##VIDEO ID:PL_OxWGjtHc## e good evening and welcome to the Gallow Township Board of Education meeting today is October 24th I'm sorry October 14th 2024 and today is a regular meeting can I have a roll call please Mrs Chester here Dr permenter here miss Laura here Mrs Avery here Mr Dace here Mr Gentile here Mrs herel here Dr Basher Blau here and Mrs Carman here can we all I'm sorry in accordance with public law 231 both adequate and electronic notice of this meeting was provided to the press the gley Township Municipal Building and the district website on January 13th 2024 can we rise for a flag salute led by Mrs Herman now please states of to the stands na indivisible thank you at this time we'd like to make take a moment to recognize one of our staff members Mrs Jessica sen was a longtime employee who passed away on September 24th since March 2011 Jessica has served as an occupational therapist in our district before joining us she spent nearly a decade working as an occupational therapist in private sector institutions in both New Jersey and Pennsylvania through her work in both the private and public sector she has touched the lives of countless children and adults her work helped those she has served achieved their goals and overcome a variety of challenges to say that she was a respected member of our District's child study team is an understatement please keep her memory close to your heart and take comfort in the knowledge that her life's work has positively impacted so many of those that she had the opportunity to work with and alongside can we please have a moment of silence thank you on the agenda this evening we do have minutes from September 9th the regular meeting and minutes from September 16th the board Institute can I have a motion to approve items 2.1 and 2.2 please so move can have a second second all approved yes any exensions abstain from the September 16th board retreat meeting thank you any other abstentions which ones both and I'd like to abstain to September 9th regular meeting please presentations student coun you want to do it let me do you want to sure this evening we have a student council representative this evening Mrs Isa Miss Isa my apologies and you have a report for us this evening go ahead hello my name is Emma Isa the 2024 2025 recently elective student council president of the gawi Tanta middle school and the student representative for the Board of Education meetings forward I'm proud to share a recent accomplishments to begin the student council has participated in two significant events and has successfully organized the high engagement Spirit Week educating the community of breast cancer to kickoff the year first on September 9th the student council vice president and I attended Galloway's 911 memorial where vice president Emma Wier delivered a heartfelt poem that was greatly appreciated by the community together we also presented the wreath on behalf of the gcms to honor those affected by the tragedy on September 14th em and I participated in Galloway salute to Veterans moral ceremony at the Galloway Memorial Park I had the honor of reading a poem that resonated with the audience and once again you presented the read to pay tribute to our veterans additionally we organize a highly successful Spirit Week in honor of breast cancer awareness we do plan to have an awareness campaign every month for physical mental and personal differences that would genuinely be recognized in a school setting this year the student council believes that engagement is very important and that students should be able to learn and have fun and have sense of community as well as Spirit at the same time we will no longer just be dressing up unaware but dressing up proud in support of our community throughout the week gtms Community positively engaged while the gtms student council offered Enlightenment by sharing important facts about breast cancer and offering prevention tips we also had fun and unique spirit days like team up against bre a team up against breast cancer where students wear sports in team jerseys fighting breast cancer to the decades a decades inspired prompt and a pink out day appreciation of the pink ribbon that often symbolizes breast cancer to name a few our efforts effectively educated students and sta staff about the impacts of breast cancer making this event a meaningful step first step and where we hope to be many more Spirit weeks to come we hope this year is the best so far and we appreciate all your support thank you thank you so I have a question for you if you if you may or may not know we're going through an election for the Board of Education right now so I'm just my question for you is how did you decide to to run for Student Council and how did the election go um so I decided to run for Student Council because it's been my dream for a really long time and and um I just always just like being the leader and getting to like have everyone teach me and help everyone else and the election played out really nicely and there was just a lot of people who liked my speech and what I talked about and I hope to keep true to those promises that I made to them um and it was just really fun because also my friend uh was there and she did a really good job too so it was kind of like a no-brainer who was going to be vice president and then like the entire cabinet is just all of my friend group and they're like really smart and always have like Amazing Ideas so it was it was just like a simple process that we all enjoyed at the end of the day that's great thank you well we want you to be a part of our meeting as well so if you have any questions just tap Mrs Chester and she'll get you the microphone and we'll make sure that we get it addressed okay moving on to superintendent I'm sorry is there any board or public comments at this board this evening okay moving moving on to superintendent report please and the attorney's report we we'll just all right so we have a few presentations tonight we're going to switch gears there you go first one got C there Steve do you want Mrs halelo to give her report first what's that do you want Mrs Hal Elco to give her attorney's report before you start I think we had presentations first and then okay um then superintendent report if I'm not mistaken I don't know Mrs Nixon am I out of order or are we good no that's correct we're at um 3.2 um the ssds present not a problem um so we have two presentations we've embedded into one and then we have a a third presentation actually which is uh for New Jersey qack so we'll jump into that in a minute um but we have two different directors here our first director Christine Burgess director of student services for general education uh one of the many hats she wears is as the anti-bullying coordinator this report is for ssds we know you love acronyms but that's the student safety data system and this is for reporting period to one of the things I remember is that this is for the second half of the 23 24 school year so think of it as January of 24 through June of 24 and it kind of wraps up all of last school year in addition to some uh self assessment data uh that she'll be presenting on and then we're going to switch gears when she has done uh and Dr Paul's will be uh presenting on school threat um behavioral teams uh School threat assessment teams so here you go thank you Mr Santilli for the introduction there we go okay perfect all right so um as Mr Santilli shared I'm going to be sharing some information for the ssds report period too and the dates are then uh again there for you uh so all of the information on this particular slide is required by the department of Ed to be reported during each reporting period so I'm going to start with the top um four rows there um and the information that I'm sharing with you is across the district this isn't one particular school it's across the district so for the report period two there were 31 incidents of violence that we reported uh vandalism there were three substance offenses there was one and that was a possession offense and then one weapons offense when you go to the middle section there this is all about harassment intimidation and bullying reporting uh and for this particular report period there were 23 confirmed Hib cases that means those cases came in on Hib 338 forms and then they were confirmed by the uh anti-bullying specialist to meet all the requirements to classify it as a Hib case the Hib alleged 21 also came in on Hib 338 forms uh but those particular cases were fully investigated but did not meet the definition of hip in those particular um uh categories just because it did not meet the definition doesn't mean that um there wasn't still code of conduct uh that was in place for those children that were involved uh then we have hi preliminary investigations and there were 19 of those and those also came in on Hib 338 forms but did not go to full investigations because it did not even meet the requirements to move on from there so I know um in the spring there was a question about um Hib cases and the number that came in total uh so when you add up 23 21 and 19 you're getting 63 so the total was 63 Hib 338 forms that came in during that report period across the district but that is the breakdown of how those each uh turned out okay uh then we have in the last two rows trainings and programs and this is across the district all of the trainings and programs that were put into place or that we carried out to improve School climate uh and focus on um being proactive uh in meeting the needs of our students and addressing um climate issues in each of the schools uh so again trainings 60 across the district and programs it was a very high number this particular uh report period which I was happy to see we really did a lot that I shared with you in the spring um and there were 156 of those across the district also required for the report to the board is sharing with you who the Hib investigators are so I'm not going to read each slide to you each section here to you but you're going to see the anti-bullying specialist is the lead and those are the school counselors in each of the buildings uh then you're going to see the assistant principal who also supports with those um obviously there's been some changes to assistant principles for this coming school year year um but this since this is based on the uh 23 24 school year you're going to see the um the assistant principles um all that were listed from last school year nature of confirmed hi investigation so like I shared there were 23 confirmed cases so you're going to see the breakdown here of what qualified those what characteristic was involved and you're going to see um across you know you're going to see each of the numbers and as also which I shared in the spring typically a majority of the other distinguishing characteristic is where a majority of our cases always end up lying and those are basically any other characteristic that doesn't fall into those categories Above So this slide here talks about disciplinary actions and interventions and supports so the first um section there disciplinary actions not going to read all of those for you but basically that is following the code of conduct everything that is listed there um you know we we there's various it's not every single one of those for every case it depends on what the situation is whether or not it was an alleged case if it was um you know what the nature of the incident was depending on how more serious it is more of those actions would be in place um and then of course the interventions and supports again you could take a look at those I do want to mention that many of these are done proactively not just in response to cases uh and I want to mention at the bottom those district and school programs I mentioned in the spring that we partnered with asenda uh and we did a lot of um workshops with the children in the classrooms last year it was more towards the end of the year when we developed that partnership um but this year already we've already started that connection and they'll be starting in November and December with our fifth grade six sixth grade seventh and eth this year uh so we've increased that um and then also I got an email today that Mr Santilli shared with me that we also received um New Jersey cap Grant that's child assault prevention and they will also be providing uh bullying workshops for our children so I'll be connecting with her probably within the next week or two to start to plan that out as well all proactive so moving on as um Mr Santilli shared we also have the uh School self assessment Hib grades so if you remember in the spring I shared with you the official Hib report the Hib self assessments uh this is actually the schools for this particular um school year had to go back and rate themselves during the 23 24 school year how did they rate in eight different indicators uh to meet the anti-bullying rights act so tonight I'm sharing the presentation with you I'm sharing all of the grades that and the scores that each School came up with and then after um you approve the um information I will be submitting that to the Department of Ed and then they will come back with the official grade again then you'll see me again in the spring talking about the same grades and the same information um when they give us our official report so the first core element is hi programs approaches and other initiatives um I will mention at the bottom of each slide you're going to see what number a school needed to be at to either meet or exceed the requirements for this indicator and in this case a 10 or higher met or exceeds so we did very well in this category for um core element One Core element two same thing training on the uh Board of Ed approved hi policy and procedures six or higher here meets or exceeds requ requirements so again did well here number three other staff instruction and training programs ten or higher here meets or exceeds the requirements uh number four is curriculum and instruction on Hib and related information and skills um four or higher meets or exceed six was the highest score you could could get uh element five is hi Personnel uh so six or higher meets or exceeds the requirements element six School level Hib incident reporting procedures uh and in this case a four or higher met or exceeds seven is uh the actual the Hib investigations that took place eight or higher meets or exceeds the requirements for the uh uh ab and um the slide here um I wanted to share with you last year the Hib um official score I shared with you was a 75 so again we anticipate reg get uh obtaining a 75 again and I looked back to see like making sure like the scores like were they exactly the same as last year in all of the indicators it's like a 40-page document they have to go through for the hip self assessment it's not just like a two-page document it's very thorough and this the um the scores fluctuate different buildings depending on how what they're doing that particular year and how there's um their investigations are going so we just ended up with a 75 again so I want to thank you for your attention and I will pass over the microphone to Dr Pauls good evening everyone and thank you for having me uh tonight I'm going to talk about behavioral threat assessment teams and this is an initiative that the state required us to put into place in September of 2023 uh as a district we went through uh training with our FBI um and also siga uh Health uh they provided that initial training which we Christine and I both took as the directors of students um student services but we also had our Middle School trained through that level um in addition to that there's been advanced level training um that Christine and I have both attended uh being those directors of student services um but last year we put it into place we actually started the work uh the year before uh based on the fact that our training had occurred already um and we had some student matters that we felt uh met the threshold and wanted to work through uh the system so I'm going to go over what it exactly is and um some of our current procedures so you can go ahead and read this full uh slide but really the um purpose of Behavioral threat assessment is to First identify any student um who may be at risk um and assess those students um and they may be at risk for engaging in what might be a threat to the greater School Community or to a subsection of that school community so we start off by identifying a lot of times that will come through uh the risk assessments that we uh conduct already within our schools um that our Mental Health Specialists School psychologists and counselors uh a student will come to their attention and they will go ahead and do a risk assessment based on what they learn in that risk assessment um they will then U meet with the principal um and uh the school resource officer they will fill out a um a a pre-screener form uh that will then lead them to uh either contacting Christine if it's a general education student or myself if it's special education and then we will schedule a meeting to go through a full assessment as to what's going on with the student what are all the factors what's the background information um and I'll talk about that a little bit more on the next slide and then we really look at delivering um appropriate interventions for that student um and really kind of intervening and then our final goal for this work is to really continue to ensure a safe School environment here in galoway so we move through uh the process uh each School uh is required to have one of these teams the team is a multi-disciplinary team there are three positions on that team that are required uh it is the building principal it's the school resource officer for that building and then it's U myself uh who also serves as your school safety specialist uh for the district from there we also identify the appropriate director um so if it's general education student uh Mrs Burgess will certainly uh join me um we will have the assistant principal school psychologist mental health specialist uh the school counselor uh if there's a behavioral piece to this we'll include our behaviorist um if it's a child study team um student we will have the case manager involved and then we really look at any other staff member who might be able to provide critical information for example if the platform that um the concern uh may be on is something involved with technology we may have somebody from the tech department join us to be able to research what's happening from that level so um the concern will come in within a few um days normally within 48 hours we will meet uh you may say why why 48 Hours uh it's because we need to properly gather the information before we come together so uh the staff involved will be notified in writing immediately and then uh we normally give about a day for information gathering and then we go ahead and we meet the meeting is um facilitated based on the Advanced Training that both Mrs Burgess and I have had uh we facilitate these meetings um at each building the purpose of that is also consistency in how the meeting is run um and the assurance that we are consistent from one building to another we go through a methodical reveal of all factual information that we may know about the student uh what is pertinent to uh the bigger case or the bigger concern and we really look at what is the change in behavior of the student uh all people that are participating in the meeting are adding to that review um everybody who's there has a contribution to that discussion we will then assess um so we actually have discussion around is the child a threat to the greater School Community uh if they don't pose an immediate threat uh what are things that we are concerned about at the end of the day what we're really looking for is the students who are coming to this level uh there's very few of them but they're they are of concern we are looking at that child almost as if there's a Crossroads in that child's life um and there's something going on and our goal is to ensure that they choose the correct path and the path that is going to uh lead them to a positive outcome so we're really looking at the interventions and support that we can provide and then this is not a One-Shot meeting um any child who would come to this level uh we certainly have a follow-up meeting about and we will continue to meet on a monthly basis about the student um making sure that the interventions that we are putting into place are working um and really considering any other interventions that may be necessary uh ultimately we want um the child our overall goal is to make sure that we are ensuring our school uh is a safe place making sure that we're working with the child on um positive decision making and also really just uh allowing um a child who may fall to this level to understand that there's uh better choices more healthy decisions that can be made the outcomes um there's certain things that we continue to do uh every year we uh everyone who participates in this work uh certainly participates in training uh both Mrs Burgess and I continue to be updated in our training um and then this year just about three weeks ago uh the police department was here um and they engaged in training with us as well uh because this is critical that we are communicating um back and forth with them if something's happening in the community that they're alerting us and also uh with the help of our SRO as things are helping Happening Here in our schools we want to make sure that the police are aware um so there's that cross communication the other piece of that besides training is just the monitoring of students uh and continuing to expand the intervention that we can provide um of the students that we've worked with uh we have been able to fulfill the interventions that we believe are necessary for those children um in a very timely manner based on the resources that we do have in here in Galloway and that's something that I do want to thank the board for uh being supportive of uh those many initiatives that are critical um to the needs of our students today uh the other final piece to this is as students may leave our district and or move on to a high school district uh there is that uh critical piece of passing on the information that we have may have learned in our process um to that next District I want to be clear with this that it's not just if we are still concerned about the student it's with every student who's come um across our uh committee uh the reason for that is because if the student does present an issue later on uh whether that might be their sophomore or Junior year they do have that background factual information to refer um back to so uh that is part of the procedure and um I will say in this area we have been uh a district that the model of how we do that has been a model for other districts in terms of that communication that is my final piece I'm going to pass it back to Mrs Burgess for one other um component of her presentation okay um so um I wanted to take a Advantage tonight when I was here to highlight something for all of you uh from the summertime um and this were some of the summer initiatives and Community Partnerships um that I specifically was involved in um and actually some of you um in your uh youth advisory uh group right um so uh first I want to share here um our feeding program that took place this summer so you're going to see a few pictures up here I'll explain to you what these are um so uh in that first picture there you're going to see um actually throughout the whole pictures you're going to see all the food that we distributed uh to families through the summer there were four different uh pickup dates that were bi-weekly uh and we um we have some uh inform we have some food from the uh stocked and sustainable Farm in the center there and on the two sides is uh the food that we received from the food bank uh we wanted to thank uh a special thanks to Cooper levenson uh let us eat please uh this is we've been working with them I think it's about I've been here seven so maybe almost 10 years now right Amy uh that's what I thought and then um also stocked in and the gtea uh for providing some food uh for us to distribute and we did probably we invited about th a thousand identified families um and we kept track each week of um every other week of who came and picked up and we really did um as you can see over to the right there I mean we were packed in the hallway with food um and it it was just wonderful typically year before I think we only did three distributions and we really pushed this year and we were able to make uh four distributions so that was one of the things I wanted to share with you uh another thing that we did this year is for for mckin vento we created uh care packages for identified families uh so mckin vento families are those who are displaced living in a hotel room they might be doubled up with family uh so we were able to put these great bags together um and each bag was probably over a little over $100 um and we used the remaining Esser funds uh for this to create these packages um so you'll see over to the right there all the items that were in each of the packages a lot of household goods that families could use and toiletries uh that can add up to be a lot of money um for families so we were happy to be able to do this we had 52 bags that we were able to make we probably have about 12 left in the district office um for families that you know are coming to us uh that are displaced during the school year uh so we did want to share both of those with you because we're really proud and and happy that we were able to support many of these families over the summer thank you all right so thank you to Mrs Burgess and Dr Pauls for your leadership um not only for all the hard work that goes into uh both of the areas that you oversee but more importantly for the proactive approach that you take uh in making sure that we keep our students safe as well as our staff and community so thank you both uh in addition we wanted to end on a positive note um not because of the fact that the youth advocacy advoc advocacy excuse me committee has also had conversations around some of these initiatives but the Community Partnerships are part of really our district goals your board goals uh we continue to partner not just with GTA for instance but more importantly with Stockton University with a sustainable farm and also getting creative with how we're being able to recognize and reach our community as a whole we're well over with our October 15th count tomorrow we shared in committees that were're uh well over 50% again at least sitting at 52% free and reduced um so we do recognize that there is a need in the community uh so we are trying to make sure that we continue to sustain these Partnerships moving forward uh to support those in need um and I think that was a very creative approach with the mckin vento uh and use of resser Monies to make sure that our families had what they need we know what it's like going to the you know grocery shopping and and so on and the items that we chose are things that tend to be pretty expensive uh so we wanted to make sure that they were taken care of during the summer as well so again thank you both uh for your work um any questions uh you know with the board prior to moving on to the next uh piece of uh the presentation I don't have a question but I just wanted to Echo Steve's comments thank you so much for creating those programs thank you to Cooper levenson for your support GTAA Stockton that is absolutely fantastic I mean I those families I know are grateful for that and and I just want to say thank you and thank you for your presentations as well any other questions or comments yes yes Sherry go ahead and then again thank you for the presentations very informative I really like the uh McKinley vento bags that was that was extra special and I did look at the bags and see what you put in there and a lot of people don't think about tissues you know or you always think about deodor maybe toothbrush and toothpastes but never tissue so that was very very thoughtful but I have questions about the the hi report and I'm curious about the violence the 31 I'm curious about the violence the number of uh violence 31 uh for the period from January June 24 is that an increase or decrease from last year I would actually have to look that up I'm not specifically sure I did um ahead of time just look to see as far as Hib goes but I do not have the particular numbers for that I can get that for you um actually I can share the presentation from last school year to share that number with you um there I do not recall off hand okay thank you and I have one more question on that Steve can you just send that out in the next bulletin so Sher you can follow thank you yep thank you thank you um one more question um with the confirmed Hib investigations with the race and color I'm seeing six with put my glasses on race and color I'm seeing six ancestry and origin two um and I'm looking at other distinguishing characteristics what might be involved in other distinguishing characteristics sure that could be anything some of the um I do a lot of case law review and looking at different things that might apply so I can share this information with um some of our administrators and the anti-bullying Specialists it can be anything from uh having too many freckles it can be um a student who uh they might call anorexic uh somebody who's eating a particular item that they're making fun of it's really anything that somebody would be targeted for because of a characteristic that's either perceived or actually known does that make sense yes it does thank you for that um back to the race and color and the ancestry and origin can you let me know also when you send out the report is that an increase or decrease from the previous year sure that in the presentation from report period so you're asking from the year before okay so we'll have to look back at the 2223 school year and pull report period one and two presentations to see the total number to see what those are combined but yes we can get that well I'm not interested in the total numbers I'm just interested in the race and color and the ancest origin if there's an increase or decrease that's what I'm curious about okay all right thank you very much you're welcome Mrs Chester hi I just had one quick question um in the behavior threat assessment um the process I noticed that the parents are not involved in that can you just explain why the parents aren't a part of that process the parents are part of the process uh after the meeting uh we include them uh in that discussion um because of the nature of it I'll be honest with you I think in the actual meeting and discussion it would be a hindrance um to us being able to thoroughly review all of the aspects um but they are certainly involved on the onset so whatever is triggering this uh we've already made a phone call home a lot of our systems are already in place so what would normally trigger this is some kind of behavior uh that occurred in the like so it's going to start with the assistant principles being alerted to a behavioral problem and or a risk assessment and either of those situations the parents are alerted to the is to the issue and to the concern um and then afterward uh we follow up with the parents and talk about the information that we have and the information that we learned and that is a followup to that but the actual participation of the meeting when we're reviewing that we've already either gathered information from the parent on the front side and where the followup discussion is following up on a piece of it but the actual part of it with all of us we it's not a required piece and at this point we um don't see the need for it based on the way that it works okay thank you I but they are they are part of it that's what I just want sure the they're book ending the process but um that middle part is um by the professionals okay thank you is there any other comments or questions yes Mr Jil um sort of picking up on the issue with the parents I noted in the doe guidance on this which goes back only to 2023 so I know we're still sort of learning but one of the recommendations uh had been to provide uh training to students teachers staff school resource officers and parents with regard to what to be aware of do we and and given what just happened in Georgia given I think it was either Minnesota or Michigan I'm embarrassed I can't remember where the the parents were actually convicted of of of endangerment and providing the weapons what what sort of uh training and guidance have we been providing to to parents uh and uh is there anything that we can sort of do to tweak that and if the answer is we haven't it's so new that we're not there yet I would just like that to be thrown into the mix of things to consider thanks I think what you'll see over the next coming months is you'll see additions to our website uh with information can you hear me okay okay um but prior to this um every year we've had a parent meeting a public parent meeting whether it's coupled with the parent night in the fall uh where I've actually spoken about um our School Safety and Security procedures uh we also send out um significant messages about say something see or you know see something say something uh We've also embedded our stop it program um which is uh through an app uh anyone can report to us uh something that is of a significant issue uh families are using that to communicate what what they're seeing on social media what they might be hearing in their um children's bedrooms things like that so there's been many initiatives um in terms of us communicating uh this idea of if there's a bigger threat that's going on in the community or if you hear that that someone is planning something if something like that or someone's behavior is just odd um you know it's it's we've seen a major change happen uh things like that and we do have people who are communicating that to us on a regular basis um most of the time when a a parent does communicate something it is something that we need to be looking at so we have been doing those pieces to it um I think when behavioral threat assessment this is just my conjecture for a second I think when it came about one thing we were very easy we were able to easily say as a district is we were already doing many many aspects of this now we're just calling it something um so I do want to reassure the board uh while we may not have called it behavioral threat assessment all the aspects of it were already in place in our district it was just a matter of um now pulling it together in a very formal way and calling it what the federal government and state would like us to call it so yeah and and I just want to note that nothing that I asked about had anything to do because uh when we had suggested when uh Mr sanelly came in about beginning to address uh behavioral health concerns with regard to the kids I know you and your team in Mr s were right on getting ascenda here uh and to bring that back as the coming budget year comes I know the budget years are difficult but uh if there's anything the board can do to begin to beef this up to ensure further ensure that the kids we have are getting Services as needed and also the overall protection of our school Community we we very much want to do that but I do want to commend the whole team uh and also the teachers and everybody who work with our kids that that I know everybody's very very sensitive to this but the the parent thing uh I just wanted to make sure it was addressed because it appropriately was not addressed in your report but I just want to make sure that was part of our system but again thank you so much for all the work you got to and I do want to um just Echo what you said I I have worked in a couple districts in my career and i' this is year 25 for me I will say the work that we've done as a behavioral threat assessment team and the staff that work on that from our Mental Health Specialists to our counselors to our child St team members and even the Insight of our SRO um I will say this we are very fortunate as a district to have the professionals we have in those positions that are informing and helping make the decisions about what the interventions are for kids and their commitment to following through on that so while Mrs Burgess and I might lead that effort the day-to-day work that's happening at the building level is really um just I would say inspiring at the end of the day they are are staff are fully in with these kids and committed to uh really helping them along the way and as I said at one point in the presentation the board has provided us resources that are unique to Galloway um that I uh definitely have a strong opinion about and keeping those things going um because uh they do really help kids and we've seen a lot of kids all the kids that we've worked with at this point um have really turned around and that would be what I would want to end on a positive note by saying um I really feel strongly that we intervened with them at a critical time and uh you can actually see joy in their faces coming back to school at a point where they did not come to us with joy um so you know the work that we're doing is actually meaningful it's having a positive outcome uh we may call it this um but it's um been the work that everybody's been committed to thank you yes um yeah I want to thank you all too I know this is a lot of work and a lot of extra paperwork for you and you do you're doing a great job I would ask you though um with the parents the Hipster for instance when you file a report in there automatically it's electronical and I and I've went and I've looked at um what the um hipster is and basically parents are not allowed to view what's being written about their kids and that but yet counselors are the superintendent is the investigator is I mean it goes down the list of who may be involved except for the parents so a parent will get a report when when it's all done and and then I heard it's redacted if that's the case why wouldn't the parents be step by step along with their kids they are minors so I would think that as soon as you pulled a child into be you know um that the parent would have to be along with them on that secondly um parents have to be protected with their kids as well you know so uh that's a concern and I'm glad Mr centelli brought that up um how are you graded by the state um you have to have a passing grade if you don't get the passing grade what happens do you get not funded do you what what does that mean are you referring to the hi self assessment yes okay so um with that particular um we have not never um we we've never been below meeting the the standard of the expectations for the indicators so I'm not quite sure um what exactly would happen we have not been there I don't see us going there based on all of the hard work and efforts that are put in at every single school um you know between the school safety climate team meetings that they're having and evaluating data as well as my meetings with all the uh counselors uh and then also we have Hib meetings with the counselors and the assistant principles what's happening in the buildings and evaluating and addressing the hip self assessments or areas that may be a little bit lower um again these are all those scores are many of them are exceeding the requirements and they're going above and beyond to meet those requirements for the state so I don't feel like we have a concern um that we wouldn't meet yes so um did you going back to the hibster information are you questioning why parents can't view the information in hibster or uh the question about why they don't know what their child has said well I mean both I mean obviously they should be able to be informed every step of the way yeah so um parents at the beginning and then we follow the law and step by step by the law what we are required and not required to report out to families so at the initial onset families are notified when a Hib 338 comes in if their child is an alleged victim or an alleged offender um for a case that is what we are required by the law to make contact with the families um at times too in the parents are submitting a Hib 338 it doesn't mean that we're not going to get more information from them if they have more information during the investigation that's always added um but by the law the only requirement is at the conclusion of the investigation is to um the is the letter that the family would receive after the board of ed meeting we're te we TP we don't even actually have to call families and let them know what the outcome is according to the law um but we do take that extra step because we feel it's appropriate for the families to be aware of what the outcomes of those investigations are before we submit that information to the board and just one more question whether it's remedial or not does this go into the children's file and are the parents aware of that if by La if it is a confirmed Hib case that document that is sent home to the family does go in the students discipline folder and that goes to the state too it gets reported in the ssds system that what I shared so the information that I shared with all of those cases the confirmed and the alleged the student um IDs are within that as required by the state okay thank you you're welcome Sher yes I just have one more question I'm just curious with the the weapons offense what was the weapon that was a pocket knife at the elementary school uh that had fallen out of a student's bag it was not used or any no one was threatened with it thank you any other questions or comments okay thank you so much thank you both all right now we're going to switch gears uh we have uh New Jersey husack uh another Inc uh acronym that I'm throwing at you but the New Jersey quality single accountability Continuum ultimately this is a process that happens every three years um we're just going to go through um some of the information uh that the district will be uh presenting to the county office which then goes to the Department of Education um just like uh Mrs Nixon deals with in her office every year um for an annual audit this is similar uh in in regards to the fact that they're going to look at these different areas you can see the five areas listed here for an instruction and program fiscal operations personnel and governance in addition to that a DPR is a district performance review and it's basically State monitoring okay this happens every three years as I mentioned and ultimately the only time I've I've ever known it to kind of fall off kilter is during the pandemic when you know a lot of that inperson work couldn't happen um the process here and we've already started this process we're about halfway through um trainings and a variety of different trainings uh would occur we've had a virtual training we had an in-person training with the county office I will say um a shout out to our Atlantic County Office of Education they are very knowledgeable helpful Hands-On with us um anytime we have a question we ask um actually our curriculum and instruction um uh counter on our part Devin Blackwell for instance he's coming out to work with our directors of curriculum to really have a head start why because their philosophy is this is not a gotcha this is more of a of course more of an audit um to be able to help us continue to improve as a district so they're there to help they're there to answer questions and they've been a huge help um we also have our own committee I I'll share that uh because it is a cross-section of members uh throughout the district that serve on that committee um and then of course we have work to do and you know without reading all of this word for word basically what ends up happening is is based on those five areas some of which is going to be in person when they come and some of it is going to be monitored uh virtually um and some of it is actually already at the state because you know we have submissions that need to occur through new J uh New Jersey home room so what ends up happening is sometimes they already know what our score is um based on our own submissions you can see the crosssection here and committee members I listed them in alphabetical order um but ultimately you see a cross-section here of not just Central Administration but also Board of Ed president uh in addition to a gtea member uh thank you Miss Fernandez and of course gtea leadership thank you Miss Smith uh also AC cross-section here for obvious reasons making sure that we cover that Continuum of those five areas and we have like all eyes on this um to make sure that we're covering our bases with the evidence we have to provide so here's the assessment results we take a self assessment very similar to what you saw from uh the previous presentation for our self assessment with Hib this isn't uh much different you have these five areas we can obtain a 100 points in each of the areas and if you get in 80 or higher you're considered to be high performing also facilities is a unique aspect of this as well and uh Roco Rosetti our district operations manager he's been working uh feverishly to make sure that we are ready to go with the facility side we did talk about facilities uh obviously in our facilities committee tonight as well but one of the things that we do is we continuously have twice a year a checklist that gets completed it is required by the state the building administrators principals and assistant principles of course assist with that uh and part of that is really making sure that we are following the guidelines that's provided by the New Jersey Department of Education um and and really what it comes down to is that in this walkthrough which is actually going to happen in the fall now uh they will go through our buildings and they will be checking for certain things and they go into classrooms they go into large common areas like this uh they'll go into closets and they're looking for uh points of egress for instance and and other factors to make sure that we're being compliant in addition to some like what I would consider like no-brainers like we can't can't have microwaves in every classroom for instance um or not every teacher Unfortunately they can't have the mini fridge I know it's a disappointment but but those are the things that they kind of look at so next steps uh just so everybody's uh kind of up to speed in terms of where we are with this tonight the Board of Education under new business will be approving uh that DPR and a submission to the Department of Ed uh we basically are going to be submitting after this meeting we haven't until November 15th to submit but we're going to be completing that after tonight U we have been already meeting as a team and collecting all this evidence they really look at things virtually so we're able to provide them a Google uh share drive and folders for each of these five areas so the areas that they want to start monitoring we're able to provide them that evidence and then in addition to that we anticipate the on-site visits happening in the New Year I'm saying January of 25 but that could occur in Fe February it might be March there's a variety of different schools and districts within the county um that they are going to be completing the same review of for this year and then the county of course submits to the doe and then a doe approves um so that is qac uh kind of in a nutshell and that concludes my presentation any questions any questions for Mr sanelly nope I think we're good thank you thank you and while Steve is doing that I will open up the meeting for public comment is there any public comment to come before the board this evening seeing none we will move on to the attorney's report Mrs halelo please Happy fall everybody um um since the last time we met I've had the opportunity to work with the district on a variety of matters on student matters and contractual matters and employee matters and I also wanted to say I did happen to check um Dr parmenter's question and last year it was nine at this time period and this year is six so it is a reduction thank you you're welcome any questions from Mrs halelo nope okay moving on to student enrollment please all right so attached we have our student enrollment in 5.2 in addition to that 5.3 is our outof district suspension report 5.4 harassment intimidation and bullying report as attached there's also the uh gifted and talented Services plan submit submittal uh and also the approval of the submission of the self- assessment for determining Hib grades uh we're only looking to approve the superintendent report item five 5.6 at this time the other items are informational thank you can I have a motion to approve item 5.6 please so moved second is there any board comment may I have a roll call Mrs Chester yes Dr perer yes Miss Lura yes Mrs Avery yes Mr Dace yes Mr Gentile yes Mrs hermano abstain Dr Basher blous yes and president Carman yes moving on to curriculum instruction please so item 6.1 is field trips through 6.3 uh we're looking to have a motion to approve 6.1 through 6.3 field trips field workor and Atlantic prevention resources training and program thank you can have a motion to approve items 6.1 through 6.3 so moved second is there any board comment may I have a roll call please Mrs Chester yes Dr permenter yes Miss laa yes Mrs Avery yes Mr Dace yes Mr jel yes Mrs Herman yes vice president Basher blouse yes and president Corman yes moving on to finance is there a finance meeting this evening uh yes the finance committee met earlier this evening we reviewed the bills list Financial reports reviewed any questions related to agenda items we did receive another update on the GTS Chiller the temporary Chiller um was picked up on September 30th um just in case there are some random hot days there are some fans now um in the rooms in gtms uh and we just hope that there aren't any hot days coming up right good thank you thank you is there any questions for Dr Basher Blau okay Miss Nixon it is cool in here thank you thank you items 7.2 through 7.27 are up for your approval thank you can I have motion to approve items 7.2 through 7.27 please so moved second is there any board comment may I have a roll call please Mrs Chester yes Dr permenter yes Miss laa yes Mrs Avery yes Mr de yes Mr jtil yes Mrs herel yes vice president Basher blouse yes and president Carman yes moving on to facilities was their facilities committee this month yes or was we met before finance committee tonight perfect and Alexa hit on several ABS we talked about the chill update and everything um and we also talked about the size of the preschool classrooms which some fit the square footage some don't but Steve says that's what being handled and everything and uh they also had some wells that they discovered at Reeds Road at the middle school here which were approximately 2 feet under ground Mr sanelly say that again the wells the wells were 2 feet under ground the gtms well they finally found it it was 2 feet buried underground but they they located it only because of uh past history of dirt and everything and according to Mr Santelli and Mr Nixon they will the one at gtms will be used for irrigation purposes everything seems to be working well on the wall so there'll be uh irrigation for the soccer fields baseball fields the athletic fields for our students to make them safe and sound and uh I think that's about it any other thing any questions for Mr da thank you thank you moving on to facilities please thank you um and also just to clarify we are looking into the well and then determining whether or not we are able to use um some existing irrigation that may be on property um and then we will um be investigating um the outcome of that and what can be used um to hopefully um bring that back to life thank you thank you Joy no problem um items uh 8.1 through 8 I'm sorry 8.2 through 8.4 are up for your approval thank you can I have motion to approve items 8.2 through 8.4 please so moved second there any board comment may I have a roll call please Mrs Chester yes Dr director penter yes Miss Lara yes Mrs Avery yes Mr Dace yes Mr Gentile yes Mrs Harel yes vice president Basher blous yes and president Carman yes moving on to Personnel please so item 9.1 resolution to accept with regret the letter of intent to retire from the gway Township School District for the following staff members first Mr David thinkink Reeds Road teacher 25 years in the district Victoria ntez Roland Rogers part-time food service worker five years in the district Jennifer sill Reeds Road teacher 17 years in the district and Heather sukel Roland Rogers ldtc 28 years in a district thank you can I have a motion to approve item 9.1 please so moved second is there any board comment I just want to note that I've had my kids have had three of those four people that are retiring and is is with much regret can I have motion I'm sorry can I have a roll call please Mrs Chester yes Dr permenter yes Miss Lura yes Mrs Avery yes Mr Dace yes Mr Jil yes Mrs herel yes vice president of the Sher BL yes and president Carman yes moving on with Personnel please at this time we're looking for a motion to to move items 9.3 through 9.8 as listed and attached can I have motion to approve items 9.3 through 9.8 please so moved second is there any board comment may I have a roll call please Mrs Chester yes Dr permenter yes Miss Laria yes Mrs Avery yes Mr Dace yes Mr Gentile yes Mrs herel yes vice president Basher Blau yes and president Carman I'd like tostain on Personnel 9.5 line item number eight yes to everything else please thank you do we have anything any new hires this evening okay thank you moving on to policy Dr Parmenter was there policy committee report I am going to defer today to the report written by Mr sanelli superintendent of schools on policy Mr sanelli under old business there are 10 policies under new business business there are 10 policies the new business policies are co-curricular activities athletic competition heat participation policy for student athlete sa safety prevention and treatment of sports related concussions and head injuries harassment intimidation or bullying substance abuse anti-hazing student discipline code of conduct student supervision After School dismissal and transportation by private vehicle all these new policies are for the first reading and the previous policies are for the second and final reading and are being recommended to the board all the policies being recommended in new business at this time are new and only require two readings but do not have any new language in bold or have old language strikeouts being removed all of the policies in the old business section are being recommended for board approval for a second and final reading finally within the policy of approval section two roll call motions will occur the first roll call and approval will be related to all policies requiring a second and final vote with the second roll call and approval for policies by law requiring the first of two readings that concludes my report thank you is there any questions for Dr Parmenter okay moving on with policy please at this time we like to move uh 10.2 through 10.11 as listed and attached thank you can I motion approve 10.2 through 10.11 please so moved second is there any board comment may I have a roll call please Mrs Chester yes Dr permenter yes Miss Lura no I'm sorry she can't hear you no thank you Mrs Avery yes Mr Dace yes Mr genil yes Mrs hermano no vice president thear Blau yes and president Corman yes moving on with policy please this time we're looking for a motion to move items 10.13 through 10.22 as listed and attached thank you can I have motion to approve items 10.13 through 10.22 first reading so moved second can I um sorry is there any board comment yes yes okay so um I wanted to make a comment that yesterday I had printed out this policy for 1017 the harassment intimidation and bullying it's 22 pages long um it's the length of it you can tell that the bread and the ambiguity of it there's a lot to it um so as the board members we should be questioning how the HIV policy will affect our children in the long run um without impact will it have on par what impact will it have on parents more importantly as a board member we should ask ourselves are we fulfilling our duty by approving this policy without being fully informed ask and asking more questions and yeah I get it it's been around for a while but it doesn't make it good um terms considering like reasonable person for kids for instance when does this start with children when they're in kindergarten first grade second grade third grade what is a reasonable person what is a reasonable perceived D motivation and who decides that who determines that the investigator the counselor Etc it's clear to me that the school is increasingly governed by the state regulations since all HIV incidents must be reported to the State Board of Education and the school is even graded on it parents and the public deserve to understand how the school is evaluated on its conduct and it receives funding from the HIV uh C for counseling there is um there is investigators assigned to research each disciplinary case involving a child and both the principal and the superintendent use a system called hipsters as they discussed please correct me if I'm wrong but parents are not privy to that information uh later they receive a redacted copy of the report so how is that fair to the parents the school safety climate team typically includes members who address the requirements of the 211 anti-bullying Rights bill law which mandates the establishment of such terms in school schols to foster a safe and positive School climate as for the harassment intimidation bullying policy it is complex and understanding its implications may seem overwhelming especially when considering the potential overreach of the Liberties of parents and children the goal should be to assist both children and parents with better understanding how they can navigate the policy the cultural shifts occurring Countrywide encompassing ideas laws and social movements are are often integrated into school policies from an early age leading to concerns about the impact on children it raises the question of whether we are merely conforming to these programs or are we generally striving to safeguard the interests of our children and our parents every month I observe is the school board members unanimously pass policies and I question whether this is merely a harmonous routine for the school board or perhaps it's not their fault considering the public elected them and they and they owe their Duty not only to the educational system but also to the children and the parents are we as a school board taking the responsibility serious enough I've been consistent in my stance since joining the board next year I would like the president whoever that may be to put me on the policy committee which I was not this year even though I did request it it is clear to me that there's a need for someone to offer resistance and ask more questions I'm skeptical that a threepers policy committee can thoroughly review all these policies with their numerous statutes and make well-informed decisions since policy is crucial in governing a school the school board should be more Vigilant and collaborative to ensure the protection of our children and our parents unfortunately you like to group all these policies together so some are benign others are questionable I would like to motion to table policy 1017 so that we can further discuss maybe an amendment things that could help that we would all agree to in the Hib and if not then my vote would be no is there a motion to table item 10.17 is that the the motion yes I'd like to motion is there a motion you have a second I second it is there any board comment can I have a roll call to Mo to to table item 10.17 only Mrs Chester no Dr permenter no Miss Lura no motion she said no she said no Mrs Avery no Mr D no Mr Gentile no Mrs hermano yes vice president Basher Blau no and president Carman no having said that now item 10.17 stays on the agenda can I have a motion to approve items 10.13 through 10.22 please so moved second is there any other board comment may I have a roll call Mrs Chester yes Dr permenter yes Miss Lura yes Mrs Avery Mr Dace yes Mr Jil yes Mrs hermano no vice president Basher Blau yes and president Carman yes moving on to new business please at this time we're looking to approve items 11.1 through 11.4 as listed and noted thank you can I motion approve items 11.1 through 11.4 please so moved second is there any board comment may I have a roll call Mrs Chester yes Dr penter yes Miss Lara yes Mrs Avery yes Mr de yes Mr gentil yes Mrs hermano yes vice president Basher blous yes and president Carman yes item 12.1 is the board calendar uh as attached in addition to that is item 12.2 special event EV as noted I just wanted to highlight a few events coming up the GTA book swap is a great time sponsored by the GTAA there's usually a variety of different events so this is the first one at Arthur ran on 1016 uh Ed Foundation uh designer Pur Bingo there still are limited seats available uh so anybody that still wants to join uh can certainly access the event Brey it's on social media uh and is being pushed out either I believe it was tonight or tomorrow one more time to our District staff and also community and then of course meet the candidates tonight it's sponsored by FSA right here at gtms on 10:23 starting at 6:30 p.m. there's a variety of other events from Steam nights to Winter concerts so we're trying to give everybody a heads up to save the dates on their calendars as I know the holiday season will certainly uh fill the calendar for you Steve I have a question for you do you know um have all the candidates been notified and or is everyone attending do you know um so communication with the GT uh FSA president my understanding is that all the candidates were notified um three of the candidates will be attending two so far have declined okay thank you sorry is that it okay at this time I'll open up the meeting for public comment are there any public comments this evening as you come up I just want to read a statement the board values and welcomes comments and opinions from residents the meeting will now be open to public comments five minutes per person if your questions pertain to litigation student or Personnel 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 you 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 appropriate for a public setting and made in a respectful manner if you could State your full name and address and I see that you're signing in so that's appreciated good evening my name is Kelly Grace uh I'm a taxpayer in Galloway 27 Veil Court um I want to start off by saying I'm so glad to come to these meetings to learn what I'm learning and a lot of good stuff so I want to commend you on the time that you take to do these things and set things in motion that will affect children today and moving forward but um I have to trust that uh YouTube has the numbers correct 1.17 subscribers for for Galloway Township and I mention that because I think it's important to know how many people are watching and listening to what's going on and that you folks have a heavy duty of putting into place policies that are going to affect these children like I said and the parents and yet here again I'm so surprised truly surprised that we have something here that leaves a parent out of what's going on with their child it may they may be informed at the very end of it but here we go just like the transgender law um which is not a law it was not mandated that was something that I don't believe I've heard anybody on this panel say hey we you know we need a correction here we apologize this was not not a mandated policy transgender 5756 I'd like to recall the 80-year-old man that was nearly in tears after this was voted in and the group of people who were misinformed and all came here as you can see we we have a thin crowd here but there were a lot of people here for that night and um I I I brought this up because some of your board members are going up for election again and their Lo their slogan is education is our only agenda well apparently you either absent or abstained or forgot that you voted for that transgender and that's not education that's eliminating a parent's rights to know what's going on with their child so that they can get them the proper help how would you like to have your child suffering I understand that it's done to save that one person that may have a problem with their parent at home but that's why we have I don't know if it's still called dius but that's why we have that institution in place so if the child is threatened they can contact them we didn't need to pass a policy for what was it for money I've already said to a few people I will help raise money let's not put anything in policy that eliminates the parents rights I mean and and I want to say too I would think you would want to know if somebody is putting foul and false messages out there for your opponents those who were running for the board uh this year your opponents Mr mzo and Mr Hollander both have children in in the school system and the lies are flying around that they don't and they've both been accused of having uh association with a far extreme right group that's false they're like me and you who want to have the parents to be involved and that their children are taken care of properly you know policies are in place and that education is the only agenda let's get back to the math the reading the history the social uh sociology uh social studies and so forth that we grew up with it we don't have to accept the fact that this is the world we live in we can't do the things that we know worked for us way back when and they should work now so I'm just asking if there's anything that needs money I'll be the first one on the list to go ahead and help you raise it but let's keep the parents still in the process of their child being in the school system thank you thank you is there any other public comment this evening okay seeing none do we we do not have executive session this evening is that correct correct thank you and going around the board Miss Isa Do you have anything else any questions for us what did you think of our meeting any any last comments no nothing okay if you need anything from us throughout the year please feel free to come back and we'll certainly you know address you or or whoever you send from your cabinet okay thank you Mrs Chester um I just want to thank her for coming she did such a wonderful job today she did um and uh that's all I have today okay thank you Dr parer I'd like to say welcome it's very nice to see you here thank you to um Mrs Burgess and Dr Balwin those are great reports the information was definitely needed and received can't hear you sharff great reports also ID like to say this Mrs Herman now is being disingenuous in her comment that a threepers committee can't possibly review complex policies she's been advised repeatedly that the policies that are coming before the board are policies that are currently in place which mean means that there are policies that have already been approved we change policy providers so what we're doing is taking the same policy and resubmitting it because we have a new policy provider every one of our committees are three person committees and our three person committees get the job done thank you thank you Mrs laa do you have any comments this evening well I'll say thank you for being with us thank you for the report I'm glad that the uh you might want to bring your microphone closer as well I'm actually thankful no that what she was talking about that it was less this year the bullying than it was last year so that's a good thing and that um we'd all stop and think seriously about what we are doing for the children and the parents I mean I'm praying about it myself thank you thank you Mrs Avery the teacher Grant committee from the Ed Foundation has received all the teacher grants in their new format which I will say was very uh easy to read um I was impressed with a number of submissions from staff members as a teacher a former teacher excuse me um I know what it's like to write a grant I've written several it's complicated um so I want to compliment our staff for all their submissions the committee is going to meet this week so we will have the uh recipients will notify Mr sanelli of the grant recipients next week and then how do you let them know that that is it like a big so we'll have um can I come do you go around to classrooms no we don't we don't U make it around around the district but we do send out um we we will send out communication but we also will have board approval in November as well for um the grant recipients okay thank you thank you Mr da I just like to welcome the student council rep and if you have any questions don't feel hesitant about asking him of Mrs Claren she'll try to give you an answer anyway we'll try and I want to thank Mrs Burgess and and uh Mrs Paul Miss Paul's for their presentation it was a very good presentation for everybody I wish there was more parents here to listen to it but unfortunately they don't come to our meetings but you did a great job and uh just everybody else have a good winter as we're coming into it and I was going to say go Phillies but now I'm for the Dodgers because the Mets beat the Phillies so thank you that's right 7:30 right how about them Yankees Mr Gentile Yan um I had the Good Fortune of going to I think most if not all of the back to school nights uh in September and I just want to uh again commend the staff the administration they were phenomenal the level of energy the attendance atam uh I couldn't get parking it was really great uh it was phenomenal in in addition I was able to get to some of the initial FSA meetings and I don't want the parents and the dedication of the fsas to be lost uh the events that they're planning for the kids uh throughout the district uh this year uh actually I think exceed last year's if that's possible to imagine given the reports that we had received but uh the fsas are sort of the silent Heroes of the district and that they take uh they take the experience of school to kids for for the kids and bring it to another dimension a very personal Dimension it brings the families in it interacts with the families uh they're just fantastic and I just don't want to lose sight of them uh but by Lo by not losing sight of them I don't want to lose sight of our staff which again back to school livs were phenomenal thank you thank you Mrs herel yes and I want to thank everybody for coming out tonight and also the young lady down at the end there thank you for everything that you said it was really great and um so I um I just saying as being on a board School Board I was voted in like everybody else and everybody has a different opinion and everybody sees things through a different you know differently and we should be able to say what we think at any time without any kind of push back or Sticks and Stones Sherry being called names not very nice there's no name calling stop stop there is no name disingenuous I mean Mrs was not very nice Mrs herow please but anyway it wasn't disingenuous it was being honest professional please somebody called me disingenuous did you say that to her you didn't so anyway I'm sorry I'm sorry stop I'm sorry stop stop what please act appropriately if you're going going to act appropriately yes you can finish if not so this is how it's been from the beginning when I got here so you wonder why I have to speak out in anyway I'm not disingenuous I was speaking my point of view which I'm allowed to do absolutely and um I want to thank everybody for everything they do and have a great night thank you Dr Basher Blau so I don't want to repeat everything that everyone has said but um love when our students come and give us updates so thank you thank you to the staff the presentations were great um I just want to piggyback on something that rich said and also um Jim said uh rich I think you had mentioned that you know parents haven't really been coming out to the meetings and then piggybacking off of Jim's comments about going to the um back to school nights I was able to attend for the back to school nights um and we really are trying to get and yes and rich as well um and many of us were out so we were trying to get the word out that you can come to the to the um school board meeting so we are trying to get the word out and we are encouraging parents to be able to come out and listen to what's going on and participate in the board meetings um so it was great to be able to participate in that and feel the excitement um from the staff and the students and being able to see everyone coming in and engaging in that environment um I also want to mention this wasn't um mentioned earlier but the Galloway Family School Association is hosting dining with the district that is this Wednesday um um you can grabb I'm just reading from the event so that everyone is aware of this event because I know I will be participating you can grab lunch or dinner from either location for costellos Pizzeria and wings and if you mention Galloway schools the costellos will donate 10% of the proceeds to the Gallaway Family School Association so if you're looking for lunch or dinner on Wednesday please participate in this um and I also want to give a shout out to the book swap my kids love this I am trying my best to get there on Wednesday I do have um uh parent um teacher conferences but I'm going to try my best because you know you say kids in a candy store it's like that with the books and they are so excited to participate so please take your kids out and participate in this book swap it's phenomenal thank you susette can I say one thing to follow up with Alexa said at the back of the school nights I won't mention the schools I talk to the parents about I was giving out the Flyers and everything uh several of the parents told me oh school board meetings are open to the public and I said yes I encourage parents to come out and listen what's going on ask questions which they can do at our public comment but several of these people at couple of the different schools were unaware that parents can come out the school board meetings and all I said was please come out our meetings are once a month you go to gallway Township School website find out what time the meeting start and you're welcome to come anytime and ask any questions or just listen and observe what's being said and going on thank you I have nothing this evening so can I have a motion to adjourn please so move second all in favor meeting adjourned thank you