is like reasonable from what you've seen from other similar districts given these it's definitely the category that's SE the biggest jump over that time frame okay you mind if I also add that the reason that these that were I feel that were particularly seeing this is um special education costs so you'll see special education instruction in the category above right above that in the green but in this particular case it's more for like personal aid which wouldn't be in the instruction line it would be in a related student service and it's also other related services for special education students like occupational physical therapies speech related Services that's also in the student and instruction related interesting okay so even if they're specifically special ed related roles they are still not bucketed in the special ed right area got it now when everything is said and done and we're we've gotten our revenues in our expenditures are finally gone out we're Lefty with our fund balance which we had 616,000 set aside for Capital reserves 50,000 for emergency reserves 182,000 for maintenance Reserve also had incumbrances which were items that we had ordered but not yet received at the end of the year uh so we said assign money for those pieces which was 47,000 and then we had um designated assigned fund balance for subsequent year expenditures of 55,000 and the maximum allowable unrestricted fund balance of 286,000 with the reserves um focusing on the incumbrances you'll notice that this category goes up and down a lot from year to year really that's just based off of the um orders that we had open at the end of the year that um just haven't come in yet so we do expect that category to fluctuate quite a bit with the restricted this is our excess Surplus at the end of the year it gets then put into the subsequent year um so if we had any in say 23 24 it would then be part of our 25 26 budget our assigned category that one you'll notice there's only one little loan bar the entire time that was related to our stabilization Aid that we had in the prior years and then for our unrestricted there were a couple years that were um spiking around um Co times between 22 23 and 21 that was when the state had allowed us to increase from the 2% to the 4% and then we also had seen um increase money coming from the state relating to the extraordinary Aid so that would be why we see that kind of increase one of the biggest areas that the school districts like to ask us about is how we're doing and the easiest way to compare or to see how you're doing is really to look at that your reserved the state tells you how much you can put into each of these categories so ultimately our goal is to try and put as much into our reserves so we can kind of plan for the future we know the building is going to need repairs we know we're going to have to do projects we don't want to have to pay them all at once out of nowhere so this is where those reserves are going to be really imperative um you'll notice that we had hardly any years ago so over the last 10 years especially over the last five we've been abl really increase those reserves um the extra funding that had come through for Co did help with um little expenditures making onetime purchases and then allowing us for instead of having that part of our operating budget now we're able to put some of that money back into our reserve and start building those back up for our enrollment 10 years ago was 142 we had an enrollment of 16 this year this was a decrease of 25% in the last 10 years however over the last 5 years it's a 177% decrease you'll notice over the last four years though we've really started to kind of finally see some stabilization of those numbers and hopefully it continues that way our start trying to up where did you guys get 106 because we're operating on 98 um that's SL 24 would be FIS schal year last year I see and the 2015 that included prek numbers as well yes it did it would so I know we go over a lot of information uh if you come up with other questions that you have later down the line you're more than welcome to reach out know um information to us I'm happy to answer any additional questions you might have though see with the enrollment Trends in other counties and other we're seeing the enrollment uh pretty similar to here where the last few years it's much more stable um the percentage decrease um rather than being 28% which was what I was talking about a few years back is now kind of um a lot lower for other districts um we're still a little high at Frenchtown um in terms of the decrease but for the last four years you can definitely see it in the numbers that it it had gotten better um but it is across the board and Across the Nation um we do the bonding calls um and we've been doing quite a few of them happens to be a lot of districts have the same things happen at the same time so a lot of them going out for bonding a lot of them have the rod Brands happen at the same time so when we're on these bonding calls we actually get to learn a lot about Beyond just New Jersey and how impacts are really similar Beyond just using up is there anything in our budget that when you look at it you think to yourself oh they got to really pay attention to this aside from kind of the capital Investments oh it's funny that you asked that because the one graph that we added this year was with that in mind um there's one expenditure graph it breaks down it's just a pie chart all by its Lo and it actually breaks down the percentage and I was comparing it to my other school districts that we've completed so far just seeing uh what the average breakdown was and to see how comparable it was it's really fascinating to see like all the school districts will be at um like three or 4% for supplies and transportation is really low here because we have walking District so instead of 1% for here most districts are at 4% and then um turn you see other categories um kind of shift as a result of that category being smaller so while the sour is a little higher here um that's because of the other categories being a bit smaller or the purchase services are a bit higher here because we have shared services more so than other districts but for the most part everything is really comparable it's not like one category really stands out that seems like you should probably look into that okay um my goal next year is maybe even to compare over 10 years so forget a little nerdy please do we appreciate it and enjoy it and love you for it thank you any other questions for Lauren Kelsey well we appreciate you coming out we'll look forward to seeing you again next year enjoy your holidays everybody thank you you too really yeah abely good work I perfect okay so moving forward to the board secretary's report um our next meetings are December 17th and January 7th um oops um Teresa is there anything else you wanted to specifically mention in the report um just um I don't know if this is the the right time I guess I have a couple other things that I just wanted to add um so if you recall we um we were awarded a um a capital Project funding for a capital project called U Rod Grant um we have EX executed that Grant and um we have set dates with the architect to go out to bid for that project so um we'll have a pre- bid meeting on December 13th and open bids I think on January 14th um with the expectation that we'll award the contract at the January board meeting so that that'll be happening over the next month or so so we're um proceeding with that it's going to be done under that um that is the chiller replacement and we did have an inquiry about like the noise level in the summer when it's like running so um I did ask the architect to put um in the specifications for a blanket that's like a sound um barrier thing and um he's done that so we'll we'll be asking them to put a like a sound buckler on the equipment was the concern outside or inside outside the Sound Outside okay um so we'll move on to the minutes and we need a motion to approve the minutes of the October 15th regular session we come or questions on the regular session there was no executive session on October 15 okay all those in favor opposed or abstain okay uh 7.2 we need a motion to acknowledge receipt of the revised standard operating procedures and internal controls manual any comments or questions on that just want to um mention that this is you know pertains mostly to financials but also securing our assets and internal control to make sure that you know all of our financial activities are you know met with high integrity and segregation of Duties and how we track all of our um Financial um assets not just the the dollars but also our you know our stuff right our property our um equipment yeah um so this is a requirement for the qack so this was one of those items that has been reviewed and updated and um just wanted to be presented to the board uh that you know this document has been reviewed and updated and that you had an opportunity to review it and ask any questions if you had any and that's the version that will be submitted to the county office when they come to do their their review all those in favor opposed or abstain and moving to 8.1 needing a motion to affirm the Hib report from October 15 so mov all those in favor opposed or abstain and 8.2 um we'll need a motion to accept the 2425 qac DPR and authorized submission to the Department of Education I have a question okay we need a motion first okay yes so um initially I thought that was like the final qac report card to us and so now I'm glad to realize that it's a it's a self assessment but then as I was kind of starting to look through it realizing that it's a self assessment and kind of focusing on the area where we've said we have some improving to do which is around kind of curriculum adjustments um the the way in which we alert parents to to academic kind of concerns we seem to have rated ourselves at 100% there and I wonder if that may be a little generous knowing that we have a little bit of work to do and if we're kind of sending L saying you know we feel like we're acing these areas is that something that we as a board agree with or do we think there is a little bit of I know we should reconsider essentially the scores sending in is there an indicator or or a certain number of indicators in particular that you're yeah so for example we can start and uh I know that the testing ones they sort of do for us so it's more in the like program one so even the first one is like the CSA reports participation performance and results um within 60 days which absolutely happens here um the reports include aggregated and disaggregated data as well as Trend and comparative analyses and appropriate intervention strategies I think we're we're in the instruction and program section is that it's in our submitted it's the indicator 8 under program instru you're instruct program and we gave ourselves a six out of six there yeah it's a little tricky with the movement what pages it on this is I have to like do like turn everything around to be to see it so this is Page this is Page four bottom so right underneath the 60 are the kind of self-scoring ones page four indicator [Music] 8 I think my perception is we probably do most of this but I don't know that we've dug into Trend data I don't know that like the intervention strategies were strongly discussed and we've all kind of agreed that let you guys read it I'm still is the chief School administrator reports participation and performance results yes of the annual Statewide assessments yes is that what we're talking about yes there's that one I mean we can go through them individually if you guys haven't already and sort of my question is on all of them we have given ourselves the maximum Point allowable and I find it to be a little contradictory because we've said that our curriculum does need some improvement that our Communications could use some improvement and that even the way we report the data could use some improvement and so I don't know if it's like a standard thing that you just say like six out of six on everything and we just send it in or if this has ever been a discussion around so I think if I may I I think think the goal of number eight is there are certain requirements within the state reporting that are required and as far as the state would be concerned what we include in that report that um that Jim presents to the board the report itself meets all of the state requirements like how it needs to be reported so when the county is going to come in and look at this they're going to say they're going to review the the the presentation that's given to the board and they're going to say yes it needs all of the requirements if the board itself wants to expand upon what data is being shared with itself and the community and would like Jim to do an an extended version of that that's a goal that the board has it's not a goal that the state is putting upon us if does that make sense that makes sense yeah so which is perfectly okay for the board to say we want a little bit more we want to dig a little bit deeper but I think for the reporting purposes here we're saying that we've met what the state requirements are in in reporting to the board and the public understood okay then I might just have a maybe Teresa you know this and maybe it's a better question for for JY is around some of the curriculum bits yeah the curriculum is probably not something I can in our things are like we have like adequate a pacing guide a list of like supplemental and instructional materials and this was again I don't mean to sound like a broken record but this need of like we haven't really as a board gone through the curriculum during our kind of approval stage and one of the the outputs of the the presentation Jim gave was uh that we're going to kind of adjust the curriculum itself and adjust the pacing of the curriculum and how much time we spend on certain things so like but we as a board haven't seen that revised curriculum or the current curriculum for that matter over the last year so do we then say like well we have a curriculum so it's four out of four or do we want it to be the curriculum that we feel will kind of Meet the standards that the state has set given the fact that we're schooled that's currently not meeting those stand you you know what I'm so I think the same is kind of true in what Tessa said about the um the presentation the what we're evaluating ourself on here is whether we've met the mandates that the state has set forth um so when qac comes in in are we're scheduled for the end of January right so what they'll go to this and they'll say to Jim like okay we need to see your pacing guide or we need to see and they kind of honestly when I've I it doesn't seem like there's really necessarily A Rhyme or Reason what they ask for like sometimes they'll ask for like some random thing and then you know leave aund things unchecked which I guess is their intention that you don't know what they're going to ask for so I think when the the uh committee is answering these questions and doing the self- evaluation they're just making sure that all the criteria that is required for TAC is met um not necessarily that they've you know met our standards or done things that we've asked for as much as like they've done what the state is asking what's required so in other words my understanding is that this looks at compliance with required reporting it doesn't look at the quality or contents of what or sub of what it is then why does it give us a like a scale of points right like a four versus a one right if it's just a check we're doing this check because we might only have pacing for K3 four and we have we don't have a patient guide for the the weighted numbers and I think based on each item that's in there it has to it has to equal 100% in the end so based on how they think this item compares to the like all of the curriculum items are a four because they're equal in each subject area right um so they score it based on like if if I take a look at the fiscal section the things that they think are a little bit more important than some of the other things they're going to weight them a little bit higher yeah so like on here you can see that they're even so that this section that we're scoring on has to equal 40% and then the other 60% will come from the actual the test scores so what happens if for example like do we have pacing gods for all like and I'm genuinely asking because I have asked that of Jim to like share the curriculum and the pacing guides and I in a year is this something we have we I would assume we do have p and guides I I don't think that they would answer the committee would answer differently if we didn't have pace and guide um I assume they're part of our curriculum uh software so the implementation timeline is in the document but whether that actually get implemented I think it's a different thing yeah I think that it does but we're represented to the state it's being represented to the state there's the document with with the implementation is that something that can be shared with the board I feel like over the past year I've asked for the curriculum along with the PAC numerous times especially after we voted on last year and I personally say because I was like I'd like to see it to better understand it because it feels weird and I feel like I'm yet in another position where it feels weird to vote on something to say yes we have all this stuff but I've like literally never been able to see it and maybe that's just like a personal hesitation and I can abstain but I it's it's like a weird like it's like trust that's in the system but like where is it especially because often times we talk about we have to make changes to this really significant thing the curriculum we have to make changes to the pacing we a board control the curriculum so it's just no we don't control the curriculum we approved the curriculum sorry absolutely did this where my ESL sometimes uh catches me but it's hard to approve something you've never seen yeah um yeah we certainly can ask to have um like Del Val just had with their board their like deep dive into the curriculum where they went through each grade what the curriculum for each subject is for each grade where the board was allowed to kind of ask questions about the pacing and the specific standards and even how different sending District kids are kind of like because they're looking at the seventh graders scores try to figure out how to adjust their even like teaching setup for the ninth graders coming in next year given what the profile of the students coming in is and so I don't expect us to do it at that level of course there are much bigger school with much bigger resources but this notion of reviewing the curriculum seems like it would be helpful especially in moments where we're asked to like say yes we've got it and score ourselves and like I don't okay yeah we can um we can definitely work on that I I mean I'd like to see it as well I agree so if this if the state comes in in um January and they do their assessment they can change the score if they don't agree with our score they will they will change the score but they're not necessarily like super thorough like I want us to feel good about I want to I want to say that the the notion that we that we got from our countywide meeting from all the districts that were going to participate in the qac process this year there was a much different tone than we've had in like the last round or so and I think the last round was you know know still we weren't even sure if we were going to do it that year and then it was quick hurry up and do it it was like after January we got notified and was like quick hurry up and I think they just kind of went through the motions we got a different message this time um that it it sounded like they're definitely doing a deeper dive how quickly after they kind of come into the school do we hear that we won't get an official word until after the scores because they're going to wait until everything is available before they send the final letter um it usually doesn't come it barely comes before the end of the school year typically but we'll get a sense um we'll get a sense during their visit you know where how we think you know we perform I mean it used to be they were in here for a really long time and I feel like the last couple of times everybody said they're kind of in and out not checking a lot um a lot of it is what can can be done in some of the areas they're mostly here for um definitely personnel and um the instruction and program a lot of the other areas can be done remotely um they check minutes online they do that before they come the things that are supposed to be approved and it yes a lot of the things that they ask us to like the audit and um those things are submitted to them so they have copies of it they know that it's fun that it's completed so um the things that they can do remotely they're doing remotely yeah okay any further comments or questions about um the qac DPR okay all those in favor oppos tostain and we'll move on to the president's report um I have something for execu I have two things for executive session um but I also wanted to mention that um Julie and Jim and Teressa and I also attended attended the um schol boards convention um and we've put together Julie and Jim and I concentrated mostly on like student achievement and attendance and things like that most of the sessions that we attended were in that realm we tried to kind of split up a a little bit so that we could go to a lot of sessions I um I hadn't been for um since before covid dly had never been I don't think Jim had ever been not since he's been here um and we all felt it was really worthwhile and and a good conference I I don't know if it was better than it used to be it it just felt like kind of postco everything was kind of back back yeah um so so it was really good um so Julie and Jim and I have put together a document and we're working on just summarizing each of the sessions that we went to and um we'll share that with the board um we'll probably email it to the board before the December meeting but then it'll be in public um in on the agenda for the December meeting and if there may be links and things that people can look at and um also if you have further questions that we may or may not be able to answer based on what we remember but um but definitely worthwhile um okay so we'll move forward with the we don't have policy tonight so we'll move forward with the consent agenda um and we'll need a motion to approve items 11.1 1 through 11.9 okay comments or questions about the consent agenda really excited to see the music instruction shared services yeah host it's great that's our music instructor yeah going to Cal she is in Calon I think twice a week okay I think not sure exactly what the her she's most she's our um employee yeah it's 50 it's a 5050 it's 5050 so is she there two and a half okay is it possible for us as a board to either see the student council kind of agendas and what the kids care about like I'm genuinely interested or or to join them one day you know like instead of inviting them here I'm sure a lot of them is like past their bedtime after certain point um but you like I think it's wonderful that we have a student council organization such a small school um yeah I'm not sure I love somehow as a board for us to figure out a way to connect the student body and that seems like such a a nerdy conduit what we're doing I know we're going to be asking a couple of student council reps to um participate in our strategic planning great as we should y um I think I'm really well I shouldn't say anything because my my recollection of student council was several years ago but they used to meet like at lunchtime during school do you know if they still do that um I think they're early in the morning oh early morning tomorrow afternoon after school oh so and who's the um no Mrs um Miss no is it yes it's Miss oh okay all right I could mon you can share something with I don't know what their goals are there's something we can help enable show up do her civic duty this however the what's on the agenda tonight is for I suspect the DAT okay any other comments or questions then I'll need a roll call for the consent agenda Miss Howard M sorry Miss nahara yes Miss pello yes Mrs yeah okay before we move into public comment is there anything else from the board I have one question in addition the question is um how are we tracking with having a conversation with the choice out families and then my addition is I think we should also speak to the families who choice in um we're discussing that in the executive session was that executive session I didn't realize that was a private since it's multiple families not a single individual or um well because we're specifically um sharing names or having an in executive session okay the addition then my my recommendation for the board without any names is the suggestion that I think it's great that we're investigating why folks choose other districts I think after our conversation with mariin I think one thing that was kind of identified is helping us try to figure out like what makes us distinctive and unique as a district that would draw people in and we're clearly drawing nine families in right now and it seems like it would be beneficial to us to speak to these families and figure out is there kind of like connective ideas that bring them together that bring them into our district that makes the school really appealing over wherever they are currently yeah um I think identifying those things and also like families we currently have in school try to get a better vision of like what makes us really special and different from the Alternatives people have would be a really kind of important part of the planning process and for us know especially as we strive to like Market the school a bit bit more and get more positive out into the community I think that's a good idea and firm up the dates for planning now completely strategic planning those are the January 14th February 18th and April 1st um and Rachel wanted to Rachel shared something via email for strategic planning yeah really late in the game huge apologies because you really need to get an email two hours before the meeting very very helpful so I really apologize but um I we I I became aware of the timeline and um feel a little bit like oh my gosh this is really upon us so um I have a meeting scheduled with k in gy later this week and the hope is that at after that meeting we really have our Outreach plan firmed up and we're ready to rock and roll because we need to start reaching out um really soon I think we had hoped to do it before Thanksgiving but clearly we start it around the very beginning of December right when yeah when kids when people come back to school right so I mean if you want I mean I can but I want I want some input and um if you find your email in there I link to a docum which is really informal notes that I'm going to read from but um I looked over the the Outreach documents from 2017 and 2017 was kind of a different world and they're they're a little bit formal and they're written letters and they're very very they felt to me a little not really warm warm welcoming and inviting and so in thinking about doing our Outreach I'm just going to um I'm going to say things but these are really questions okay my feeling is that the people we most want to have at the table are parents School staff prospective families you know families of young kids who are considering coming here so it's sort of families future present and recent past which includes opting out people and opting in people right um our faculty here and staff here leadership those I think are the the mo I think there are other important people I think those are the most important people and then in addition um sort of Community Partners who we want to both build relationships with for our future and who we have strong relationships with now so for example somebody from artard because I really feel like one of the potential um things that can make our school special is having a strong Arts and Music and theater program and there may be that's a community resource we should at least bring in the Bookshop yokal loo which is already a partner there's there's or there's businesses Church the local churches there's businesses and not profits in the community that really do have a very organic connection to us and what we're we're doing and then like my third category or the thir a third category is the folks we kind of have to in well the police the burough counsel um the the sort of official folks we need to invite and um it would be great great to have some representation from um from delal from Holland because we're doing right we're doing the conversation with them um and I guess my qu my question is who else should we make sure we're inviting so that's sort of the first question who really do we W to we're going to do a broad Outreach but we want to also reach out in in my experience in the work that I've done people respond to a personal invitation and we need to do an official Board of Education invitation and we should do that but the reason that people will come is because somebody it personally invites them so I would you know both ask you to think about who personally you have a connection with and want to invite and also who you think we ought to make sure we don't forget to personally inite and then we'll kind of have to um reach out to everybody and make sure that you so that so that the flow that I was thinking of was to do an official save the date email soon like December 2nd like right you know and then and then have us follow up with more personal you know dear Jill dear Bob dear dear you guys you know please please come um um and then um and then I just had some questions about how the mechanics of how um folks would let us know they're interested in get more information because there's a lot to say and a lot of information participants might want but I don't want to be thrilling that you know there's all that agenda B down stuff and some sort of General email I want just to do an invitation and then those who are going to participate to get more more information about the process and and all of that so we went to a um one of the workshops we went to was about strategic planning and they had a really cute idea where they had some of the kids from the school do like a little video and then they also had like QR codes like embedded into like the some of the things so that you could get more information like immediately like off of the imagery and stuff like that seemed like it was a pretty good idea at least like Sav On Their calendar so it's on more information having on the front page of the website you know a a designated spot for information on um strategic planning do we have a start date I haven't advertised because I wasn't giving us given a start time yet a start time yes oh I think we it's at 7 o'clock what do you all think s is that too late I mean if we're expecting a lot of young families to come that's like you say there was going to be like a an activity for the kids to do while we're going to try and we're going to try we're going to try to have something but that of course isn't going to be for very little kids right it's like school age kidso kids if your your kids are under eight seven starts to be a little bit of a we' got two parents here we can ask three four is this going to be a a virtual event as well well that's a good question I I have I have an opinion but I'd love to hear yours well I'm just thinking of the families that you know would if you're trying to make this accessible for young families so the when we spoke to the woman at New Jersey school board she pointed out that because it's like um we split into groups and have multiple at different tables the watching it virtually is going to be it be hard to to a virtual group virtu be hard to that it would be hard to see what's going on kind of thing um we can talk to her more though and see what like other districts have done they've or maybe one of the meetings is the virtual virtual virtu table um I mean or like some of the meeting or something like that I it's three meetings and I have concerns about people who like skip the first meeting and then come to the second meeting without having the basis of the information shared in the first meeting so even though we can't probably shouldn't require people it's not realistic to come to three meetings the quality of the participation and the quality of the outcome I think would be very much affected by people who kind of dro it because it it really does require sort of a you know it builds on itself so the expectation is that people would come to all blue meeting I think the hope of the hope is that people will come to all three meetings but it is not the requirement but we want to set it up so that people are strongly encouraged to come to all because otherwise you're working without the same information out right what I think I went to the one last the you know 2017 I there a lot of people at the first one and then there was less as the meetings went along that's my memory of it is that incorrect I don't I don't remember I mean we had a lot of people at all three meetings there were like 30 to 40 people I think but you I bet you're right I bet like that first one was more like closer to 50 and went down to closer to 30 over the course of the people were curious so I think that if we can plan on having more people there the first one you know we should strategize on how to keep them coming back right I will say a lot we had a lot of ideas throw you know that Workshop a lot of ideas so I can share some my because we like we would like to put together yeah I completely agree with Rachel though I will say that um you know out of the 50 people in that room I think I had made a personal phone call to 45 of them I was thinking to like theun across the street huge difference yeah yeah what did you say the community across the street what might be a good area to tap into I think that they have at least some sort of board but maybe they have some sort of meetings I don't know I know I know a couple people that just moved in there so I could ask or even if they have a bulletin board yeah they know they have a bulletin board um that's the thing that I I'm concerned about is getting the word out to the general public like people who aren't getting the emails from the school orb send mail to the community it's expensive it's pretty expensive and what's our goal like what what is most important to us I think also I think you can do a [Music] um I mean like a I know a Facebook post but face I mean you want do you do this by special invite only not at all at all it's a public absolutely public but is there a contingent that you focus on I was saying at the beginning was those three groups the the par faculty the um right sort of community stakeholders and then the electives in the off um and then everybody else is welcome I mean I'm like I'm I'm 67 so I've got 68 actually so I've got a crew of old ladies who who who who who are very smart and very invested in the community and um you know who are not I'll volunteer if we make a flyer to go door knock in the hilltop we like to call ourselves uptowners but we area um so Kingwood that the juice is worth the squeeze with with with doing that given the timing but that's a question not a statement yeah I mean I'm happy to do it I mean I'd rather Focus the I'd rather make a a broad and go Broad and sh and then deep among the the people that we care the most about well and the people who we think are going to come yeah you know like I want to focus our attention on the people who are you want to put something on like the Hun County Democrats going fully online now yeah I don't even know what's going on with the companies yeah not printing yeah it used to be nice when we have a little Creer in town and we could put it in there and people read it maybe Flyers that say something so you know some leading questions or or not leading but like some I mean I bet you the majority of people don't even know what a strategic planning meeting is so things that maybe would draw people in those different groups like you know are you interested you know I can't think of anything on the top of my head right now but like some kind of help shape the future of our school yeah or did you know that the school has this or did you you know what I mean just like little tidbits about the school that might pull people in a little bit and like get people interested and and even have a better understanding of what it even is a strategic planning me so um even though the most important thing that they said at the strategic planning workshop was don't be leading with any of the things that you're saying don't try to we should not be trying to tell people what is happening we should be letting them tell us what is you know what they want to see happen that that is really the most important thing that you can do they said it over so then I think that's what our flyer essentially says is you know inut inut in the future in the school but you know just intrinsic to the it could be like you have a three year-old thinking about going to school like what would you like to see the French toown school be you know this is your opportunity you know we could like you HDE all these different groups that you mentioned maybe you know a different little flyer for each one or something like that with a question that would I don't know that we have the resources to do that in the time I'm being a cold coldhearted you know like different you guys making five flyers in a day right literally there's all right I I'm volunteering to do it you guys can make as many edits as you want and then I think the distribution of it is like if each one of us was willing to kind of like you know door knock on 30 doors there's 600 homes total in French Town each one of us tried to do 1520 we can get at least a bit of not all of those people are going to be interested right like our goal is to get 40 50 of the most interested aged can't stand knock on my door but maybe I'm like I don't know is that invasive I don't know it's a little bit th knocking personally you what I'm not great with th knocking personally I just don't like when people knock ons intrusive and we we things in people's mailbox but we could pay the postage price and just mail it which would be around 200 bucks if feel like I'm doing the math in my head for like what postcard cost is for 600 hous and then put a QR code on the posted on the postcard and have it all the information on the website interesting spread tomorrow what are you gonna ask them how what they do for a mailing I I did this years ago I don't know if it's the same now what they do for a mailing for everybody in town okay where are you thinking are you doing this in the school yeah we did in the cafeteria caer that would just and do you have a you said there were 50 40 30 people last time do you have a idea of what You' like I I don't think we have a numerical goal I think we really more have a just wanting a really good solid representation among the these people who care can we entice them with like I can make like cookies or you is or something we could say like Refreshments available we did I think I baked for everyone are you are you going to beting wanting to record kind of what we get from the community in terms of demographics where people are from are we going to collect data about the participants yeah that's a really good question that seems to me that's a great idea hey is that do we do that what do we do I forget how they did it I know they took attendance at like a signin sheet and I don't remember if the signin sheet had like you know who are you are you a parent or you know resident or a student or uh you know Council M we could certainly do that yeah and then you know people if people don't want to fill it in that's fine too right but but yeah it might be nice to have kind of just a c like which category do you fall into yeah I mean it's such a small town that like right you know when I looked at those side and sheets I was like oh you know like there wasn't one person on there that I didn't know you know um and so many people fill up different categories anyway business owners parents so like to do um over the next couple weeks call each individually just to have a quick conversation about who is on your relationship list of people who you can personally reach out to so that we can divide andure so we're not yeah we're not there one person isn't getting back phone call right or if there's somebody we really want to have and there's someone who has a relationship with them that would be really good to have them call okay so we should divide and conquer based on the people that we individually know exactly so I will um I'll next week reach out to people individually or send me an email if you've got like if you have a list of people really think should be and you know yes it's open to everybody but if there are some people who you think should get would it makes sense so it's like we we'll have kind of like a multiplatform promotion for this right we know we have to hit the digital channels but like Facebook there's a contingent there we email the school kind of the parents of the school we'll do personal Outreach and then we'll try to do something that's a bit less personal whether it's a flyer or whatever Brad suggests um do you have like a chunk of copy for these personal invitations that we should all consistently we will have a templ okay great that's exactly what I'm showed me that we were talking about at that that workshop and it was like the motto for the I can't remember the right word for what it was and it was like oh our mission statement our mission statement yeah which I thought was actually lovely and like maybe that could be something that could be included in like do you agree or disagree with this or how could we expand on this or you know what I mean this is what our school is about like what do you think about that or something like that yeah because it was kind of a nice one yeah just as a copy like what you said just to have something to kind of hold on to yeah I think we're going to keep it really simple and really like simple straightforward you know we're planning for the future of the school which is such an intensive part of our community and you you know your voice is so important and please can you come and join us and I think we're going to and then and then they'll be more as as people come on I keep it if you guys had a really good turnout last time maybe just replicating the time of V that you did it at last time because you have person that she knew to come show up time so it was 7.m then it was s yeah amazing all right so I'm going to be in touch with everybody when was that cuz I'm behind options to everyone and if you guys hate them don't use them and you like pull people you know call the secret Mom okay okay great visual not on gbt yet I'm sorry long down of my agenda um I think though um we were ready to move into public comments so is there any public comment this evening yes Mr Cher well how youall doing great sorry I was late coming to the meeting we were out rat shopping oh how to go in Langhorn Pennsylvania um we we got a little rat a my 20-year-old says that we're doing it a disservice because we didn't get two little rats well you're in French town so it would't take long for you to get another one thank you it is strange have neighbors I won't say who but getting rid of rats and we're importing a rat like what things went wrong um but yeah I mean they they can't definitively sex these little rats so we didn't want to get a male and a female oh yeah and end up with more rats so for now it's one and then we'll like cross that very C it's fluid man yeah fluid R um hey so I did start to prepare um a comment and all it's not eloquent but I'm going to stumble my way through it um because I I attended a couple of meetings and first of all I just want to say I really appreciate what all of you're doing you know um it's impressive it's uh it's not like glorious work a lot of times you know you're you're doing it so thank you um and uh so so I came to a couple of meetings and it got my gear spinning because I started looking at experience that my kids are having in the school while also getting to be here and kind of see it from from up above and and to take those two different visions and kind of meld them together and see where they met or where they where they didn't um you know my my daughters have had some struggles in school especially my 12-year-old my Zoe and at times we've we've been stressed out by the struggles and not really sure what to do about it and we've considered taking her out of the school or homeschooling her and I'm glad that we didn't um she's really come a long way and she likes it here and she's happy here and she's doing well and we just we just really like School cute Feels Like Home it like family and which were really lucky that that we had it um so some kind of ref um in the last or maybe the second to last um Schoolboard meeting uh Board of ADV me so standardized testing that they administer in New Jersey was know hot top kind of Central and I think I think those kind of things can cut both ways you know I can look at it from from both angles I can see where you don't want to overe extrapolate and you don't want to use not a blunt instrument but like a an instrument for like the masses in a school that's on such a small scale it can it's not finally tuned you know and it can maybe not do such a great job or not be super accurate or the right the right way to measure all success um um okay this marking period um clarette's in fifth grade so it's the first time that they get grade grades and so she's been eager and also nervous about getting real grades because she's seen Zoe um be on the honoral every single Market period that's some you know little sister stuff like competitive and so um so she really she really dug in and it was really important to her like she wanted to see what was going on she wanted feedback she wanted to see grades and um she did great they both made honorable and it's very exciting they love the breakfast which is really cool um so by that metric they're they're both doing outstanding um last year they both they both took that standardized test right even though CLA is in fifth grade now it's administered to the younger grades mhm starting in fourth okay third third third um neither one of them um were at where they're expected to be so you know call it what you will like a c you know they were they're both approaching where they should be and so I thought about that you know like dichotomy like why they're doing so so well in school getting good grades um but I didn't overly worry about it you know I'm not overly worried about it they're doing well they're trying they're getting feedback I'm involved this is involved just you know the school is is responsive when we reach out we've got issues so um so I was getting ready for parent teacher conferences me and Liz were getting ready and I'm scrolling through Power School it's like maybe a week away from parent teacher conferen maybe a day away and I noticed something that was really striking um Zoe got a had had a 90 something like a 91 in that at that moment and so I was like you know like let's make sure you know got like two things left like let's you know knock it out of the park whatever stuff that but you know just to make sure you don't go further down because and as I'm looking through the grades uh all the homeworks and all the classworks she had perfect scores on A+ and every quiz and every test she didn't have an A+ she had a c she had a b she had a c she had an F she had a c minus so I added up and I to the average and I'm like huh just quizzes and tests she's got a 72 point something but her overall grade at this point when I'm doing those numbers is up to a 94 so she's got a solid a she's solidly on the honorable but if we if I just look at the quizzes and test paired to Midland you know just not not not good but according to my standards like I really wanted to you know not just for the grades but like I wanted to like really learn like you know 88 to 94% of the material or better but like that would be that's solid you know not 72 and then it just goes to figure that when she gets a standardized test put in front of her assuming that that test kind of matches up with our curriculum or our curriculum was kind of crafted toward the material on a test whatever way you slice it if she's getting C on our test probably going to get a c on that test and she's getting an A or B um so so that's interesting to me and something that I think deserves some attention now you know is is every teacher in the school doing it the same way I don't actually know I don't think so but I don't actually know because in the parent teacher conference I found out that um her homework's not even getting looked at her classwork I don't think it's GNA it's it's just getting stamped like done like effort good job A+ and I like a BLS I do enjoy them you know they're like pieces of cookie um but it's making it really challenging for me to know what Zoe struggling with what she's learned what she hasn't and it's making it tough for Zoe to know too so kind of came in like hot when I went to that parent teaching conference I was like BR you know I'm Flying Blind and so Zoe like I you're not warning me you're not emailing me you're not calling me I'm getting a plus a plus a plus then she walks into a test and gets an F or D like and I don't know I mean it's a work in progress It's only been like two weeks since the conference but she's already changed the way the way that she grades homeworks so now Zoe has a couple of FS on homeworks too which doesn't feel like the the trajectory that I was aiming for when I came in and sat down and shared my feel but we'll get there you know I've got I got time on my side I got Jim and I got endless emails I could send every day I suppose but you know I'll figure it out for my kid but it would be it makes me think that there's probably a couple of different things going on in various classes with various teachers that could be improved upon and so in that spirit I hope that that's what we all pull together in and do just not worry so much about defending what is going on and worrying that you know we have to protect something that is perfect but instead just get comfortable with opening it up and looking to improve it I'm really left my speech here let me see if there's anything I should be saying I think that's that enough um thanks for listening thank you thank you so much thank bab certain name addal public comment um no big comments I'm H Brady I have a child in preschool class Julian Walker um just want to affirm yeah like direct invites are really helpful for things like this because I'm here because I got a text from beta group text but like yes I see now and then that there might be a meeting happening somewhere but um but because of your text I thought like okay I should you know put this on my calendar and come see um and also just to that end I'd be very interested in participating in strategic planning in that process um yeah and if there's H you're going to create these fires but not just what it is but you know what I have a sense of strategic planning um but it would be interesting to have a sense like what the shape of it is what the goals you know I mean for the school but just you know a few key points any of us s like oh that sounds interesting thank you what you're looking for um oh I actually have one question we did have a question um I'm assuming that because it's a public school the process has to be open to the public and that's why you're thinking about the broadest possible group of stakeholders and engagement um do you have an actual like gold number of people you'd actually want to be like in the room every session like where you can actually still have a meaningful like so the it's run by um our New Jersey school boards field bre and what um the process is in the first meeting it's um like a a presentation kind of like a state of the school presentation um and then um she kind of will divide us into groups or we'll divide into groups so however many tables we have in the cafeteria if all of those tables could be filled and we have that many groups fantastic um and then kind of each group discusses you know we try to make the groups a little heterogeneous so it's not you know like seven board members sitting at a table it's you know a mix of people um and then we talk about strengths and weaknesses and then you know come back at the second meeting and kind of go forward with those strengths and weaknesses to start to create goals um so we don't have a number in mind I mean if we got 50 people again I would be thrilled um but if we got three people 30 people who really cared yeah that's great and who came and who gave thoughtful participation and feedback that would be fine too yeah so it's it's you know from that's my own yeah yeah it's just not about the numbers it's really about understood yeah yeah I think we were trying to figure out you know sort of not why because of course you want as many people as possible to be engaged but why we're thinking about like every person in Fr Town knowing and contributing and how realistic that is you're doing a planning process and then yeah you're going to be disappointed if you get a big group in session one and then two three dwindles down so quickly so just find that balance people we also relying on folks like you and like Dave who are who are becoming engaged in the just general you know School machinations to also start outreaching to your own connections who may not be present or have the time or you know resources always always attend yeah to do Outreach to St we are I I think too the wide Outreach is because um for me it was so nice last time to have so many people with different perspectives we really did last time have a wide range of people but we had several people in the room who were residents with no children um we had people in the room who were residents who sent their kids to private school we had you know so it was like this really great mix you know a lot of people whose children were not in the school yet but were toddlers on their way into um so I feel like all of those perspectives really made a huge impact um and it it was like a great energy in the room the time at that time so I'm just hope I'm hoping we can duplicate some of that energy whether it's I agree whether it's with 25 people or with 75 people as long as that energy is there and people are into it I think that would be great and I think I have one other piece just in terms of the outcomes of the process the outcomes are going to be broad broad goals en vision and then it's really going to be up to the board and Jim and the school to come up with an implementation plan and schedule and to kind of get those into more measurable objectives and that kind of thing so what we're asking the community for is going to be fairly Broad and getting a real sense of what are the biggest priorities and what do we value most and what you know what are the critical things so that's yeah thank you um well I thank you for coming but we are moving into executive session um and no action will be taken afterwards we'll probably just come back and adjourn so um although you're welcome to stay and come back in to watch us adjourn um nothing nothing else is going to be voted on or anything thanks thanks so much for being here okay we need a motion to move into executive [Music] session 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 heard from that in recent weeks it's it's just kind of going very slow Gathering the data okay so between Frenchtown and Holland trying to gather the data with all the other things that are happening in in our school lives it's which just been slow Gathering data so it's just but it's it's still continous yes good yes did we receive any choice in applications because I know the deadline is next week right for like the intent letters and when do we find out if our families sent the intent letters other schools we don't we don't know that until the following year yeah okay okay um okay do we have a motion to ajour so mov all those in favor I oppose stain you